From dust to dust.

Hailing from cold, distant mountains, Valeska was born into a close-knit pack with her mother, Annika, and her father, Dimas, who felt ever more suspicion toward his mate - for their litter of four held two like their parents, white as winter snow, but also two of inexplicable shadow. No dark wolves existed in their lines; and eventually the secret arose that her mother had already been pregnant before her whirlwind romance with Dimas.

He did not believe her. He thought her unfaithful.

Thus the little wolf grew up with her father, alone on their secluded mountain, his fangs having turned Annika and the surviving dark child bitterly away from what was once their home. He attempted to poison Valeska with his closed-minded ideals and whispers of the gods, though her heart was lighter and less cruel; she bore him patiently, and grew into a devout believer without his bitter soul.

Their once-plentiful mountain home had been ravaged by blizzards and famine, her father's stubborn pride having driven the rest of their pack to starvation as their emaciated bodies littered the snow around them. He refused to leave, believing the Five would reign down their wrath upon him for abandoning the home they had gifted him - and so they fell, one by one. Eventually he, too, fell to hunger, insisting he had done the right thing - but Valeska would not reply, sitting wordlessly by his side as the last gasp of air left his tired lungs.

With his passing, the silver wolf shook the snow from her pelt and stood up. Nothing remained for her there - and so she moved on.

Love across worlds

It had taken months, and their reunion had been prickly at best. Shortly after locating her half-sibling, Harper, the pair soon found themselves in need of a new home - they quickly stumbled upon a sparse, tight-knit family of wolves seeking to start their own pack, where joining them at the time seemed the most promising course of action for the sisters. Unfortunately, days turned to weeks, and weeks turned to months as the group failed to establish itself in any one territory; during this time Valeska had formed a brief dalliance with one of their own, Rhelenso, an older wolf with ice-blue eyes. Caught in the throes of a passionate young affair, she eventually found the gumption to tear herself away from the failing pack and set out to establish one with her sister.

Rhelenso promised that he would someday follow her, once he had aided his family in staking their own claim upon the land...

As fate would have it, whilst she found herself traversing uncharted territory, Valeska stumbled across a large pit of bones in the middle of a lifeless forest of pale white trees. At its epicenter, draped across the hollow bones of animals long deceased, lay a slender golden she-wolf with eyes of amethyst. Her name was Amaranth. As Valeska approached, the sun broke through the mist, illuminating her from behind in a seemingly holy halo of light - and in an instant, the greatest misunderstanding of all time had been sparked. The pair were immediately drawn to each other, delighting in the deep and spiritual (misinterpreting every word as they went) as they spent their days tirelessly bonding and working to help create what would soon become Elysium.

Although the two started as mere friends, as their pack grew, Valeska found herself craving more and more time with the mysterious woman she had found.

It would take a great earthquake, the very end of the earth itself to interrupt this burgeoning feeling, the wolves of Elysium suddenly finding themselves awakening in a brand new world, their members scattered across the continent, lost and confused as they struggled to seek out their packmates once more.

In time, Valeska and company managed to retrieve their friends and came together to forge a new life in this strange place, choosing a great lake at the base of a vast mountain range and calling it Fate's Respite. There the wolves of Elysium would live for some time, establishing new friendships and allies alike as they navigated the tumultuous waters of the unknown - until Rhelenso reappeared.

He, too, had made the seemingly otherworldy leap to this new plane, this alternate existence. His reunion with Valeska was bittersweet - why had he not come to her sooner, in the land before? In her eyes, he had long failed his promise. She had established her own family now, her own home, fought tooth and nail across universes to follow them and do whatever was necessary to ensure their survival and continued happiness.

Unfortunately for the older wolf, it was his return that made Valeska realize the newfound depth of her emotion for Amaranth; rebuffing his affections in a move that quickly saw the two she-wolves confessing their feelings for one another, the lovestruck pair were never to see any trace of him again.

Motherhood & Magic

As their happy days set into comfortable routine, Valeska gradually found herself craving something she thought impossible with her mate - motherhood.

Not that she was unhappy. But some deep, primal part of her craved the sound of joyful yips, of little bodies rolling around in the den, nipping at her heels and crying to her with real and imagined pains alike. Amaranth herself had no particular urge for parenthood, but Valeska's pleasure was often her own, and after a mystic ritual of assorted trinkets at Behemoth's Brim (a 'tarot reading' of sorts, if you would), the pair quickly deduced that the gods sought to grant their wish.

Seeking out their allies to the far reaches of the land, the nordic wolves of Northfall, the mated pair approached their leader Ragnar with a proposition. To utilize him as a conduit for their desire to bear pups - and, with the guiding hand of the Five, they would be hers and Amaranth's alone.

Five healthy pups were born to them, carried and delivered by Valeska. Dimitri; Violet; Sreda; Narcissa; Alder. They were perfect - barring Alder's mysterious crimson pelt, which the pack had noticed seemed to trouble Amaranth a great deal - but for many months Elysium prospered, seeing its young grow into healthy young wolves with a thrist for adventure.

Not Again

Well, it was bound to happen again.

Whatever cosmic event set off the chain reaction of their first shattering cataclysm, the world once again upended itself - transporting the vast majority of its inhabitants to yet another new plane of existence, though this time something seemed... peculiar, somehow. Valeska herself had awoken in what appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, a near mirror image of Fate's Respite, barring a few displaced mountains and a different tree dispersal. Many other territories looked uncannily familiar as well, and to her surprise, their allies were now right on their doorstep.

It seemed serendipitous - but for one fact.

Valeska had been pregnant when this occurred, and after getting her bearings, she quickly realized her formerly swollen sides were now slim and barren.

She had lost them.

Joy turned to grief, and as she struggled to find the strength to seek out her family, Amaranth - as one connected to the Five - sensed an unusual pull toward the south. She insisted Valeska come along to investigate, and, with a heavy heart, the pair embarked on a journey to seek out the source of the disturbance.

A great tree. Centered at the middle of a large lake, a trail of stepping stones leading up to its base, the two heartbroken wolves made their way to what they had assumed was the resonating center of the spiritual energy. There, in a small hollow, lay the skeletons of what looked to be lovers from ages past locked in an eternal embrace. Amaranth and Valeska were moved and felt compelled to leave something behind for the dead - with each pulling out a single precious feather from their fur, feathers they had worn at their wedding, nestling them between the old bones - and slept for the night, exhausted and ready to return home.

They awoke to the sound of whimpering.

And there they were - two perfect, beautiful pups, one of gold, brilliant like the sun, and one pale silver as the moon. In their hearts they knew them to be their own, the children they had thought lost forever - and as they tearfully reached down to take them up, a third, hidden child revealed herself, dark as a starless sky.

They would return home and begin anew.

• Fluent in Russian, her native tongue; while her English has vastly improved over the years, she still possesses a strong accent.
• "Sacred Wolf Mother" is an oft-used exclamation whenever Valeska is surprised or stressed.
• Firmly believes in innocent before proven guilty.
• Sports a very long, thick ruff about her neck and small tufts of fur behind her ankles. Harper affectionately refers to them as 'Grinch Feet'.
• Smells of crisp cold wind on a hilltop with a hint of pine needles.