Ilyana Clayden

### Parents

Mortimer Sootleaf † (-48 L.C. - 26 L.C.)Vanessa Sootleaf (née Cornwall) † (-52 L.C. - 26 L.C.)

### Relatives

Arthur Sootleaf (Brother)Jaime Sootleaf (Nephew)

Ilyana Clayden (née Sootleaf) (-32 L.C. - 30 L.C.) was a Gilnean harvest-witch, the daughter of Mortimer and Vanessa Sootleaf, sister of Arthur Sootleaf, wife of Nathaniel Clayden and aunt of Jaime Sootleaf.

## Nathaniel

Ilyana and Nathaniel fell in love in 3 L.C., although they were really close friends from childhood. Nathaniel's father, Richard Clayden opposed their marriage as he saw House Sootleaf as inferior and attempted to prevent the union at all costs, instead wanting his son to marry Helena Fulton. He saw it as an opportunity to link his bloodline to her rich and powerful family.

Nathaniel and Ilyana eventually ran away and married in secret with the help of Pastor Claudius Ravenheart.

## An Orphan In Need

Ilyana occasionally helped anyone in need, but a small boy in Keel Harbor, her hometown, caught her attention. At only twelve years of age, young Elliot Withers was left to his own devices when her mother, Isabelle succumbed to a mysterious illness and his father, Claude, grief-stricken, hanged himself from the center beam of their modest house. Ilyana sympathised with his plight and sometimes sent him money for food and clothes, but Elliot got more and more desperate, resorting to petty theft and odd jobs.

The boy's life seemingly had a turn for the better when he wrote Ilyana a letter expressing his intention to become a butler. Ilyana was happy that Elliot had found his footing, but unbeknownst to her, the family seeking to employ him was the infamously cruel house Fulton. The events that transpired two years later, when Elliot couldn't endure the torment any longer, went down in history as the Fulton Manor massacre. When Ilyana learned that Elliot had joined the Wolf Cult, she immediately took it upon herself to track him down, but she was too late. Elliot ended up murdering several well-respected and beloved citizens of Gilneas in his bestial fury, including Ilyana's brother, Arthur Sootleaf, who gave his life to protect his son and his significant other.

Elliot was eventually found by a devastated and grief-stricken Ilyana Sootleaf. After contemplating whether the murder of his own brother was the breaking point in supporting this boy, and realising that the worgen curse overwrites one's moral compass, Ilyana took him to the Esoteric Order of the Scythe, who succeeded in bringing him back to his senses. Elliot awoke to Ilyana sitting across him, staring him dead in the eye with a mix of grief and shock on her face. Once he realised what he had done, Elliot became deeply regretful and blamed himself for the deed. Ilyana, however, offered him a deal so that he could redeem himself.

## Death and Undeath

Elliot had murdered Tiberius and Helga Fulton in cold blood, but their daughter, Helena slipped through his fingers. He was running from authorities and needed shelter, while Ilyana herself had a deep-seated hatred towards the Fultons. She told Elliot that if he helped her formulate a plan to dispatch her loathsome father-in-law, she would, in turn, help him tie up loose ends and finish off "the one that got away."

For two years, the two plotted against Richard Clayden and Helena Fulton, with Ilyana hiding the boy from authorities. The original plan was to lure the dispossessed noblewoman to Sootleaf Manor under the guise of a dinner invitation and kill two birds with one stone. Afterward, Ilyana and Nathaniel planned to leave the city-state behind for good, taking Elliot in as their own son.

The two wrote an invitation to Helena and Richard, asking both of them to visit and turn over a new leaf in their rocky-at-best relationship.

The dinner went well; Helena met a gruesome end after the first few bites of poisoned food, but Richard grew suspicious the moment he set foot inside the Sootleaf homestead. After the woman dropped dead at the table, he jolted up and attacked Ilyana, leading to a struggle between the two. Elliot watched helplessly from the closet as Ilyana advised him not to come out until the coast was clear. The altercation ended with Ilyana strangling the nobleman with a broken broom handle. Her victory, however, was short-lived, as feral worgen broke down the door shortly thereafter, taking Ilyana by surprise and finishing her off with a few well-aimed slashes to the back.

Her grave—hand-dug by Nathaniel himself—is at Aderic's Repose.

She has been dead for six months when Mandrake found her. Death wiped Ilyana's memory completely clean, so she was but an empty husk after she was reanimated by the mad doctor.

Three years later, Nathaniel discovered the desecrated grave, and after several days of search, he found Ilyana's shambling corpse. Filled with grief, Nathaniel slew her and re-buried her in the same grave.

Thus begun the hunt for Mandrake.

## Gallery

Ilyana reanimated as an undead monster. (AI-generated image)