Arienne Mil Torainen

Ari

### Aliases

Raven Witch; Second Princess of Avalon; Void Princess; Empress of the Raven Dominion; Queen of Harav; Tolfen; Eraldia; the Dark Lord; the Silver Empress, etc.

## Physical description

### Eye color

Golden (Avalonian Royal Gold)

*"...And her blades did cloud the sky, and the sun was hidden behind cold steel. The ground was stained red that day, and the ravens given corpse aplenty to feast on. The ire of the Princess of Avalon was a thing to behold, and her wrath was a curse upon all."*

- Tales of the Dark Lord, author unknown.

**Arienne Mil Torainen**, known most commonly as the **Raven Witch** or simply the **Raven**, is the second-born of the Immortals and one of the most influential beings in the history of Eun. Born as a royal princess in the ancient kingdom of Avalon, she has spent her life gathering power and revolutionizing magic with a mind of brilliance unparalleled.

## Appearance

"*Her beauty was like the sweetest poison a man ever knew. The slightest hint of a smile would send hearts a-pounding, a glance enough to bring a man to ruin.*"- Troubadour Tales about the Raven Witch.

"*She was a decadent beauty. Rich and alluring, her aura intoxicating. It was almost oppressive. Hers was not the beauty of a maiden fair, but a predator who knew her prey all too well. With her beauty came power*."- Memoirs of Emperor Dochas Kalann.

The Avalonians are a race that value physical beauty as highly as noble pedigree and mercantile prowess. Men and women have risen to positions of high importance by their attractiveness alone, and powerful nobles and merchants will often try to find suitably comely mates. As such, the Avalonians inadvertently practice selective breeding, leading to each generation being more intelligent and beautiful than the last. This is particularly pronounced in the nobility, and above all the royal family.

The product of several generations of breeding to produce the best possible heirs, Arienne can be considered the pinnacle of Avalonian hopes and aspirations. Her fierce intelligence is matched only by her almost unearthly beauty. Bards have described her as rivalling the Goddesses themselves. They were right.

Many Avalonians sport yellow or light amber eyes, but few possess what is considered 'royal gold'. Arienne is one of these few. One of her most immediately noticeable traits is her golden eyes, which seem to glow with an inner light- large pools that captivate the soul, capturing anyone in her gaze. Poems and ballads have been written about the witch's eyes, and how one can easily get lost within them. Her pupils also tend to change shape depending on her mood- when round, like a human's, she is at her most approachable. When slit like a snake's, she is passionate about something, and this often has lethal consequences. And when runes light up on her iris, then it is time to make a hasty exit. Her eyes are especially striking compared to her pale white skin, unbronzed by work, and her hair, dark as obsidian. The witch takes great pride in her raven locks, wearing it in a variety of styles. Typically she wears it long, framing her face, the ends cascading down in soft waves and part of the voluminous mass tied to the side in a ponytail, clasped with a decorative hairband. It can be described as structured chaos, with a single large lock trailing down between her eyes and along one side of her nose.

"*There are times when I look at her and I need to stop myself from seizing her in my arms. I fear I would never let go.*"- Vallen Farnorth.

Arienne has a delicate nose, the arch with the slightest hint of an upturn. Her lips are shapely and her mouth expressive, easily lending itself to a pout or a grin, and look tantalizingly soft to the touch. She has long, curved eyelashes, giving her eyes an eternally wistful look, or a sultry, seductive one, and her eyebrows are thin and haughtily arched. In the later parts of her life, a chronic lack of sleep has led Arienne to develop nigh permanent shadows under her eyes, dark bruises that enhance the aura of haunting beauty she possesses. She also has two crimson tattoos on her face- a single stripe, emulating a scar, across the bridge of her nose, emulating the First Avenger's own real scar, and a pair of apostrophes under the corner of her left eye, dedicated to her friend Eris. She also wears red eyeliner, although her makeup varies often.

"*If you can spare the time to look away from her face, you'll find the rest of her is extremely worthwhile.*"- Savien de L'Etraz.

The Raven Witch was always well known for her height, tall by any standard, standing at 183 cm (that's just above 6 foot for you non-metric people), the second-tallest of the Immortals, with only the Firstborn, Aodh, being taller. Her tall, slender figure is graced by long, shapely legs often showcased by tight stockings and short skirts. Arienne has a curvaceous build, with large, full breasts and a firm, toned buttocks. She has a thin waist and attractively rounded hips. She has crimson tattoos, similar to the ones on her face, on her shoulders, which vary in shape and size, as they are magical conduits linked to an extensive internal magic circuit.

## Personality

"*The mistress can be fickle, but she is never unkind. You must remember that she is very different from you mortals. She appreciates nuances that you take for granted, and grows weary of the pleasures you enjoy most. Above all, the mistress is honest, even if her words shy away from truth. Ah, but have some care. She is extremely mischievous, and like to play tricks.*"- Eris Torainen to a newly-inducted Ravenguard.

"*My teacher could be harsh, and she enjoyed mocking my failures. But she would always give me sage advice, and comfort me when I needed it most. She was very much like a mother, although I think she was reluctant to admit it.*"- Memoirs of Emperor Dochas Kalann.

Arienne is a maelstrom. Mercurial, yet even-tempered, she is a woman of contradictions. Her whims vary like the wind, and her actions are purely motivated by personal enjoyment. She cares little for the morals of mortals, instead preferring to pursue her own pleasure instead. This can lead to her coming across as impersonal at times, or cold-hearted, to the extent of being evil. She doesn't sympathize with the mother and her hungry child, or the struggles of the soldier trying to return home. She has seen these occurrences so many times that they have become the norm to her. The world, to her, is seen through the lens of centuries, a grand scope of the historical cycle. A civil war in a country is a minor occurrence in the larger scale of things, and may in fact be necessary for future development. Her decisions are based on the distant future, which often alienates more short-sighted mortals.

However, her constant pursuit of amusement is not necessarily always successful. As such, Arienne is often bored, and it is common to find her sporting a blank expression of pure ennui. This lends itself to sporadic bouts of laziness, a lack of motivation that often leads to her spending her time napping away or, failing that, tinkering with machines. As such, she latches on to the things she finds interesting, as they bring colour to an otherwise drab world. Formerly, this was her best friend, Eris. Now, since the spirit has gone missing, she clings to Savien, who she states has a way of amusing her with his sincere idiocy. However, she discards people the moment they prove no longer interesting, making her affections, at best, a fleeting affair, save for very rare people.

"*I have this chart of Ari's expressions. I give myself points depending on how rare the expression she's wearing is. I've yet to see her embarrassed, but believe me, I'm trying.*"- Savien de L'Etraz.

Arienne is extremely confident, frequently sporting a smug smirk as she looks down upon mortals with condescension. To her, this is only natural. She is the pinnacle of what they strive for, power incarnate, and they desire what she embodies. This does not mean that she is over-confident, however. Arienne is extremely intelligent, being a genius in every respect, and accords each and every person the respect they are due. Instead, Arienne's confidence is born from an intimate knowledge of her own capabilities, and an absolute familiarity with her powers, a luxury few others enjoy.

The Raven Witch often comes off as teasing, a behavioural mechanism she developed to entice interesting reactions from those around her. Her teasing can vary from mere badgering to the more frequent erotic enticement, as her entire being exudes sensuality. Her touch will linger, her voice will drop to a husky whisper, as she worms her way inside the mind of her victims. Sometimes this is but a cruel game to her, a small amount of excitement afforded by watching a man (or woman) crumble. Other times, it is seduction, as she bends her target to her will, effectively making them a slave to blind love.

"*Ari's a simple, complicated woman. She seems scary at times, but she appreciates a good laugh more than anyone else. And she's the most loyal friend I've ever had.*"-Savien de L'Etraz.

Arienne is fiercely loyal to her friends, although she has them abide by a certain set of rules. Much like she never lies, she does not tolerate dishonesty from those close to her. At the same time, however, she is often disconcerted by true sincerity, as she is unaccustomed to true honesty uncoloured by ulterior motivation, having lived in a web of deceit and intrigue for the vast majority of her life. She will also insist on a pet name of some sort, rapidly becoming rather frightening should they refuse. Her loyalty has an odd way of showing itself, however. She will leave people in dangerous situations, simply to see what would happen. After all, her primary source of enjoyment is the creation of novel situations. More often than not, however, Arienne will intervene should things lean towards the lethal, especially if the person in question is truly her friend.

Perhaps one of Arienne's more defining factors is her intelligence. Even as a little girl, the witch was inquisitive and precociously clever, able to divine court politics with ease, and she regularly unravelled Avalonian intrigues as a past-time. While her sisters learned to embroider, and the correct way to curtsy to a man, she was sneaking in on lessons in the temple hearth, stealing into the libraries to learn and peruse the hundreds of texts on history, magic, science, faith, and every other subject known to man. Her wit is sharp and biting, lending her tongue a harsh edge as she strips a soul bare, a task rendered simple by her millennia of experience. She is capable of analysing a situation and coming up with the optimal plan of action within the space of a heartbeat, and complex mathematical equations are child's play to her, as she churns out answers immediately. No concept is beyond her grasp, and the total amount of knowledge Arienne holds is truly terrifying. She has forgotten more than any sage has ever known.

Despite, or because of her long years, Arienne has little knowledge on the concept people call 'love'. She believes it be a construction of the weak, an excuse for passion between two lovers. Every single relationship she has ever been in has been for political reasons, with the occasional dalliance strictly for physical satisfaction. Love, to her, is artificial, and does not actually exist. Hence her growing jealousy and desire to monopolise the Knight of Crows is confusing to her, although she interprets this as not wanting to share a man she considers her vassal and therefore, her property. Love, to her, is but idealized lust, with little basis in true emotion.

## History

*"The tale of the Raven Witch is rooted in betrayal and a lust for revenge. An idealistic princess adored by her people was reviled by foul rebels, and turned into an object of hatred and scorn. When she first died, her kind heart died with her. From the grave emerged a woman bent on the destruction of those who had wronged her, with little care for what happened to her in the process. The young Witch was consumed by heinous vengeance."*- Account of the Wyvern Meilong.

### Early Life and first Death

#### Of Royal Birth

Arienne was born the second daughter of King Ulric and Queen Ayetta Torainen of the Avalonian Kingdom. She had two elder siblings- her brother, Hakon, and her sister, Taryn. She also had two younger sisters, Kalava and Lanis.

Her father was never meant to be king. He was the second prince, his older brother destined for the throne. He was content with being a vassal to his brother, ready to support him at any moment. His brother was quite happy with Ulric's support. Perhaps too happy. Eager to seize power, he attempted to have his father deposed and, failing that, attempted an assassination. His father then had him summarily executed for treason, leaving Ulric in the uncomfortable position of having been loyal to a traitor. His father let him live, however, confident that his fear would make him more loyal than his older sibling. And so, in time, Ulric ascended the throne, and married Ayetta, formerly betrothed to his older brother since the time they were children, the eldest daughter of a noble family famed for its beautiful women. Within the Avalonian concept of arun, which values the aspects of intelligence, wealth, and looks, this made her an attractive bride indeed, and important to solidify a tenuous claim to the throne.

Ulric's reign was peaceful in its early years, largely occupied with dealing with the usual border conflicts along the Jindis strip, and quashing aggression by the shoguns of Kana to the south. Arienne grew up in a palace at peace, cherished by both of her parents and her siblings, being especially close to her brother. She was born under the Dragon star, signifying a bright and auspicious future, and the Royal Auspex, seer of the court, drew the colours of blue, green and gold from the divination pool, a good fortune for the new-born babe.

Arienne was ever inquisitive, a tomboy in her toddler years, roaming the court grounds and climbing trees and statues alike, much to the horror of her attending maids. She would clamber out the window of her chamber when it was time for her lessons on courtly manners in order to climb down to the courtyard and watch her father's knights train, and when the sun fell below the horizon, she would take the wooden sword she kept hidden beneath her bed and practice the swings she saw until her little hands were blistered and full of splinters. Her father would often take her out for horse rides alongside her brother, and she would read books alongside her mother in her study. With her sisters, she would huddle in conspiratorial groups at night, exchanging gossip they had overheard from the maids.

#### Childhood and Betrothal

When she was eleven, her parents introduced her to their new ward, a foster child from a noble family along the border named Jawn Heartholme. The two were initially distant, Jawn being a shy, quiet boy, fearful of his new environment. But Arienne's relentless attempts at friendliness and general joviality eventually won the boy over, and soon they were inseparable, Jawn being Arienne's shadow, following the rambunctious girl all over.

