Sir Caroline

Sir Caroline
official art by Mikaela Buckley
Details
Pronouns	She/her
First Mentioned	Second Citadel - The Head of the Janus Beast (Part 1)
Status	Alive
Aliases	My sweet, frostbitten girl (Quanyii) Mama Bear (Sir Lamorak)
Occupation	Knight of the Crown (formerly) The Queen's Inspector General (formerly) Captain of the Guard (formerly) Freelancer
Family	Gawain (Dog) Olala (Ward) Sylvie of Hiberna ("Sisters"/Guardians)
Relationships	The Queen (Former superior) Sir Angelo (Close friend) Quanyii (Wife)
Voice
Voice Actor(s)	Leslie Drescher
First Heard	Second Citadel - The Head of the Janus Beast (Part 1)

“

You’ll refrain from telling me what to do in my personal business. As a commander you are unparalleled; but in personal life you are, if I may be so blunt, tragic. “Delight in forgetting her name?” Of course I remember her name. What I don’t remember is the part of my Vows of Knighthood which state that I must breach the privacy of everyone I share time with for the sake of your curiosity. For one night, I fit into this girl’s life well, and she fit into mine, and that is all you need know because it is all I’ve decided to say.

”

—Sir Caroline of the Southern Frosts^[src]

Caroline of the Southern Frosts was a knight of the Second Citadel; notably, the only female knight. She was heavily discouraged from pursuing the career, but was forced to be admitted when she successfully passed the tests. Sir Caroline was successful in her career as a knight and rose to Captain of the Guard. After at least three years she resigned to hunt Sir Galahad.

Early Life

Caroline was born in the Southern Frosts to parents who were poor, desperate, or close to death. They sold her as an infant to a hunter, who made a side business out of training children to hunt and in turn selling them into someone else's service if they showed particular talent. Caroline made a point to excel, as this man "made the prospect of getting away from him an appealing one." The hunter sold her to a coven of witches when she was six years old, and the older children in the hunter's retinue told her that the witches would certainly eat her.

The witches took the young Caroline to a banquet of empty plates, that only appeared to be food when one's senses were enchanted. She awoke the second morning feeling as hungry as if she had not eaten at all the day before. She took it upon herself to hunt food for the witches so that they would not eat her, and though the dinner ritual went the same every night, the food Caroline hunted would dissappear from it's place in storage as they ate the illusory food, and she no longer felt hungry in the mornings. She would go on to realize that the witches never intended to eat her, but she continued to feed them because it made them more talkative at dinner time. They never taught her their magic, and Caroline witnessed very little of it; they seemed to be after her simply to hunt food for them.

When Caroline was twelve years old, she returned from her hunt one day to find six out of the seven witches in the coven killed by marauders after a particularly powerful storm. She tried to kill one of the intruders, and came very close despite being only twelve years old. The leader of the marauders was impresses, and told her he would take her in as one of his own if she proved she was the witches' captive and not their student. They brought out the witch who bought her, Sylvie of Hiberna, and without a word between them Caroline slit her throat.

The band of marauders would starve to death roughly a month later, leaving Caroline the only survivor. It is repeatedly hinted that she has reinvented herself from the past several times. Presumably, she has been tried for many crimes, based on her insisted knowledge of the judicial system.

She married the witch Quanyii at some point before the start of the show. Quanyii is the only person before Olala who she told the full tale of her childhood.

