The Laughing Lady was one of the Deathlords of Stygia. She oversaw the Penitent Legion, which was dominated by those who died while insane or because of insanity.
The Laughing Lady was one of the more secretive of the Deathlords, rarely emerging from the Seat of Succor unless there was a major emergency, or a summit requiring all of the Deathlords to be present. Very little is known about her life and where she came from. Her identity, like all Deathlords, remained hidden behind a mask with a broad smile that seems to not be so much humorous as vicious.
During the Great War, the Laughing Lady was forced to abdicate her seat by the Smiling Lord and his Grim Legion. A new Laughing Lady was installed by him with the mask of her office, but the true Laughing Lady managed to escape into exile. She became a symbol for the Loyalists of the Penitent Legion, who portrayed her as a saint and made the Smiling Lord into the ultimate villain. More importantly, she was the first and only Deathlord who was ever portrayed by her contemporaries as an ordinary wraith; she went maskless during this time, wearing an innocent and waif-like face that was probably not her real one. Eventually, when Charon returned, the false Lady was pushed out and the Laughing Lady returned to her place of power.
In more modern times, outsiders wondered if she had lost control of her Legion to another within the division; some fingers pointed at Liamh, the main general and trainer of the armies of the Penitent. Others conjectured that her madness had utterly consumed her and she hid to make grand but insane plans to take over Stygia. Some whispered that she might have known something was going on in the Labyrinth as thanks to the Storm Maidens, she was the Deathlord closest to knowing every nook, cranny, and quirk of the mazes of Oblivion. Still others questioned why she didn't send her crack team down there to look for Charon after his disappearance.
The chaos following the Sixth Great Maelstrom finally brought the end to it all. The Laughing Lady was the first Deathlord to fall, and both the lack of her leadership and no successor threw her Legion into chaos, making them effectively useless in the ensuing battles for Stygia. The Penitent Legion dissolved soon after, making their way to other branches, and never re-formed.
References[]
- WTGW: Wraith: The Great War Rulebook, p. 52-53