Serena Morgannan's page

1. Serena was born the daughter of a minor Jadwiga noble and an Irriseni peasant woman. Her Jadwiga father abandoned her to be raised alone by her mother, Vasilisa, who worked as an herbwoman in a cottage on the edge of the Hoarwood Forest. Serena lived with her mother, learning the trade and trying to stay clear of the agents of the Winter Witches.

2. Serena soon found that she had a natural talent for magic--a talent that she did her best to use to benefit the people of her town but simultaneously keep a secret, for she knew that girls who displayed such a skill risked being forcibly apprenticed to the winter witches. She used her magic to augment the healing her mother provided the townsfolk and scare off the occasional malicious fey or wandering monster that came to close to her cabin.

3. But someone soon learned of Serena’s gift and informed the Winter Witches. Serena soon was visited by a witch calling herself the Lady Sorrow, who took Serena from her home deep into the Hoarwood to be her apprentice. At the urging of her mother, who warned Serena against attempting to run away, Serena accepted her fate, hoping that perhaps a position among the witches could be used to make life easier for her fellow commoners. She would never allow herself to grow as cruel as the winter witches were, even if she were to be counted among their number.

4. Lady Sorrow’s home was deep in the Hoarwood, far from any town or the capitol, but the Lady brought Serena with her wherever she travelled--and she was intent on showing Serena most of Irrisen, it seemed. They visited Whitethrone and Redtooth and Hoarwood and all sorts of places in between. Though Serena did her best to hold onto the kindness in her heart, as time passed she found it growing hardened to the cruelties she witnessed in their travels.

5. Soon, Lady Sorrow revealed the truth to Serena. She was not the child of Vasilisa at all--she was Lady Sorrow’s daughter, and Lady Sorrow was in fact a powerful winter hag. The slow hardening she had felt in her heart since she started her apprenticeship with the Lady was just the first step in transforming into a hag herself. Lady Sorrow made her an offer--become a winter hag and she would rise to the status of true nobility among the Irrisen elite. Serena refused, and used all her magic in a desperate attempt to escape. She was able to flee Irrisen, heading into Varisia--she sought to get as far from her homeland as she could, for she feared how long the Lady Sorrow’s reach was, so she took a ship in Riddleport to Taldor--here, she would be safe, and she could seek out a way to halt or delay her own transformation into a hag.

1. I would like for Serena to have a confrontation with Lady Sorrow; it would tie up that end in her backstory, and allow her to finally deal with the truth about herself.
2. I think it would be cool for Serena to have a reunion with Eric Whitetooth; whether it was a positive one or a negative one would be interesting either way.

1. Serena is a changeling daughter of the Lady Sorrow; before her apprenticeship, her hair was dark brown, her skin was warm, and her breath did not frost even on a warm summer’s day. She keeps distant from most people, so that they cannot guess her true heritage, and even as far south as Taldor she usually poses as a wizard so that people do not suspect her connection with the distant nation of Irrisen.

2. Vasilisa, Serena’s surrogate mother, had not taken Serena in and raised her as her own out of the kindness of her heart. She had known that Serena was a changeling from the beginning, and had received a stipend from Lady Sorrow in return for raising her and for monitoring her for signs of magical skill. She was the one who told Lady Sorrow that Serena was beginning to manifest her magical power, and Serena’s misplaced trust in Vasilisa convinced her to follow her adopted mother’s advice to join with the Lady.

1. Lady Sorrow was Serena’s mistress during the time she spent as an apprentice of the winter witches. She seemed rather strange, not referring to herself by the name of any noble house--though she informed Serena that she was a member of house Morgannan. The Lady does not regard herself as Serena’s enemy--she still believes that Serena will eventually return to the fold and accept her place among the Winter Witches.

2. While she was training to be a Winter Witch, Serena caught the eye of Lady Taisia Elvanna, a fellow apprentice. Taisia looked down on Serena since she was the child of peasants rather than a proper Jadwiga, and she would mock Serena whenever they encountered one another--for example, asking if the Lady Sorrow had finished fattening her up so she could eat her.

3. During her time in Whitethrone, Serena met a handsome young man with silver white hair; at first she assumed he was one of the winter wolves of the Howlings district so she avoided him, but soon he came to visit her in Frosthall. Serena found him rather charming, if a bit rakish, and began to spend time with him in the city. She soon learned that while he was not a winter wolf, he was a werewolf, which granted him special privileges amongst the winter wolves. Though he was not as cruel as his fellows among the Howling, this still made Serena uneasy, for the wolves of Irrisen are known to function as Baba Yaga’s secret police.

1. Once, while visiting Algidheart, Serena found herself and the Lady Sorrow walking in the Soaring District. A few blocks down them, there was some sort of commotion--a child, apparently a pickpocket, was being chased by the city guard. The child turned a corner and lost his footing, falling down several stories; a pool of blood formed around his body. A few months before, Serena would have ran to the child as quickly as she could--but instead, she turned her head, continuing with the Lady to their destination.

2. Serena remembers when she first arrived in Whitethrone, the Lady Sorrow gave her a small amount of spending money and allowed her to explore the city unchaperoned. Serena wandered the streets of the city, unsure of what, if anything, she would buy--when she smelled something familiar that made her think of home. One of the bakeries was making gingerbread--her mother had occasionally made her gingerbread when she could afford it, so it had long been Serena’s favorite treat. Serena entered the bakery, bought the largest gingerbread house she could find, and shared it with every child she met that day--leaving one piece for herself, of course.

3. Serena remembers escaping the Lady, the day she offered Serena the transformation into a hag. She took the athame that the Lady had given to her to remove her own heart and replace it with one made of ice, and instead used it to stab at the Lady and overturn her cauldron. As the Lady was distracted, Serena ran into the forest, using all of the magic at her disposal to aide in her escape--but it was many miles before she ceased to here the Lady calling her name in the wind.

”Dearest Serena. Fair Serena. Serena the Kind,” said the Lady Sorrow as she worked at her cauldron, Serena standing by her side. Serena clutched her cloak close to her body--though they worked by an open fire, the Lady always liked to keep the windows open, even now as a snowstorm raged outside. Serena’s familiar, the hare she called Brigid, was clutched tightly to her chest--it was practically her only source of warmth in the cabin.

”There is something that you should know. Today is a glorious day for you, little Serena. Do you know what today is? Why, it is the day that you were born,” she said, passing Serena the ladle; though the fire beneath the cauldron burned red hot and its contents boiled and steamed the soup still tasted ice cold on her lips. It was indeed her birthday, though the Lady had never seemed to care about such things before--Serena was a little surprised that she even knew it.

”I--you are kind to remember, Lady Sorrow,” Serena said, handing back the ladle. The Lady had not told her what they were making--the ingredients were strange and unfamiliar, compared to what they had prepared before, and the lady had so far ignored her questions about their brewing.

”Of course I remember. Of course I know. I was there, you know, when you were born. Had to be there. I was the one giving birth,” continued the Lady, taking a draught of something bubbling green and pouring it into the cauldron. There was a burst of cold out from the pot as the liquid within began to bubble and churn--but rather than spilling over the top, it congealed inwards--the water freezing as it did, taking the shape of a heart made of ice.

”Lovely Serena,” said the Lady, running her fingers through Serena’s hair; as her fingers passed through the strands it was as if they were being bleached white by her touch. In her other hand, she produced a dagger; Serena backed away from her, but the Lady took her hand and placed the dagger in her palm. ”Soon, my child. Soon. You have no need of your old heart now--I have made you a new one. A perfect gift for your eighteenth birthday, is it not?”