Estella Glaive
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Character
Description
Estella Glaive is introduced as the fiery head of House Glaive of Arma, the “dowager” Baronet. Her husband passed many years before the beginning of the game, and she lived with her only son, Brezza, and his wife Kestral. She is a multi-classed bard/assassination rogue. She is a model of sophisticated grace and strength, and is noted for her ability to manipulate a situation to her own personal desires and ends.
Standing at 5”8, Estella is a fire genasi. She has darker skin, and hair that from a distance almost looks like it could be made of fire itself. She has severe features, and eyes that are a dark mystery. She often is seen wearing pant suits - most notably dark pants and a purple women’s waist coat, accented in golds with matching purple and gold jewelry. She also is a fan of hair fascinators and frequently wears them in purple and black.
Storylines
Background
Estella Glaive was born into the noble House Glaive of Arma. She was the second daughter, which often meant she lived in the shadow of her elder sister, who was her mother’s focus, pride and joy, and the obvious heir of the family's title and influence. However Estella’s life took a dark turn early on. Her mother Dame Astrid Glaive, was a woman of sharp wit, an even colder heart, and wielded emotional manipulation like a weapon - using it to control every member of the household, especially Estella. While outwardly charming and regal, her mother’s cruelty left her feeling small and unworthy.
Estella’s older sister, Celeste, was always a beacon of strength in the family, even though she was subjected to the same manipulations. Celeste was loved by their mother, but secretly despised by Estella for her unwillingness to conform entirely to their Lady Mother’s schemes. The tension between the two sisters grew over the years, and despite their close bond, the cold pressure of their mother’s influence strained their relationship.
Then one fateful night, Celeste vanished without a trace. There were whispers of treachery, of assassination, of a disappearance orchestrated by their mother in a moment of fury, but the truth was never revealed. The silence surrounding the incident haunted Estella, leaving her colder and more isolated. With her sister gone, she became the new heir, and was thrust into the role of maintaining the family’s power and name.
But Estella was not prepared. She had spent so many years in the shadow of Celeste that forced to bear the sole weight of the legacy of her family name - she struggled to find herself. She found solace in a secret and forbidden romance, a person who had been a confidant and friend for years. Their relationship was quiet, but a true deep romance. Yet – love was not a luxury for someone of Estella’s status. The pressures of her family legacy insisted that she enter the matching games.
With a heavy heart, she left behind the love of her life and agreed to do her duty. She paired with Zefrio, a wealthy but distant noble. Zefrio was not cruel, but it was a marriage of duty versus affection. Their union produced one child. Brezza. A son, more like his father than her, so Estella began using her own magic to keep him under control. She was becoming her mother in subtle ways, driven by a need to control the only thing she truly cared for.
Zefrio, however, began to grow suspicious of Estella’s actions. He had always known and respected her abilities - but when he uncovered the truth, it shattered the small bit of trust in their marriage. He confronted her, demanding her to stop. Faced with the collapse of everything she had been groomed to handle – the power of her House, her family’s legacy, Estella had no choice but to take drastic action, and end her husband’s life. Following, she bespelled Brezza to forget that he had seen their fight, and implanted a memory that Zefrio had simply passed in his sleep.
The act, while sparing her the loss of her son, left Estella in a state of emotional hardening. Her love for her son was mixed with guilt, and she became trapped in a cycle of manipulation and regret. She spent years raising Brezza alone – refusing to take another partner.
When Brezza was old enough to enter the matching games himself, she spent time helping to broker his union with Kestral Cirrus. Since he was a son and not a daughter – he could not carry the family name on his own, and therefore would need a suitable wife. Once Brezza was married, she spent time pressuring them to have a child, much to her disappointment they were unsuccessful.
Castleton Part 1
In the first part of Castleton, Estella Glaive’s actions revealed a woman driven by ambition, manipulation and a need for control – traits shaped by her upbringing and trauma of her past.
She opened the season establishing a strategic alliance with her daughter-in-law, Kestral, to take control of Kestral’s niece, Skylark. Kestral and Estella’s son, though married, remained without an heir. Estella saw an opportunity to consolidate power through Skylark, who would be a perfect pawn in their scheme - since Kestral’s brother, Troyllus’s wife died, leaving a power vacuum in the House Glaidus. Combining the Glaive and Gladius houses could secure their legacy for generations.
At the opening ball, Estella used her sharp manipulation and bardic abilities to manipulate and coerce Kestral’s lover, Gilgamesh, into handling Kestral’s brother to speed up the plot. He was unsuccessful, and she watched as he fell to an unknown fate. She also ensured that an old family friend, The Lady Tempest, fell from their platform, her ruthlessness coming to the forefront to dispatch anyone who stood in her way to achieve her goal.
But her carefully constructed world began to unravel as the truth of Kestral’s affair came to light. Her son, Brezza, became aware of the fact that Estella had been using magic on him to keep him in line. The revelation of the betrayal caused Brezza to run away. In a futile attempt to keep him home, and a moment of uncontrollable anger, she hurled a ball of fire at him, wounding and scaring him, fracturing the family and complicating her plans.
As Estella’s plans began to crumble, she watched helplessly as Troyllus and Skylark fell under the protection of Ms. Anri Claymore. This rendered the scheme to seize Skylark useless, and Estella was forced to reassess her approach. Her grip on the situation slipped as key pieces of the plot fell apart.
Estella ended part one by attending a high-profile duel between Gilgamesh and Count Nuburron of House Tempest, but found herself in an unfortunate position when she was wrongly assumed to have interfered in the fight. Though she had no role in assisting Nuburron - it was in fact the Lady Tempest - the perception of her involvement caused a scandal as well as public disciplining from the Demi-God, Draxien. The entire ton learned of Kestral and Gilgamesh’s affair, further tarnishing her reputation and leaving her to navigate the fallout.
The loss of her own identity, the erosion of her connection with the past, and the growing strain of her family are taking their toll. The road ahead is uncertain, but one thing is clear: Estella Glaive is no longer simply a noblewoman—she is a woman shaped by the darkness of her own choices, a woman who must confront the consequences of the empire she has helped build with her own hands. Her manipulative nature and ruthless decisions lead to a series of failures and betrayals, setting the stage for further complications in Part Two.
Credits
Whitney (she/her), known as Smoking Glue Guns, is an award-winning artisan dice-maker and content creator in the tabletop gaming world. You can find them behind their own GM screen running the Veil of Athium on their twitch stream, on a plethora of one-shots across the interwebs, or at various conventions across the country selling their wares!
