The servants of the deities of the higher planes, properly classified as Celestials, but most commonly referred to as Angels, are powerful - some of them extremely so - but not infallible or invincible. Sometimes events, or the powers of Darknesss, conspire against them and they meet defeat.Such was the case for Umariele, a celestial in the service of Aderra, the Imperial goddess of Wisdom and Magic. Wounded and beaten, she was captured by a tribe of orcs living wild in the wastelands between the northern reaches of the Erlyid Empire and the dwarfcastle of Nisur. These orcs had refused to join the great migration to the ancient orcish city of Kîshshul, preferring to live in savage isolation with the world as their enemy and prey.
Held prisoner without hope, Umariele was beaten and abused in every way possible; her captors delaying her death only as long as she provided sport for them. This proved their undoing, as a small strike team of the Blades of Wisdom and Mercy assaulted the tribe's primitive defences and overran them to rescue the captured angel and make a fighting retreat.
Restored to health by magic, faith and an indomitable constitution, Umariele rewarded the heroism of her godesses knights and returned to her own plane, but her ordeal was not yet over. Orcs are lusty and fecund, and will breed with anything. A little under a year later, Umariele returned to the Blades' mother house at Lorindel bearing a small, bundled form.
Monsarana was raised by the knights and their retainers, and from the moment she could walk, her training in the arts of war and the code of chivalry began. As the child grew, far faster than a normal human infant, her teachers became aware of several things. First of all, she was never going to be pretty. Her features favoured her unknown orcish parent, though no orcish face ever wore the expressions that she did. She had inherited strength, speed and power from both her parents, along with some of her mother's magical powers. As she grew and accepted initiation into the Order itself, her wisdom, strength and mercy gained her acceptance even with the more reactionary of the older knights.
After several extended missions into the Desolation had blooded her, she awoke one night to a tall, softly glowing, winged figure in her small cold cell. Without needing to ask, she knew that this was the mother she had never met, and the pair embraced warmly.
"My daughter," said Umariele softly. "A chance has arisen for you to do our Goddess a service of great merit. Her attention was recently drawn by a mortal, of great presumption, appealing for help in the dark where no other would aid her. Within this mortal, and her companions, was a spark that may one day blossom into true greatness, and Aderra believes that with the right assistance and guidance, this can be brought to be."
"Your task is to aid and guide these wanderers. Shape their spiritual development, and fight at their side, in the name of Aderra."