Sybilla Eirik

Official image of Sybilla, drawn by @grace.pptx on Instagram

* Queen Sybilla Eirik, Monarch of the Kingdom of Hyranor and Its Associated Lands, Fourth of Her Age (official royal title)

### Age in Arc

* 17 (Arc 3)
* 47 (Arc 8)

## Status

### Cause of Death

*Power Word Kill* by The Prime Lord Wizard

## Connections

### Occupation

* Politician
* Queen of Hyranor (former)

### Affiliation

* Eirik Family (member)
* Arc 8 Party (member)
* The Minor Council (member)
* Selûne (Paladin)

### Family

* Eirik Family (member)
* James “Jim” Eirik (Husband)
* Constance Clover Eirik (daughter)
* Jane Joanne Eirik (daughter)
* Bombyx Mori (mother-in-law)
* Nephila Mori (sister-in-law)

## In Podcast

### Portrayed by

* Haley (NPC, Arc 3)
* Haley (PC, Arc 8)

### Debut

* Arc 1 Episode 5 (mentioned)
* Arc 3 Episode 2 (appearance)

### Episodes

* Arc 3 Episodes 2 and 5-6 (appearance), Episode 4 (mentioned)
* Arc 8

Princess Sybilla Eirik is the oldest child of King Alaric Eirik and Queen Liliana. She is introduced as an NPC in Arc 1, and is a player character in Arc 8 played by Haley as a 4th level Paladin.

## Description

Sybilla is of average height and build and has long, dark brown hair, which, as of Arc 8, is gracefully greying. She is an Oath of Redemption Paladin, and a devout follower of Selûne.

She usually dresses in very fine clothes, which by the time of Arc 8 are made of silk provided by Bombyx. For ceremonial events, she usually wears the Eirik colours, red and gold. Usually, her clothes and accessories have a moon theme, in honour of her goddess.

She is a quite pragmatic, matter-of-fact person, who sees the world in very direct ways and has a spirit that is hard to break, even after traumatic events. Normally, Sybilla is observant and careful, she knows that as the princess and possible heir of the crown, she has to keep her guard up.

As the oldest child of King Alaric Eirik and Queen Lilliana, she is King Alaric's successor, which does not automatically make her the heir to the throne, though: first, she needs the approval of the Minor Council. To her luck, she herself is a member of the Minor Council, as none of her younger siblings were interested to go into politics.

Her Patreon submitted magic item for Arc 8 is the Ring of Biting Disdain. She also wears a Ring of Mind Shielding, which is supposed to store her soul in case of her death, so that it can be given to her husband.

## Backstory

Sybilla grew up in the royal palace and was raised by a personal staff and tutors. From a very young age, she was groomed to become the successor of King Alaric Eirik.

When she was 7 years old, Sir Up Ton became head of the King's Guards, and also a bit of an uncle figure for her, although more of a bad influence uncle who let her do all the things her father did not allow. While her and her father do not have a very close or familiar relationship, she trusts Sir Up.

## Character Arc

### Arc 3

Sybillas parents plan to have her marry a prince from the country of Malum. Because of that, she is supposed to travel soon, and she has had arguments with her parents about it, one of them happining in Episode 2. During the argument, she storms away to her hiding place, a secluded spot just north of the castle, where she gets attacked by the Horned Devil Lars. She loses an arm, and a good part of her face gets blistered. Isadora finds her and drags her back to the castle, and the healers trusted by the royal family are immediately called to the Ember Keep. Together with one of them, Count Michael, the Arc 3 party hears about the attack and arrives at the castle. As Diarmad can get through to her, he casts Regenerate on her, because of which she recovers quickly and keeps no physical wounds or scars, even her arm regrows. Shortly after, she lets Annie read her thoughts to find her memories of the attack, which gives the Arc 3 party the hint they needed to find the devils and stop them from opening a portal to Hell.

Her sister Isadora likes to tell her the stories that Fey Moss told her, because Sybilla and Fey are not nearly as close as Isadora and Fey.

### Between Arc 3 and Arc 8

Bombyx Mori introduces Sybilla and Jim to each other, hoping that they might be good for each other, and later, they actually marry. Jim starts going as James Eirik then. Sybilla is proud that she chose her husband herself, but that brings some new tension into the family, and Queen Lilliana doesn't quite grow to like him as much as she could.

Sybilla struggles a while to get used to the fact that she remembers the feeling of her arm being cut off, but it is still there. It goes so far that one time, she even asks Sir Up Ton to cut it off again just so that she doesn't have to deal with it anymore, but he refuses to do so. In her early twenties, Sybilla gets herself a full-sleeve tattoo on her left arm that depicts raging fire curling up all the way from her wrist to the curve of her shoulder. Apart from the tattoo's magical properties as a Barrier Tattoo, it also serves as a reminder of the things she experienced, since the new arm sometimes leads to a bit of derealisation for her. She wants to reclaim these experiences as part of herself.

