Anna the Pretender
Wizard Anna Hunting
Wizard under Garland I Ainros and Garland II Ainros
Anna Hunting was the daughter of a Berleigh bowman who moved to Aerwoth, and also a devout Host Keeper, two attributes that would cost her dearly. Though of middling birth, Anna devoted herself to spelling at an early age, serving various merchants. She was a very industrious child, yet still made time to befriend the itinerant magicians who frequented the taverns and even brothels of Aerwoth, learning Orrish magic even as she studied mathematics over the shoulders of the merchants she served.
Anna was invited to apprentice under Elisel the Enchantress at nine years. She was rumored to have accepted the post without her father's consent, but henceforth she would be the charge of Elisel, a powerful wizard who had the ear of Queen Hwel'Ynwell; these were two women not in the habit of bowing to men, and it was said this greatly impacted Anna's growth. She was hardworking, intelligent, and attentive to a fault, earning the title Anna Attent long before achieving wizardry.
Unfortunately, Anna was also a devout, something that never left her. She was highly suspicious of the Queen and all the Liddinawths, who worshipped the sun and were rumored to make blood sacrifices to it. She supposedly made inquiries and even hired spies to find evidence of these sacrifices. If any such evidence was found, it was silenced. The Queen had a known (and oft-spoken) dislike for Anna, yet she was not dismissed, so it must be assumed that she was considered no threat.
Elisel the Enchantress died in her bed at one-and-sixty years, and Anna Attent was entitled to replace her. This was a somewhat controversial selection, opposed vocally by the Queen and her coterie, yet there was no one to hand as experienced, nor with greater reputation for labor, so Anna rose to the highest rank a woman could attain in Revellia, at the age of one-and-twenty.
Her youth and sex made her a subject of scorn and mockery in the court, and Anna quickly found that there were many in Aerwoth, men and women alike, who would disagree with her no matter what support she mustered, nor how hard she labored. Anna was forthright for a Revellian woman, and would have been wise to court the favor of her strong-willed queen, but instead she maintained her distance, ever suspicious of the Liddinawths.
Three years later, King Garland the Conqueror died of a stroke at only three-and-forty years. When Garland II took the throne, his mother Dowager Queen Hwel'Ynwell actively tried to have Anna removed, yet the king refused, famously unwilling to make definitive decisions. Garland II's queen, Skal'izel, was a niece of his mother Queen Hwel'Ynwell, and this awakened Anna's paranoia and prejudices further. She became possessed of a belief the Liddinawths were undermining the faith somehow, though the exact nature of her theory was never clearly articulated. At Queen Skal'izel's pressing, Garland II began a survey of internal spending, and it was revealed that young Anna had been funneling taxes to Urudun. This shocked many, as Urudun was then controlled by the Satar-worshipping Khabarese, yet Anna was born in Berleigh, and it was assumed her closeness to the border had promoted some misplaced sympathy for the foreign armies. Not long after this, further investigation discovered poisons in her possession that, according to Wizard Helena Gryvaen, could imitate a stroke even whilst killing a man.
Anna Attent was entitled Anna the Pretender and burned at the stake for king-killing. She died at age five-and-twenty.
