Améline’s mortal life was during the end of the Age of Myth in a now long-dead and nameless town Shyish, beginning when a duardin blacksmith named Thraki Coalmane found a baby on his doorstep bawling in a thunderstorm. For lack of any idea of what to do, he took her in and warmed her by the fire of the forge, which calmed her down. Afterwards he couldn’t find the parents of the baby, and so he decided to take her in as his own child, naming her Kladronir.
She grew up strong, determined and unfortunately for roof of the blacksmithy tall, standing higher than the vast majority of humans and more than a few aelves. Kladronir was a hard working apprentice, barely getting any time to get into fights on behalf of the weaker members of her town, as was her habit. Some days she ran the blacksmithy entirely by herself, as Thraki would sometimes drink too much and sing himself into unconsciousness with sad songs of farewell. Though her love for her father prevented her from inquiring into his past, Kladronir suspected his drunkenness and grief was tied to him being the only duardin living in town and the hundred miles around it.
That life ended when the errant knight, ser Manonne d’Haridoc, entered the town, needing repairs for her weapons and armour and for someone to shoe her horse. Manonne met Thraki first to arrange the repairs and payment, though the repairs were delayed due to Kladornir’s absence. When she arrived she was bloody, having gotten into yet another fight. Impressed rather than angered by Kladronir’s willingness to take up the defence of others upon herself, Manonne spent much of her time in the town talking with Kladronir and testing her skill and strength. Though completely untrained, Kladronir was mighty, couragous and above all empathetic, and Manonne offered her tutelage as a squire, to one day become knight. Sensing a more fulfilling life than beating metal ahead of her, Kladronir first consulted with her father, and finally with his blessing accepted.
Thus began Kladronir’s new life as Manonne gave her her second name; Améline. The two wandered far and wide together, hunting monsters, undead, foul spirits and the other threats that plagued Shyish. Améline quickly learned the craft of fighting with weapons and armour, alongside the other skills needed of a squire; cooking, grooming horses, cleaning clothes, weapons and armour, scouting, tactics and strategy, all things that would serve her greatly in her later lives.
This was not purely an idyllic time for her, however; she and Manonne would regularly put themselves in danger opposing some of the greater threats that still lingered in the Age of Myth’s civilised lands, and Améline herself would later go on to take a life for the first time. Later, Améline would not remember fully how it transpired, only remembering a profound gratefulness that Manonne had been there for her.
All this ended, when the Age of Chaos began.
Desperately harried by unleashed hordes of Maruaders and Chaos Warriors, Améline and Manonne tried protecting the stream of refugees to Azyr. When Améline fell to the Chaos Lord’s axe while giving time for a wounded Manonne to escape, her soul was claimed by Sigmar and Reforged as one of the first Stormcast Eternals. Though her memories of those times are hazy at best due to countless subsequent Reforgings, she barely remembers a time when Stormcast fought as a whole rather than separate in Stormhosts, and feels a quiet nostalgia for those times without really knowing why. This is where she was given her third name, Malliana.
She was placed in the Anvils of Heldenhammer in the Exemplar Chamber the Blackhammers. She forged a strong bond with her retinue and her Lord-Relictor Herakes, Brother of the Stars, Anvil-Bearer, Who-Carries-The-Firmament-And-Laughs, the Spirit-Forge (among other titles) during the Long Wait.
When the Long Wait ended and the Realmgate Wars began, Malliana’s retinue was sent to Hysh to bring an ancient agent of Sigmar’s back into his service, Soulbound Cathallar Aengellania Tearworn. Such was her joy of being finally unleashed to free the Realms from Chaos’ tyranny that she boomed with laughter when she arrived on Sigmar’s Storm.
When Aengellania gladly accepted Sigmar’s offer, Malliana escorted her to a Realmgate to Azyr. Along the way they struck up the beginning of a strong friendship, and fought their first battles together. Though they parted ways upon their return to Azyrheim, they’d strengthen their friendship and cross paths numerous times.
