Countess Ludmila

Countess Ludmila is a character in the fantasy novel Uprooted. She was the former lover of Sarkan, seducing him in order to cure her corrupted husband. She later became a leading matron of court and was the basis of the folk tale 'Ludmila and the Enchanter'.

Appearance
Countess Ludmila was described as the foremost beauty of the court at the time of her affair with Sarkan.

Character
The Countess is shown as being resourceful and manipulative. She was willing to seduce Sarkan in order to cure her husband of the Wood's corruption.

Countess Ludmilla could also be seen as ambitious, as she married the Count, made the most powerful wizard in Kralia her lover, and later married a Duke to maintain her status in court. Her ease at snaring men also demonstrates her ruthlessly seductive and persuasive manner.

History
Countess Ludmilla married young to an old, important Count who was an ambassador of the Polnyan court. On his way back to Kralia, he was corrupted by the Wood. Ludmila's wisewoman advised her to lock him in the cellar and line the door with salt.

In order to save her husband, she gained the trust and adoration of Sarkan, then a young and very ambitious wizard. He tried for a year and a half to cure the Count of the corruption but failed. When she was told this, she physically lashed out at him.

Despite the death of her husband, she remarried a lesser Duke a few years later and had four children with him: three sons and a daughter. By the time of her death at the age of 76, she was a well-respected matron of the Kralian court.

She is immortalised in the folk tale 'Ludmila and the Enchanter', in which she is a devoted young wife made to be a servant to an old, evil sorcerer in order to save her husband's stolen heart.