The Queen of Air and Darkness

The Queen of Air and Darkness was the twin of Titania who fell at the height of her power to the forces of the Seelie Court. Her name was scrubbed from history, removed from the minds of those who knew, and now she is gone forever.

### The Vile Deeds of the Queen

The Queen of Air and Darkness was born as the echo of Titania at her birth. The two were in opposition from the beginning, and when Una and Finvarra disappeared, along with the influence of the Tuatha Dé Danann over the Feywild, it created a power vacuum that the two were only too willing to fill. The Queen of Air and Darkness did not create the corruption within the hearts of the fey, but in her heart it had deep roots, tendrils that spread to those closest to her.

Things began to grow hopeless for Titania's forces when her strongest allies- the elves began to leave the plane due to the actions of the Fomorians. The fey had pushed against the forces of the fallen titans once before, but with the Queen of Air and Darkness bringing further destruction and blight to the Feywild it became impossible to spare the resources needed to defend the elves and survive. When the last remaining great clan of Shinaelestra took the dark gift of Pale Night, they routed the Fomorians, pushed them underground, and prevented the spread of Shabbith-Ka's influence. With the influence of the Outer Gods reduced, Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness became the two strongest entities on the plane, which was always the intention of the Dark Lady.

The Queen of Air and Darkness called upon her general Cegilune and the other high members of her Unseelie Court. Auril was ordered to bring her forces South, pushing towards the Murkendraw, trying to eliminate any Seelie forces North of the great swamp, while Cegilune and the other hags participated in a ritual with The Queen of Air and Darkness and agents of Lolth. A sacrifice was placed upon an altar deep underground in the forest, East of the Lake of Dreams, an eladrin demigod named The Rose King would be the tribute, and his death sealed the fate of the entire plane.

The Feywild was thrown into chaos as the Plane of Shadows was overlapped with the Feywild, bringing forth the Long Night, a period of unending darkness in the plane and pressing chaos, cementing the rule of the Queen.

The Queen of Air and Darkness was not stopped by Titania and the Seelie Court. Despite all efforts whenever the two clashed neither was able to finish the other off, and even with a stalemate the Long Night was ever-present. It seemed as though eventually anything opposed to the evil empire in the plane would be snuffed out, until one of the elder hags, the seer and arch-mage Baba Yaga conspired against her mistress Cegilune and the rest of the Unseelie Court. She sought out others- powerful Archfey who would stand no longer with the Queen of Air and Darkness, and who could no longer wait for the Seelie Court to act and took it upon themselves, calling upon any and all entities in the realm who were willing to lend their strength. The resulting action was the creation of a new court led by Tiandra, a young daughter of Verenestra with sunlight in her veins. Tiandra and her followers rose up against one of the Archfey that had reveled in the darkness of the Long Night, the Batlord Neifion, and they bound him with the power of light to his castle, where he remains. The Summer Court's actions shook up the entropic Feywild and others who bore witness to their liberation of lands wished to rebel as well. The son of Tiandra, a young fey in all regards, rose up against the master of the Fortress of Sorrow, Dark Crow, seizing its power for himself and rising up as the master of the citadel with the support of his lover Koliada. Together they rose the banner of the Court of Winter and became the Prince of Frost and his lady, the rulers of the Fortress of Frozen Tears, for they were those who would weep no more. Deep Sashelas and Relkath of the Infinite Branches rallied the forces of the forests and oceans and rid the plane further of the taint of the Unseelie Court. The final court came from the bottom, from those who had once been a part of the ecosystem of the Feywild and were disgusted by the actions of their peers and their Queen. The Court of Gloaming, led by Baba Yaga, rose up in a way that sent shockwaves throughout the plane by exiling Cegilune to Hades.

