Lore:Brisienna

(formally styled Brisienna, Lady Magnessen, informally Lady Brisienna or Lady Magnessen) was a noblewoman and also a highly skilled agent of the   during the reign of Emperor  .  She was the sister of the  , the leader of the Blades at that time.   

Lady Brisienna was once in the employ of Queen   of  , though she was secretly the Emperor's agent in the kingdom's court.   However, after King   was killed during the  , Brisienna found herself out of favor with the new regime and was forced into hiding. Nevertheless, she remained the Emperor's emissary in  , assisting another   sent by the Emperor to investigate Lysandus' death. Lady Magnessen was instrumental in helping this agent recover a powerful  , an act which led directly to the event known as the  .  

At some point, Lady Brisienna evidently caught some of the public's imagination, as she was featured as a character in the popular historical fiction  . 
 
History
Personal Life
Little is known about Brisienna's life outside of her work with the  . Though she was a  , her political connections ran deep in many kingdoms of   and   that surrounded the  .    Her only known family was a brother, known only as the  , who was rumored to lead the Blades.  

Lady Brisienna was also a friend of Lord  , the future Imperial Ambassador to  .  The pair were featured as characters in the novel  . The novel's depiction of Brisienna choosing "the most public of places for her most private of conferences" is an accurate description of her techniques.  
 
The War of Betony
thumb|left|Queen Myniserathumb|right|Queen Aubk-i
In the early years of the   of the Third Era, Lady Brisienna was a member of—and secretly the   agent in —the court of  .   There, she served Queen   as her lady-in-waiting.  

Such was the case in  , when the Emperor learned of the discovery of the  , an artifact that would allow its bearer to control  's ancient weapon,  .  It was in the hands of Lord  , a minor noble of Wayrest. Uriel VII wrote to Mynisera, asking the queen to use her influence with the court of Wayrest to "persuade" Lord Woodborne to give her or Lady Brisienna the Totem, on his behalf.  Some claim the letter was actually meant for Brisienna, with a special seal used to alert the Blades agent to this effect.  In the end, however, the letter never reached either of them. 

In  , the   erupted between the kingdoms of Daggerfall and  . As a result of this conflict, the Emperor's agent was unable to reach Queen Mynisera, and hired a courier to deliver the Emperor's letter when it was possible.   The war ended the following year; Daggerfall emerged victorious, though King Lysandus was killed in the climactic battle at   (in reality, assassinated).  Prince   was crowned the new King of Daggerfall, and took the princess of Sentinel,  , as his new Queen.  The courier was finally able to deliver the letter, but as it was addressed to "the Queen of Daggerfall", it was delivered to Aubk-i.  Lady Brisienna soon found herself out of favor with the court. With her position compromised and fearing her life was in danger, Brisienna went into hiding. 
 

The Warp in the West
After many adventures, the agent revealed that Lord Woodborne was Lysandus' murderer, and brought him down.  Some time after, Lady Brisienna and the Blades sacked Woodborne Hall, but by then the Totem was in the hands of Woodborne's co-conspirator, King Gothryd.  The two operatives met once more, and Brisienna, fearing the power of Numidium in the wrong hands could lead to a civil war, offered the agent the famed   in exchange for retrieving the Totem from the treasury of Castle Daggerfall. 

The artifact was recovered, and the word quickly spread; six other powers around the Iliac Bay also made offers for the Totem. And while Lady Brisienna was awarded the Totem, so were each of the other claimants— .   After one more adventure to recover  , the golem was activated by each bearer of the Totem on the 9th of Frostfall,  .   In what became known as the  , time and space were distorted as the Numidium-led armies of Daggerfall, Sentinel, Wayrest, and   did battle across the Iliac Bay region. The event ended on the 11th, as the Imperial forces—their Numidium's ferocity tempered by the Blades—crushed the rebellious armies and brought order to the region. Numidium was apparently annihilated in the process, and peace eventually settled across the warring lands, though their political borders were permanently changed.    Lady Brisienna was known to be in the vicinity of Wayrest during the Warp,  but if she survived the chaos, her later actions have remained unrecorded.

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