She was born Katherine Smythe, aka Kitty, outside Liverpool, in 1425, when it was little more then a bare hamlet along the Mercyside River.  The village Diana was born in is no longer there, long forgotten by the events of history.  Even the name has been forgotten, except by those who keep such records.
 Even the records of what happen to the village have been forgotten by time.

 What did happen is, however, a tragedy that would have repercussions for centuries to come.  The small village was out of the way, and kept to itself.  The inhabitants lived peacefully with each other.  What was unusual about the village was that it as made up of vampires, were wolves and humans, who lived in relative harmony.  Each looking out for and protecting the other.  To the outside world, it was just another village trying to survive off the river and surrounding land.

 Why the hunters chose the village, or how they even found the village is another secret lost to history.   However, what is known is that on a hot August night, they did find the village, and they came for it.  When they discovered what the occupants of the village, they attacked.

 The battle lasted all day, into the night, and into the next morning.  When it was over, the last of the hunters died a grizzly death, his throat ripped out by a very pissed off werewolf.

 Diana was eight years old at the time.  She watched her father, a vampire, be ripped apart, and burn in the rising sun.  His screams would haunt her dreams for centuries to come.  Her mother, a low level sorceress, would go on to become one of the most powerful and feared in the world.  Her anger at hunters and their kind would stem from that night.

 her mother would delve deeper and deeper into dark and black magic.  She would search out magic that elongated life, casting spells on both herself and her daughter.  By 1500, her question in that part was complete.  The aging rate had been slowed down so much that it appeared that neither one of them aged.

 At puberty, Diana's vampire traits would begin to present themselves.  At first it was simple, like a craving for meat cooked bloody rare.  However, by 15, the thirst was beginning.  Her mother used some spells to hold it off, however, it was growing in desire.

 In 1446 she would leave on her own.  Two years later, shw was discovered by Victor Von Helsing a well known professor who was travelling around Europe.  In actuality, he was one of the foremost vampire hunters in the world.  In 250 years a distant relative of his would have a very famous encounter with count Dracula.

 Kitty had been feeding on a corpse, a homeless person, in an ally, when Von Helsing encountered her.  He was thinking of staking her, but noticed two things.  First, that she was feeding during daylight, and second was that the body was already dead.  It was then that he figured out that she was a Damphir, a half vampire.  Though rare, they did exist.

 Von Helsing was in his early 40s, when he found Diana.  The two formed a bond, as he was the first person she had met who really understood what she was going through.  Although, him being a hunter would cause a rift between the two.  She was still angry that they had murdered friends and family, and Von Helsing had a hard time understanding why.  To him, she had been living with monsters.  And those monsters were to be destroyed.  Never mind the fact that they all lived in harmony.  He tended to see some things in black and white and that was that.  There was no grey.

 For a decade Diana was educated about creatures of the night.  It wasn't until 1460 that she fought her first vampire.  She easily killed the thing, as it had only recently been turned.  Victor would educate her about everything supernatural, including herself.  He explained that while she had the thirst, she could control it, and that she should never consume human blood.  When the thirst became overwhelming she would disappear for a day, and drink animal blood.

 The two would travel across Europe, Von Helsing using the disguise of a travelling professor, and Diana as his assistant / Daughter.  She would learned to hunt supernatural creatures, although, in the back of her mind it felt strange to kill vampires.  Like she was killing family members.

 Their relationship would come to an end in 1485.  Von Helsing was 85, and still going strong.  They encountered a master vampire, and he would wind up killing Victor.  Diana would, eventually, kill the master, but she would be badly injured in doing so.  She swore that would never happen again, and would spend the next 125 years travelling the world learning the ways of war.  She would learn to alter her appearance when the need arose.  That would become something she would become extremely proficient at.  Over the next 125 years she would learn martial arts in the far east, and about military tactics in Europe.

 Finally by 1605 she was ready to venture to on her own.  Now, she felt prepared to become a full fledge hunter.

 For the next 125 years she would hunt supernatural creatures, gaining a reputation as a ruthless hunter.  In 1725 she would meet and marry another hunter.  While they had no children, they did prove to be a formidable team for the next 50 years.    However, in 1775 things would change for her.  They had been hunting a particularly nasty vampire lord named Victor DiMera.  Perhaps they had gotten sloppy, or perhaps they had let their guard down, and trusted the wrong person, who turned out to be one of Victor's Familiars.  Whatever the case, they were captured.

