Name: Khione of the Royal House of Black Diamond, called "Northstar"

Codename: Khione Northstar

Civilian Alias: Eirawen Alice Winters

Place of Origin: Fortress of the White Bear, Polarian Border Marches, Faerie

Apparent Age: Late 20's

Base: Cold Comfort Hall

Class: Striker

Civilian Occupation: Professor of Arcanology, College of Stes. Cyprian and Justina

Powers: Cryomagia/Necromagia (Magic pertaining to cold/Magic pertaining to the dead)

Civilian Identity

Hair Color: Auburn

Eye Color: Violet

Skin: Olive, Freckles

Height: 5'11

Build: Stocky, Curvy

Secret Identity

Hair Color: White

Eye Color: Violet

Skin: Olive, Freckles

Height: 6'2"

Build: Stocky, Curvy

Costume: A white hooded short cloak with fur trim, a white knee-length "convertible" dress with a light, tattered purple, aqua and silver petticoat, purple and aqua striped stockings and fingerless mitts, white boots. Cloak is secured with a glowing brooch.

Weapon: The Toymaker's Friend, a massive sledgehammer

Method of Movement: Flight

Backstory:

In the depths of the Dimension of Magic, there lies a land known as Faerie. The denizens of this land have long fought over upwellings of human emotion that seem to pierce through the Veil here, and have separated into two factions. The Seileigh are the source of myths of kindly creatures, who grant wishes and blessings upon mortals, who craft magic relics and watch over the innocent. The On'seileigh, however, are the basis of much darker legends, of baby theives and curses, of dancing to death and nightmarish Wild Hunts. They fuel their magic on the emotions of mortals and many wars have been fought over whether they should swarm the human world or leave it be.

The Seileigh Court of Polaria is ruled by the kindly and wise Holly King, Nikholais the Giftbringer, and his beautiful Star Nymph queen, Lucia. But, this king had a brother, Boreas, who fell in love with a strange and mysterious faerie maid, named Melanthia, of the breed called the Lampades. Few trusted the dark and secretive nymphs, who were said to be the psychopomps of the Fair Folk, but Boreas was smitten and she loved him in return. In time, their union brought them a child, small and merry, and born as Summer turned to Autumn. They named her Khione and the Holly King himself blessed her with eternal joy, beauty and kindness.

Sadly, the infant was soon alone in the world. During a battle over a particularly rich patch of energy, Boreas and Melanthia vanished. Soon enough, there was no choice but to declare them dead. The Holly King adopted little Khione, raising her with his own children, the twin princesses Hollë and Sunnë. But, trouble seemed to follow the innocent infant. Within weeks of her adoption, an On'seileigh spy disguised as a nurse was caught poisoning Khione. She survived, but her magical gifts were stunted and suppressed by the trauma. As she grew older, her difficulty in using magic like other faerie children isolated her and damaged her self-esteem. It was her adopted parents who stepped in and made her their apprentice in a secret mission.

Long before her birth, the Holly King had begun to watch the human race and noted that they had legends of a gift giver who brought joy to their children. Whether he was called the Yule Goat or St. Nicholas, Olentzero or Father Christmas, he was a symbol of merriment and hope. No one can quite recall whether the Holly King adopted the guises of these figures, or they came from him first, but he had gleefully begun delivering gifts in secret to the children who needed it most, even if it was nothing more than a change of heart that made an employer give a parent a much-needed raise or shifting a cardboard angel on a tree a bit closer to a pair of eyes.

Khione took to the work with eagerness. She delighted in watching human children and culture, finding the ones who would benefit most from the magic of the Holly King and picking out what they needed. She proved creative in her gifting, as well. But, even more, she watched Earth with fascination, studying them with great longing. Magic was only a legend to them and they didn't need it. They had machines and did such magical things with them, compared to Faerie's utterly prosaic approach to magic that she felt she would never truly use.

In time, Khione and her sisters had grown to be beautiful, kind, and charming. While many young faerie lords and ladies courted Hollë and Sunnë, Khione was all but ignored and even whispered about. She was rumored to have been seen on Wild Hunts with On'seileigh goblins and commanding ghosts to do her bidding. She found herself lonely again, for the first time since she was a small child, as her sisters danced and trysted. Khione watched from afar and tried to hide her sorrow. She agreed instead to follow her sister Sunnë to her new home. She'd promised her hand to the Oak King, her father's Southern counterpart and, at her wedding, Khione found that she was approached by a handsome young Phoenix prince. Adranos Dawnfeather seemed besotted with her and she followed him with the single-minded devotion of a loyal hunting hound. Within a month, they had pledged their love, but, Adranos made Khione swear a magic-bound oath to never speak out against him to her father, at the risk of her own life. Should she ever betray him to the Holly King, she would die a slow, agonizing death. Khione was so enchanted by his affection and beauty, she accepted the terms without question.

They were wed in short order and Adranos brought Khione to his home in the faerie underworld, known as the Summerlands. The heat and fire was nearly unbearable to her, but it was nothing compared to what awaited. Her husband soon showed his true colors when he caught her speaking with a faerie ghost. He ordered her to make it submit to him. Khione could do nothing of the kind. Though her mother's blood ran true in her veins, she could only speak to and perhaps befriend ghosts, not command them. Enraged, Adranos believed she was lying and imprisoned her. Every day, he tried to force her to enthrall the ghosts of the Summerlands. When she refused or failed, he would express his rage through physical and emotional abuse, beating her and taunting her weakness. After three months, she tried to run away, only to succumb to heat exhaustion and be captured. Once she had recovered from her illness, the torture began anew.

For six years, Khione was the slave of Adranos and his flight of On'seileigh Phoenix brethren. She knew he'd never cared about her, only her potential as a tool. Adranos had visions of conquest, planning to use an army of the dead to take control of all Faerie and, perhaps, all the Dimension of Magic. At first, she was devastated. Naïvely, she appealed to what she hoped was a spark of goodness in him. Then, she threatened to break her oath, at risk to her own life. Finally, she was broken, for a time, at least. There was no point in fighting. She feared death, despite her bluster, and in spite of herself, she loved him still.

At the end of six years, Adranos had grown weary of what he felt were Khione's mind games. He came to her with a child, one she'd played with back home in her father's court. He would allow the child to live, if she enthralled the spirits of the Summerland for him. If she refused, the child would die. She protested that there was nothing she could do, her powers had always been weak and she'd tried so often before. Adranos broke the child's arm to prove his point. It would be his worst mistake yet.

The rage, pain and sorrow in Khione's heart had reached the boiling point. Whatever locks her near-death as an infant had placed on her were shattered along with her love for him. She broke her bonds and attacked. Adranos, though more skilled in the ways of magic, was no match for the unpredictable fury of the young princess who had spent her youth watching over children who suffered. He fell to her assault and she quickly fled her prison with the child, but was mere yards from the border of the Summerlands when her adrenaline and strength gave out. She stayed conscious long enough to heal the child's arm, before fainting.

Luck was with them. Sunnë and her husband were hunting near that border when they found them. Her sister nursed her back to health, but Khione refused to tell Sunnë why she had fled, nor to go back to Polaria. Her powers had been unlocked, but she would never feel safe again in the Dimension of Magic. Sunnë accepted this, but presented her with a parting gift that might make her leaving easier: the Snowstone. Created from the crystallized energy of hope and joy and the first snow to ever fall in Polaria, the stone was a powerful artifact that would magnify her powers and make them easier to control, as well as allowing her to cast a glamour over herself that would disguise her as a human woman.

With this in hand and her family's blessing, Khione departed for the mortal realm, hoping to help protect that which had given her such peace as a child and her last refuge.