Ariana Pendragon

Lady Ariana Pendragon is the main protagonist in Ever Ever After and the daughter of Camelot's Court Physician Gaius and his ex-fiancée Alice. She was once the handmaiden to Queen Guinevere before becoming her chief Lady-in-Waiting. She was later made the Lady of Camelot by King Arthur himself before being given the title of the High Lady of Camelot after saving Arthur's life from an assassination attempt.

Early Life
Ariana was born in Camelot to Gaius and his fiancée Alice three years before the events of the Great Purge which makes her older then Arthur Pendragon. It was Queen Ygraine, Arthur’s mother who named her. When Ygraine died in childbirth with Arthur, her name was among that of children with magic that Uther, Ygraine’s widower husband created when he blamed magic for his wife’s death. Alice was also on the second list that Uther created. Gaius, desperate to save his fiancée and daughter managed to get their names off causing them to flee Camelot which devastated the family as a whole.

During the twenty years in which Ari and Alice were forced to run for their lives, they stayed in Ealdor for a short while with Gaius’ sister Hunith. At the same time, Alice became friends with Balinor, Merlin’s father. When Uther found out where the three sorcerers were hiding he hunted them and forced them to flee. Unbeknownst to the fleeing trio, Hunith had fallen pregnant with Merlin.

As Ari grew, she and Alice could not stay in one place for long without being hunted by Uther. After about a year, Balinor was forced to leave his friends behind and move off on his own. During their travels, Ari became friends with a blacksmith’s two sons who taught her the art of swordplay in which she perfected after many years of practice. Just prior to her seventh birthday, Ariana’s magic started to flare up causing Alice to tell her that she was a witch. On her fifteenth birthday, Ariana received a ring as a present from her father which she never took off as it served as a lone memory of him.

Early Days in Camelot

After her twenty-third birthday, Ariana travelled to Camelot with her mother’s blessing to live with her father. While exploring the lower town, she bumps into a man who reveals himself as Merlin, Gaius’s ward and the two immediately become fast friends. After meeting Elyan, King Arthur’s soon-to-be brother-in-law, Ari is taken to her father’s chambers where father and daughter are reunited. The next day, Merlin arranges to take his new friend to meet with the king himself to arrange some sort of job. Upon meeting Arthur, Ari becomes nervous and awkward but over time becomes more comfortable around him and views him as an equal rather than the king.

During a ‘welcome’ dinner, trouble rises in the courtyard and Arthur, Gwen, Merlin and Ari go down to investigate and they meet Tristan and Isolde, two smugglers who have gotten themselves lost and have ended up in Camelot.

A New Queen
Two weeks pass and Ariana along with Merlin, Gaius and Hunith and the rest of Camelot watch on as Gwen and Arthur marry. At the reception feast that night, Gwen makes Ari her chief lady-in-waiting with Arthur’s approval. The next night, Ari along with her new friends watch on with pride as Arthur crowns his new wife as his Queen. Ari joined Merlin and the rest of Camelot in the chorus of ‘Long Live the Queen’.

Ari joined her friends at the feast after the coronation and was quick to pull a drunken Gwaine off Tristan and secretly used her magic to put him to sleep only to realise that the spell wasn’t strong enough to knock him out for a few hours. She along with Gaius, Elyan, Merlin and Arthur toasted along with the rest of Camelot their new queen’s crowning.

Alice
Alice is Ariana's mother. The two share a close mother-daughter bond as Alice was forced to raise her daughter as a single parent while on the run from Uther and his forces who were hunting down magical beings after the death of his beloved wife, Ygraine died in childbirth. After Ariana's magic started to reveal itself, Alice sent Ariana to Gaius, her father who would help her to gain control of her magical gifts. Mother and daughter were reunited when Ariana married Queen Guinevere's brother, Sir Elyan.

Gaius
Gaius' is Ariana's long-lost father. When Ariana's magic started to reveal itself, Alice, Ariana's mother decided to send her daughter to Camelot to live with her father who along with his ward Merlin, would teach her to control her magic. Father and daughter are very close and it was Gaius who escorted his daughter down the aisle to marry Elyan.

Merlin
From the second that they met, Ariana and Merlin became extremely close and loved each other like brother and sister. Like Merlin, Ariana became a close friend to King Arthur and Queen Guinevere. They occasionally fought but were quick to aplogise. Ariana was very protective over Merlin and was willing to die for him and he was quick to become very protective over her.

Arthur
For most of her life, Ariana admired Arthur and believed that he would become an even greater king then his father before him. Upon their first meeting, Ariana was shy and awkward around the king but was quick to befriend him. Ariana became close to the king and was considered by him to be a much better version of his estranged half-sister Morgana and became a member of his inner circle which very few people were allowed into. Before his wedding to Gwen, it was Ariana who comforted him and reminded him of just how much Gwen loved him and that he would make a great husband to Gwen and an even greater king with her at his side as his queen.

After much thought, Arthur made Ariana, Camelot's new Lady of Camelot, feeling that Morgana no longer deserved her title as his sister and as the leading lady of the court. Though this decision

After it was revealed to the entirety of Camelot that Ariana was a witch and that Merlin was a warlock, Arthur became torn on what to do with the two people he thought he could trust. It was only after his wife, Gwen and his most trusted knights threatened never to talk to him again, did Arthur have the cousins released from prison and later gave them the titles of 'Court Sorcerer' and the 'High Lady of Camelot' respectivefully.

Guinevere
Upon their first meeting, Ariana and Gwen got on rather well and became as close as sisters. After Arthur assigned Ariana to Gwen as her maid, Ariana was more then happy to serve the soon-to-be Queen of Camelot. At Arthur and Gwen's wedding reception, Gwen asked Ari to be her chief Lady-in-Waiting which Ariana accepted with open arms. Gwen became very protective of her new friend and was delighted when Ariana fell in love with her brother, Elyan. She was one of the first people to congulate them on their marriage. Ariana in return was the first to be told of the Queen's pregnancy with the heir to the throne and was pleased to become an aunt of the future King or Queen of Camelot.