Delshara Dharlen, Lady Defender of the White Flame
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She became even more reticent and retiring after that, burying herself in her
daily work for the Order. She stayed away from the courtyard and from Easlen
in general, as it reminded her too much of the years with him. The stress of
keeping her feelings so much in check after his death brought on the miscarriage
of a stillborn baby boy, who was buried next to his father, and who she named Brannon,
the name coming from the same root as her own father's name. (Edit: The detail about Delshara and Wyndamyr's love child was not public knowledge, nor where he was eventually buried. If there were rumors, they were never officially confirmed by the Order. The only person who knew about the child was her adopted son, Dolheru Goodstone; even Delshara's own daughter did not find out about her half-brother until after her mother's death.) She continued to lead
with determination, but much of her heart had been buried too. Her mother Dierna's death
from a fall and a stroke also gave her additional grief.
The rise of the new Jezebel, the Lady of Pain, was becoming a problem for the Order,
but Delshara underestimated the goddess' strength. Jezebel overwhelmed Cerrick,
imprisoning and injuring him, and destroyed the Keep with her evil minions while
Delshara was away on a leave of absence. She had painfully negtciated a peace with
King Torm of Dhazad-Kul after a diplomatic flub that threatened to sever the
Empire and the reputation of the Order. Again, it was caused by Knights acting
outside the boundaries of their code. She put herself on leave in Lanakh, with Alera
as command in her absence. With Cerrick close to eternal death, Jezebel found
Delshara in Al-Akrin, and her minions captured her in the deserts north of that city,
subjecting her to horrific mental and physical torture. Their attack left her close to
death herself, weakened and exhausted. Sultanate officials found her and placed her in
the Palace of Al-Akrin under tight military guard. Accordingly, Alera took command of the Order.
Meanwhile, Delshara's recovery was extremely slow, spending much of it in a deep coma.
She was given up for dead by many of her close friends, although parties (including her sister Elora) scoured the deserts looking for her.
Months passed. Cerrick was finally swallowed up by Jezebel, and Alera, devastated by
circumstances, created a completely new identity for herself to deal with the pain
of the situation. She renamed herself Jeaclyn and started to rebuild the Order.
Delshara was finally getting a little better, and finally out of her coma but not completely healed. A group of her healers were in the thrall of
Jezebel, and Delshara suffered slowly through her recovery, believing truly that she was near her end. She prepared for it, fervently believing that Wyndamyr had come for her at last, to lead
her to their son and to the afterlife. She even wrote Cerrick and Alera a farewell scroll,
not knowing that Cerrick and Alera were dead or changed. But her newfound faith in the
religion of Duty beckoned her to come back to life. Somehow, she pushed away the enticing thought of being
with Wyndamyr again, and painfully managed to escape from the Palace
with the help of an otherwise surprising character, the otherwise incorruptible
and stern Ianthe Skyfire, the Royal Liaison of the Sultanate and later Lady Martial.
Still weak, Delshara wandered in the deserts for years. She dared not go back to Al-Akrin
because of her experiences, not knowing that Ianthe had punished the evil healers for
their deeds. Jezebel had also placed a bounty on Delshara's head,
which made going to towns and cities impossible. Instead, she spent time with the wandering
nomads, who took pity on her, recognizing her white flame and knowing of her name - always astonishing to Delshara, as she remained always a humble person.
They nursed her back to health, but she refused to stay any longer with them than she had to
because she did not want to impose. She set off on her own, scraping out an existence from the
same lands her father had wandered many years ago.
One night, a wandering human traveller overcame Delshara while she slept exposed in the deserts, raping her. It was
an odd parallel to what had happened to her mother. She recovered enough wit to kill and bury him in the sands. Now pregnant with a child she did not want, she managed
to find her way back to Elysia. She heard of Alera's transformation and the new leadership.
