Emmeryn Sinaran

Emmeryn "Em" Sinaran is the wife of Katya Sinaran, one of the Lost Star Detectives that ended the Damnation of Elturel in the late 15th century. She is also a former member of the Cult of the Dragon, who was killed during the 1492 Battle of Hardbuckler and served Tiamat in Avernus as a red abishai from the time of her death until her resurrection on Greengrass of 1498, the first day of spring.

History

Life

Emmeryn was born on the 3rd of Elient, 1217 in the Kingdom of the Woods. As Emmeryn became an adult in the early 14th century, she decided to leave her elven home and moved to Elturel, where she opened a dry goods store in the city's Westerly district. Ever friendly and energetic, Emmeryn's Dry Goods was profitable enough to eke out a modest living, and Em enjoyed befriending and getting to know her regular patrons and her neighbors, though the knowledge that she'd far outlived them was hard.
In 1343, a drow named Katya was caught by Emmeryn attempting to steal rice from Emmeryn's store. Rather than get upset, Emmeryn recognized that Katya likely needed the food and offered her a place to sleep. When Katya refused, Emmeryn sent her on her way with the stolen rice and a bag of dried apricots. Katya, curious to a fault and intrigued by the overly generous wood elf, returned to Emmeryn's store day after day, eventually sweeping the floors, stocking the shelves, and then sleeping on Em's couch. As two of the few elves in Elturel, the two became fast friends and soon fell in love. Their wedding was held in 1368.
Katya, who struggled still from her traditional and abusive drow upbringing, clung to Emmeryn's cheerfulness and kindness, and Emmeryn displayed non of the typical elven aversion to drow. However, Emmeryn came face to face with the realization that not everyone felt that way during the Reign of Vampires in 1447. During those turmulent days, Katya and Emmeryn sheltered their neighbors in their store, keeping them off the streets, but as food and supplies dwindled, tough conversations started happening about who might need to be sacrificed for the good of the group. Despite Katya not being sick or elderly, she was placed on the short list, which Emmeryn aggressively refused to consider. Though these conversations would prove moot with the end of the Reign of Vampires only a few days later with the appearance of the Companion, Emmeryn couldn't forget how Katya was treated.
These dark thoughts swirled in Emmeryn's head for years but didn't produce any outward change. However, in 1481 rumors began swirling around Elturel, as they did across the entirity of Northwest Faerun, that the Cult of the Dragon had been revived. Emmeryn first got invovled with the cult by happenstance but quickly became committed, taken in by the promise of a new, reborn world where distinctions like "elf" and "drow" didn't matter. Their brush with death also made Emmeryn more aware than ever that she and Katya, who had mixed feelings about the drow gods but was unwilling to fully embrace the elven gods, were destined to be seperated upon their reincarnation and that service to Tiamat could join them together in death. Katya was far more uneasy about the cult but was unable and unwilling to let it drive a wedge between the two. As Emmeryn's dedication to the cult grew, she began spending less and less time watching the store, which fell on Katya's shoulders. During this time, Emmeryn and Katya also met the young and inquisitive elf Kinsey Eridanus, who was fascinated by the couple, though Emmeryn hid her cult allegiance from her.
When the cult planned to announce its presence to the world, Emmeryn convinced Katya to close their shop so the two of them could march in the cult's army. The two of them served under the Red Wyrmspeaker of the cult and participated in the Raid on Tumbleton, the opening salvo of the Great Dragon War. Emmeryn's dedication to the cult was rewarded time and time again, and she steadily rose in its rank. However, Emmeryn was killed by a member of the Baldurian Watch during the Battle of Hardbuckler in 1492, when the watchman's spear was thrust through her midsection. Katya distraught, brought Emmeryn's body back to Elturel, where she used up nearly all of their savings to pay a cleric to ressurect her, but the ressurection failed.

