Valravn
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Contents
In Her Own Words
It was just an eye. No one wanted it. The All-Father had gouged it out to drink from Mimir's well. It was just sitting in the well, and while Mimir forbade any from drinking from the fountain, he had said nothing about the eye. Do not judge, the winter was bitter cold enough so that even the beserks would not fight. Food was scarse, and I drank nary a drop of the prescious fountain as I plucked the delicious orb out. Such a rich meal made me sleepy, and I awoke as this, only able to be a normal form for brief moments and when I roosted. Mimir could have warned me, and maybe I would have warned him his severed head would come to counsel to the All Father until Ragnorok. Maybe.
The All Father asked, and I confessed. Of course he was furious. I could tell by how calmly he asked his questions. I confessed, for he could see all, and there was no way brother Munin or Hugin would keep a secret like that.
After I confessed the All Father said little else to me until he locked me away with the rebellious Valkyrja. No one to keep company save the Valkyrja. But most of them turned to stone, discarded like the eye. In time there was only one, and I kept her enraged so she wouldn't sit and turn to stone like the others. I would have become stone too, if it hadn't been for my raven brothers and sisters outside. I had stolen the charm for my release and I begged them to carve it into the stones around the barrow, and they did, telling me stories of the world outside. It must have taken centuries, and in time, even they forgot me and the Valkyja locked away.
But the charm was spoken, but a man about to be devoured by demons of blood -- you call them vampires. Valkyja didn't want to help them, but I told her the vampires would fight bravely, and we should help the man released us. Only the first was a lie. The vampires tried to flee, but they were new to the tunnels of the barrow, and they were pushed back into the darkness.
UNTIL INTELLIGENCE ASSESSMENT
Powers and Abilities
Valravn is very closely connected with her Raven heritage. She has achieved mach 1 speeds for very short periods of time. She possesses superhuman reflexes and agility. She has lifted balanced weights of up to two tons. Her skin and muscle are denser than human, indicative of her strength and speed. While she should solid engineering reason she should fly, she is able to and has flown herself across the United States. She also heals from injury at a surprising rate. Valravn has a high level of endurance at normal exertion, though her bursts of super speed can exhaust her.
Valravn also is able to communicate with corvids -- bird such as ravens and crows. Her ability to connect with a single bird seems to extend to a mile, she claims ravens gossip, and in time, she can get messages to anywhere there is a corvid. They also seem to serve as an informational network for Valravn, and she has located people and things around Millennium City using her 'network'. She can call large numbers of crows and ravens, but this seems to be out of a social need and not as some sort of tactic.
Valravn asserts that she is a raven transformed into a person, and not the other way around, and that her form is a product of eating Odin's eye. She can periodically change into raven form, at which its conjectured her armor and weapons are shifted into a pocket space until she shifts back. The longest periods she remains in raven form is when she is roosting. Valravn also seems to have a keen sense of smell that is particularly sensitive to meat, again similar to ravens and crows.
Valravn is a master class swordsman, and uses her enhanced speed and agility to great effect. She is a skilled hand to hand combatant.
Current Situation
Valravn is a member of the Urban Legends. She lives at UNTIL HQ, being assigned a small room for storage and access to base facilities. She mostly roosts on the roof in raven form.
History
Valravn was discovered with Valkyrja after frantic call from an emergency satellite phone from a camping group in Norway saying they'd been attacked by vampires and rescued by Norse-speaking demons. The Vampires had been stalking the vampires for several days and ambushed them in an area the locals called Raven's Mound. When an UNTIL investigative team arrived with a combat support team from the Oslo field station, two of the campers were dead, and the rest in shock from witnessing the slaughter of their friends and the subsequent massacre by the demons. One of the campers, Hed Berdahl, claimed to have recited a charm he found cared on a stone and released Valravn and Valkyrj but was unable to communicate or control them any further.
After a call to Oslo allowed for translation from Old Norse, the team learned that the Raven's Mound had been previously named Raven's Tomb and was, according to Valravn, a prison in which the All Father had put Valkyrja who wouldn't submit to being transformed into beautiful shield maidens. Initially, there had been up to a dozen more Valkyrja, but over the thousands of years of imprisonment, they had turned to stone, and while Valkyrja was eager to engage Odin anew, Valravn was eager to leave. Unsure her claims, but eager to calm them, Field Director Ulrich granted them political asylum and they were immediately flown to Millennium City.
Valravn has adjusted well to life in Millennium City, but initially spent more time with corvids than people. She learned English quickly and bits of other languages, and has offered her services as an affiliate hero to UNTIL.
