Elder half-sister to Virion III Quinnlee of the Golden Knights and, for a time, head of House Quinnlee, Selene stood to inherit much of what remained of the old Tiran nobility. By birth she was Duchess of Caislean and, before the rise of Queen Marial I, one of the strongest surviving claimants to the Tiran crown.
She wanted very little to do with any of it.
Following the Imperial Wars, Selene fled to Síocháin, where she was sheltered by relatives and later by the family of the Wood Elf merchant she would marry. She spent much of her adult life there, eventually having two daughters and settling into a largely civilian existence. This did little to satisfy the Empire, which continued to regard her as a member of a noble house that had profited from, and failed to prevent, the abuse of the Tiran people.
Under Imperial law, nobility carries responsibility as well as privilege. A noble house may inherit land, wealth and title, but it also inherits its obligations and, where those obligations have been grossly neglected, its guilt. Selene had not personally committed many of the acts associated with House Quinnlee, but she had benefited from them, retained the rights and privileges of her birth, avoided Imperial justice for much of her life and failed to pay Imperial taxes while living within the Fae Protectorate.
In 3A 208, following negotiations with the Fae Crown, Selene agreed to stand trial before the Empress personally, the highest court within the Empire. Two members of the Fae Royal Guard accompanied her as a condition of the arrangement.
Selene recognised the authority of the Imperial court and accepted its right to pass judgment upon her.
She was found guilty of the charges brought against her and House Quinnlee, including failure to meet her tax obligations and responsibility for the suffering inflicted upon the Tiran people by the house whose privileges she had inherited.
All remaining Quinnlee lands, property and privileges claimed through Selene were forfeit. She was stripped of the Quinnlee name and permanently exiled from the Empire. More significantly, she formally renounced all claim to the Crown of Tir, the Duchy of Caislean and every other Tiran title for herself and all of her descendants.
In doing so, Selene extinguished her branch of House Quinnlee entirely.
The sentence also barred her from returning to Síocháin. Though she retained her Fae citizenship, the Fae Isles remained within the Empire and therefore fell within the terms of her exile. Selene, her husband and their daughters were forced to build their civilian life elsewhere.
She adopted her husband's surname, as did her children, and abandoned the last formal connection between her family and House Quinnlee.
The Empire considered the matter settled.
Other branches of House Quinnlee were afforded no such conclusion. Imperial warrants remained outstanding against a number of her relatives, most notably her cousin Bartimeus "Bard" Quinnlee, who was sentenced to death in absentia after attempting to stir the UPP into open war against the Empire.