Konning Sisters
Baronesses Sage, Coriander and Juniper Konning (a.k.a. Cori and Juni)
All that remains of the The Autumn Queen's bloodline are a trio of of very distant cousins from a backwater branch of her family tree. You may see saviors in the them but when I look all I see is how bleak our situation is.
Fate has a way of forcing the most unlikely of individuals onto center stage. Sage, Coriander, and Juniper Konning were the daughters of minor nobility from a nearly forgotten corner of the Autumn Queen's bloodline and who were happy enough to live in relative obscurity. Instead, thanks to a failed attempt on their lives and the temporal anomaly left in its wake they have become the beacon. To some, a beacon of hope and a promise of a future. To others they are a reminder of the darkest days of Tairos' past. The sisters are not looking to be anything to anyone but so far they don't seem to have a choice in the matter.
House Konning Comes to Tairos
The Fae migrated in groups to Tairos through the gate inside inside Melanthris. First, just the Autumn Queen herself and then her most loyal retainers. Others followed over the course of decades till only stragglers remained. House Konning was among the final groups to travel across the void and to this new world. Their influence in fae society was minimal at best and their power negligible. House Konning acted as loyal bannermen to the Queen and that loyalty was about all they could offer.
When Tellion Konning, the Lord of the House arrived in Tairos he was welcomed by no one. Instead, he saw fae society already in full swing and having largely forgotten about them. This ignoble status was made worse when he learned that the Queen had not carved out a piece of Tairos for House Konning to call their own. Instead, they were forced to live in Melanthris while petitioning other Houses for parcels of land.
Tellion Konning seized the first opportunity he could to bring glory back to his House. The Autumn Queen wished to explore outside of the shores of Tairos and commissioned a small fleet of ships to be built and launched from Melanthris. Tellion leapt at the opportunity and joined the expeditionary fleet as one of its captains. He took with him many of House Konning's retainers as well as his most trusted advisers knowing that he would need every advantage possible. His daughters, none older than fourteen, were left in the hands of House Konning's chamberlain.
The expedition never returned.
Growing Up Among the Elves
The sisters received an education few fae ever had the privileged of. They were schooled in the finest universities in Melanthris by scholars with hundreds of years of experience in their craft. They learned about Tairos' history and nations from learned men and women who had seen first hand many of the pivotal events that shaped the continent. They were taught far more about their new home than their chamberlain was able to teach them about fae history and because of this they ecah grew far more attached to Tairos than to the Autumn Court.
As they grew up each of them found their own escape from the doldrums of life in Melanthris. Sage became enamored with the markets, trade districts, and the comings and goings of visitors to the city. Fae society had seemed so stagnant to her but Tairos offered something new in every corner of its map. Races of all kind mingled peacefully, traded goods and culture, and coexisted in peace. The world she came from before was a desolate place filled only with followers of the Autumn Court. Discovery became her passion and no opportunity for travel was passed up.
Coriander took more of an interest in the more baser pleasures of Tairos. Celebrations, mingling with the commoners like the elven peasantry, sampling drinks and drugs from every corner of the land, carousing with anyone she pleased and of course... crime. She found nothing more thrilling than a daring heist or dangerous escape from the law. Some measure of this behavior was overlooked by the Melanthrian authorities but that made her crave exploits that carried real consequences even more.
Juniper chose the libraries and arcane sanctums of the elven capital. The wealth of information found here could be traced back to the earliest days of civilization and the stories of great heroes, epic battles and grand deeds captivated her. However, nothing gripped Juniper's attention more than the study of magical devices. Learning the function of such devices, their history, and how to craft them became her driving passion. Juniper became an accomplished artificer and scholar while her sisters were off indulging in other pursuits.
The Burden of Family
The day the expedition was declared officially lost came as an especially crushing blow to each of them. Not because of the loss of their father, for he had been gone for fourteen years now, but because of the gifts that came with it. Land.
The Autumn Queen gifted them a piece of land and a castle as well. House Konning was to finally have a place of its own and that came with the sort of responsibility that none of them wanted yet couldn't be refused. For Sage it meant an end to her travels and the beginning of a life steeped in fae politics. It put an end to Coriander's criminal indulgences now that her face was recognizable everywhere. Juniper had to leave the depthless libraries of Melanthris behind and make due with the meager offerings in Castle Konning.
