Anwyn

Anwyn was the spellcaster, healer, and mage of the Sunforger clan. Her elemental alignment means she is primarily an ice witch, but she also sought to incorporate the secrets of Shadow and Plague into her arts. She ventured into realms of forbidden magic and paid the ultimate price – she became an Emperor herself. Half-mad and in pain, Anwyn lived in the hopes of a cure that might never come. For her actions, the Lightweaver banished her from the Sunbeam Ruins, along with the clan that harbored her as she conducted her research into occult secrets.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the Sunforger clan, Anywn was cast out of her original Ice clan for dabbling in forbidden magic when she was barely older than a hatchling. Most members of her family tended to be short-lived, quickly falling victim to the unpredictable lifespans of Imperials. Anwyn feared that she would live like a mayfly and turned to magic as a way of changing her future. But the kind of magic that prolongs life past its natural span is not gentle healing magic – it is the magic of blood and death and undeath.

She traveled across Sorneith in search of a new home where she could continue her study of the higher mysteries. She could find no place in the Plague or Shadow lands, though, and so she left for the most seemingly unlikely place of all – the realm of the Lightweaver. Anwyn suspected that the scholarly Light dragons may have preserved secrets lost to other Flights. She was also strongly drawn to the legend of the Emperor dragon. Anwyn wished to uncover the secrets of this terrible creature, and thought that the best place to begin searching in the land where Imperials were created – the Sunbeam Ruins. Selena and Firelight felt that the Sunforger clan was in need of a mage, so they accepted Anwyn into the clan. Her strange moods and mysterious ways notwithstanding, Anwyn did valuable work for the clan, and so Selena and Firelight have welcomed her in. They did not know of her true motivations, however, and Anwyn was content to keep it that way. If she ever had to choose between her adopted clan and her studies of forbidden secrets, Anwyn knew where her choice would fall.

Anwyn took to vanishing for weeks on end, leaving with no notice and returning bloodied and battered, without explanation. Selena and Firelight tried to track her down with no success. Not even Astarael could find her – when she sent out her best trackers, Morgaine and Charon, they returned claiming they know nothing of her whereabouts.

On the night of the new moon, Anwyn called to the powers of blood and death while standing in an Imperial burial ground. Her idea was to raise an Emperor from the earth and bind it to her will. Her ritual backfired, as rituals will, and she became possessed by the spirit of an Emperor herself. During that time, she was only intermittently lucid, and often hallucinated, seeing visions of ancient battles and hungering for the flesh of dragons. She kept these impulses in check – barely. The Sunforger Clan and Clan Chaos Star relied on Stymie and Vex for healing services. Anwyn crouched at the back of the Sunforger lair, snarling and snapping at any who approach her, and whispering and fighting with her ghostly other heads. She tried to bite them off, but could not. Her efforts left her scarred and bleeding.

Anwyn's Emperor spirit was eventually banished by several Chaos Star and Sunforger dragons working their magic together, especially Solstice and Umber.

Anwyn's experiences as an Emperor did nothing to discourage her from pursuing forbidden magic. Indeed, it only deepened her resolve. After her cure, Firelight banished her from the Sunforger lair, but Ashtoreth and Reaper saw proof of her spirit of survival and endurance in how she recovered from her possession. She's not truly a part of any particular clan, preferring to live on the edges where she can remain undisturbed and free to practice whatever kind of magic she desires. When she must, she interacts with the Chaos Star dragons, which has put a strain on relations between the two clans. She does some magic for them and devotes much time to her studies.

In discussions with Feralia, Anwyn discovered a fascination with the Shade. Some say that, if you want to find a secret cabal of dragons who study -- or worse, worship -- the Shade, you could start by asking her. Not that she would just tell you, at least, not without exacting a high price. It doesn't pay to do deals with Anwyn, no matter how generous the terms seem at first. There is always a hidden cost, and she will always find a way to ensure that the outcome overwhelmingly favors her.