Elise

Emiliya Ivanova was born in 1457 in a little village on the border of Ukraine. She was the youngest daughter of Ivan and Katia, and the younger sister to their son Illya. The life they led was quiet and humble; money was never easy to come by, but rarely did they have to struggle to make ends meet. Emiliya helped her mother to tend the farm while her brother and father were away on hunting trips.
From an early age, she had a passion for adventure, and often displayed it by dragging her best friend, a young boy named Dmytro, on all her expeditions through the forest that stood on the border of their village. Though she would often tease him for his fearful disposition, their friendship would kindle into a romance as the years went by.
Shortly after Emiliya turned twenty-five, Dmytro proposed to her in the very same forest they would explore together as children. They strolled the stream bed while they prattled away about their union, and the future they envisioned for themselves. Unfortunately, those visions would die out long before they could be given the chance to see them through.

One late summer evening of 1482, the village was humbled by a sudden visit from a tyrannical nobleman. He had little regard for their modest homestead, but instead took a great interest in Emiliya upon seeing her for the first time. He offered her a lavish and pampered lifestyle, in exchange to become one of his many wives. She reluctantly agreed, knowing well that his ‘proposal’ wasn’t anything less than a command. The goodbyes she exchanged with her family were tearful and abrupt, but parting ways with Dmytro was like tearing her heart in two. He was left to watch her departure from the village gates, just as devastated as she.
The first few weeks of her life in the lord’s manor were an adjustment, to say the least. Though she was indeed gifted many beautifully-tailored dresses and a fleet of servants at her beck and call, Emiliya found herself quite miserable with her new home. She was entirely isolated to one wing of the manor, never to be left without a pair of supervising eyes on her, and even more so when she dared to leave her room. Being forced into the confines of her home like torture, and after just a few days had passed, the manor’s grand hallways were beginning to feel quite small.
A fortnight had passed, and Emiliya had yet to see her 'husband' since she was brought into the manor. While she made quick friends with the servants that ran her quarters, she ached to see her family again, and longed for the company of her Dmytro. Many restless, sleepless nights would come and go. The pain of her isolation was much more unbearable than that of her lust for adventure. She craved companionship.

Finally, her prayers were answered one late evening, when a servant approached her door and claimed that the lord had requested an audience with Emiliya. She practically jumped at the opportunity to interact with someone outside of her ever-smaller social circle. They aided her in picking the perfect dress, styling her wild curls, and making her look as presentable as possible. She left her secluded section of the manor for the first time in over a month, and it was like a breath of fresh air. She was so ecstatic to see unfamiliar grounds, she didn't notice the grim expressions her escorts wore on their faces.
Emiliya was ushered into the lord's private chambers, and their servants had hastily left the two alone.

Her life may have altered its course in the span of the last month, but even then, she hadn't the faintest idea of how a single night could entirely transform her life. What started with pleasant conversation and leisurely banter with her so-called husband would quickly dissolve into gruesome and unspeakable events. The nobleman turned to tactual affairs and outright pushed himself onto Emiliya. When she refused his advances, he was overcome with excessive anger that provoked an attack on her, with the strength of ten men combined, and a strange set of straight, sharp fangs. Her memories seem to become blurred together after these hapless events, but she would finally come to in the morning. Her entire body was set ablaze with a pain so fierce she writhed in agony. She had quickly discovered that the sunlight burned her skin, and she had an insatiable thirst for human blood. Before she could process her next series of actions, she had burst through the locked doors of the lord's bedroom chambers, taken hold of the first servant she saw with newfound strength, and completely drained the helpless girl's body of her blood.

As much as she hated to admit, her first taste of blood had soothed the pain of her transformation. The sustenance of human blood gave Emiliya the strength to escape the castle the moment the sun fell below the horizon. The next several days afterward were spent hiding away from the guards that were sent to track her down and bring her back 'home.' But once she was certain she had shaken them off her trail for good, she made the several-day journey back to her home village. The elation she felt in anticipation of seeing her family once again was quickly struck down when she discovered the aftermath of her husband's rage. The entire village was left in a horrifying bloodbath; her family was massacred in their own beds, the pain and suffering of their final moments eternally etched onto their faces. And at the mouth of the woods, where she would delve into her adventures as a child, laid the slain body of her lover, Dmytro.

Emiliya was ignited by fury, similar to that of her husband's, that sent her into a fit of temper. She made a beeline for the manor she was forced to call her home, and in her blinding rage, took the lives of each helpless individual that stood cluelessly in her path. She tracked down her monster of a husband, who she found resting peacefully beside another one of his brides. The rage she felt had fueled just enough of her strength and adrenaline to viciously slaughter her now ex-husband, and her creator. She would find her victory to feel bittersweet in the aftermath, forcing the realization that even if she were to wipe the world clean of its evil forces, it would not bring her family back, or her Dmytro. In her immense grief and shame, she fled her home country and traveled across western Europe, where she would take on the identity of Elise.

Elise would spend the many years to come traveling from one settlement to the next, satiating her appetite for adventure, and discovering herself and her purpose in life involving immortality. In the late 1800s, she explored all that Europe had in store, and relocated to North America. By 1921, she had stumbled across a city that was rich with glamor, crime, and a variety of supernatural creatures such as herself. There, she intends to explore every opportunity that this city has to offer.