Aratheia Corpseflower

At first glance, Aratheia Corpseflower appears to be a beautiful, approachable, and kindly figure. The truth is quite the opposite. Aratheia may smile at an oncomer, but they will see her teeth are sharp and pointed and the sinister look in her eyes. She embodies the capricious and enigmatic nature of the Fae, and is spiteful, vengeful, and easily offended. The slightest infraction – which on a different day or even at a different time might have been an act of perfect courtesy – can cause her to curse the offender for years, perhaps even their entire life. Such was the case for the intrepid High Elf explorer Athlen Wornfeet upon whom she inflicted paralysis of the limbs and blindness because he bowed too deeply upon meeting her. Aratheia is the Marquess of Spring’s Lilac Bloom, and part of her dominion is the hostility in nature – in the spring, flora and fauna stir and awaken, ready to feast and ready to fight. This puts her in direct conflict with Eostrid Dreamsong, whose every word and deed is about the celebration of new life in spring and the hope of good things to come. Despite her manner, Aratheia is no servant of Darkness, and she has a place in the Fae Court like many others of her kind who are as fickle as they are devious and cruel. She loves the Mistwood, reserving her greatest ire for those who would damage it. No area of the forest does she adore more than her own domain – the Fanglilac Meadow. From the first daybreak of spring to the final nightfall of summer, the Meadow teems with life. Aratheia knows every pollinating bee and humming bird, every beetle and butterfly, every bud and flower by name, greeting them each day and watching over them at night. Worms aplenty churn through the soil, helping nourish scores of varieties of flowers, ranging from celosia to roses, orchids to hyacinths. Species such as the angel-rose and sapphire-orchid grow nowhere else. The smell is believed to be so enchanting, it can make one forget about their loved ones and even existence itself. Those who come to it sit among the flowers, stung and bitten by insects, wasting away to feed the soil without their serene smile ever leaving their faces. As loving as Aratheia is to those under her care, she is a ferocious custodian of them. The Fanglilac Meadow earns its name from the predatory flowers of the same name, hundreds of which guard the perimeter of the Corpseflower’s domain as venomous, hungering sentinels. Capable of moving, their roots slithering through the rich soils like serpents, they have been known to overpower entire tribes of Ogryn, ensnaring the brutes’ thick legs with barbed, thorned vines before ripping them apart with enormous bites from their leathery, fanged petals. Unlike any other beast or dwelling in her realm, the fanglilacs never hibernate in autumn and winter. They are ever watchful, and ever hungry. Even Aratheia is not so vigilant as them, for she too slows during those seasons, stirring only to fight intruders if necessary. Aratheia loves the fanglilacs as she loves any other living creature of her realm, and they love her. Aratheia takes her name from a species of flower she does not tend in her meadow. Instead, she takes it from the bloom atop her staff. The corpseflower stench is enough to overwhelm even those with the strongest of constitutions – it is said to be worse than rotting flesh and diseased feces in the heat of summer combined. It is little less vindictive than its mistress and more hungry for meat and blood than fanglilacs. With petals as powerful and thick as a strongman’s muscle, lined with needles and barbs, and the ability to strike out at a range of over a dozen yards with frightening speed, it often hunts for itself. The corpseflower is a potent weapon indeed, one deeply unnerving even to others in the Fae Court. But it is not Aratheia’s only asset – every bloom in her meadow produces clouds of pollen and seeds each day. She takes a small portion of this fine matter and pours into it curses of terrible itching, mind needles, and caustic burning. Aratheia blows these into the faces of her enemies, or casts them into the wind so they might travel far and wide to reach her unfortunate victims. Likewise, she can take the very same pollens and spores and bless them, so that her allies’ minds might be cleared from all distraction so as to better fight their enemies or not feel the pain of their wounds or the aches from their exertion.