"The young princess had a heart too soft for a ruler, but in the bosom of such a naïve girl, it had found its proper home. She would go from beggar to beggar, giving alms and providing a helping hand, speaking to crying and starving children in soothing tones and offering comfort where she could. The peasantry did not frighten her, nay. Instead, it seemed that rather than rule, she seemed better fit to truly serve her people."- Account of Count Vermillion, Mayor of the Avalonian city of Arcis, after a visit by the princess.

As Arienne grew older, she became more involved with royal politics. She sought to learn how to become a good administrator, hoping to support her brother, eventual heir to the kingdom. Ulric was reluctant to let his precious daughter leave the palace, but with her insistence, and Taryn's backing, he relented, taking her with him on a great tour of the kingdom that lasted many months. During this time she became known as the People's Princess, for the young lady was renowned for her philanthropy and sincere empathy for the plight of the less fortunate. Using the knowledge she had gained from her studies, she practically wrested control from her father in certain domains and, at the tender age of fourteen, instituted several major reforms, largely concerning agriculture and taxation, in order to alleviate the troubles experienced by farmers and peasants living in arid regions of Avalon, as well as building schools and educating village doctors. She quickly became extremely popular, with a common folk expression being "The young princess' heart is as beautiful as she is."

Jawn eventually stepped forth from his princess' shadow to walk at her side, although both Ulric and Hakon kept a watchful eye on the lad. But away from prying eyes, he would woo Arienne, and under the shade of an apple tree, barely ten feet away from where her younger sisters played in the sand, he stole a kiss from her, and declared his love. Arienne had her misgivings, but she had grown close to her childhood friend, and so decided to see him in secret.

Meanwhile, the first stirs of dissension began in the kingdom. A faction of nobles, led by a man known as Horace Glennon, were dissatisfied with the King's pacifist policies, wanting to espouse more aggressive foreign policies such as the former king employed. They appealed to Avalon's militaristic, nationalist sentiment, and soon became a sizeable opposition force, forcing their way into an influential position in the royal Small Council. Ulric found himself shunted into a precarious political situation. If he ceded to the demands of Glennon's faction, and began campaigns of expansion, he was effectively becoming a puppet. If he chose to resist, he risked civil war.

He chose the middle path, stalling them while consolidating alliances of his own. Just after her sixteenth birthday, he had Arienne betrothed to Ethel of Gat, the heir to a bordering Jindis kingdom with powerful armies. He hoped to secure an alliance with the kingdom in order to force Glennon to be wary, and create space for him to minimize his influence without causing direct conflict. Jawn and Arienne both were devastated by the news, as the young lovers had hoped to announce their relationship soon. The princess took it all stoically, however. After all, she was her father's daughter, and royalty before she was a woman. She severed her ties with Jawn in order to keep her reputation (and virginity) intact, while devoting herself to the idea of becoming a political lynchpin in her father's plot to keep the country intact.

Hakon seethed at the idea of his little sister being married off to a foreign barbarian, and while Taryn felt much the same, she chose to calm her brother, telling him that he could always do something about it when he himself became king. Jawn, meanwhile, despaired, his shattered love turning to obsession. He hatched a twisted plot. The maidenhood of a woman was greatly valued, especially if the bride was promised as a maiden to begin with. He resolved that if he were the first one to lay with his beloved, then Ethel would abandon her, and he would get her hand to himself. Convincing himself that it was what Arienne wanted as well, spiralling into insanity, he called her out to one of the less-used courtyards in the palace.

There, he tried to force himself upon her, despite Arienne's cries of protest. But before the deed could be done, she managed to overpower him, her cries attracting the guards. Jawn, still wailing that they could be together at last, was thrown to the Tawnags, vicious reptilian beasts that resembled crocodilian wolves. They ate him alive, his screams lasting for half an hour before his skull was crushed. Arienne heard the news with grim satisfaction, and a twinge of regret. Her father, once he heard what had happened, was furious, and summoned Jawn's father to the palace, forcing him to commit ritual suicide in order to preserve his family's honour.

#### The Blue Rebellion

*"Her beauty had become a curse. In the fickle manner of smallfolk, their minds were easily swayed by the orators of the Blue Nobles. Her lovely countenance, once a source of praise, was now too pretty, a source of envy, a symbol of decadence and deprivation from the poor. Her compassion was now condescension, and her intelligence hid a sly, conniving nature dedicated to the oppression of the people. And so it was that the People's Princess became reviled, just as the rest of her family's name was dragged through the mud."*- Tochastas, A History of the Raven.

Jawn's family, while unimportant, had been part of Glennon's sympathizers, and the man used it as an excuse to begin openly opposing the king. Ulric had Arienne and Ethel's marriage ceremony performed as soon as possible, and Arienne lost her maidenhead when she was sixteen, to a man she barely knew. Over the course of the next two years, tensions reached all new heights, with the Blue Nobles, as they were now known, bearing colours specifically opposed to the royal red, protested Ulric's rule and demanded he cede authority to the Small Council. When one of the nobles led his army and besieged the royalty-held town of Lan, civil war had begun in earnest. The armies of Gat were invited into the country and joined forces with Ulric's loyalist forces, and soon battles raged across Avalon. Hakon joined his father in his campaigns, serving as one of his best generals, leaving his sisters behind.

Eventually the stalemate broke, culminating in a conflict between the bulk of Ulric's army and the Blue Nobles known as the Battle of Nine Gates. Ulric's army lost and were slaughtered almost to the last man. The king's head was impaled on a pike, and Hakon's body was defiled and mutilated, and mounted for display, his genitals hacked off in the traditional Avalonian manner of denying a fallen foe his arun, although a particularly vicious, primitive manner of doing so. As the army captured the Capitol, it lay siege to the royal palace, the last vestige of resistance. Every day, Arienne could see the mouldering corpses of her father and brother mounted before the front gates, and had to endure the sight of children stealing body parts to keep as royal mementos. Her husband would assure her that everything would be alright, that his father would come with his army to save them all. Arienne would smile and agree with him, but she already knew that the armies of Gat had already turned back, denouncing the Blue Rebellion as a lost cause. She kept the intelligence reports carefully hidden from Ethel, not wishing to panic the already nervous man.

After a month and a half long siege, the Blue Nobles penetrated the palace, slaughtering all they encountered. Arienne, her mother and her sisters retreated to the inner sanctum, while Ethel decided to take a few chosen men and scout the hidden tunnels beneath the palace and try to secure an escape route. In truth, he was trying to flee by himself, abandoning his wife. But the tunnels were compromised, and he was mortally wounded. He crawled back with his legs and one arm severed, managing to get back to his wife with a force of will summoned by a desire for redemption as he lay on death's door. He died in her arms, although Arienne felt little as he passed, only wishing that she could die with the same dignity as he did.

Ayetta had them all retreat to the palace's inner temple, a sacred place that no intruder could set foot in, for fear of divine retribution. The invaders were not dissuaded, and, urged by their superiors, broke down the doors and stormed the holy place, with but one thought in mind. In Avalonian culture, there are a few ways to strip a person of their arun, effectively making them less than human. One such way was total domination of their body, making them nothing more than slaves. With five attractive women before them, the rebels had a very clear idea on how they would dishonour them. For hours, Arienne and her kin were violated, beaten almost to the point of death, although the soldiers were careful to keep them alive at the noble's behest.

Once they were considered suitably humiliated, they were brought out in front of the palace, stripped naked to show the signs of their shame. They were each tied to poles and whipped with thorned leather, flaying their backs, until they broke and begged for release. Arienne's younger siblings were the first to cry for mercy, and to the crowd's thunderous cheers, they were both killed with a single stab through the chest after they were declared as devoid of arun. Taryn lasted longer, but eventually she, too, gasped in defeat, and was slain. Finally, her mother remained, but even the proud queen could not remain stoic in the face of agony, and relented at last.

Arienne was the last Torainen alive, and she bore her torture in silence. She did not make a sound, even as her skin was torn and her muscles ripped to shreds. She stared unflinchingly at the crowd, and their raucous cheers turned to nervous murmurs, until cries of a curse began to abound, as they feared her spirit's vengeance. Even the nobles looked at her with fear, as she refused to surrender, powered only by her hatred. At last, they could take no more, after the torturer had run screaming of witches of demons from the stage. She began to laugh, a laugh born of despair and loss, a laugh empty, hollow, and wrong. The crowd fell silent, and many slinked away, desperate to flee from her awful power. A noble unsheathed his sword and thrust it through her heart, silencing her, but in doing so they had admitted their defeat, as they failed to strip her of her arun.

### Second Coming

*"The princess' last stand was a thing of horror and awe. Her pride would not be stained, and not a single whimper left her lips. She cursed all with her gaze, and her laughter haunted all who heard it for the rest of her days. When she was finally slain, there was no relief, for all believed that on that day, an evil spirit had been born, and she would continue to curse her traitor kingdom until it crumbled into dust."*- Marcus Banorn, The Blue Rebellion.

The corpses of the royal family were unceremoniously dumped in an unmarked grave with no ceremony, their wounds undressed and without coffins, simply left to rot in the ground. Arienne awoke amidst the corpses of her family, surprised to see she was alive, and as she saw the defiled corpses of her mother and sisters, the hatred she had kept bottled up burst forth. Powered by her anger, the magic long hidden with her burst forth, and shattered the slab covering their pathetic grave. She cremated her family after she clambered out, her wounds slowly healing themselves. She knew, then, that she was something other than human, something with power to rip and tear. She swore upon her kin's ashes that she would have her revenge, and see Avalon burn.

She limped away, seeking clothes, food, and a horse. Using her newfound power, she stole into a farm on the outskirts of the capital, stealing clothing, a meagre supply of provisions, and a horse. She had no fixed destination, but she determined that her best chances could be found in Gat, where she could entreat the king and appeal to his sense of vengeance for his dead son, and catalyse an invasion of the weakened Avalon. She rode for the border, carefully avoiding patrols, and posing as a traveling scribe, offering lessons in villages to earn her pay.

Arienne eventually managed to escape Avalon, finding herself on the Jindisian steppes to the south of the Great Wall, the mountain range that served as Avalon's natural defense along the eastern border. She joined up with a caravan of potters making their way to Alfoire, an ancient merchant city. They were soon beset by tribe of raiders, one of the many horse-riding barbarian tribes plaguing the steppes. The men were slaughtered and the women taken, Arienne singled out due to her appearance, a trait she was rapidly growing to despise. She was given to the tribe chief, Vorlen Horsecrusher, as a concubine, a brute of a man who ruled his people with an iron fist and a bloody sword.

He made his terms clear. He did not enjoy sex with an unwilling woman, so he would not force her. But if she did not become willing soon, then he would simply give her to someone who didn't mind. Forced to choose, Arienne reluctantly surrendered herself to him, deciding that if she were to consent to violation, it might as well be with the most powerful man around. After all, that gave her more options. It was this decision that started a long chain of change that would turn the kind-hearted second princess of Avalon to the domineering, frightening Raven Witch. It was the first time she decided to use her body for the purpose of furthering her goals, deciding that if her beauty would always draw men to her, she might as well do it under her own terms.

She quickly became his most favoured concubine, and by feigning obedience, she gained a modicum of influence as an extension of his own. She decided to nurture her untamed magical power, seducing the tribe's shaman, promising him sexual favours in return for lessons in how to harness her abilities. Blinded by lust, the man quickly agreed, and so her lessons progressed in secret.

At the same time, Arienne began whispering promises of power in Vorlen's ear, telling him of the glories that could be had if he expanded his operations past raiding merchant caravans, that he should turn his attention to unifying tribes. Using her knowledge of administration, and her observation of her brother when he thought of strategies to use in war, she described a grand scheme that would culminate in him becoming a king in his own right.

The process was slow, and took many months. Vorlen's tribe expanded its operations, absorbing other tribes forcefully, until at last they perpetrated their largest raid yet, targeting a Jindisian town. Arienne was appalled- she had hoped that Vorlen would turn to Avalon, razing and burning the vulnerable farms, but instead he had focused his attention on wartorn Jindis. The raiders fell on the farm under the cover of night, swift and merciless, killing most, seizing the women, and plundering all they could.

