Galena Everjoy

Name: Galena Everjoy (Played by Galena/Nola)
Race/Class: Half-Drow Fighter (Cad)
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Deity: ??
Height: 5′ 8″ (173cm)
Weight: 145 lbs. (65.7kg)
Eyes: Amethyst
Hair: Silver

Appearance: Galena is a Half-Drow, Half-Turami woman of above-average height, with a slender, dexterous build. Her parentage leads her skin to be darker than most Half-Drow, to the point where she can be mistaken for a full-blooded Drow with ease. The ears are the surest sign of her Half-ness, but they’re often obscured by her mane of silver-white hair, which she keeps loose and unkempt.

Galena’s body has been honed by decades of hard-living on the streets of Westgate. Her arms are wiry, and her curves are accentuated by efficient muscle – not for power, but rather precision. While recent motherhood has provided some additional softness, it’s done little to dull her edge.

Prior to pregnancy, Galena was happy to show off as much of her body as she could, her wardrobe consisting of a vest, velvet briefs, and fishnet stockings, along with boots and fingerless gloves; she traveled light, and used her Drow flesh as a means of intimidation, or at least distraction. Post-pregnancy, she’s favored more complete coverage, with skintight leather pants and a well-tailored jacket. This isn’t out of prudishness, so much as a desire to keep her motherhood less obvious while on the job. Once she’s back into shape, the ogling will commence anew.

Personality

Galena is a woman in flux, still transitioning from a solitary life as a hardened criminal in Westgate, to a warm, loving household, and life as a new mother. She carries a great deal of guilt for the violence she committed, and accordingly has a low opinion of herself. With the help of her family, however, she’s taking steps to try and move past it all, to take this opportunity to be a better person.

In truth, the makings of that better person have been there from the start. Galena is naturally a caring person who wants to look out for those around her, and has a sense of fairness and justice. Indeed, her guilt is born of these qualities. It’s just that her environment in Westgate, the people around her, made it necessary to suppress certain things to get by.

As a result, survival is perhaps Galena’s strongest instinct. She knows she can endure a great deal of hardship, and that she can commit a great deal of harm if necessary. Unsurprisingly, when it comes to her daughter, and her wives, she knows she’d commit that harm in a heartbeat if it were ever needed.

Outside of the guilt, and the flux, lies a woman who wants to enjoy life, and have as much fun as she can. Galena has a hedonist streak, which is largely what led her to join the Everjoy household in the first place. As it turns out, hedonism doesn’t have to unfulfilling.

Background

The circumstances of Galena’s birth were undesired by her mother, a woman whose name Galena doesn’t know. She went to an orphanage in Westgate, which managed to take care of her until the age of 8, at which point Galena left to live on the streets. She didn’t want to keep being passed over by prospective parents for being Drow-blooded, to say nothing of the mistreatment she’d received there. You can imagine that being 8 years old, living in the gutters of Westgate, with Drow skin, was difficult, and horrific, so we won’t go into too much detail.

The important thing to understand is that there was plenty of incentive to join a gang, so join she did. At first, she was a pickpocket, operating primarily at night. As she became a teenager, she turned into more of a bruiser, and enforcer, as well as a deliverer of threats. She became the one that made sure a shop paid their protection money on time, as well as a line of defense against rival gangs.

The goal of each and every member of every gang in Westgate, aside from survival, is to earn the positive notice of the Night Masks, the Thieves’ Guild in the city. Galena’s heritage gave her some advantage in this, but her skill as an effective enforcer was what earned her a ‘try-out,’ a small solo job to prove she had the skills and nerve to be a Night Mask. Galena’s task was to gain an overdue protection payment from a prominent merchant. The difficulty was that this merchant had no known family to threaten, nor priceless possessions to steal, who lived a fairly modest lifestyle. It also wasn’t enough to just get the money. The merchant had to give the payment knowingly, so they knew not to cross the Night Masks again.

Galena was given no assistance from the Night Masks, and had to rely only on herself and her own connections. Galena proceeded to shadow the merchant, learning all she could about his routine and his life, particularly focusing on the things he did outside of business interests. She knew that to be a merchant, but not live like a merchant, meant that it was a means to an end. That money was being used for something, and it was only a matter of finding out what. It took a great deal of time, however, and the deadline she’d been given neared, but she remained persistent until one day she got what he was looking for.

The Merchant went down to the docks and entered a hovel. There, she overheard a conversation between him and the woman who lived there. Her late husband had been an employee of some kind, and he was there to make sure the widow was looked after, financially. Galena had hoped he’d been fucking her, or otherwise taking advantage of her, but no, he was simply doing the right thing. She thought long and hard about whether to use this information, but passing up an opportunity to join the Night Masks was too great an ask. The following day, she sat at the man’s table at his usual breakfast spot and had a quiet conversation with him, making it clear the Night Masks knew about his ‘dependent,’ and that there’d be ‘misfortune’ if he continued to dally about the protection money. The look he’d given her pierced nearly down to her soul, but she held her gaze, and walked out with the payment in hand, securing her position.

Galena proved a capable operative of the organization, though not without peril. These were ruthless people, after all, and much was taken from her in pursuit of higher status and regard. It hadn’t mattered how much she’d clawed and scraped to get there; she was still just meat for the grinder.

