Ianthe

Politically ambitious and attentive to appearances, Ianthe seeks authority through proximity to powerful rulers, public ritual, and carefully managed court presentation. She also employs flirtation strategically and encourages the belief that she belongs in a ruling partnership with Tamlin and Feyre.

When her influence falters, Ianthe is willing to manufacture a crisis and punish an innocent subordinate to restore her standing. Her composure and appeals to rank allow her to present self-serving actions as religious or political necessity.

Ianthe is Tamlin’s childhood friend and a prominent adviser in his recovering court. Her counsel reaches beyond ceremonies: she encourages the restoration of the Tithe and reinforces expectations about duty, hierarchy, and public presentation.

Ianthe manages Feyre’s wedding, clothing, social access, and public image, presenting herself as a trusted friend while helping restrict Feyre’s independence. During Feyre’s confinement, she is the only approved visitor and argues that Feyre’s inherited powers should remain untrained and under Spring’s control.

Rhysand distrusts Ianthe because she once entered his bedchamber, proposed that they produce heirs and rule Prythian together, and touched him sexually without consent. He expelled her and crushed her hand as a warning never to assault him or another male in his court.

When Lucien replaces Tamlin in the Calanmai Rite, Ianthe insists on joining him in the cave. The encounter leaves Lucien distressed and unwilling for Elain to hear about it.

Ianthe continues pursuing Lucien despite his refusal, using Hybern’s anti-magic shackles to restrain him while invoking the Rite to justify her actions. Feyre intervenes and compels Ianthe to release him.

Ianthe can use magic to lull another person into sleep, allowing her to steal a sentry’s keys without raising an immediate alarm.

She can adapt information gathered from others into effective magical traps. After learning from Tamlin how Feyre had previously captured the Suriel, Ianthe places a tracking spell on a gifted robe that activates in Feyre’s presence and leads her to the meeting.

Ianthe gives the King of Hybern the identities and location of Feyre’s sisters, enabling their abduction and forced transformation in the Cauldron. She accepts Hybern’s alliance after being attracted by his promise of a Prythian ruled by High Priestesses rather than High Lords.

Seeking to recover influence in Spring, Ianthe steals the estate’s gate keys and gives them to naga, creating an attack she can claim to have foreseen through the Cauldron. She demands that the innocent sentry blamed for losing the keys receive twenty-one lashes, alienating the gathered guards.

After finding Ianthe assaulting Lucien, Feyre takes control of her mind and forces her to smash her own right hand with a rock. Feyre also commands her never to touch anyone against their will again and prevents her from revealing the true cause of the injury.

Ianthe is exposed as the person who secretly mixed finely crushed faebane into Feyre’s food, gradually weakening her magic without making the poisoning obvious.

The King of Hybern partially restores Ianthe’s maimed hand and shields her mind against Feyre’s control, though most of the hand remains unusable.

Feyre traps Ianthe and two Hybern soldiers inside the Weaver’s cottage, then hears their prolonged screams from within the cottage and later across the forest. By the time Feyre later infiltrates Hybern’s camp, she treats Ianthe as dead and uses Ianthe’s appearance and priestess rank as a disguise because the enemy may not yet know Ianthe is dead.