Darsellia Lantris

> *"The words have meaning not because they are spoken, but only because they are listened to."*
> -Darsellia Lantris.
>
>

High Cleric **Darsellia Lantris** was an Advari female who served a senior figure in the Faith Eternal of the Holy Advari Empire. Like most of the Faith's senior figures, she was involved in a conspiracy to conceal the true nature of the Sanctum of Advar from the Advari people.

Lantris was killed during the Raid on the Aegis of Invia by Inquisitor Castian Vadric as part of his efforts to uncover the true extent of the Faith's conspiracy.

## Biography

### High Cleric

In her younger years, Ventris trained as an Inquisitor of the Ventris Ardenti, and remained a capable duellist later in life.

In the year 0304 PCU according to the Centran Calendar, several weeks after the Avalon Expedition Fleet arrived in CDC-41-Gamma, Lantris had risen to to the position of High Cleric of the Faith Eternal, and inducted several new clerics into the Faith at the behest of Empress Valendra the Sixth.

Along with the Master Conservator and Lord Cardinal Hastus Arvannis, High Cleric Lantris was part of a conspiracy within the Faith Eternal to conceal knowledge of life outside CDC-41-Gamma from the rest of the Empire. Shortly after presiding over the initiation ceremony, Lantris met with Arvannis and agreed that the Avalon Fleet should be destroyed.

Lantris later accompanied Valendra on a visit to the Giftworld Sirianadin. Lantris made little secret of her irritation at Valendra's presence, who had joined them against the Faith Eternal's advice. Despite being met by adulation and reverence by the planet's population, Valendra was troubled by the squalor and poverty her subjects lived in, and countermanded Lantris' instructions that parishioners from the world were to be selected for sacrifice, leading to a public disagreement between the two.

### Death

Lantris was present at a station in the Aegis of Invia when the Avalon Exploratory Initiative attacked the station to recover a Gatehauler component. Valuable intelligence was provided to the Humans by Castian Vadric, a defected Inquisitor, who boarded the station to disable the Aegis' mines. When Vadric overheard Lantris discussing Empress Valendra's removal from Advar Primaris by the Faith's conspiracy, he pursued her and demanded to know where Valendra had been taken. Lantris mocked Vadric and drew a sword to defend herself, engaging Vadric in a duel. Lantris accused Vadric of insincerity in his defection, and accused him of being little more than a weapon seeking a new master even as he defeated and killed her.

## Personality

> *"The truth, unheeded, can be indistinguishable from a lie, your majesty. And a lie, unabated, can become indistinguishable from the truth."*
> -Darsellia Lantris to Empress Valendra the Sixth.
>
>

Lantris was commanding and devout in her faith, being responsible for inducting new members into the Faith Eternal. Like many senior members of the Faith Eternal, Lantris was willing to suppress information contrary to the Faith's beliefs in order to, as she sees it, protect the Advari people. However, she supported a more measured approach than her co-conspirator Hastus Arvannis.

Lantris held a great deal of private contempt for those around her, ranging from Empress Valendra, whom she regarded as childish, to her own co-conspirator Hastus Arvannis, whom she thought of as a ditherer. During her final duel with Castian Vadric, she mocked him as a weapon that was constantly seeking a new master.

## Relationships

### Empress Valendra the Sixth

> *"These people are marked for holy sacrifice, they will not thank you for robbing them of their blessing. The will of Advar cannot be-"
> "I am the will of Advar made flesh! By my decree and His, they will be spared."
> "This is a callow and foolish choice. Others in your place have walked this path before, though not for long. You are a servant of the Faith as much as I, do not think yourself irreplaceable."*
> - Valendra the Sixth and Darsellia Lantris clash over issues of faith.
>
>

Lantris and the Empress had a tense public relationship, much like the rest of Empress Valendra's court and the Empress herself. Lantris conspired against the Empress along with Lord Cardinal Hastus Arvannis to suppress knowledge of the Avalon Exploratory Initiative, though she still held the Empress in a higher regard than Arvannis does. For her part, Valendra strongly disliked being directed by Lantris and the Faith Eternal, and had publicly threatened her with a breach with the Faith over the issue of sacrifices and its treatment of her subjects.

### Hastus Arvannis

> *"Even in her ignorance, I would not dismiss the Empress so easily. Would it not serve our needs to learn more about these outsiders, if only to understand what we face? If they were to somehow uncover the Mechanism..."
> "That will not happen. The Wheel has remained hidden from our own people for ages beyond counting. These newcomers will not find it."*
> - Darsellia Lantris and Hastus Arvannis, on the Avalon Exploratory Initiative
>
>

Lantris and Lord Cardinal Hastus Arvannis shared a common goal in preserving the Faith Eternal and were willing to conspire against Empress Valendra to achieve this. Nevertheless, Lantris and Arvannis clashed over the methods necessary to achieve this, with Lantris arguing that more information should be gathered on the Avalon Exploratory Initiative before it is attacked. Privately, Lantris held Arvannis in contempt, regarding him as a sentimental ditherer.

## Appearances

* Volume 2
	+ "*Dust and Shadow*"
	+ "*The Promised Land*"

* Volume 3
	+ "*Theirs Not to Reason Why*"
	+ "*Beneath The Banner*"

* Volume 4
	+ "*Where Angels Fear to Tread*"

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 *Where Angels Fear to Tread*
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 *Dust and Shadow*
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 *The Promised Land*
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 *Theirs Not to Reason Why*