Elaena Santagar

Elaena Santagar is the eldest daughter of Ser Olyvar Santagar, and the lady of Spottswood following a long period of expatriation and her father's sudden death.

Appearance and Character
Elaena is tall and slender, with slightly darker skin than average for a Sandy Dornishwoman, and dark brown hair worn in short ringlets. She usually dresses simply but comfortably, often piling on more layers than are necessary for climates outside of Dorne, and frequently lamenting the cold. Despite this, she's comfortable showing less-than-modest amounts of skin, and seems to take pleasure in the range of reactions such outfits elicit.

Elaena is naturally confident, and moves and acts with a deliberate grace so well-practiced it appears natural. A brilliant, well-learned, and well-experienced mind, she is still not above using her appearance, charm, and wit to manipulate others. Few who have met Elaena Santagar can claim to know her well, and her easygoing nature and defusing demeanor mask a shrewd, diligent, and ambitious mind.

Early Life
Elaena is the eldest of the children of Ser Olyvar Santagar, the knight of Spottswood, by his wife Lynessa Dalt. Growing up, Elaena was fiercely independent and greatly enjoyed riding, hawking, and making unscheduled "excursions" (read: escapes) to the Shadow City or the Planky Town without notifying her father or caretakers. Her rebellious nature irritated and frustrated her father and septas, and Elaena found friendship and mentorship with Spottswood's maester, Elyas. The youthful daughter of the leopard knight spent a great many late evenings and early mornings with the old scholar in his rookery or library, and cultivated an incredibly sharp mind as a result.

Departure from Spottswood
Elaena's father had begun screening potential suitors for his eldest daughter before her first flowering. The need to do so was exacerbated by the successive deaths of Elaena's brothers: Trystane broke his neck after a fall from his horse, Mors was stillborn, and Tristifer perished from greyscale while still an infant. Though Elaena was beautiful, charming, witty, and active, she always seemed to enjoy the chase rather than the conclusion of any early courtships. Less than a fortnight after her seventeenth name-day however, maester Elyas passed away, and Ser Olyvar announced that Elaena was to be married to a knight of House Blackmont. Desperate to escape the arranged match, Elaena gave her maidenhead to her father's squire, with the hope that a pregnancy would force her future husband to back off. Her hopes were stymied when her father discovered her actions, and forced her to abort the possible pregnancy.

Realizing that there was nothing for her in Spottswood, Elaena made one final escape from the castle and fled south to Sunspear, buying one-way passage on the first ship she came across heading west. When the ship was forced ashore near the mouth of the Brimstone by a late-winter storm, Elaena set off on her own, stealing a horse and riding towards the Hellholt.

Meeting Quentyn Qorgyle
At the Hellholt, Elaena disguised herself as a scullery maid and stayed over briefly in the castle town. There, she met the newly-minted knight Ser Quentyn Qorgyle: a distant cousin of Lord Qorgyle, and Elaena's own first cousin on her father's side. Having served as Lord Uller's squire, was preparing to depart and make his name as a hedge knight. Though initially wary of the cousin she had never met, and fearful that he may try to turn her over to her father for a reward, Elaena convinced Quentyn to allow her to tag along as he crossed the Red Mountains to seek his fame.

Ultimately, Elaena's decision to disembark at the Brimstone and tag along with Ser Quentyn proved auspicious for both: the ship Elaena had been traveling on was taken by corsairs rounding the Elbow, and while passing through the Red Mountains Ser Quentyn and Elaena were set upon by bandits. Ser Quentyn killed or drove off the attackers, but not before sustaining several wounds, any one of which might have been life-threatening had Elaena's knowledge of herbalism - courtesy of her friendship with maester Elyas - not come into play. After recovering, the pair set off once again, each now indebted to the other and with nowhere to go but forward.

Expatriates
Elaena and Ser Quentyn traveled Westeros for several years, staying over longer in Oldtown, Lannisport, and eventually King's Landing. Though not quite the picture of chivalry and honor, Ser Quentyn's skill with a poleaxe (and the vicious, unpleasant deaths that accompanied those so much as scratched by the weapon) earned him enough coin to support the two. Yet where the hedge knight scraped by, the renegade lady of Spottswood thrived. Turning her charm, personality, and cunning towards the cultivation of a network of friends, informers, and patsies, work was never short whenever the two traveled to a larger town or city.

Late in 438 AC, the two at last made their way to King's Landing, and there set about doing as they had done before: in Ser Quentyn's case, selling his poleaxe to whomever might have need of such a lethal instrument. In Elaena's case, making friends, spreading rumors, establishing connections, and ensuring that little occurred which passed beneath her notice.

Recent Events
The Great Council of 439 AC caused enough of a stir to force the two Dornish expats to take notice. While the machinations of the realms' lords and monarchs meant little to the pair, the abundance of new players stepping up to the table kept both the scorpion and the she-leopard busy. As the Great Council came to its conclusion and the lords and ladies began to go their separate ways, the question presented itself: what opportunities lay in the shifting balance of power, and what might such opportunities mean for a beautiful, brilliant mind and a hardened killer of men?

Yet fate intervened, as it often does, in the strangest of ways: while marveling at the orchestrated chaos brought to the capital by the Great Council, word reached Elaena via an old contact in Dorne that her father, Ser Olyvar, had perished unexpectedly. Per Dorne's inheritance laws, this meant that Elaena was now the rightful lady of Spottswood. Whether her family - particularly her brother Mors - would contest this was not something she would wait idly in King's Landing to learn. Leaving behind King's Landing with Ser Quentyn in tow, she set out for the home she had not seen in nearly ten years, and her birthright.

Family
Ser Mors Santagar (352 - 420 AC)
 * Ser Olyvar Santagar (390 - 439 AC)
 * m. Lynessa Santagar née Dalt (b. 397 AC)
 * Elaena Santagar (b. 416 AC)
 * Trystane Santagar (419 - 428 AC)
 * Mors Santagar (421 - 421 AC)
 * Tristifer Santagar (424 - 425 AC)
 * Deriah Santagar (b. 428 AC)
 * Delonne Santagar (b. 430 AC)
 * Elianne Santagar (b. 433 AC)


 * Lady Nymella Santagar (395 - 413 AC)
 * m. Andrey Qorgyle
 * Quentyn Qorgyle (b. 413 AC)