Snow (Opal)

Opal was born in the city of Coldwater to her mother, a human named Miriam Casmane. Her father is a white wolf spirit from the Naravutian Forest, known as Avalan. Her mother was a kind woman, but she went into the frozen forest to end her life, believing she had nothing to live for. Avalan came across her as she was preparing for her end, and thought of it as a waste for the young woman to perish, so he gave her instead a reason to continue living. Opal was born soon after, and quickly grew up within her mother's small house on the outskirts of Coldwater.

Growing up, Miriam told Opal stories of far away adventure and greatness. Stories of swords and spells; good and evil. Opal was enthralled by her mother's stories, and asked her consistently to tell her a new one. Miriam indulged her daughter, and always tried to find new and exciting stories. Opal especially loved the story "The Boys from the City". When her mother first told her about the great warrior Rayna, all she wanted to do was to travel far and wide, fighting to show her Naravutian pride. Opal would often play pretend that she was Rayna, fighting all the horrible people from the capitol.

Although her home life was amazing, life away from her mother was less than great. She quickly found out that life wasn’t like the folktales her mother told her, and people were cruel and racist. Being a shifter, most people looked at Opal like she was a freak of nature (literally), and would tell her that her mother was a slut, whore, etc. There was one incident when Opal was about 13. She was being teased in school by a human boy about how her mother was going to kill herself before she was born, and how everyone would be better off if she had. Opal snapped, and in her rage she shifted, and carved a thick gouge down the boy's face from his right eyebrow to his collarbone. Miriam had to come and take Opal from that school and decided to instead homeschool her whenever Miriam got a break from her job as a small tavern bard.

Now out of school with a bunch of free time, Opal spent a lot of time in the tavern where her mother worked. This tavern had a brawling pit towards the back of the establishment, and not wanting to be by all the drunks near the bar area, she would watch brutes and barbarians fight each other, all for the fun of the brawl. She saw the theatrics of those involved, and how the crowd would truly be enthralled by each face jab, body shot, or flip over the back. Opal saw that even the most outcast of creatures can become fan favorites within the ring, and she wanted to find a way for the humiliation to stop. So she began training behind the tavern, and out in the fields, really anywhere she could be alone and punch and hit whatever she could without harming anyone. It took her several years as training without guidance requires a lot of time to figure out what works and what doesn’t, but she finally managed to enter the ring and win her first match at the age of 22. Miriam didn’t approve of her daughter fighting, but she was happy that Opal had found something she was passionate about, so that was good enough for her.

Not wanting to disrespect her parents, Opal took the pseudonym Snow as her fighting name and the name to give to those who have not earned her trust yet. These days, she doesn’t give out her true name nearly at all anymore, not seeing the point when everyone will eventually disrespect that trust anyway.

For years, Snow would fight in that arena, slowly getting better and soon she found that if she funneled her emotions and anger at everyone who mistreats her and her mother, she is a much more powerful foe. Along with channeling her father’s genes, she was able to quickly ascend the ranks of fighters who regularly fought in the brawler’s pit. Once she had defeated everyone known to fight there, no one challenged her, and she soon became bored with just training and no competition.

Knowing nothing would change within Coldwater, Snow moved away from her mother and moved to Paradeen, where she believed she could find work as an entertainer or within a circus or something. On the day she arrived in Paradeen however, she noticed 2 human guards gang up on a tiefling child. They mocked him and pushed him to the ground several times, and were about to start kicking when Snow decided that she had seen enough. She stepped in and pushed the two guards away, knocking one unconscious and having the other run for backup. Snow turned around, and the child was gone. Once she had realized the situation she was in, she was being handcuffed and dragged off to prison...