Adela Myrtelle Vol'Tare

Adela Myrtelle Vol'Tare, known better by her alias as The Grinning Phantom, is now a free woman by decree of His Majesty and Commander Shaw. Walking the streets a pardoned woman, Adela now serves the Alliance by means of reconnaissance and a renowned informant. Despite having been named the Grinning Phantom in her years as a crime lord, Adela sustains the wearing of her mask - a means of reminding many that the path to redemption can be made by any.

Appearance
It was the countless suitors who dubbed Adela the Gem of Duskwood. Paying no heed to the disdain of the envious, whether or not Adela is conscious of her alluring traits is pure mystery. There have been supposed instances in which said-appeal united with her charm have provided Adela an upperhand, but the accountability of these stories is questioned even now. For years, Adela has preserved a body abundant in the curves of a woman, though it isn't lacking muscularity required of a woman with her profession.

A woman of mixed descent, Adela takes the elven qualities of her mother in her bone structure. Her visage is an angular, diamond shape, cradling high cheekbones that have come to pass from lines united for preservation of such traits. She's also taken her mother's lips, her upper-lip bearing a shape resemblant of an archer's bow. The pair is often reddened to draw the eyes, supple and perhaps sculpted for whispers of demure. From her father, she takes his long and slightly-pointed nose.

Arguably, the most defining birthright from her mother (and sometimes a source of grief) is Adela's head of white. As a child, Adela was the subject of bullying and neglect for the color of her hair. Against the wishes of her father, and eventually to her liking, Adela continued to wash and care for her hair. The waves of white fall only inches below the halfling's shoulders, clinquant and gleaming silver when touched by different lighting.

While at times she successfully feigns a woman of higher birth, Adela more than often executes more of a soldier's posture. She is harsh of tongue, as many SI:7 remember her verbal lashings of recruits and trainees; not afraid to put down the attempts of the lecherous nor the flatterers. A woman of pedigree and impeccable genes, Adela demonstrates confidence in her own ways.

Early Life
Adela's lineage has lived and thrived in Duskwood for years, before and during the times Grand Hamlet came to be known as Darkshire. Not the wealthiest nor powerful of bloodlines, up until the age of seven, the stewardess of House Vol'Tare sought to raise and school Adela in the ways of etiquette and appropriate savior faire. Adela's mother, a High-Elf whose name was never spoken out of spite, abandoned Adela and her father shortly after giving birth to marry and bed another High-Elf; having bent to the whims and wishes of family.

Adela's father was, as always mentioned by his rivals, a man less-than-fit to raise children. The smallest of messes enraged him, no patience to be shown even in Adela's years as an infant. It was often said by maids and his own butler he would scream at the wailing babe, throwing objects in his fury. Only on rare occasion would the man come to see his child, and even more rarely would he show her some slither of affection. Thus, Adela grew with more love for her butler and stewardess, who ended up marrying. This only drove her father insane with envy and jealousy, seeing his faults. In an effort to regain the love of his daughter, he relieved the stewardess of her services. The butler died under curious circumstances.

Rather than the outcome he'd hoped for, he only further alienated young Adela, who'd come to fear her father from a very young age.

The stewardess, still bereaved over the loss of her beloved and Adela's butler, often wrote for the child to come visit her as she served in Northshire Abbey. Begrudgingly but seeing the joy in his daughter's eyes, Adela's father agreed and the visits continued.

When Adela was seven years old, she was abducted from her home, despite the hounds and men that patrolled the vicinity in varying shifts. It was said to be the final break in her father's sanity, pointing fingers at people he'd never even spoken to and accusing them of his child's disappearance.