Queen Evaine of Gaunnes — Mother of Bors and Lionel

In 1454, a narrow path beyond a ruined fountain leads into the refuge of Queen Evaine of Gaunnes. She has fled Claudas’s invasion with only a few loyal servants, and she has lost her sons Lionel and Bors to the conqueror’s custody. A young courier arrives carrying a shoe clasp she recognises. He claims that both boys are safe, but refuses to say who entrusted it to him. Evaine wants the news verified before a single word reaches her sister Elaine.

At a Glance

Identity

Queen Evaine of Gaunnes (Gannes, Ganis), wife of King Bors the Elder

Nature

Human queen, displaced royal household leader and mother of two future Round Table knights

Family

Wife of King Bors the Elder; mother of Lionel and Bors the Younger; sister of Queen Elaine of Benoic; aunt of Lancelot

Allegiance

The displaced people of Gaunnes, her sons and the surviving loyal households

Rivals

Claudas and the courtiers who gave him custody of her children

Alignment

Neutral Good — seeks trustworthy protection for the weak rather than revenge at any cost

Home

The old royal refuge reached after the fall of Gaunnes

Languages

French and the tongues of neighbouring royal households

Immediate danger

False news of her children may cause her to expose their hiding places to Claudas

What Is Happening Right Now?

The household is sheltering displaced women, children and wounded servants. A man who once served the Gaunnes garrison says that Lionel and Bors are in Claudas’s care, but insists that their captors have shown them mercy. Another witness claims the boys have been removed from the palace. Evaine asks the characters to find the missing escort and recover a letter she wrote to the sister who guards the lake.

First Meeting

Evaine wears a travelling cloak over a dark, finely embroidered gown. She is tired and speaks carefully, but she will look a stranger in the eye when asking what has been seen. She keeps the children’s belongings beside her writing tablet. She stops a servant who tries to dismiss a stableboy’s testimony: the boy may be the only person who saw who left the palace that morning.

Three Scenes Tonight

• The clasp: the courier’s silver keepsake is real, but he cannot explain its missing fastening.
• The guarded road: a patrol searches people leaving the refuge for a message addressed to the Lady of the Lake.
• Elaine’s arrival: her sister has news of Lancelot but fears to deliver it while Evaine’s sons remain missing.

Appearance, Manner and Purpose

Evaine is a practical royal woman stripped of the ornaments of power, but not of judgement. She recognises the servants of her old court and insists that every missing child be named, whether noble or not. Her anger is directed toward the people who betrayed Gaunnes, though she knows that anger alone cannot rescue anyone. The collapse of her household has taught her that an old knight’s oath is worth less than a reliable witness.

Motivation, Pressure and Private Knowledge

• Ambition: bring Lionel and Bors to a place Claudas cannot reach, then keep the refugees of Gaunnes supplied.
• Pressure: competing reports from courtiers, the suspicion of informers and the exhaustion of constant flight.
• Private knowledge: before their capture the boys were sheltered by a man named Pharien, whose loyalty may be divided.
• Flaw: she may cling to a hopeful report too long when the evidence for it is weak.
• Offer: a royal signet, the names of the missing boys’ servants and sanctuary among loyal households.

Relationships and Allegiances

King Bors is her husband, killed during the loss of the family’s realm; he is not the young knight who later completes the Grail Quest. Elaine is her sister, widow of King Ban. Elaine’s son Lancelot and Evaine’s sons Bors and Lionel are raised together after the Lady of the Lake arranges the younger boys’ rescue. The lost children bind the two queens more strongly than their crowns.

Game Statistics

Evaine is a trained courtly leader rather than a battlefield champion. She knows how to examine testimony, organise refuge and protect vulnerable travellers; her remaining guards are allies with their own actions.

Running Queen Evaine

Present Evaine as someone who needs people she can trust, not a doomed queen waiting for a rescue. Her influence depends on former servants, household records and the support of her sister’s refuge. She rewards evidence and shelter more readily than the recovery of lost royal treasure.

Five Encounters

1. The false report: a captured officer promises to name the boys’ guards if Evaine releases a prisoner.
2. Pharien’s choice: the steward who once sheltered the boys is accused of selling their location to Claudas.
3. The two cloaks: a servant finds royal garments belonging to both sons in a merchant’s wagon.
4. The lake messenger: a woman from the Lady of the Lake arrives but refuses to reveal the route until the refugees have left the road.
5. The queens’ reunion: Evaine and Elaine must decide whether to pursue one boy’s trail or evacuate families from a threatened village.

Six Adventure Hooks

1. In 1454, an engraved clasp belonging to Lionel opens a hidden road to Evaine’s sanctuary.
2. Claudas offers a supposed royal pardon to anyone who reveals the hiding place of the surviving boys.
3. Evaine asks the party to escort a messenger carrying her last letter to King Bors.
4. A witness claims the boys have been taken beneath a lake, but cannot distinguish a rescue from an abduction.
5. Elaine brings news of Lancelot that may also reveal where Evaine’s sons are held.
6. A dream of the three boys safe together points toward the lady who shelters them, but the messenger carrying its meaning never arrives.

Travel and Consequences

Claudas holds the routes between the Gaunnes strongholds and the sisters’ refuge. Soldiers search outgoing wagons, while the households of the old kings shelter fugitives in secret. Through an exceptional Fey crossing from 1454, travellers can reach the old royal roads before the boys find safety. A few miles of road and one honest witness may save an entire family.

Deeper History

In the Old French Lancelot, Evaine flees with her sons after Claudas attacks Gaunnes, and later joins her sister Queen Elaine at the Royal Minster. The boys enter Claudas’s custody before a messenger of the Lady of the Lake rescues them. The later story grants Evaine a reassuring vision of Lionel, Bors and Lancelot together. The British Library’s illustrated Lancelot catalogue (Add MS 10293) shows Evaine fleeing, entering sanctuary, and the children’s rescue; the Lancelot-Grail, Volume III chapter sequence provides another guide to the ordering of the events.

Related People and Places

Arthurian characters · King Bors · Queen Elaine · Bors the Younger · Lionel · Lancelot · Lady of the Lake