A Sonic and the Black Knight version of Stellar—Lady Archfedd, daughter of King Arthur!
Some lore:
Came to be when King Arthur and Sir Lancelot unknowingly laid together upon a fairy mound, resulting in the fey gifting (or perhaps cursing) the King with a changeling child. Despite Lancelot's protests, Arthur accepted the infant as his heir.
Lancelot is half fey himself in this AU, and thus has a wide knowledge of fey culture and behavior (the fairies in this AU look a lot like Black Arms aliens from canon).
Despite his initial reservations, Lancelot does eventually grow to see Archfedd as his daughter.
Due to Arthur and Lancelot's relationship being secret, in public Archfedd is simply known as the King's daughter.
Archfedd learns of her fey heritage in her teens.
A skilled swordswoman, her fighting style is like that of a dancer, slashing out with twin blades.
Her swords are dubbed Efeilliaid Eira—the Snow Twins. Said to almost shine blue in the midst of combat.
Being of fey heritage, her armor had to be specially crafted as to not harm her. Pure, precious metals such as gold, silver, and cold iron all burn her skin.
Despite being trained in combat by each of the knights of the round table, it is rare she actually gets to fight alongside them.
From time to time, I've investigated into the etymologies of the various names of the Arthurian legends, because a good chunk of Arthurian Material is poetry. So for a bit of fun, I try to tease out the meanings of the characters' names
Then I remembered that, in a number modern stories, writers use "Pendragon" as a dynastic/family name for Arthur and his relatives, even though Pendragon is actually an epithet that only two characters in the entirety of the Matter of Britain are known to bear that title - neither of which is Arthur - and it's mostly a kenning for "War Leader".
So let's humor ourselves and see what happens when you turn Pendragon into a last name and see what that technically means for certain characters.
The following comes from my personal interpretations from learning through online dictionaries. So forewarning, these are my speculations.
First, the "official" Pendragons from medieval sources:
Uther Pendragon: "The Dreaded War Leader", "The Horrifying War Leader" (From the Brythonic Uthr "Awesome, Terrible")
Gwen Pendragon: "The Beautiful War Leader" "The Holy War Leader" (From the Brythonic feminine Gwenn "White, Blessed")
Next are the presumptive Pendragons:
Arthur Pendragon: "The Bear(like) War Leader" (From the Pan-European Arkhtos, "Bear")
Morgan(a) Pendragon: "The Sea-born War Leader" (From the Bretonnic Morigenos, "from/of the Sea")
Mordred Pendragon: "The Moderating War Leader" "The Restrained War Leader" (From the Latin Moderatus, "Managed, Controlled")
Amhar Pendragon: "The Disgraceful War Leader" "The Harmful War Leader" (From either the Brythonic Amarch "Disrespect" or Amharu, "to impair, to disrupt")
Gwydre Pendragon: "The Glass-like War Leader" "The Glazing War Leader" (From the Brythonic Gwydr "Glass")
Llacheu Pendragon: "The Striking War Leader" "The Brilliant War Leader" (From either the Brythonic Llach "Lash" or Llachar "Bright, Shining")
Duran Pendragon: "The Enduring War Leader" (From the Latin Durans "Hard, Lasting")
Archfedd Pendragon: "The Compelling War Leader" "The Commanding War Leader" (From the Brythonic words Erchi "Request, Ask" + Gwedd "Appearance")
Melora Pendragon: "The Superior War Leader" (From the Latin Melior "Better")
The infant Mordred is found adrift by a fisherman and his wife, who raise the babe as their own [1]. When Mordred is fourteen, he kills a sea-serpent, a deed which catches the attention of King Arthur who takes the boy back with him to Camelot. There the Queen Morgause recognises the boy as her long long-lost son by the scar on his forehead, and Mordred is taken in by her and he comes to know his brothers and his sister [2]. Mordred later becomes a Knight of the Round Table and is given a sword by his eldest brother Sir Gawain--none other than the Sword which Arthur had drawn from the stone, and which was later broken when Arthur fought Sir Pellinor, and even after Arthur was given Excalibur by the Lady of the Lake, the fragments of the old Sword were not discarded but were reforged, and Arthur gave this sword to Sir Gawain. 'With this sword I slew the Emperor Lucius of Rome, who was my foster-brother,' Sir Gawain says. 'Therefore I give it to you, and may you wield it well.' [3]
A young and more innocent Mordred for this picture, which was fun to draw. The left side depicts Mordred's maternal siblings: Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris, Gareth, and Clarissant. The right side depicts his paternal siblings (though neither he nor they know this yet): Loholt, Amhar, Gwydre, Duren, Archfedd, and Melora.