With all of her generals deposed except for Urdlen, The Queen of Air and Darkness was now confronted on all sides by her opposition, collecting themselves into The Court of Stars- because they alone were the lights in the Long Night with the fetid moon of Cegilune banished. The cowardly Urdlen quickly fled when challenged and the Queen stood no chance against the forces of the new court. She was killed in battle against the forces of the feywild, her physical form destroyed, and her spirit trapped within a lantern by the vampiric Neversong clan, who had become adept at trapping dangerous fey entities. The Plane of Shadow was successfully separated from the Feywild, taking most of the Queen's followers with it to the new plane called the Shadowfell a land where the Long Night never ended. Along with her trapped spirit, a physical vestige of her power remained in the underground altar where she first brought about the Long Night- a place where her spirit welled with energy as she called out to any and all who could hear.

### The Vestige Shatters

One who heard her call was Razcoreth, a green Dragon of unimpressive size that was being hunted by humans in the Material plane before being spirited away and saved by the Queen of Air and Darkness. With the Queen as his patron he became a formidable warlock, keeping others from travelling in the areas around the Lake of Dreams. The warlock also guarded his master's vestige, although he never knew this fact.

Meanwhile, the lantern had changed hands many times as the Neversong clan corroded. In their mission for revenge they led attacks against the Fomorians leading to the capture of their leader, the impressive Lord Voiserys Neversong, who was placed into a deep artificial slumber and locked away deep inside the catacombs of Vor Thomil and forgotten by even their mad queen. As the rest of the clan was hunted by the lycanthropic natives of Harrowhame and the Brokenstone Vale, who saw the vampire clan as a threat to their existence, it became apparent that the lantern (and a sizable portion of the Queen's spirit) could potentially be at risk. To ensure it not fall into the wrong hands a lesser viscount of the clan and his niece hid within an old Cardahn family crypt in the Murkerndraw, under orders to keep the lantern safe. This brought the attention of Baba Yaga and the Gloaming. The old hag ordered all the others of her court to stay away, and handled the matter on her own, as she had a vision which seemed especially interesting.

A group of planeswalkers wandered into the Murkendraw, Teal Cardahn, Sillah Deathfall, Kaz Shadowfuse, Leo Holloway, and Clink. Mere moments after their arrival in the swamp, their guide, a leprechaun named Carroway was killed and their companion Kaz poisoned within an inch of his life. The grandmother of the swamp capitalized on their misfortune and gave them assistance- in exchange for their retrieving the lantern from the vampires as she had seen in her vision and moving it outside of the Murkendraw, the two events she had seen leading to the complete destruction of the Queen of Air and Darkness. This occurred in a way the witch did not foresee. The lantern was recovered, the vampires slain, and then it was taken to Harrowhame where the adventurers met the bandit known as the Silver Fox, who told them about Razcoreth's hold on the forest. Worrying about interruptions on their way to Shinaelestra (the ancestral home of Teal) the adventurers assisted the Silver Fox in sabotaging the green dragon, fighting his lieutenants and entering the underground temple of the Queen of Air and Darkness, where her vestige lay beneath the earth. Believing falsely that Razcoreth would be there, the dragon's deception proved unsuccessful. By bringing the lantern of the Queen's essence to the place where the vestige laid, the resurrection of the goddess seemed inevitable, but was stopped by the actions of the warlock Kaz, who desecrated the temple and burnt the lantern- as an offering to his patron- an unexpected turn that sent a large portion of her former portfolio directly into the writhing tentacles of the Great Old One Vhuzompha. As the party moved further in the Silver Fox moved excavation equipment they found inside, positioning a large drill over the altar of the Queen- knowing it was a source of the green dragon's power yet not understanding its purpose truly. Kaz once again defiled the vestigal altar, before helping drop the drill on top of it, crushing the vestige. As the altar began to crumble Razcoreth filled the temple with oil, in an attempt to burn out the adventurers, but was thwarted by the Silver Fox who revealed himself to be a Mercury Dragon. In an act of self-sacrifice he burned in the oil as he held the doors open.

The green dragon, disconnected from his patron was made short work of, and the weakened spirit of the Queen of Air and Darkness was set free.