Ianthe Skyfire, Lady Martial of the Sultanate
Ianthe, an only child, was born in an encampment just west of Al-Akrin.
Her parents were travelling human merchants, leaders of a caravan selling
all sorts of goods, from spices and fine cloth, to glass trinkets and bottles,
from jewelled daggers and knives to sewing needles and shoe leather.
They sold regularly to the markets in Teziir and Al-Akrin, the Caravan
Road being their favorite route. This transient lifestyle allowed
Ianthe to see much of Lanakh, instilling a fierce love for the deserts
and dunes of her land. Because the cities of the Sultanate were great
centers of commerce, they were in fact rich enough to establish a
permanent shop, but they preferred the road to a sedentary way of life.
Because caravans were always subject to periodic raids from brigands
and thieves, this particular group maintained a small band of guards
to keep track of their goods and to watch for dangers during travel.
Not being a mercantile sort of person, due to a bad temper and
an almost compulsive honesty, Ianthe instead trained to be a fighter.
The temples in the cities they visited granted her a sense of mysticism,
representing for her a greater presence in the world of Tarn. Religion provided
for her the security of a faith that would never change, unlike her more risky past
lifestyle as a caravan guard. At first she was a pure warrior, training under the head
of her parents' guard. He was a humble slave, but a good friend, and one of only two
people Ianthe would ever voluntarily show respect just for being themselves. Her parents'
faith in Love led her to choose the way of the Divine Dancer, Jezebel,
and became Her last taltheon to bear the Golden Rose before Jezebel became the
Lady of Pain and Torment. To all that knew her, Ianthe had chosen a strange religion,
given her rather fearsome character, but she was grim and serious, concealing
a passionate nature underneath. She loved her family, her people, and her homeland,
which was how she worshipped Love. When her parents retired to live in Al-Akrin,
Ianthe left home with their blessings. She joined the Sultanate as a janissary under
Jorin and Trelinya.
She found few close friends, due to her aloof personality, but she came to
know a few travelling companions, with whom she began to learn a smidgen of
diplomacy. Corliss was openly playful with her, lending a little humor
to their missions together, and Gilaedius, Cerrick's first taltheon, became
her devoted friend. Ianthe harbored serious thoughts of him as other than
a friend, and she began to open up to him, but he never returned her feelings.
He being a dwarf blocked up her dreaming. Saddened by Gilaedius' death,
Ianthe had nevertheless begun to soften under these influences, if only just a little.
During this time, the Sultan of Al-Akrin made Ianthe his Royal Liaison
as a reward for her fierce loyalty, and Alcazar, who had become General of the Sultan's
Army, also appointed her as a recruiting officer for the Sultanate. Gramalkin,
the new immortal representative of the Sultanate in the pantheon, granted her
special powers to recruit new trainees, and second in command besides.
Her career off at a bound, Ianthe set herself on a long mission alone to the wandering
nomads of Lanakh. She travelled extensively through the desert, being a strong
survivalist in her home climate, living with the people she found and providing
protection as the Sultan's representative to his citizens. This she did for
a period of several years. She was the one to find the badly wounded and dazed
Delshara, the Lady Defender of the White Flame, and ordered messengers to
find Sultanate officials to help her to the palace at Al-Akrin for rest and healing. The Crusader was weak and unconscious for much of the time, but Ianthe did try to speak to her at length - simply because the shrewd tactician in her saw the possibility of influencing a commanding Knight to be sympathetic to the causes of Lanakh. The two ladies never did become close or friendly, but Ianthe found enough womanly goodwill in her to let the dazed Delshara escape from the palace. Some of her healers proved to be Jezebel's minions, and Ianthe could not have them killed because of her faith to the former Goddess of Love. Letting the Crusader go seemed to be the best option. The evil healers
were charged with attempted murder, and placed in the cells of the Sultanate
dungeons for life. Ianthe went back out into the desert to complete her missions.
That accomplished, Ianthe came back to active duty in the Sultanate. General Alcazar
and Major Trelinya disappeared and were eventually presumed dead, and Ianthe
became the Lady Martial of the Sultanate.
She immediately imposed moving procedures
to follow for anyone to move legally from the lands, and established a policy
of flagging traitors, those who moved illegally without consent. This caused
a storm of controversy over the ideals of the Sultanate government, but she
remained calm. The remaining Janissaries remained loyal to her command, proof
that they believed in her as their leader. She also called for new officers
and began diplomatic proceedings with the Empire, the Magi, and the Dominion.
She maintained her composure, though she seethed underneath with rage, in the
face of the angry protests from the Empire, which harbored most of the "traitors"
she wished to punish. However, she did remain fair, in that all Sultanate laws
were only enforceable within their boundaries and nowhere else. Unfortunately
many chose to misread her intentions, and called her oppressive, instead.
