Lirael Coldmourne

The true story of Dr. Lirael Coldmourne remained a buried secret until the tail end of the age of Magic. When she was born, in 1793 Magic, she was the only daughter of a minor noble house from Sunspire, a now-dead high elven city-state near Blackmoor. By the time of her supposed death sometime in the early 1900s, her existence had been wiped from all familial records and she had been declared an enemy of the state. The only credible account of the actual events of her life come from the efforts of her granddaughter Lady Kay Ashenvale, who wrote her biography after her grandmother's disappearance. It was published by the Lady's adopted son Calen Blackhoof after her death.
Coldmourne's father was Lucius Coldmourne, a minor nobleman who became rich and relevant through trade. He secured a fairytale marriage for his only daughter, Lirael, to the heir to the Ashenvale estate-- the oldest, richest family in Sunspire at the time. He pulled his daughter out of a promising graduate program in Sarkhaan for the marriage, signing the deal while she was sick with a fever. Lirael and Gaius Ashenvale were married not long after her twenty-fifth birthday, and she was granted an honorary doctorate from the college despite not finishing the program. They would go on to have three sons, all of whom would die before reaching thirty.
Lirael, as the Lady Ashenvale, was notorious for being a shut-in and an eccentric. She had nothing to do with any of her sons or her husband. From Lady Kay's account, we know that Lirael was in fact using all her time practicing magic-- not the kind taught in schools, but an extremely volatile hybrid of the mathematical arcane and the raw energy of the Abyssal Void. Despite her original scholarly interest being in archeology and the new field of anthropology, Coldmourne's connection to magic became her only respite from a miserable life. After the birth of her youngest, Raziel, she became a professor at the Sunspire University. 
Her academic career was unsuccessful. She drove away students with her bad personality and alienated the hyper-conservative magus board with her theory of relatedness, which correctly posited that all humanoids came from a single ancestor, and that elves' closest kin in Talonn were orcs and goblinkind. After many rejections by the board for publication, Coldmourne suddenly vanished without a trace. According to Lady Kay, her grandmother accidentally plane shifted into the Abyssal Void during an experiment, where she remained for an entire year. Historians argue that this may not be true, given that the Void is unsuitable for life and cannot be travelled to through means of Plane Shift or other planar transport known to modern mages. 
Regardless of where she went, Coldmourne appeared a year later with amnesia in The Frozen Crown, where she was found by the native orcs. Sunspire had long been at war with the orcs, wanting to take the mountains for the ore. The doctor, unaware of her identity, joined the orcs, and her magical abilities enabled them to win a losing war against the superior technology, magic, and numbers of Sunspire. Towards the end of the conflict, she supposedly regained her memories, but it did not change her allegiance. Branded a traitor, she was scrubbed from all Sunspire records. She only returned to the city once, in an attempt to seize the Ashenvale manor, which she would have had the rights to since Gaius was long dead. However, she was banished on pain of death for her crimes against the state. Sunspire, a mere fifty years later, would be destroyed by a worker's rebellion that would eventually lead to the founding of Beré. 
Coldmourne, who was in her sixties when she tried to seize the manor, went into a self-imposed exile for ten years alongside her wartime companion and orcish legend Huron Sovinsguard. The two eventually made their way to the Northern Continent, where Sovinsguard's tomb is located. While they travelled, rumors spread of Coldmourne's void magic, which was capable of destroying massive chunks of matter without a trace. She eventually made her way to the Isle of the Wizard, which had been abandoned for millennia. It is said that she established a base there, and many wizards have attempted expeditions to uncover her secrets, but the Isle is incredibly dangerous for even the most skilled practitioners. First established by the rumored lich Iason von Seres, the island is said to be the resting place of an untold wealth of magical discoveries. 
Dr. Coldmourne supposedly left behind strange artifacts in places she travelled to, one of which resides in the Blackmoor Academy of Magic vaults. Due to their unknown magical nature, and the danger her void magic poses, the Academy has offered a godly sum for any artifacts, hoping to discourage study of them.
Coldmourne was survived by her granddaughters Lady Kay and the notorious brigand and adventurer Silvaru Ashenvale. Lady Kay's efforts to preserve her grandmother's legacy outlasted the city-state that condemned her, and her original journals reside in the Blackmoor Academy Library.

Historical Basis

Material evidence does place Lirael Coldmourne and Huron Sovinsguard in the Northern Continent, with the two most notable instances being the Sovinguard Tomb and Maw Peak. The Tomb was investigated thoroughly in early Dawning by an expedition led by an Ester Fal historian, who found all the hallmarks of an orcish burial mound but no remains. Maw Peak, on the other hand, is an obvious blemish on the landscape left by a voracious power: a gigantic spherical gouge that split a mountain in half.

Spread

The actual story of Lirael Coldmourne's life is limited to those who read about it, but folk tales of the wizard cropped up like wildfires across Talonn during late Magic. Most often, they were local cautionary witch tales adapted to fit with the contemporary fascination with the gossip surrounding the Ashenvale outcast.

Variations & Mutation

There have long been scholars who claim that Coldmourne may in fact still be alive-- as a lich, or through other magical means from the Isle of the Wizard. There has been no evidence that this is true.

Cultural Reception

In the Dawning age, Coldmourne's story serves as a cautionary tale for young practitioners of magic in academies, as well as a point of fascination for historians.

In Art

There are a few surviving paintings from Sunspire from the Ashenvale manor preserved at the Blackmoor Academy. No undamaged depictions of Lirael Coldmourne exist-- the city-state destroyed every mention of her existence from public record, including portraits-- but since the wizard was a painter herself, a couple of her works from her time in exile survived to be acquired by the Academy. One is a portrait of Lady Kay's mother, Rhea Ashenvale, and the other is most likely of the Lady Kay herself as a child, but her face is turned away from the viewer.