The <Aeterum Arcanum> Guild

RP-Stories
Character Biographies

Leirabelle

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(Level  68 - arcane mage - Feb 17, 2010)

Miss Leirabelle Silverdawn has had an interesting life.  She was born Lady Leirabelle Morndew – the youngest in a matching pair. (Her twin Lady Aridel Morndew, at the time – later Sir Aridel Morndew and finally the deadraiser claiming to be Aridel Dawnsend). 

Leirabelle and Aridel shared an intense bond unlike anything the High Lord and High Lady Morndew had ever seen.  Typically, they would finish one another’s sentences and always seem to know what the other was thinking.  It turned out that bond extended far beyond that.

To understand Leirabelle’s path – you must understand that she was raised to be the typical cold-hearted, gold craving, power seeking noblewoman.  As she excelled with her ‘training’ she quickly became her parents’ favourite as she seemed to show the most promise in maintaining the Morndew Household prestige. 

But, born about six years later, was Esteliadonna.  A threat.  One that had to be taken care of early lest it become a major problem later.

Leirabelle instantly became a ‘doting’ older sister in public but in private she manipulated Estelia and often tricked her into getting into trouble and in most cases – some level of danger as well.

It was mostly harmless until Leirabelle discovered (after the celebration of the Lady Aridel becoming a Squire to Sir Silverdawn) her sister Aridel was not only squired but also betrothed to Sir Linthian.  It was time to kick it up a notch, lest she be (as she feared) forever separated from her twin. 

Leirabelle convinced Esteliadonna to carry a poisoned drink to her sister’s future (and hopefully soon to be dead) fiancé.

Thinking it odd that his youngest daughter would deliver drinks – High Lord Morndew interrupted the talk of allegiance to utter words of warning.   In a rage, Sir Linthian practically cut off Estelia’s hand for her crime.

When it came out that Leirabelle was behind it all, House Silverdawn called for punishment but her parents - who had never been able to deny her a single thing and certainly felt they couldn’t punish her for doing what she’d been taught – decided to switch Leirabelle with Aridel so that Sir Linthian could do as he saw fit.  There was a hasty wedding and an awkward time for all.

Esteliadonna was continually sent to the Silverdawn estates to ensure that the now Lady Silverdawn was in good health.

The worst was yet to come.  After nearly a year of being unable to produce an heir it was discovered by many well paid and highly skilled priests that Leirabelle was barren. 

As the time of war came closer, and Sir Silverdawn was home less and less, the rest of the Silverdawns became hostile towards her.

Often Leirabelle wouldn’t even leave her room – instead practicing her inscription and magic.

But then it came.  The time when she realized she did love her husband after all.  Of course, it’d been four or five years in the making.  But she realized it too late.  And the happy time they were able to spend together was too short.  Arthas had come for the Sunwell. 

Leirabelle was sent away with the rest of the Morndew Household into hiding.  And when it was over... The worst news was yet to come… Aridel had been slain.  Though no one could produce a body.  It was devastating. 

The fact that no one could find her husband left Leirabelle a cold recluse.  She denied guests and kept to herself mostly.

Almost a year later, Sir Linthian was returned to the Silverdawn estates.  But he was not whole.  His memory was gone – he could no longer remember Leirabelle... His family... Or even himself.

It was then that Leirabelle decided she would seek the power to restore him to his former self so that she might have her husband back.  It put her on a path that led to the powerful mage Tanirus who taught her most of what she knew about the ways of frost.  It also led to meeting a curious young man whom she began to get a crush on. 

News came to her while she was out training that her husband had gone missing.  And about three months later – his body was found in the Alterac Mountains.

Leirabelle found comfort in the young man’s arms and he soon became her lover, though she would allow it to go no further.  “To be more, you have to –be- more.” She told him.

With those words in his heart and mind, he set off to accomplish that.

But things were taking an uglier form on an even more pressing matter.  There was the legal fallout from her husband’s death. 

Now that their son was no longer alive and in love with Leirabelle – the Silverdawns became vicious to her, feeling that she had never properly been punished for the transgressions against the House and that she had robbed them of their first grandchildren.  They wanted all the assets accrued during their marriage, almost all of her gold and even her personal property.

Leirabelle fought viciously in the inter-House courts and hatched another plan.  Convincing her younger sister, Esteliadonna, once more to do another dangerous feat – she sent her to the Scarlet Monastery to retrieve the legendary Hypnotic Blade for her. 

Once she had the blade, she travelled to her sister-in-law’s home with a murderous plot.  She hypnotized the woman into killing herself, leaving behind a widower and a son in the hopes that the Silverdawns would be eager to have their only living son to remarry.

Leirabelle’s plan was to marry her brother-in-law and arrange for the son to be murdered in training and a fatal accident to befall her brother-in-law while he was stationed in the Outlands. All in the vein of thought that it would be sufficient revenge and she would recover all the goods she lost in the courts.  However, it was never to be.

When she was summoned to the Outlands to ‘discuss marital plans’  she was attacked by an inter-house assassin carrying one of the renowned Dawning Blades that are crafted only by those born into House Silverdawn.  The blade is forged with the blood of the Silverdawn and when cut by the blade, the victim will receive a black scar (assuming they live) that fades the closer the person is to death.

Leirabelle received the wound just mere millimetres from her heart and bears the mark to this day though it has faded to a dark sky-blue.

