Adelaide Tristé

"Adelaide" redirects here. For the song of the same name, see Inside & Outside.

Template:NPCAdelaide Tristé IV was an empress in the line of Tristero and is now the goddess of death.

Appearance

Adelaide is a tall, beautiful brown-skinned woman with round features. Her hair is in a braided updo that forms a crownlike shape around her head. She has a compelling gaze.

When first seen, she wears a unique dress that seems to move and to change its oceanic coloring in the light.

She is also seen wearing a casual outfit of black pants and a white and silver shirt with buttons that go diagonally across its high collar and down its chest.

History

Adelaide, like her father Tristero before her, dreamt of a world without death, and put her plan into action as Ordenna sacked Nacre.

Upon being killed by Hella with her sword, Adelaide took over for her brother Angelo as the god of death within Nacre. She now rules over her domain from the second-to-last strata.

Hella took Adelaide with her to Aubade, which caused her to rethink some of her views. She is now creating a genuine afterlife for the dead.

'Curse' of Nacre

Because of the magic of the city, anyone who has spent a night in Nacre brings the city wherever they go, meaning that the movements of Ordennan soldiers, the Boat Party, and refugees from Nacre spread her dominion across northeastern Hieron.

Death

Adelaide holds the right of decision over whether to let people slip into the Nothing and experience 'true death' if they are killed in her domain, although those killed with Ordennan steel are beyond her reach. Because of her beliefs about death, before her time in Aubade, people who died within her empire would generally come back undead unless she had a reason to prefer them otherwise.

When Throndir was killed by the wizard Arrell in "Is There Anyone Else?" he met with Adelaide, who offered him the choice to either die completely or come back fully alive, in return for doing her an unspecified favor later. However, Throndir instead took a competing offer, coming back as a vampire of the Golden Lance, a form of undeath different from the one she grants her subjects.

Adelaide temporarily lost her control over death when she entered Aubade. Those who died during this 8-year span were lost to the Nothing forever. Now that she has returned, people who die will be taken to her afterlife in order to rest and prepare before moving on.