Lady Olynder

Ghost Boo-bies

"Do not resist – death is inevitable. The more quickly you succumb, the sooner your suffering will be over. Come to me, and be mine for evermore…"

– Lady Olynder, still trying to charm people despite losing her good looks.

"You think a woman like that's sniffing around because she likes your personality? Your mother was beautiful, they're all beautiful... until they're snarling after your trust fund like a pack of ravening wolves."

– Norman Osborn - Spider-Man (the 2002 Sam Raimi film)

Lady Olynder is the Mortarch of Grief, leader of the Nighthaunt Processions, and the first of Nagash’s new Mortarchs in AoS. Carrying all the despair in the realms due to her complete and utter apathy to the misery of others in life, she reeeeally hates the living.

If she had a voice, it would be Joan Cusack.

History

In life, she was one of the most beautiful women in the empire Dolorum. But Olynder was also a Gold Digger's Gold Digger, scheming, sleeping and slaying her way to the top. Such was Olynder's charm that she married the son of Dolorum's King before both promptly "disappeared", leaving Olynder in charge. Olynder wore a veil and cried a lot about their loss in public Victoria-style, yet the veil hid her smug grin over how smart she was. Some knights had figured out her evil scheme and planned to overthrow her, but she thwarted them by seducing one of their members, Gharest Malcor, into ratting out his fellow conspirators. Malcor himself would end up assassinated shortly thereafter for being too stupid to realize what happens to anybody Olynder marries or says she's going to marry. She ruled Dolorum as queen for a few years and among other things stopped honoring Nagash (this would really come back to haunt Olynder - pun intended), until the Age of Chaos came-a-knocking.

The forces of Nurgle quickly invaded Dolorum. Olynder cried more crocodile tears for the realm while she was all safe in her tower, partying away like the Masque of the Red Death. Olynder was so selfish that when the forces of Nurgle kicked down the doors to her throne room, she tried to parley with them to save her own life. This was the final straw for everyone's favorite Skele-Pope; Nagash had been watching Olynder, and she'd been angering him for a while, so now he was really going to make her pay for it. Nagash seized her soul and doomed her to haunt the ruins of her kingdom for all eternity, feeling all the misery in the Mortal Realms as revenge for the fake tears she cried in life (one of the few times where Just another example of how the victims of Nagash's special brand of karma indisputably deserved it).

Naggy then proceeded to forget about her, until the Necroquake unleashed the Nighthaunt on the realms. He realized how spooky they were, but they needed direction to be truly efficient. He then hosted a Death equivalent of Celebrity Apprentice to decide on who would be the new Mortarch. Lo and behold, he stumbled upon the ruins of Dolorum, finding that Olynder had organized a huge Ghost-Kingdom while he wasn't looking. And so, she became the Mortarch of Grief, marshaling the ghosties into the processions we all know and love. Nagash also gifted her a personal army called the Emerald Host, consisting of the ghosts of all the knights who plotted against her in life, now forced to forever serve the woman they hated, and led by Gharest Malcor who'd been friend-zoned turned into a simp beta orbiter Knight of Shrouds.

Since then Olynder actually proved to be a good general. She defeated the forces of the Chaos Warlord Thur and destroyed the Stormcast defenders at the siege of Morlaix - even defeating their Lord-Celestant in single combat. Despite this, Olynder had a knack for going LEEEEEEEEEEEROOOOY. During a battle against her old foe Thur to liberate Underworld of Lyria, this over-extending nearly got Olynder killed by the Bloodthirster Khazkhan until Nagash and Arkhan bailed her out.

Nagash decided to give her an adviser and to that end she was married to Kurdoss Valentian, which Nagash also used as a joke at both of their expenses (for her, it's because marrying for power, murdering her husbands, and then playing the victim was how she earned her punishment). Her biggest achievement happened during the siege of Lethis, where she managed to actually kill the Celestant-Prime with her hourglass, who until then had proven to be a deus ex machina in every situation, and free an ancient evil. What's more, this ancient evil that was locked away is revealed to be Katakros, who would go on to be made leader of the Ossiarch Bonereapers (though from their track records, Olynder seems like a better general than Katakros). At some point, Lady Olynder also started to terrorize the Sons of Behemat, single-handedly killing a Mega-gargant and showing the foot-obsessed lummoxes that ghosts can't be stomped on but they can easily kill gargants. This lasted until a combined Mawtribe and Warclan showed them a way that ghosts can be destroyed through physical force.

Wrath of the Everchosen

Lady O worked with Katakros in the attack on the Eightpoints, leading the Legion of Grief as a vanguard through the Endgate and personally killing the Chaos Lord Namos Saskarid. She proceeded to lead the Legion of Grief across the Eightpoints, slaughtering Chaos followers and leaving their bodies and souls as raw materials for the Ossiarch Bonereapers. However, once Archaon came home, the Death armies were quickly routed, with both Olynder herself being slain by Be'lakor and her soul sent screaming back to Shyish. Little did the First Prince know though that by slaying Olynder, he had a curse placed upon him. A curse that would permakill him once the sands of Olynder’s hourglass were gone, and only the Mortarch could remove it.

Broken Realms

Olynder’s role/defeat in the Eightpoints assault meant she wasn’t available to assist Nagash when he got his boney face smashed by Teclis and locked away in his capital city Nagashizzar. The Mortarch of Grief took the loss of her master pretty well, content to continue ruling over her Nighthaunt legions like she did prior to Nagash finding her.

Be'lakor rather rudely barged into Olynder’s inner sanctum and tried to make her undo the curse by threatening to destroy her corpse, which would destroy her permanently. Olynder refused, so the two were forced to strike a bargain. Lady Olynder would claim the souls of slain Stormcast, in exchange she'd remove the curse. The two led armies to a city in Chamon to defeat them, the Stormcast Eternals' souls rendered unable to return to Azyr thanks to Be'lakor’s chaos storms. The Sigmarite Brotherhood Stormhost was wiped out, and their souls taken as payment by Lady Olynder, who removed her curse from Be'lakor and left him to his own machinations. Her involvement with the First Prince became a point of contention with her fellow Mortarchs, Neferata condemning her since her assistance had led to Be'lakor furthering his assaults in Shyish, while Katakros disregarded it as she struck a severe blow against Sigmar’s forces. Unfortunately for Olynder, Nagash shares the view of the former and holds Olynder's collaboration with Be'lakor against her.

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