Natalia Eastonton

Natalia Eastonton is the Viscountess Dowager of Eastonton, a hexblood, and a secret member of the Children of the Coven. She is the mother of Garward Eastonton, Boyle Eastonton, and Nelson Eastonton, and one of the central witnesses to the corruption of the Eastonton household and Paladinate.

During the Eastonton crisis, Natalia was encountered as an elderly woman in a wheelchair whose memory appeared confused and displaced. She recognized Boyle as her son, but spoke as though Garward were still away fighting in older wars. Magical examination showed that her condition was not ordinary senility. A parasite had been eating at the edges of her mind, while a protected inner core preserved part of her identity at the cost of blocking memory and leaving her physically debilitated.

Family

Natalia stood at the center of the Eastonton household before its collapse into hidden conflict. Her sons Garward and Boyle became two of the most important Eastonton figures of their generation: Garward as viscount and Lord Commander of the Eastonton Paladinate, and Boyle as a lord captain of the Royal Seneran Navy. Nelson was also counted among her children, though the crisis centered most heavily on Garward and Boyle.

Natalia described Garward as a man who desired admiration and exaltation more than ordinary affection. In her account, Garward’s father sent him into the Paladinate in the hope that religious discipline would curb his arrogance, but the Poasan-Apgarian Conflict instead made him a celebrated hero and worsened the trait. She also connected this hunger for exaltation to Garward’s involvement with Markle Eastonton, Boyle’s former wife, who had loved Garward since childhood.

Natalia’s husband eventually made her promise to remove herself from the struggle against Garward. Soon after, Garward brought dangerous associates into the household, and a parasite was placed in Natalia’s head. She later denied poisoning her husband, saying that she had tried to keep him alive but that his soul was already flowing away.

Hexblood Identity

Natalia concealed her hexblood nature for much of her public life and intended to carry that secret to her grave. Her affiliation lay with the Children of the Coven, the Baba Yaga-loyal hag tradition of the Feywild’s Murkendraw. She detested the Children of the Crone and treated them as a hostile rival tradition rather than as fellow exiles.

Her loyalties shaped her reaction to other magical women. Natalia immediately recognized Sensodyne as a devil, challenged younger witches over their coven affiliations, and rejected the claim that Aika Miura could be the Mother. To Natalia, there was only one Mother: Baba Yaga. She regarded Aika’s title among Feywild pixies as blasphemous rather than as a harmless regional usage.

Affliction and Imprisonment

Garward’s parasite attack did not wholly consume Natalia. She recognized the aberrant presence when Garward began feeding it to her, and believed she may have been targeted because of her magical ability. Garward prevented her from resisting by using Hold PersonHold PersonLevel 2 · Enchantment1 action · 60 ft. · 1 minuteV, S, M (a small, straight piece of iron)Choose a humanoid that you can see within range. The target must succeed on a Wisdom saving throw or be paralyzed for the duration. At the end of each of its turns, the target can make another Wisdom saving throw. On a success, the spell ends on the target. When you cast this spell using a spell slot of 3rd level or higher, you can target one additional humanoid for each slot level above 2nd. The humanoids must be within 30 feet of each other when you target them., and the parasite left her barely able to walk.

Natalia survived by locking parts of her own mind. This self-inflicted mental defense protected her from parasites and aberrant influence, but it also made her appear confused, senile, and temporally displaced. Her room in Eastonton Manor was heavily warded against movement, magic, planar travel, and dreams, suggesting both imprisonment and containment of a dangerous magical figure.

When freed, Natalia briefly surged into a younger and more visibly witchlike form. Her hair lengthened, her eyes glowed yellow, and a broom appeared in her hand. She treated the recovery of her soul bag or hag bag as fragile and important, and recognized Minfilia Diaz and Oscar Savoy as among those who had helped free her.

Eastonton Crisis

Natalia provided crucial testimony during the Eastonton crisis. She stated that Garward had returned with “that thing” fifteen years earlier and helped explain how the Eastonton Paladinate had become compromised by parasites, Reformist influence, and aberrant experimentation. She also remembered Kotryna as someone who had drugged or dragged her, and treated the catlike caster as a direct participant in her confinement.

Her anger toward Garward was severe. She wanted him punished painfully and later said that she had cursed him as her mind and reaction time failed. The curse was intended to make any parasite or invader in Garward’s mind feel overwhelming fear, though whether it worked remained unclear. Boyle challenged her desire for vengeance, reminding her that Garward was still her son.

Natalia herself remained uncertain whether Garward had acted wholly by choice. At times she described him as collaborating with the parasite rather than simply being enslaved by it; at other moments she questioned how much of his conduct came from Reformist influence or aberrant control. This made her one of the most important witnesses against Garward, but also one of the few people who understood why simple judgment of his guilt might be insufficient.

Feywild Knowledge

Natalia’s disclosures linked Eastonton to older Feywild history. She said aberrations first entered the Feywild through the Murkendraw and that the archfey did not act until the threat became obvious. She also knew of Fey trapped in Senera since the Draco-Giant War, especially people connected to Skelmark County in northeastern Senera.

The site beneath Eastonton mattered to Natalia because it held Feywild magic and a connection to the Green Lord. She believed something beneath the beast or the site connected to it might help her people escape Senera and return to the Mother. When told that Stephanie, known in Senera as Tiphanie, had crossed through a Fey crossing with the White Witches, Natalia reacted strongly and hoped to be taken to her in Thrantorbury.