Vyldara Sehahine

Vyldara Sehahine is an enigmatic elven figure of regional legend, recognized alongside her sister, Agatha, as one of “the Sisters” (or “the two sisters”). Once a powerful elf of the Hand of Sehanine, her life descended into jealousy, betrayal, and a thousand-year curse before she finally found redemption at the hands of the heroes of Phandalin.

Lineage, Jealousy, and the Shadow

According to historical records compiled by Elminster Aumar in The Rise and Fall of the Pact of Phandelver, Vyldara is the daughter of Archmage Larellion (also spelled Lorelion), the High Mage, Keeper of the Astrolabe, and quiet steward of the Hand of Sehahine. While her sister Agatha was celebrated as the serene, brilliant “Moonlit Prodigy,” Vyldara was described as “powerful, but quick to anger.”

In life, Vyldara harbored deep, unaddressed resentment toward her father, believing he favored Agatha and saw only Vyldara’s flaws—“always the wildfire, never the moonlight.” Feeling cast as the “shadow” of her sister, Vyldara’s desperate ambition to prove herself, master the magical arts, and force her father to see her ultimately curdled into spite and a reckless pursuit of power. This jealousy reached a tipping point during a grand ceremony where Larellion placed a thin circlet upon Agatha’s head in front of a massive crowd that included the human King Phandelver II and the dwarven Queen Kima. Feeling pushed aside while her sister was crowned, Vyldara resolved to strike a match that would ruin her, aiming to prove her superiority over the other races of the Pact.

The Betrayal and Fall of Axeholm

During the era of the Pact of Phandelver, Vyldara sought to secure a grand victory to impress her father. She targeted Axeholm, the prideful dwarven stronghold carved into the Sword Mountains, then ruled by the stubborn and proud Queen Kima. Vyldara’s ultimate goal was to take the fortress for the elves and herself to prove her worth to Larellion.

Arriving at Axeholm as an emissary from the Hand of Sehahine, Vyldara was welcomed with kindness by Queen Kima, a wrinkled, smiling sovereign. Vyldara repaid this warmth with treachery, whispering rebellion where none was needed, fomenting civil unrest among the clans, twisting fear into fervor, and poisoning the Queen with a slow, agonizing toxin meant to evoke dread and ensure her name would be whispered in fear.

When the dwarven guard discovered her machinations and imprisoned her, they sent word to the Hand of Sehahine to collect her for trial. Terrified of her father discovering her ultimate failure, Vyldara attempted a violent escape before the Hand’s emissaries could arrive. Led in chains, she broke free and lashed out. She slew her dwarven guards with a swipe of her hand using dark spells—recounted in her final moments as six sworn soldiers, though some dwarven records mention two initially slain—before the dwarves cut her down.

Following her death, Sehanine (and Selune) did not claim her soul, and Archmage Larellion sent no emissaries to retrieve her body. Abandoned and consumed by wrath, Vyldara rose as a banshee. Her torment and rage infected the stronghold, turning many residents into undead shadows that hunted down the survivors. In her madness, she witnessed horrific scenes, including a dwarven woman running with a child in her arms who was stabbed in the back by a shadow blade, dropping her child. The surviving dwarves abandoned Axeholm, leaving Vyldara to rule over a silence she embraced so she would no longer hear insult.

The Curse, Torment, and Grieving

For over a millennium, Vyldara remained trapped within the granite walls of Axeholm, unable to leave. The curse sundered her family’s souls, leaving Agatha to wander near the ruined village of Conyberry as a banshee, singing of how “Grace forsaken them” and praying for her sister’s redemption.

Confrontation and Redemption

An adventuring party from Phandalin—accompanied by Gotrek, a dwarf of Axeholm, and Aja, a fey sorceress in the form of a talking goat who blasted the fortress doors open—confronted her within the ruins. When the paladin Gilmore called out to Vyldara, claiming Agatha had sent them, she was thrown into a violent rage. Her devastating banshee’s wail ripped through the party, knocking nearly everyone unconscious except Erevyn and Gotrek. Though the survivors attempted to reason with her to buy time and heal, her mind was consumed by madness, and she posed a severe threat of possession. Ultimately, the party was forced to attack, and Gilmore severed her connection, allowing Vyldara’s soul to pass on to the afterlife, achieving the redemption and peace she had been denied for a thousand years.

In her final, fading moments, Vyldara’s spectral form achieved clarity, flickering between her twisted banshee rage and her youthful elven self. She expressed deep remorse for her jealousy, her poisoning of Queen Kima, and the slaughter of the dwarven guards, specifically apologizing to Gotrek and wishing him success in rebuilding Axeholm. Her words manifested powerful illusions of the past within the hall:

She addressed the heroes, acknowledging the mettle of dwarves in Gotrek, the blood of kings in Gilmore, and the grace of Selune in Erëvyn Sehahine, whom she addressed as “blood of my blood.” She urged Erëvyn to carry the Pact forward and avoid her mistakes, while nodding to her fey allies Aja, Nalini, and Farwald. Finally, she waved her hand, and the spectral dwarves vanished back into the stone.

Gilmore alone witnessed her soul transform back into a young elven child. A gentle woman wearing a porcelain mask—the Matron of Ravens—approached the child, wrapped her in a cloak of raven feathers, and led her away to her mother and Selune’s embrace, whispering to Gilmore, “You have done well, my Knight.” As the sun shone into Axeholm for the first time in a thousand years, Erëvyn was granted the location and entry key to the Hand of Sehahine.