Millennia ago, the Aesir and the Vanir went to war over Odin's desire to unite their people. In desperation, the Vanir's leader turned to the eldest fire demon, Surtur of Muspelheim, for aid and he granted it. They got more than they bargained for however. For Surtur indeed magically inspired the Vanir troops and empowered them to fight more fiercely against the Aesir, but he also took a personal hand in the war in choosing to slip amidst each peoples' homelands in disguise to manipulate how the war would play out to his advantage. One such disguise he took was to take the place of Halogi, a storm giant and god of flame that was allied with the Vanir as a military advisor, using him to spy upon the Vanir battle plans and adjust them accordingly. Surtur failed to account for fact that Halogi was married to Glod the Glowing, a minor Vanir goddess of shining light and magic, and a seidr veleda (seeress) of some capability.
Indeed, she came upon her 'husband' and felt some stirring of trouble in the skein of fate, or perhaps some hint of the illusion transforming the elder fire demon. Whatever it was, Surtur recognized her reaction in time to try and distract it from its course, and did so by virtue of grabbing his 'wife' up and passionately taking her to bed. He knew instantly that he had begat a child upon her in that night, and at first contemplated killing her rather than letting a disgusting half-breed of his blood live. But then he came to a plan. A wicked, long-game plan that could make use of that child. And so was the girl known as Eisa Surtursdottir, Eisa the Demon Ember, and Eisa Halfborn brought into the world at war.
She was every bit the half-breed her father feared she would be, eyes glowing gold, skin red-black and flames flicking off her head in place of hair, tiny little horns on her brow and a tail off her rump twisting with her yowls. By Vanir standards, she was somewhat monstrous albeit well formed but for the odd bits. By fire demon standards, even though she overall would grow to be a beautiful woman in human or Asgardian standards, she was absolutely hideous, but Surtur needed effective, not demonically pretty. Glod received a vision in the moments before the birth that led to her dismissing the midwife and tending to it herself, so that only she was witness to what her daughter was, and she knew it for its source. Still, it was _her_ child and a mother's love knows no bounds. Besides, she felt like the vision had hints of something in store for the child in distant future. Something great or something horrible she couldn't say, but she didn't question it as she'd made her choice the instant she held her. Eisa she was named. Meaning Glowing Embers.
And with that naming, Glod wrapped her child in the most potent illusion and veiling she could enact, hiding away that demonic nature from even the child itself, let alone all others who would see her. Suddenly she was simply a baby born of Vanir and Storm Giant, still half-blood, but not the darkness of the eldest demon's spawn. Eisa grew up oblivious, happy once the dark days of the Aesir/Vanir War was ended with the marriage of Odin and Freyja. Halogi was entrusted to Odin's court as a military adviser, moving his family to Asgard with the unification of the people, and by all appearances, Surtur was left without benefit from the war beyond the payment rendered for his aid. The truth was though, he now had the perfect spy in place to grow in the court of his enemy.
What is it like living the LONG childhood of the Vanir or Aesir without ever once suspecting you aren't what you thought you were? Eisa thought Halogi was her father. Thought her early affinity for fire magic came from him, enough to earn her apprenticeship amongst the sorcerers of Asgard. She was a beautiful young woman, blazing red of hair like her supposed father, but with Vanir beauty, just like her later sister Eimyrja. But however powerful Glod's illusions, however careful her divinatory preparations, still it was inevitable that the truth would be outted, especially as Surtur quietly set about ensuring just that. It came by nightmares that struck Eisa. Of fire burning inside of her, bursting free uncontrolled, of feeling it burst over her skin without pain, bathing her in its wondrous glow of destruction, her horns glowing fore with the heat, her tail elegant flaming sweep behind. And when she awoke, it was to a room of ashes and flame, and the reality staring at her in the mirror, no nightmare indeed.
Glod covered up the destruction, but had to tell Eisa the truth after that, and it ultimately drove the girl into full rebellion, fleeing her mother's lies, right into the waiting arms of her father in disguise. He led her back to Muspelheim, playing on her fury as much as on her awe that he was her father, preying on her belief in the lies he told her that he'd come to claim his child on sensing her magic awaken. A father's love and loyalty. It was all a lie of course. He was disgusted by her, but he had a use, and that use required her control. She didn't know it for millennia, but in that trip to her father's realm, a spell was lain upon her. A subtle, soul-deep, evil spell of compelling. A control leash put about her neck for him to lead her about, believing always it was of her own free will. And so it was using that leash, that he led her to agree to return to Asgard, and to do so as his spy.
