Lilastien

* Portrait
* Sketch

Lilastien is an ancient Alka Alon that was around when Humans first came to Callidore and became one of their strongest advocates. She is introduced in *Spellmonger's Honeymoon* and doesn't reappear until *Spellmonger's Yule.* After Yule she becomes a regular, recurring character.

She is known as Sorceress of Sartha Wood and has become a half believed legend. She is also *Ithalia's* Grandmother

## Personality and Characteristics

Lilastien is recognized as both a Songspell master and rebel against the Council, among the Alka Alon. With Minalan she is direct and open with her praise and criticism of his efforts. She has a deep fascination with the "other", having first studied the Vundel in her youth. When the *humani* came from the sky, she felt compelled to learn about this intriguing new species. As it was tantalizingly similar to the Alon, but so exotically different, she became enamored with certain elements of human culture. She was granted membership in a small team of Alon who were sent to Perwyn as a result. She has aspirations of learning about the Met Kinsika as well, but her activities around the Inundation and subsequent events caused her to be imprisoned by the Alka Alon Council as a rebel, instead.

Lilastien is a scholar, first and foremost, the Alka Alon equivalent to an anthropologist or xeno-biologist. Her empathy for other races and cultures has not only given her an expansive ethical perspective, it has also also made her critical of her own culture and history. As her children were estranged with her after her imprisonment -- a painful consequence of her actions -- she has only been able to maintain close contact with one of her grandchildren, Ithalia. While she regrets the estrangement, she accepts it as the price for her ethical action. She has embraced her title of Rebel. Her demonstrable kindness and compassion is often tempered with a cynicism based on her broad experience and disappointments, over the years, but she remains quietly hopeful of a better world for all of Callidore's people.

## Early years

Lilastien was born in the southern Kulines, in what is now the Castali Wilderlands, to a distinguished Avalanti family. A precocious learner, at age 300 or so she earned the right to study the Vundel, something usually reserved for older, more experienced scholars. She spent a century with the Alka Alon equivalent of the Seabrethren, those tasked with representing the Vundel in the Dry Lands, and produced several impressive pieces of scholarship as a result. When her term was up, she married and semi-retired from scholarship, moving to a community beyond the Kulines. She bore four children, three of whom survived.

When the Terrans arrived on Callidore, the Alka Alon Council recalled her to service against her husband's wishes. She departed from her family and enlisted in a team of Alon installed at Perwyn, after the Vundel granted humanity permission to settle on Callidore. While other team members were providing technical assistance or knowledge about the history of Callidore or its many lifeforms, Lilastien's goal was to learn everything she could about humanity. She was therefore granted permission to enroll in human kindergarten, and proceeded to learn about the colonists the same way their children did.

Eventually, she mastered the intricacies of the human academic system and decided to attend a human medical school, where she received an M.D.-Ph.D. and garnered four board certifications. She even spent a brief time before the Inundation as a hospital administrator for Perwyn's growing human population. For nearly a century she lived among humanity (often in her transgenetic larger form, which she helped design) and learned everything she could about human culture. In return, she quietly advised a number of important *humani* about Callidore . . . and the Alka Alon.

During this period she threw herself into her studies with incredible enthusiasm. Lilastien developed a taste for certain elements of human culture, particularly their music, comedy, and drama, which she found as a refreshing change from the culture of the Alon. She also enjoyed several affairs with humans during this period, creating a small scandal in both communities.

When humans began manifesting the first stirrings of rajira, she and a few of her colleagues were among those who established the nature and disposition of magic within humanity. She worked with the colony to adapt the Alka Alon's songspell system of magic to something much simpler and more suited to humanity's more graphic culture. Lilastien was also involved in investigating the nature of the thoughtform projections that began occurring on Perwyn at roughly the same time.

Many dramatic events occurred during that late colonial period, and it is certain that Lilastien was involved in some. It is known that she was evacuated from the island only seven months before it sank. For a brief time she returned to her husband and family, but a decade later the Council summoned her again to assist with the resettlement of humanity upon the mainland. She joined a new team in Merwyn who was tasked with adapting human culture away from monotheistic religion and toward a safer polytheism. It is unclear the extent and nature of her work, but her insights no doubt proved valuable to the nascent Magocracy.

Much of her life is murky, after that period, but due to some action she took involving the Inundation and subsequent resettlement, the Alka Alon Council named her a rebel for her crimes and imprisoned her in an old, destroyed Alka Alon refuge, Rengolarth. She had, however, made allies with some human divinities. When the Council placed a veil around the refuge to keep her in, some collection of divinities altered the veil to protect her, as much as imprison her. As this confirmed the suspicions of the Alka Alon Council about human divinities, they were adamant that she was removed from society, afraid that she would attract larger support among the Alka Alon or raise uncomfortable questions among the humani. Therefore they set a series of guardians around the veil in hopes of restricting visitors. She has made her home in one of the towers that was in the best condition along with a small group of loyal proteges, Tal Alon, gurvani, and humans. Soon after, the Magocracy fell to the Narasi barbarians and the Alka Alon largely withdrew from human affairs.

Two hundred years later, Lilastien's granddaughter, Ithalia, defied her parents and made secret visits to her grandmother, learning the true history of humanity as well as certain proscribed songspells. She was instrumental in introducing Minalan the Spellmonger to her grandmother and later managed to become one of the three Emissaries, when the Alka Alon Council finally relented and re-opened relations to humanity. This led to Minalan's demand to the Council that Lilastien be released into his custody to contend with the crisis of the Abomination of Sheruel. She was released for a decade. With the appearance of Korbal the Necromancer and the emergence of the Nemovorti and the Enshadowed, leading to the fall of Anthatiel, her status with the Council is open to question. She remains a close ally to both humanity in general and Minalan in particular.

*"...Arth Noafa, the Tower of Refuge.”*

## Family and Relationships

Her Granddaughter is Lady Ithalia, one of the three emissaries to Sevendor.

## Summary

### Footwizard

While accompanying Minalan on his expedition, Lilastien shares some of her favourite things about old Terran culture, including some of her most loved music: Lilastien’s Discography

## References

1. ↑ Mancour, Terry. The Spellmonger's Honeymoon: A Spellmonger Novella (The Spellmonger Series) . 74%. Kindle Edition.