She went into hiding for six months.   When she returned, her lover had also returned from his quest but was caught and convicted of mass murder and hung.

Leirabelle was devastated.  It destroyed her in more than one way.  Losing control of her frost abilities, she essentially turned herself into ice, skewering herself from the inside out with large shards of ice.  Her pain was so great that her soul released a scream so powerful and loud that it seared the mind of Estelia who was beside her when the tragedy occurred.  But it also wrested someone else out of dark control… Aridel was awakened from the Lich King’s grasp by a connection so strong it could not be erased by the necromancer who raised her.

Barely aware of her senses, Aridel caught the soul of her twin from thousands of miles away and thrust it back into her body which was in the process of being healed by Estelia.

A feat that Aridel would not have normally been able to accomplish and never would be able to do again, made possible only by the physical and metaphysical connection between her twin and herself.

After her near-death, Leirabelle was left with a lot of questions.  What was she now?  What would happen?

She decided to hunt down her twin.  The reunion was unexpected and did not go at all like Leirabelle would have thought.  The very most important person in her life, who she’d though dead, was suddenly alive again! 

But it was not the case.  Aridel’s death and rebirth had cleansed Aridel of memory.  Tired of hearing Leirabelle whine about the past, Aridel half-heartedly attempted to kill her. 

Rocked by the encounter and gaining a little understanding of her sister’s abilities, Leirabelle decided to test the weak mental tie they seemed to have.

Eventually, they realized it was symbiotic – each being able to pull power from the other.  Aridel, thinking it might be fun to have an apprentice, decided to start teaching Leirabelle necromancy.

Retreating into the wild and practically unpopulated Nagrand, Leirabelle began to practice.  She decided she would raise her dead husband!  But it was not to be.  At least not yet.  Her old teacher Tanirus came to see her, to see if the rumors were true. After a violent confrontation, he turned his back on her and Leirabelle acted – pulling strength from Aridel - and threw her blade at him.   It hit home and the mage fell, dead, into the waters below.

Months later, Leirabelle finally raised her husband, Linthian, but her control over him was fragile as it was her first time raising a person.  For only an instant, he was the man she knew and loved but as her control slipped, so did his mind and memories and he became a brainless ghoul that attacked her relentlessly.

Were it not for the intervention of the newly appointed High Lady Estelia, she would have been destroyed, finding herself too weak from the massive drain of raising Linthian.  She blacked out after being accosted.

When she awoke she was in a cell.  She scarcely remembers the days that followed.  She vaguely remembers a trial.  And then she woke up one morning with ghostly white hair, unable to remember large portions of her life.  Being told that she was on a good behaviour watch and that she must continue working for the Horde in order to show she should not be put to death for her crimes against House Silverdawn and against the living by way of her necromancy…  She has recently been placed in the care of the mysterious mage Thaven.

 

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 Esteliadonna

High Lady Morndew had been born Lady Morndew but was recently elevated to the status of High Lady due to her outstanding service to the Horde and work to repair the damage to the Morndew name suffered when they avoided fighting in the battle when Arthas befouled the waters of the Sunwell.

Most of Estelia’s life has been a life of servitude, blindly following her teachings.  Yet, her heart was softer.  She was kinder than her sisters.  She always had a small doubt of the validity behind them and, for that doubt, is possibly the only 'good' one of the three.

Still, she endeavoured to be a ‘dutiful daughter’ and did her very best – often doing reckless things that Leirabelle asked of her because she thought it might gain favour with her parents if she were to do something the golden daughter told her to.  However, this was rarely the case.  Estelia got in lots of trouble and one time nearly lost her hand from following Leirabelle’s instructions.  An inky black scar encircles her right wrist… A small reminder of what she could have lost because of Leirabelle.

After her sisters were dead or married – much of the High Lord and Lady’s attention fell to Esteliadonna – counting on her to regain their family’s honour as much of it had been lost.  House Morndew had fallen out of favour at the courts due to their avoidance of many battles in spite of the fact that the ancient House did pour lots of gold into the restoration of Silvermoon City.

Estelia worked hard, finding little time for romance or anything much in the way of a personal life and has now passed into adulthood with hardly anything to show for herself. Though she had ‘grown up’ long before officially becoming an adult, she now displays a weariness beyond her years.

When the Matriarch and Patriarch of the House passed on, Estelia’s parents became the new heads of the Household and raised her status to High Lady – being the next in line when their own deaths would take them from the position of leadership.

Much of her fate has been tied to Leirabelle’s.  Being the one who helped raise her from the dead, call off the Silverdawn assassin and discover the truth about Leirabelle’s husband (a truth she is yet to tell her).  Additionally, she was there to intervene when Leirabelle raised her husband.  It was almost an accident that she was there at the time. She had been tracking a small group of House Silverdawn’s scouts and had brought a small host of Morndew soldiers with her. 

It was a large argument and partial force that stayed her hand from actually slaying Leirabelle that day.  Where once there had been a great love for her older sister, there was now a bitter and justified hatred that accompanied a soul wearying sadness.

When Leirabelle was put on trial, Esteliadonna testified against her and was also placed in charge of overseeing the ‘sentence’ being carried out.  It was not a pretty sight, no matter how much she may have hated her sister.    So much was done to her, leaving Leirabelle but a shell... A ghost of what she had been.

Esteliadonna remains to date the only living person who knows the full history of her older sisters.  Getting her to talk about them, however, is the challenge.

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Feb 17, 2010