Empress Regent Rosalind devoted everything to helping Richard ascend the throne, only to be repaid with betrayal and a debauched harem. She severed all emotion, and while the king lay unconscious from a magical backlash, she secretly had him fed a sterility potion. Selena, a witch Rosalind had once saved, used a love spell to climb into the king's bed and faked a pregnancy by borrowing seed, plotting to usurp the throne. To please his new lover, Richard forced Rosalind to hand over the Queen's Seal. She played along, trading her abdication for her son's absolute command of the Northern Legion. At the coronation, she returned in armor at the head of an army and publicly unveiled the blood-oath scroll proving the king was sterile. The scandal shattered royal power. Selena was driven out and went mad, Richard died coughing blood, and Rosalind was crowned the supreme Winter Queen.
