shylarah — Roleplayer Guild

Luxième


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B A S I C SName: Edelessa Sofia Valentine Blanchefluer (born D'Argent, granted the name Blanchefleur upon ascension to crown princess)
Nicknames: Valentine, Val, Bits (by some of her friends, as well as castle servants when people of rank are not around), Tina/Blue (by Anton)  does not respond to Edelessa or variants thereof!
Title: crown princess of Luxième.  She's to be coronated in a couple years, once she's old enough to be queen.
Age: 16 (born May 1st; just had her birthday)
Gender: female
Sexuality: primarily uninterested (heteroromantic; may be some form of asexual)
Betrothed to: none


A P P E A R A N C EEven among Blanchefluers, Valentine has particularly striking eyes of vibrant blue.  They're easily her best feature, but like the rest of her face they are all too often hiden behind her dark hair.  She never pins it back, and prefers to let it serve as a barrier between herself and everyone else.  She has calluses from riding and helping look after the horses.  She keeps her nails trimmed very short but even so there will often be traces of dirt under them if she's just come back from somewhere she wasn't supposed to be, and she is prone to ink and graphite smudges on her right hand.  There's indication that she will be a tall woman, but right now she's just a leggy teenager.

Val prefers simpler dresses and very little makeup, though she does enjoy painting her nails.  She favors burgundy, navy, and deep blue in her wardrobe, as well as pastels, but never *ever* the shade of sky blue that is Luxième's traditional color.  She has an unseemly fondness for oversized hoodies and comfy sweaters, especially during the colder months, and if she can get away with it she'll wear jeans or other informal pants for her day-to-day wear.  She's got a soft spot for bellbottoms with embroidery on one leg, so long as it's not a floral design.

P E R S O N A L I T YValentine is a quiet and sometimes sullen girl.  She is afraid of a great many things, and covers her fear with anger when she can't just ignore the cause.  She prefers not to talk if she can help it though she is working on this, and spends a lot of her time with her eyes glued to her phone, her tablet, her camera, or a book.  She likes to keep a barrier between herself and others, and she's found she's happier that way.  There are one or two tutors that have reached her, and of course she adores Anton.  Beyond that, she's friends with a handful of the palace servants and few others.  She is always slipping away to the stables, to the nearest field or forest, to the library, to any corner where she can be on her own.  Most of the time she takes her camera with her, though she sometimes brings her sketchbook instead.  She can sit for hours sketching, or wait without moving as long as it takes to capture the perfect shot of wildlife.  She has opened up a little since her arrival in Athens, but not nearly to the degree desired of her.  She has made some strides in the past four years or so, starting to take an interest in statecraft and making more of an effort to be around people, but it is still hard for her and she has trouble conversing under pressure.

Valentine is stubborn, but it tends to be more silent protest than screaming.  She is not comfortable enough with others to yell at them, but if she doesn't wish to do something she just won't do it, and most of the time there is nobody around comfortable forcibly dragging her.  The only time she really makes a lot of noise in public spaces is when she is so thoroughly distraught that she can't manage to stay quiet, and usually she escapes the situation before she reaches that point.  Even when it comes to standing up for Anton she's more likely to use quiet venom and bodily get in their way than yell -- though she does have a very unladylike vocabulary if she wishes to use it.

Online Valentine is a different creature.  She loves the faceless anonymity granted her by the virtual world, and the escape it provides.  She follows a handful of webcomics, chats on several forums, runs a photography blog, and is a member of two different MMOs.  Her digital life is colorful, bright, and far more social, to the point where even her few irl friends note that she's much more responsive by text or voice chat than in person.  But through it all she is very careful never to reveal who she is.  She never posts photos taken inside the palace walls, and she does not talk about her personal life beyond very general statements.  She does, however, occasionally use some of that unladylike vocabulary on party members who do something exceptionally stupid (and where do you think she learned it?)

L I K E S   &   D I S L I K E SLIKES:
~Anton
~pastries, especially danishes
~fruit, especially blueberries
~grape leaves
~the library
~crosswords
~anime (she loves the art style)
~her cellphone
~anonymity
~match 3 games, mahjong matching games
~high fantasy rpgs, including a couple MMOs
~rain
~the ocean
~spiders (but not the really big ones)
~horses, especially hers
~wildlife
~ferns and ivy
~fall leaves
~photography
~sketching
~climbing trees
~hoodies
~bellbottoms

DISLIKES:
~people
~crowds
~blood
~the dark
~fireworks
~fresh laundry
~centipedes
~dating sim games, dressup games
~her given name
~people who call her by her given name
~people who try to cut her hair or pin it back from her face
~people mocking Anton
~any clothing in Luxèmi blue
~flowers, especially white ones

B I O G R A P H YBorn the daughter of a younger son's younger son, Edelessa escaped the slaughter of the revolution through sheer luck.  She had snuck off to visit a friend and ended up spending the critical hours in a cart full of sheets that needed washing.  To this day she cannot stand the smell of a laundromat.  She survived off canned goods from the kitchens until she was found by the Athenian team sent to help rebuild.  Her eyes and the fact that she'd not gone anywhere were a good indication of her pre-revolution status, and her identity was later confirmed.  With most of the ruling family dead -- including all of her immediate kin -- and the Senate in shambles, Athens was deemed the best place for the traumatized girl, now a freshly minted crown princess.

