[center] [img]https://67.media.tumblr.com/38727ef175ec56b6475058bf1e367165/tumblr_oc9ooscYLC1sk9phao1_540.jpg[/img]
Name: Nadya (Kostareva)
Age: 160 (turned at age 20)
Affiliation: Mercer clan
Background: Born into a community of poor Russian travelers, the Ruska Roma, regarded as little better than thieves, gamblers, prostitutes.  Appropriately enough, Nadya was little more than an entertainer and, once she was considered of age, a prostitute.  She remained sequestered in her community all her life, fearful of outsiders, rarely straying from her people wherever they went, and entertained travelers, mostly men, half-heartedly and with a forced smile.  

But her community was of Russian gypsies that were persecuted at every turn.  When nearby villages began to contract diseases, Nadya's community was blamed, attacked, and violently driven out of the area.  Nadya was beaten to near death and her family was driven away before they had a chance to bring her body with them.  That night, once the hordes had moved on, Rowland found her and the bodies of several of her kinsmen.  Nadya was barely alive, but alive enough that she could be turned.  Rowland took the opportunity to sire a new vampire for Elizabeth, Nadya was turned that night, and as she suffered the effects of the venom, Rowland brought her back to Elizabeth's home.

To everyone’s surprise, Nadya quickly embraced her new identity.  She relished it almost immediately.  She felt freer than ever before, strong and invincible.  She proved difficult to control.  Her experiences made her cheerfully disregardful for almost everyone, from ordinary villagers that she saw persecute her community, to the community and family that she saw as having used and abandoned her.  She made no qualms about feeding when she wanted, on who she wanted (usually men she told she was a prostitute), and with little discretion.  She didn’t share the concern the others had for human life and to retain her humanity.  It wasn’t until she was caught, nearly burned to death, and cast out by a town and nearly abandoned by the Mercers that she realized how wrong she was for spending her existence like that.  Elizabeth was eventually persuaded to give her another chance, but though Nadya remains a wild child and can't help but toe the line, she knows her boundaries very well and of the dire consequences that she'll face if she doesn't respect them.

~~~

Nadya's place within the ruse of the clan is to pose as Bela's young wife.[/center]