Sammael Lightbane, a gray elf serving in the Sultanate ranks, informed her an old treaty signed by the then-leaders of the Empire and
the Sultanate, his father, Duke Trax Lightbane and Lord Firan Il'Aulk. The treaty granted the Elysian
village of Cove to Lanakh, but it was never officially implemented. Ianthe took immediate steps to have the land ceded.
This fired up even more controversy. The Empire, under Duchess Niniane Alanikel, flatly refused, saying that it had
been too long since the treaty had been signed, for it to possibly be legal and
binding. It was also pointed out by the Empire officials that Trax had made
poor decisions (he eventually went insane and committed suicide), making the
legality of the treaty even more suspect. Doubts were raised over whether the Empress
had really verified the treaty. Tensions between the Empire and the Sultanate escalated.
The Crusaders of the White Flame, under Jeaclyn, sided with the Empire because
they disliked the presence of beggars, slaves, and poverty in Lanakh, and feared
that the Sultanate would do the same to the humble people of Cove. The Dominion
of the Iron Claw, of Labyria, chose to side with the Sultanate. Their leader, Kalista, and Ianthe, sent secret correspondence discussing possible invasion plans. (Ianthe saw the virtual necessity of working with the Dominion, and reconciled herself to it, but she disliked the idea of being beholden to them. She also suspected that the Dominion would turn on the Sultanate when the conquest was done. We know this because her diary of the dispute was found long after Ianthe's death.) The idea was to take Elysia by force upon two fronts, from the south through Sylvanore by the
Dominion, and from the east through Cove by the Sultanate. The Resistance objected
to any move that would endanger the people of Cove (stating that their rights
were utmost). The Magi of the Tower of Shifting Sands, under Alexis Telaar,
verified the genuineness of the treaty (presented by the Sultanate), and chose,
after lengthy discussion, to side with them. Things were shaping up for
a war of colossal proportions. Rumors ran rampant around Tarn, chiefly stating that the first attack on the Empire would come on the very night of Duchess Alanikel's official inducting ceremony by the Empress - a night when most of Elysia would be naturally preoccupied. But no attack ever came. (Edit: I didn't feel like a PK war, heh. In retrospect, I regret not making Ianthe and the Sultanate attack. It fits her personality better to attack at a time when it was strategically advantageous.)
After the actual declaration of war, the Empress suddenly announced that she had
indeed signed the treaty. The village of Cove was rightfully the fief of the
Sultanate. Upon hearing this, Ianthe declared that war preparations had been disbanded.
They were allowed to keep the land, provided that living conditions would not decline,
and that people would be allowed to move from Cove without legal penalty. Ianthe
agreed to these conditions, and the Sultanate formally took over the village.
Builders of all sorts were sent to the village to make it a true Sultanate city.She was, as stated before, fiercely loyal, independent, responsible and fearless.
In executing her duties, Ianthe was incorruptible. She had a sharp sarcasm and wit.
To contrast with her rather grim personality, she was a rather stunning beauty. She was
a tall, fit woman, with deep set emerald green eyes, a fearsomely aquiline nose and curling red
hair. However, she had little to no female graces, and her physical spell over other people always abruptly ended at the sound of her voice - flat, efficient and utterly without charm. The frequent jabs she received on behalf of the Sultanate, due to that
government's reputation for ironfisted justice and intolerance of disloyalty,
gave her a bad opinion of the more "lax" policies of the Empire. She had a
particular dislike for those who she deemed hypocritical, including some members
of the Empire and the Order of the White Flame. She respected very few people, although she treated dignitaries with enough civility to keep the Sultanate out of undue trouble. She kept only a veneer
of politeness and diplomacy for everyone else, a facade she used only to maintain
the peace between the Sultanate and neighbouring organizations. She viewed the Dominion as
an organization closer to her ideal of good government, if only in policies and not
in alignment. A true conservative, Ianthe was a natural administrator, keeping
the set ways of the Sultan as the 'only' way to keep the Sultanate whole. She supported slavery for example, pointing to it as one of the reasons why the Lanakhan economy stayed stable.
The only thing that could override her loyalty to the Sultan was her duty to her family. Her parents' caravans prepared to travel the deserts again, this time under the guidance of her younger aunts and uncles. Being the only trained guard of the family, they called upon her aid. Her parents had also arranged a marriage for her, to a respectable caravan leader, so that the two operations would be united. Ianthe unshakingly resigned from the Sultanate as government leader, appointing her Field Commander, Sammael LightBane, to become the new Lord Martial. Blending back into the life of the common folk, she travelled again with the caravans, after her marriage. Of course her political experience made her always a center of attraction at local gatherings, but she flatly refused to speak of that life - to her, a phase that was now ended. The only thing she took real pride in regarding her time as Lady Martial was the re-taking of Cove. In the years after her return, she and her husband had children - two boys - but these sons kept to the caravans of Al-Akrin, and Ianthe's lineage has thus never re-entered the annals of Tarn. It is known that a grand-daughter of hers (strongly resembling her famous ancestress) did set out to adventure in Elysia, but she did nothing remarkable and soon returned to her homeland.
Last Modified: August 22, 2004