[b][i][u][h1]Queen Ylonda de Rochefort[/h1][/u][/i][/b] Formerly, Lady Ylonda of Londium
[b][i][h3]"Your father and I simply thought a miracle could be repeated twice. Oh, how foolish a thought that is, I know."[/h3][/i][/b] -- a little heart-to-heart with Catherin about marriage.

[hider=Appearance][/hider]
	Queen Ylonda has aged far more gracefully than her husband. Her long, straight hair still has its chestnut-brown color, after all, and her eyes, despite a cataract starting to form in the left one, are still radiantly amber-colored. She has a sharp face, and an even sharper sense of fashion -- even at her age she dresses with as splendor as she can manage.

[b][u]Class[/u][/b]
	Queen

[b][u]Reclass Options[/u][/b]
	N/A

[b][u]Age[/u][/b]
	47

[b][u]Sex[/u][/b]
	Female

[b][u]Personality[/u][/b]
	[i]Alignment[/i]
		Lawful Neutral
The king's detractors often call her "the brains" of the royal operation. They aren't entirely wrong, as Queen Ylonda is a very practically-minded queen, even helping her husband with the majority of his edicts. She is far more serious a person than her husband outwardly, though, and somewhat more aggressive at her and her husband's detractors. They aren't wrong in guessing that she is also Ashkandi's Master of Whispers either, as she is the kind of person who knows in and out how to manage court intrigue far better than her husband. There are rumors as well that she is far more strict with the children than her husband ... such rumors are only half-true, as she views her self-tutoring of her daughters in matters of the court as doing anything it takes to ensure the survival of the kingdom, and does not participate in the training of her sons as much, though it is perceived that she coddles Hauchefort a little more so than she did with Martin.

She is a blunt queen. She won't mince words with [i]anyone[/i]. She is critical and intellectual on top of that.

[b][u]Biography[/u][/b]
	Ylonda of Londium was the youngest of three daughters in a kingdom in the Riverlands to the North. She was always the best of the three at keeping a secret, a skill that would follow her even through her marriage with King Ardias. She was the frankest of her sisters with commoners and servants, and more or less blunt enough for her to be a liability to the Londium court. It wasn't a very eventful life from her view. The Darkness was so far away from Londium at the time, and the king of Ashkandi was effective at stemming it in spite of the costs in lives. There was a feeling in the back of her mind throughout her life that there was [i]something[/i] wrong with his efforts.

	It was a rocky marriage. She had gotten the news of her betrothal not a month before she planned on eloping with a commoner to see the world outside of Londium, to adventure elsewhere as far away as possible. Thus was the reason why she viewed Ardias with a lot of resentment at first, and what made their marriage so difficult in its first years. Such resentment only remains in jokes she makes at the king's expense, but it took her observations of the king for her to agree to work their marriage out in the long run. It was the look on his face as couriers brought him the news of the Border Disaster against the Darkness, the look on his face as Ser Nikalos returned with a throbbing wound from the fangs of a Bael, and the news of his brothers dying in battle reaching his ears that got her to change her mind about him. Over the course of a single evening, she and he hammered out a plan for their future.

	Ever since, most of that plan has ... gone well. Martin's part certainly did. Her frustrations began with Catherin especially; given how her marriage worked out so well with Ardias, she expected to impart the same lesson to Catherin.
...
...
...
This would normally be the part where their relationship is patched up and everything is perfectly happy. Only half of the latter occured; their relationship is fine. So long as the subject of marriage and suitors and true love never comes up, and it's a sore spot that has made any visitation from the academy awkward. It had gotten to the point where even [i]Martin[/i], the idealist, would strongly encourage the other siblings to never bring up the subject of boyfriends at the dinner table in front the two of them if Catherin happened to be at the dinner table. It is a sore spot that has remained untouched ever since Catherin went to the academy.

She fears the pattern might repeat with Elin, even if she views Delia as a miracle by comparison. It's the lessons from four children before her that she takes to raising Hauchefort. Thusfar the results remain to be seen, even if she seems to be coddling him a lot more than her other children.