Not knowing Jeaclyn's ways, she morbidly feared being expelled for being "impure", and instead moved
back to her home village north of Silverwood Glen. She gave birth to Yasmeena the following
year, a healthy baby girl, who brought out a new, loving aspect to her mother. Yasmeena would strongly resemble her mother physically, except for a pair of oddly bright emerald eyes that always caused her mother some disquiet - the only thing she could clearly remember of her rapist. Her daughter was an
unwitting gift that Jezebel had given her, thereby defeating the Lady of
Pain, who could never hurt her again. She protected her daughter fiercely, telling only Jeaclyn
and Alexis (Alera's sister) of the child's existence.
One of her old Knights, Bidat, who had grown into a well known protector of Light in his
own right, died by old age after Yasmeena became a toddler. Delshara rushed to be at his
bedside, having known him since well before he had joined the Order under her. It was very
soon after that his wife, Keiva, died of grief in the same valley where Bidat was buried.
Bidat had asked Delshara to take care of Keiva, and Delshara, knowing all too well what grief
did to love lost, had agreed. She was the only person there to take Dolheru, their son, and
took him to live with her in her home village. Thinking that Bidat's enemies would
extend their hatred to his son, she asked everyone present at Bidat's funeral to keep Dolheru's
whereabouts secret. Dolheru and Yasmeena hence grew up together in Delshara's home. Though
Jeaclyn offered her a second in command position, Delshara instead chose to concentrate more
upon her children. She served while she visited Easlen, but these times were rare. During
these times, the newer Knights leaned upon Delshara's experience and innate air of command,
which the years had never managed to take away from her.
Jeaclyn, now a legend, had become even more driven and strong-willed than before. Her
increasing age made it more and more difficult to keep up with the intensity that she
put into the Order. She asked Delshara to be her second in command. Delshara was at first
hesitant, thinking about her children and their safety should she die. When Jeaclyn pointed out
that Delshara was the only knight qualified, she remembered her duty to the Light and accepted.
This was to repay the deed that the former Alera had done for her - taking up the banner
of the Order if the leader falls.
Delshara served as second in command for a short time before Jeaclyn departed to oversee the construction of the new Keep. She left instructions for her to follow. During this period, Delshara had difficulty raising her family and leading the Order, being forced to do this last mostly by couriered scrolls. She had been in the midst of helping the town of Silverwood Glen to set up patrols; local affairs had been occupying her time much of late. Fortunately, few events outside of her home village required urgent attention. She had enough time, however, to begin compiling a history of the Order in the third age of Tarn. Seeing as the vast majority of the new Knights had no or little knowledge of all that had happened, Delshara took it upon herself to try and educate them. Seeing the destruction of the old Keep as the last event of a great and glorious age, she felt that it was vitally necessary to keep that knowledge alive. She and Jeaclyn were the only two Knights from that age left living after Bidat's death. "For," she said to her adopted son Dolheru at her own death, "it is important to know where you come from." Just before Jeaclyn arrived back in Easlen, however, Delshara was already ill. But she was not to know of Jeaclyn's arrival. A strange and curious plague had swept through Silverwood Glen and its surrounding hamlets, affecting only the children. This plague had been mentioned in an old and worn scroll, a prophecy of sorts - it would affect only children, but the death of one adult would send the plague away. Being the good Knight that she was, Delshara did her best to help nurse these victims. She helped save many of them from permanent affliction, but not before her own daughter fell ill. Horrified and afraid, Delshara watched Yasmeena shrink from a bright, vital young girl to a gray, withered shadow of herself. She did not let anyone but herself to nurse her daughter, and so, became infected. Despite her illness, she still worked tirelessly to ease the pain and suffering of the disease. Its symptoms were loss of hunger, terrible nightmares, and a consequential inability to sleep. Delshara, who was naturally getting older, had little resistance to fight it.
Having seen the death and disappearance of so many close to her, and having felt that pain, Delshara found it hard to reconcile with herself the possible death of her child. Jezebel had fed off of her suffering long enough. She would not have another life to feed on. And so, she prayed at Lisstrielle's shrine, to exchange her life for that of her daughter. Her prayers were accepted, after much heart-searching and suffering. Her daughter began to eat again, and Delshara said goodbye to her, going willingly to her own death.
