Name: Iris Valentine Dimitreu
Age: 25(looks), 678 (actual)
Faction: Ailward Guard
Species: Instar Diviner-Light
Family:
Theodor - father | Vladimir - Uncle (Deceased)  | Octavia - Aunt
Aurelia - Aunt | Gabriel - Cousin | Illiana - Cousin | Tatiana - Cousin
Face Claim: Riley Voelkel 

They say there is no greater honor than a family fighting as one or than among that of warriors fighting for a noble cause. For the Dimitreu family they double down, for the warrior’s life runs deep within their blood for nothing do they hold more sacred or true than the pursuit of the warrior’s creed. From the inception of the Ailward Guard they have taken the duty of the Guard and the mission seriously, striving to maintain peace and bring about balance within the world. This is the legacy they pass down from generation to generation, the tradition that each of them must choose to uphold.

As rumors went it was one of the more talked about and well circulated pieces of juice among the Guard, even those who weren’t prone to talking seemed to know something of the indiscretion. Even as events unfolded it was one of the more widely talked about and gossiped over events of the century, what else did a group of warriors have to do in their down time? Especially when two among them had made such a silly mistake that had resulted in such wide ranging consequences. The relatively straight laced Theodor Dimitreu had gotten a little too drunk, letting himself indulge a bit more in the grape than perhaps had been wise and instead of walking away from the ever alluring and mercurial Rayna Laine the pair had fallen into bed together. 

A single night of intoxicated distorted passion led to a new life being created, an irreversible mistake that both Theodor and Rayna needed to face. Neither of them cared for one another, there was no love or even real passion or affection held between the two. Being in the Guard they only held a mutual respect for each other,they were teammates and fellow warriors but adding a baby into the mix didn’t factor into that particular equation. Rayna didn’t much like the idea of being a mother, the woman was a trained fighter and only cared about the next mission. Having shunned her magic at an early age the only thing she had room for in her life was the cause of the Ailwards, having a child wasn’t even something she wanted or something she was going to entertain.  

Theo on the other hand had come from a big family, and despite his indiscretion he knew that this child was his and that he had to take responsibility. He convinced Rayna to carry the child to term, ensuring her that once the baby was born she could walk away and no one would think less of her. Rayna didn’t much care, though she made her extreme annoyance be known at being restricted to the island during the nine months of her pregnancy. Theo had hoped that eventually she might show some interest in their daughter, for at the five month mark they did learn that the baby was a girl. He even offered to include her in the process of choosing a name, imparting the Rayna that despite her reticence the baby was a part of her whether she liked it or not. 

There were a few times, unguarded moments when Theo would catch Rayna with a tender hand held protectively to her belly or looking down at her swollen abdomen with what might pass as a tender expression. These moments were rare, little snatches of time when the mother of his child thought that no one was watching. When the fateful day arrived Theo was hopeful that somehow the little girl might pull them together as a family, Rayna lay spent and exhausted though when the nurses brought the babe to her she refused. Her only request was that the little girl be named Valentine, to which Theodor agreed taking the squirming little girl sadly as the mother turned away and wanted nothing more to do with either him or their child. 

The Dimitreu family gathered around the father and daughter from that moment on, helping to take on the responsibilities and trials that came with a new baby. While most within the Guard and the Ailwards didn’t openly say a word most condemned Rayna for her actions though the Diviner remained immune and resolutely colder than stone to the looks and whispers she received. Each mission that took her away from the mansion she seemed to take with zeal, ignoring the little girl that was hers and all but pretending the father didn’t exist. As Valentine reached her first year of life Rayna didn’t return from a mission, her partner came back bloody and barely alive himself imparting a tale of great sorrow to Theo and the rest of the Guard. Many would see the mother’s death as a boon, for the daughter wouldn’t have to grow up in the knowledge that her own mother hadn’t cared. 

Theo in turn took the death hard but ran with it, resolving against his brother Vlad’s advice and resolved never to tell his daughter the truth about her mother’s indifference. At first he began to paint an entirely different picture of a fictional woman who had sung songs of love and affection to her daughter each night, but as Valentine grew in age it quickly became apparently that his daughter wasn’t a fool. Valentine was an extraordinary little girl of heightened intelligence and powers of observation that astounded her father and amused her aunts and uncles to no end. 

Growing up in the Guard meant having a very different perspective on life, Valentine knew from an early age that magic was a part of the greater universe. The Ailwards weren’t just larger than life figures they were the Guardians she looked up to and occasionally served as playmates and babysitters. With cousins from three different species, a Valkyr for an aunt, a Phoenix uncle, and a father who could wield the elements with barely a thought it was a wonder a young girl would be able to find a place for herself in such a wide range of fantastic and strong individuals. Yet Valentine never felt the usual doubt or uncertainty of other females her age, she only held an innate curiosity and a thirst for knowledge that seemed too big for her small body. 

At the age of 10 Valentine became even more independent from her family, being the baby of the family had its disadvantages and she found herself seeking solitude or the company of others more and more often. In those times she would escape to the library or to Malva’s magic laboratory or off somewhere in the woods where she might be alone and have some time to herself. In those moments she didn’t have to be a Dimitreu, in those moments she was allowed to just be herself. Unlike the others in her family she found she loved figuring out how things worked, clocks and mechanisms and anything really that was a technological piece of machinery she found fascinating. Valentine would often find herself staying up late into the night taking some gadget apart and then putting it back together again, and more often then not it would run far better afterward. 

