Esmerelpha Vaher

Esmerelpha Locusta Vaher (Born 2nd November 1950) is a local witch, archaeologist and the mother of Aleera and Elphaba Vaher. She is most well known for her discovery of "Aula de Magna Mysteria" and her appearance on the reality TV show "Just who do you think you are?" hers being the only episode where the family could not be found. In 2011 she was arrested and imprisoned for the murder of local teen Loren Braveheart, but was acquitted in November 2014 when Loren returned.

It was later revealed that she was framed by her daughter Elphaba Vaher.

Early Life
Esmerelpha Locusta Vaher was born 2nd November 1950 in the graveyard of St. Aleera in the Fields, Pleatherwood TransylVaheria, to an unknown mother and father. She was left on the steps of the church with a note asking the priests to drown the baby. In a rare stroke of luck they chose not to, and named the child Esmerelpha after the patron saint of unwanted pregnancies, and underneath whose window she was found.

Vaher lived with the priests until she was 16, when a fire forced her to move to the church's parent organisation - St. Medhue's Cathedral in the capital city of Vaheria, Lindon. Vaher enjoyed her time at the Cathedral, developing a keen interest in history which she nurtured by exploring the catacombs beneath the crypt. She began her working life here in the library, helping to organise the many historical volumes. In 1968 when she was 18, Vaher was credited with the rediscovery of the Cathedral's vault, which earned her the offer of a history scholarship abroad at the Bitalian Institute of Thinking Coexisting and Hubris.

Time at B.I.T.C.H
Vaher found herself surrounded by fashionable young people, experimenting with everything and anything, and also a lot of history while studying at the Bitalian Institute of Thinking Coexisting and Hubris. In recent years she noted this is where her love of fashion comes from. Finding it difficult to make friends at the snobby school, Vaher buried herself in her research. She graduated in 1974 with a First in Ancient History, writing her thesis on the similarities and differences between Ancient Ageyptian sculpture and those in Ancient Gris.

Vaher returned to Lindon after graduating to begin her first professional job as an archivist at St. Medhue's Cathedral, and began the work of cataloging the many items she had found years earlier in the Vault. It was at this time she began dabbling in witchcraft after reading about it in a book.

Career
After finishing at the Cathedral in 1977, Vaher applied for a job with the drag queen/archaeologist/adventurer/explorer Dianna Jones (whose great grandfather rediscovered Mecanopolis) and began an unsuccessful expedition to find the Phabian Disc. Upon discovering the lost gold of Pirate Captain Hermando Cortezone in 1979, the two fell out after arguing over who would use the gold to pay off their student debt. Jones accused Vaher of slapping her around the face before running off with pocketfuls of gold fuggers and leaving Jones to be eaten by cannibals, a claim Vaher denied at the time.

After the end of their friendship Vaher returned to Lindon and, needing a project, created the Coven of Locusta with the aim of enhancing her occult prowess. At this time Vaher legally added the middle name Locusta to hers. The coven was disbanded on 13th April after many of the members were arrested for stealing artifacts from the Vault of Vaheria.

Personal Life
Vaher emigrated to Willoughby Spit, Louyssiana on 1st May 1981. It was around this time that she met her future husband, Eric Vasari in the local grocery store. The pair were married on 27th June 1981 in the parish church and honeymooned passersby on the freeway. Vaher gave birth to a daughter, Aleera Vasari on 31st October 1986. Similarly to her mother, Aleera was blessed with the innate gift of magic and made local headlines when she was born, levitating out of her mothers arms repeatedly. Control your child?

The family made local headlines again later in the year when a group of anti-magic religious protestors graffitied their garage and refused to keep off the grass. In return Vaher turned the sprinklers on and turned the water to ice. Three people were taken to hospital with frostbite.

In 1989 Vaher gave birth to a second daughter, Elpha Vasari who was unable to manifest any magical power.

Family Life
In 2000 Vaher had her daughter Elpha sent to the Barkley Institute for electroshock therapy, to try and jump-start her magical power. Incarcerated for over a year when she was released with no visible improvement Vaher and husband Eric were told she would never cast a spell on her own again, and she was given a magical crutch - a wand.

After persistent persecution from the neighbours in 2003 the Vasari family finally moved to the nearby city of Fugmoor (Vaher is still quick to remind others her family is Vaherian, and that she does not "belong with you people (i.e. Fugmorons)"). Eric Vasari took a job at the Novo Nuclear Power Plant, helping to restart the company after the recent Churnibble disaster. With both children still attending school in Willoughby Spit, Vaher took a job in the local museum part time. When the children were older she began working there full time as Museum Collections Coordinator.

