Grey Isbold

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</infobox> Grey Isbold<ref name=":1" /> and later Arthild<ref name=":0" /> was a banished, cursed Faerie who briefly served Johannes Lillegard as his ace in the hole.

Personality

Maricica described her as "sour" person.<ref name=":1">“The court of Dark Fall is the court of the wretched, if not the most piteous and powerful,” Guilherme said.  “When a Faerie of another court is cursed to carry a scrabbling rodent in her womb for every rodent born in her country, the penalty of a game lost or offending the wrong noble, she might crawl to the court of Dark Fall, to seek assistance and to become a different kind of Fae that can bear the curse and still function.”

“Grey Isbold,” Maricica said, like she was amused.  “Poor thing.  I did like her, as sour as she could be.  She went and got herself banished to Canada of your New World, of all places.  Nearly ten million kilometers squared of mice and rats being born, matching lives finding shape in her womb.  I suspect that was the intended final play, from the moment she scoffed at a comment from a young Faerie in the Bright Spring court.  The offended Fae became a princess, and her fate was sealed from then on.”

“How does that not devastate the ecosystem?” Lucy asked.

Maricica’s voice was a whisper.  “They grow inside her, they scratch and writhe, they’re eventually born, and they dart into dark corners, where they summarily disappear.  Their job is done, you see.  She’s learned to manage them, in more ways than the one.  My home court is one of transformations and curses.  I do think it’s the most interesting and subtle.” - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref>

In combat, she was "frenzied" but driven by subtle instinct.<ref name=":0">“Attack,” Johannes said.  “Arthild.”

His pet Faerie went on the attack.  Her features distorted, and she swelled in size.  A rat, big enough to fill a smaller room, hair sparse, flesh purple with the veins just beneath the surface, stomach bloated and writhing.

One of the darker faerie, a lucky find, his ace in the hole.  He’d spent four months screwing with the rat population until something took notice.  He’d expected a spirit, he’d picked up the faerie instead.  One from the winter court, the sunless court.

The shining man dodged her charge.  She was mad, frenzied, and there was a deeper instinct driving her actions.  On colliding with the wall, her bloated stomach was compressed.  Fluids and rodents spewed from her nether regions, flooding much of the room. - Excerpt from Interlude 14</ref>

Relationships

Maricica claimed to have known and liked her, despite her disposition.<ref name=":1" />

Appearance

She wore a "great rat pelt" around her shoulders.<ref>Two bogeymen, a foo dog guardian, a ghost, and a faerie with a great rat pelt drawn over her shoulders stood ready. - Excerpt from Interlude 14</ref>

In rat form, she was the size of a small room, with patchy hair and purple veined flesh showing through, her gravid form writhing with the rodents waiting to be born.<ref name=":0" />

Abilities and Art

• Portfolio: Given her nature with a curse tying her to the animals she had some awareness of rodent populations.<ref name=":0" />
• Shapeshifting: Through the use of a rat pelt and glamour, she turned into a rodent large enough to fill in a small room.

Curse

• Spawning: She was cursed to have one rodent - rats, mice, possibly others - appear in her womb for every one born in Canada, scratching and tormenting her endlessly.<ref name=":1" />

She could deliberately trigger the birth of some of the hordes of rodents within her womb by colliding with walls.<ref name=":0"/> She may have developed other kinds of control over the curse as well.<ref name=":0"/>

Although her rats were normally just a mindless ambient side-effect of the curse, someone like Johannes could direct them to attack enemies using his pipes.<ref name=":2">He’d had to learn the pipes to use the artifact’s power.  With the tune, he was able to sway the otherwise senseless swarm of rats.  What might have been a distraction or psychological weapon became a tool. The rats swarmed the shining man. - Excerpt from Interlude 14</ref> Once they had done their job they would scurry to dark corners and vanish back into nothingness.<ref name=":1"/>

History

Background

She was thousands of years old.<ref name=":3">Faerie live for very long times.  Grey Isbold’s offense was done in an era when men held swords, not guns, and she had been around for thousands of years before then. - Excerpt from Stolen Away 2.2</ref>

Before the widespread use of gunpowder,<ref name=":3" /> a scoffing comment of hers offended a young Faerie, who later became a Princess. She was cursed to bear a rodent in her womb for every one born in the country she was in. Eventually she was banished to Canada, exacerbating the curse, as her womb was filled with every rodent born in that vast country.<ref name=":1" />

Before Pact

She was attracted by Johannes' intentional messing with the local rat population. Despite defying his expectations of what would show up he still bound her into her service.<ref name=":0" />

When first encountering Faysal Anwar, Johannes set her and her rats on the angel<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":2" /> and fled. Through his Sight, Johannes seemingly saw her and all the rats around her die moments later.<ref>His Sight told him that the combined collection of faerie and rats didn’t last any longer than it took him to run the length of a city block.  The connection between the pipes and the controlled was cut by the simplest, most inevitable means.  Death. - Excerpt from Interlude 14</ref>

Pale

Maricica and Guilherme described her to the Kennet Trio, implying that she had been a member of the Dark Autumn Court alongside Maricica.<ref name=":1" /> Before they lost touch anyway.<ref name=Ratus/>

Trivia

• Wildbow has confirmed that the Faerie described by Maricica and Guilherme is indeed the one seen in Pact under Johannes' employ.<ref name=Ratus>DestinationAgreement: Is that the faerie Johannes had? I thought she was from Winter?
  
  Wildbow: It is and she was. As stated, they can move courts. They don't necessarily keep in close touch. - /fuoa7zk Wildbow on Reddit</ref>
  • Isbold shares some resemblence to Welsh "Isold" which means fair lady.
  • Arthild by contrast seems closest to art, as in arthur which some take to mean bear and -thild the suffix that means battle.

References

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