Malliana served the rest of the Realmgate Wars alongside her Chamber in numerous actions. She proved to be a brave and skilled warrior, laying down her life without hesitation. As a Retributor-Prime she would often face down some of the greatest and most terrible monsters the enemy could bring to bear, but she never backed down from a battle. She always lead her Retinue by example, placing herself wherever the danger was greatest for them. More than that, she came to regard them as true siblings beyond their shared demigod nature, and would support them off the battlefield just as much as she did off. They never let her down, even when she had already been torn apart by monstrous claws and fangs, and in turn she was ever ready to die for them.
Perhaps the height of her heroism as a Retributor-Prime was during the Battle of Grobgrossen Fen. There, alongside her retinue, Lord-Relictor Herakes, she inspired a regiment of Freeguild through example to wage a desperate battle against Skaven in muddy trenches and earthworks. Such was the rate of attrition, the length and the importance of the battle that she died no less than three times during it, each time rapidly Reforged and sent back down into the fray.
When the battle was over many Freeguild had been slain, but Malliana lifted their flag high above the captured defences to their cheers. It was a costly victory that reminded her of the valour of mortals and the fragility of their lives, and redoubled her resolve to protect them at all costs to herself. This was why she was chosen to be Stormcast, she told herself. To lay down an eternity of lives, even if it meant saving just one of theirs.
However, Malliana’s sacrifices rapidly took a heavy toll on her. She was among the first Stormcast to be diagnosed with ‘Anvil Shock’, the term used when the flaws of Reforging were barely understood and interpreted as simply the psychological effect of humans dying and being reincarnated unnaturally. When the flaw was properly understood as what it was, no one who knew Malliana had any doubts of how badly she was affected.
She had lost numerous memories, all but forgetting her mortal life. Her voice had fallen to a permanent ghastly whisper. Where before she enjoyed her demigod life and the company of those around her, then she became colder, nigh-on an automaton that fought and died relentlessly. Though she continued her heroics, she rarely inspires those she fought alongside, save fear that she would become so lost to the cycle of Reforging that one day she would never return. And throughout this time, she never seemed to care. When the subject was broached to her, she only replied that this slow death was nothing more than her first death catching up to her, and she hadn’t backed down from that.
The only set of memories that were spared one the Anvil of Apotheosis were those of Aengellania Tearworn,
An example of her self-sacrifice occured during the Kaliva Exodus. Malliana’s retinue were escorting refugees through the deserts of Shyish, and had little hope of reaching refuge in Lethis. When they came to an area known to be frequented by Kharadron airships, Malliana ordered one of her Retributors to strike her down, in hopes that her return to Azyr would serve as a signal to any passing Kharadron frigate. Ultimately the plan was a success, and the refugees and retinue rescued by Kharadron airships.
Some time after the Realmgate Wars, Malliana would be sent down by herself to relieve the fort of Havitya from attacking Flesheater Court ghouls, as she was the only Stormcast available at the time. Though she was successful in repelling the ghouls, their delusions infected her. She began speaking in a long-dead tongue and barely responded to those around her. Lord-Relictor Herakes, sent down with Malliana’s retinue to recover her, knew the signs for what they were, and brought her back to Azyr to be placed in a cell until she recovered. She left that cell holding a rune-engraved greatsword, changing her course as a Stormcast forever.
That is how Malliana became an Errant-Questor. Now instead of fighting alongside her Chamber and retinue, she would adventure alone wherever her visions took her. Over time, she began to interpret the visions as a mission to find a way to halt or reverse the affects of her Reforgings, by rediscovering her mortal past and the long-dead people she had once belonged to. Upon rediscovering the name Manonne had given her, Améline chose to go by that name rather than Malliana. Her visions often took her into the lairs of Flesheater Courts, where she found more lore and symbols of her people, and even hints of her mortal life. She also strived to reconnect with her humanity in smaller ways, such as reviving long-faded skills of cooking or smithing. To her surprise, she found that she had quite a talent for both.
During this time she met, fought, defended and even befriended numerous and diverse peoples across the Realms, too many for her to remember with subsequent Reforgings. As such she took up the habit of committing her memories to a sigmarite-bound book.
