Elora Danan

Template:Individual infoboxElora Danan (formally styled as Her Royal Highness the Sacred Princess Elora Danan) is the tetartagonist of Willow. She was a female Daikini. A gifted child born with a certain mark, she was prophecized to become empress of Tir Asleen, Galladoorn, Nockmaar, and Cashmere.

Pre-birth

Tir Asleen, Galladoorn, Nockmaar and Cashmere have legends and prophecies about a powerful child that would unite and govern them.

Knowing this, Queen Bavmorda ordered the capture of pregnant women throughout her domain, and penned them in the dungeons of the Nockmaar Castle and tended to by midwives.

Biography

Elora indeed was born in those pens, and the birthmark on her arm signified that she is the child of prophecy, the daughter of the Sun and Moon, and future empress of all kingdoms who would become queen in place of herself. She would perform a ritual to banish her spirit into oblivion.

The midwife Ethna who tended her mother, stole the baby away avoiding Bavmorda's guards and Death Dogs. However Bavmorda discovered the deception, her mother was executed and Ethna was discovered by Death Dogs but she was able to cast Elora down the River Freen on a makeshift raft.

Elora survived the journey down the river to arrive safely on the banks of Ufgood Reach, where she was found by the children of Nelwyn Willow Ufgood. They took care of the Daikini child, but when Death Dogs raided their festival, Willow knew the child needed to be taken before the village elders.

The High Aldwin recognized the great power in Elora and tasked Willow to take her beyond the reaches of the valley, to the Daikini crossroads. Willow first attempted to give the child to Madmartigan, a rogue swordsman who quickly lost her to thieving Brownies. The Brownie Franjean flying on the eagle Canterfree stole Elora to take her to Cherlindrea, the high fey. The Brownies reunited Willow with Elora, and brought both of them before Cherlindrea, who explained the prophecy to him. Willow was to bring the child to Tir Asleen.

Tir Asleen was found to be cursed by Bavmorda, and her Nockmaar soldiers managed to captured Elora despite the defenses of Madmartigan and arrival of Galladoorn knights. The infant was taken to Bavmorda's citadel, where she begun the Ritual of Obliteration. Willow and Fin Raziel interrupted the ceremony, and Willow with a simple stagetrick pretended that he teleported Elora somewhere else.

The Queen's momentary shock distracted her from the arcane storm she was summoning, and was consumed by her own uncontrollable powers. Her dark reign came to an end, and Elora was reunited with Willow.

The curse was lifted off Tir Asleen, and Elora was cared for by rejuvenated leaders of the city and was known as Her Royal Highness the Sacred Princess. Willow failed to visit her after that, even though he had pledged to be her protector. Over a year later, he was brought to her in a dream and managed to offer a toy bear he made for her. However soon after Tir Asleen was utterly consumed by a tremendous blast, part of a Cataclysm that destroyed some locations across Andowyne. For over a decade, Willow wandered the world searching for clues behind the devastation.

Adolescence

Twelve years later, he found Elora alive in the land of Angwyn, on the other side of the world. She had been revered as a Sacred Princess, and had grown to become a temperamental spoiled teenager. Willow, now traveling under the name of Thorn Drumheller, was distressed to find evidence of evil surrounding young Elora.

An intense Shadow War rages, spearheaded by the evil Mohdri and his dread Black Rose commando assassins to capture Elora and Thorn. They start a perilous journey to a land undisturbed since the dawn of time that will end at the unbreachable citadel of the dragon, where a chilling betrayal changed the fate of Elora, Thorn, and the Thirteen Realms forever.

Elora Danan slew the dragons that were the embodiment of the soul of Creation to save the dragons from the Deceiver, who would have used them to rule the Realms. To protect the eggs, Elora spellbinds herself to Thorn and Khory Bannefin, the long-dead woman warrior whose body is inhabited by a demon's offspring. It is a dire spell that ensures none of them will betray their cause...even at the cost of their lives. And if one of them dies, the magic of the eggs is lost forever.

Pursued through a land of shadow predators by the dreaded Black Rose, Elora and her allies went to the free city-state of Sandeni. There they met the brownies Franjean and Rool, the eagles Anele and Bastian, and the young warrior-scribe Luc-Jon. While on the island of Madaket Elora worked undercover at Black-Eyed Susan's tavern with Pilar. She was also romantically involved with Tam.

But Sandeni is besieged by mighty armies fueled by the Deceiver's sorcery, warrior wizards, and engines of evil magic. With defeat all but certain, Elora convinced the Sandeni people to continue the fight. What she doesn't tell them is that the greatest enemy lies within her. For the Deceiver is her own dark twin from a potential future of unimaginable evil...an evil that lies dormant in Elora's soul. And the only way Elora can stop the future is to befriend an enemy whose insatiable appetite for destruction could destroy all of Creation.

Behind the scenes

In Willow, Elora Danan was portrayed by twins Ruth and Kate Greenfield, who were only six months old at the time of filming. Because the script called for Elora to have a full head of hair, a tiny wig was made for the twins. Since ordinary adhesives would have been to harsh for the babies' skin, the wig was attached with food syrup. For the intense action sequences, such as the wagon chase, Elora was portrayed by a 13-pound radio-controlled model of a baby (called "Moto-baby") that was able to turn its head left or right, nod up and down, and open its mouth. All the shots of Elora reacting to her environment were done during a two-week period after principal photography concluded. The filmmakers made a list of all the reactions they needed for the whole movie, and spent time obtaining them.

Trivia

• The possible reason for Elora to be spoiled and her anger is because she not only didn't want any horrifying reminders of her first unpleasant encounter with Queen Bavmorda as a baby but she misses Willow every day of her life.
• There was going to be an animated series which involves Elora's childhood as seen in character design pictures but the series was cancelled before it aired on TV.

External links

• Kate Greenfield's MySpace