[center][h2][color=FF0000] Mai of Liang [/color][/h2]
[img]http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/showbiz/images/attachement/jpg/site1/20090709/0023ae606f170bbfe83423.jpg[/img] 
[sub][i]"Even the most beautiful roses have thorns."[/i]-[b]Unknown[/b][/sub][/center]

[indent]Mai Hua Mei[/indent]

[b][u]Nickname:[/u][/b] Rose (most people not from Liang call her that, as her name literally translates to "rose")

[b][u]Birth date and age:[/u][/b] June 10th, 21

[b][u]Sexuality:[/u][/b] Asexual

[b][u]In Depth Appearance:[/u][/b]
Mai (or Rose) is taller than average, standing at five feet and eight inches. She is about 125 pounds, giving her a rather slender figure. Mai has thick, wavy, midnight-black hair that goes down to her waist and relatively pale skin. Her eyes are a chocolate brown color, and Mai has naturally long eyelashes. She has a heart-shaped face and long, thin fingers. Mai has rosebud lips that are usually painted a deep red color. She has a sort of delicate and dainty look to her, despite the fact that she is tall and willowy. Mai likes dressing up and takes great pride in her appearance.

Mai typically sports some sort of dress (she likes them because there is plenty of space to hide something under the skirts, plus they are just so goddamn [i]pretty[/i]) and does almost everything in a pair of high heels. Her preferred color scheme is red, black, and gold, although she does like to experiment every now and then. Mai absolutely adores traditional Oriental-themed fans and parasols.

[img]http://i.imgur.com/v4elGjw.jpg[/img]
[center][sub][i]"Be like a duck. Remain calm on the surface and paddle like hell underneath."[/i]-[b]Michael Caine[/b][/sub][/center]

[b][u]Personality:[/u][/b]
[center][u]• Charismatic • Sly • Perceptive • [/u][/center]
Mai has always been a people person. There is something about her that seems to draw others to her-whether it's her carefree laugh, her twinkling eyes, or her bright smiles, no one can say. She enjoys a good conversation about anything and everything and is always willing to talk to others. Mai thinks with her heart when she needs to, but uses her brain at the same time. Behind the eyes sparkling with mirth and the delicate lips curved up in a sultry smile is a woman made of steel who is keenly aware of her surroundings. Mai can process a lot of information at one time, taking in peoples' actions, words, and emotions all at once and forming a conclusion based on what she sees and what she knows. She's always been especially good at figuring out people. Mai is constantly listening even if she doesn't tell the world what she's thinking. Mai is particularly good at detecting when others or lying and lying herself. However, if you are someone Mai believes she can trust, she will shed the half-dazzling and half-seductive smile for a more natural grin and pour her heart out to you with no attempts to manipulate or deceive.

Mai is not "smart" in the usual traditional of the word-complicated mathematics and things like astrophysics and literary analyses all go straight over her head. But Mai has always been a people person, and she knows what makes people tick. She is able to work out what others might think and how they might act based on what she sees and knows about them. Years of being around people with more suspicious motives has led to Mai being initially distrustful wary of strangers. Of course, on the outside, Mai is demure and charming and polite; using a perfect combination of sugary sweetness and sharp wit to detract attention from her real intentions-she has learned to play her part well during the years spent at court and in the presence of her uncle's enemies.

[b][u]Likes:[/u][/b]
[list]
[*]Lipstick
[*]Things that are stylish yet dangerous (shoes with spiked heels, parasols with blades on the ends, etc)
[*]Calligraphy
[*]Getting dressed up
[*]Roses and all things red
[*]Liang-she loves her home with all her heart
[/list]

[b][u]Dislikes:[/u][/b]
[list]
[*]Sloppiness (especially in clothing)
[*]Untrustworthy people
[*]People who don't think before they act
[*]Anything sexual (Mai thinks it's just gross)
[*]Useless violence and destruction
[/list]

[b][u]Fears:[/u][/b]
[list]
[*]Feeling like she isn't in control
[*]Being read like an open book
[*]Being manipulated or used
[*]Her uncle being forced to give up power
[*]A repeat of the extreme violence that she witnessed in her early years
[*]Liang being invaded and taken over by a foreign power
[/list]

[b][u]Biography:[/u][/b] When Mai was born, the Liang royalty was on the brink of disintegration. Several distinct factions of varying beliefs and ideologies had risen to power, but all of them agreed on one thing-it was time for the imperial dynasties to go. Liang was technologically behind most major world powers, and although it was large and had plentiful natural resources, the military was stretched far too thin and its techniques were totally backwards. Liang's dire situation came to light about a decade before Mai was born with the invasion of a neighboring nation that caught everybody by surprise. Within a year, Liang was forced to give major trading concessions to a dozen different countries that all wanted to get their hands on the silk, porcelain, and other luxuries that the country was famous for. In response to foreigners taking over their land, jobs, and positions, the people of Liang began to grow more discontent, and the unrest finally broke out in violence when Mai was just half a year old.

