Who they are
Elise comes from the old Kythera line in Noxus, and she learned young how beauty can bend the weak. She married Berholdt, heir of House Zaavan, and soon had him wrapped around her finger. One evening he confessed he'd poisoned her wine and wanted her to withdraw from society. Elise played the remorseful wife and stabbed him through the heart.
While she recovered, the Pale Woman, the mysterious mistress of the Black Rose, came to her and brought her into her secret circle. To earn her favor, Elise sailed to Helia on the Shadow Isles to search for the skull of the ancient warlord Sahn-Uzal. There the spider god Vilemaw devoured her companions and bit her, and his venom turned her into something new.
Elise returned to Noxus as the only living thing on her ship. The skull was never found, but now she could travel safely to the Isles, so she struck a deal: the Black Rose supplies countless victims for the spider god, and Elise brings back artifacts from the Shadow Isles. To this day, whenever Vilemaw calls, she sails into the Black Mist with another suitor who never comes back.