Kip’ed Orpalan is one of her oldest and most painful memories as an Errant-Questor. A young boy she took as a kind of squire after time spent together, eventually she would fall protecting his life and forget about his existence. While waiting for her to return to him, a feeling of betrayal festered in Little Kip until it became hate for Améline and everything she represented. In the end he fell to Chaos to achieve his revenge as Lord Orpalan the Black Vengeance, and in a way got it by forcing Améline to choose between killing him or letting him summon a daemon host directly into Ka’ihva city. Though now she knew she faced her erstwhile squire, for Améline that choice ultimately was no choice at all, and with a broken heart ended Little Kip’s life. She told no one else of what happened, save Aengellania.
This story would repeat numerous times throughout the years with lesser intensity, Améline forging strong bonds of friendship with allies and losing those bonds as she laid down her life in their name. It became curse that she grew accustomed to.
But it was not all misery. Some friendships remained strong despite the years and deaths, such as with Erzsébet and her brother the human-turned-wolf Karst. Améline met the Vyrkos vampire on a mission to infiltrate a Dreadfort and rescue Karst, motivated by visions. The two would be successful in that mission, and although Améline almost died in the effort and was initially hostile of Erzsébet when her vampirism was exposed, ultimately she would take the Blood Knight under her wing and helped her become a force for good in the Realms. Though not all memories of her survived, more than enough passed the test of time.
And there were the frankly absurd situations Améline found herself in, brought about by her wanderings far away from the bastions of Order. She crossed paths with many strange and bizarre people across the Realms, sometimes fighting them, sometimes befriending them. And sometimes, a little of both, as is the case with the cultist of Chaos simply named Cultist. Initially, Améline was antagonistic to Cultist on the basis of the gods she worshipped, but the two were forced to cooperate together by a Chaos warlord who took great amusement in chaining hated foes together and forcing them to survive through harrowing trials. They saved each other’s lives many times, and to repay the debt Améline let Cultist live when they were freed.
She’d unwillingly cross paths with Cultist a number of times over the decades much to her frustration, though she’d notice a trend; Cultist seemed to genuinely like Améline, and never actively tried to kill her; as an example, when she dumped a vat of tripe on Améline it was to celebrate her “winning Blood Bowl” (which Améline will never talk about), rather than trying to get her eaten by a nearby Mega-Gargant. Over time Améline would grow to tolerate Cultist’s presence in her life, outwardly irritated but never pushing Cultist away, only trying to contain the carnage that seems to follow her everywhere.
Throughout the years, her friendship with Aengellania only grew stronger. The two would often cross paths or serve together, their fighting styles and methods quickly changing to accommodate each other until they didn’t need to speak to talk, simply communicating via body language and familiarity. Aengellania became a pillar in Améline’s life, one that she thought the world of. To the Stormcast, Aengellania was the bravest person she’s ever known, for being brave enough to still try to be kind to others, no matter what she’s gone through or who they were, though Améline quickly took it upon herself to protect her friend from those that would betray her trust.
Despite her efforts Reforging still took her toll on her. After a time her body became electrified by her inner divine storm, transforming her into a living weapon but making touch difficult without conscience thought; only with Aengellania did control over that inner lightning become instinctual. More than Reforgings, Améline also became increasingly frustrated with the Realms and its people, seeing the petty villainy some would commit for greed as spitting on the sacrifices she had freely rendered to them. She would also come into conflict with fellow Stormcast, notably breaking a Lord-Celestant of the Knights Excelsior’s jaw after he had insulted Aengellania’s methods.
Her visions took her to a Duardin karak, retaken by the Dispossessed that had called it home during the Age of Myth. There she did not find great trials to best or enemies to slay, but instead good company and hospitality. In honour of a visit from a Stormcast the Duardin threw a feast for her, and sang sagas of how generations ago they reclaimed their Karak with the aid of one of her kind. She enjoyed her time for the moment, listening to their stories of how that Stormcast from the same Stormhost as her had fought the armies of daemons and Slaves to Darkness that had made their home in the shadows of the mountain, losing an arm in the process.
The Stormcast had stayed with them for a long time, eventually losing her life helping them slay the Chaos-wyrms that had assaulted them from without. Améline’s heart though began to fall under a familiar chill when they showed her murals of a red-haired giant warrior leading the defence against foul monstrosities, further compounded by a half-familiarity with the Stormcast’s prosthesis proudly shown to her by the descendant of the Duardin that had crafted it for them. When the Duardin revealed to her that this Stormcast had gone by the name Malliana, Améline knew exactly what had transpired. Her visions prompted her to leave soon after, and though she was glad to see that those she had fought and died for nor prospered, she couldn’t bring herself to reveal to them her true identity.
