Any elf who lives to Russariel's age on the shores of Middle-Earth may have countless secrets lost to time. Her history survives in fragments; she, with her long memory, is the sole keeper of her past in its entirety. This much is known:

Russariel was born in the Blessed Realm of Aman, when the light of Laurelin and Telperion still shone over the earth. Her family was kin to Mahtan; Russariel was named for her crown of red hair. She grew up in Tirion, where she painted for the court of Fingolfin; few remember her wilder youth and the scandal that once followed her. It was Fingolfin whom she eventually followed into exile. Though she had never lifted sword nor bow before, she was a young elleth then, and her blood ran hot as she and her brother crossed the Helcaraxë. In the following centuries, her sharp eyes and careful hands were well-suited to the work of a healer, something which she found too grisly for times of peace.

As the sons of Fëanor and Fingolfin scattered across Beleriand, Russariel followed Turgon to Nevrast and, in time, to Gondolin. She practiced her craft among members of the House of the Heavenly Arch, which, in the absence of many of her kinsmen, she came to call her own. Living richly in the hidden city, she allowed herself to forget war for a time, making portraits of each ellon, elleth, and child in the House of the King and designing colored glass windows. Her most beloved project, however, was always ongoing: she painted the roses and violets of her favorite gardens on the stone walls of her home, blossoming vines curling over every arch and plane. In Gondolin, her charms did not go unnoticed, but she disdained the affections of ellyn who came to court her. While she accepted their gifts with polite silence, she rejected each ring sent to her, and would never appear on the arm of any elf-swain, not even her own brother. When she needed an escort, she would call on one of many maiden knights whose acquaintance she had made in the hidden city. As her friends all married and raised children, she remained alone, consumed by her craft.

When Gondolin was lost, Russariel was among the few survivors; she mourned for her friends and her creations, for both were almost all lost in the sacking of the city. She spent the First Age wandering Beleriand, chasing a muse obscured by shadow; only when she settled in Lindon could she create a workshop for herself again. In time, she reunited with the friends of Celebrimbor, an acquaintance from her years in Gondolin, and followed them to Ost-in Edhil, where she painted the wonders of Eregion. Once again, she created beauty wherever she could see it, and once again she lost her home to the forces of Shadow. 

After her flight to Imladris in the Second Age, Russariel largely retired from the festivals and markets which she so enjoyed attending. Sequestered away in her home in the Vale, she whiles away her days painting and tending to her garden. In her isolation, she has garnered a reputation for coldness for which she does little to refute. Though her paintings may have been lost and burned, her halls crumbled to the ground and lost beneath the sea, her pride stands intact and stubbornly unshaken.

"The innocent and the beautiful have no enemy but time."
- W.B. Yeats