Of the people she had written to, saying goodbye, only Dolheru received it in time to meet her just as she was drawing her final breaths. This was in token of the fact that she had been much isolated and reclusive in her later years, so that people had largely forgotten her. To Dolheru went the armor and equipment, much of it touched by the hand of Lisstrielle herself. She wished him much love and much happiness, saying that she wished he had been her own son. (Indeed, the loss of Brannon was one important reason for Dolheru's adoption.) And so, she died, just ahead of the assassins who had been chasing her for many years. She was buried with Wyndamyr's own bones under the stones of the old Crusaders' Keep, now the Shrine of the Light.
Delshara was never a great beauty, and would have cringed if she was, but she had her attractive points. Her luxurious brown hair was always tied in a low knot, and her long lashed
brown eyes serious but shining. Delshara had a smile that bloomed from her small
mouth. Otherwise, she was quite an ordinary woman, neither imposingly tall nor short, and slightly
thinner than in her youth. Even in her middle
age, she kept up a natural athleticism despite the demands of two young children.
She was responsible, thoughtful, intelligent, and grave, with compassion and understanding
graven deeply into her heart. She had and always would retain an air of command and discipline.
Her mother having taught her social graces, Delshara was naturally diplomatic and tactful, well
spoken, a thinking warrior. She was been able to defuse many tense situations because of
her policy of communication over violence, a strong contrast to the bloody roots of the Order. She was also a proficient warrior. However, it was a well-known fact that she was overall not a very effective commander in war or a stern general of her Knights. She acknowledged this in a (lost) last letter to Jeaclyn, stating that she had always known her role in the Order was as a caretaker - keeping the Order intact and alive long enough for Jeaclyn/Alera to come into her own. And indeed, Jeaclyn/Alera became a great Legend of Tarn and an immortal Goddess in her own right.
Her protectiveness extended to her sister Elora, a gentle and meek druid and follower of Nature,
though a sense of guilt out of their father's death, and Brianna's irrational blame,
kept her from making her peace with her other sister (much to Elora's grief). Elora died
once because of her sister's defense of the meek, against a dwarven murderer called Cirakath, a
friend of Baldon's, but the gods punished his soul immediately after for that deed.
Her own suffering and heartache gave her a great knowledge of mortal grief and trouble,
granting her a great sense of empathy. She was a natural listener and a friend in times of
sadness. Because of her devotion to Empathy and Duty, Lisstrielle granted her high favor.
Delshara's own writings on Empathy and Duty still grace her goddess' great temple, and She
crafted items for Delshara with her own hands as a token of her love.
Delshara believed
strongly that Wyndamyr is waiting for her in the lands beyond with her son, and though mortal
tasks still occupied her for years far beyond the lifespans of most of her old friends and family as well
as her greatest love, she spoke of feeling Wyndamyr always at her shoulder like a guiding hand. And so, when she departed the mortal realms, she was reunited with him and their son, together fighting the nightmares and demons that stalk children's dreams in ghostly lands far beyond Tarn.
Dolheru Goodstone became a pandion of Lisstrielle, as he was raised in Delshara's faith, and also joined the Order of the White Flame. It is known that he did develop a relationship with Elora, Delshara's sister, but it is not clear if they married. (Edit: I think they did. But I've lost contact with either of the characters' players). Yasmeena Dharlen never felt that close to her mother while she was alive, as Delshara died when the girl was just entering her teens. Later she did find out about her mother's full and painful history through Dolheru, including the tale of Wyndamyr and Brannon, her half-brother. The discovery of her own father's deed also gave her great grief for a time. To find peace with her mother's memory, she wrote Delshara's biography, although editions of it are few and hard to come by - besides in Silverwood Glen, one copy of it is thought to be kept in the library of the new Crusaders' Keep. (Edit: I gave it in to be put into the game, but I have no idea if the biography really is there.) All her life, Yasmeena strove to do good, becoming an enchantress and teacher of magic, and lived in Silverwood Glen. She eventually married and had children in a long and happy life, no doubt reaping the full rewards of Delshara's sacrifice. Her descendants still live there, and in sharp contrast to their famous forebear, few of them venture much outside that peaceful village.
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