Apart from the tattoo, her experiences leave a mark on her behaviour as well. While as a child, she used to go out a lot, she now stays inside all the time, and becomes very pale. When she is upset, she can no longer go to her old spot, but finds a new one in one of the libraries of the Ember Keep.

Jim and Sybilla have two children together: The First Daughters Constance Clover, born around 151 AE, and Jane Joanne Eirik, born around 155 AE. She is a bit of an absent mother, though, and Jim's adoptive sister Nephila is actually closer with her daughters than herself, which does not help the fact that Nephila and Sybilla did not really like each other that much to begin with. Jim tries sometimes to have Sybilla connect more with her daughters, but she struggles to do so.

On Spring the 10th, 163 AE, her father, King Alaric Eirik, announces his death ceremony, and officially names her his successor.

### Arc 8

The death ceremony is planned for Spring the 28th, 163 AE. Sybilla is tense, but feels prepared for the day, hoping that everything will follow the planning and protocol. Sir Up Ton gives her the ring which he wore as he applied to be the head of the King's Guard as a good luck charm, and she carries it in her pocket when she goes to greet the arriving guests together with her father. Later, Penny Lovejoy pressures her into signing a contract without being able to scan it for magical effects, and Sybilla, knowing that she needs any ally she can get, signs it. Penny used Illusory Script to write the contract, so that Sybilla unknowingly signed that she would grant the city of Glaceria independence under Lovejoy control. Sybilla had hoped that she and Penny could be allies without the secrecy and hostility, but is not particularly surprised about the breach of trust, either.

While Sybilla tries to talk to the people and convince them that she is a capable politician, many of them fear that she would just rule as her father did, since she had such a sheltered life, and did not go out to see the kingdom. Even though this comes from her trauma, most people assume that her parents groomed her to follow their lead. Contrary to this assumption, Sybilla actually does not have a particularly close or loving relationship with either her father or her mother, and does not think that her mother really likes her.

During the last Major Council meeting under the reign of her father, Sybilla is taken to the side and informed by her mother that she actually is not eligible to be the successor to the throne, as the spell cast by Diarmad to regrow her arm counts as regenerative magic. Immediately after she hears about this, her father already announces it to the Major Council, and chooses Princess Isadora as his successor. Letting her become Queen is not an option for Sybilla, though: Not only has she trained her whole life to become the monarch and is not willing to let all of it go to waste, she is fully aware that Isadora does not have the training she needs, or the favour of anyone in the Minor Council. She is willing to do whatever it takes of her to become the monarch, including losing the arm again. Because of this, together with Jim and Nephila by her side, Sybilla approaches the Prime Lord Wizard and asks him to prepare a ritual that would reverse the magic cast on her, since just cutting off the arm would not suffice to take the magic out of her again.

Before the ritual happens, Sybilla talks to her sister, together with Helga, who informed her about Isadora having a terrible secret after Sybilla gained her trust by telling her that she will have to release Gem Lovejoy, and implying that Gem's security would no longer be the kingdom's business. After some time, arguing, and persuading, Sybilla gets Isadora to admit that during her adventures, Isadora touched the Two of Spades from a Deck of Many Things, changing her alignment to Lawful Evil. For the last few months, she has fought the part of her that wants to gain power at any cost necessary, and fears that should Sybilla become the monarch, she might try to kill her. So, instead, she told the royal researcher to find the law, hoping to prevent Sybilla from getting the throne that way. Sybilla offers her sister help in trying to find a solution, but also convinces her that Isadora has to offer Sybilla the succession again once the ritual is finished.

Even though Sybilla and Isadora are not nearly as close anymore as they used to be when they were children, Sybilla shows her a lot of trust and love. She is just as protective of Isadora as she is of everyone else in her family. She offers Isadora her seat on the Minor Council without hesitation, but warns her about it, telling her that the council is ruthless and deceptive, and that she is too good for them. She is willing to help Isadora, if she really wants to have a political career, and would even have helped her become monarch if they would have had the time to prepare her.

After that talk, she goes back to the Prime Lord Wizard to conduct the ritual. She assures herself again that it is only her own reality that is being changed, everyone elses lifes and memories would be untouched, Jim, her daughters, and everyone else would not be affected. The Prime Lord Wizard assures her that he is not changing all of reality, but practically exchanging her, Sybilla, with the version of her that she would be if that spell had not been cast on her. During the ritual, Sybilla sees memories of her great-grandmother and her grandfather as they were alone, and then, she sees the memories this new version of her would have made, including a two year coma that she was in after the attack, and waking up completely alone. As she opens her eyes again, her arm is gone, Jim is still by her side, and she is eligible again to be the successor.

