Winterflower Duskmere

Lady Winterflower Duskmere was an elven magician during the Time of Dragons, and a heir to House Duskmere. She was directly responsible for the Dracorage mythal.
==Description==
Her exquisiite features added up to a look of courage and intelligence. She had curly black hair, gold-flecked blue eyes, and fair skin.
==Personality==
Winterflower behaved in extremes, to other people, showing herself as either cold and aloof or warm and friendly. However, this was deliberate on her part, to better draw the attentions of the men around her and thus manipulate them to her ends. Her ultimate end, as she explained, was advancing elven freedom, bringing them away from the control of the wyrms.
==Abilities==
Lady Winterflower's singing was impressive and touching.
She was a mage of some power, being able to cast dimensional anchor. Her skill was sufficient that she quickly mastered the workings of Rhespen's own staff, casting spells from it from the moment she touched it, and she was almost certainly involved in the creation of the Dracorage mythal.
==Possessions==
Lady Winterflower Duskmere possessed a number of spellbooks, which she was not allowed to bring to Dawnfire. She also received a number of gifts from King Orchtrien, notably, a bracelet in the shape of a spiraling dragon. Her room in the palace was initially furnished exclusively with elven finery. The lady's most prized possession was a jewelry box.
==Relationships==
She tried to seduce King Orchtrien, and became his mistress for a time, but her true love was for Rhespen Ash.
==History==
===-25,090 DR===
After the houses Duskmere, Vilirith and Starfall failed in an attempt to ambush Orchtrien's forces, the King compelled the heads to send forth their heirs to his abode, so that they may be educated, wooed, and held hostage, thus ensuring their houses' ongoing good behavior. Of the three, Winterflower Duskmere came to Dawnfire in a closed coach; when Rhespen Ash, the king's deputy who was supposed to introduce them, noticed that, he cast a spell of invisibility on the coach, thwarting the Lady's desire not to look at the city. She agreed to ride up the rest of the road, and talked with Rhespen Ash along the way; she was extremely skeptical of the goodness of King Orchtrien, and of his goals.
Despite her aloofness, her singing in the Elven Quarter of Dawnfire became quite popular, and finally, at one feast, the King called on her to sing a song. She chose one about a king whose misrule and insanity brought calamity and misfortune, making the king's deputy, Maldur Breakstone, to chastise her with magic for the impertinence. Rhespen Ash took her side, claiming she had meant no offense, and the King bid his two deputies duel for her honor.
After the duel, Lady Winterflower opened up to Rhespen, admitted she'd meant offense, and thanked him for helping her. She was later called on to sing at another feast; this one proceeded without issue, though the king took an interest in her afterwards. Rhespen Ash later visited Winterflower and told her that Orchtrien, later having learned of his feelings towards her, sent him in a dangerous winter raiding commission that took him from Dawnfire for the whole season. She was aghast.
===-25,089 DR===
Despite her initial outrage, Winterflower became the King's mistress over winter. Per Orchtrien, she warmed up to him and claimed to fall in love with the king over time. By the return of Rhespen Ash in early spring, Winterflower showed no outward signs of love for him during his hero's welcome, but while walking with Orchtrien back to his chambers, she gave Rhespen signs of distress.
When Rhespen turned up at her door, she claimed to be afflicted by an intermittent enchantment that made him fall heads over heels for the king, granting her precious few reprieves from the magic. In response, Rhespen erased the encounter from her mind with a spell, and set forth. He returned after copying the King's spells, and used one spell to erase the enchantment from her mind; she acted as though released, but their door was then kicked in by Maldur and several of Orchtrien's crossbowmen. Winterflower quickly seized the copied spellbooks, Rhespen's staff, and teleported away.
At the hideout of the Duskmere, Winterflower and other mages took efforts to decipher, first, the spells of concealment against magical search, and that was all they'd managed to achieve before Rhespen Ash snuck inside and tried to retrieve the books. He disabled the other mages, but Winterflower stopped him with a dimensional anchor spell; while they talked, Orchtrien found the stronghold. Rhespen's plan to flee with the books and present them to his King thwarted, he agreed to join Winterflower's rebellion, and slow Orchtrien down in combat so that at least some of the books could be taken to other elves.
Lady Duskmere Winterflower was the last and only person who managed to escape with one of Orchtrien's books after the king's men razed the hidden stronghold. She was tempted to discard the book, but decided to persevere in order to make the sacrifices worth it. That eventually led to the creation of the Dracorage mythal.
===Rumors & Speculation ===
During a discussion between Rhespen Ash, tortured after turning traitor, and King Orchtrien, the gold dragon surmised that she'd convinced him of her mind control to prompt him towards assassination, and that she'd seduced him too, in order to better spy and perhaps commit regicide.
==Appendix==
===Appearances===
===References===
Category:Females
Category:Inhabitants of feminine gender
Category:Elves
Category:Wizards
Category:Nobles
Category:Inhabitants of Dawnfire
Category:Inhabitants of Faerûn
Category:Inhabitants of Toril