Character Profile: Calla Tormond

Spoilers for Calla's backstory, but no spoilers for the major points of her character arc. If you want to go into his character arc completely blind, I suggest skipping this post.

Calla is the disinherited scion of House Tormond, a wealthy Faran family now living among the Faran diaspora in Velantis. She was born in Varthrandir, the capital of Farandor, shortly before the family re-located to Rhesainia to escape the Faran Civil War. Arriving in Velantis sometime after its Imperial annexation, her family settled in the district of Falmar, where their ties with the Arcanists’ Lodge and the Merchants’ Consortium helped them to re-establish their mercantile empire over the following century.

As the fifth child of the house leader, Anvar Tormond, and his second mistress Vartra*, Calla was raised to inherit a portion of the Tormond merchant empire alongside her siblings. Naturally rebellious and fun-loving in nature, Calla pushed against her family’s more traditional ways. The exception was her elder half-sister Cerys, a talented artificer and rising star within the Velantian Arcanists’ Lodge.

*Mistress here is more equivalent to a common-law spouse. Faran dwarves rarely marry since the combination of their long lives (~300 years) and marriage complicates inheritance laws.

Curious about anything that wasn’t family politics or business practices, a young Calla was prone to pranking her parents and siblings, disrupting business meetings, sneaking away from the house, and travelling all over Velantis in pursuit of adventures and secrets. Only Cerys was able to bring her back into the fold. At their father’s behest, Cerys attempted to curb some of Calla’s more rambunctious desires by introducing her to the arts of magical engineering and rune crafting. Calla flourished as Cerys’ apprentice, and eventually used her talents to help Cerys establish her own workshop. The shop was independent from the Tormond family fortune, much to their parents’ indignation.

But Calla would eventually grow bored of Velantis. She set out on her own and joined a crew of rogues and misfits (re: pirates) on a small sloop called Lady Luck. The crew sailed across the Lotharic Sea, seeking treasure, plundering enemies, and uncovering magical mysteries. During her time aboard, she honed her skills and became an expert with many weapons, eventually coming to prefer and a shield and spear. Proving to have a keen ear, she picked up many languages from her travels. While abroad, she was in constant contact with Cerys and described all of her adventures in depth.

But her time with the Lady Luck would not last. Whether it was an accident, a wound during a battle, or something else, Calla lost part of her right arm from the elbow down and the injury resisted all attempts to heal it with magic. Following her injury, she retired from the seas with a sizable fortune and returned to Velantis. To this day she is secretive about the exact circumstances under which she lost her arm.

Tensions ran high with Calla’s return to House Tormond. Her family was less than pleased by her prolonged absence as it showed a lack of concern for House Tormond’s reputation. This was a concern for her mother, Vartra, as she was climbing the ranks within the Velantian government and was seeking to be elected as Falmar’s councillor.

Only Cerys was overjoyed to see Calla returned. Cerys took it upon herself to design a prosthetic for her sister’s missing arm, pouring all of her talent and imagination into it.

In 1237 (fifteen years before the start of the game), Calla stopped by her sister’s workshop for a visit and discovered a grisly scene. Cerys had been murdered, her workshop ransacked and her designs stolen. House Tormond reacted accordingly,

pressuring the city guard to find the one responsible. When the guard’s investigation turned up nothing, House Tormond turned to private investigators. When they found nothing, Anvar chose to discontinue the search.

Calla refused to let her sister’s murderer go and insisted on investigating herself. Defying her family’s wishes, Calla pursued the culprit through every means available, even the less than reputable ones. She suspected that Cerys had been targeted by rivals, either within the Arcanists’ Lodge or the Velantian aristocracy, but she could not prove it. After a decade of searching, Calla could not find the culprit and her relationship with her family was extremely strained. Exhausted with his daughter's inability to let her grief go, Anvar and Vartra disinherited her.

Disowned, Calla relied on the skills she obtained during her days aboard the Lady Luck. She became an accomplished mercenary, making a name for herself as one who could fulfill the most dangerous of contracts. Her notoriety, quick wit, and her in depth knowledge of the aristocracy led Sophia Anaxas, the Archon of Velantis, to hire her for her personal honour guard (a choice that mortified Vartra).

By 1252, Calla had abruptly withdrawn from the post and disappeared. Whispers among the Velantian aristocracy say that she and the Archon were involved romantically and the relationship was the cause of her disappearance. Though her whereabouts are currently unknown, there are rumours that she has appeared in the Undercity fighting grounds.