Eslena Renees

Nyssa Renees (daughter)

Battlefield general

**Eslena Renees** is the Shadow councilor of the Shadehedge system, and also is in charge of Expansion and Diplomacy. She is one of the primary antagonists of the Spellcrafter series and Gatchi Mitchell's master. Eslena appears in Spellcrafter Sohrann as one of the main antagonists and will be a major threat going into future entries.

## Appearance

Eslena has many times been described as beautiful, often irresitable by those who meet her. Another word that is often used is unassuming, but Deacon Shaw would call her a black widow. The few who knew her would instead call her terrifying. Most of the time she wears a pitch-black dress with purple dragon patterns that allows her to move easily and a wrist gauntlet to allow her to communicate with her allies. She has dark green eyes that are best described as 'piercing'. Despite her extraordinarily beautiful appearance, Eslena unsettles most who meet her simply by existing.

## Personality

Eslena's drive is to become more powerful and force subservience on those surrounding her including the Shadow Council. She has even gone so far as to kill her former friend and colleague, Deacon Shaw and frame Ägidius Rosenhain for the murder. From there, Penny Dreadful dealt the killing blow, unknowingly erasing the evidence of her involvement and believing that she had killed a traitor. She also had her apprentice eliminate Deacon's apprentice and dispose of the evidence. Eslena is kind to her allies to a point, but multiple failures is never ignored and often ends in the demise of all involved. The only one known to be excused for failure was her own apprentice, Gatchi.

Eslena likes to act as if she always has the best interest of the Empire at heart. She will encourage the Emperor to get in his good graces while also sabotaging from the shadows. She is very careful about every move she makes, ensuring that the best possible outcome is obtainable before trying for it.

Described as being uncaring and iniquitous, she does not care about the struggle of others. Instead, she believes that if someone deserves power or status, they should have to climb through hell like she did. She has no problems with assassination, lying, manipulation, torture, or seduction, but draws the line at slavery and anarchy. This was possibly brought on by her mother's desperate clinging to the ancient Sorcerer ways, but were also the teachings that allowed her to become so powerful.

## Abilities

Not much is known about this mysterious and seemingly untouchable Shadow Council official. Her abilities seem to range from basic Psychosis spells like generating tangible clones to appear in her place, to breaking a user's mind and cursing them to serve her. Whether or not these spells are talking to her remains to be seen, but she clearly has a high mana affinity and the creativity to will her creations into being effortlessly.

Though she did not engage in much combat, Eslena has proved herself just as dangerous in melee combat as with her magic. Using her retractable double-bladed sword, she can cut down foes with ease especially when they are fighting alone or in small groups. She uses her magic to turn the tide of battle and then moves in for the kill one-by-one. Eslena is such a capable combatant that neither Chris nor Megan were able to land a hit when trying to defend themselves. The only one that Eslena appears to wish to avoid entirely is Autumn.