Countess Elene Karalis

Smooth skin like polished alabaster is given warmth by the fiery length of wildly bright red-orange locks that still hold their vibrant hue despite this woman being of a learned age. She is only gingerly caressed by time's passage, with faint lines whispering at the corners of her full-lipped mouth and her sea green eyes. Her figure is well-fed, but not overly chubby, feminine in its curves.

Elene, daughter of the late Count Vyron Karalis, has ruled Trapezus since 624. After an early education in diplomacy, she had spent much of her life up until then acting as a go-between for her father and various people in the imperial court. Upon becoming countess, she finds herself in a not wholly dissimilar situation, except now she finds that instead of her father, she sometimes deals with the dwarvish high king, or at least with one of his representatives. It is broadly understood that Wayguard's prosperity stems from dwarvish products, and that means the sale of goods to other places in the empire. Elene does not participate in that herself, but she does sometimes negotiate access for goods to other markets.

She does in fact still have the matter of the rule of her county to deal with, although she has the good fortune of - considering that her home is on the very edge of the Red Waste - having a remarkably stable county. Internal problems are rare, and she can afford to spend her time looking further afield.

Elene married in Polychronis Kournis, a distant cousin to the main Kournis line, in 614 AF, and they have four children.

Elene is firm and direct. That is not to say she is always forthcoming. Far from it, in fact: people routinely assume that she knows far more than she cares to disclose at any one point, particularly with her close contact with the secretive dwarves. Someone prying too much about that business can expect to be firmly and directly told where to go, in fact. She is hands-off as a ruler goes, which is, fortunately for her, working out well enough. She isn't necessarily all business, with a favourite hobby being the writing of fiction. Her tales are almost always fantastical, and some take them to be true. She can occasionally be persuaded to read them aloud.

Elene is a competent diplomat and administrator.