Later, she would find herself in Chamon, tasked with retrieving the fel and dangerously corruptive artefact the Book of Golden Masques from the deep polychromatic seas. To aid her was a strange blind sea aelf who called himself Driftwood, of a kind she had never met before. He used sea-magics to transport them down safely to the ocean’s floor, where they battled both the creatures of the deep and Driftwood’s kin hoping to claim the artefact themselves, led by the his royal brother.
Ultimately Améline and Driftwood were victorious, Améline resisting the temptations of the tome and Driftwood preventing her from spilling his brother’s blood. Though she never learned his true name, by the time they parted Améline had learnt that he had allied himself with her to prevent the tome from corrupting his kin despite their good intentions, for it would be ultimately at the expense of other blind, strange-souled aelves like him. They went their separate ways as more than allies, Améline to give the tome to the Sacrosanct to lock away and Driftwood to return to defending his kin from threats external and internal. It was only after the Necroquake would Améline learn that she had met the Idoneth Deepkin for the first time.
Soon after the Necroquake was unleashed, Améline found herself defending Brightspear from the newly-risen Undead alongside Aengellania and another group of Soulbound. One day when they were relaxing at the Twelve Taps a giant Witch Aelf, of height with the Stormcast, approached them and offered to fight Améline for her girlfriend Aengellania.
After Améline corrected Gwydain that she and Aengellania were just friends, the Witch Aelf and the Cathallar quickly grew attracted to one another. Améline gently encouraged Aengellania to take up Gwydain’s offer to watch her blade-dance, and soon the two left the tavern, leaving Améline alone.
When Gwydain and Aengellania began dating, the Witch Aelf began joining Améline and Aengellania’s missions to fight the Undead. Although at first Améline tolerated the intrusion, on one mission into the Undercity Améline’s fury and overprotectiveness of Aengellania exploded on Gwydain when Aengellania was wounded into unconsciousness.
She blamed Gwydain for letting Aengellania get that badly hurt, and the two argued. Eventually Améline picked up Aengellania with the intention of carrying her back to the surface and cutting through the horde of undead, just as she had done many times before. If Gwydain could not keep up, then it would be her fault.
She was stopped in her tracks when the crying Gwydain shouted at her back;
“She’s not your girlfriend!”
Améline turned around to look at Gwydain, and in an instant saw clearly.
Gwydain truly loved Aengellania, and that the Cathallar was hurt was devouring her from within with guilt and pain. She wouldn’t have let anything hurt Aengellania while it was in her power.
Just like Améline.
With that connection Améline realised her mistake, and gave Aengellania back over to Gwydain with only three words.
“No, she’s not.”
From that moment on, Améline now had full trust in Gwydain, even beyond the moment when they cut through the undead back to the surface together. She never voiced another objection to Aengellania and Gwydain’s relationship, and soon she considered the Witch Aelf as a friend in her own right.
So she left Brightspear content that Aengellania was in safe hands, and her visions took her to a City of Sigmar named Vurtenhul. She proved to be the decisive factor in defending it against an army of Soulblight Gravelords. Despite the population’s fierce independence from Stormcast, the soldiers she fought alongside grew to respect, then love her enough to give her the sobriquet The Anvil. This devotion disturbed her, and would leave her with a feeling of failure at the siege’s conclusion when she was the sole survivor of the defenders at the gatehouse she protected. Though the city was saved, Améline felt like she had failed it. The only victory she felt she achieved as finding out that Manonne was still alive.
For a time she served alongside a Binding of Soulbound in Misthåvn; Khelyra Bladesinger, a Witch Aelf turned mercenary, Laz Arras, a wizard and scholar of Shyish, Kuwa, a Hag-Priestess, Snazzag Sizzlefingers, a pyromaniacal Grot, and most strangely of all a Morghast that seemed possessed with a fragment of Azyr, freeing it of Nagash’s domination.
Ultimately, via visions, clues and dogged determination, Améline would uncover Manonne’s location, in a lair of ghouls. Only those that had accompanied her knew of what transpired there, for she will not speak openly of it.
