Artwork by  sparksstars

Born the third child and only daughter to a humble farming family, Vasilia was often seen as the “precious child” of the lot. Her older brothers helped with most of the heavy work while Vasilia helped her mother with menial tasks like cooking, tending the animals, etc. But the Zastrow children all had their own senses of ambition. While Vasilia wanted to show she was as capable as her brothers, the two of them were aiming for a higher, richer life outside the farmstead.

Over the years, in secret from their parents, Vasilia’s brothers had worked their way into a local gang that paid five times as much as anything earnings the farm made. They continued to provide for their family while keeping all oblivious to where the money came from. This raised Vasilia’s suspicions enough to follow and discover for herself their secret criminal lives. In exchange for not spilling the beans, Vasilia’s brothers agreed to teach her how to fight; even with a knife. She proved as fast learner, wanting to know more after every lesson. The brothers resorted to smuggling her books to read on all manner of subjects to keep her mind occupied; including language books and history texts. The secret among the Zastrow children remained so until some years later when Vasilia was only fourteen years old.

The gang her brothers had been members of had flown too close to the sun, gaining the ire of a powerful crime lord, Mikhail Vanko, who saw fit to break down the group into nothing but ashes. An ensuing firefight saw the deaths of most members, including one of Vasilia’s brothers. The other survived but was crippled beyond repair. Yet that was not the end of Vanko’s punishment, as he sentenced the entire Zastrow family to imprisonment for the crimes of their son.

Vasilia and her family were tossed into one of the worst prisons in Russia: The Frozen Trench. The complex was a built from the remains of defunct soviet war fort, sitting in one of the coldest regions in Asia. The prison was commanded by a warden who called himself “Perun”, after the Slavic god of thunder; earning this name thanks to the electric-shock gloves he wore and used to torture and beat inmates who caused him too much trouble. The Frozen trench felt like hell on Earth, and indeed, for Vasilia and her family, it might as well have been. When not being beaten or threatened by other inmates, the guards were all too happy to see them suffer for their own amusements.

Within two years of living in the hellish prison, Vasilia saw each of her remaining family die; her brother succumbing to a sickness, her father dying via another prisoner, and her mother committing suicide in her cell. Alone, Vasilia felt she would not live much longer. But she had caught the attention of a few other inmates who took pity on her, including an older man named “Volos”. He and his small band had been some of the oldest prisoners, Volos revealing he was Perun’s brother before he became mad with power. Through their tutelage and protection, Vasilia was able to survive while growing stronger in the prison. Even when she was tossed into solitary confinement for killing a prisoner to tried to corner her-biting his throat out with her teeth-they provided extra food and reading material for her to help. Vasilia came to see Volos and his men like another family, one that helped shape her into what she needed to be to survive.

A decade later, Vasilia had gained a great reputation in the Trench. She had grown taller, stronger and more vicious than any other. And over that time, she had come to learn more about the prison’s structure and hidden flaws. She had Volos finally made a plan.

On the anniversary of her incarceration, Vasilia challenged Perun to a fight. Amused, the warden agreed, fighting her in the center of the prison for all to see. Despite her strength, she was undermined by the use of Perun’s shock gloves. But this, as it happened, was all a distraction for Volos and his men to carefully undermine the prison’s security. By the end, when Perun seemed to have beaten Vasilia and was ready to kill her as a “mercy”, a riot was sprung. In the ensuing chaos, almost all the guards were killed or captured while Vasilia managed to gain a surprising upper hand on the warden. She killed him with her bare claws, claiming his electro gloves as a prize, and stood triumphant with the other freed prisoners of the Trench. They dubbed her “Morana”, after the Slavic goddess of the underworld and of rebirth, for she felt indeed reborn out of the blood spilled that day.

With a small army at her back, Vasilia’s first plan was to return home and deal with Mikhail Vanko. After killing him in cold blood by using the gloves to electrocute him to death, she gave his men a chance to join her or die the same way. None objected, increasing her newfound power and financial gain exceptionally. “Morana” had now become a new frightening figure in the regions of Russia, slowly spreading her influence further out to the world.

Now, as an infamous mercenary, Vasilia continues to dispense her own brand of justice and power throughout the underworld and beyond. In recent years, she has gained notice by many higher profile assassins; including Mako Serizawa. The cat assassin has offered a partnership with Vasilia, something the tiger has kept under consideration.