| “ | Guilt is a luxury reserved for those still breathing and with no unbearable pain, cold or hunger demanding all their fickle attention. Long as guilt’s your big problem, girl, things can’t be that bad. | ” |
— Isern-i-Phail
| ||
Isern-i-Phail is a daughter of Crummock-i-Phail, chieftain of all the hillmen. As a child, she carries her father's warhammer throughout the First Northern War. Now she's all grown up, and folk reckon her a mad witch - no doubt she has a witchy look and a witch’s temper.
Appearance and Personality[]
Isern-i-Phail has a sharp, expressionless face, and a mouth twisted by a scar that makes her look like she has a constant frown. One of her sinewy arms is blue with tattoos all the way to the hand. She always wears a necklace of runes and finger bones, and carries a spear with a deerskin cover; her father’s old spear. To call Isern-i-Phail "colourful" would be a spectacular understatement. She’s tough, stubborn and very feisty, which makes her attempts to mentor Rikke a trial for the young woman at the best of times. She constantly tells her to "make of your heart a stone" in order to get anything done in the world. Everyone says she’s a mad witch and untrustworthy, but the latter is because she only keeps her word to people she likes. There are only seven of those outside the hills; one is the Dogman.
History[]
Isern-i-Phail was one Crummock’s great many children, and the hillman raised his children hardy. The young boys and girls carried his weapons on campaign, and the response to crying was a slap. As Bethod rose to power in the North, Crummock was one of the only chieftains not to bend the knee to the self-proclaimed King of the Northmen.
Last Argument of Kings[]
Guided by the Moon, Crummock and his hillmen track down the Dogman and his growing crew of rebel Northmen fighting Bethod. As a ten-year-old, Isern follows her father, along with two of her brothers, carrying his great warhammer all the while. When Crummock introduces his children, he pretends to have forgotten Isern's name and mistakes her for a boy. At that, she kicks her father's shin, which only makes him laugh.[1]
Isern is there throughout the battle in the High Places, and survives, though she picks up a scratch from somewhere.
A Little Hatred[]
In the intervening three decades, Isern-i-Phail has garnered a reputation as a mad witch. The Dogman persuades her to take his daughter Rikke under-her-wing, to learn to control the Long Eye. While walking outside Uffrith, Rikke has one of her fits and sees a vision of the capital of the Protectorate burning. Turning towards home, they find Stour Nightfall’s Northmen have invaded and Uffrith is indeed burning.
With her characteristic tough love, Isern leads Rikke south towards the Dogman’s folk and their Union allies. The two women eventually find themselves pursued by men with dogs, and the hillwoman gets an arrow in the leg. As the Northmen close on them, Isern tells Rikke to go on without her, but Rikke refuses. Suddenly Caul Shivers steps into the clearing, his sword wet with blood, having killed all their pursuers. He ignobly pulls the injured hillwoman over his shoulder, and begins to lead them towards the Dogman’s folk.
In the Dogman’s camp, they find Finree dan Brock and her son Leo leading the Union war-effort to recover the Protectorate. After a period of retreating, to lure the Northmen into complacency, they lay a trap in a narrow valley. The Dogman’s folk are hidden in a ruin to the north of a bridge, while the Union rearguard appears to have been caught in a tangle. Just prior to the battle, Rikke has a vision with the Long Eye of Black Calder’s Northmen slipping from the forest behind them. Isern insists that she should tell her father, and if it wasn’t for that the Dogman’s folk might have all been killed. In the end, the battle is decided by a Duel in the Circle between Leo and Stour Nightfall. Isern is chosen to judge the Duel, the closest thing to neutral as a hillwoman.
With the war concluded and the Protectorate recovered for the Dogman, Isern and Caul Shivers are chosen to accompany Rikke to Adua, in order to represent the Protectorate in any post-war deals. They ride in Leo dan Brock’s triumph through the crowded streets of the city, but return to the North when Rikke has a vision that might mean the Dogman has died.
The Trouble With Peace[]
Rikke’s fits have been getting worse ever since she forced the Long Eye open during the duel between Leo and Stour. Not only is she having vision, but mixing-up the present with past and future visions. Of her latest visions, Isern knows the old woman with her face stitched together with golden wire; a witch who lives in a forbidden cave, beside a forbidden lake, in the High Places. Isern, Rikke, and Shvers,head for the hillmen village of Slorfa, where Isern's brother Scenn can lead them the rest of the way. Heading on, Rikke becomes so weak that Shivers has to carry her. The witch turns out to be Caurib, who was saved by the Shanka after Black Dow split her skull. Caurib's tattoos Rikke's face to reclaim control over the maddening magic of the Long Eye.
They return to Uffrith to find the Dogman has sadly died. During the mourning, Stour Nightfall pays a visit. His swaggering entrance comes to an abrupt halt when he sees Rikke's face; no one could look more like a witch. Rikke plays it up and frightens them all off. After burying Rikke's father, the conversation quickly turns to the future of the Protectorate; Oxel favours rejoining the North, while Red Hat wants it to become a full member of the Union. Rikke turns to the old way of settling contentious decision; a duel in the Circle. With some reluctance, the two old warriors set to killing one another, and Oxel wins. As he roars his triumph, Rikke interrupts him to point out that there's a third choice; for the Protectorate to remain independent. Shivers steps forward to fight for that option, and easily kills Oxel. Rikke has made her point; she is chief of Uffrith now.
Later, Rikke agrees to join Leo's rebellion against King Orso of the Union, or so it seems. As soon as, Stour Nightfall sails for Midderland with the bulk of the North's warrior, Uffrith and the West Valley join forces to capture Carleon by stealth. Skarling’s Hall itself holds for a while, but a little blatant bribery soon deals with that problem. Sitting in Skarling’s Chair is nothing special; it’s staying in it that’s the trick, with Stour Nightfall and Black Calder clearly having other ideas. For the first problems, Jonas Clover chooses his moment to betray the Great Wolf, delivering him beaten and crippled to Uffrith.
References[]
- ↑ Last Argument of Kings, Part I, Beloved of the Moon