In 2004 Vaher's family life began to break down when her daughter Aleera left home for the Other World to work for the Goddess of Love. Vaher's drinking problems began around this time. In July 2004 Vaher was divorced by her husband after claims he had been bewitched with a daily dosage of love potion, and had been married against his will. Vasari renounced the family and disowned his two children, claiming he never truly loved them. Vasari claimed Vaher controlled her family with her abuse of magics, and said he was "forced to stay because of the fakeness induced by those constant potions."

Vasari took Vaher to court in August 2004 where she was charged with essential kidnap and brainwashing. Vaher claimed she was deliberately building his immune system against future potions. The court disagreed, she was found guilty and charged with her family's forfeiture of Vasari's name as punishment. Vasari left the family home, the country shortly after and has not been seen since.

At the end of the school year in 2004 it was decided Vaher's daughter Elpha was to be transferred to local school Fugmoor High after repeated incidents of antisocial behaviour.

Recent Years
In September 2004 Vaher temporarily left her job as Museum Collections Coordinator and resumed her role as an archaeologist, journeying to Orfanistan to lead an expedition with her old friend Dianna Jones. The expedition was a great success snagging Vaher a variety of artifacts and trinkets, many of which were donated to the Museum. The two remained friends this time.

In 2007 Vaher appeared on the popular television program "Just Who Do You Think You Are?" in one of the show's most unsuccessful episodes ever. The Fug TV network received a multitude of complaints about content brought to light in the episode such as: Vaher's obsessive thirst for knowledge, her alcoholism and her borderline abusive relationship with her daughter. The episode is the only one in the series' history to be unable to find the requested family.

Personal Issues
Vaher has been noted by others as a drunk, a bit of a loner, an unstable, jealous control freak, and an abusive mother towards her daughter Elphaba, whom she frequently ridicules in public. Close friends said they did not approve of the way she bullied her youngest daughter with her magic as (at the time) Elpha (as she was then known) already had the disability of having to use a wand to cast even the most basic of spells.

Relationship with Elphaba Vaher
Vaher and her daughter have not seen eye to eye for years as one is taller than the other. Family friends have stated Vaher is disappointed in her daughter as she has no magical talent, did not go to university and is wasting her life by remaining friends with "the wrong sort of people". Vaher has openly stated she does not approve of her daughter's clique of outcasts.

During a drunken argument one evening in 2008, Vaher broke a bottle over Elphaba's head before passing out. This bottle contained a genie who when freed, granted Elphaba her one wish - for enough innate potentia to cast any spell.

This incident further increased the animosity between the two after a public row escalated into a magical fight in the A1 Shopping Mall where Vaher was shocked to find Elphaba competently using magic without the aid of her wand. Vaher was tinged green with envy and was outraged as the bottle she had broken was one from her recent trip to the Sokharian Desert in Orfanistan.

When questioned by an anonymous caller suspected to be her mother on a radio show in 2013, Elphaba said she felt her mother was jealous of her youth and beauty, to which the caller screamed down the phone and aggressively hung up.

Friends of Elphaba have said she blames her mother for the death of her beloved Olly Novo. It was later revealed in a court hearing that Vaher was indirectly responsible for his death, accidentally causing the explosion that killed him.

Murder of Loren Braveheart
In December 2011 two months after her disappearance, video footage showing Vaher immolating Loren Braveheart with a fireball was anonymously left for the FPD. Vaher was arrested and imprisoned. Her trial was something of a cause célèbre, at which the jury unanimously found her guilty.

Vaher shot to infamy due to the massive press coverage of the event, as Braveheart was the daughter of Mayoral candidate Lorraine Braveheart. The future Mayor attended the trial every day, dressed all in black and weeping uncontrollably. Also in attendance was recently bereaved daughter Elphaba Vaher, who cheered "YAS! CHRISTMAS IN PRISON BITCH!" when the verdict was passed, and was seen gleefully waving bye-bye as her mother was led away from the dock.

Vaher was sentenced to life imprisonment and was incarcerated at Fugmoor State Penitentiary Prison.

Return of Loren Braveheart
In November 2014 Loren Braveheart was returned to her mother alive and well, it transpired that Vaher had immolated a glamour of Loren, who was working with Elphaba Vaher to test a dimensional travel spell and had already gone away with the fairies. Literally. Loren hadn't aged a day and was convinced she had only been gone one week instead of over three years.

Vaher was later released from jail when the court decided she hadn't actually murdered anyone.

Current Whereabouts
Vaher is currently living on Penthouse Place in downtown Fugmoor and has attempted contacting her daughter as a means of reaching out. Elphaba Vaher has reportedly refused all contact.