Cassilda Inenfenae, commonly known as Lady Cassilda of New Winter among humans and to history, was a prominent elven woman who lived in Central Balebu. She had played a signficant role in events including the rise of the Undine Kingdom, Ochebana's assimilation of Undine, and the court of the Ochebana Empire.

Background and Appearance

Cassilda was born to high elven parents and inherited her father's dark brown hair. However, in all other respects she was similar to her mother Cassilana: she had delicate features, a rounded nose (somewhat atypical of high elves, perhaps indicating a trace of human blood), steel blue eyes which "one could stare into, feeling either reverberating silence or longing", and a supple waist.

Cassilana, a renowned scholar and mage at Monyariva's academy, was famous for her composure, soft-spokenness, and her apparent delicacy and restraint. She was excrutiatingly careful and precise both socially and in her approach to magic, to which most attributed her mastery of precise spells.

Biography

Cassilda's parents were from a modestly wealthy family in Monyariva, a relatively civilized and peaceful town compared to the mostly tribal orcish settlements one would find otherwise in central Balebu at that time. Cassilda had a uneventful, careful upbringing, being raised together with a small group of other elven children by an old wood elf. She was rarely at home with both parents simultaneously, because her merchant father would often go on longer trade trips (and different men, both elves and humans, would be at home with Cassilana instead), and her mother usually stayed at the Academy when her father was home.

The human-goblinoid armies of Trensandor arrived in Monyariva in 630 b. OW, driving columns of fleeing orc warriors ahead of them, and the family was initially scared and uncertain about the future. But things relatively quickly settled down, and it was clear that large-state government was here to stay; the tribes would have no chance of regaining central Balebu.

Meanwhile, Cassilda felt that she was stuck with her life. She'd learned all that she cared to hear from her now-gone tutor, and she had - wanting to enlist in arcane curricula immediately, rather than engaging in a few decades of apprenticeship as a novice - failed admission to the Academy on four occasions. She had grown estranged with her mother in the process.

Merchant

Her father meanwhile sensed new trade opportunities in the west opening up, especially with civil unrest looming and large shipments of war materials coming in from the ocean. He proposed to take her along, and she agreed, swiftly learning the ways of a wandering trader (she already had economic schooling, and had helped her father on earlier occasions). She amassed a small fortune dealing in weapons and other supplies during the few years of civil war as the Drummir Province fell apart, which she then used as starting capital to purchase some wagons and contracts in Drummir-Fjor, the major trade port on the west coast.

Her father, in his usual passionless, independent way, left her behind in the city as he went south to trade in the restless Free Marches, where he also dabbled in politics and eventually died. Meanwhile Cassilda built up a small guild, one of many, and traded goods from overseas in the new states of Brimmer and Undine. The margins were relatively low, however, and she eventually moved to the Undine town of Sapto, where she set up a new business and made more money shipping goods long-distance through the three lakes and the rivers that touched them.

Learned Woman

As a wealthy woman, with many years already behind her and quite a few good relationships built up thanks to her charming ways and business links, Cassilda had ingratiated herself among the educated elite which liked to read texts, discuss over a cup of herbal infusion, and write dissertations "for the benefit of the Undine state and culture". The guild business was sidelined and Cassilda fully pursued a scholar's career, becoming accepted as a Colleague (a researcher and teacher) at Sapto's renowned College of Humanities, whose domain was all matters of culture, philosophy, and history.

Cassilda's own domain of expertise were inter-human relationships, biology's impact on the mind, and the elven race. She often worked on the subject of love with a scientific and a philosophical approach, and tried to categorize and explain the behavior of the elves. Her most renowned work was a co-operation with three other scholars on a document entitled "The Seventy-Three Stages in Life of a Young Irteahn (Wood, High, or Sun) Elven Woman", which outlined the life stages an elf usually went through up to her second century, with detailed emotional, behavioral, and biological descriptions of each stage. The work was used as a reference in human scholarship for centuries, though it suffered some criticism from Silurite scholarship.

Cooperation with Ochebana

The Ochebana Empire aggressively expanded its borders around Undine in the early sixth century. Cassilda stuck to the consensus of neutrality, arguing that Undine's people had nothing to gain from picking a side in these conflicts, and that intervention would only threaten the peace at home. She also had an economic stake in the matter, as she occasionally invested in some mercantile undertakings in war zones and built up some contacts among the Ochebanian merchants, especially once Brimmer was annexed.

During the Ochebanian raids into Undine from 545 - 540, Cassilda advocated for the protection of all Undine roads and settlements, and co-founded the elven Green Arrows militia which hunted down Ochebanian commandos. Here, it was a question of survival and guaranteeing peace for trade. After the conflict stopped, Cassilda continued dealing with Ochebana without a second thought, and in fact began spending some time in cities such as Baklavda and Longhorn Bay (the former Drummir-Fjor), making sure her name was known to Ochebanian merchants and officers alike.

