Mephistopheles and Verenastra entanglement

• Verenastra and Mephistopheles had dealt and traded with each in secret over millennia, including a trade where Verenastra now has in possession the brass head of the original Feywild Staff
• In his planar spanning frigid laboratory, Mephistopheles found to bend the radial energy of the Elder Gods to his own means (something that no creature of the outer planes could do – or at least if they did, they were either no longer in existence or were quiet about it)
• Verenastra wanted a mortal instrument, all omens and signs pointed towards Maybellina
• Maybellina was part of the cult and was to be sacrificed as Mephistopheles bride on her 21st birthday
• Verenastra hinted that he had manoeuvred himself into a position to overthrow Titania within the next decade, which would make him the King of the Seelie Court
• Verenastra allowed his seeking a mortal instrument to be known to Mephistopheles including preferred characteristics, hinting at Maybellina and that this mortal instrument would be his adopted child with all the privileges that contained
• Through proxies, Mephistopheles circuitously hinted at Maybellina
• Verenastra freed Maybellina
• A ‘starlight arc’ was sealed in the Feywild with the assumption to Mephistopheles that Maybellina was now Verenastra’s adopted child with rights to Verenastra’s estate
• Mephistopheles recently demanded Verenastra hand over Maybellina (Verenastra’s adopted child) so he (Mephistopheles) could marry his bride and receive as dowry – a portion of the Feywild
• Now that Verenastra had Mephistopheles in the open he revealed the starlight arc and opened its contents showing it was no more than the agreed pact between Maybellina and Verenastra
• After Mephistopheles threatened to claim his bride and devour her before him (Verenastra) BUT before Mephistopheles could track down the betrayers within his own realm who had collaborated with the Archfey, Verenastra offered Mephistopheles a way into the Lifelight of the Otherwhere in a way which would not harm him – through a vessel that could contain an avatar of Mephistopheles
• That container is Ophion
• Verenastra had been preparing the container ever since Maybellina and Ophion first met (by accident it seemed)
• Mephistopheles could not command his avatar into a body that did not want him, but Verenastra showed Mephistopheles how a properly prepared container could be linked to a container and use it as a passageway
• Knowing Ophion would never do as Mephistopheles bid (quite the opposite in fact), Verenastra offered the way in, in exchange for clearing Maybellina’s blood debt with Mephistopheles
• Mephistopheles accepted the deal on the proviso his container would be in the Lifelight (where a mother lode of radial energy resided) and that his Avatar would only be released if Nandi was available for Mephistopheles to attack and control
• Nandi and the Leopard Orchids are this age’s guardians of the gates that lead to the radial energy that has formed into the Lifelight, Mephistopheles needs them out of the way or under his control if he is to use this motherlode of radial energy
• Verenastra called in his one favour of Maybellina – destroy the Leopard Orchids
• Verenastra knew the Leopard Orchids could not be killed in the conventional sense and would just be back in the mortal plane the next day
• Mephistopheles believes Nandi and the Leopard Orchids are destroyable in the Lifelight which is their home plane, something that leaked research and magical texts from Verenastra support
• Verenastra believes something different, which is the Leopard Orchids are indestructible in the presence of the Lifelight
• Verenastra believes (rightly) that should Mephistopheles avatar be destroyed in the Lifelight, it will be destroyed totally, and will not return its essence to Mephistopheles
• The obliteration of Mephistopheles Avatar will significantly weaken him, making him vulnerable and effectively confining him to the Nine Hells for the foreseeable future
• Titania and her inner circle are confident the coming multiverse cataclysm will mean that the Outer Planes will no longer be able to threaten them, provided all taint of them is removed from Feywild in time
• Verenastra is spymaster and covert operations mistress for Titania