Trista Vale

Trista Vale is a vanquisher who traveled to the mountain town of Torchlight to investigate the events that had bee occurring there involving monsters attacking the town of Torchlight. This led to her allying with both the ember sage Syl and the mercenary Brink in attempting to locate her master, Alric. This alliance also put her into direct alignment of two others — the ember alchemist Milton Trannerisk, and the spirit guard H'tarvius of the Order of Strongth.

Early life
Trista was born in an unknown town and was quickly recruited in her youth into the clandestine Vanquishers Guild, a group of assassins trained from a young age and sent to subdue evil, wherever it may rear its ugly head. Trista became skilled with the bow, and almost as skilled with firearms. She also understood how some traps worked, although she only would use those devices that she considered useful, which left her tossing most traps aside in lieu of just shooting her opponents.

Saving Torchlight
When Torchlight was attacked by Shade and a group of Ratkin, Trista had been investigating the town's cemetery, feeling a presence there that had distracted her from the real path destiny had set forth before her. She thought she heard sounds emanating from within the crypt, but before she could investigate these noises she heard shouting in town and rushed to the aid of its wealthy civilians. She came upon three would-be adventurers all battling against the horde of ember-corrupted monsters: the ember seer Syl, the mercenary Brink, and the burly spirit guard H'tarvius. She showed herself to be a welcome addition to the makeshift team and before long, the alchemist Trannerisk also showed up on the scene to help mop up what monsters were left. Syl's force field lasted just long enough to protect the group from the attacks of a mysterious creature, who seemed to be leading the group. Realizing its forces were defeated, this creature turned tail and fled, and Brink gave chase. Although Syl was seriously weakened by her defensive shield magic, the other three were still able to follow into the tunnels below.

Brink was quickly found and Trista realized that she had an immediate infatuation for the man. Not only did she think him to be handsome in his own way but she found his ineptitude in battle charming. She discovered that Brink and Syl were looking for Syl's master, an older man named Alric, who had disappeared weeks prior.

When they came across Alric only a few levels deeper into the Ordon Mines, he forcibly corrupted Brink into an ember monstrosity. She was greatly disappointed to see what she had hoped might become a friendship or something more with the man but her training as a Vanquisher quickly switched her brain to work mode and she participated in putting the Corrupted Brink down. She vowed to stop Alric at all costs.

She was there to watch as Alric sacrificed his own life to awaken the great dragon, Ordrak, who controlled the corrupted ember veins. Along with Trannerisk and H'tarvius, the three fought the giant, six-legged monstrosity as it summoned hundreds of its kin and enervated undead to its aid. In the end however none of this would matter, and Ordrak fell before the trio.

Trista was very proud of the work that she did in preventing the evil beneath Torchlight from escaping that day, but the effort it took in doing so left her deciding that she deserved a promotion from the Vanquishers Guild. She decided that the king of the realm would hear of her exploits this time, despite her order being clandestine in nature. Although she wanted to return home following the harrowing journey, she realized that treasures untold must still exist within the depths. It was then that she noticed her friend Milton's attitude seemed... off. This troubled her beyond any reasoning and an air of unease swept over her and kept her from leaving the mining town. She couldn't shake the idea that darkness may soon still descend upon its people, and she wanted to be prepared to meet it head on...

After Torchlight
Trista stayed in Torchlight for some months following the death of Ordrak. Cured of the Ember Blight, both she and H'tarvius noticed a change in Trannerisk's personality, but neither of them wanted to say anything. Trista hoped she was wrong about his darkening personality but left to gather the Vanquisher forces. During this time she was promoted to the rank of Commander and sent a squadron of Vanquisher guards to help in the continuation of clearing out the tunnels of the Ordon Mines, the Shadow Vault, and beyond.

She had not yet returned when Milton emerged from the dungeons, having spent time in the Black Palace crafting himself new armor and socketing a staff he had constructed with Ordrak's Heart itself. He attacked the town of Torchlight, much to H'tarvius and Syl's horror, but their combined might was not able to stop him. Injured, H'tarvius sent a recent guard recruit named Veshik to send the message to Trista of their friend Trannerisk's betrayal.

Unfortunately for her, Trannerisk was far faster than Veshik could have imagined and found her within the Wellspring Approach, where she had been communing with the area's water guardian. Surprised and unprepared by Trannerisk's arrival, her entourage were slain by the corrupted Sturmbeorns and she was incapacitated. Trannerisk however did not consider himself an evil man, and insisted that he was only trying to still cure his own blight by seeking to destroy the world's ember in its entirety. Instead of killing her he simply left her tied up, out of range of the Sturmbeorns that considered him their master. It wouldn't be long however before she was rescued by a small group of adventurers — Veshik the Outlander and three others.