Natalie was made paladin apprentice along with her sister when their parents were executed on charges of heresy and treason. While her older sibling disbelieved the accusations, Natalie trusted the judgment of the Church. She considered her service in the Order to be a kind of interdiction, clearing their family name and maybe even absolving her parents’ sin in the next world. She committed herself to her training wholeheartedly, rising in esteem despite the vitriol and outright hatred directed at her by peers and superiors who saw only the daughter of traitors. Even during her early training, she earned a reputation for piety, toughness, and effective leadership.

Apprenticeship was not easy for Natalie. Her parents’ shame, not to mention association with her misbehaving older sister, bred condescension and hostility from superiors. Natalie was forced to endure much more than the rest of her cohort, even physical and mental abuse. All the while, she told herself that the Light was testing her, and the moment she became a paladin, later a commander, it would all be proven to have been worth the hardship and sacrifice. Sadly, she was unable to bring Nadia to see things similarly.

When Nadia attempted to “rescue” Natalie from her apprenticeship, such was her commitment to the Order that Natalie did not hesitate to report her sister’s plan to desert. Doing so resulted in the death of a senior paladin and her estrangement from her sister. Natalie believes she did the right thing, but part of her wonders if she was too ready to step over her sister to gain greater respect in the Light’s judgment. She wonders if she could have done more to renew Nadia’s faith, to save her from the fate of their parents. She does her duty now with the motivation to never see another family shattered by the Void’s corruption.