History

• Worked with Sir Marc and Sir Talfryn to slay the Janus Beast, but stole its head and the credit for the kill.
• Pushed Sir Damien down the Tower of Two Thousand Steps, breaking his leg.
• Assigned to take down the Echo-Beast with Sir Angelo.
• Worked with Sir Angelo and Sir Damien to find and kill a witch that had cursed a lake town.
• Intercepted Rilla as the herbalist left Lord Arum and The Keep.
• Worked with the others to defeat the fear monster, but allowed her pride and inflexibility to endanger the team and mission repeatedly.
• Requested demotion to Journeyman Knight as a result. Queen Mira granted this, but in the same letter promoted her to Captain of the Guard.
• Became the best and most effective Captain of the Guard in Second Citadel history, but learned over the course of the crown's conflict with The Kite that that was perhaps not a good thing.
• Resigned from her position entirely in order to pursue other ex-knights like the Kite and prevent them from doing harm.
• For the next two years, Caroline traveled on this mission with her wife Quanyii, her friend Angelo, her ward Olala, her dog Gawain, and the swordsman Ale. Then Angelo departed from the group to bounty hunt on the northern-southern border after a botched tryst with Ale.
• Two additional years later, four years into the quest, Angelo reunited with the group as they sought out Sir Pellinore the Prepared. A now thirteen year old Olala goes against Caroline's wishes and keep the Truesight Monocular, an artifact from the Wayward East that Caroline suspects is dangerous.
• Caroline and her caravan stage an assault on Sir Pellinore's fortress, and Olala is separated from the group by a trapdoor. Caroline and Angelo find her roughly a half-hour later, after realizing most of Sir Pellinore's power is in cheap parlor tricks. She interigates him about his affiliation with Sir Galahad and learns they haven't seen each other in twenty years. Frustrated at another dead end, she leaves him a broken old man barely alive on the floor.
• While doing a sweep of Pellinore's fortress, Quanyii tells Caroline that several of the Eastern artifacts that are present are perfectly safe. Apologetic, Caroline approaches Olala with the gift of one of Pellinore's books about death religions in The Western Wastes, which contains legitimate information on the Garden of Graves.
• She then tells Olala the story of her childhood, from being sold by her parents as an infant to being sold by the man who bought her to a coven of witches at a still-young age, and finally being forced to kill the last of those witches at the age of twelve by marauders who'd come for their resources in the wake of a bad storm. She expresses her concerns about her position as leader of the group, and Olala asks if she could be allowed to lead. Caroline says that she looks forward to the day Olala will take over leadership, but that it is not today; she is still too young. Olala argues this, claiming that if Caroline has no better idea for where to go they should seak the city that the Truesight Monocular showed her. Olala finally lies and claims that she saw Sir Galahad in her vision.
• The group resolves to travel to The Wayward East across the Mirrored Plains. They decide to trust in Quanyii's plan to guide them through, but this backfires. Caroline is subjected to visions of a version of herself, "the hunter", that is far more cruel than she is. The vision of the hunter berates her for having gone soft for a witch and an abomination, which Olala overhears and is hurt by. Olala tries to help Caroline out of the vision, but is unsuccesful. Eventually the hunter becomes more and more powerful, towering over Caroline and stabbing at the earth with her giant destructive sword with god-like power. At last, Olala manages to put a card from the Thoughtstream into Caroline's hand, which puts a stop to the vision. Caroline awakens to find Quanyii's unconscious body at her feet, which she is heartbroken by. She carries Quanyii and helps Olala find the rest of their group.
• Once they reach the end of the Mirrored Plains, they arrive at Silvershore. Ale wins them money by prizefighting, and the rest stay in a hotel in the human district. Caroline hires a doctor to help Quanyii with her Mirrored Madness, and is incredibly irritable and grumpy, even towards Olala. The doctor tells her she can be cured with a dandelion, and Caroline sets out to find one.
• After being nearly scammed by a salesman, she is approached by Gremling, who offers to let her send a letter to her contact in the Second Citadel in exchange for finding the address of a northern warrior. Caroline accepts, after roughing him up a bit, and heads back to the hotel for the night. She finds Olala crying after a discussion with Angelo, and comforts her, before pushing too far and making Olala upset again without meaning to.
• The next day, she sets off to Capuchin's house with Ale. After they work together to capture her, she gives them the address, which Caroline brings back to Gremling before checking it out herself. Ale wants to come, thinking it's Galahad's house, but Caroline insists he wouldn't be able to hold back from a fight.
• Caroline checks out the address she was given, but finds that it belongs to Sir Lamorak right before he returns from heisting the W.E.P Clocktower with Olala in tow. She defends Olala from him, and they end up fighting. Olala breaks up their fight, before Sir Tristan shows up and they both hide in the closet.
• Once she recieves news of the oncoming Invasion of Silvershore by the Citadel knights, she resolves to drug Olala and take her out of Silvershore into the Mirrored Plains so she isn't hurt. Lord Arum helps her with the drugging part, but the plan backfires when Olala realizes she's being drugged and shapeshifts to avoid it. Caroline meets back up with Olala in the W.E.P Clocktower, worried for her safety. After The Protective Spirit of Silvershore is killed and the real invasion begins, Olala subconsciously uses the power of the Garden of Graves to teleport herself, Caroline and Lamorak to the Southern Frosts.
• Quanyii attacks Olala and gravely injures Caroline.
• The gang meets a Tengu.
• Caroline is increasingly upset that her wife won't see her.
• Caroline and Olala convince the Queen to work together with The Monster Senate against the Off-World Invaders.

Personality

Ambitious, practical, and backstabbing-when-necessary. The first female knight in the Second Citadel. An excellent investigator, it turns out. When given a job she does it diligently and to perfection, which made her an excellent knight but makes her a dubious leader, as she expects the same perfection from those beneath her.