They each felt shackles to this dour new responsibility, perhaps none more so than Sage who had not desire nor experience in governing. The only fortunate thing about this plot of land was that it was largely self-sufficient. The people were mostly tied to House Konning and the majority lived as merchant-traders who didn't require a great deal of oversight (other than adjudication in business disputes. Something the sisters would often have the merchants settle with whimsical methods such as coin flips, riddles, mock sword fights, crafting exercises and scavenger hunts.)
Their most recent act while in command of Castle Konning was to receive a device known as the Mana Auger from the Autumn Queen (also a very distant blood relative) and to test it. This device, they were told, would demonstrate the fae's ability to create Manacite en mass. However, it's true purpose was anything but benign. The Queen's machine was actually designed to test a new weapon, a form of magical backlash capable of widespread devastation and it would be unleashed at the expense of House Konning. Their parcel of land was atop a Leyline and the device was designed to tap into the leyline and weaponize its flow into an explosive. She and her Shadow Court wished to see how successful the explosive could be and what impact it would have on a fortification. What they learned would eventually be incorporated into The Queen's Rebuke.
Ignorant to the Autumn Queen's true intention, the device was activated and Castle Konning was wiped off the map of Tairos.
A Wound in Time
The damage wrought from even this minor breech in the leylines had dramatic and unforeseen consequences. For the sisters it meant being trapped in their final day over and over, unaware of the resetting days, and locked in a pocket of unstable time. They were not alone in this strange fate either. All of Castle Konning and everything within the impacted area were stuck as well.
The wound in time would have kept that trapped perhaps forever if not for the accidental intervention of scouts from the Westbound Star Company whose pursuit of the callous wizard Heinreich Klamp brought them into the anomaly as well.
Klamp was a masterful diviner and chronomancer and used his talents to try and collapse the anomaly as well as steal the core of the Mana Auger for his own nefarious purposes. While Klamp managed to escape the scouts of the Westbound Star prevented him from stealing the Auger core and collapsing the anomaly fully. In doing so they've inadvertently carried the Konning Sisters and a large community of fae across time and into modern tairos.
Fae Sisters by Antti Hakosaari
Physical Description
Facial Features
All of the sisters share similar facial features and hair color. They are easily identified as being related to each other
Physical quirks
Juniper tends to hum a lot while in thought or while working on something challenging
Special abilities
Sage possesses the most magical acumen and is a Sorcerer with some minor talent. Cori seemed to begin seeing through the cyclic resetting of the time anomaly when she started recognizing Aelfric more and more. She may possess some latent abilities either imparted by the anomaly or awoken by it. Juni's talent with enchanted objects and arcane machines is incredible for someone so young
Apparel & Accessories
Sage tends to dress in more formal clothing as she is the one who has to act as the face of House Konning though her approach to formal is as minimalist as possible. She does not enjoy all the pomp and circumstance that goes into fashion. Cori prefers comfortable street clothing and anything else that helps her blend in with the "natives" as she puts it. Juni likes her colorful summer dresses but is generally bogged down by her tool satchels, backpacks, and sacks full broken magical devices.
Specialized Equipment
Sage doesn't often carry much her person, preferring to travel as light as possible. She does however keep a small dagger hidden on her person at all time. Cori generally has a flask of some new alcohol or a container of some sort of narcotic. She also has lock picks as well. Juni is weighed down by all manner of tools, obsolete gear, books, and other academic tools. She might, on rare occasion actually have a working magical item as well.
Mental characteristics
Education
Learned their academics primarily from the universities of Melanthris. Tertiary education came from the chamberlain of House Konning
Employment
By birth and peerage they are part of the Autumn Court and thus beholden to the Autumn Queen's wishes if she still lived
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
The sisters' primary motivation is keeping each other safe. Secondary to that are their own passionate pursuits to combat boredom
Alignment
Chaotic Good
Species
Honorary & Occupational Titles
Baronesses of House Konning
Children
Gender
Female
Other Affiliations
Comments