Ilrina Vethnis

Sovereign Ilrina Vethnis

I do what I must for my people.

— Sovereign Ilrina

The leader of the elves and founder of Zhaliya , Sovereign Ilrina is responsible for the presence of both elves and wizardry in the mortal plane. After their arrival, she helped to found and has served as the sovereign of Zhaliya and has helped it rise to its current heights. Her reputation outside of Zhaliya is much more sinister though as the world has not forgotten the ruthlessness and power she displayed during the the War for Zhaliya.

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Ilrina has the tall slender build typical of elves. Despite this and her focus on arcane magic, she is surprisingly muscular especially in the arms. She uses a wheelchair.

Apparel & Accessories

Ilrina's clothes are always purple and gold--the colours of the Zhaliyan Empire. Most of her tops are modeled off of Adalian clothing but her skirts are much longer than those typical of Adalian fashion. She wears lots of jewelry most of which is in styles more common in Feiri but which has gained popularity in Zhaliya thanks in part to Ilrina. She often wears dark eye makeup like that common in the region. For especially important occasions her wheelchair is decorated with purple and gold sashes and strands of beads.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Even the closest members of her court don't seem to know much about Ilrina's past. Like all elves she was once a servant to the fei. Popular opinion holds that she was one of the first elves created by Sovereign Alytharn and this was why they were so close. Other popular rumors claim that she and Alytharn were lovers. Regardless of whether their relationship was romantic, platonic, or one of master and servant she and Alytharn were quite close to each other something that she was apparently able to exploit to her advantage. She was one of the first elves to start openly practicing wizardry and is widely credited with inventing the craft. While this did draw some amusement from the fei, contrary to popular rumor, Ilrina and her court have said that it did not lead to any significant friction between her and the fei or her and Alytharn.

One hundered and sixty seven years ago, Ilrina decided that she was finished serving Alytharn and she gathered as many elves as she could, leading them through a portal to the mortal world. How she was able to open this portal is a point of great debate as it should be impossible for someone on another plane to open a portal on the mortal one. Three major theories have rose to prominence on this but Ilrina and her court have not commented on any of them. Reportedly Ilrina refuses to tell even her inner circle how she did it. The most popular one is that it was a natural portal like the one that is currently open in Selamar and that somehow she changed its destination either before the elves entered or afterwards to deter pursuit. Another theory holds that she struck some sort of deal with Alytharn and he had one of his mortal servants open the portal. This theory is supported by the fact that despite a sizable amount of elves leaving, Alytharn and fei associated with him have shown little interest in reclaiming them. A final less popular theory is that somehow Ilrina got in contact with someone in Nulyra who opened the portal for her.

Regardless of how she opened the portal, Ilrina continued to act as the unofficial leader of the elves as their arrival split the Nulyrans into two different factions over whether the elves should be welcomed or not. Throughout this divide, Ilrina maintained that the elves harbored no ill intent for the Nulyrans and respected Nulyran sovereignty. Still after Nulyra split in two over the issue, Ilrina accepted the eastern Nulyrans, later known as the Zhaliyans, offer to make her sovereign. The first years of her reign were focused on integrating the elves into Adalian society, establishing trade routes with other sovereignties, and attempting to repair their relationship with Nulyra. After this though she started expanding Zhaliya's border in the east and north supposedly to ensure Zhaliya would have the resources necessary to defend itself if Nulyra declared war. Not long after this, the Cadrial Empire, then the superpower of the region, declared war on Zhaliya and Ilrina was thrust into the role of wartime sovereign against a seemingly overwhelming foe.

Initially during the war Ilrina focused on keeping morale up and guerilla tactics as she threw herself and her court into making various clockwork weapons. Her continued defiance and hard work towards the war effort even as Cadrian troops closed in on the Zhaliyan capital went a long way towards keeping the Zhaliyans from despairing and surrendering during the early days of the war. She maintained this dedication and unwavering spirit even as the clockwork weapons and guerilla tactics started to turn the tide. Most notably she collapsed from exhaustion several times while working on a secret project in addition to her other work. This secret project would later be revealed to be the clockwork assassin which drew international attention to the conflict and Ilrina herself. It displayed to the world for the first time just how much of a threat a sovereignty with a more reliable supply of clockwork weapons and a leader who could invent new ones could be.

After the assassin completed its mission and subsequent peace talks were held, Ilrina continued to hold the position that she and her sovereignty had merely been protecting themselves and what was theirs. According to her, since the empire had refused to surrender they had been forced to take drastic steps to end the war. Also during the talks, she demanded a large swath of territory from the empire as she felt Cadrial should be punished for its unjustified and unprovoked attack. She was bargaining from a position of great power and used it to her and her sovereignties advantage which won her many supporters in Zhaliya but few in the wider world especially those in the confiscated territory. She did however throw her support behind the Agreement of the Lasting Peace.

After the war she has focused on improving Zhaliyan infrastructure, relations with other sovereignties, and reducing tensions between those in formerly Cadrian territories. Recently she's been focused on increasing the education system and making wizard training more accessible especially to non-elves. Six years ago she founded the Taerial Academy in Aktala that provides a more standardized study of magic as well as classes in a variety of other subjects. The study of wizardry is still highly restricted to those deemed highly loyal and dedicated.

Sexuality

currently she shows little interest in having a romantic or sexual relationship with anyone

Personality Characteristics

Virtues & Personality perks

Ilrina is very goal driven and dedicated to her role of sovereign and counter to some rhetoric she seems to genuinely care about the common people and non elves of Zhaliya. She has shown a great aptitude for statecraft, likely some of this is from her closeness with Alytharn. She's quite clever but she largely downplays it so she can better catch people off guard when she figures out their plots, lies, and secrets. She promotes largely based off of merit.

Vices & Personality flaws

After her escape from Feiri, Ilrina is determined that she will not be made a servant again and has no tolerance for those who don't show her the respect she feels she deserves. She suffers no threat to her sovereignty and, as demonstrated in the War for Zhaliya, she has no problem resorting to more controversial methods if she thinks they'll be effective or get her the results that she wants. Her dedication is one of her great strengths but also can be harmful to her as she has a tendency to overwork herself. This is partly because she doesn't trust anyone fully and makes sure that no one besides her know all the secrets of Zhaliya. While she remains polite she has no qualms about using her position of power when dealing with other sovereignties especially with the defeated Cadrial which hasn't made her many allies outside of Zhaliya.

Current Status

Ruling Zhaliya

Current Location

Aktala

Species

elf

Honorary & Occupational Titles

First Mage, Archmage, Ruler of the Empire of Zhaliya, First Elf (rumoured only), Favored of Alytharn (former, rumoured only)

Age

?

Birthplace

somewhere in Feiri

Pronouns

she/her

Gender

female

Eyes

Gold

Hair

Metallic brown-gold

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Bronze

Height

6'2"/~1.88 m

Weight

129 lbs/~58.51 kg

Aligned Organization

Zhaliya

Known Languages

Feirin, Adalian, Kedu, Morath (limited) , Cadrian (limited she can write some limited Feirin and Adalian

Ruled Locations

• Aktala

by Hero Forge