Ochebana invaded Undine in 520, to little surprise for Cassilda and many others. This time, she did not support the resistance, and when the regular army marched towards Sapto recommended that everyone stand down; she herself was at the time in Orksed, an Ochebanian military base.

She had approached Lord Infrad Mirugenhills, a man who had once lived in Undine and now served as a political officer with the army for Emperor Snaketeethed, and with whom she had built up a good relationship. When the invasion kicked off, she gave her support by essentially neutralizing all resistance from Sapto. In return, as Snaketeethed had promised to several other turncoats, she was given the office of Pro-Governor of Secondlake (Sapto's rich farmland) and, some decades later, given a noble title by the emperor's own hand.

In her new role, she retained her influential position in Sapto and even kept her title of Colleague (though she had lost interest and barely showed up at the college except for political reasons, until it was dissolved by imperial order in 512), while simultaneously serving in the empire's military administration of former Undine territories. An Ochebanian governor oversaw Sapto and was her direct superior, but she oversaw most of the farmland and was able to extract some revenue through both clean taxation and some bribes.

She did not participate in the genocide campaign perpetrated by Ochebana, but she did not work against it in any way, made some profit notably by extracting bribes from people hiding in her territory, and even made a speech at the college justifying Ochebana's actions.

Noble Title. Cassilda, who made occasional appearances at the imperial court and was in Snaketeethed's favor, was given a noble title by the imperial hand in 470 b. OW. This was a fully immaterial title, not tied to any land or any inheritance (much like how Snaketeethed's assimilation of Undine ruthlessly destroyed or ignored what had been before): Cassilda was made Lady of New Winter. The name clearly sprung from her informal title, which she had gained due to her position as guildswoman of the New Winter Trade guild in Sapto and to her characteristic calm demeanor and blue eyes.

Activities 450 - 420 b. OW. Ochebana was plunged in constant war on the borders and violence and slavery internally. Cassilda began making use of the situation to grow her influence, assisting both in war production and in the capture and trade of slaves for political rather than economic benefit. She had outgrown her position of pro-governor and gave it up in 441, instead preferring freedom to attend various courts and seats of power.

Imperial Courtesan

Lady Cassilda's upwards course brought her to Londerhome, the center of power, in 422 b. OW. For some time, she had held the belief that allegiances, loyalties, and family did not matter, only calluous benefit (as demonstrated in her political positions while in Undine); but she also always thought that elven lives were more precious than human ones, and had often acted accordingly. She was worried about how things were going, with elves being increasingly persecuted, and with women being treated as inferior (while she believed gender mattered little but that the woman was infinitely more complex, more thoughtful and beautiful, but also more delicate than the man). She hoped to influence things the other way, or at least secure her own position.

She occasionally met the young adult Jonathan Morgan, heir to the imperial throne, in social occasions, and her insightful remarks on philosophy and politics caught his attention whenever they exchanged a few words. Some argue her looks, and the flowing silk shirt and pants she'd taken to wearing, played a greater role.

In any case, Jonathan made Cassilda countess in 418 and welcomed her to the imperial court as one of his two dozen "courtesan" advisors. She did not have a role that was any more special than the others, though she was one of the only two nonhumans (the other being a sun elf woman) among them. Her views were valued, and by the time Jonathan took power in 410, she had built a close relationship with him and she remained a courtesan to the emperor.

For a decade, Countess Cassilda was primarily responsible for staff at the Imperial Palace and Jonathan's five other residences. She reviewed recommendations for new hires, made some hires herself, and essentially "managed the household". She wanted more control over the emperor's agenda, sometimes trying to influence his order of the day, who visited him, and policy briefings, but she had no official channel and had to give what little political advice she could in private. This was due mostly to social stigma against elves and nasty rumors about Jonathan and elves specifically which forced him to be careful.

In effect, her main unspoken role was finding and managing the elven women in the emperor's small group of private consorts. She had to find attractive, willing, and discrete individuals, no small task, and make sure as little information got out as possible.

Cassilda herself, with her beautiful appearance and often tight-fitting clothes, was more often rumored to be one of "those" with whom the emperor slept. However, it appears there never was such a close relationship between them, though Cassilda certainly did sleep with two other men at court.

Exile

Jonathan was murdered by nobles in 394 b. OW, and the Imperial Palace was sacked. Cassilda, fearing something might happen and having already taken precautions, escaped Londerhome and sought refuge from the ensuing chaos in the familiar north. She used her funds to find a discrete home in Baklavda and utilized her many connections to remain safe and above the fray, also after the empire was restored. She was careful to maintain a low profile, as an accusation against her would be easy to fabricate: all other elves who had been in close contact with Jonathan had long been slaughtered.