#### Meeting Eris

Most died, or were killed in the ensuing chaos. But one survived, a girl, barely more than a child, with a mane of blazing red hair and eyes a matching crimson. The men wanted her, and made to lay hands. But Arienne, using her authority as Vorlen's main woman, succeeded in fending them off, much to their displeasure. She took her under her protection and learned that the girl's name was Eris. When he heard of this, Vorlen was enraged, and beat Arienne savagely, but ultimately allowed her to keep Eris by her side.

As the months ticked by, Arienne taught Eris to read and write, telling her of the world and its history. Eris was but a poor farm girl, and had only been in town to help sell her father's crop of radishes, and so knew little in the ways of letters and numbers. The two took to each other quickly, becoming as close as sisters. Arienne's lessons with the shaman progressed, just as his patience diminished, demanding to know when she would stop tempting him and yield her body. She kept answering, with unnerving calmness, when he had no more lessons to impart.

#### Destruction of the Tribe

Finally declaring his lessons done and his knowledge conveyed, the shaman demanded that she give the reward he was promised. In response, Arienne merely smirked, and told him that she would instead tell Vorlen that he had attempted to force himself upon her, a grievous offence and slander to the chieftain. In his rage, the shaman flew at her and pushed her down, claiming that he would first rape her and then slit her lying throat, so that she could say nothing. She merely mocked him, and as his hand began to tear at her tunic, he heard Vorlen's roar. He looked up in time to see the chief's foot smash into his face, breaking most of his teeth. Vorlen then took the man and snapped his neck with both hands, throwing him from the tent and to the hunting dogs. He stalked from the tent after verifying his woman had not been defiled, while Arienne mouthed a silent thanks to Eris, who had run to the chieftain and warned him of what was going on, at her behest.

Vorlen grew more violent and demanding as time passed, and Eris would often find her bruised and barely able to stand in her tent. But Arienne's determination never wavered. She continued to weave her tales of grandeur for Vorlen, counselling him, advice he took reluctantly, as he united the disparate horse tribes of the steppe, until he finally decided to invade a Jindis fiefdom known as Aln.

Arienne, having steered Vorlen towards this path, had already advised Aln as to Vorlen's forces and likely strategy. The massed raiders were met with an ambush, and decimated. Using her newfound powers, Arienne shattered Vorlen's legs as he tried to flee, forcing him to watch as she tore apart his horse, the symbol of his pride, and then castrated him as vengeance for the year and a half of torment he had subjected her to. She left him to bleed to death, and was taken in by the Alnish soldiers as a refugee, a slave finally freed from her brutish captors. Eris followed her, and together, the pair settled down in Aln, Eris finding employment helping at a small jewellery shop while Arienne peddled her services as a scribe.

### A Witch Rises

Deciding that in order to continue her quest for vengeance, she needed to become more powerful, Arienne sought the services of a mage. She eventually found an elderly fellow by the name of Volod Beeks, a local wizard. She visited him and asked to become his apprentice, demonstrating the spells she had learned from the shaman. Volod refused her, stating that he would teach no woman the secrets of his craft. She returned the next day, and the day after that, remaining seated on his porch, rain or shine, for hours on end, until the sun sank below the horizon. At last, Volod relented, and let her within his home, taking her as his apprentice.

Eris, meanwhile, began to take lessons in swordsmanship from the brother of the jeweller she worked for, a retired guardsman, hoping to better serve Arienne as a protector. She carried out her training in secret, for she knew that if Arienne found out, she would force her to stop. The woman was fiercely protective of her young friend, and determined to keep her safe from harm. Eris also developed an acerbic wit and blunt, manner-of-fact tone that others described as 'cold', often scolding Arienne for her blunders with absolute honesty, and balancing out some of her mistress' early delusions of grandeur, while simultaneously verbally tearing apart any who would slander her. Her attitude rubbed off on Arienne, and soon both women would exchange tirades of increasing complexity and wit, and any who would insult them would find their pride torn to shreds.

Arienne studied under Volod for nearly four years, perusing crumbling texts and practicing arcane spells by candlelight. Studying magic in the days of yore was a complicated affair, largely consisting of mastering the various idiosyncrasies present in the complex magical rituals, and memorizing hundreds of enchantments. When he deemed her ready, Volod took her on a journey to the frigid Moaning Valley, leaving her alone with only a knife, coat, and the directive to make it back home alive.

Forced to use every ounce of her wits and power to survive, Arienne fought off the various monsters that roamed the Moaning Valley, the sort found in the darkest corners of Eun, vicious man-eating beasts that could rend flesh and steel alike. She refused to die, fighting tooth and nail, until at least she found herself before Volod's door once again, thinner, more haggard, and with a new hardness in her eyes, having lost even more of what little innocence remained in her. Volod was waiting within with her very own staff and robe, pronouncing her a fully trained mage, and the best pupil he had ever had. Not due to any talent, he noted with a chuckle, but because she worked with impossible dedication in order to compensate.

Eris and Arienne then decided to relocate the more lucrative kingdom of Harav, where Arienne decided to establish her reputation as a mage. While initially regarded with suspicion due to the fact that she was a woman, she quickly established a reputation for effective herbal remedies and potent enchantments. She gained a reputation as the "comely young herbalist", and drew the eye of more and more people of import. Eventually she came to the attention of the young prince Ducal, whose friends entertained him with stories of a buxom witch who was the talk of the land. He decided to pay her a visit, and was immediately enamoured with her, mesmerized by her unearthly charm. Arienne and Ducal's courtship was a short one- he invited her to come to the palace, where, demonstrating her skills with magic, she was swiftly adopted as court mage. Ducal took her as his fiancé in short order afterwards, with Eris retaining her place as Arienne's loyal maid, now armed with sword skills deadly enough to make her a potent combatant.

Ducal's older brother, Banorn, the heir to the kingdom, became interested in Arienne, although he kept his distance from his brother's fiancé. Seeing the evident attraction, Arienne makes another landmark decision in her life. She decides to seek Eris' help, who proclaims that she lives her life as Arienne's blade, and can be wielded as she so desires. Together, they hatch a plot that would allow Arienne to sever her engagement to Ducal while simultaneously discrediting him and netting her favour with Banorn.

And so it was that Banorn and Arienne walked in on Eris having sex with Ducal, having seduced him. The man, of course, told the truth and claimed the maid had sought his company. Eris, meanwhile, tearfully insisted that he had forced himself upon her. Arienne, acting the part of disgusted and devastated that her fiancé would be so unfaithful, and in so foul a manner, succeeded in convincing Banorn utterly. Outraged, Banorn exiled Ducal from the palace, and soon thereafter took Arienne as his wife. Arienne, meanwhile, broke down from the guilt of having made her dear Eris do such a despicable thing. The redhead assured her that her purpose, and her happiness, was to serve her mistress. Arienne, after begging for Eris' forgiveness, readily given every time, finally resolved herself to her path of manipulation and deceit, reminding herself of everything that the Blue Nobles had taken from her.

Using her new position as Queen apparent, Arienne rapidly began to consolidate new alliances, forging friendships with other noble wives she deemed to have considerable sway over their husbands. Her options were limited, however. Divested of her status as princess, and with everyone unaware of her true bloodline, she was deemed but a pretty commoner, and many took it as an affront and a sign of Banorn's folly that she was Queen apparent. Impatient for progress, her goal in sight, Arienne ignored the dissenters, instead pushing forward to have Banorn installed as king.

With her study of magic and herbalism had come knowledge of various poisons that could be used to kill a man in total secrecy. Developing one such concoction that would induce cardiac arrest, Arienne gave it to Eris, tasking her with delivering it to the king. The maid presented the man with his evening tea, and in the morning, Harav was in need of a new monarch.

Arienne's play for power was swift and decisive. Banorn was her puppet, firmly wrapped around her little finger, infatuated with a wife who couldn't care less for a man she viewed as vapid and dull. He had him installed as the new king as fast as possible, and then adopted an aggressively militaristic position, draining the country's resources dry as she pumped them into expanding the armies, while spoon-feeding Banorn tales of Avalonian riches, and how they were but waiting to be plundered, and the glory he would reap as the conqueror of Avalon.

#### Fall from Grace

With her power came overconfidence. When a minor lordling dared to rebel against his king, Arienne counselled his execution, believing that she held enough influence in the court to do whatever she wanted. Contrary to her expectations, the rebel's death caused enormous public backlash, as the man was the sole heir of a family descended from one of Harav's greatest heroes. This was quickly capitalized on by her rivals, who sought to topple this 'commoner's' power base and claim power for themselves, especially since Banorn was a weak king. The military campaign was swift and crushing, their best generals defecting and the remainder slain in the battlefield. Banorn fell while trying to protect the city gates, buying time for Arienne and Eris to pack what few belongings they could afford to bring and flee the palace, stealing away into the night.

Bitter at her defeat, Arienne's hatred festered even more, flying into irrational rages often. Eris bore it all with good grace, calming her mistress with soothing words, frequently hugging her mistress to her bosom to make her momentarily forget her anger. They never stayed in one place for long, moving from town to town, fiefdom to fiefdom, and along their travels Arienne met with many different mages, offering trades of knowledge, increasing her own magic repertoire substantially. She saw for the first time just how truly disparate magic was from person to person and region to region, and began to think of ways to address the glaring lack of uniformity.

They crossed the entirety of Jindis in their travels, climbing lonely mountains and fording torrential rivers. They saw the red stars bloom above the shattered ruins of an ancient elven fortress, and they heard the cries of a dragon searching for its kin, watching as the scaled beast soared in the skies above. They hid as titanic creatures of stone and earth lumbered past, and heard the whispers running through the spirit trees. Their journey eventually took them south, into the holdings of the warring Kana shoguns, where Eris learned their unique style of swordsmanship, and Arienne studied their unique spiritualist rituals and style of fighting, using confusing illusion magic and obfuscating mental attacks.

#### A Friend's Death

But their enemies had not forgotten them, and they were tracked across the years. Some bounty hunters they managed to dispatch, others they were forced to flee from. Their flight came to an end at the Azure Falls, a place of great natural beauty and considered sacred in Kana. The hunters cornered them, powerful knights and mages all, and forced them to fight for their lives.

Arienne had accrued a vast wealth of magical knowledge on her travels, but she had never applied them to combat. What she had were theorems, textbook knowledge, strategies formulated but never practiced. The bounty hunters gained a distinct upper hand, and while Eris fought like a beast, displaying her sword-fighting abilities to the fullest, she was eventually overwhelmed. Disarmed and restrained, she could only watch as her mistress was beaten down, her spells deflected, forced to continue retreating. The hunters managed to circle her, and their captain, a powerful battle mage, drew forth a bolt of lightning, ready to strike the finishing blow. Summoning the last of her reserves, Eris broke free from her captor, and tackled the captain, causing his attack to go wide. Enraged, he grabbed the girl by the throat and skewered her with his blade, killing her instantly.

Arienne saw all of this as if it happened in slow motion, her limbs leaden, far too slow to move and help. She saw Eris look at her one last time, smiling just before the steel of her murderer's sword pierced her breast. The light leave her red, fiery eyes, and her body hit the ground, limp and lifeless. She screamed in anguish, power burning at her fingertips, tears streaming down her face. As she prepared to incinerate them all, one of the hunters, having snuck up behind her, cleaved her across the back with his battle-axe, almost cutting her in two. Staggering back, blood erupting from her mouth as she coughed, Arienne slipped from the cliffs, falling down into the water below.

She hit the water hard, sinking quickly. She watched through fading vision as her life's blood floated above her, trailing through the water. The red blood seemed to turn black as her eyes closed.

Something broke within her, something sealed away. Magic flowed out in a torrential flood, and a voice promised her power in return for sacrifice. If she would kneel to it, it purred, it would grant her the ability to destroy those who killed Eris, and many, many more. It called itself an Avatar of Chaos, a being destined to be partnered with her kind.

Arienne wasted no time in being surprised. As the being invaded her mind, attempting to establish a contract with her, she recognized that it indeed held what she needed. And so she struck, tearing it apart from the inside, as the Avatar screeched in pain and surprise. She devoured the creature, assimilating power she recognized as having been her own all along, merely kept from her. Her wounds healed themselves, her body knitting itself whole.

From the water rose a monster born of rage and grief, Arienne at the centre, controlling the massive golem. With it, she crushed the hunters, tearing them limb from limb, drowning them, and for the man who had dealt the finishing blow to Eris, she forced the golem down his throat, far too fast for him to drown first, forcing him to endure the brief moment of absolute agony as his body burst apart like a rotten fruit.

