Elenei I Durrandon

Storm Queen Elenei I Durrandon, roughly 35 years of age.

Elenei I Durrandon (123-180 A.I.), born Rhonda Durrandon, was the youngest daughter of Beron I Durrandon and the first ever Storm Queen regnant. She ascended the Storm Throne in 149 A.I. after the death of her father. She inherited a peaceful, stable realm after the defeat of the Marcher Rebellion, but after a decade of rule, pushed for reconquest of the Rainwood. She became known as Elenei Stormsword after creating Tempest, a legendary blade reforged of bronze by lightning.

Appearance

Elenei was a broad-framed, densely muscular woman. Though she had the blood of the Children of the Forest within her, she carried none of the features that would indicate such. She had black hair and stormy blue eyes, and usually styled her hair in a single long braid. After the forging of Tempest, her right arm became blackened, like cooked meat, and smelled rancid, though retained its function, strength, and supposedly caused her no pain or discomfort.

Personality

Elenei was headstrong and determined. She desired to make her rule legendary, to stake her claim in history and ensure that the first Storm Queen regnant would be remembered as one of the greatest rulers of the Stormlands. She carried a high opinion of herself and her views. A warrior queen, she had a great interest in commanding armies and engaging in battle, the former something that was quite unprecedented in the Stormlands until her rule.

History

Elenei was born Rhonda Durrandon to Beron I, his youngest daughter. During her childhood, she was often bullied by her elder brother, Silas. She was sent to ward with Lady Daria Borrell of the Sisterfolk, which likely had an influence on her desire to be Storm Queen, given the Sisterfolk possessed a more matriarchal worldview. She excelled in their court, proving herself a peerless warrior and skilled in martial maneuvers. When she returned to Storm's End, she knew she wanted to rule, and she would have her opportunity upon Silas's sudden, tragic death in 146 A.I.

She challenged the other candidates for Beron I's heir to single combat, and one by one, defeated them all. Earning the respect of the family, and humiliating her rivals, Elenei earned the distinction of being named Beron I's uncontested heir, and she took up the name Elenei to signal her rise and to honor her ancestors.

Elenei became Storm Queen after her father's passing in 149 A.I. She was left to deal with the remnants of the Marcher Rebellion, and in 157 A.I., dispatched Lord Willas Dondarrion to capture the rebellion's leader, Mace Caron, who had fled after the war's end. Mace gave himself up peacefully, and Willas's son, Glendon, responded by brutally beating the man and stealing his crown. When presented to Elenei, Mace reported this event to her, and swore before the gods on its veracity. She arrested Glendon, who gave up the crown but not its jewels, and he was condemned to the dungeons until he would give them up. She then took Mace Caron to the castle godswood, and per his wishes, executed him before the central weirwood.

Elenei then planned on reconquering the Rainwood, though tried peacefully appealing to the lords there first. Her vision of a united Stormlands that could withstand future Andal invasions was broken by the lords' refusals, and so she declared the Rainwood a province in open rebellion, and began taking steps to bring it back into the fold by force.

In 159 A.I., she struck against the Green Queen, taking the Estermont Isles with the aid of House Blacktyde. She justified her conquest by claiming that the isles would be one of the foremost to be assaulted by an Andal host from across the sea, and the navies of Houses Massey, Borrell, and Blacktyde could protect the isles far better than the Green Queen could. The Green Queen responded by razing Stonehelm and capturing Corningstone from House Swann. By war's end in 161 A.I., Elenei's forces had been stretched thin. She took the summer years to recover, but vowed that she would return to the Rainwood and avenge Stonehelm.

In 167 A.I., she resumed her war. She aimed to retake Corningstone, and punish the Mertyns and Green Queen for resisting her. But after a year of rough fighting in Corningstone, Elenei retreated her forces. The land was unfamiliar to even the Swanns, the terrain having shifted to a muddy mire and swamp instead of the familiar hills. Some strange ritual caused the Rainwood to seal off behind a treacherous fog, and the lands just outside the wood itself became drenched by a long, continuous rain. Elenei would never see the Rainwood under Durrandon rule, and the Weirmarch stood defiant.

Near ten years later, in 176 A.I., Elenei and Gwayne V Gardener declared their realms united, and they together marched on Duskendale. The kingdom was shattered in three years, with Andal lords fleeing and declaring themselves king after the defeat of the Darklyns - namely the Cargylls of Misty Isle, and the Toynes of Driftmark. Returning to Storm's End, Elenei planned on integrating the Stormlands and the Reach into one great realm known as the First Kingdom. She would wed Gwayne, and they would together forge this realm. But in 180 A.I., she unexpectedly died, having been shocked with tremendously powerful lightning that supposedly leapt from Tempest itself. She was roasted on her own throne, and required several attendants to peel her corpse from the seat.

Quotes by Elenei

"The Oakenseat awaits you, Gwayne. Do you think I will let you wither away and die in Tumbleton? You may not be my king, but you are mine, Gwayne Gardener. And I will not let you slip into memory as the man who wed a giant and hid away at Stonebridge."

—Elenei to Gwayne Gardener.

"I am not Storm Queen by blood and name alone, Dondarrion. I am the Storm Queen, down to my very core. You see it. They will see it, too. I have nothing to fear from insults. Those that levy them will be humbled in time."

—Elenei to Willas Dondarrion.

Quotes about Elenei

"Do not mistake her title of Queen. She is a King."

—Gwayne Gardener about Elenei.