#avenging angel

Happy Birthday @aidaran-alha (I meant to share this last week!)

Azira Avenging Angel!

With her flaming sword and magical flying unicorn Bentley, she smites evil wherever she goes!

Avenging Angel

Domain: The Carnival Formation: 740 BC though some specuclation on the exact year. Power Level: 💀💀💀💀 ⚫ Sources: The Carnival (2e), Domains of Dread (2e)

Isolde is the Darklord of the Carnival, a traveling Domain that brings bright colors and joy to the Domains of Dread. As one can imagine, Isolde is not well-loved amongst the Darklords of the Mist. Indeed, she is an outlier, yet as trapped in these velvet-lined prisons as the rest of us.

The Carnival is a small Domain of outcasts Isolde has collected along her travels like a tourist collecting trinkets. The shows vary as much as the performers, from bat-winged ‘vampires’ to werebeasts that only turn to their human form on the night of the full moon. Those that work at and perform in the Carnival form a tight-knit family, finding a home amongst their fellow ‘freaks’ when the rest of the world shunned them. A few of these individuals were originally from Darkon and are attempting to flee justice by hiding under Isolde’s skirts…

Isolde herself appears as a beautiful woman with dark hair and elven-like features. She is said to be a kind-hearted individual, standing against the injustices of the world and defending the downtrodden. Yet, she herself causes the Twisting that inflicts her followers…Perhaps she believes the end justifies the means? Or perhaps she is too obsessed with vengence to care.

Isolde is a divine being known as a Ghaele or a Greater Eladrin. Though most would simply refer to her as an avenging angel. Now…how exactly would such an entity become a Darklord? One could argue that her status as Darklord is rather complicated as she essentially volunteered for the position.

Before she arrived in the Demiplanes of Dread as the Mistress of the Carnival, Isolde traveled through the realms bringing freedom to the oppressed and smiting the unworthy. She often wore the guise of an elf or a human while she dispatched her views of justice.

Eventually she met her match in an unnamed Incubus simply known as the Gentleman Caller. While Isolde was attempting to transform a powerful Baroness into a benevolent ruler, the Gentleman Caller was twisting her into a selfish ruler driven by debauchery and lust. Isolde lost and the Incubus fled into the realms of Ravenloft where Isolde was forbidden to tread.

Isolde, wishing to seek vengeance against the fiend, sought out her betters and asked for permission to enter the Mists. This she was granted, but only if she remained forever within the Domains of Dread and always wore her human guise. Thinking she could easily rid the worlds of such a horrible entity, Isolde readily agreed to this bargain and followed the Gentleman Caller into Ravenloft.

Isolde found these Misty realms to be full of despair, injustice, and evil. She made it her mission to alleviate the suffering of the innocents within and provide a safe-haven for the outcasts and downtrodden. Though, her primary goal is to destroy the Gentleman Caller.

So, she travels through the mists from Domain to Domain seeking signs of the Incubus. Our tormentors have not made her task easy, for a few days before the Carnival arrives in a Domain, flyers appear announcing its arrival. The Carnival itself comes into the Domain in a caravan of colorful wagons, guided through the Mists by the Skurra Vistani that make their home in the grounds of the Carnival.

Wherever Isolde goes, a 300-foot nimbus surrounds her. The Carnival is often contained within this nimbus for she can cause almost any change or effect she wills when within the aura. Furthermore, her power supersedes any power of a Darklord who is within her nimbus. It is why we tolerate her presence and allow her little Carnival to set up in our Domains. I even had her little troupe come to Castle Avernus once and perform for me. It was…quant.

This nimbus has other effects that Isolde cannot control. Those that live within it for a period of time change – their internal natures manifesting in their outward appearances. This is known as the ‘twisting’ and though Isolde sees no issue with the changes forced upon her employees, there are those among them that believe these 'effects'mutations' are proof of Isolde’s true, malevolent nature.

Molly Stewart/Angel