Princess Calanthe Arvendon

Calanthe is the beautiful, dark-haired princess of Noslith and daughter of Richard II. The beautiful, blue-eyed maiden was born to Richard's first and only wife, Princess Aoife of House Etain, who died in childbirth during the plague outbreak. The clever beauty is well-versed in history, religion, and swordsmanship, and constantly seeks excitement to break up the monotony of courtly life. She is usually accompanied by a retinue of royal guards. Taking up the armor of the Black Knight, a death knight known as Ultan, to compete in the Grand Tourney, Calanthe was unexpectedly possessed by its spirit and attempted to murder Baron Reiner Faron, seemingly succeeding yet being knocked out and nearly killed in the process. After Lemuel freed her of the curse, she was interned at the infirmary in Carmarthen under heavy care and heavy guard. Following the trial, the vigil and the second in a series of Infernal Pact attacks upon Agrawel, Lord High Marshal Reiner Faron made the decision to sacrifice his unnatural lifespan to restore the wounded, comatose Princess to waking life and vitality. Her rescue and later restoration lead to King Richard II establishing the Dawn's Herald as a chivalric order of the realm, while documents in the Hall of Flies and the circumstances of the Princess revealed that she was secretly being groomed to inherit her father's crown should he die. In the wake of her restoration, Princess Calanthe was dubbed the Princess of the Dawn by her loyal Agrawelite subjects while those in Bregate began to see her as a Princess of dusk instead, viewing her heralds in the same ill light. Growing fond of the newly minted Order of the Dawn's Herald, the Princess adventured and fought with the party during the Eclipse and its aftermath. When the Altar of Panacea was activated at Carmarthen, Calanthe made way for the cathedral just as battle between the guards of House Thrussell and the knights of the Dawn's Herald escalated, warning her friends that the King and the Royal Army were both en route to pacify both sides of the growing conflict between the Order and the Duke. Fearing the consequences the royal court would have for the Knight-Commander and Eleanor, her handmaiden's cousin, and recognizing as well the danger Archbishop Anselm posed to her family and kingdom, the idealistic Princess fled Agrawel with the Dawn's Herald. She has since become a friend and mentor to Lady Eleanor, although the loss of faith of the Knight-Commander seems to have affected her deeply.