This drawing was done for @mordredpendragon's Maydred 2025.
The Children of Morgause
Top row from right to left: Gawain, Agravain, Gaheris
Bottom row: Gareth, Clarissant
The Children of Arthur
Top row from right to left: Loholt, Amhar, Gwydre
Bottom row from right to left: Duran, Archfedd, Melora
Notes
Me: 'Right, which canon are we going with for the Maydred prompts--'
My brain: 'All of them.'
Me: '...a-all of them?'
My brain: 'All of them.'
Me: 'H-how d--how do we even make that work?'
My brain: 'You figure it out.'
Me: 'Isn't that supposed to be your job?'
[1] This is taken from Thomas Malory, who says that Mordred was adopted by fisherfolk, and I personally prefer this version of the story to the one in the Post-Vulgate where he is raised by the lord Nabur the Unruly alongside Nabur's own son Sagremor.
[2] I made this story up on the spot as I was drawing this. I wanted to find a way to bring Mordred back into Arthur's household in a way that maintained his fisherman's upbringing while also not needing to create yet another elaborate Fair Unknown narrative. Also I like sea monsters. Arthur fostering Mordred comes from The Dream of Rhonabwy. The detail of the scar comes from the Post-Vulgate:
The scar was also a convenient way of bringing him back into the Orkney household.
[3] Right, where do we start with this? Well, Gawain wielding the Sword in the Stone is loosely based on something I noticed while going through the Vulgate Merlin in which Gawain kills the Emperor Lucius with Excalibur:
So I tried to blend together the Vulgate and Post-Vulgate narratives so that Arthur wields the sword Excalibur (the Sword of the Lake) while Gawain gets to wield the Sword in the Stone reforged.
Gawain mentioning Lucius as being his foster-brother is my headcanon derived from De Ortu Waluuanii (The Rise of Gawain) in which Gawain, abducted as infant and raised in poverty by the poor fisherman Viamundus, is later adopted into the household of the Roman Emperor alongside the Emperor's own children, which in my head includes the young Lucius.
So I imagine Gawain, even though he is especially close to Gareth, having a particular fondness as well for Mordred based on the latter's upbringing, and that being one of the reasons why he gifts his sword to Mordred. The sword passes from one long-lost son (Arthur) to another long-lost son (Gawain) to another long-lost son (Mordred).
JDHNAJDBS HOLY SHIT???? THIS LOOKS AMAZING??? 😳✨ HOW ARE YOU GUYS SO FAST, I CANNOT BELIEVE BOTH FORMS OF LADY ARCHFEDD HAVE FAN ART ALREADY 😭💕💕💕 I don't deserve you guys fr
Guys what are your headcanons about Arthur's obscure kids from the old sources?
Like
I need more content about them (I'm legit making memes)
I mean do you guys think Cai and Llacheu were fighting together or on opposite sides in the battle mentioned in Pa Gur?
Why did Arthur killed Amr? Was he pheraps the inspiration for Mordred?
Is the Gwyrde son of Arthur the same Gwyrde son of Gwenabwy ferch Kaw? Is that why Hueil stabbing him initiated a feud between him and Arthur?
Where THE HELL did Archfedd went? Does she survive the narrative or die like her brothes? Does her kids survive?!
What about Duran? He probably was a good warrior but what about him? Also his son straight up died and Arthur was like "Snadde play despacito to get the crows away from my sons body" like what??
(incoming yap)
I also crave a theoretical timeline.
We're Duran and Llacheu younger than Amr and Gwyrde since the latters die earlier, or at least they seem to?
Gwyrde dies in Culhwch ac Olwen, so he was old enough to fight back then.
Amr dies supposedly after Gwydre since he was mentioned with Amhren and Goreu in Erec and Enid as Arthur's chamberlain, and Goreu is met by Arthur's court in Culhwch ac Olwen. Pheraps he's Goreu's age?
Duran dies in Camlann, that in the dream of Rhonabwy isn't a final battle, since most of the court is still alive, like Cai, Arthur himself, yet we know nothing else except that he fought for his father and died in the war.
Llacheu dies with or against Cai (I, like Linda Gowans, believe they were fighting together against a foe) "Fair Cei and Llachau, they made slaughter before the pang from blue spears" in a battle mentioned in Pa Gur (yet Cai was still alive in Pa Gur, so maybe Llachau survived too?)
Does Archfedd even survives and sees all her brothers and loved one die one by one?!
