Arlantia

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Arlantia

(Person)

Titles

Princess of the Blasted Heath

Alignment

Chaotic evil

Ancestry/Species

Blighted dryad

Class

Cleric 15

Gender

Female

Homeland

Fangwood, Nirmathas

Deity

Cyth-V'sug

Source: Prisoners of the Blight, pg(s). 52

Arlantia is a dryad living in the Fangwood within Nirmathas. She is blighted by Cyth-V'sug, and is the source of the Darkblight infecting the forest.

Background

From a young age, Arlantia was exceptionally talented and conceited. Her skill and status grew quickly, and she became a handmaiden of Queen Gendowyn, the ruler of the fey Accressiel court in the Fangwood. Arlantia was tasked with serving the queen personally as an agent across the Fangwood. However, even with such privilege, Arlantia refused to be on a par with her colleagues, and her impetuousness led her to commit numerous mistakes and alienated her from her fellow dryads; all the while, Gendowyn still considered her like a normal handmaiden instead of as a treasured daughter.

As Arlantia's envy and frustration grew, especially after Gendowyn offered the dwarves of Kraggodan (whom Arlantia viewed as intruders) an alliance, she started hearing unintelligible voices that guided her to the depths underneath the Accressiel Palace. She found and claimed the Spiteful Scimitar among the treasures Gendowyn claimed from Treerazer long ago, and spent months studying the texts of Cyth-V'sug, which were also stolen from Treerazer, to learn the truths that Gendowyn concealed from her. As she studied and prayed, she opened a portal to Jeharlu, Cyth-V'sug's Abyssal realm, merging its influence with her fey magic to create the Darkblight with herself as patient zero.

Arlantia infected her fellow dryads and led them to imprison and overthrow Gendowyn. She tore down the old Accressiel Palace and built her new home, the Pestilent Palace, around the roots of her bonded ash tree.

The dwarves of Kraggodan, after losing contact with their fey allies, sent a delegation to the Fangwood equipped with the Dryad's Song, and they found Arlantia atop Gendowyn's throne. She slaughtered them and claimed the Dryad's Song for herself to solidify her control, and allowed a member of a later delegation to go back to Kraggodan with the message: Gendowyn and the Fangwood belong to Arlantia.

After an attempt to rescue Gendowyn failed, the dwarves admitted that she was lost and constructed monoliths to ward off the Darkblight; however, this was only a temporary measure as greedy Chelaxian looters came and weakened the monoliths by stealing the inlaid valuables. However, no matter how far the Darkblight spreads, Cyth-V'sug has never answered Arlantia's prayers to grant her mythic power.

Associates

Arlantia commands hundreds of evil fey, magical beasts, and plant minions within her stronghold. Most notably, these minions include a bandersnatch that she plucked from the First World, and shambling mounds she created from prisoners that she tied to the diseased trees of the Darkblight. The various minions frequently bicker and murder each other, but Arlantia has little care for most of them.

The black dragon Naphexi, whom Arlantia has raised for a millennium, serves as her herald and views her as the true inheritor to Golarion.

One of Arlantia's experiments to fuse the essences of herself and Gendowyn resulted in the creation of the blighted glaistig Argwyn. She originally intended to use Argwyn to spread the Darkblight through the dwarves' wards, but after they were looted, Arlantia sealed Argwyn within her palace and forgot her.

References

For additional as-yet unincorporated sources about this subject, see the Meta page.