Winter Council

This page contains spoilers for the following products: Second Darkness.
You can disable this banner in your personal preferences.

Winter Council

(Organization)

Type

Secret society (defunct as of 4708 AR)

Leader

Allevrah Azrinae

Headquarters

Kyonin

Scope

Elven lands

Members

Elves

Source: A Memory of Darkness, pg(s). 23ff. (1E)
Whispers in the Dirt, pg(s). 4 (2E)

The Winter Council was a group of advisors, and later secret manipulators, that influenced elven policy across Golarion. It was especially active in Kyonin, where it acted as a shadow government outside of Kyonin's legal structures and worked through proxies to keep the existence of drow a secret from the rest of Golarion.

In 4708 AR, Queen Telandia Edasseril forcibly dissolved the Winter Council with the aid of outside adventurers, and it is no longer active.

History

The council was not always a secret society. It started off as an organization whose members advised the elven rulers and served as elven ambassadors to Azlant. However, even in those days they engaged in some secret intelligence gathering, and it was one such operation that allowed them to anticipate the oncoming Earthfall.

They found out information which led them to believe that the rise of the Azlanti had been secretly aided by alghollthu masters, and that the alghollthus were upset by the egotism of the Azlant and were planning to wipe them out.

Most of the elves withdrew prior to Earthfall and the subsequent Age of Darkness, and the Winter Council withdrew with them. The organization embraced more and more secrecy, and when the elves returned, they adopted the policy of operating completely through proxies—both elven nobles and later the Shin'Rakorath, or Lantern Bearers. The council itself faded into the background.

The discovery of the drow, and the fact that elves could spontaneously transform into them through the Dark Fate, caused the council to create the Lantern Bearers to deal with them.

Outlook

The council believed it had the age, experience, and talents that made it both their right and responsibility to make hard decisions and guide the elves through hardship. They were not particularly concerned if a few innocents suffered in the process. In any conflict between tradition and progress, they always came down firmly on the side of tradition.

This approach often brought them into conflict with Kyonin's more progressive ruler, Queen Telandia Edasseril, who was happy to see the council's demise. For a long time, the council was too secretive and influential for Queen to move openly against them.

The council's main political concerns were keeping the true nature of the drow secret, and hiding the fact that one of its members has become a renegade.

Return to Thorn's End

The council's traditional headquarters, the fortress of Thorn's End, was situated within what had now become the Tanglebriar, the domain of the demon Treerazer. The building's ancient wards kept it relatively intact, and the council concluded that with the aid of an artifact known as the Maleficus Spike, they could make it effectively "demon proof".

In an act of incredible hubris, the council moved back into Thorn's End and defied the demons to do anything about it. They now had a secret base in which to carry out their plans, in a location completely safe from the attentions of any other elven factions.

Revelation

In 4703 AR, Treerazer dispatched the succubus Quilindra to infiltrate Kyonin and report back with valuable information. She was captured by Queen Edasseril in 4707 AR, and in the process of being interrogated had revealed to Edasseril what she had learned of the Winter Council.

Edasseril secretly recruited outside adventurers and enacted a plan to use them and Quilindra to overthrow the Winter Council as a threat to both her legitimate rule and Kyonin's stability.

Dissent within the council

One of the council's members, the famous general Allevrah, proposed an audacious plan to destroy the drow by calling upon the same alghollthu magic that the council believed had caused Earthfall. The plan would unfortunately also ensure the destruction of much of Nirmathas, Varisia, Cheliax, Druma, and Andoran, collateral damage that Allevrah insisted could not be helped.

The rest of the council refused to agree, and a fight broke out in which Allevrah killed Auramesties, the council's leader. She then damaged the Spike in order to cover her escape.

The demons were emboldened by the weakening of Thorn's End's wards and put the stronghold under permanent siege.

Collapse

The adventurers recruited by Queen Edasseril successfully overthrew the Winter Council in 4708 AR. Quilindra then betrayed the adventurers, who killed her.

Members and ex-members

See also: Category:Winter Council/Members

The council originally had six members.

• Allevrah, turned renegade as of 4709 AR
• Arlindil, oldest member and the most hard-line; liaises with the elven druids
• Auramesties, leader until killed by Allevrah
• Hialin, the Council's expert on arcane magic
• Malindil commands Thorn's End's defenders, and liaises with the Lantern Bearers
• Perelir, the Council's theologian

Of these, Perelir was known to remain active with the reformed Lantern Bearers as of 4717 AR.

References

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