The construct collapsed as she hurried to Eris' side, hoping that somehow she had survived. But her faithful companion, her only friend, was cold to the touch, the life long since gone from her body. Desperate, she sought for something, touching her mind to the dead's, trying to find some sign of the soul that she knew would be on its way to the Caverns. Following the slightest hint of a thread, she saw in her mind's eye Eris' soul about to be taken by a shadowy figure, stretching a clawed hand over the brilliant crimson sphere that represented her friend's essence. Arienne launched herself upon the mystery figure and shoved him aside, grasping Eris' soul and quickly retreating to the mortal world. When she opened her eyes, a wispy sphere burned red in her hand, and Arienne clutched it to her heart in relief.

Cold overcame her, then, and she looked up with dread, reluctant to open her eyes. The torn ends of a blue cloak trailed around her, encompassing her as if in a cage. Dark armour with strange, menacing glyphs encased a powerful frame, and a faceless mask shadowed by a hood hid his face. Death stood before her, a God looking down upon her, hand on his sword.

"*It was the first time someone had ever taken from us. We weren't sure what to think- outrage? Amusement? It ended up being confusion, and a desire to see exactly what kind of mortal could pull such a stunt. And then we met her… Before a God, she refused our request, and clutched the soul even tighter. We felt the stirring of something, then. We believe the humans call it love… It was also the first time someone ever told us to fuck off.*"- Death.

He asked who she was, and she answered, fearful that he would instantly know if she were holding back on the truth. He then asked why she had taken the soul from him, to which she replied that the soul was of her sole surviving companion and her dearest friend. He nodded, then demanded its return. Arienne stared back at him, gritting her teeth, and ground out a low 'no'. Death leaned in, not having heard, and Arienne yelled out her defiance, saying she would not part with Eris ever again. Or more precisely, she told him "Fuck off, I'm not giving her to anyone."

Amused and intrigued, Death decided to spare the woman, the first to have ever stolen from him, and the first to defy him. He said that he would allow her to keep the soul, for she had delivered several more to him on the same day. But that he would still keep a debt over her head, and one day, he would collect. Death then departed, returning to his domain, and Arienne was left alone, amidst the corpses, once again.

She bound the soul to a pendant in order to keep Eris by her side, while she researched methods on restoring her to a body. She continued her journey throughout Eun at the same time, although it was almost subconscious, moving simply by force of habit.

#### Meeting the First Immortal

As she was crossing a river on a ferry, hoping to get a caravan train to Fel on the shore, a sudden storm struck, and the boat sunk. Arienne was washed up a fair distance south of where she had hoped to alight, completely and utterly lost. She wandered for weeks, living off the land, hoping to encounter some sign of civilization. During her foraging, however, she mistakenly harvested poisonous berries, which made her gravely ill. She collapsed in a forest as she continued to force herself onwards, seeking aid. It was here that a hunting squad of elves found her, and brought her back to their city as she lay comatose.

She awoke in a soft bed, the first real bed she'd slept in for weeks, in clothes not her own. Her first reaction was to panic, immediately retreating from the door and assessing her options, wondering who had taken her and where. She forced herself to calm down and rationally observe her surroundings, but the room she was in, while nicely decorated, provided no real clues, and the heavy mahogany door was firmly locked. She contemplated using magic, but decided against it, lest her host- or captor- not take kindly to the destruction of his property.

An elven woman soon entered, bearing a plate of food. Arienne decided to assume that the woman was non-hostile, simply to get answers. She asked where she was. The woman told her that she was in the Grey Marches, and that hunters had found her severely dehydrated and on the verge of death in their grounds, and taken her back to the city for treatment, and that afterwards, their king had asked for her to be transported to his castle. She had been asleep for more than a week, although the woman had come every day, and was sincerely surprised to see her patient had awoken.

Arienne's panic flared up once again. She knew the tales of the Grey Marches and their reclusive lord, the last pure Elf and the great general who almost single-handedly turned the tides of the war between man and elf so many years ago. A being known to be immortal, immune to the ravages of time. And an entity terrifyingly powerful, not exactly reputed to be friendly to humans.

Once she had been provided with clothes appropriate to meeting a man of his station, a beautiful green dress of silk and gossamer, she was taken to the gardens atop the palace. It was like stepping into a forest, with tall bushes covered in flowers she knew only from books, rare trees considered almost extinct heavy with fruit, standing tall above misty, bubbling pools where colourful fish darted under the water's surface. In the centre of the garden, where she saw a white birch with silver leaves, she saw a shock of crimson hair, and saw Eris, her heart aching with the sad memories of her friend. Then she cleared her mind, and saw the figure for who it truly was. An elf with ears longer than the rest of his kin, kneeling before the birch with his eyes closed, a great scar running from his hairline down to his jaw, cutting the corner of his eye. His red hair was long, longer than her own, falling down to his waist. His jaw was square and laden with stubble, his face comely and manly, surprising to her given the elves' reputation for effeminate men. When he opened his eyes, she saw that they were as green as emerald, and showed the age his body did not.

The man dismissed his servant with a snap of his fingers, then beckoned for her to sit beside him. Arienne decided that disobeying the man was probably not the wisest course of action, and joined him. They sat in silence for a while, him meditating, Arienne trying not to fidget too much.

At length, the elf spoke. He said that his name was Aodh Flamben, First of the Immortals. When Arienne asked why he called himself the First if he was the only one, he chuckled and put a finger on her forehead. "Because you are the Second, sister." He said.

Aodh explained that her continued survival after events which should have killed her was due to this, and that when the hunters had found her, she should have been dead. Upon hearing that a mere human had survived such horrific malnutrition and dehydration, as well as poisoning, he had had her immediately brought to him, and then confirmed that she was an Immortal while she slept. When Arienne asked how, Aodh bluntly stated that he had stabbed her through the heart, and watched as the wound sealed itself and her breathing resumed.

Shaken, Arienne asked what that meant for her. Aodh told her that she did not have to change who she was based on her true nature, nor did he have any expectations for her. But as her kin, and the only two of their kind in the world, he felt an obligation to provide any aid she required. He said that he could feel the raw power within her, and that he could help her harness its true potential. He also felt the rage that still roiled within her, and hoped to relieve her of her anger, before her lust for vengeance gnawed her to nothingness. He offered that she stay in his kingdom for a while, to rest and learn. Arienne accepted after much thought, and so began her residence in the Grey Marches.

Under Aodh's tutelage, she continued to refine her mastery of magic, marrying the knowledge she had gained from her travels with his experience and ancient elven magic, including incredibly powerful spells used by elven battle shamans during the Great War. Through sparring, she slowly began to improve as a mage, with Aodh soundly trouncing her day after day for almost two years, before she suddenly managed to turn the tables by putting a theory of hers to the test. Breaking down the structures of two spells to their simplest components and merging the two, she cast it much faster than he could, and produced the effects of two spells with a single one, catching him off guard. As they continued to battle, Aodh was forced to relocate their bouts from the city to the countryside, as their fights devastated entire swathes of land.

He also taught her military strategy, at her behest, imparting the wealth of experience he had as the elves' finest general. Coupled with this were lessons on how to rule a kingdom, and the travails of conquest once the military step was done. He also taught her hand-to-hand combat, and she quickly became extremely competent with a spear, enough to easily overwhelm most combatants.

Just as Arienne's power grew, so did their friendship. They eventually took to calling each other brother and sister, reinforcing their strange kinship that went beyond blood. Arienne would speak to the pendant that held Eris every night, telling her stories of the flame-haired elf with sad eyes who showed her a whole new realm of experiences. They would steal away in the night to watch the shambling herds of kolorin beasts move across the Kana steppes, and observe the secret rituals of the Dragonkin deep in the heart of their forest. Their exploits would oft turn to hijinks, with the pair turning the palace of the Unarri king pink after the man publicly slandered Aodh, and stealing every single left shoe in the Galean capital of Fenris. Slowly, Arienne began to sublimate her anger. Not forgotten, but reforged into the keen edge of determination that would drive her forward.

After nigh four years came the day that Arienne decided to leave. She had been soundly defeating her mentor in combat for several months now, and had finished planning her next course of action. She had still not forgotten her ambition to strike against Avalon, but no longer was it motivated by an animalistic desire to rip and tear. She still sought vengeance, but above all, she wanted to prove something to herself. With power, she no longer had to kneel. She would engrave her mark into the world, conquer the lands of her enemies, and make them bow to her. She would crush them, drive them from the field, and hear the lamentations of their women. But above all, she would build an empire from their ashes. It was no longer about burning everything for its own sake.

Aodh found a letter in her chambers when he came to fetch her for breakfast in the morn, and knew then that she had chosen her own path to follow. The elven king silently wished her the best of luck, and wondered what form that path would take.

### The Raven Witch

#### Quest for Power

For Arienne, seeking power had become almost second-nature. With her newborn imperialist ambitions, she needed an army to support her desires. But before that, she needed weapons. She went back to her old ways of devouring libraries and perusing ancient tomes, locating a promising lead. An ancient Great Weapon from the old war, used by the elves. The Spear of Mist, Mystletainn. It had long been lost, but following a trail of clues that took her upon an adventure great enough to be spoken of in legend, she at last found its resting place, ensconced deep within a gargantuan temple complex built by Domaen elves, who worshiped it as a physical deity.

She wasted no time in subterfuge. The elves soon cried out that there was a monster attacking, bloodied guards rushing to their companions and begging them to flee before they died of their horrific wounds. Arienne destroyed all before her, obliterating their resistance with ease. She did all this with no rancour. It was simply the most efficient way to get what she wanted.

Carving open the heart of the temple, she removed Mystletainn from the vast array that served as its altar, watching as the rest of the structure collapsed with the weapon's removal. She briefly contemplated on the fact that she had annihilated an entire subculture in order to get what she wanted- then shrugged and moved on to her next destination.

*"She was death. I know not of how she did it, but she would be among us in a flash, ripping us apart as if we were but chaff and she the scythe that reaped us all. She killed all of my men, but left me alive. I remember looking into her eyes, those orbs of gold that threatened to take my soul. She ordered me to spread the message of her coming- and so here I am, my lords. Arienne Mil Torainen is coming to destroy us all.*"- General Sef Norborn, of the Second Phoenix Army.

History records the first appearance of the witch who would gain world-wide infamy as on a small battlefield in the middle of Jindis, in a battle between two barons otherwise unremarkable. She appeared at the head of a band of mercenaries, a sizeable formation formed through the fusion of several bands, and engaged both sides without a word. The survivors spoke with horror of that day. Fire rained from the sky, and the ground turned to acidic mud, eating at their legs, dragging the unfortunate down into the depths as their flesh dissolved. Shields were nothing to her. At the forefront of her army, she blasted them aside with a wave of her hand, crushing men in her grip, sending arcs of lightning to kill dozens of soldiers at a time. She tore them apart, showing no mercy, nor cruelty- only relentless efficiency. Both barons were appalled at the inhuman precision with which she carried out her slaughter, but neither had much time to contemplate, as she killed them both, their bodies disintegrating in a mighty beam of light that she called forth from Mystletainn.

Arienne's forces grew as she roamed the land, recruiting the disenfranchised and ambitious alike to her cause, promising lands and riches in exchange for their loyalty. Her advance was unstoppable, entire nations toppling in days before her as she marched towards Avalon, trampling everything in her path. Such was the bloodshed she caused that soon a titanic flock of ravens, of a size never before seen, soon began following her army from battlefield to battlefield, expecting their next meal. And so she became known as the Witch of Ravens, promising carrion birds their next meal with a banquet of bodies, the title soon being shortened to the Raven Witch.

"*When you see a black cloud on the horizon, make your peace with life, for the Raven Witch has come.*"- Common saying in Jindis.

Her threat became so great that the normally ever-warring Jindisian nations actually set aside their conflict and joined forces, together with the Avalonian army, forming an alliance that was the largest the world had ever seen. Both of their armies, numbering in the hundreds of thousands, clashed across dozens of fronts, with a level of bloodshed only seen during the Great War. Arienne gained many more titles, then: The Nightmare, the Dark Lord, and one title that would go on to mean something much more. In the tongue of the island nation of Tolra, dyemoen, meaning "one who brings calamity", translated to Demon in Avalonian. And so it was that Arienne was the first Demon known to Eun, before the title was applied to the denizens of the caverns much later.

