Template:Inheritance Character box
In Christopher Paolini's Inheritance trilogy, Arya Dröttningu, Princess of Ellesméra is a beautiful, hundred-year-old elf princess with raven black hair, and is considered young as elves are immortal. Arya is a skilled swordswoman and powerful magic user, and is first in line to the Elvish throne. The colour of her magic is green. Of all the Inheritance characters, Arya is one of the most criticized, for being unrealistic and a complete Mary Sue. Template:Spoiler
Role in the Books
Arya is first introduced as the egg courier charged with the task of delivering a dragon's egg from the Varden - an organization fighting against the Empire - to the elves. This is in order to allow people to touch the egg in the hopes of getting it to hatch for them. Arya is ambushed, however, by the Shade Durza on one of her journeys and desperately tries to send the egg to Brom in Carvahall. The egg ends up in the Spine, a mountain range, where it is found by Eragon.
Eragon sees visions of Arya in his sleep and is eventually imprisoned with her in Gil'ead. With the help of his ally Murtagh, Eragon rescues Arya from the prison. However, she is in a deep sleep; Eragon and Murtagh have no idea what is wrong with her. After they cross the Hadarac desert, Eragon tries to enter Arya's mind. In her mind, she tells him that her name and the route to the Varden. She also tells Eragon that she has been afflicted with a rare poison, the Skullna Brak. While in her self-induced coma, the poison acts more slowly, but if they do not reach the Varden quickly she will die. When they reach the Varden, Arya's condition is serious. Fortunately, the antidote (Tunivor's Nectar) is administered in time, and Arya recovers. Once she has recovered, Arya plays a key part in helping the Varden and Eragon to defeat Durza.
Family
In Eldest, Arya is revealed to be the daughter of the Queen of the Elves, Izlanzadi, making Arya a princess. She makes up with her mother, since they had argued over Arya becoming the egg courier and ambassador to the Varden. Arya is a romantic interest of Eragon's, but she advises him to forget his infatuation with her, as she cannot reciprocate his feelings and they would not make a suitable match. Elves are prejudiced against other races, and marriage between an elf and a human would be frowned upon - especially if the elf concerned was a princess. Furthermore, at a hundred-years old Arya is too old for Eragon. She seems to be fond of Eragon but only as a friend, and urges him focus on his duties and save Alagaesia. Arya fights in the Farthen Dur and Burning Plains battles and is present when Eragon reveals the identity of his father and brother.
Arya's family are one of the several royal houses, all living in Ellesméra, such as The House of Miolandra. The Dröttningu dynasty, however, has been in power for many centuries. One of the earliest Elven royals mentioned, Tarmunora the Elven queen who presided over the bonding of the elves and dragons, may have been of a different house. Her predecessor, King Ceranthor, led the elves into battle against the dragons. Tarmunora was succeeded by Dellanir, Arya's grandmother, implying that Tarmunora was a Dröttningu - however, she could have handed the throne to another royal house, as elves sometimes do. Dellanir ruled for centuries before voluntarily abdicating in favor of her son, Evandar. Evandar then became king and married an elf princess Islanzadi, who gave birth to Arya. Evandar died at the hands of either Galbatorix or one of the Forsworn hundreds of years ago, and his queen has ruled since. It is unclear how many family members Arya has apart from her mother, but there is another Dröttningu royal - of lower rank - named Niduen, who is only mentioned in passing. Niduen sends a gift to Eragon when he arrives in Ellesméra but it is unclear how she is related to Arya.
In the movie series Eragon, the character of Arya is being played by Sienna Guillory.