Elaine Clairn
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This section contains canon info from officially published sources |
The adopted ward of Jonathan Ambrose. Much to Ambrose's chagrin, she developed considerable sorcerous powers.[1]
Elaine Clairn was introduced in the Death of a Darklord novel, where she is one of the main protagonists. She was later mentioned for the first time in a game product in Ravenloft Gazetteer I.
Background
Elaine Clairn is the twin sister of Blaine Clairn and the adopted daughter of Tereza Ambrose and Jonathan Ambrose.[2] She received at least some training in arcane spellcasting from Gersalius, an outlander wizard, after her sorcerous powers became too much for her to handle by herself.[3] Elaine is a clairvoyant, able to receive visions of scenes happening from far away.[4] In addition, Gersalius taught her the art of mind reading.[3] The development of her magical powers caused numerous incidents of conflict and even periods of estrangement from her father.
During the investigation of the Zombie Plague of Cortton, Elaine discovered her magical abilities included what appeared to be healing. Having received training in how to magically heal from Silvanus Brilliantine, Clairn used her powers in an attempt to repair the injuries of some outlander adventurers.[5] She later attempted to resurrect Averil Brilliantine, but the attempt backfired, resurrecting her as a screaming, incoherent monster. Soon thereafter, the adventurers she healed began sprouting monstrous growths. Much to her horror, she discovered she enjoyed working the flesh, even the aberrant flesh created by the twisted nature of her magic.[6] However, she resisted all Marland Ashe's attempts to corrupt her by forcing her to resurrect her deceased brother[7] (see below.)
The hideous failure of Elaine's healing attempts may be put down to the fact that she was taught by Silvanus that healing required the channeling of external power into an injured person. In the absence of a divine patron to supply healing energy, Elain channeled the power of Kartakass itself into her patients, which allowed the land to corrupt their injuries. When attempting to resurrect Averil , Elaine again followed the advice of Silvanus to channel the power and 'fill her up'. As she was herself suffering at the time, all she had to fill Averil's body with was pain.
Elaine's brother Blaine sacrificed himself to help Elaine escape from the zombies plaguing Cortton, particularly the intelligent Zombie with no name.[8] With the help of Gersalius, Elaine cleansed Cortton's poisoned water supply, which was responsible for causing the zombie outbreak.[9]
It seemed at the end of the misadventure, that at least she had finally won the love of Konrad Burn. This proved to be false; Burn had already been murdered by Harkon Lukas, who had assumed his form. Lukas later told Kelric Sweetvoice that he had not killed Elaine, but that he was letting the Burn identity 'drift away' from her, implying there was further heartbreak in her future. When mentioned by "S", Elaine was still living at the Brotherhood compound, taking care of her adopted father.
