Meet the Character: The Winter King
Character art by HSJ WIlliams
The Winter King. Leader of the Unseelie Court. King Ritioghra.
The massive black tiger (only one of his forms) is actually younger than you might expect, and—relatively speaking—quite new to his position as king of Vetirheim. Though the fae are immortal and cannot die of old age, they can be killed, and ten years ago, Ritioghra’s father fell in battle, leaving his young son to take the throne. He has ruled with a stern paw and brought peace to his land with their neighbors, but it is an uneasy peace.
Echo stood, wincing at the pain in her feet. But that thought fled with the rest as she came face to face with the largest tiger she had ever seen.
Upon reflection, it was the only tiger she had ever seen. But she was reasonably certain that, should she ever see another, it would be quite different from the monstrous beast that confronted her now.
Her eyes were even with his shoulders, and he stared down at her from his impressive height, his long whiskers twitching inches above her face. His fur was utterly black, the color of coal. Instead of stripes, Ritioghra’s—for it could only be Ritioghra—body was covered in swirls and whorls of gleaming blue, the same color as the Everflame. His eyes gleamed like two massive stars of an identical shade, and he gazed down at her with an expression of ferocious curiosity. He was utterly terrifying and utterly beautiful.
But, like many others whom Echo encounters throughout her quest into the fae realms, Ritioghra is not the evil fae that the stories have depicted him as.
“I am not a monster,” Ritioghra continued, “though the stories always paint me as such. The evil ruler of the Unseelie Court—it is not true. Perhaps my domain seems harsher, and my rule more strict than that of the fair Summer Court, but it is by necessity, not cruelty, that this is so.” He rose and prowled restlessly in a large circle before returning to sit next to the glimmering lantern.
King Ritioghra is a truth-seeker, one who can smell the difference between the truth and a lie. He is proud and noble and desperate to protect his people. For this reason, he has been attempting to secure an alliance with the Summer Court by suing King Oberon for Princess Jana’s hand in marriage. However, he is unaware of the princess’s illness, and Oberon’s stark refusal with no explanation has done much damage to the relations between their two realms.