Their titanic clash ended in a stalemate, both armies battered and bloody, having lost a staggering number. Despite her urgings, her men would fight no further, and Arienne decided to acquiesce to their wishes, retreating to their territories and sealing the borders. Fighting continued, although nowhere near the feverish peak of violence they had reached during the height of the war, and her legend continued to spread, as bards told the tale of the woman warrior who had almost brought the Avalonian Empire to its knees.

In her seclusion, Arienne applied herself anew to her studies, seeking out dragons in their domains, wanting to gain their knowledge. Encountering resistance at first, her persistence (and regenerative abilities) eventually wore down them down, until they were forced to speak to the annoyingly insistent woman. She would speak to them for weeks at a time, filling books of notes as she jotted down their principles of magic. She began to theorize on the foundation of magic, and of their world, although her thoughts on the matter were still in their infancy. She would also seek great generals and warriors when she wasn't hunting dragons, and learn new strategies and tactics from them.

#### The Black Crusade

Twenty years later, Arienne was once again ready to expand. In an event known as the First Black Crusade, her armies sallied forth from the sealed obsidian gates of her Empire, the Raven Dominion, flying her banner of black feathers. Once again the world was subjected to a nightmare of blood, as she crushed her enemies and cut a gory swathe towards Avalon, once again riding in the vanguard. She personally slew heroes and generals alike, and entire cities would surrender once they saw the flock of ravens that signified her arrival on the horizon. She advanced almost to the Avalonian Capitol, before suddenly halting, retreating to a more tenable position. She allowed them to sue for peace, and jokingly suggested that a tribute of a thousand virgins be made to her in return for her mercy. To her great amusement, Avalon complied, and these virgins were welcomed into her kingdom, and became the first Handmaidens, a few of which were trained to become the elite Ravenguard, a fighting force that would become almost as feared as their master in the years to come.

After a time, Arienne began to lose interest in her Jindisian holdings, and so turned her attention to the south, a sign of her future mercurial nature. Her armies marched into Kana, replicating the success of her first campaign, and she soaked their soil with blood over the course of almost five years. Even centuries later, the Kuro no majo, the Black Witch, features prominently in their art and folklore as a figure of destruction, more like a natural disaster than a human conqueror.

She eventually offered the Kana shoguns the chance to surrender under terms favourable to them, which they hurriedly accepted, after growing bored of the ease with which her conquest proceeded. Instead, she once again turned her attention to Avalon, seeking to take the Capitol she had spared before. Her armies again set foot on the Imperium's ground, and hundreds committed suicide once they heard of the Dark Lord's coming. Her armies would cover the horizon, their banners eclipsing the sun. Panicked, the Avalonian Emperor gathered every single one of his soldiers to his side, a feat unprecedented in Avalonian history, a host of unrivalled size. When Arienne's armies met them in the field, despite their numerical disadvantage, her genius strategic acumen allowed her to consistently outmanoeuvre Avalon's greater force. The Emperor had his priests beg of the Gods for some sort of divine aid, to be ride of the scourge that was the Raven Witch.

Surprisingly, the Gods agreed, for in Arienne they saw a threat greater than any before. War, Jealousy and Justice descended to Eun, along with a host of minor gods, and began to lay waste to her armies, before striking at her encampment, intent on engaging her themselves. Arienne, cornered, was forced to concede defeat, unwilling to lose her life by engaging several Gods in combat. Jealousy forced her to kneel before him, an act which she promised he would pay for. He moved to strike her down for the insult, but his brother Death stopped him, materializing before her. He assured them that he would personally keep an eye on the witch, and that before they slew her, they should remember they were Gods, and it did them ill to intervene in the affairs of mortals. War begrudgingly conceded to his elder brother, and so dragged the rest of the Gods, despite Jealousy's protests, back to the Godhome- although he warned Death that his words applied to him as well, just as enemy soldiers flooded her chamber. Death was thus forced to return to his abode, even as the witch was captured. Arienne was delivered to the Avalonian Emperor, who swore that she would be executed, made to pay for the countless atrocities she had committed.

Arienne laughed heartily at his threats, then broke free of her confines, summoning Mystletainn from thin air. This was the first time she had ever publicly used the Void, unlocking access years before after she had picked through the memories of the Avatar of Chaos she had devoured so long ago. Although she did not truly need the weapon, it nevertheless brought her a sort of cathartic pleasure to see the Imperial chamber, and most of the palace with it, vanish as she scoured it from existence. With their Emperor dead, Avalon was paralysed, and Arienne left the capital in a jaunty mood.

The events of the war were scrubbed from history on behest of the Gods, the Avalonian priests working hard to obliterate any traces of the Gods' intervention, although a few traces in apocryphal texts remained. Arienne took great joy in telling the tale to her handmaidens, however, taking great pains to emphasize the fact that they had had to call the Gods themselves to even stand a chance at stopping her. And privately, she wondered whether or not she could one day defy even them.

#### Hero Killer and Mother of Magic

Arienne did not pursue many military campaigns in the next few decades, although her armies were always ready to crush the opportunistic young kings who sought to breach the black gates of the Raven Dominion. She made a point of leaving the corpses behind, until the lands before the gate were littered with thousands of empty suits of armour, the bleached bones of men and horse alike, and a forest of swords and arrows stuck into the ground. The vista became a popular motif in art and literature, and the expression "Walking into the Obsidian Gates" came to mean going into a hopeless situation. During this time she also completed the construction of the Iron Fortress of Karad Ban, above the Shadow Falls, a gigantic castle complex that served as her new capital, a foreboding structure that still stands to this day.

Heroes would try their luck at killing the feared conqueror every now and then. Legends in their own right, they would steal past the gate and fight their way through Arienne's lands. Most died at the hands of her Ravenguard, but those who lived to breach the throne room were honoured by being given the right to face her in single combat. All perished, although Arienne kept the souls of those most capable. So it was that she took the soul of Hakon Marksson, the famed Dragonslayer, and took his Great Weapon, Gungnir, and later Quintus Verulus, heralded to be the greatest weapon master to ever hail from Fel.

While she wasn't actively pursuing expansion, she was studying magic, as well as indulging herself in her newfound interest in technology. She continued to try to find ways to restore Eris' soul to some semblance of life, although her research continually ran into dead ends. Her frequent conversations with Death were of no help either, as the God had not thought much on the nature of the souls he ferried to his realm, and more often than not their conversation would veer towards the God's awkward attempts at flirtation, upon which Arienne would dismiss him.

"*The Raven Witch is known as the Mother of Magic for a very good reason. Magic existed before her, but in a primitive, childish form. She took the work of her predecessors and refined it, yes, but above all she introduced a system of writing which was to magic as the alphabet was to language. She made a discipline formerly esoteric and mysterious inherently accessible, while simultaneously allowing for even greater spells to be formed in a manner beautifully simple.*"- Baron Lourlo, Treatises on Eun's Mysteries.

Her other research proved far more successful. Arienne had long pondered on the nature of magic. She knew that it differed from mage to mage and country to country, each individual having their own unique rituals and variants of spells. But all magic ultimately came from the same Well, and as such, even if the outcomes were different, the initial input was the same. With this fact in mind, Arienne decided to study the raw nature of magic, drawing power from the Well in as unadulterated a form as possible. Her research was incredibly dangerous due to the unstable energy she drew forth, and her laboratory was destroyed many times, and if it weren't for her immortality she would have died many times over. But at last her labours bore fruit, as she succeeded in breaking down magic to a series of simple waveforms, which she found could be represented universally with a simple script that diagrammatically represented the wave's function and frequency. She named this script runes, and rapidly saw their potential, using the simple 'letters' to string together complex spells, which she dubbed magical assemblies, of a level of precision and nuance never seen before. Her previous acts of magic, she now saw, were amateurish compared to the level of sophistication she could now achieve.

Feeling feverish excitement for the first time in years, Arienne left governing the Dominion to her handmaids and left for Ravenna, the home of the College of Magecraft and the only city of mages in the world. She snuck in undetected, but once she reached the town square, where a great statue of Kalastos stood, considered the patron of magical pursuits, she cast off her cloak and sundered the earth with a single strike, calling down a bolt of lightning from the heavens which pulverized the statue. As all turned to stare at her, the witch grinned and said words which were engraved in history forevermore.

"Now that I have your attention, allow me to begin the lecture."

With an audience that was quite literally captive, Arienne had no trouble explaining her findings. From the Void she drew several dozen copies of her thesis, distributing them to the elder mages- which to her meant the ones with the longest and greyest beards, for she didn't know how to discern their ranks, paying little attention to such things. Once the College realized the revolutionary potential of her discovery, she was invited to speak several more times, at assemblies of ever-increasing size, just as her agents spread pamphlets describing novel spells and how to use them around Jindis and Avalon. Soon, the College used her runic script to publish texts of their own, and opened up schools, where a single mage could teach a dozen pupils or more, whereas before they were restricted to one or two apprentices per lifetime. They could also share magic with one another, and Arienne's subsequent publications laid a foundation for a standard for magic, formalizing over a thousand different spells.

Arienne's discovery ushered in the Golden Age of Magic, where the amount of mages exploded. Formerly an extreme rarity, thanks to the accessibility of runes an exponential number of potential mages were uncovered, and trained in the College-sanctioned schools. New spells were developed with alarming rapidity, including devastating new combat magic. It was not long before the Raven Witch had another title added to her list- the Mother of Magic. While her deeds as the Dark Lord were not entirely forgotten, the College chose to turn a blind eye to her past transgressions in order to curry her favour. Arienne even attempted to run a school of her own for a while, but swiftly grew tired of her students, eventually pronouncing them all inept and disbanding the class. Using their training, all went on to become legendary mages in their own right, a fact Arienne takes to show the low standards of magic present across the world.

"*She was a genius, but like most geniuses are, she was very impatient with us. I'm sure we all learned more than we could have ever imagined from her tutelage, but to her, we were all failures, because we couldn't even achieve half of what she expected.*"- Alec Vern, one of Arienne's students and later court mage of Alern.

Leaving the world to its own devices after releasing her findings, including an almanac of old and new devastating combat magic, Arienne returned to her eternal search for enlightenment. Her passion for research had replaced her warlike bloodlust long ago, although she still felt a lust for conquest on occasion, which she would satisfy with quick campaigns- dubbed Black Crusades, although they paled in scale compared to the First- simply to "remind people I'm here". As armies grew and incorporated battle mages, a new breed of wizard, Arienne continued her studies, paying the increasingly dangerous world no mind.

For over two hundred years the world heard little from Arienne apart from the increasingly sporadic Black Crusades, and the Raven Dominion slowly lost its reputation as a dread realm and came to be regarded as an Empire like any other. Trade and cultural exchange blossomed, and the obsidian gates were often open for caravans from distant nations, pouring in with goods strange and wonderful.

#### Of Dragons, and the Creation of Marionettes

Arienne's life was mostly confined to a largely sedentary existence during these two centuries, apart from her many streams of research, which she would switch between with almost manic fervour. When a wyvern decided to claim the Dominion as its own, however, Arienne was forced to act. It had chosen the Iron Fortress as a good roost, and sought to oust its current owner. She managed to convince it to engage her in a battle of wits, which she won handily. Enraged at having lost to a human, the dragon attacked, and Arienne responded in kind. The two fought each other for a full week, crashing through the mountains ringing the Iron Fortress, spells blasting apart the stone until lava flowed down the shattered sides of the mountains. Arienne emerged victorious, slaying the dragon, marking the first and only time a dragon had been killed in combat. The battle had weighed on her heavily, however, and it would be years before she recovered to her full strength once again.

She was greatly troubled when the Atrocity of Aldiss and the Doom of Meris occurred, both occasions where the Gods had blatantly disregarded the wellbeing of mortals and destroyed them for their own amusement. While she made no open moves against them, her agents gathered the few survivors and brought them to the Dominion, while she made sure to record their testimonies and store them in the Void library, to ensure that the Gods' atrocities would not be forgotten. Death, worried that Arienne might take action, visited her to ensure that she would remain neutral. Their conversation once again devolved into proposals of marriage on his part, but when he suggested that he could buy her, Arienne flew into a rage, lashing out. Surprising them both, her attack severely damaged Death, who fled immediately, while Arienne was left to contemplate on the fact that she had hurt a God- and that meant that she could kill one.