Anticipating her visions to abate now that her mission was finished, Améline began the long journey to Azyr to rejoin her Chamber, but instead was redirected to Anvilguard by her visions. There she learnt of the complete destruction of her Chamber at the Eightpoints, including her retinue, news that devastated her and left her feeling lost. She had never planned for any future after her time as an Errant-Questor than returning to her siblings.
She was in the city when it fell to Morathi. Though she fought bravely, ultimately she was captured by a Darkling Sorceress, who proceeded to torture her as revenge for Aengellania disrupting her plans.
Given a new purpose to spite the Darkling Sorceress, Améline resisted the tortures until, frustrated, the Darkling Sorceress threw her into a hopeless arena fight against a recently captured Chaos Lord of Khorne, in the expectation that he would permanently kill her. As it transpired, the Chaos Lord Marley had already befriended Aengellania and thought quite highly of Améline, and instead beat her into unconsciousness. Before that he left her with reassurance that Aengellania was coming to save her, and a fear that something terrible had been done to her.
Améline would be rescued from her prison by Aengellania, much to Améline’s complete lack of surprise. Even without Marley’s reassurance, she knew her friend would move mountains to save her, though she wished she didn’t have to put her life in such risk doing so. Though underneath her worry, Améline was truly happy to see her friend again. At least she had that pillar in her life still intact.
The first sign that that pillar was shakier than she had thought was when they linked up with the Anvilgard resistance, only for that meeting to be ambushed by Daughters of Khaine. They quickly subdued Améline, weakened as she was by her captivity, and mocked her for attempting to escape as they closed in on Aengellania.
Then, the room disappeared into an amethyst haze. When it cleared, the Witch Aelves were on the floor, screaming as they tore at their hair and skin. Only the Hag Priestess was standing, silently weeping as she was gently held up by her jaw by Aengellania. When Aengellania dropped her, the Cathallar fell and was caught in Améline’s arms. The Stormcast hugged her tight as Aengellania cried, even after they’d long departed Har Kuron thanks to their resistance contacts.
With the journey ahead of them, Améline did not press Aengellania too deeply on what had happened, only extracting from her a promise that they would talk about it when they returned to Brightspear. They stopped by a town not too far from Har Kuron and split up, Améline looking for a secure means of travel and Aengellania for temporary shelter. The escape from Har Kuron preyed on Améline’s mind; she was used to Aengellania’s subdued air of fragility and depressive episodes, but what had happened then was far worse than anything she had ever witnessed. And her attack on the Daughters of Khaine… In her experience, Aengellania was usually reserved in her use of aetherquartz magic. That had felt overpowering, disproportional brute force. Améline had little pity for the Daughters of Khaine, having witnessed the horrors they had unleashed on Anvilgard first hand, but the change in her friend left her… Almost scared.
So wrapped up in her worries was Améline that she hadn’t spared a thought to the two drunk humans making their way to the inn Aengellania was in. But she was snapped from her reverie when she heard the gun shot.
She bulled straight through the door to find Aengellania bleeding on the floor, with one of the drunks holding a shattered knife in her hand and the other a smoking pistol.
Améline couldn’t recall exactly what had happened next, but when she came to her senses she was just able to stop herself from murdering the two of them. Only just.
She rushed Aengellania to the local apothecary, and when she was healed enough for travel immediately travelled for Brightspear carrying Aengellania in her arms. Throughout the entire journey, she swore repeatedly to herself that she would never leave Aengellania’s side ever again, so long as she could help it. Not after that horrendous mistake.
When she got to Brightspear, she discovered that Aengellania’s mission to save her had been unauthorised, and happened on the same night that Marley attacked the Celestial Warbringers to successfully recover his Daemon Axe wife, placing Aengellania under suspicion.
In the coming months, Améline would hunker down into a siege mentality, rarely leaving her friend’s side as she nursed her back to health and defended her from threats, real or imagined. She would feed, clean, watch over and carry Aengellania, and always made sure that she was never in a situation alone where she could be hurt. More than her physical wounds, Aengellania’s plummet into depression truly terrified Améline more than anything else as a Stormcast. At the same time, she found that her love for Aengellania was no longer platonic, but deeply romantic in a way she had never experienced; up until then, she though she was fully aromantic. As it transpired, there was one exception.