The first wave of revolts came from the countryside, where impoverished serfs were suffering from sky-high taxes and no opportunity to better their station in society. Mai's father was not a particularly effective ruler, and her mother was too stuck in tradition and the days of the old. Both of them refused to do anything about the feudal system that was obviously tearing the country apart. And so the violence escalated and people grew angrier and angrier until they eventually stormed the capital city of Lianjing and killed off the entire royal family-all but Mai, who was sent away to be protected by her father's younger brother. 

After the royal family was ousted, Liang erupted into an all-out civil war. Each separate faction refused to tolerate the others, and widespread warfare gripped the nation. To make matters worse, the neighboring island-nation known as the Empire of Nippon decided to take advantage of the turmoil and invade Liang. However, Mai lived safely in isolation. Her uncle, Ming Mei, was believed to be dead after he fled from court. Mai's father was the only one to know that Ming had done so because he wanted to pursue a life other than that of a member of the royal family. In his small home near a stretch of imposing mountains known as the Black Mountains, Ming spent his days learning multiple fighting styles and indulging in the arts. He taught Mai everything he knew, and by the time she was fifteen Mai could knock someone out in ten different ways, wield a variety of blades, and paint breathtaking landscapes. 

Mai knew from an early age that she was royalty. Ming told her everything as soon as she was old enough to understand it, and Mai has always accepted that one day she would rule-no matter what it took. As she grew up, Ming began to come out of isolation, getting in contact with old friends and allies, most of whom were shocked to find him alive and breathing. The faction in power changed over a dozen times before Mai was ten, and most of the common people were sick and tired of all the fighting. Some even began to wish that the royal family had never been killed, as there were times of prosperity during the reign of Mai's parents despite the fact that they were completely ineffective rulers. Ming used the political instability to his advantage, and formed his own distinct faction-a faction that would support the reinstatement of a monarchical rule. 

His efforts finally paid off when Mai was about eleven. With most of the other factions dissolved or falling apart, there was only one more faction to eliminate-the socialists. This group generated widespread support with its ideas of social equality and sharing all property, something which greatly appealed to those that remembered the huge wealth gap present when Mai's parents were in power. However, the socialists were intent on purging Liang on all traditional influences, and they alienated the upper and middle class by actively persecuting them just because they happened to have more money. Ming managed to win the support of the wealthy, and the rest is history. With more funds than the socialists could ever imagine to accrue, Ming was able to raise a considerable army and buy firepower from foreign nations, while the socialists were stuck using crossbows and outdated artillery. After defeating the socialists in a series of battles that were concentrated on the socialist strongholds, Ming was finally able to take power-albeit reluctantly-and bring about the revival of the monarchy.

Due to the nature of his activities, Ming was usually forced to bring Mai along with him because of security reasons. Ming firmly believed that Mai was the safest at his side, no matter what anybody else said. Mai grew up seeing how the poor lived and experiencing it herself, and vowed that she would be a better ruler than any of the faction leaders or her parents. She also encountered many people who would undermine her uncle and everything he stood for if they could, and learned not to judge a book by its cover, so to speak. Mai has seen more than her fair share of violence and destruction in her day, and she has an instinctive mistrust of the military due to the brutal acts carried out by the soldiers of the competing factions and the army of Jaripa. Mai learned to speak the numerous dialects of Liang, and she grew up speaking the Black Mountain dialect as opposed to the official language (Meridian). She has also learned to speak other languages, including English and Spanish (although she has a slight accent with English and an atrocious accent with Spanish, which she is well aware of and working to get rid of). Ming Mei also made sure that he taught her all that he knew of court intrigue. When he became king, Ming lived frugally, which got the common people on his side. Ming abolished feudalism, redistributed the wealth, and modernized the country with help from a few foreign allies. Since the socialists had pretty much killed off all of the landed gentry, Ming was able to give the vacated land to the public and encourage industrialization. He began establishing foreign relations with friendly countries to help this industrialization into fruition. Mai's teenage years were spent living in a beautiful palace with courtiers and officials running every which way. Ming named her as his heir as soon as he took power, because although he was a spry old man, he still was [i]old[/i] and wouldn't live forever-plus he never married and never had children. Ming also arranged a marriage for Mai in order to secure an alliance that would greatly help the industrialization process going on. Mai didn't like it, but she recognized that she would have to go through with the marriage in order to ensure the survival of her uncle's precarious reign.

As for Zhou-Mai's half brother-Mai was initially very suspicious of him due to the possibility that he could have been working for one of her uncle's enemies, but she has grown fond of him over time and now does not think that he has any ulterior motives at all. Mai does her best to keep him from messing up [i]too[/i] much in front of other royalty, although that is a task that is much easier said than done.

Theme Song: 
[url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rfSHisyHdc]Castle-Halsey[/url]
[sub][i] I'm headed straight for the castle
They wanna make me their queen
And there's an old man sitting on the throne that's saying that I probably shouldn't be so mean
I'm headed straight for the castle
They've got the kingdom locked up
And there's an old man sitting on the throne that's saying I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut[/i][/sub]