For over one thousand of Midgard years, Eisa Halogisdottir acted the part of perfect up and coming war sorceress. A rare breed of seidr meant for battle rather than tending, protection, or divination. She earned respect for her growing magic as much as for her willingness to go forth in adventure with other warriors of the court, earning many friendships, some even highly placed. And all the while, she was honing her spycraft at her father's direction, feeding him information enciphered and directed through various mystical means to his realm. Betraying the very people she had come to consider friends and family. All justified as a daughter's love for father and hatred of those who would oppose him.
After many adventures, and much study at the feet of some of the greatest sorcerers of the realms, it was actually something of a stupid fluke of fake that revealed Eisa to be a spy for Muspelheim. A lover at the time who happened upon her at just the wrong moment and overheard the wrong thing. And in a moment of weakness, she couldn't bring herself to silence the witness due to her feelings outweighing the compulsion. And so they escaped to warn the others. By the time the guards and warriors of the court came for her, Eisa had abandoned the life she'd come to love in order to rip a rift to Muspelheim and escape to her father's realm.
After that, she became his right hand. Facing off against the Asgardians, leading hordes of her brethren Fire Demons in surgical assaults meant to get access to some powerful artifact that Surtur had deduced the hiding place of from her spying before. And when the attempts failed and resulted in Odin locking her father away under Midgard, she continued on in his absence, loyally seeking ways to bring him back. She was a terror for the Asgardians in those intervening years. Called Eisa the Firestorm by some, Eisa the Demon Ember by others, Eisa Halfborn by those trying to dismiss her. The trouble she caused and the lives she took were grim stories to later haunt her.
She freed him at times, or he freed himself, and the conflict would go on, but always Surtur and his armies were defeated, and then the most telling blow was struck nine centuries ago when Eisa was amidst a battle that went wrong beyond measure, ending with her nearly dead and captive of the Asgardians. Odin himself came to her cell to look on her with his one eye full of fury. But as he looked deeper, he saw what no one else had seen in her. That power threading her soul with her father's leash. A power that Odin All-Father chose to break, releasing her from slavery and to the realization of all she'd done.
The guilt of it all nearly destroyed her. She was left nearly catatonic with it, kept alive at Odin's behest, but imprisoned still. Magic or no magic, she had done the things she did, and justice (and his nobles) called for her punishment (in form of her detached head mostly). When finally she stirred from the state those years of darkness had left her, it was indeed to beg that very death the Asgardian nobles wished for her. Odin asked her what she would do with her life if she were able to erase all the dark deeds she'd done as if they'd never happened.
Even knowing it wasn't possible, a brief flicker of hope arose in her that somehow Odin had such a power as to grant that somehow. And with that hope arose a homesickness that left her sould bleeding with the sweet pain of it. Not for the home of Vannaheim she'd been born to, but the home of Asgard she'd made her own. And so the tearful words escaped her, ringing with simple purity of truth. "I would returneth to mine home and mine friends and the glorious service of the All-Father, to fight against all that would threaten it, the demon that spawned me most of all."
Odin apparently appreciated some part of that answer, or else knew what punishment would strike at her far deeper than release of death, she's never decided which. Instead of calling for her head, he decreed with the Odinforce that she would be banished from Asgard until such a time as the decree was unwritten, never to set foot on that realm again it seemed. She was in exile, but with more than she deserved. Her magic still, her life, and the freedom still to travel the eight realms remaining to her. Indeed, she even could have returned to service of her father, though Odin knew somehow she wouldn't take that route now that she knew what he'd done. She was free to try and find redemption.
In the intervening centuries since that exile, she's travelled through each of the realms, even braving Muspelheim and the ire of her demonic brethren once or twice on mad adventures aiding others to go there. Midgard though has become her home in lieu of true home. The vitality and enthusiasm of the short-lived humans somehow gives her hope that some day she'll earn her way back. Even through the darkest years of Earth's history (undoubtably her time fighting for the Allies during World War II), she still has held to that hope and simply done what she could to do good. Sometimes that has been acting as a code-breaker and linguist, sometimes as a superhero bringing something more positive to the name of Firestorm. And sometimes, the times she cherished most, it has been having opportunity to aid her fellow Asgardians in some way, especially when that has been thwarting the escapes or convoluted plans of her father.%r%rHer divining has indicated another of those opportunities may be coming for her soon. Of others of her home returning to Midgard for various reasons, but with potentials of something great or something horrid to come about because of that. She's hoping to help fate's coin fall with the great side up, but should the horrid come…well she's got more experience with that anyways, so at least it will be familiar. And besides, there's always still hope.