Abilities

Caroline is an accomplished strategist who can think on her feet. She describes herself as far too effective as Captain of the Guard, which is one of the reasons she quit. She led the group of Ale, Quanyii, Angelo and Olala for five years, and despite attempts to make her leadership more democratic, the others still looked to her for the final say. She is also a fearsome sword fighter, having been trained in the craft since a young age. She can be ruthless, underhanded, and even cruel in a fight. She knows how to survive incredibly harsh conditions like starvation, blizzards and long winters from growing up in The Southern Frosts. She learns the art of Citadel-style letter-writing during her time as a knight corresponding with The Queen.

Relationships

Quanyii

Quanyii and Caroline demonstrate great concern for the other's wellbeing, with Quanyii breaking her watch to save Caroline and Caroline reacting with urgency every time Quanyii cries out in distress (even when it is a false alarm or overreaction.) Initially having pretended to be strangers in the presence of Rilla and the other knights, she and Caroline were revealed to be in a long term relationship. They are in an open relationship and married. They had their own cottage, where they lived together with their dog Gawain for at least three years before going back out on the road.

Gawain

Light of Caroline's life.

Queen Mira

Queen Mira and Sir Caroline have a professional relationship, but Queen Mira has opened up to Sir Caroline once before, telling her a story about her tutor when she was a child. However, sometimes Queen Mira places her personal opinions on how Sir Caroline lives her life, which is not received happily by Sir Caroline. Sir Caroline had high respect for the queen, and did her duty as a knight diligently. She returned to the Second Citadel in order to save the Queen's life from the Kite even after she had begun to have mixed feelings about her position, still willing to die for Queen Mira because that was what her job required. After coming out of this battle alive, Caroline decided to resign from that position. After hearing Mira's plans for the future direction of the Second Citadel, Caroline seems to have lost the respect she once held for Mira as a leader, and tells her that though she still prefers that Mira doesn't die, she feels generally ambivalent about the idea now, and will take no serious action to save her.

Sir Marc and Talfryn

Sir Caroline first met Sir Marc and Talfryn while tracking a two-headed ogre called The Janus Beast. Due to certain circumstances, she was forced to work together with the two brothers. While at first believing both of them to be useless, she eventually bonded with Sir Marc over their shared experiences of discrimination. However, she still stole the head of the Janus Beast and took sole credit for slaying it.

Sir Angelo

Caroline believes that Sir Angelo is a strong and competent knight. His only downfall, in her eyes, is how distracted he gets when he is around Sir Damien. Caroline prefers Angelo to the extent of believing he is a better knight than Sir Damien and much better in a fight. Over the course of their time as coworkers they become true friends, to the point where Caroline feels "as if the moon was gone" when she learns he may be dead.

Sir Damien

Sir Damien is a very emotional, metaphorical person, all of which Sir Caroline hates. She believes he whines too much, complains too often, cries like a baby and puts too much belief in the Saints.

Queen Mira advised her on how to deal with Damien, stating that he might be very emotionally driven, but he is loyal and focused to a fault. Sir Caroline uses this information to her advantage.

Amaryllis of Exile

Sir Caroline is consistently suspicious of Rilla's motivations and allegiances. She nearly kills her twice for 'treason', but threatens Lord Arum through the prison door when she thinks he's going to hurt her. Later, Caroline jumps off the edge of the world to save Rilla, and the two have a heart-to-heart when they return safely to the Swamp of Titan's Blooms. They are currently on good terms. Also, Rilla's hair is nice. She likes the shine of it. 

Olala

Caroline and Olala started out on the wrong foot, Caroline blaming her for the Kite's attacks and believing she was a harbinger of doom for the Secobd Citadel. After meeting and speaking with Ale and reuniting with Sir Angelo after he was nearly killed by the Kite, Caroline realizes she was wrong about Olala and the two join forces to defeat the Kite and save Queen Mira.

She defeats the Kite once, but Olala stops her from dealing a killing blow while he's down, allowing him to rouse and teleport away. In her second duel with the Kite she is nearly killed, but Olala saves her and breaks the Soulkeeper amulet, freeing the bird-monsters the Kite had held captive to torment him ad infinitum.

Olala follows Caroline out of the Northern Wilds, and Caroline becomes her primary caretaker as she leaves Knighthood and returns to a life of crime. Four years into this relationship Caroline has had a noticeable impact on Olala's demeanor and behaviors, and the two are quite close despite Olala's boughts of teenage rebellion.

Trivia

• Sir Caroline is attracted to women.
• Sir Caroline has dog named Gawain, that she dotes on.