The Fallen World

Isabel d'Allais

5 min read

The daughter of the Order of the Owl’s last knight commander — sent to Hazad at thirteen to find refuge, because her gift is heretical in the West; captured en route, and held at the Citadel of Gazra ever since. She is the reason the Owl came back to Halwa.

(Naming: the player’s original notes had “Isabel Dalet.” The GM’s corrected copy gives “Isabel d’Allais” — matching her father, the GM’s Jehanne d’Allais, whom the notes still render “Jehan Dalet” in one line. “Isabel Dalet” is kept as an alias.)

What We Know (all S6)

  • Daughter of Jehanne d’Allais, the Owl’s knight commander from Late Summer 1731 until the order’s dissolution.
  • Arrived at the Citadel at thirteen; now in her later teens. She has been a hostage for five years — the Fall 1734 capture — which puts her birth around 1721.
  • Her gift is the gift of beasts: she can speak with animals and boost them.
  • That gift is considered heretical in the west — but not in the east. Sister Alia has confirmed to the party, and to Visenne and Isabel, that the Eastern Church does not consider Isabel’s gift heretical. (GM, S6) Her father’s plan was sound; the doctrine works.
  • Her escort was entirely female — Jean-Marie, Marin of Clan Aggadum, Elysant Peppin and Visenne de Tarrand, four women around a thirteen-year-old girl. (Aaron) See Order of the Owl for why that looks chosen rather than incidental.
  • Her father sent her to Hazad in the hope that she could find refuge there. The entire purpose of the Owl’s second visit to Halwa was to escort her into Hazad for her protection — Visenne said so directly. A peaceful errand that ended in a street battle with the Eagle, and Visenne is still angry about it.
  • She repeatedly insists her father could not have been a heretic. She opened up about it while riding with the party.
  • She was surprised, and perhaps put off, by Ari — where Visenne didn’t blink at an elf in a Hazadi noble’s retinue.

Why She Matters

Three sessions of the Order of the Owl as an abstraction — an order accused, dissolved, executed — and here is a teenager in a fortress who is what it actually cost. She is also evidence: the last thing the Owl’s commander did with his order was smuggle his own child out of the Church’s reach, which is either a father’s decency or, as Visenne tartly notes, exactly the sort of thing the Phoenix would call heresy.

And she is the party’s warmest possible source. Jean-Marie, the knight who knew things, died in the capture. Visenne is polished and guarded. Isabel is eighteen, has been alone in a foreign castle since she was thirteen, and talks when she’s on a horse.

CONFIRMED (S6): the gift is not heretical here

Sister Alia has confirmed it — to the party, and to Isabel and Visenne. (GM) So Dalet did not pick Hazad at random: he picked the one jurisdiction where his daughter’s gift is not a crime, exactly as the doctrine on Magic and Casting Traditions would predict. The West treats many Nature talents as Corrupted; the Eastern Church permits gifts the West condemns when clergy examine them and find no taint.

His plan worked. It was the delivery that failed — and only because the Eagle met the escort in Halwa.

Speculation

So why is she still in a fortress? Not for her gift — that question is settled, and she has been told so. She is held as a noble hostage taken from a foreign order’s armed party, which is a different matter entirely and has nothing to do with heresy. Which means the obstacle to her freedom is diplomatic, not doctrinal, and Ismad has already offered to release her into the party’s custody.

Someone should tell her plainly what that means. She has spent five years being the reason her escort died, in a country that turns out not to have minded.

Speculation

Does she know what happened to her father? The Owl was dissolved and its members executed in Spring 1736 — eighteen months after she arrived here. She defends him against a charge of heresy in the present tense. Either nobody has told her how it ended, or she knows and is holding the line anyway. Ask carefully; the answer is also the answer to what became of d’Allais, which the wiki has had open since the GM timeline.

Speculation

Her father was distrusted by his own knights as Michel d’Envers’s bought creature. His daughter is the only living person with a claim on what he actually wanted — and she is certain he was no heretic. That’s a child’s certainty, and it may still be right; the party has independently noticed that the Owl’s public conduct never looked corrupt. See Order of the Owl.

Open Questions

  • Does she know her father is almost certainly dead?
  • Was she ever told why the Owl was dissolved?
  • When did her gift manifest, and who found out? The decision to move her was triggered by something.
  • What does she remember of the order in 1734 — the mood, the names, her father’s state of mind?
  • Would her gift be examined and permitted here, if anyone asked the Eastern Church properly? She has been sitting in a fortress for five years while the answer went unasked.

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