Marelena Thiboust

Marelena Thiboust is the true identity of Silunsei, the rebel leader of Silver's Claw, who was responsible for the overthrow of Queen Elena Ahyen in 711. While in Harmonil in the lead up to the final act of the rebellion, she took on the identity of Ellie Sandell and infiltrated the Harmonil cell of the organization to play a hands-on role in the process.

History

Humble Beginnings

Marelena was born in Harmonil to Livia and Raimbald Thiboust in 678. Livia was of the Irocai that resided north of the Ganuiles Mountains. Raimbald, stationed at the Wasteland Watchers post in her hometown, brought her to Harmonil following his transfer to the city guard.
Marelena grew up in a comfortable home in eastern Harmonil. Her father worked long hours for the Golden Guard, a post he took just prior to Marelena being born, but she grew very close to her mother who would tell her old Irocai stories with such passion that Marelena would be transfixed as if listening to an imperant. When she was ten, her mother died of Ironbark Fever, and her father was unexpectedly forced into the position of raising his daughter alone while managing his demanding Golden Guard Post. It was an awkward time.

Living in the shadows

At the age of twelve, as was the mandatory reporting age in that time, Marelena was marked a null as she showed no evidence of an enmanity. Three weeks later, with her enmantic tattoo still healing, she began seeing auras. She first noticed them at home with her father and assumed them just to be an illuminate's trick, but as she kept pressing her father about why he was doing such silly things he quickly realized what was happening. As a member of the Golden Guard he was especially aware of what he was supposed to do--murder his own daughter in the name of protecting the Crown--but he refused to even consider the option. Instead, he chose to enter an early and very sudden retirement so as to take Marelena away from Harmonil to a place with less of a military or law enforcement presence in the hopes that she wouldn't be discovered.
They settled in a rural area in the northern part of the Narnesse territory (modern-day Reisouth). Despite being away from an overwhelming presence of authority, Marelena's father emphasized the need to not only hide her enmanity, but also to learn how to act as if she were responding to the Command of an imperant even though she was immune to Power of Persuasion.
Though she hid such a fundamental part of herself, Marelena did not shy away from being from being the center of attention when she could, even if it meant being bullied for her null status. She would stand her ground in a way that nulls of that age rarely did. She would eventually find a life-long friend in Nidra Akshay, who would eventually become the first person Marelena had ever told about being a transaurant.
Through her teen years Marelena learned how to read her peers' auras without being noticed and began to use that knowledge to her advantage, manipulating others and unexpectedly becoming known as something of a leader. As she mastered her enmanity, she would begin to harbor a resentment towards the royal decrees that required her to hide who she really was and the society outside of her home village that saw her as less-than because of the X behind her ear. It was also during this time that she became aware of the fact that an old friend of her father's, Brother Kalin, was sympathetic to rebellious groups in northern Leland and in regular contact with them during his travels as a Brother of Menudo.

Becoming Silunsei

Merelena spent much of her twenties traveling Leland with Nidra, earning money from odd jobs to support themselves and seeing what life was like for those directly under the queen's oppressive rule and that of the ruling nobles. The more she saw, and the more she heard about failed revolts and arrested dissenters, the more Marelena felt the need to become a part of the movement. Moreso, she saw the unification of various rebel factions as the way toward achieving a successful coup.
Marelena reached out to Brother Kalin and informed him of her intentions. Gaining his trust meant telling him the truth about her enmanity. Through his help, Marelena was able to arrange meetings with rebel leaders in the north and east, careful to hide her identity behind a silver mask and the name of an old Irocai legend she had heard from her mother: Silunsei.

Return to Harmonil

Tired of calling just calling the shots, Marelena decided it was time to take a more hands-on approach for the final steps of the rebellion. She convinced Nidra to accompany her to Harmonil where Brother Kalin would tell the leader of Silver's Claw cell to allow them acceptance into the fold by Silunsei's command--it wouldn't be the first time valuable individuals had been shuffled between different cells throughout Leland. Before leaving for the heart of the queendom, she stopped home to tell her father what she intended to do and the truth of what she had been doing the last few years. Her father was livid to learn that everything he had sacrificed to keep his daughter safe had been for naught.
Marelena and Nidra entered Harmonil, Marelena using identification papers forged by Nidra with the name Ellie Sandell. Though there was some resistance from the leader of the Harmonil cell to the newcomers initially, they proved themselves useful after only a short time. Marelena served as a recruiter of sorts, able to easily discern who would be trustworthy enough to bring into the fold through her ability to read auras. This was explained away as her just being very good at reading people.
A few weeks after arriving in Harmonil, there was word of a raid on the village where Marelena's father lived. Already wracked with guilt over leaving things in a terrible spot, she felt worse to learn her father had been arrested and was being transported to Harmonil in custody of the Golden Guard. As much as she hated it, she had to put aside her own feelings for the good of the movement she had started--if she saved her own father, how many other fathers would die? Nidra, however, did not follow Marelena's wishes and convinced Markus Kilmt that freeing this particular prisoner ship was strategically beneficial. The mission was a failure and resulted not only in the loss of some of their people, but in Marelena ending the romantic relationship between her and Nidra out of feelings of betrayal.

Business as Usual

No longer romantically involved with Nidra, Marelena was left in an awkward position. As a null on her own, the life she had become accustomed to living would draw suspicion, if not potential harassment or violence, none of which was ideal for someone trying to plot rebellion without being noticed. She relocated to a less-then-desirable part of the city and found work in East Elver.
On the surface, the identity of Ellie was that of a cheerful null tending a sanosceane apothecary. She could talk to anyone about anything and always seemed to know just the right thing to say to cheer someone up or bring down the tension of the situation. But she never spoke up about her hardships or resentment toward the system and avoided getting involved in anything having to do with politics. In other words, she was the last person anyone would think would be involved in a plot to overthrow the Crown.

Enmanity
Null (official designation)
Power of Aura (late manifestation)

Life

678 SU 757 SU 79 years old

Parents

Raimbald Thiboust

Livia Thiboust

Aligned Organization

Silver's Claw