Lady Noelle

A Firstborn Lightbringer, Lady Noelle has stood against the forces of Darkness since before the Great Divorce. The wife of famed gift-giver of Yuletide, Sir Nicholas, she shares his commitment to bring hope to the hopeless, charity to the impoverished, and joy to the despairing. She is a sworn enemy of evil and corruption in all its forms. Lady Noelle and Sir Nicholas have been inseparable since they met. In each other, they saw an incorruptible sense of compassion and desire to protect the weak. These convictions only grew when the mortal species were created. Orc, Human, Dwarf, Elf — all were wondrous, deserving of happy lives. They fought side by side during the Great Divorce, facing down the Firstborn of Siroth and the grotesque war machines of his Painsmith allies. They dwelled together in the Halls of Eternity after the Great Curse, making for themselves a home, always thinking of Teleria and hoping to return. They got their wish when, during the Age of Hellfire, the Arbiter opened a portal to the Halls, with a method of bringing Lumayan Firstborn back to Teleria. The couple took the chance and never looked back. Both joined the nascent Sacred Order and were fully committed to the fighting in the Second Great War, in which Noelle helped banish hundreds of Demonspawn from Teleria. With her powers over ice and snow, she stalled the marches of entire armies for days at a time by creating and directing blizzards even in the middle of summer. Her intuitive hatred of Darkness saw her unwind many terrible enemy schemes and disguises, saving lives and turning defeats into victories. For Lady Noelle, being back in Teleria, even in a time of terrific bloodshed, was revitalizing. Victory in the Second Great War, after more than two decades, was a joyous moment. She was desperate to help the people of Teleria rebuild and worked tirelessly to comfort the dying and grieving, helped the Order build almshouses, establish labor parties, and distribute food. Lady Noelle visualized a new Teleria, one founded and developed in a time of renewed peace with harmony between the mortal races who had vanquished evil by uniting. But it was not to be. The Kingdom of Yakai fell to Lady Mikage within a decade. Surviving Demonspawn stalked the land. With so many slain in the war, the Undead were commonplace. The Dwarves remained isolationist. Later, unrest grew in Aravia. But it was the Skinwalker ‘plague’ and the events that followed that truly shattered Noelle’s hope. Divisions between the peoples of Kaerok and Frostheim over how to regard the Skinwalkers — the former saw them as a scourge, the latter cared for them — broke into what became known as the War of Kaerok. To Noelle’s horror, the Sacred Order, instead of pushing for peace, backed the Kaerokeans. When the War of Kaerok ended, the bloodshed was not over. The Red Crusade followed in the aftermath, with the mass slaughter of Orcs, Ogryn, Skinwalkers, and Lizardmen in Anhelt driven by the Sacred Order. For Lady Noelle and Sir Nicholas, there was no turning back. They left the Order in disgust. For years Noelle helped those persecuted in the Crusade, especially Skinwalkers, reach safety. Most reached the Sorrowlakes, some fled to remote corners of the world. Hundreds came to the Winterlands with their Firstborn saviors. It was there that Noelle and Nicholas settled, establishing a great lodge and workshop, which has since become a place of pilgrimage for many Skinwalkers and over which Noelle is custodian. Despite her apparent withdrawal from the world, Lady Noelle insists that ‘the world left her’. She has never stopped caring about the mortal species and is an integral part of Sir Nicholas’ mission to reward the good and punish the bad of Teleria — a mission she wholeheartedly encouraged her husband to begin. Her reputation is well established around the world as that of a nurturer and carer, one whose manner is a cooling balm to Sir Nicholas when he returns from his quests, as well as to the prickly Firrol the Barkhorn. Noelle is adored by the Reinbeasts and Jinglehunters alike. Though Lady Noelle has traveled with Sir Nicholas many times, and equally has ventured out into Teleria on her own, she is best known as a keeper of her hearth. Her staff, an elegant cryo-luminantic weapon, is a literal and metaphorical beacon, a guiding light that tells Sir Nicholas he is close to home. In the wider world, the ‘three flakes’ symbol is one of hope and a warder of evil. Many people hang objects resembling it from porches, doors, fireplaces, lamp posts, or place it at the top of trees. Where Karilon the Ringer treads, he tears them down. But people always replace them, inspired by Lady Noelle’s love and courage.