Ilyana Velaskovy

Intro

• Text

  A regal vampiric Countess (B.P.R.D / Hellboy) tired of being hunted by humans

• Basic Info

  • Name: Ilyana Velaskovy
  • Gender: Female
  • Played by: MoonRaven
  • Age: 723
  • Hair colour: Deep brown (almost black)
  • Eye colour: Deep ruby crimson
  • Race: Vampire
  • Nationality: Ukrainian
  • Relationship status: Married
  • Height: 5ft 9"
  • Weight: 109lbs
  • Handedness: Right-handed
  • Nicknames: The Iron Countess / The Jewel of Zhovskaia
  • Scars: Two bite marks on the left hand side of her throat
  • Alignment: Lawful neutral / Lawful evil
  • Deity: Unknown

• Text

  Ilyana Ivanovna Kravchenko was the daughter of a Ukrainian merchant back in the 1300s. She was the youngest of three sisters and her beauty was famous across all of Eastern Europe. Her father would show her portrait to all the wealthy men he did business with in the hope of marrying his daughter into wealth.
  
  One day, whilst gathering berries with her sisters at the foot of the Carpathian Mountains on the Ukrainian border with Romania, Ilyana was approached by an old woman; bent almost in half with age, long lank hair falling across her wizened face and malicious intent in her milky eyes. The old crone asked that Ilyana gift the berries to her as she was hungry and could not bend to collect them herself. Ilyana's sisters laughed at the woman and tried to chase her off with insults - swatting at her with small branches...however, Ilyana felt sorrow for the old woman and so not only offered her basket of fruit to the old woman, but also offered to carry it back to the place where the old woman lived. The woman accepted and took Ilyana's arm, leading her deep into the forest....her sisters too afraid to follow.
  
  Upon arrival at the old woman's strange house, Ilyana laid the basket on the table and made to leave...but the old woman prevented her from exiting using some strange magical force. The woman revealed herself as she 'Baba Yaga' - ancient witch of Russian legend - and thanked Ilyana for her kindness, remarking that she could keep her life...as opposed to her sisters who would die of pox within the week. Distraught, Ilyana was told that she would be remaining to act as a servant girl to the Baba Yaga, and would be unable to return to her family.
  
  Ilyana was a slave to the Baba Yaga for three years - cleaning her chicken-legged house, gathering fruit for her meals, gathering ingredients for her potions. The old woman was rarely outwardly cruel to the girl, but Ilyana knew that she was powerful enough to kill her with a look should she so wish.
  
  One night, whilst she was gathering flowers under the moon, Ilyana was approached by a tall man - shrouded in black robes - who told her that he had been watching her for over a month and knew of her plight. He introduced himself as Count Adais Velaskovy - Lord of Castle Zhovskaia - and offered to help Ilyana escape from the clutches of the Baba Yaga. They plotted in secret for weeks - each developing feelings for the other - until eventually, whilst gathering firewood, Ilyana fled to where Count Velaskovy had said he would be waiting for her. Furious, the Baba Yaga sent the wolves of the forest to pursue Ilyana and she was almost killed...when she was saved by Adais - revealing himself at last in his true form; a vampire.
  
  Displaying a kindness towards him that he had never experienced before, Ilyana was grateful towards her inhuman saviour as opposed to shunning him and treating him as a monster. She willingly travelled to Castle Zhovskaia, high in the mountains, with him and lived for a while as his guest - safe from the other vampiric denizens of the Castle as she was under Lord Velaskovy's protection. The two fell deeply in love and Ilyana - desperate to be with her love forever - begged Adais to turn her into a vampire so she could live for eternity with him. After much inner conflict, he did so and the two later married - making Ilyana 'Countess Velaskovy'.
  
  In the 700 years since then, Ilyana has emerged as a staunch advocate for the safeguarding of vampire-kin from humans who would seek to destroy them. She is also a talented tactician which has earned her the title 'The Iron Countess'. After Ukrainian peasants began turning up dead in the foothills of the Zhovsky Mountains, the locals suspected vampires and word was eventually passed to the B.P.R.D in America who took great interest in the case. Agents such as Kate Corrigan and Abe Sapien thought it was strange that, if vampires existed in the region, they had been silent until now. They began to wonder if vampires truly were responsible for the deaths...or if something else was afoot. Packing their bags, agents of the B.P.R.D travelled to south-west Ukraine to investigate...