Afterwards, she finally managed succeeded in her centuries-long effort to provide a body for Eris. Despite more divine intervention, the Trickster attempting to stall her research. Using First Godwar technology, she built the first complete autonomous construct, housing a disembodied human soul, which she named Ferrus. She then built another body, approximating Eris' original one almost exactly, and for the first time in over five hundred years, her dearest friend opened her eyes. It was also the first time Arienne had shed tears in centuries, and the two shared a deeply emotional reunion, Eris once again pledging herself to Arienne's service, and for a time Arienne was content with simply living.

Her research eventually ground to a standstill, avenues seemingly exhausted. She had run into an impasse with her studies into possibly nullifying spell-casting, unable to apply theory practically. She lapsed into boredom, then, and decided to travel the world instead. Leaving the Iron Fortress, she donned a cloak and a sword, pretending to be a roving mercenary. It was refreshing, returning to her old days of wandering, although many of the sights she saw discomfited her. The world was becoming increasingly military, mages once dedicated to the search of truth and knowledge now merely another kind of soldier. She saw that her teachings had spread far indeed, although she found herself oddly unsatisfied with how they were applied. She supposed that she had hoped that humanity would use runes for a greater purpose than war, but Arienne was not surprised that they had not. Merely disappointed. After all, she had even furnished them with new combat spells, labouring under a twisted hope that perhaps they would ignore the temptation. It was not strange that they had chosen to embrace war instead.

### The Drowning War

#### A New Immortal

During her travels, Arienne noticed a number of oddities occurring in the northern continent, where the countries of Herenno, Koln and Arabat lay. Trends that would be invisible to a mortal were plain as day to her eyes. A line of nobles extinguished only for another to conveniently rise, an economic crash swiftly followed by market buyout, and various other macrohistorical events that shared little relation to one another. But Arienne felt a guiding mind behind them, an entity influencing these events for his own benefit. With wild glee, she postulated that, perhaps, this could be another Immortal pulling the strings.

For the first time in centuries, she paid a visit to her old mentor, Aodh, and told him of her theories. The elf agreed with her, saying that it was highly likely that another one of their kind had been born in the frigid north. Wondering what kind of person her new kin was, Arienne set sail for Herenno, hoping to track down her quarry.

It took her months of intensive searching, but at last she tracked them down to a lonely cabin secluded high up in a cold, icy mountain range. Its owner wasn't home, so she decided to wait within for their return. When she heard footsteps at the door, she prepared herself to meet them, her heart beating fast in her chest, her breath heavy with anticipation. She forced herself to calm down, imposing upon herself the cool beauty image she had cultivated over so long.

The man who walked through the door was handsome, in a dark, rugged way. His hair, grown long and wild, was black, and his eyes silver, the complete opposite of her own gold. His skin was almost as pale as hers, and the shadow of a beard covered his sharp, square jawline. He was slightly shorter than she was, although with his broad shoulders and chest, he seemed larger.

Immediately on the defensive, the man demanded to know who she was. After bandying words, the two were finally introduced. The man said his name was Farnorth, and offered no other name, and he had already surmised Arienne's identity, having already familiarized himself with the other two Immortals. The two conversed for a while, and Arienne helped him solve a problem he had been struggling with for a long time, inadvertently completing the Symphonata, a Great Spell which would gain much infamy in years to come.

Arienne's teasing and Farnorth's vehement arguing quickly became the basis of a vitriolic friendship, and fuelled by alcohol, Arienne seduced him, Farnorth giving in despite his initial resistance, making love to her in front of the fireplace.

"*When she left me, I was torn. I knew that what I was doing was wrong, that I had been unfaithful. But damn it all, the cursed woman had ignited some fire in me that wouldn't cool. I… I think I was falling in love with her. So when I found out she was gone, without even a letter, I was angry. Angry and sad. But now, thankful. I'm not sure I could have dealt with my infatuation had she remained.*"- Vallen Farnorth.

They remained together for over a month, indulging in the activities virile men and women do. They spoke of much, with Arienne finding herself talking with Farnorth as comfortably as she would with an old friend. They exchanged many tales, and Arienne told him of her strange experience with Death, and how she had wounded him. She saw a cloud pass over his face, the man suddenly becoming pensive and brooding, before he shook it off and cupped her chin, stealing a kiss. She noted that Farnorth ceased to act purely out of lust, and had become worryingly affectionate. The day she noticed the look in his eyes when he cast his gaze upon her, she knew that she had to leave, before he grew too infatuated. She disappeared one morning, saying nary a word, and began her long journey back to her empire. Along the way, morning sickness set in, and she wondered what in the Caverns she would do with a child, especially one with another Immortal.

#### A Mother Ill-Suited

Eris would have had a heart attack, if the mechanical device that beat in her chest could halt, when her mistress returned with a month-old baby girl in her arms. The child was named Taryn, after her elder sister. Arienne could not be considered a good mother, however. Most of the duties of child rearing were left to Eris and the rest of the Ravenguard, so that Taryn saw very little of her own mother. Only when she reached around eight years of age did Arienne take an interest, taking over her tutelage personally. She behaved more like a sister than a mother, speaking to Taryn in extremely blunt and candid terms, and often dragged her around on her many journeys. The two got along well enough, with Taryn becoming a confidant of her mother's alongside Eris. As she grew, she also came to resemble her parents more and more, with hair as black as Ari's own, although straighter, more like her father's, with eyes of pure silver. She was also a magical prodigy, showing much more promise than a young Arienne, a fact which her mother relished and was secretly madly proud of.

Unfortunately, Taryn had not inherited her parents' immortality, as Arienne was forced to witness. In time, Taryn had her own daughter, Elliana, who was just as magically talented as she was, if vastly more rash. Arienne withdrew from her family after that, strange feelings of pain gripping her whenever she saw Taryn's greying hair, wrinkles, and the difficulty she would have with moving on some days.

Her daughter contracted a wasting illness when she was in her mid-fifties, and despite Arienne's best efforts, she could find no cure. The night Taryn died was one of the extremely rare times the Raven Witch cried, and Elliana found her grandmother asleep on Taryn's chest, her eyes red and her cheeks caked with dried tears.

Taryn had wanted a small, private funeral, and so it was a small ceremony in Arienne's smaller, private garden, with only her, Elliana, Elliana's young daughter, Rivantine, and Eris presiding. With a reluctant murmur, flames blazed around Taryn, and Arienne scattered her ashes from atop the Shadow Falls, letting the spray and water take them, to parts unknown and uncharted.

A few years later, Elliana, a much more combative woman than her even-tempered mother and a warrior of some renown, decided to test her mettle in the Death Pits of Arkasaad, a Jindisian tradition that has existed in many incarnations over the centuries. She perished in the pits, torn apart by a battle golem, and so care of her daughter Rivantine, barely old enough to walk, was passed to Arienne.

For convenience's sake, Arienne insisted that Rivantine, once she was old enough to talk, call her Ari, although the girl took to referring to her as 'mother' in conversation. She grew up to resemble Arienne and Taryn much more than her mother Elliana, and unlike her mother she had silver eyes, not gold. Her resemblance to Arienne was so great that they were often mistaken for sisters, although an easy way to tell them apart was their physiques, as Rivantine was more slender and less curvaceous than her great grandmother. She also inherited Eris' blunt speech and the wit she and Arienne shared, although hers was more subtle than Eris, and she did not tease or flaunt seductively like Arienne.

While she grew up safely within the Iron Fortress, tutored by both Arienne and Eris, the steadfast protector of the Torainen family, the rest of the world burned with the fires of war. Farnorth, now known as the Moarkor, Wolf of the North and Enemy of the Gods, had come. After swiftly occupying the northern continent, with the aid of the Fourth Immortal, Ren, he landed on the shores of Galea, an eastern kingdom of little import to the Raven Witch. The Drowning War began in earnest with his campaigns there, with Galea forced to ally with its traditional rivals Unarr, Lyen and Fel, and he clashed many times with the great Unarri general Vectarion Urran.

#### Fighting for the Gods

The Moarkor's forces were massively bolstered by his alliance with Aodh Flamben, who swore fealty to him, and together they broke through Urran's defensive line and advanced into the Jindis region. Arienne sent away the Moarkor's emissaries time and time again, wanting no part in his crusade. The Moarkor steered well away from her realm as a result, and those overzealous factions of rebellious Covenant Knights, known as Red Knights, who strayed too near were swiftly destroyed.

The Gods saw the Moarkor's threat as too great to ignore, and so dispatched Death's legions, dubbed 'demon' as Arienne herself had been so long ago, coordinating with Avalon's military alliance, the Divine Blade, formed to stop him, with Urran as their military commander. Arienne contented herself with watching the conflict from afar, drinking tea in the misty hanging gardens above the Shadow Fells with Eris and Rivantine, although she begrudgingly took in refugees, upon Rivantine's insistence.

After Urran's death at the hands of Aodh, the Divine Blade sought a replacement strategist and great general. With the death of Urran, ridding him of a major hindrance, the Moarkor was practically free to expand, winning victory after victory uncontested until his armies were at the mountains shielding Avalon, ready to pour through the Mourning Pass, poised to assault the legendary Dromedian Castle, untaken since it had been built after Arienne's initial invasion of Avalon.

As his armies rampaged, they destroyed a village near Arienne's borders, a village which had housed a bakery Arienne had particularly liked frequenting. Enraged by the insolence shown by the Moarkor's soldiers, she offered the Avalonian Emperor her services as a strategist, under the condition that it was his armies she commanded and not her own, wanting to spare the Dominion the ravages of war. Her own armies were also dwarfed by the forces the Divine Blade and the Silver Empire had managed to raise, their numbers having dwindled as Arienne saw little use for military upkeep. Taking Eris and Rivantine with her, Arienne journeyed to the front, where she went to her first battlefield of the war and promptly took command.

There, she met Urran's former protégé and a man she had heard much about, the young Dochas Kalann, a guardsman's son from a farm in Jindis, and the Fifth Immortal. While the rest of the assembled nobles were sceptical of her, especially since she had arrived with a diamond-encrusted dress and no armour, she quickly lay their doubts to rest as she utterly trounced the Moarkor's army, crushing them so completely that the man himself had to go extract his men. Her only major casualty was the Demon Lord Samael, leader of the demons, who died attempting to kill the Moarkor, although he managed to severely wound the Immortal.

"*When the Dark Lords, old and new, clashed, the world watched with bated breath. And it turned out that the original Great Evil vanquished the successor to the title utterly. It was odd, but just as in ancient times, people were cheering for the Raven Witch. They had finally found something that could beat the Wolf of the North- a predator even greater than he.*"- Count Ketestes.

The Emperor then assigned her an army to her specifications, as well as giving her two staff members she had specifically requested- Dochas, and the Seraph One-with-Bells. She took the young Immortal under her wing, and he rapidly found out that while he had thought Urran's training harsh, Arienne's was far worse. She would often make him spar with One-with-Bells, who would invariably destroy him, and abandon him in battlefields rendered toxic by magic with no supplies. Still, he learned, and grew in power and experience. He was quite well acquainted with Eris, and feared her verbal reprisals even more than he did Arienne's, and met Rivantine under somewhat unfortunate circumstances, thinking her to be Arienne when seeing her from behind, identifying her as being someone else when his eyes automatically dropped to her chest.

Their relationship was rocky at first, but Eris watched with amusement as the two youths began to bond, while Arienne felt a parent's reservations, much to her friend's amusement. She also conversed much with One-with-Bells, and their talks led the Seraph to question the nature of sentience, and indeed, of humanity itself, and ultimately of whether or not his orders were absolute. This seed of independent thought would later prove pivotal in the war.

On the battlefield, Arienne proved just as terrifying as the legends said she was, inflicting defeat after defeat on the Moarkor's forces, winning every single engagement (often at a numerical disadvantage) and driving him from the field on multiple occasions, as well as crushing his other commanders. Her repeated successes reversed the Moarkor's military advances over the course of several years within the space of a few months, driving him back to Fel and liberating the entirety of the Jindis strip, and launching several lightning strikes on holdings deep within his territory. The Moarkor soon learned to adapt by avoiding Arienne's armies entirely, leaving decoy forces to bog her down while he engaged her less talented colleagues, but she soon saw through his pattern and forced him to engage her head-on.

