Lady Amaranth, sometimes styled as Amaranth leShay or known as the Rose of Sarifal and Yellow Rose of Sarifal, was a half-leShay princess of Sarifal in the Moonshae Isles as of the late 15th century DR.[1][2][3] Prior to her return to Sarifal in the late 1470s DR, she had been the leader of a community of lycanthropes at Caer Moray on the island of Moray for a decade.[1][4][note 1]
Description[]
She was legendarily beautiful,[3] although in a somewhat mournful way. Her eyes were dark, her hair was red, and her skin was pale and clear with freckles.[1][3][5] She had a yellow Rose of Sarifal tattoo on her neck: a sophisticated and intricate climbing rose, the royal symbol of the leShay.[3][6][7]
She was accustomed to dressing plainly and androgynously,[1][3] or in leather armor when heading into danger.[8]
Personality[]
Amaranth was kind-hearted and more than a little naïve about the world. She believed in helping those in need, and encouraged her followers to do the same, even when it was against their nature.[1][9] She was prone to very simple, direct speech, and while she projected a demeanor of innocence, she was no stranger to combat. Being young, she had yet to display any of the laziness or imperiousness of her immortal kin, but still lacked any meaningful sense of urgency. She could be emotional and sentimental, and she craved interaction with sophisticated or artistic people.[1][3][4]
Following a formative exchange with an apparent aspect of Araushnee, she finally realized what it meant to be immortal (or near-immortal) among mortals, and resolved to suppress her sentimentality and conduct herself in a more purposeful, perhaps manipulative fashion. It was at that time she resolved to become a queen and to avenge herself against those who had wronged her or tried to humiliate her.[4]
Abilities[]
She had a powerful charisma that was perhaps supernatural. If she wanted, she could compel others to look at and admire her.[3] However, the love others felt towards towards her could be out of her control, such as the case of her followers at Caer Moray being unwilling to let her leave them, and even going so far as to sabotage her efforts to go home to Sarifal.[1]
She was an excellent archer[8] and skilled with a short sword.[4]
Relationships[]
Amaranth's parents were both killed when she was very young, although she could still recall conversations with her mother, Princess Callia of Sarifal.[2][4] Her maternal family, the leShays of Sarifal, valued the purity of their bloodline in the extreme, and so the decision by her mother to have a child with an elf was seen as an affront. Amaranth's half-sister, the High Lady Ordalf of Sarifal, despised her and wished her dead.[2][3][6] Her nephew, Prince Araithe, did not wish for this, and instead desired to have Amaranth bear him a child (as he considered her to be his most fertile potential mate for propagating a nearly-pure bloodline).[2][3] As the youngest member of the leShay family, tradition dictated that she was the heir and successor to the royal line.[2]
Her father had been a Llewyrr elf and member of the Knights of Synnoria. Her paternal uncle was Lord Mindarion, who aspired to elevate Amaranth to the throne of Sarifal by overthrowing High Lady Ordalf and Prince Araithe.[2]
Her lycanthrope followers at Caer Moray were fiercely protective of her, and were marked with tattoos in the style of Amaranth's own yellow rose.[6][7][10] Among these followers, she had been very close with the former matriarch, the werewolf Deucala, and had then become close to Deucala's offspring, notably Bay, Coal, and Lightfoot.[10] However, her most trusted friend was a wereboar named Poke.[1][11]
She developed a budding romantic relationship with Lukas, the captain of the Sphinx, but ended this dalliance after internalizing that the gap between her as an immortal and him as a human meant that such a relationship would not only be transitory, but beneath her.[4]
History[]
Early Life[]
Amaranth was born circa the late 1450s DR. Her nephew, Araithe, was so incensed that her mother (his grandmother) had chosen to have a child with an elf rather than with himself that he had both of Amaranth's parents killed.[2] When she was seven, he brought her to live with him at Citadel Umbra, but by the time she was nine, she had been relocated to High Karador by High Lady Ordalf. Ordalf was pregnant at this time (with Araithe's child), but when her newborn son did not survive, it was known that she would try to have Amaranth killed. Two of Amaranth's caretakers, Mistresses Valeanne and Tiana, conspired to smuggle the young girl out of Sarifal with the help of Shamasar and his dragonborn soldiers.[5] They stole out of Karador and rode to Crane Point, intending to fly the girl via hippogriff to the court of Erliza Daressin on Snowdown. However, the group was attacked by drow in service to the leShay, and while Amaranth was successfully handed off to a hippogriff rider, that rider was badly injured and soon succumbed to his wounds.[5][6] The girl plummeted to the ground on the island of Moray, where she was badly injured. However, she was discovered and nursed back to health by a lycanthrope named Deucala, who led an offshoot of the Black Blood tribe. Although very young, Amaranth would soon come to be beloved and seen as the leader of this pack.[10]
By the late 1470s DR, she was known on Moray as "Lady Amaranth" or "the Yellow Rose". Her followers within Caer Moray were predominantly female lycanthropes who strove to live as humanly as possible and to make and craft useful things.[1] By her order, they had rebuilt the old castle for safety and had begun to share food with the nearby Northlander settlers, especially during lean times, in a version of the Feast of Stags.[9] This drew the ire of the Malar-worshiping members of the Black Blood tribe, notably Argon Bael.[9]
Return to Sarifal[]
