Isla Rankine

"*If I could write everything that happened, I would shock the world.*"
—Isla confides to a monk in the final years of her life.

Lady **Isla Rankine** was a noblewoman of Torrance, the Duchess of Daley and the Lady of Weikel, firstly with her husband Lankester Herbold, and after his death as a regent to her son Benedict. She was the illegitimate daughter of Lorenzo Rankine, Duke of Ravalido, and was raised in the refined Duncraig court with her mother. The descendant of a dynasty of noted military commanders, Isla distinguished herself from an early age through her bold and impetuous actions taken to safeguard her possessions from possible usurpers and to defend her dominions from attack, when they were involved in political intrigues.

In her private life, Isla was devoted to various activities, including experiments in alchemy and a love of hunting and dancing. She had many children, but only the youngest, Damien Rankine, inherited his mother's forceful, militant personality. Isla's resistance to her half-siblings, Karras and Yanina, meant she had to face their fury and imprisonment. Once she gained her freedom in Torrance, she led a quiet life in Westmarch. She survived and personally thwarted several assassination attempts on her life and the lives of her descendants.

Widely regarded as one of the most influential figures of the thirteenth century, Isla remains a controversial figure within and outside Torrance. Beyond politics, Isla is also known as a influential noblewoman, military leader, and poet. During her tenure as Duchess, Torrance was heavily involved with a multitude of conflicts such as the Corvus War, the Skycutter Conflict, the Charun Crisis, the Brennor Crisis, which brought House Rankine to power. Isla has been praised for transforming Torrance from a fallen kingdom to a restored stability of power, with a successful campaign to yield the demonic invasion and to greatly advanced safety, literacy, and trade. The fractured monarchy during Mao's rule was also responsible for vast numbers of deaths, including a violent class struggle and prosecution against the dissidents of her noble house.

## History

Isla Rankine was born in Weikel, Torrance in early 1235, the illegitimate daughter of Lorenzo Rankine by his mistress, Bianca. It's believed that she spent the first years of her life with her mother's relatives. The bond between mother and daughter was never interrupted; Bianca followed Isla's growth and was always close to her in the crucial moments of her life, even in the final years that she spent in Westmarch.

Upon the succession of Lorenzo Rankine as Duke of Milan in 1238, following the death of his father, Lorenzo arranged for Isla and her brother to come to court. The children were entrusted to their paternal grandmother Tylena, a former member of the Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye. In 1239, Lorenzo had remarried Dorotea Riario, and fathered two more children, Karras and Yanina.

At the Rankine court, frequented by writers and artists, Isla and her siblings received a formal education. At that time, in the Torrance courts, daughters of noble families received the same education as their brothers. In addition to Common Tongue and the reading of the classics, as prescribed by her teachers, Isla learned, especially from her paternal grandmother, to take pride in her warlike ancestors, to show boldness in the use of arms, and astuteness in the skill of government. From her adoptive mother, she received her share of the maternal warmth and affection that Dorotea poured over all of the children of her husband; this continued–after Isla had left the Duncraig court–in the form of correspondence between the two women.

## Appearance and Character

Isla had a renowned boldness to her attitude that matched her beauty. She sported golden blonde hair, a slight difference from other members of House Rankine who were commonly silver blonde.