KALISTA

THE SPEAR OF VENGEANCE

In life, Kalista was a proud general, niece to the king of an empire that none now

recall. She lived by a strict code of honor, serving the throne with utmost loyalty. The

king had many enemies, and when they sent an assassin to slay him, it was Kalista’s

vigilance that averted disaster.

But in saving the king, she damned the one he loved most—the assassin’s deflected

blade was envenomed, and sliced the arm of the queen. The greatest priests and

surgeons were summoned, but none could draw the poison from her body. Wracked

with grief, the king dispatched Kalista in search of a cure, with Hecarim of the Iron

Order taking her place at his side.

Kalista traveled far, consulting learned scholars, hermits and mystics… but to no

avail. Finally, she learned of a place protected from the outside world by shimmering

pale mists, whose inhabitants were rumored to know the secrets of eternal life. She

set sail on one last voyage of hope, to the almost legendary Blessed Isles.

The guardians of the capital city Helia saw the purity of Kalista’s intent, and parted

the mists to allow her safe passage. She begged them to heal the queen, and after

much consideration, the masters of the city agreed. Time was of the essence. While

the queen yet breathed, there was hope for her in the fabled Waters of Life. Kalista

was given a talisman that would allow her to return to Helia unaided, but was warned

against sharing this knowledge with any other.

However, by the time Kalista reached the shores of her homeland, the queen was

already dead.
The king had descended into madness, locking himself in his tower with the queen’s

festering corpse. When he learned of Kalista’s return, he demanded to know what she

had found. With a heavy heart, for she had never before failed him, she admitted that

the cure she had found would be of no use. The king would not believe this, and

condemned Kalista as a traitor to the crown.

It was Hecarim who persuaded her to lead them to the Blessed Isles, where her uncle

could hear the truth of it from the masters themselves. Then, perhaps, he would find

peace—even if only in accepting that the queen was gone, and allowing her to be laid

to rest. Hesitantly, Kalista agreed.

And so the king set out with a flotilla of his fastest ships, and cried out in joy as the

glittering city of Helia was revealed to him. However, they were met by the stern

masters, who would not allow them to pass. Death, they insisted, was final. To cheat

it would be to break the natural order of the world.

The king flew into a fevered rage, and commanded Kalista to slay any who opposed

them. She refused, and called on Hecarim to stand with her… but instead he drove his

spear through her armored back.

The Iron Order joined him in this treachery, piercing Kalista’s body a dozen times

more as she fell. A brutal melee erupted, with those devoted to Kalista fighting

desperately against Hecarim’s knights, but their numbers were too few. As Kalista’s

life faded, and she watched her warriors die, swearing vengeance with her final

breath…

When next Kalista opened her eyes, they were filled with the dark power of unnatural

magic. She had no idea what had transpired, but the city of Helia had been
transformed into a twisted mockery of its former beauty—indeed, the entirety of the

Blessed Isles was now a place of shadow and darkness, filled with howling spirits

trapped for all eternity in the nightmare of undeath.

Though she tried to cling to those fragmented memories of Hecarim’s monstrous

betrayal, they have slowly faded in all the centuries since, and all that now remains is

a thirst for revenge burning in Kalista’s ruined chest. She has become a specter, a

figure of macabre folklore, often invoked by those who have suffered similar

treacheries.

These wretched spirits are subsumed into hers, to pay the ultimate price—becoming

one with the Spear of Vengeance.