Orlagh

SPOILER WARNING

## Queen Orlagh

**Queen Orlagh** is the Queen of the Undersea and the mother of Nicasia.

## Physical Description

Orlagh is described as very beautiful and intimidating. There are ballads composed to her beauty, and she is very regal. She has black hair, long nails, and black eyes.

## Personality

Orlagh is very cruel and manipulative. Because of her arrogance, she tends to underestimate people. when she captures Jude, she doesn't check if she could resist her glamour, and she challenges Cardan, even though he had the power of the land. She is fond of her daughter, Nicasia, but acts condescending towards her subjects and to those whom she considers inferior.

## Biography

### Early Life

When Orlagh came to power as the Queen of the Undersea, it was mentioned that she killed all of the lower-ranked rulers in order to achieve absolute power. She is one of the major powers of Faerieland. She is older than High King Eldred was.

### *The Cruel Prince*

Jude discovers that Queen Orlagh might have had a hand in Liriope's murder. She attends the feast held by Prince Balekin to persuade the Courts to support him as High King. Jude tries to get Queen Orlagh to support her plan for the next High King but is rebuffed.

### *The Wicked King*

Queen Orlagh orchestrates Prince Balekin's escape from the Tower of Forgetting. With the aid of The Ghost, she captures Jude. Orlagh, Balekin, and Nicasia interrogate her using a Faerie glamour, unaware of her geas from Prince Dain that lets her resist enchantments. Cardan gets Jude back from Orlagh in a deal in which he was forbidden to retaliate after her attack on the Court of Termites. When Balekin is killed by Jude in a duel, Orlagh arrives with the Undersea's armies and demands retribution. However, she is defeated in a show of force by Cardan, who used the High King's power to imprison her daughter Nicasia.

### *The Queen of Nothing*

In the letters Cardan sent Jude, the ones that Lady Asha destroyed, Cardan tells Jude that he had made a treaty with the Undersea, "*the treaty was signed in sea-foam and blood.*"

### *How the King of Elfhame Learned to Hate Stories*

Queen Orlagh arrives at the High Court to bring her daughter who is going to be fostered on land for her safety. She wants one of the children of Eldred to marry Nicasia so that she may be the ruler of both the Undersea and the Land.

## Relationships

### Friends and Allies

* Balekin Greenbriar

Queen Orlagh acts superior to Balekin, despite him theoretically outranking her as a Faerie Prince. Orlagh conspires to break Balekin out of the Tower of Forgetting. He is an integral part of Orlagh's plans to invade the land. When the Undersea captures Jude, Balekin plays a major role in her interrogation, along with Nicasia and Orlagh, and they try to make her into a sleeper agent, unaware of her geas to Dain that allowed her to resist enchantments. Orlagh makes him an Ambassador of the Sea and sends him to the Faerie Court.

### Family

* Nicasia

Queen Orlagh and Nicasia appear to have a close mother-daughter relationship. Although Nicasia is sent to the High Court to be fostered, she is kept informed of her mother's plans. Queen Orlagh trusts Nicasia with important information, such as the identity of her spy and her plans to diminish the power of the land. When Cardan threatens Orlagh by encasing Nicasia in a tree, Orlagh backs down from war to save her daughter. Nicasia continues to be dependent on her mother.

### Enemies

* Jude Duarte
* Cardan Greenbriar
* The Court of Termites

Orlagh sees Jude as something to negotiate with. She also sees Jude as just a stupid mortal, not believing Jude could be capable.

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to be expanded

## Trivia

* The name Orlagh is of Irish/Celtic/Gaelic origin meaning Golden Princess, Golden Queen, Golden Lady, or Golden Woman.

## References

1. ↑ http://orlaghcassidy.blogspot.com/2010/08/orlagh-meaning-behind-name.html