Zlata Rusnac

Zlata Rusnac was the only child of a financially troubled noble family of Sanguinia, and so she was married off to an older lord. Her husband died eight years into the marriage, leaving Zlata Rusnac free to live as she pleased. She lived frugally but comfortably into her middle age.

When the Gray Plague struck Sanguinia in 605 BC, Lady Rusnac contrived an invitation to Castle Guirgiu as part of the entourage of a younger woman. She assumed the castle would be safer from the plague than the surrounding lands, but of course she had not counted upon Prince Ladislav Mircea's insistence upon continued fêtes and galas. When the first nobleman within the castle contracted the Gray Plague, Lady Rusnac insisted that the victim be removed from the castle for the security of all the others. Ladislav Mircea listened, in his way: He had the victim hurled over the parapets. From that day forward, Lady Rusnac become the prince's foremost advisor. He always consulted her in matters of import, although of course he did not always heed her advice.

Eventually Lady Rusnac was faced with the highly dangerous duty of pointing out to Ladislav Mircea that he was manifesting symptoms of the plague. The prince took the news as well as could be expected, ordering his advisor cast out of Castle Guirgiu instead.

Since her death and Ladislav Mircea's transformation into a vrykolaka vampire. Zlata Rusnac has existed as a ghost of the 2nd magnitude, anchored to Castle Guirgiu. She does her best to keep newcomers to the castle alive and hale, but she acts more out of boredom than kindness.