Narcissa the Cruel
Narcissa the Cruel, Handmaid of Glasya is a death knight often associated with the southern Aquatic Kingdoms, particularly Cypruvalu.
She was once a Paladin dedicated to Hildegard, said to be a contemporary or a student of the Four Founders. Her power and trustworthiness led her to become a sergeant of the guard in the newly-founded Cape Hildegard. However, this position called to the Archdevil Glasya, who began to visit her in dreams and promise her incredible power over men in exchange for her service. When Narcissa's husband left her for a much younger woman, her resolve broke, and she began to make secret offerings to Glasya and study quietly as an Illusionist. She leveraged her high position and trustworthy reputation to falsely accuse her enemies of crimes and have them executed—her ex-husband and his new wife included. Eventually, the grieving son of a woman she had had killed challenged her to a duel in the gladiator's arena. He severed her head with an unlucky blow; much to his surprise, she continued to fight, fueled by fiendish energy and unable to find rest after desecrating her vows. She stabbed the young man through the heart, turned herself invisible, and fled the city, beginning her long era as a revenant warrior and ending any trace of the life she once lived.
Narcissa retains her gift for illusion magic even after her death. She often disguises her armored form and takes the guise of a pale-skinned, dark-haired, voluptuous woman of incredible beauty. According to legend, though, she cannot disguise the metallic creaking of her plate armor, nor the reddish glint that sometimes appears in her eyes. Her footsteps echo subtly with the sound of iron, and she is always cold to the touch.
Narcissa appeared in the diaries of Stanford Hawthorne before and during his time in the Cave of the Banished Scholars. According to him, she appeared within the mountains of Cypruvalu, whispered secrets of the Nine Hells, and convinced him to open a portal into them, through which she promptly disappeared.
Narcissa appears quite frequently in both legend and history, though it is unknown how many of these depictions are factual and how many are influenced by the alluring narrative possibilities of a seductive death knight. Depictions of Narcissa have been found as far away as the Mystic Lands.
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