La Llorona

La Llorona was the name of the legendary founder of Miami's Winter Court. She was killed during the struggles.

Biography
There was no Winter Court in Miami until the middle of the 1960s. For the first 19 years of the freehold’s history, the year was simply divided three ways instead of four. The precise origin of the Winter Court in Miami is subject to a good deal of hearsay and speculation, but the official story goes that the Silent Arrow was founded when a Courtless changeling called La Llorona managed to steal the original texts Tom Hood brought with him from France.

La Llorona learned from them the secrets of the Winter Court and chose to make her own pledge with Winter. She brought her new teachings to several of the disenfranchised Courtless of the city, especially those living in the high-poverty, highcrime areas. In a surprise move, the Winter Court seized much of Liberty City from the Iron Spear and established a presence in the freehold.

The problem with this story is primarily that, by 1965, the Summer Court was already the largest and most powerful Court in the city, and it seems doubtful that an upstart Court could unseat Grandfather Thunder. Many changelings suspect that Grandfather Thunder was even then laying the seeds of his eventual takeover of the freehold, and that he introduced La Llorona to the teachings of Winter himself in order to place a wedge between Spring and Autumn.

Once the Winter Court established itself and its rightful rule over one-quarter of the year, the freehold settled down for the most part. The Summer Court won back a major victory against Winter in 1980, when the Liberty City Riots erupted in territory controlled by La Llorona and created a tremendous influx of wrath that fueled the Summer offensive. La Llorona herself was killed in the riots (although many Winter Court changelings continue to insist that a Summer Court assassin struck the killing blow), and was succeeded by Jeremiah Sleet, who holds the title of Winter King to this day.

Members of the Winter Court, particularly older ones, hold a grudge against the Summer Court for the death of La Llorona, but are careful not to beat their breast over it too loudly, lest mourning for the previous monarch be taken as regret over the current one.