Death

Unknown to Katya was that Emmeryn's dedication to the cult had gone so far as to swear her soul in allegiance to Tiamat. Emmeryn could not be brought back to life, because her soul was not free. Instead, she was reborn in the Nine Hells as a red abishai in Tiamat's service. Though Emmeryn was disappointed to learn that Katya had stopped worshipping Tiamat after the end of the Great Dragon War, she still believed Katya would find her way back to Tiamat so that the two of them would be joined eternally in death.
In 1497, Elturel and everyone in its were teleported into Avernus, the result of a secret pact that ended the Reign of Vampires. Though Katya was originally not in Elturel when it was damned, within a few weeks she and a group of other adventurers, including Kinsey Eridanus, were teleported into Hell in an attempt to save the city. This group, calling themselves the Lost Star Detectives, were brough to Emmeryn's attention when one of their members, the githyanki Dzarya was captured by abishai and brought to Tiamat's Lair. Dzarya was tried by an abishai court to determine whether she had unwittingly broken the ancient treaty between Tiamat and the githyanki leader Vlaakith that prevented githyanki from arriving in Hell without Tiamat's approval. Dzarya was ultimately expelled from the githyanki to preserve the ancient pact and was slated for execution but managed to escape her cell with the help of the githzerai Armag. Hearing of this, Emmeryn cornered the escapees and offered Dzarya a generous infernal pact to be returned to the Lost Star Detectives with her equipment and in exchange protect Katya with her life. Dzarya hastily agreed before realizing the deal didn't include Armag and was teleported away, though Armag did manage to escape.
Emmeryn was confronted for her role in letting Dzarya escape but assured the other abishai that Katya's safety and then assured subsequent reallegiance to Tiamat would prove to be a much bigger prize, as the Detectives were currently embroiled in a conflict that could tip the scales of power in Hell. Emmeryn staked her claim that if Katya joined Tiamat's service, then Dzarya could again be recaptured and the knowledge Katya would have of Elturel's damnation would aid Tiamat in knowing how to handle Elturel's Damnation. Later, when Emmeryn was contacted by Katya using sending, Emmeryn told Katya to find her at Tiamat's Lair.
At the end of 1497, the Lost Star Detectives drove to Tiamat's Lair, traveling down the massive highway to Dis and locating the guard tower where Emmeryn was located. There Emmeryn pleaded with Katya to rejoin Tiamat's service, spurning the drow goddess Kiaransalee that Katya had been worshipping since Emmeryn died. However, Emmeryn's gamble failed and Katya refused to turn over Dzarya or abandon her companions. Em attempted to force Katya to stay, but the Detectives successfuly were able to escape. As punishment for her failure, Emmeryn was taken by the other abishai and tortured extensively, able to communicate only briefly with Katya telepathically, where she begged for fogiveness.
Emmeryn was later turned over to the archdevil Gargauth, who traded to get her from Tiamat to use as a bargaining chip against the Lost Star Detectives. This gamble paid off when Emmeryn was again traded, this time to Zariel, who had been redeemed during the Battle of Elturel and thanked Katya by returning her wife's soul to her. Katya gratefully accepted, and the day after Elturel's salvation, in Greengrass of 1498, a cleric of Lathander brought Emmeryn back to life.

Rebirth

Given a rarely seen, second chance at life, Emmeryn and Katya continued to live in Elturel as Em slowly began to acclimate to life again. However, her experiences in Hell left their mark on Emmeryn, whose elven trances had been entirely corrupted by her experiences. Where once Emmeryn had been energetic, outgoing, and friendly, she now became sullen and reclusive, suffering from night terrors and frequent bouts of self doubt. Katya, too, struggled with being her wife's moral compass and her newfound fame for saving Elturel. After a few years, the attention became too much for the two of them, and the Sinarans moved to a rural community in the Western Heartlands.

Social

Religious Views

For most of her life, Emmeryn was a devout worshipper of the Seldarine, the elven pantheon, and she was even married in a temple to the Seldarine, despite her wife Katya's drow nature. However, this faith was shaken and then lost following the Reign of Vampires, when Emmeryn could not shake the seeing unfairness in the seperation of drow and elves in their reincarnation cycles.
This led to Emmeryn finding and then worshipping fervently Tiamat, whose promise of a new world born in fire appealed to Emmeryn, who wanted nothing more than to remain with Katya through life and death. Ironically, this desire led to Emmeryn's death and the separation from Katya she feared when her soul was bound to Tiamat, preventing Katya from resurrecting her. Despite this, Emmeryn's faith in Tiamat continued up until the point that Katya refused to join her and she was punished, when all of her mistkaes came crashing down.
After her rebirth, Emmeryn tentatively returned to worship of the Seldarine, though her own mistakes and grudges stood in the way of the faith she used to have. She also did not return Katya's newfound faith in Torm, but Torm's guidance was instrumental in helping Katya aid and heal Emmeryn.

Species

Elf

Date of Birth

3rd of Elient

Year of Birth

1217 CR 281 Years old

Sex

Female

Hair

Red

Affiliated Organization
Cult of the Dragon

Emmeryn during her time worshipping the Cult of the Dragon.

by Ashley

Emmeryn as she appeared in Avernus as a red abishai.

by Heidi

Emmeryn and her wife Katya.