By this time it had become very apparent that Valentine would not take after her father, a disappointment that though he tried to keep hidden from his daughter she still managed to pick up on. His own discontent was reflected in his daughter, when he found her crying alone one night at having upset him so. In order to soothe her broken heart he constructed a great tale about her mother, building up a false story in order to foster some affection for a woman that Valentine had no memory of for at this point Theo was sure that his daughter was going to be Diviner like her mother. Valentine took great comfort in this fictional tale, though she had no idea that the woman she being described to her hadn’t really existed. In her father’s mind he was protecting her, sheltering her from the truth and giving her a chance at a more positive outlook on her life. 

From that night on Valentine spent more and more time with Malva, becoming one of her valued assistant’s even at a tender age. When she wasn’t helping in the Ailward’s shop the young girl was doing research on her own and reading up on the history of Diviner’s. When she turned 14 Valentine began training with her father and Uncles and some of the Guard, learning to fight and defend herself. Her Aunt’s even took an interest in helping her train, though she took time out to dedicate to her study’s staying balanced in both the mental and the physical aspects of her life. At 16 Valentine was sure she knew what she wanted to do with her life, the rest of her family had joined the Guard and though her talents lie in many places she could be a huge asset to the cause. Both of her parents had been in the Guard, the cause was something she had grown up with and by that time she knew without a doubt that it was something that she believed in. 

Valentine hadn’t gone to her father beforehand, or discussed the matter with any of her family, it was a personal choice that she had made on her own. Several days following her 17th birthday she approached Aureus and explained her choice, accepting the Guard tattoo and all the responsibility that went along with it. The Ailward recognized her intelligence gathering abilities putting her into that wing of the Guard and immediately putting her to work. Theodor was none to happy at first that she had made this decision without consulting with him however, Valentine explained that it wasn’t his decision to make neither was it one that could be taken back. In spite of her father’s trepidation it became clear from the start that Valentime excelled, she learned to decrypt and read old artifacts, translate manuscripts and often she would be sent out on different assignments to assist with research work the Guard needed to complete. 

On the afternoon of her 18th birthday Valentine was tapped, the light claiming her in a rush of magic that was a sight to behold. Even Malva had to admit that she had hardly seen a more brilliant display, launching Valentine into a private research project to trace her genealogy in an effort to understand where her magic had come from and why she was so powerful. Meanwhile she continued to train, honing both her body and her mind as well as her magic, learning to control all aspects of who and what she was. 

When the world eventually modernized and computers became a norm to the world it was Valentine that recognized that this same technology could be harnessed to help the Ailward. She arranged the technical headquarters on the Isle of Skye ensuring that the island would have access to this new technology. Access to computers enabled them to scan in and revolutionize the information they had collected over the centuries, giving them access to the information from the outside world, and it also allowed for more security. Valentine would eventually become one of the most technically logical people who was capable of hacking into different systems without a trace and protected the Ailward network with the best security software the guard could provide. 

In the process of scanning in all of the Guard’s records into digital files Valentine would stumble across a dirty little secret that would change her life forever. Each of the Guards had a personnel file and while she was digging through old records the Diviner found a record she hadn’t known existed, marked with the name of her mother. Inside she found the truth, a story of a woman who was cold and detached and very much not the mother her father had purported her to be. The file even carefully detailed out the story of her own birth, and the subsequent abandonment that the woman who had given birth to her had decided to let happen. As the entire tale was written in Aureus’s neat handwriting Valentine was loath to disbelieve it for the Aspect of memories was a lot of things but a liar wasn’t one of them. 

Confronted with the reality surrounding her birth and the facts of her life the female could no longer stand her name. It was a token of esteem given to her by a woman who had neither acknowledged her or had wanted anything to do with her, thus the young woman found herself a new name. She legally changed her name to Iris and thanked her lucky stars that the woman who had birthed her had forsaken her magic, giving her free reign to embrace that part of her life. As for her father learning the truth lodged a deep wedge between them, one that has yet to resolve itself and in fact has only managed to go deeper with each passing year. 

With her new identity Iris took on a new lot in life, taking up a new mantle and in essence becoming something of a new woman. She became a little less shy and introverted, her magic became even more powerful, and in fact her experimentation with her magic took on a whole new life. Along her with technological skills Iris began experimenting with combining her love of technology and magic, creating gadgets and machinery that would benefit and protect her fellow Guards and Aspects whenever they were in the field. Iris became an invaluable asset both at homebase and out in the field, her technological skills second to none and her magical abilities were called upon almost as often as her mechanical expertise. Iris was always busy with one project or another, either in her tech room building something new or found with Malva experimenting with some new magic spell or impliment to add to the collection. 

When the Isle fell Iris was ready for just such an event, having backed up all of her systems and files onto a laptop she was one of the first to make the move into Evermore. Iris had been one of the people at the forefront of the push to move into the manor, altering the blueprints to fit her schematics so that the entire basement level could be retrofitted for her use. Choosing not to integrate herself into the Diviner faction was a personal choice, like the other magic users in the Guard after over 600 years of tutelage under the Aspect of Magic herself Iris had a Grimoire of her own that contained some magical spells that the Diviner faction could only dream about. Unsure if those spells would be used for good or ill Iris wasn’t willing to take that chance so instead she would simply watch from afar and remain isolated with those she knew. 

Now that her Uncle Vlad has come up missing Iris’s relationship with her father has become even more strained, for Theo is trying to keep an even tighter lease on her and treating her as if she were still a young 10 year old child. Little does her father know that Iris has known that truth about her mother for years, or the full extent of her powers. It matters little to Iris, her father lied to her and at this time Iris isn’t ready to forgive him and neither does she need him. Virindeus has asked Iris to become his personal Guard and she has readily accepted, and with all of the uncertainty and darkness rising it is imperative that she be at the top of her game. 

Highly Intelligent || Fast Learner || Loyal
Introvert || Shy || Awkward