Editing Aranessa Saltspite

{{Topquote|We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch - we are going back from whence we came.|-John F. Kennedy}}
{{Topquote|Fathers, be good to your daughters. You are the god and the weight of her world.|-John Mayor}}
[[File:Saltspite Portrait.jpeg|thumb|right|600px|A spiky viking pirate with crabs, Poseidon for a father, and an army of the undead without being evil (by Warhammer standards anyway).]]
Originating in [[Dreadfleet]], Saltspite is a [[Warhammer Fantasy]] pirate character. Having only come from a boardgame from 2011 she had no place in the actual Warhammer Fantasy game, but still found herself in [[Total War: WARHAMMER]] in 2018. 

[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]] gave her the name "Aranessa Anja Saltspite" in the Dreadfleet Captains expansion from [[Fantasy Flight Games]], although we don't know if Anja is her human surname or something else, and the Dreadfleet novel gave her the nickname "Queen Of Tides". 

==The Legend==
Saltspire almost never speaks beyond orders to her crew, so in-universe there's many theories to who she is ranging from being a mermaid who cut off her own tail to a [[Chaos Mutant]] psychopath to the literal daughter of the god [[Manaan]]. The truth is...all of the above. 

Born to a [[Norsca|Norscan]] chieftain from a group which, strangely for a race of [[Chaos]]-worshipers, killed their mutants rather than see them as blessed like most Chaos vikings or simply leave them for the Beastmen like basically everyone else. Already disappointed to have a daughter rather than a son, the fact his daughter had spines all over her body and a mermaid tail below the knees resulted in her being chucked straight into the ocean without remorse. The story gets even stranger, since despite being a Chaos Mutant the decidedly NOT Chaos god of the seas named Manaan (who may or may not be the [[High Elves (Warhammer Fantasy)|Elf]] god [[Mathlann]] by a human name) spirited her away safely via a school of daggerfish (presumably small swordfish) to a small island cove where three Sea Nymphs lived, who cared for her and raised her on a diet of crab, kelp, and algae until in her youth she began spearfishing for sharks and [[Manticore|Mer-Manticores]]. So yeah, badass. Every day Manaan sent treasure and beautiful shells to her home, either washing ashore or aboard entire empty shipwrecks that drifted to her island. From these shipwrecks she learned much about the life of a sailor and the skills required for land-dwellers to survive on his oceans. Eventually she decided to rejoin her race, but knowing that her mermaid tail was not only a hindrance to a life on the land but also how even among the lowest of the human race having a Chaos mutation was a death sentence, she prepared a pair of replacement legs made from sawfish (a type of shark) skulls then drank enough rum to numb herself, cut off her tail with a cutlass which freed her upper legs, cauterized the stumps, and continued to treat them with saltwater to keep them from infection. She used the belts of captains from her shipwreck gifts to attack the blades from the swordfish skulls to her legs, and after a week of recuperation learned to walk. She used a functional rowboat, another gift from her adopted father, to sail the sea for three days until she was picked up by a pirate vessel called the ''Swordfysh''. She refused to speak and killed any man who tried to touch her, but every day she took duty as the lookout in the crow's nest. For ten years she was a member of the crew, eventually breaking her silence (to swear) and proving herself vicious in battle as well as effective at any role she was assigned. She went from mascot to first mate, becoming captain after the original captain of the Swordfysh was eaten by a Sea Gargoyle (we have no idea what that is, it only exists in this backstory). 
As the commander of the Swordfysh she gained a reputation as one of the greatest pirates who ever lived, earning the nickname "Saltspite". Even her crew was afraid of her and prayed to Manaan to protect them from her, despite never having harmed one of them unless given reason. She flew only Manaan's symbols on her flags, and attacked whoever she came across. Despite having no love for the forces of Chaos she refused the Letters Of Marque offered by [[The Empire]] by opening fire on their ships, refusing to serve any man other than her adoptive father. Eventually she began receiving dreams from Manaan, who wanted the "empire" of [[Count Noctilus]] removed from his domain. Not long after she was approached in a pirate gambling den by an old pirate of [[Sartosa]] named [[Jaego Roth]]. Roth was looking for ships to join him in his pursuit of vengeance against Noctilus, and offered Aranessa the gold and independence she required. After a bottle of fine [[Tilean]] rum she became the first captain to join what would become the Grand Alliance. 