 Her husband was killed in front of her, and for four days she was locked in a room with three screaming mandrake roots.  The ear splitting, mind numbing,
 It was enough to drive anyone ma.  Through the screaming mandrake root, and magical spells, she was transformed and brainwashed.  Victor found the irony of turning a feared vampire hunter, into a hunter of hunters.

 The only question was how long could he keep her under his sway.

 For the next 200 years, she would become victor's right hand.  She would hunt his enemies, killing Slayer, hunter and anyone else who got into his way.  She would surrender herself to the darker instincts, feeding on humans with disregard.  Forgotten was what Von Helsing had taught her.

 To celebrate her "being reborn", Victor dubbed her Diana the Huntress.  Gone was Kitty Smythe, vampire hunter, and hunter in general.  Instead, reborn in her place was a hunter who was cold, ruthless, and who was very loyal to Victor DiMera.  She would serve as his bodyguard, muscle, and all around right hand.

 Over the next 300 years Victor would rise to become a power in the vampire community, mostly because of Diana.  By the he had relocated to the town of Salem California.  The town was of small to medium size, with a population of around 50,000.  It was half way between San Francisco and Los Angeles, which made it Convenient, as Victor did business in both cities.

 For 300 years, Diana had served Victor as a loyal servant.  She did his bidding with little to no question.  She gained a reputation among the hunters community as someone to be feared.  She killed slayers, watchers, and hunters with equal pleasure.  She would take great pleasure in killing hunters by feeding on them.  She found she was especially fond of the taste of slayer blood.

 1975 would change things, again.  It would be the first time that she would be questioned by Victor, and the first time she questioned him in 300 years.  It all came about due to a battle she had with a slayer.  For some reason, she had a hard time killing the bitch.  Victor saw this as a failure.

 By 1990, things between the two had started to sour.  Victor saw her inability to kill one particular slayer as a failure.  Although, she would eventually kill the girl, it didn't seem to matter to Victor.  From there, he began to find fault with her on everything.  Little by little, she saw her "power" within the DiMera Empire slipping and was not happy about it.

 By 2000 their relationship was so sour, that Diana considered leaving.  However, Victor's programming still held sway.  Things would finally come to a head by the end of the year.  Victor ordered a hit on a hunter team that was causing him problems without telling her any of the details.  When she found out she went to confront him.  In the end, She told Victor to go fuck himself, and walked out.

 The next five years she kept her distance. In 2005 she formed a hunter team of her own, although, it only lasted two years.  Ironically, one of the leaders of the team was Rachel Von Helsing, a distant relative of her one time mentor.  They called themselves The Nightstalkers.

 They consisted of 6 hunters, 2 scientists and 1 biology expert.  It was through her that Diana first found anything resembling a serum for the thirst.  Although, it was only temporary.

 Then there was Whistler.
 Abraham Whistler had survived a vampire attack, which had seen his wife and two daughters, and one son killed.  One night a stranger had come calling, and thinking nothing of it, Abraham had invited him in.  It would become a night of torture and terror.  He was forced to watch as one by one the stranger killed his family.  The last two, his wife and son, he had been forced to choose who would die first.  He had finally managed to escape, and stake the vampire, when the bastard had let down his guard.

 From then on, Abraham had dedicated himself to hunting down and killing vampires. While he would also hunt werewolves, etc, vampires were his specialty, and the one creature that he took great care in hunting and killing.

 The two had met in 2010, just after the Nightstalkers had went their separate ways.  She had just raided a blood bank, something very unusual for a vampire.
 Whistler had confronted her, and after figuring out what she was, he understood the raid on the blood bank.  He also recognized her name.

 It would have been difficult to have been in the Hunter community and not know the name of Diana the Huntress.  Just as vampires had feared the name of Kitty, Hunters feared Diana the Huntress.  He had thought about killing her, but then realized that she had been brainwashed by DiMera.

 Since 2011 they have been partners and allies.  Whistler gets the safe houses, provides the weapons, and even has created something of a serum to help with the thirst.  Diana does the hunting and killing.

 While the reputation of the Huntress is feared among most watchers, hunters and those in the "know", or who have a history of such thing, she has little by little started to redeem her reputation.