#### Betrayal and Betrayer

The Emperor of Avalon felt threatened by the Witch's success, and knew that even if they won the war, she would merely turn around with her armies and take them all down, for he had not forgotten that she was the ancestral enemy of all of Avalon, even though the people had. Once he felt the Moarkor was sufficiently weakened, he hatched a plan to ensure their mutual destruction. While she was entrenched deep within enemy territory, he redirected her reinforcements, cutting her off from her allies and leaving her with a severely outnumbered and exhausted fighting force. The Moarkor recognized an opportunity to rid himself of his greatest opponent immediately, and so assaulted her camp with a massive force. Arienne, knowing that she would most likely be defeated, sent Dochas and Rivantine away, setting One-with-Bells to guard them both, urging them to survive at any cost. Both refused, but the Seraph dragged them away, taking flight as he fled west.

Eris would not leave her mistress' side no matter what method Arienne used, so she allowed her friend to stay, although she was happy that she had her company. She set what defences she could and waited for the onslaught.

The Moarkor's forces crashed into hers, but Arienne held, forcing him into a war of attrition, systematically retreating in small increments only to lure his soldiers into ambushes and attacks from the flank. She fully exposed the difficulties of commanding a large force, using her army's comparatively small size to her advantage. Eventually the Moarkor managed to grind her army down, although he had lost far more men in the attempt, but the witch refused to surrender. He met her in the field of battle himself, but in a short and furious bout, he was roundly defeated, and forced to retreat. Ren, the Fourth Immortal and his Avenger, decided to take her on herself, theorizing that her own assassination abilities would make her a better match for the greatest of their kin.

The two met in battle, and Ren's unconventional tactics, ability to instantly destroy any non-organic material that Arienne sent at her, and powerful and precise long-range attacks with her spectral bow eventually forced Arienne to use her Great Spell, the Void, in an effort to destroy Ren while her sources were occluded. But using her supreme sense of hearing and smell, Ren managed to navigate the perfect darkness, although she was severely wounded several times by Arienne's spells. Reaching the Witch's position, she unleashed a vicious melee attack a split second before Arienne succeeded in obliterating her, puncturing Arienne's lung and forcing her out of her summoning circle, deactivating the Void. Forced to concede defeat, Arienne was summarily taken prisoner along with Eris and brought before Farnorth himself.

Farnorth held her prisoner for a while, although it was an amicable confinement if anything, Arienne being largely free to roam where she wished, and frequently conversing with the Moarkor and the rest of his generals. She also dubbed Ren 'Boobpunch', and the two women rapidly developed a vitriolic friendship, with Aodh never being able to tell whether they liked each other, or were gearing up to kill each other. Eventually, after seeing the Moarkor's actions and coming to appreciate his mission, Arienne defected to his side, becoming his second-in-command and taking over most military operations.

#### War's End

As the war once again went in the Moarkor's favour, despite the increasing number of demons pouring onto Eun, the Emperor of Avalon decided to try to sue for peace, if only to buy himself time to strengthen his armies. The two leaders and their delegations met in the mutually agreed neutral city of Venier, near the Lyenni border with Jindis. Arienne met Rivantine once again, who had become romantically involved with Dochas while they had been separated, and Dochas came face to face with his rival and the man who had bested him in combat time and time again, Farnorth.

"*She betrayed us all. My teacher, mentor… She was more than that. She had allowed me to grow, forced me to be confident. When I was with her, I felt as if I could take on the world. But now… now she fights alongside the accursed heretic. It pains me, but I'll kill her if I have to.*"- Dochas Kalann.

The conversation became decidedly more awkward when Rivantine revealed herself as the Moarkor's great-granddaughter, a fact which first made the Moarkor panic, then demand to know why Arienne hadn't told him they'd had a child in the first place. In response, Arienne shrugged and said he had never asked, so she saw no reason to speak of it. Dochas, on his part, was discomfited by the fact he was sleeping with his greatest enemy's direct descendant.

The peace talks were a failure, and both parties returned to their armies to resume the war. Arienne told Rivantine that no matter what, she had to live, and thrive, so she should pay the fact they were now on opposing sides no mind. Dochas felt betrayed that his teacher, and a figure he had come to regard as a mother, was now fighting under the Moarkor's banner, and hardened his heart against her. One-with-Bells could only contemplate on why she had turned against the Gods. The Seraph held great respect for the Raven Witch, one of the only beings he did respect other than his creator, and wondered if perhaps his own loyalty was flawed.

Arienne soon find herself besieging the Avalonian Capitol once again, the irony of which did not elude her, and just as before the Gods were arrayed against her. But now she had her allies, Farnorth, Aodh and Ren, standing beside her. Once the city gates were breached, the Moarkor's soldiers poured in. Vicious urban combat ensued, the streets running red with the blood of thousands. The Seraphs emerged to fight, and in response the Moarkor unleashed the full might of his Sherrukar hordes to stall them. As he made for the palace, three Gods descended from above-War, Death and Jealousy. Arienne left her command position to Aodh to go and assist Vallen in his battle, and told him that she would take care of Jealousy herself. As he unsheathed Fragarach and prepared to fight, she drew forth Mystletainn and called to Jealousy, reminding him of her promise centuries ago.

Jealousy did remember, and had wanted to put the upstart Immortal in her place ever since. The two fought through the streets and sky, destroying much of the city in the process, the collateral damage killing almost as many soldiers as the fighting itself. The God was incredibly powerful, shrugging off some of Arienne's strongest magic and striking her down, inflicting terrible wounds that became harder and harder to heal. Her regeneration began to fail, cuts failing to seal, broken bones taking alarmingly long to repair themselves. But she endured, using every last shred of experience she had, and pouring all of her magic into a single strike, pierced Jealousy's heart after severing his sword arm, using the blast to scour not only his body, but also to devour his soul, the nova from the resulting explosion levelling the buildings around them and knocking her unconscious.

When she awoke, the storms of magic unbound raged in the skies above the palace, and she could see tears in the sky, just as a crimson flood rained down from the heavens, sweeping away hundreds of thousands and causing global devastation. She rushed to the palace, only to arrive too late. She saw Aodh plunge Fragarach through the Moarkor's chest, and Ren scream and rush past her. Arienne was paralysed by shock, and didn't think to restrain her. Ren pushed Aodh aside and flung herself on the Moarkor, just as the magical anomaly building in the sky collapsed and consumed them both. Arienne pulled Aodh away, recovering a wounded Dochas in the process, and she quickly reorganized what forces she had left, ordering a full scale retreat.

With the Moarkor's death, his Sherrukar went insane, going on a rampage. Unable to stop them, drained as she was from fighting Jealousy, she could only hope to withdraw fast enough to avoid their attention. But One-with-Bells decided that he would stop them, and buy time for the humans to escape. His brethren attempted to stop him, wanting all the heretics to die, but he slew them all, suffering grievous wounds in the process, and sacrificed his life to destroy the Sherrukar horde. Thanks to his sacrifice, Arienne was able to successfully withdraw her men and retreat to higher ground.

### Ruling the Silver Empire and Imprisonment

#### Empress of Silver and Defeat

Dochas left, once he had to recovered, to return to Avalon, and find out what had become of Rivantine. Arienne wanted to join him, but he refused, saying that he did not need her help. Aodh disappeared soon after, leaving Arienne as the only senior command in the Silver Empire. She thus assumed the throne, becoming the Silver Empress, and began the arduous task of unifying the shattered remnants of the Moarkor's once great empire, now torn apart by a cataclysm of a scale unimaginable to man. Where the Capitol had once stood, now a massive and rapidly growing collective of rips in space and time lurked, dubbed the "Warpstorm", and similar phenomena were taking place all over the world. She also had demon hold-overs to deal with, as well as rampaging Sherrukar survivors, but after three years she had managed to consolidate the Empire, returning it to a semblance of normalcy.

While she was fighting to unify, so was her disciple. With Rivantine's help, Dochas succeeded in winning the Avalonian Civil War that had erupted after the Emperor's death in the last battle of the war, and was crowned as Emperor Kalann of Avalon, first of his line. Arienne congratulated her former student on his victory, only soon after to suggest they merge together. He refused, stating that he did not recall signing a peace treaty with her, and as far as he was concerned the Drowning War was not over. Tensions between the two empires grew, until Arienne formally declared war on him.

At first, Arienne crushed Dochas' armies, but soon revolts across the Empire, led by a former ally, Duke Staraphy, forced her to divide her attention. Using the lessons he'd learned from Urran and Arienne both, Dochas soon reversed his military fortunes using this small window the rebellions had afforded him. To avoid a protracted war, Arienne decided to meet his army head-on, and the two faced off in the Battle of Black Cliffs.

Arienne sought out Dochas personally, wanting to end the battle by defeating the enemy commander. Dochas had had the same thought, and had come armed with an intricate plan that ultimately hinged on a gamble. Their battle was one-sided, with Arienne dominating the younger, much more inexperienced Immortal throughout, until Dochas' gamble paid off and he turned the tables. He used the one trick Arienne had warned him about time after time. She had become overconfident, and maintained a single magic assembly for too long. Dochas had seized control of it and turned it against her, and in that single moment of carelessness, had won. Closing the gap while Arienne was momentarily defenceless, he deployed a spell he had prepared for the occasion. Putting her to sleep and encasing her in a crystal, he hoped to keep her out of commission until he had the rest of the world stabilized, upon which time he would return and free her. He had her sealed in the Warpstorm, to prevent any of her followers from rescuing her, and was forced to dispose of Eris when she tracked him down, as well as Arienne's other soul-bound beings, scattering them around Eun in hidden places.

*"The long and bloody legend of the Raven Witch ended on the Black Cliffs, where she lost her life to the hero Emperor Dochas Kalann. After he slew the Void Princess and shattered her armies, he turned his eyes to the rest of the Moarkor's legacy, and resolved to dismantle the Silver Empire."*- Tochastas, Legacy of the Wolf.

#### Confinement

However, Dochas had failed in one aspect of his spell. It had not put Arienne to sleep, merely made her unable to move her body. And it had, in fact, prevented her from ever sleeping at all, condemning her to remain awake while trapped, without sight, sound or feeling. Dochas' plan to come back for her also never came to fruition, as he lost his life a few years later as he journeyed to discover the fate of the rest of the world.

The years ticked by as Arienne railed against her confinement, throwing spell after spell against it, but never succeeding. She managed to gain some small insight into her prison, gaining the ability to faintly perceive the world around her, but it was like seeing through a thick veil. She tried to occupy the time by thinking, compounding theses in her mind, running through research she had been undertaking, developing hypotheses of increasing unlikelihood. And once that became unable to hold her attention, she turned to reminiscing, replaying old scenes of her life in her mind's eye.

Spinning tales followed, and finally she could only talk to herself, starting with ordinary conversation that swiftly derailed into arguments. Her logic began to crumble, hysteria tainting her words, until at last she descended into gibbering madness, screaming and wailing in the darkness she was confined in.

Her return to sanity was like waking from a dream. She did not know how many centuries had passed since her descent into madness, but she could feel it had been many. She reached out with what little senses she had left, fumbling in the world around her. She saw the grim denizens of the Warpstorm, foul creatures the likes of which she had never seen, and the roving legions of undead, twisted remnants of old armies. She could also feel the foreboding presence of a Seraph lurking deep in the Warpstorm, a brooding creature which radiated killing intent.

The waning of her madness coincided with a ray of hope. A group of knights had entered the Warpstorm, and she could sense their presence immediately. She watched their progress eagerly, hope daring to rise in her chest as she saw them cut apart their foes ruthlessly, wielding powerful weapons and magics. She tried to help them where she could, speaking to them in their dreams, giving as many hints as she could, but the connection was tenuous, and there was not much she could say before she faded away. She tried to keep her hope alive as they began to fall, then tasted the bitter tang of defeat as the last one was slaughtered and devoured by the Undead. But she refused to give in to despair, and forced herself to stay sane through sheer force of will.

But after dozens more expeditions over the years, all ending in failure, Arienne had reached her breaking point once again. Trapped, she had been forced to witness her potential saviours die, time and time again, hoping beyond all hopes that the next one would be successful, only to be met with disappointment every single time. She gave in to despair, a spiralling drain of depression that consumed her. She resolved herself to a life in the darkness, and utterly surrendered, retreating within herself and going silent.

#### The Knight of Crows

Then came a lone knight, who she watched with morbid interest, wondering how he would die. He bore the crest of a Crow on his chest, and unlike his predecessors, he wielded neither magic nor powerful weaponry. He was just a man with steel in his hand, doomed to fail. When the Sherrukar seized him, Arienne laughed bitterly, thinking that his journey had been short indeed.