By the time Amaranth was 19, she desperately wished to find a way home to Sarifal, feeling stifled living among the bestial lycanthropes and having been too young to have understood the machinations of her half-sister and nephew when she had left Sarifal a decade prior. However, most of her followers refused to allow her to leave, and so she tasked her special friend Poke with building a boat and travelling to Gwynneth across the Strait of the Leviathan to find Ordalf and request her help.[1][11] Poke's mission resulted in her capture[11] and eventual death,[13] and provided Ordalf with Amaranth's location, which she had sought for ten years. Ordalf promptly arranged for a group of adventurers—the crew of the Sphinx—to sail to Moray and to return with Amaranth's head.[6]
The Sphinx crew became separated at Moray, and Amaranth would encounter two of them—Lukas and Gaspar-shen—when she saved them after they picked a fight with orcs to save some human captives. Intrigued by their apparent selfless behavior (which her upbringing suggested should be impossible for humans), she brought the injured warriors to Caer Moray to recuperate. Days later, the Black Blood tribe would rise up under the leadership of an aspect of Malar and lay siege to Caer Moray. During this battle, Amaranth and Lukas began to develop feelings, and shared a kiss. As the battle turned against the defenders, Amaranth was visited by a vision of Chauntea, who said that her worshipers wished for the young leShay to return to Sarifal and liberate it from its rulers.[14] Chauntea summoned a great wave to wash away both the attackers and the town's walls, leaving Amaranth little choice but to leave Caer Moray behind and follow the goddess's signs to a portal in the Breasal Marsh to Citadel Umbra.[3][10][14] She made this journey with Lukas, Gaspar-shen, and her friend Coal, but Coal lost his life at the portal, rattling her.[3][10]
Soon after arriving at Citadel Umbra, she met with Araithe, who invited her to stay with him. She was entranced at the thought of finally being back with the fey, and might have accepted his offer if Ordalf had not arrived and attempted to humiliate and perhaps kill her. In the ensuing confrontation that erupted between Araithe and Ordalf, Amaranth fled the citadel with Lukas and his allies. They were offered shelter by the drow servants of Araithe—the same ones who had tried to capture her when she was a child—who informed her that the Llewyrr of Synnoria would support her in overthrowing Ordalf, and asked that she agree to allow them to live on the surface if they aided her.[3] She was not eager to accept this offer, and so the drow betrayed her, attempting to use her blood in a ritual to summon Lolth to the Material Plane.[3][4]
Before they could be sacrificed, Amaranth and her companions were freed seemingly by an aspect of Araushnee, who possessed the drow priestess Amaka and killed the other drow. As the goddess departed, she whispered words of warning and of encouragement in the young leShay's ear, telling her to embrace her immortal heritage. With this advice, Amaranth found herself eager to pursue the throne of Sarifal and to discard her mortal allies, although this was at least in part because she knew that Lukas's best chance of survival was to flee Sarifal without her. After receiving a vision of herself dancing with her nephew, learning that the leShay army was approaching, and hearing of Poke's death, she resolved to parlay with Araithe to save Lukas and his friends, and to pursue her destiny of revenge against Ordalf and to rule as the future queen of Sarifal, whether it took a thousand years or a mere human lifetime.[4]
Appendix[]
Notes[]
- ↑ Canon material does not provide a year for the events described in The Rose of Sarifal, although the novel indicates that it takes place "more than a hundred years" after the return of High Lady Ordalf to Gwynneth in 1375 DR (ch. 1) and "nearly a hundred years" after the Spellplague in 1385 DR (ch. 3). While this fits the usual assumption that all 4th edition material is set in 1479 DR, the novel contradicts a number of other sources set during that year: at the start of the novel, Caer Moray is held by lycanthropes rather than by soldiers loyal to House Kendrick (as stated in Backdrop: Moonshae Isles), Citadel Umbra has been home to Prince Araithe for at least 12 years rather than being the base of his enemies (as stated in Backdrop: Moonshae Isles, the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide, and Realmslore: Sarifal), and Malar is stated to be "dead" rather than an active exarch of Silvanus (as stated in the Forgotten Realms Campaign Guide). These contradictions are largely resolved by the end of the narrative, meaning that the novel is best assumed to be set prior to 1479 DR. Unless a canon source contradicts this assertion, this wiki will thus assume that the events of the novel take place after 1475 DR but before 1479 DR.
Appearances[]
Novels & Short Stories
Gallery[]
References[]
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 7. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 11. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 14. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 18. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 0. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 1. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 {{Cite digital book/The Rose of Sarifal/Kindle||4}
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 5. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 3. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 10.5 10.6 {{Cite digital book/The Rose of Sarifal/Kindle||12}
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 8. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ Paulina Claiborne (May 2012). The Rose of Sarifal (Kindle ed.). (Wizards of the Coast), chap. 15. ASIN B006NPFFHY.
- ↑ {{Cite digital book/The Rose of Sarifal/Kindle||13}
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 {{Cite digital book/The Rose of Sarifal/Kindle||10}