Edelessa wanted nothing to do with any of it.  She was terrified of crowds, of blood, of the dark, of anyone and everyone.  She refused to eat at proper meals, shut herself in the bathroom rather than sleeping in her bed, and wouldn't talk to anyone.  She set about finding the best ways to slip away from her minders and made liberal use of all of them.  Many of the servants tasked with caring for her viewed her with pity, the exiled princess who jumped at her own shadow.  Some were genuinely kind, hoping to make her feel more at home.

In the end it was the young prince who finally got through to the girl, and over the months and years that followed the two became very close.  Anton introduced her to horseback riding, and he bought her the first proper camera she ever owned (she still has it).  He was the one to proposed the idea of online courses when the princess had to be dragged to lessons.

Discovery of the internet was immensely liberating for Valentine.  Online she could be anyone, not an exiled noble shoved into a role that didn't suit her and that was never meant to be hers.  Besides, what government remained in Luxième had little power and it became increasingly evident that she will be at most a figurehead unless she puts serious effort into changing things -- an effort she had no interest in making.

Four years ago she and her "big brother" discovered that the plan was for the pair to be married once Valentine was old enough.  She was absolutely horrified at the idea, and the first serious interest she's shown in statecraft has all been directed at finding a solution that she can live with.  She has no interest in marriage but increasing interest in politics, now that she's gotten her feet wet.  Valentine has made major strides in dealing with her fears, though she's still shaky in many areas.  Still, progress is progress, and perhaps one day the tragic princess will make a good queen.

OT H E R   I N F O R M A T I O NMUSIC:
"Ordinary World" by Duran Duran
"Blue Eyes" by Within Temptation
"Behind Blue Eyes" covered by Within Temptation (originally by the Who)

Additional Imagery

SCREENNAMES:  Shattershard (rpgs), Kintsukuroi (aesthetics), KintsugiKitty (linked accounts, "her"), FoilAndFoliage (nature photography), CurlicueQuiet (aesthetics and forums), PieceOfMind (generic forum things), Horsefeathers (specifically animals)

~Valentine has two horses, an older Andalusian blue roan gelding that's almost as old as she is by the name of Balios, and a younger Kinsky palomino mare called Chloé, given to her as a filly.
~multilingual



B A S I C SCountry: Luxième
Capital: Lumèrie
Current Ruler(s): none at the moment (deceased).  Officially the kingdom is run by their Senate and a special advisory council of Athenians; in reality it's pretty much under control of the Athenian government.
Current Heir: her royal highness the Crown Princess Edelessa Blanchefluer is heir apparent, to be coronated once she comes of age
Kingdom Colors: sky blue and silver (represented by white on their flag)
Known For: wine and vineyards, excellent local cuisine, silk and related textiles, artisan crafts, complaining, protests, bloody revolution


H I S  T O R Y   A N D   C U L T U R ELuxième is a tiny country just inland of the Athenian coast.  While rich in natural resources they have always been too small to do a great deal with mining and factory production, and so focused more on grape and silkworm cultivation.  Blessed with weather suited for farming, if not a great deal of actual land on which to farm, they rely on lucrative exports for profit and imported produce to supplement insufficient food production of their own, and a bad harvest can mean a difficult year for the whole country.  As a result, farming techniques that maximize stable output are a main focus for research funded by the government and private institutions alike.  The Luxèmi are aware that they cannot overfarm despite the short-term gains, and monitor their soils carefully.  Not only can overfarming be harmful, but the perfect bottle of wine requires the perfect nutrient balance in the soil.

Luxième has always been tumultuous, but nobody thought the tradition of highly-vocal protest and the occasional small riot would ever turn truly nasty.  However, after several poor harvests in a row and with economic tensions due to global events as well, a serious revolutionary core gathered enough support to make a move.  First they incited a riot during a major event at the castle.  A handful of sleeper agents already in place started the massacre inside, and the resulting chaos did most of the rest, along with a few strategically placed explosives.  Another team took care of the designated survivor and his family elsewhere at the same time.  During the emergency senate meeting that followed, a small moving truck full of explosives took out a significant portion of the Senate.

The Athenian Federation stepped in and imposed order on what had turned into anarchy in the capital city of Lumèrie.  Most of the core group were brought to justice over the following years, having gone to ground when they could not quell the riots on their own.  But even before that, when a little girl with eyes of Blanchefleur blue turned up in the castle ruins, the Athenians put enough pressure on the remaining members of the Senate that she was sent to the Federation.  They have more or less annexed Luxième at this point, and the Senate holds little power.