But upon a whim that surprised even her, she reached out to him, plucking him from the Sherrukar's feverish dream. Awoken, the knight slaughtered his foes, then moved on. He met the undead head on, and made them taste his blade. She watched with increasing fascination as he carved his way through them, although she didn't dare to let even the faintest spark of hope burn.

The knight continued his quest through the Warpstorm, and even though he hadn't come for her, he professed a desire to save the woman who appeared in his dreams. Despite a universe of foes arrayed against him, that even the mightiest knights and heroes had died trying to fight, he forged through them all. And when he entered the Seraph's chamber, it struck him down, and Arienne grimly accepted that even though he had come the furthest, he had been bound to fail in the end.

Then the Seraph raised him from the dead, and repeated their duel. Again, and again, and again, until Arienne questioned how he even managed to remain sane. Until, at last, he stood victorious, slaying the Seraph in a final vicious bout, striking down the other guardians in his way with contemptible ease, more powerful than ever before. Drawing forth a Great Weapon which she had never seen before, he shattered the spell which bound her completely, and took her in his arms.

The shock of her confinement breaking was too much for Arienne after the long centuries of imprisonment, and her personality retreated into a corner of her mind, leaving an amnesiac mute in its place. But the knight dragged her along nevertheless, hoisting her over his shoulder when she refused to move. He was still gunning for his main objective, after all- the Eye of Avalon, one of her many creations, a device which allowed one to chart a course to one's desire.

It was guarded by a Colossus, a gigantic marionette construct built just before the Drowning War, and although he came close, even the knight could not slay it. He was about to perish, falling down to the ground below, but the sight of her saviour plummeting to his death awoke Arienne's memory with a harsh jolt, and the witch went into action immediately, plucking the knight from his fall and pulverizing the Colossus in a series of strikes filled with her rage and relief, venting the years of frustration and despair that she had built up.

After plucking the knight's language from the surface of his mind, she spoke to him, although the words felt unfamiliar in her throat, and even her lips hurt after being still for so long. Still, she kept her stoicism strong, refusing to show any weakness. The knight wearing the Crow insignia demanded to know who she was, and living up to her Avalonian honesty, she answered.

Recognizing the name and knowing that it meant calamity, the knight knew he'd made a grievous mistake in freeing her. He drew his blade once more and challenged her, staking his life that he wouldn't let her leave. Arienne played along, watching his panic rise, before bursting into laughter and assuring him that she was quite retired, and had no intentions of global domination. With the situation disarmed, and the knight embarrassed, the two decided to look for a way out of the Warpstorm.

The man introduced himself as Savien de L'Etraz, the Knight of Crows, and the irony of the association between Crow and Raven did not elude her. He had the curious habit of always wearing his armour, never showing his face, and he refused to unsheathe the Great Weapon on his back. His arm was also covered in black wrapping, with several warding seals inscribed on a thin silver chain looping around the limb. He would not answer any questions on it, instead lapsing into sullen silence, one which not even Arienne's prodding and teasing could break. To satisfy her burning curiosity somehow, she instead tore off his helmet, wanting to see his face. She immediately put it back on, embarrassed at her maidenly reaction, for the man's face was altogether too handsome, with dark, dangerous features that threatened to overwhelm her after so long alone. She had to restrain herself from pinning him down, reciting her mantras to calm herself.

Once they had escaped the Warpstorm, Arienne using the power of Gungnir to exploit a weakness in the Warp's fabric, Savien offered to be her guide in discovering the world, for it had changed much since she been imprisoned. Arienne agreed, thus taking him on as her personal knight, although she didn't mention the importance of such a position to him. She quickly found that the man was unnervingly sincere, unflinchingly honest, but at the same time could lie like a professional. But his eyes, which she so often caught lingering on her, told all. Although Arienne spoke technical truths, there was usually very little honesty in her words, so Savien's fervour and passion frequently embarrassed her, although she did a good job of never showing it. Furthermore, to her chagrin, he was the only one who could calm her when she suffered from night terrors, an affliction she had developed after being freed, experiencing horrific nightmares that prevented her from sleeping.

She trailed him back to his home in Lyen, where she promptly introduced herself to his elder siblings as his wife. When Savien fervently denied this, she said that he was prone to abusing her, and that such spousal neglect was frequent. To her amusement, Savien's sister, Elaine, dragged the much larger man away by the ear and gave him a legendary scolding. She still maintains the façade, and Savien has grown to grudgingly accept his status as imaginary husband, while Arienne continues to complain about all of his faults, and he gets scolded time and time again.

Lacking a place to live, and not willing to return to the Iron Fortress, Savien allowed her to stay with him, and since then she has been freeloading in his apartment. While she follows him on some of his travels, she also embarks on many journeys by herself. Usually these entail reclaiming treasures she has lost, or were taken from the Void over the centuries. Often, these treasures are monsters she had sealed away, since become legendary for their rampages, a fact which brings her a small amount of embarrassment. For her, this is akin to letting your dog destroy a doll house.

On one of her travels, she met a Galean Institution of Magic researcher by the name of Faye Hausen, a young woman looking to write a thesis on several pre-Drowning era ruins scattered around Jindis and Avalon. Posing as a swordswoman, Arienne accompanied her, defending her from ruffians, but mostly exchanging academic chatter and getting a better grasp of what modern magic was like. One encounter with an ogre forced her to reveal that she could use magic, and Faye immediately recognized her as the Raven Witch. The young woman promised not to tell a living soul, and the two parted ways amicably, still exchanging letters from time to time. Faye currently works as a librarian in the Institution, dealing with the Drowning War history section.

She has also saved Savien's life on multiple occasions, rescuing him from the hands of Baron Venedis, the currently most powerful warlord in the Jindis Strip, and healing his grievous wounds. Seeing the extent of torture inflicted upon Savien, she swore that if she ever got her hands on Venedis, she would return the favour, and thrice more. She also saved Savien as he was plunging to his death in the fiery inferno of the Galheim clock tower, locked in combat with the Golden Swordsman. But despite Savien's insistence that the record currently stands at 3:9, in Arienne's favour, she disagrees, saying that she has yet to work off her debt to him.

After Savien was once again called upon by his mysterious employer, the Fire Mage, the same one who had contracted him to venture into the Warpstorm, she decided to follow him to Galea. She met the Pretender, and, amused by his naïve desire to improve his country and blind idealism, decided to lend an aiding hand by using the Eye of Avalon to help him further his plans. Mostly, however, she acts as an observer, and keenly watches the conflict between the Avenger and the Fire Mage, eager to see how it all plays out. And while the secrets of Savien's past, and the brand on his arm, elude her, she is sure that the knight is more heavily involved than he lets on.

## Abilities

*"They called her many names. The Void Princess, the Dark Lord, the Spurned Empress. But above all, she was a witch. Magic was her tool, and to her, its use was as natural as breathing. Watching her weave spells was like watching the best artist in the world create a masterpiece. It was as if all other mages were but amateurs, barely nipping at her heels."*- Account of Sellus Decutus, Ambassador of Fel to the Raven Dominion.

Arienne is the most accomplished mage to have ever lived, and quite possibly to ever live. Her magical prowess stems not from natural talent, but from centuries of hard work and dedication to her craft, a single-minded and oftentimes ruthless pursuit of power. Arienne is a master of all kinds of magic, from spiritual to elemental, a particularly redoubtable necromancer, and is capable of juggling dozens of spells at once, several orders more than a common mage can handle. Her ability to put together complex magic arrays in the blink of an eye is unparalleled, and lends her phenomenal adaptability, allowing her to unleash devastating strikes at a moment's notice. Moreover, her critical eye and centuries of experience allow her to unravel the assemblies of enemy mages. If they expose their magic assembly to her for too long, she will seize control, and turn their spell against them.

*"The Raven Witch has held onto her knowledge for too long. Who knows what treasures she has, what secrets untold she keeps? It is our duty as mages of the world to take this knowledge from such unfit hands. Therefore, I propose an expedition into the Raven Dominion and seize this knowledge by force. It is unfortunate that such enlightenment must come through violence, but faced with a brute such as her, it is sadly necessary."* -Speech given by Master Ahogan of the College of Magecraft, prior to the ill-fated attempt to kidnap the Raven Witch.

On top of her mastery of all known magics, the Witch also has a few tricks of her own. She is the master of the Void, a pocket dimension similar to the Warp, which she can use as a method of rapid travel between marked destinations. She can also store an infinite amount of things within the Void, and has several workshops and titanic libraries within. The Void is a treasure trove of knowledge, and ways to access it have been fervently researched for centuries. The Void is the single most important repository of knowledge, both magical and otherwise, in the world.

*"She was hiding in the shadows! She slipped right between us, tearing us apart, and she was gone like mist before our very eyes."*- Report of Lieutenant Corporal Etihad, sole survivor of his platoon.

The Raven also holds dominion over the shadows, which she uses to teleport over short distances, disappearing in clouds of darkness only to reappear moments later. This gives her incredible mobility during battle, allowing her to effectively dart over the battlefield, getting behind enemies or disengaging rapidly.

Furthermore, Arienne has access to her Great Spell, Void. Not to be confused with her personal dimension, Void was a name given to the spell by survivors due to its characteristic emptiness. A bounded field of total darkness that devours all light within or upon it, the Void provides Arienne with near limitless power, and blinds her opponents completely, while she can sense movement within the space perfectly well. While immobile, she is little hindered by this fact, as she can blast her enemies to pieces within seconds while they fumble around in the dark.

Arienne is also incredibly physically powerful, capable of crushing metal in her grip with ease, due to centuries of physical enchantments which have become so ingrained in her body that she no longer requires any conscious effort to maintain the layers and layers of magic enhancements woven into her flesh. Mages are viewed as traditionally vulnerable in close range combat- woe be to anyone who gets in reach of Arienne.

The Raven Witch is also one of the finest strategists to have ever lived, having learned from the First Immortal, himself considered a peerless general, and studying directly from the finest generals of history. Arienne is always open to acquiring knowledge, and so she is eternally learning from her opponents, as well as thinking of ways to improve on what she did right, and correct what she did wrong.

Arienne also has access to the knowledge and skills of whomever holds the Witch's Contract- a deeply personal kind of mental magic that links two minds, allowing either party to draw upon the memories of the other. Previously an unused, purely theoretical magic, the current contractor, and only one so far, is the Knight of Crows.

## Weaponry

*"...And her blades did cloud the sky, and the sun was hidden behind cold steel. The ground was stained red that day, and the ravens given corpse aplenty to feast on. The ire of the Princess of Avalon was a thing to behold, and her wrath was a curse upon all."*- Tales of the Dark Lord, author unknown.

The Raven Witch has a vast arsenal of weaponry at her disposal, ready to be summoned at a moment's notice. Perhaps the two most prominent items in her treasury are Mystletainn and Gungnir, her Great Weapons, although the rest of her weapons are certainly to be feared. Men once spoke in hushed whispers of the horrors the Raven Witch could unleash on the battlefield- eldritch monsters held in the void, released only to slaughter, hulking, soulless machines that could mow down entire companies, and swords with an edge that could melt through steel and flesh alike. Of course, Arienne can also conjure whatever weapon she wants, as was common practice during the Drowning War, and therefore theoretically has an unlimited number of weapons at her disposal.

*"We sent our best men, our mightiest heroes, to kill the accursed witch. And she sent them back. With minds twisted and swords thirsty for blood, they killed us all."*- Memoirs of Baron Gerhard.

Some of Arienne's most potent weapons are not really weapons at all, but people. Her iconic marionette, Ferrus, is the world's first completed specimen and one of the most powerful, based on advanced First Godwar technology and sporting thick armour and artillery runes capable of devastating armies and laying low thick city walls. She also has the spirits of the heroes she has slain at her disposal, the two most powerful being Hakon Markson, the Dragonslayer, and Quintus Verulus, the Master-at-Arms of Fel. Summoning them from the Void in corporeal form, bearing the finest armours and the strongest weapons, they alone can easily handle most threats, being far more powerful than most beings yet living on Eun, and mighty heroes in their own right.

Above all, Arienne's main weapon is her absolute mastery of magic.

## Trivia

* Arienne's prominent eye shadows are the result of a chronic lack of sleep due to her night terrors.
* Arienne despises Spark Wolves, and is partially responsible for their current endangered status.
* She can be often found eating sweet cakes and pastries; however, she does not have a sweet tooth, but rather indulges because they remind her of the kitchens of her youth.