What follows is the events of the game Dreadfleet. In one scenario she is turned into a vampire by Noctilus and every match she has a chance for her willpower to break and switch sides, and in the novel she regrows her fish tail but in a battle with the [[Chaos Dwarf]] ship she wedges it in the escape path of her enemy, who is boiled alive inside and mockingly makes the sign of Manaan (three fingers like a trident) at the ship captain as they all sink and drown together. 

===Total War: WARHAMMER===
Aranessa returned in the Vampire Coast expansion for Total War: WARHAMMER. She still pursues the death of Noctilus, as well as treasure because...well, its fucking treasure and she's a fucking pirate. Although not a vampire herself, she recruited vampires among her crew who in turn bolstered her forces into an armada of her own by raising the dead as zombies thanks to her god-daddy still bringing her presents in the form of corpses washing up against her ship hulls. She still has a living crew however, being the only member of the faction with such. 

Her army is the same as that of [[Zombie Pirates|Luthor Harkon's Zombie Pirates]], only she can take the Sartosa Free Company as her living crew. She's the treasure-hunter Lord, which factors more into the campaign than multiplayer. She herself fights like what was a traditional "blender lord" vampire from the [[Vampire Counts]] army, which is to say that she wants to basically wipe out units of squishies by herself on take on single things that are WAAAAAAAY bigger and stronger than her and utterly destroy them, the weakness being engaging multiple elite troops or character duelists although the fact she buffs nearby ally melee troops can help mitigate this greatly. She also gets to throw nets, and can ride a [[Meme|giant enemy crab]] called a [[Promethean (Warhammer Fantasy|Rotting Promethean]]. Her army itself favors giant crabs as well, is able to do more without getting Fatigue and she herself is entirely immune to it, and her artillery has more ammunition. Not only that but in a faction full of godlike pirates she also is the only one to get a bonus to treasure earned from fighting at sea, so she may in fact be the best pirate in the lot. Her start location sits in Sartosa between [[Tilea]] and [[Estalia]] (Italy and Spain analogues). They also gave some lore behind the trident-like weapon she's seen holding in her only preexisting artwork, seen at the top of the page, calling it "Kraken's Bane" and counting it as a halberd. 

So, why would such an obscure character only present in a failed boardgame project that didn't have enough time to become beloved find her way into a faction she doesn't really have a precedent for belonging in? Well, the lead narrative director for Total War: WARHAMMER is one of the writers of the Dreadfleet lore of course! Not that it stopped the massive speculation and butthurt from some fans as soon as someone spotted a female human behind Harkon in the artwork for the DLC then her impossible to disguise silhouette appeared in the roster before the reveal.

==Crunch==
She never was actually in Warhammer Fantasy, but she appears in fan expansions of the [[Dogs Of War]] army often where she is usually a hybrid character, using magic and magic items showing her favor with Manaan but also having melee prowess and rules that make her a glass cannon; so the Total War team didn't exactly come up with something new with how she herself fights. 

==Gallery==
<gallery>
Image:Total War Saltspite.png|Saltspite in Total War: WARHAMMER. Some have complained that she's ugly, but its important to remember that she's a Norscan mutant, so she should be ugly even among ugly character models (the fact that they didn't have a Citadel mini to base her on may in fact be why she's too pretty).
Image:The Swordfysh.JPG|The Swordfysh. 
Image:Swordfysh.jpg|The Swordfysh model (good luck finding one that isn't broken for a fair price).
</gallery>

[[Category:Warhammer Fantasy]][[Category:Dogs Of War]]