As much of a surprise this new feeling of love was to her, that it was directed towards Aengellania was oddly enough not that much of a shock to her. In Améline’s mind, how could she not love the kindest and bravest woman she’s ever known? It felt right to her, even if she wondered if she could be the best partner to Aengellania that the aelf deserved.
However, her visions took a dark turn, that she interpreted as a final death. Rather than hurt Aengellania by giving her her love then having it be ripped away from her with her death, Améline convinced herself that it would be better for her friend if she died without ever revealing that love to her, especially with Aengellania in her fragile mental and physical state. So instead she dedicated herself to caring for the Cathallar as a friend would, and kept her feelings for her locked up tight within.
She only left Aengellania’s side when the aelf pleaded with her to ransom and escort a friend of hers, an Ironweld Arsenal engineer named Samantha Obergraf, from the Daughters of Khaine. During the trip back she talked with Samantha about Aengellania’s condition and how it made Améline inadequate as the friend she needed. She took comfort in the small engineer’s reassurances that Samantha might be able to repair Aengellania’s spine, and that at least in this her friend would find a small measure of peace. She would also end up striking an uneasy alliance with another Darkling Sorceress, Elisareth Drezmare, who had rescued Samantha from the cruel attentions of the Daughters of Khaine and gave her freely to Améline. A rapport would be built between them, Elisareth offering her Grey magic to tend to Améline’s mental stresses and Améline politely declining, though appreciating the offer.
When Aengellania began to recover, Améline began to feel safer about letting visitors see her, and leaving her side. She would reconnect with the outside world a little, including taking it upon herself to look after Aesma, another friend of Aengellania’s, after rescuing her from Redcap muggers about to take her life. She’d take it upon herself to train Aesma in her wish to become Soulbound, and to look after her after hearing of her unhappiness. She would also pledge to a Kroxigor named Roxokotl to rescue a child he had been tasked with defending from Har Kuron, and would later enlist Elisareth’s help in doing so.
Soon her path crossed again with Marley’s, having deduced that he was in Brightspear and was responsible for Aengellania’s mental recovery. He forced her confession of love she felt for Aengellania out of her, and inadvertently revealed to her that Aengellania held similar feelings for her. When Améline refused to give up her death wish despite that knowledge, Marley fought her. Ultimately he won, and with his Daemon Axe Hil’dre severed her future, ensuring her visions would only be one possibility among many instead of a certainty. They would separate as friends, with Améline promising Marley that if she survived her predicted future she would tell Aengellania too of her love.
They would meet again briefly, defending a contingent of Freeguild from a Beastmen raid. Together, with the support of other heroes such as the newly arrived Erzsébet and Karst, the Beastmen were felled. The battle culminated with Marley outright throwing Améline at a Ghorgon, Améline’s blow to its head with her borrowed hammer shattering its skull entirely. They wouldn’t exchange many more words, as Marley had to keep away from the Freeguild and Améline had to save a nearby Samantha from her wounds incurred during the fighting.
With thanks to Samantha Obergraf, Aengellania’s functionality in her legs would be restored, much to Améline’s quiet delight. Her thanks to Samantha were not so restrained, hauling her off the ground in a tight embrace as words failed to convey the depth of her gratitude.
However, she would meet a Stormcast Eternal of the Nexial Inquisitors named Phaedra Fairhand, a Knight-Zephyros just as self-sacrificial as her. Trying to warn her of the toll Reforging could take by showing her all the memories Améline had lost and their consequences, Améline was forced to confront introspection; If she had been given that warning before her deaths as Stormcast, would she have heeded it? Was her heroism that important to her, was all that she had sacrificed worth it? Would she put her chance at being the loving partner Aengellania deserved at risk through the erosion of her humanity, if she had known?
These are questions that lingered with her, even before her new mission given to her by Lord-Arcanum Salonia Gravenwingl; to scout Cotha for possible signs of a Nurglite invasion into Bataar, accompanied by Aesma and her demigrpyh Hooktalon. The possible answers scared her, knowing in her heart that the future her visions had predicted was coming soon…
