Category:Lord Soth's 13 Banshees

This section contains canon info from officially published sources

Thirteen banshees, the former companions of Isolde Denissa, haunted Dargaard Keep and then Nedragaard Keep. In life, their lies turned Soth against Isolde, and in death they were condemned to haunt Lord Soth. Though they served in Soth's army, their keening taunts and jibes never stopped.

Gisela, Leedara, and Marantha are of special note as they are Soth's main antagonizers and also the leaders of the cacophonous choir.^[1]

History

When Lord Soth and his 13 trusted knights rescued Isolde Denissa, they also rescued 13 of her friends, also elfmaids. The spiteful beings loathed Soth, so they testified to his corruption when they heard the rumors of his transgressions against Lady Gladria. And in order to alienate Soth from Isolde, they poisoned his heart with lies of her infidelity, so much so that he turned away from his mission to stop the Cataclysm in order to confront Isolde.^[2]

For their transgressions, Paladine cursed the elfmaids with undeath and sent them to torment Soth for all eternity. However, their singing accusations proved more a nuisance against the rather unemotional and stoic Soth.^[3]

When Sithicus formed, the banshees were drawn into Nedragaard Keep, where the story of Soth they told became longer, it also became warped and inconsistent, as had their memories.^[4] They sung their cacophonous recollections to Soth every night as he sat on his throne.^[5] By 752 BC, Soth's apathy had transformed them into mere "harmless spooks", in the words of Azrael Dak.^[6] However, when Soth reawakened from his slumber, they seemed to have regained at least a portion of their power, fighting in a number of battles.^[7]

During the Night of Screaming Shadows, Inza Kulchevich warded out the banshees, along with Soth's other undead minions, from Nedragaard Keep. Gisela, Leedara and Marantha immediately told Soth. Soth turned away from his assault on the Veidrava Salt Mine to go after Inza, allowing the Night of Screaming Shadows to occur in order to achieve his revenge, much like with the Cataclysm and Isolde before.^[8] Lord Soth's wrath allowed the breach of Inza's wards, enabling the banshees and his other minions to enter and slaughter the invaders.^[9]

The banshees survived the destruction of the keep, as they appeared over the burning wreckage after the impact of the shadows.^[10] Their fate after Soth is taken back to Krynn is not addressed in SotBR. However, in Gazetteer IV, there is mention of elves spotting them on nights when the moon is full.^[11]

Ultimate Fate

In the Dragonlance novels, by the time of Soth's own demise under the fury of Takhisis, it is mentioned that the banshees had served out the sentence for their sins some time ago. In consequence, Paladine had released them from undeath, allowing them to pass on to the afterlife.

References