Fox-at-Twilight

The Fox-at-Twilight (real name: Ilira ) was a swashbuckler and con artist, the moon elf called Light by her friends was an enigma at best.

Description
Twilight was often described as having an athletic build, slight and lithe (sensual) with a kind of allure not entirely like that of an elf. Some found her beautiful, while others did not, but hers was not a forgettable face or frame. Human men who found themselves drawn to her seemed to do so for what they see as her “elf” nature. Elf men were drawn to her for much the same reason they were drawn to humans: her vibrancy did not seem entirely like other elf women (like Yldar). Twilight did not exhibit the patience of elves and was as lusty as a human woman.

Twilight had pale skin and raven blue-black hair that she usually wore in a tail to the small of her back. The color of her eyes depended upon the light and her mood, and she was often described as having pale eyes. She also has alabaster skin and delicate features. She wore several earrings and has at least two tattoos: a gold, eight-pointed, asymmetrical star on her lower back (this was the symbol of Erevan Ilesere), which has been known to shock at a touch, as well as a small black-and-silver fox tattooed on her lower belly.

Twilight's appearance had change slightly by 1479 DR: she had solid gold eyes like those of a wolf and had Gargan’s name tattooed across her breastbone. She was said to wear only black in mourning for a lost love, though she herself denied this.

Possessions
Her favored garments seemed to be black breeches, a billowy white blouse, vest, a single scarlet glove (as of a fencer), and a matching half-cape. She also carried a particular rapier (shorter than most of its kind) called Neveren's Betrayal, which was fashioned of Hizaghuur metal. In addition, Twilight was never found without Erevan's shroud, which is a star-sapphire amulet that could hide her from scrying. She had some sort of fixation on the device and fear of being 'visible' without it.

Abilities
She fought by trickery as much as by blade, luring her opponents into underestimating her by guile or plying her considerable charm to get what she wanted. Fox-at-Twilight was an accomplished duelist, extremely agile, and possesses powers akin to those of a divine seeker (a holy spy/thief who can sense the location of certain objects and call upon divine providence to save herself from mortal wounds) and a shadowdancer (able to teleport/"dance" through shadows and animate her own shadow).

Relationships
Twilight was the sometime lover of Yldar Nathalan. Though she had a long, bitter struggle with Cythara Nathalan (Yldar's sister) that ended in Cythara's death at Twilight's hands. Cythara's daughter — the fey'ri warlock, Fayne — had sculpted herself to excel at Twilight’s strengths and finally gets her revenge in Downshadow, though she found it unsatisfying.

In 1375 DR, Twilight became a close companion to Gargan Vathkelke, a goliath ranger who helped her escape the Depths of Madness. In 1479 DR, Gargan manifested as a tattoo of his name across Twilight's breastbone, and Twilight's sentient shadow (which she can detach from her body and cause to fight on its own) had a shape similar to his. This precise situation was still a mystery.

In 1479 DR, Twilight (as Lady Ilira) had a close relationship with the Sune priestess Lorien that was rumored to be more than a mere friendship, but Lorien herself denied that their intimacy had ever been physical. This may have been due to Twilight's spellscar.

Twilight mentioned two particular men that shared an unknown connection with her: Neveren and Lilten, who appears in 1479 as Fayne’s extremely handsome and charming patron (also he claims to be her father). Whether these men are friends or foes to Twilight is unknown.

History
In 1362 DR Fox-at-Twilight helped the sun elf Yldar Nathalan and his sister Cythara in their quest for Ynloeth’s Bracer, a powerful elven relic. Twilight proved herself to be far from trustworthy or dependable, and vanished rather than allow Yldar to grow close to her (though she left him the bracer as a token of their time together). She tended to follow this pattern throughout her adventuring career: using deception to throw potential romantic interests off track and thus avoid intimacy.

In 1375 DR, Twilight and a number of disparate adventurers were trapped in a dungeon controlled by a mad priest of Demogorgon named Gestal. She demonstrated her speed, physical prowess, and shadowdancing abilities, but was almost driven insane by the machinations of her tormentor. Only the timely intervention of Erevan Ilesere — the Seldarine deity of trickery—spared her, though this may have been just a hallucination. She escaped the Depths, along with the goliath Gargan Vathkelke.

Twilight appeared a hundred years later 1479 DR in the novel Downshadow, in which she was living in the bustling city of Waterdeep in disguise as a silk merchant and fashion queen called Lady Ilira Nathalan (Ilira was revealed in Depths as her real name—Nathalan is Yldar’s surname, suggesting a relationship with him in the intervening time). She was framed for the murder of her best friend Lorien (a priestess of Sune) and quickly took revenge through use of a spellscar that burned any flesh she touched like acid. She fled the scene rather than be arrested. This (along with her shadowdancing abilities and her now entirely gold eyes) has led to speculation that she is a shade agent, and evidence has been uncovered that sometime in the early fifteenth century, she may have been a Netherese assassin.

It has been rumored that the Silver Fox series of chapbooks deals with her adventuring career. The latest volume (Fox and the Blue Fire)—would ostensibly deal with her life in and around the Spellplague. (Downshadow)

Rumours
Twilight had made a variety of outrageous claims about her past, including being a former lover of her divine patron, Erevan Ilesere.

Appearances

 * Erik Scott de Bie, “The Greater Treasure,” Realms of the Elves (Wizards of the Coast, 2006)
 * Erik Scott de Bie, Depths of Madness (Wizards of the Coast, 2007)
 * Erik Scott de Bie, Downshadow (Wizards of the Coast, 2009)
 * Erik Scott de Bie with Tom Costa, “The Fox and the Dispossessed” part 1 and 2, web articles on Candlekeep.com
 * Brian R. James, Ed Greenwood, Grand History of the Realms (Wizards of the Coast, 2007)
 * “Depths of Madness” at the Beezer Review