Rosanna McFadden

Rosanna McFadden is a Dullahan, whom hunts supernatural entities throughout the southern territories of Atraca in the name of the Atracan Hunter's Guild. Wanting to try her hand up north, she heads to Grimtham Isle and eventually joins up with Inqusitor Valeria Witlock's group to hunt vampires on the island.

History
Rosanna was born during the early part of the 1800s, in a small gold mining town known as Stonebank. Her mother was from the Republic of Daristein, while her father was a former soldier from the Northern Highlands of Atraca. She was one of three children, the other two being her brothers Mitchel and Charles.

Rosanna's early life was rough. They were a poor family, and gold in the area of Stonebank was already getting hard to find by the time that her parents had arrived there. A month after she turned 16, her father died from tuberculosis. This put the family in a rough spot, as her brothers were turning up nothing in the mines and their mother's health was failing as well. Soon, the three took drastic measures.

The Guild
All three of them joined up with the Atracan Hunter's Guild, which were attempting to curb the influx of monsters and supernatural entities across the southern borders of Atraca. It apparently payed well enough, and the three were certainly in good enough shape to try it out. They signed up, and were soon enough being trained to hunt the various creatures in the area. Sadly, they wouldn't make enough in the first year to get treatment for their mother's illnesses. She died a month before the group were deemed ready enough to hunt on their own.

They sold their home in Stonebank, deciding to move to Skull Creek where the guild's headquarters were with what money they had at the time. They traveled together during their hunts, making sure to watch each other's backs as they snuffed out bloodsuckers and werebeasts that threatened the local folks.

Eventually, the trio would make enough money to begin investing in their own personal lives. Mitchel would eventually quit hunting, starting a family with a woman he had met after saving her parents from a werebear. From then on, it would be Rosanna and Charles doing the hunting, gaining attention for themselves as well as the Guild. Around four months after Rosanna's 31st brithday, things would abruptly come to an end for the pair.

Death and Rebirth
During a hunt for a werewolf in Red Gorge, an area just north of the border with Eshax, Rosanna and Charles were ambushed by the werewolf's pack. Both of them were mercilessly slaughtered by the pack, with Rosanna being beheaded by one of the werewolves while Charles was ripped to pieces. An untimely end for Charles McFadden.

This wasn't the end for Rosanna, though.

That night, when the werewolves had moved on and left what was left of their corpses in the sands of the Gorge, something happened. Rosanna's eyes opened, and she found herself sitting up. Perfectly fine. As she looked herself over, wondering just what had happened, a rough voice spoke to her.

"You met with a terrible fate, young Rose."

She looked up, and saw a man sitting on a black horse, his face obscured by black cloth. Faint green smoke seem to waver off his form, as well as the horse he was riding. She noticed one of his bright green eyes, gleaming through the darkness beneath the brim of his hat. She knew who the man was. A local myth in Southern Atraca, known simply as the Rider.

The Rider explained that her brother was dead, and that he could not be helped. He could, however, help her. He offered her his hand, and carried her on horseback out of Red Gorge. The Rider explained that he knew where the werewolves were staying if she wished to exact vengeance on the creatures. She did, and so he told her. "A mesa with a small wooden shack next to it. Six miles east of here." he said, before handing her one of the revolvers from his holsters. "Use this."

She shook her head, pushing it away. "I have my own, no need." she responded, but he insisted. "Save your shots. Use mine." There was something strange about the revolver as she took it in her hands. It was light. Far lighter than it should have been, and had strange runes engraved in its handle and along the sides of the gun itself.

They didn't talk after that, as they rode the six miles through the badlands till they arrived at the shack. Her horse was there, along with Charles. And the werewolves were inside. Rosanna dismounted, marched straight to the door, kicked it in, and proceeded to slaughter everyone inside with the revolver before they had a chance to change into their beastly forms.

Once she made sure that each of them were dead, she turned back to the Rider and thanked him. "No. Thank you, my herald." he said, as he took his revolver back from her. The Rider disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving Rosanna standing silent in the moonlight.

Rosanna couldn't explain what had happened to her that night to her older brother. All she could say was that Charles died in an ambush and she somehow miraculously survived. Maybe she had suffered from a fever dream? She would only find out later, though, that she didn't.

Dullahan
One day, after Rosanna had finished bathing, she noticed a thin slit across her neck. It was ever so faint. So much so that you really had to look to see it. Had she been cut by one of the werewolves during the fight? As she touched it, a puff of grey smoke seemed to seep out of it.

Such an odd sight! She touched it again, more smoke. She then noticed that the cut seemed to go all the way across her neck. Even around the back. Then, an idea popped into her head as she sat down at a mirror to do her hair. She place her hands on her head on both sides, and proceeded to try and lift her head up. The result shocked her. Her head came off entirely, and grey smoke poured from a black hole in her neck. Her eyes also turned from their bright emerald green to a complete utter blackness.

She was still fully aware, able to see and move completely separate from her body. She could even move her body with her head disconnected. The shock slowly turned to amazement, then the realization as to what she actually was. She was dead, and had been revived as a Dullahan.

Had the Rider done this to her? Given her a second chance at life, but in the form of a supernatural entity? The very thing she and her brothers hunted? She put her head back on, watching the smoke disappear and her eyes turn back normal. She'd have to tell Michel what had happened. It was only right.

And so she did. It was difficult for her brother to accept, at first being utterly fearful of his sister's new form, but eventually he came to understand. The others in the guild took a bit longer to accept what she had been turned into, but eventually things returned to how they were before. Well, mostly anyway. Rosanna had to be paid in silver or paper money now instead of gold, and she was given tasks that would likely kill most hunters in the guild. She didn't mind. Things were far more exciting now, and she didn't have to worry about dying.

She often got offers afterwards from the sheriffs and marshals of Southern Atraca, wanting her to sign up for typical law enforcement. A Dullahan would be pretty unstoppable should they start hunting criminals. Every time she was asked, though, she declined outright. She'd only hunt monsters and the supernatural. She didn't want to turn into one of the darker Dullahans. The ones that mindlessly roamed the land, slaughtering everyone they encountered.

Years passed, her brother died, and eventually her nephew and grand nephew would grow up to join the guild. Though the creatures of Southern Atraca had been thinned out enough that they had to get second jobs. Meanwhile, Rosanna considered finding a different area to hunt in. Northern Atraca sounded nice, and she figured a bit of cold weather never hurt. So in late 1877, she departed for the deep north. Grimtham Isle, a wild territory. Maybe she'd get her kicks there?

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