ELLEN FOLSOM

First Appearance: Forte - D'Arque Dominion: The Final Conflict (April, 1998)
Occupation: Flower shop manager

As a young, lost woman, Ellen Folsom was seduced by Lucifer D'Arque, the sadistic and powerful mage that sought to cast the Earth into darkness. He made her his bride, taught her his magics and secretly planted a sliver of his soul within her. She began becoming a powerful sorceress, but also began to see the real D'Arque clearly, and to fear him. After his death at the hands of Forte, she fled and tried to start her life anew. But she found that using the magics he'd taught her now allowed his spirit to move in her, though his soul remained trapped in Hell. She fought his control and vowed never to use his magics again.

D'Arque's followers--known as the D'Arque Ones--were hunting for her throughout Canada when B.R.A.N.D.'s Colonel John Clayton (formerly Forte's Phantasm) and UNCLE's Commander Sydney Todd-Strange (Mist) discovered the plot, and the existence of a bride of D'Arque (a fact until then unknown), and rescued Ellen. Seeing her sincere and desperate desire for redemption, Sydney brought to her San Francisco, where Ellen took a job in a flower shop and became close friends with Sydney and her husband, Sorcerer Supreme Stephen Strange.

But the D'Arque Ones found her, breaking into Sydney's home one night when she was there. They nearly killed Sydney, forcing Ellen, in her anguish, to unleash the magics once more to save her friend's life--which was exactly what the D'Arque Ones, and their master, wished. Lucifer D'Arque overtook Ellen's soul completely and used her as his vessel, and began traveling across alternate realities to gather up his other-Earth selves, hatching his plan to escape from Hell and become a god, but one across all realities at once. Mist and the other three original Forte founders began a chase across dimensions to stop him, and faced him--and Ellen--moments before his ultimate triumph. With Sydney's aid, Ellen regained control and aided the heroes in destroying D'Arque once and for all--and all other versions of him on all worlds. She returned to her own Earth, finally free, and truly began her new life in San Francisco. She remains close friends with Mist and her husband to this day.