During the ritual, she realises that what Diarmad did to her was a radical act of kindness. She decides that she wants to share this kindness, and spread it into the world. This is the first time for her that she actually thinks about what will come after her coronation, and not just how she can achieve it. She realises that she does not want to follow the legacy of her father, or her people to be in pain, or her children to one day not actually mourn her.

The next day, Sybilla forfeits her chance to speak to the members of the Minor Council again by going to Isadora instead and taking an hour to cast *Ceremony* on her, thus re-reversing her alignment. Helga, who after the conversation from the evening before considers her a good friend, joins her. Later, Nephila joins aswell to warn Sybilla and her family about Sir Up Ton and his plan to start a coup. Because of this, Sybilla decides not to await the voting results before sending Jim and her daughters away to safety, but to do so right after her casting is finished. Additionally, Nephila presents her plans of a constitution to Sybilla, and Sybilla agrees to slowly enact at least parts of it when she becomes monarch, since this constitution exactly follows her new idea of kindness and change for the better. She hopes to be able to work together with Nephila once she becomes queen, and also offers Isadora the position as Captain of the Kingsguard, now that Sir Up has betrayed her.

Before the successor vote itself can happen, Sybilla is assessed for nefarious or life-prolonging magic as well as bad intentions. Usually, this assessment would be conducted by the Prime Lord Wizard, but since he was the one who cast a life-altering ritual on her just shortly before, Annie Wintersummer is called into the castle to do so instead. During the assessment, Sybilla and Annie have a bit of smalltalk as well, and Sybilla tells Annie about the possibility of a coup, and Annie decides to stay in the castle to possibly help. Her conclusion of the assessment is, that Sybilla is striving for power and feels like it is her right to have it, but that she puts other peoples needs above her own, and would make a suitable queen. In the vote, Sir Up and Penny vote against Sybilla, justifying it with them not being able to trust her anymore after the ritual, while Nephila, Helga, and Sybilla herself vote in her favour. Thus, Sybilla is the new queen.

While the rest of the Minor Council goes to the balcony to tell the people of Tyle about the result, Sybilla and the Prime Lord Wizard go back into his office so that she can sign the necessary paperwork. During this, he realises that she plans to enact Nephila's constitution, and strongly, while threatening her, demands that she never changes anything about his power, or the power of the ruling monarch, and that she rules for life. She refuses to promise this, partially because she does not understand why it makes a difference to him what kind of power the monarch has. As she doesn't respond to his threats, and resists his mind-controlling magic even after he takes away her Ring of Mind Shielding, the Prime Lord Wizard tells her that he will watch the scene unfold, and that he will be back to talk once he hears about a strong Queen Sybilla.

In the meantime, Sir Up Ton has started his coup on the balcony, and teleported closer towards Sybilla, which Helga warned her about. As he arrives in the office, he tries to convince her to go into exile with her family, so that he doesn't have to harm her, but she refuses. He then attacks her with his sword, and as she goes unconscious, she is also banished. Annie, Helga, and Isadora arrive just in time in the office to *Power Word Stun* Sir Up Ton, thus breaking his concentration on her banishment, and heal her. She speaks to the common people of Tyle, who, after Nephila has rallied them up and convinced them of Sybilla, stormed the castle to save her from the coup, and ends the fighting.

During her coronation ceremony in the entry hall of the castle, many common people are there as well, witnessing that she in fact becomes their new queen. She makes her first three decrees, reversing the Law of Assistance and the Som's Claims Law, and freeing Gem Lovejoy from prison, as she believes to have contractually promised to Penny. She also realises that the Prime Lord Wizard is there, and he approaches her to tell her again that she must not allow any law or constitution to reduce her power or his. Again, she refuses to promise anything other than that the constitution will be established slowly, and step by step. He looses his patience, and casts *Power Word Kill* on her, which no attendant is able to stop, since Annie has left before the coronation, and *Soul Cage* as a reaction, so that not even *Revivify* can save her.

## Trivia

* Sybilla speaks Infernal. In fact, she speaks many different languages, as she is a very bookish person and has a lot of langage tutors. For Arc 8, Haley took the Linguist feat to mechanically allow for all the languages they gave her in Arc 3.
* She has no middle name.
* She is very respectful towards her servants.
* Isadora and Sybilla have a secret knock pattern as children.
* On the google form Grace uses for the character art of each PC, for the gender of Sybilla Haley wrote "milf (she/her)":  Grace (@lmaogracee) on Twitter: "been waiting so long to share these incredible response haley gave on the character form" (2022/05/22).