Formally known as 'The Lady Rolanda Sibilla Philomena Arundel , daughter of His Grace, Duke Dillan Marlon Friedl Arundel, Rolanda is the fourth legitimate child of the Duke of the Arundel family and the only girl, and now believed to be the only surviving issue. Largely ignored by her father as she grew, she was raised primarily by nurses and her father's various wives' ladies in waiting. One secretly taught her to read, something usually discouraged among noble female children.

The Arundel family is rife with familial treachery, even murder. The newest generation is only the latest in a long line of betrayals and tragedies:

The Duke Dillan Arundel
married Lady Aglaia Arundel, a cousin (died in childbirth along with baby; probable curse or poisoning)
married Lady Meta Arundel (died two years after Rolanda's birth of plague)
son Enzio (died in an ambush at age 27; murdered)
son Griswold (died in a hunting accident at age 18; probable murder)
daughter Rolanda
son Otmund (died of plague at age 3)
married Lady Devondra Spenser (died by own hand or possible murder)
married Lady Bethany Sixt (died of poisoning/murder)
twin son Robben (died of poisoning/murder)
twin son Gall (believed dead of poisoning, but actually survived; now hidden at Egjora)

The Duke's first wife and unborn child were probably killed by one of the ambitious Arundel Earls, but direct proof was never found. The Duke ruthlessly had them all killed anyway, turning blame away from himself, and promoted favored Barons. His second wife was the most prolific bearer of all his wives, producing three sons and a daughter before she and her youngest child succumbed to a plague. Rolanda barely remembers her.

The eldest son, Enzio, was a cruel, brash and vulgar young man, very much like his father. They often went whoring and gambling together. As a contrast, the second son, Griswold – was warm and kind, and absolutely adored by his younger sister. He privately encouraged Isa's learning, sneaking books from the Duke's library, teaching her strategy games. Isemay was devastated when he was killed in an apparent hunting accident; it was years later after she began employing her own spies when she was almost eighteen that she discovered her eldest brother,Enzio, had arranged Griswold's murder in order to secure his own succession of the title. Seeds of rage were sewn, and the family blood proved true when Lady Rolanda arranged her own bit of fratricide. With an already tidy string of nefarious contacts, Rolanda arranged for Enzio to have his own convenient 'accident'. It was blamed on rogue brigands.

As he aged, Duke Dillan sank further and further in the depths of depravity and evil. He mourned his eldest son as a lost comrade, married a docile lady half his age whom he regularly beat, and spat revenge on those he thought responsible for his troubles. He gave not a thought to the pale daughter at the other end of his castle – she was only a broodmare reserved for a future alliance by marriage to another house. The Duke did parade a series of noble suitors past his then twenty-year-old daughter but his thoughts turned elsewhere as the birth of twin sons once again secured his legacy. It even boosted rumors of his prowess in the bedroom (he kept a large string of concubines, but following Arundel tradition, any bastard children produced were killed outright).

Then came the event that would come to be known as 'the Night of Bloody Sorrows'. Duke Dillan had completely underestimated the ferocity of a blood feud cast at him by the surviving family of one of his more brutal campaigns, and they mortgaged their lands to hire an entire assassin's guild to slip into the d'Gueron castle one night. It was only due to Rolanda's restless habit of reading late into the wee hours that she escaped murder, and it was only the vigilance (and sacrifice) of the Duke's private guard that he survived as well. His young wife was not so lucky, and neither were her children. Rolanda discovered their blood-encrusted bodies herself, poisoned blades used to seal the job, but discovered one of the little boys had barely survived. She had Gall spirited away to a distant relation of his mother's where he now grows and prospers. It was further evidence of the quickness of her mind – she foresaw that one day, an heir would be needed (as she could not inherit; being female), and wished him secured away from danger. The old duke suffered a kind of mental collapse in the days that followed, and it was only through the aide of private family healers that he survived.

Unknown to the outside world, those healers had been recruited by Lady Rolanda. Through use of their alchemical arts and some judicious use of carefully crafted potions, Duke Dillan is now nothing more than a drugged shell of his former self, made docile and pliable by his clever, ruthless daughter. He is a puppet now, brought out only for formal occasions, so far fooling others as his 'guard' still eke out campaigns in his name. Rolanda has learned to forge her father's signature very effectively, but has no illusions – she knows that her days manipulating her father in such a way are numbered. But while she has control, she begins to convert the poor management of the family assets of the Arundel into a growing empire in its own right. Lady Rolanda is cognizant that she will have to turn it all over to a male relative someday (a distant Earl) on the death of her father. But right now, she enjoys the control, the power. She fears marriage which will someday become her prison. Since her father would be the one to normally arrange a match, she at least will be the one to ultimately choose a husband – a nice, docile, weak one. But that is some years off, and right now, she enjoys ruling from the shadows.