Emma

Emma is a high half-elf adventurer and Feywild-associated sorcerer, best known through her connection to Emily Hazeldine and Bartholomew IV Strandiz. The surviving accounts concerning Emma are unusually indirect, and several descriptions of her appear to preserve rumor, hostile retelling, or confused memory rather than settled biography.

Origin

Emma originated when a wild magic surge duplicated Emily, producing a second woman with Emily’s face, memories, and name, but with an opposite temperament. The duplicate chose the name Emma. Emma and Emily often referred to one another as twins, a shorthand for their shared origin rather than a claim of ordinary birth. Emma was described as younger or smaller in appearance and pregnant at the time she was discussed. Emily privately stated that she had been pregnant when the surge occurred, and that the pregnancy may have passed to Emma in the process.¹

The same accounts describe Emma as possessing some runecraft of her own, though her skill was considered uncertain and apparently below Emily’s specialized mastery. She was also known for broad linguistic familiarity, with records naming Elvish, Gnomish, Goblin, and Orc among her languages.²

Strandiz and the Scarlet

During the Feydark displacement, Emma traveled with the circle that included Strandiz, Hedwig, Somme, Snow, and others. The group entered the Feydark after the Parade of the Spirits, before their later arrival in the Feywild and before their service aboard the Scarlet. Their early route took them toward the Tower of Hoof and Leaf, where Emma was kidnapped by a vampire. Her abduction forced the others to mount a rescue from the vampire territory of Iskandar.³

Emma later served as first mate of the Scarlet while Strandiz acted as temporary captain. After command passed to Somme and Hedwig, Emma and Strandiz were instead listed together as the ship’s weapons masters, an assignment that mirrored Strandiz’s established position aboard the Rozenmaiden. The Scarlet’s room assignments placed Strandiz and Emma together in an officer’s bedroom, and later reports continued to link them closely.⁴

The exact nature of Emma’s relationship with Strandiz remained difficult for later Seneran observers to describe. One Vengeful-era report stated that General Strandiz was alive and remarried to a woman named Emma, while another merely noted that he was linked to her and that the details were unclear. Because those statements came through confused discussion of Strandiz’s age, identity, and multiplicity, they are usually treated as suggestive rather than definitive.⁵

Reputation

Emma’s reputation in later accounts was lively and unreliable. One second-hand report alleged that she had once left Strandiz unclothed and taken his belongings. Another claimed she had put “bugs” inside girls’ minds, though the wording was never settled as literal, magical, metaphorical, or simply mistransmitted. Such stories are generally preserved as part of Emma’s reputation rather than as confirmed events.

Emma was also included in a later Strandiz-led team alongside Emily, Inez, Trajan, Lev, and Narmaya during the wider Narrows and Malthrek crisis. The references place her within the same Feywild-connected network of allies, but do not by themselves clarify her later movements or political loyalties.⁶

Footnotes

1. Vengeful accounts describe Emma as a wild-magic duplicate of Emily Hazeldine and use “twin” as the women’s shorthand for that relationship. ↩

2. Emma was said to be capable of some runecraft, though the extent of her ability was explicitly uncertain beside Emily’s. ↩

3. Escape-from-the-Feydark notes place Emma in the displaced group, record the route toward the Tower of Hoof and Leaf, and identify Iskandar as a vampire-controlled region. ↩

4. Escape-from-the-Feydark notes list Emma among Strandiz’s companions, place her first as first mate of the Scarlet and later as one of its weapons masters, and assign her to an officer’s room with Strandiz. ↩

5. Later accounts connect Emma to Strandiz as a possible spouse or partner, but the same discussion contains unstable claims about Strandiz’s identity and age. ↩

6. The Narrows notes include Emma in Strandiz’s team with Emily, Inez, Trajan, Lev, and Narmaya. ↩