Aerisi Kalinoth

Aerisi Kalinoth was the leader of the Cult of the Howling Hatred.

Obsessed with ancient legends of flying elves, Aerisi used illusion magic to make herself appear to be one. She was prone to flights of fancy and impulsiveness, as well as fits of violent rage when her whims were denied. She styled herself as a queen, with the members of her cult as her royal subjects, and demanded all the honors and niceties that went with it.

History
Born Dara Algwynenn Kalinoth, Aerisi grew up in the Feywild. From her earliest years, she was surrounded by tales of the fantastical history of her people and their elven ancestors. She was particularly attracted to the stories of the legendary winged elves, and often played at being one. She was trained in magic, and showed a particular proclivity for charms and enchantments. Her wealthy parents doted on her constantly, catering to her every whim and denying her nothing in an effort to shelter her from the hardships of the world.

When the Deity War brought the Feywild and Material Plane close enough for contact to be reestablished, her parents decided to travel to Lorius to rejoin the elves from whom they were descended and brought Dara with them. Unfortunately, they discovered that the decades of pampering had turned their daughter into a spoiled brat, prone to throwing tantrums when even her simplest wishes were denied. Worse for her, she found the elves to be immune to her charms. Her disposition drove most of the elves to avoid her and her family; the one exception was an opportunistic bard named Halrin Graystaff, who was attracted by the increasingly large sums of money her parents offered for a musician willing to entertain their demanding daughter.

Dara took an instant liking to Halrin, and confided in him that she felt powerless among the elves, and wished that she could control the wind to go wherever she liked, and to punish all those who displeased her. Over time these childlike fantasies became dark obsessions, and she began to seek out the means to control the air itself. When her parents at last attempted to discipline her for her behavior, she conjured a powerful storm that destroyed their home, killing them both. Dara fled Lorius with Halrin, believing him to be her loyal confidante (in truth, the bard was too scared to deny her). As they traveled across the sea, she told him that she has begun to see visions of a powerful mystic with brown skin and white hair, who traveled within a great whirlwind. This figure promised to teach her all she desired to know about commanding air magic, and told her to seek her destiny to the north. Breaking from her old life, Dara renamed herself Aerisi, and gave Halrin the new name of Windharrow.

The pair arrived in Drakkengarde and headed north to Knifepoint Gully, below Feathergale Spire, where Aerisi - guided by her dreams and visions - led Windharrow down a cavernous tunnel into the ruins of an ancient dwarven city. Leaving Windharrow behind, she journeyed deep into the caverns below. It is not known what she found there, but she returned with a pair of illusionary wings and bearing the spear Windvane. Over the next several months they gathered members to join the new Cult of the Howling Hatred. Aerisi saw herself as a queen, with the cultists - many of them magically charmed - as her loyal, loving subjects. Her violent temper had not been stilled, though, and on many occasions she would fly into a rage at a cultist who had displeased her, inflicting the most cruel punishments for even the smallest of perceived offenses. Particularly common victims were musicians hired by Windharrow to entertain her in his troupe, the Windwyrds; her favorite punishment for those who failed to play properly was to flay them alive and carve new flutes from their bones.

In the year 2965, Drake's Company entered the dwarven city. Convincing Windharrow that they had come to join the Windwyrds, they used the initiate's robes given to them by the bard to enter the Temple of the Howling Hatred and confront Aerisi Kalinoth. Though she ordered her attendants to dispatch them, she was killed by Gnarls Blackwood, her body disappearing into a howling whirlwind.