The original plan was to marry the princess into the Athenian royal family, but as the harvests improved and the remaining core members were brought down or chased out of the country, most of the nation did not much mind Athenian governance.  Yes, there's a great deal of discussion about how they should go about being represented, but it's a matter of details more than direction.  The princess has had little to do with her public and is mostly seen as a tragic figure but not a leader -- though she is adored all the same, and expected to return to the palace eventually.  So long as they have good harvests and a government to complain about it doesn't seem to matter so much what the government is, though there's been a lot of resistance to dissolving the nation of Luxième entirely.  The white flowers still fly proudly on their sky blue fields atop flagpoles across the country.


OT H E R   I N F O R M A T I O N~The fleur-de-lis is a symbol of the country, and a white one that of the Luxèmi royal family (the Blanchefleurs).

~Only members of the royal family may carry the Blanchefleur name.  The king's spouse may use it, but the spouses and children of princes and princesses may not.  Generally the wife and children of a Blanchefleur prince take the name D'Argent, indicating that they are of a cadet branch of the family.

~Many of the Blanchefleurs (and a number of the Luxèmi high nobility) have bright blue eyes.  This is seen as both highly desirable and indicative of noble status.  Not all of them do, particularly when there is a dark-eyed spouse, but there are even fewer "common blue" eyes among the Blanchefleurs and the D'Argents than there are non-blue.  As a result, there's a saying that "the bluer the eyes, the bluer the blood".

~Luxième is closely allied with the Athenian Federation on their coastward side.  The Athenians are seen as good trade partners with a respectable military.


Name: Ianos Clerides
Age: 42
Gender: male

Bio: Ianos is the personal manservant of Andronikos Telesphorides, which also means he helps look after Valentine a good bit of the time.  He is the very soul of discretion, and does his best to look after his charge(s).  He was sent with Val to Aciras because she is comfortable with him.

Every city had its stories.  It was no different in Adropolis, a thriving city with its noble district of fine houses and well-manicured lawns; its markets where hawkers competed for the attention of those passing by; its cultural centers and the drug dens tucked away amidst the flow of wine and words.  The stories of the city were the stories of its people: triumphant and tragic alike.

Some stories that predated the city had taken root there and flourished even as the city grew.  A number settled around an old library in one of the poor districts, once a cultural center, now only a few steps better than a slum.  The city never quite seemed to get around to tearing the building down, though it dated back at least a hundred years.  Nearly all of the tall stained-glass windows were still intact, the patterns primarily geometric rather than the religious scenes that adorned the cathedrals.  Gargoyles served as the rainspouts, most crumbled, with various carved stone panels decorating the upper portion of the building.  It was a mix of Romanesque and Gothic architecture, a handsome building despite the obvious wear and lengthy period of disuse.

Or perhaps not disused, for the building's stories said that it had not been merely a library but also the favored haunt of one of the city's oldest legends.  That the building's wards still stood strong lent truth to the tales, though whether the fact supported the power of the ancient mages or the tale of the library's attendant spectre was anyone's guess.

It wasn’t clear why she liked the library, though supposedly she had a fondness for stories herself.  A few legends told of some lucky fellow getting to keep his life after telling the woman a tale she had never heard, or regaling her with one long enough to last until the break of day.  Others claimed that she would do favors in exchange not for souls alone, but instead for memories, either of certain events or of an entire life, taken with the soul at the moment of death.  What she did with them was anyone’s guess.

Of course it was hardly accurate, but like all tales there was a basis in truth.  Those that knew of her called her Silver, and none crossed her lightly.  She was fiercely territorial, keeping her city clear of the worst monsters.  And for most of the city's history, that had been enough.  The occasional human lost was just the result of the foolhardy crossing what was best left alone.  At least that had been the case until a year or so prior, when a sudden rash of heartless corpses had stirred up new fear and new stories.

Now Silver was a demon, or perhaps some sort of fey, spoken of as an eater of souls that only fools hoped to encounter.  Seeing her in passing was ill luck; meeting her gaze was said to invite death.  She accosted random people on the streets at night and tore through their minds and souls, leaving spiritual scars that would take a long time to heal.  Something had to be done.

The day the hunter came, the library was quiet.  Inside the library, the afternoon sun cast long shadows between the stacks and illuminated dancing motes of dust, though the stone floor was surprisingly free of it.  To one side a staircase spiraled down into darkness, and to the other side stood an area of tables and chairs for study.  Some of the shelves were empty but many contained books, mostly leather bound.  The high ceiling made it feel spacious, even with the tall shelves looming overhead.  There was no sign of Silver, though that hardly meant she wasn't around.  The building had a watchful feel to it, as if it itself knew there was an intruder -- or perhaps that was Silver watching, waiting for the right moment to show herself.

shylarah Member

the crazy one

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