Drutheira

Drutheira was a Dark Elf Sorceress and agent of Malekith during the War of the Beard. ^[1a]

Appearance

Slender, small breasted and beautiful with long hair the colour of hoarfrost, porcelain white skin, much of body was exposed by her favoured robes. ^[1f]

She had black hair when posing as a noblewoman. ^[1c]

Coven

She was accompanied by a lesser sorceress Ashniel and the male sorcerer Malchior. ^[1a]

History

She and the Shade Sevekai had shared a bed, but she had stabbed him in the back with a ritual athame when he teased her about her skills as a lover. ^[1f]

Using blood magic, she and her coven cloaked a raider ship to allow them to slip through the Black Gulf avoiding Dwarf navy patrols and defences. ^[1a] Malekith then ordered her to join the Shade Sevekai and together enact his plans to prevent any alliance between the High Elves and the Dwarfs. ^[1b] They sacrificed the dozen crew, sank the ship in the river and then disguised as a High Elf noble from Cothique and her two servants, made their way to a nearby outpost, Zakbar Varf where Elves and Dwarfs mixed and traded. ^[1c]

Ashniel poisoned the ale, water and wine to ready the settlement for the other raiders who were on their way to attack it that night. ^[1d] They then joined a detachement of Shades under Sevekai and ambushed a small convoy of Dwarf wagons, easily overcoming the guards but the scouts nearly met their end when a passenger was revealed to be Agrin Fireheart, a Runelord. Drutheira and her acolytes fought a magical duel against him and finally prevailed, slaying him with the tentacles of a summoned kraken of darkness. ^[1e]

She healed Sevekai's broken ribs but then snapped one again with her magic to show what she could at any time. However she was also nervous of one of his warriors, Kaitar and after magically gifting Sevekai with routes to attack, left the shades. ^[1f]

After spending eight years burning settlements and hiding from Princess Liandra she reunited with Sevekai, telling him he had to kill the Dragon Mage who was closing in on her. ^[1f] When instead Liandra flew to her burning home of Kor Vanaeth Drutheira attempted to contact Malekith but he did not allow her to so. She was forced to rely on Sevekai, who she took as a lover again and asked him to kill Kaitar. ^[1g]

However when Liandra instead flew to her home city being burned by the Dwarfs, they retreated again into the shadows, spending the next twenty years there, waiting for Malekith to contact them. They had eventually drifted into Athel Maraya pretending to be refugees from Kor Vanaeth and Drutheira and Sevekai became far more relaxed together. Then she received a vision from the Witch King to seek out Bloodfang in the mountains. ^[1h]

Sources

• 1: The Great Betrayal (Novel)
  • 1a: Chapter Five: Sky Ship, pg. 102-103
  • 1b: Chapter Five: Sky Ship, pg. 105-105
  • 1c: Chapter Seven: Arrows and Blades, pg. 139-142
  • 1d: Chapter Seven: Arrows and Blades, pg. 145
  • 1e: Chapter Fifteen: Wrath and Ruin, pg. 211-214
  • 1f: Chapter Fifteen: Wrath and Ruin, pg. 215-220
  • 1f: Chapter Twenty Nine: Hunted, pg. 357
  • 1g: Chapter Thirty Four: War of the Beard, pg. 405-408
  • 1h: Epilogue, pg. 497-499