The beginning of the end came one night as Galena was taking a walk outside the city. She happened upon a moonlit pond, where a vision of lunar brilliance danced upon the surface of the water. An Elf, with skin as white as marble, flowing white hair down to her knees, and not a lick of clothing, skimmed gracefully along the surface, and gazed upon Galena with bright red eyes.

Her name was Nessa. Galena asked why she wasn’t scared of a Drow, to which the woman answered that she was a Drow. A Szarkai, she called herself; an Albino Drow, indistinguishable from an Albino Elf of the surface. Her kind were meant to be infiltrators and assassins, but she’d turned away from that life thanks to the light of Eilistraee. The two talked for hours, seeming to hit it off quite well. They met again the next night, and the one after that, getting to know each other intimately.

More than once, Nessa had offered Galena a path to redemption. Galena always pointed out that she wasn’t a true Drow, that she’d never been to the Underdark, but Nessa would say that didn’t matter, that redemption was for everyone, and that Galena was Drow enough for Eilistraee’s light to find her.

That sort of attention, that idea that there was anything in Galena to save, nearly broke her. Denying those things had been vital for her survival in Westgate, and to start accepting them then felt a bridge too far, but Nessa persisted. More and more she invited Galena into her world, allowing her to take part in a number of Eilistraeean ceremonies. It was working, her resolve weakening with each embrace, and every kind word.

Galena had been sloppy, however. One of her ‘colleagues’ had taken notice of her regular trips outside the city. There were more than a few people looking for Nessa, as it turned out, and Galena was dragged before her boss and ordered to tell everything she knew about Nessa. Galena did her best to resist, but as the threats became more violent, and the prospect of losing everything she’d compromised herself to receive grew larger, her resolve crumbled. She didn’t tell them everything, but told them enough to be able to ambush and capture Nessa.

Until very recently, Galena had no idea what happened after that. She’d heard nothing of Nessa being captured. Her bosses never mentioned it to her again. Even so, it ate at her, devouring her soul. One day, she was asked to do something irredeemable. Another merchant had flaunted the Night Masks, one with a wife and child, and Galena was to make a public example of them. She went to the house after they’d gone to sleep and snuck in. She’d held her knife to the child’s throat, but couldn’t go through with it.

Instead, she woke the family up, told them to be quiet, and to pack everything they’d need for the road. The Night Masks wanted them dead, but she would do what she could to get them out of the city. She nearly succeeded in doing so unseen, but a member of her crew happened upon her as she neared the gate. She was forced to lie, to say she was taking the family out of the city to kill them and string up the bodies. Interested, the crewmate decided to come along. Galena led them all out towards the same pond she’d first met Nessa at, and told the family to get on their knees. After a tense, uncertain moment, Galena turned and cut her partner’s throat, at which point all the rage she’d pent up from her live in that miserable city spilled out. She butchered the man, horrifying the family, paralyzed by fear.

When she was done, tears streaming from her eyes, Galena told them to go. Once they were gone, she turned and headed in another direction, determined to never return to Westgate.

Eventually, Galena found herself across the Dragonmere, drifting along until she reached Arabel. There, she met the love of her life, Serra Everjoy. What started as a bit of flirting turned into something more as the Tiefling suggested a bath, and a snuggle, and something about that offer struck a chord within the Half-Drow. A whirlwind of passionate lovemaking and fervent soul-baring led Galena into the Everjoy house, where she was finally able to find true self. She didn’t have to be hard, or in control. Through Serra, she was able to find connection with others — Liza, Silence, Ash, Andri, and others — and liberation through just… so much sex and passion.

Over time, one fateful night after attending a ceremony in Arabel, Galena confessed her desire to not only marry Serra, but to carry the Tiefling’s child as well. She received her answer via impromptu love-making in the ruins of the old Brightwater Hall, where she was seeded, claimed, and finally redeemed.

During her pregnancy, Galena grew nervous over whether she would be a fit mother. The assurances of the household did much to help her cope with the anxiety, and to remind her that she didn’t have to carry Westgate with her forever. She had her baby in Calimport, under the watchful eye of Serra’s mentor, Naleeah: a healthy baby girl, with dark skin and silvery hair, whom they named Scarlet.

Galena has become a devoted, if not entirely confident mother with the help of he beloved wives, and the rest of the household. This is where Galena now finds herself, worlds apart from where she ever thought she’d end up; approaching something close to happiness, even as the story rolls on, and the shadows and moonbeams of her past linger.

Goals & Plot Hooks

Galena’s primary goal at this point is simply to be a good mother to Scarlet, and a good wife in the household. She has few grand ambitions beyond these, but part of being a good mother, in her view, involved finding a way to make up for her life in Westgate. Any chances to help the sorts of people she used to terrorize, particularly the poor and indigent, will always catch her attention, as will doing anything she can to help those in the household. The day may come where she feels like she deserves the good things she has. Until then, she feels obligated to do what good she can.

• Galena may have left Westgate behind, but that doesn’t meant Westgate has forgotten about her. One doesn’t simply betray the Night Masks. Revenge will come, one way or another.
• Nessa’s invitation to Galena lingers in her memory, and Galena feels a certain draw towards Eilistraeeans. Whether she feels like she deserves to be in their good graces is another matter, but if she can find some way to aid them, it might make up for her treachery in some small way.
• Galena has no idea what happened to her mother, but that doesn’t mean she never wonders. There are times she imagines seeing her again, but any information anyone might have about her rests in Westgate.