Koriana Ipswitch is an elven sorceress whose history is bound to the occult legacy of the Ipswitch family and the entity known as the King in Yellow. She became a vessel for the entity at fourteen and later described the experience as a rapid collapse of both her magic and her ability to distinguish her own intentions from the influence acting through her. Koriana blamed her parents and the Ipswitch family’s occult practices for exposing her to the King in Yellow and came to regard the family’s history as a source of both guilt and inherited danger.
Koriana eventually escaped the most direct form of the King’s influence by transferring it to another willing host. The full sequence by which that influence later reached Korth Rawlins is not completely established, but Korth’s former mentor Wandred Whitcomb manipulated him into accepting the mark through which the entity became connected to him. Koriana later admitted that, during the years in which fear and madness dominated much of her life, she killed members of Korth’s family. That history made Korth’s pursuit of her intensely personal long before he understood that both of them had been shaped by the same entity.
Flight from Arkrist
In 8793 SE Koriana became one of several people whose disappearances drew the attention of investigators in Arkrist. She had already been associated with a poisoning scandal and was being sought by people in both the city’s legal and criminal networks. Her safehouse was eventually found occupied by Duergar connected to the wider crisis surrounding The Voiceless. Evidence at the site initially made Koriana appear closely tied to the cult’s rituals, but a captive named Merstel Riv said that both he and Koriana had themselves been abducted by the Duergar.
Koriana left behind a coded message naming contacts beyond Arkrist. Deciphering it sent the future Drakefire Phalanx through Thermeira, Tarentum, and Squall’s End while they followed Olbon Ravencut, Neerzyne Zauduis, and Voslostro. Questioning Voslostro’s remains finally revealed that Koriana intended to flee south to her family’s abandoned estate near Mesus, assume a new identity, and disappear from Arkrist.
Ipswitch Manor
The pursuit ended at Ipswitch Manor, where old experiments associated with Lord Albrecht Ipswitch had fractured the estate into overlapping ruined and preserved states. Koriana was trapped within the manor’s distorted reality and was eventually found in a cavern beneath the house. There she confessed her role in the deaths of Korth’s family, her history as a vessel of the King in Yellow, and her fear that the entity’s influence had returned through Korth and the people pursuing her.
The confrontation initially became violent, but Korth ultimately chose to speak with Koriana rather than kill her. After being subdued, she explained that an artifact known as the Pallid Mask might be capable of controlling, containing, or severing the King’s influence and identified an occult scholar named Torguina as someone connected to that mystery. Koriana then used her knowledge of the manor and a book carried by Korth to release the group from its fractured state.
Koriana bargained for her life by agreeing to investigate the Pallid Mask and share what she learned with Korth. She surrendered her distinctive crossbow so the group could present it as evidence that she had died, allowing them to conceal her survival from the authorities and other interested parties in Arkrist. During the return journey she revealed that she had first become a vessel at fourteen and spoke openly about the damage she had caused while trying to escape the entity. Before the group reached Arkrist, Koriana disappeared during the night and resumed her search independently. Her stated intention was to sever the King’s influence and then leave the continent, but her subsequent whereabouts and progress remain unknown.