Royalty

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[b]Education Focus:[/b] Diplomacy, Stewardship, Martial, Intrigue, Learning (pick one, erase others)

[b]Positive Traits:[/b] Pick Four from Character Creation Link

[b]Negative Traits:[/b] Pick Four from Character Creation Link


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[b]Appearance and Character[/b]
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[b]Character Biography[/b]
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Name: Princess Alysanne of Alba
Sex: Female
Age: 26
Culture: Albae
Ethnicity: Gaelic | Frankish

Primary Title: Dowager Queen of West Francia
Secondary Title(s): Princess of Alba, Regent of Champagne
Style: "Your/Her Majesty"

Liege: King Adalmann II of West Francia
House: Royal House of Alpin
Religion: Catholicism
Location: Château d'Ombrage, Champagne, Francia

Sexuality: Heterosexual
Spouse: Dietrich IV, King of West Francia†
Lover(s): None

Father: Máelcom I, King of Alba
Mother: Lady Ermengarde of Lower Lorraine, Queen of Alba
Offspring:
Princess Amicia, Duchess of Champagne (9)
Prince Odo, Crown Prince of West Francia (6 1/2†),
Prince Louis (11mo†) | Prince Bero (1 wk †)-Twins
Stillborn Daughter
Miscarriage
Miscarriage
Princess Brigid (2)




Height: 5'9”
Weight: 141lbs
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Auburn

Dominant Hand:  Right
Distinguishing Features: Milky white skin and bright auburn hair

Scars: Faint white scar on left lateral eyebrow
Piercing: Ears

Education Focus: Diplomacy-Grey Eminence

Positive Traits: Shrewd, Beautiful, Temperate, Fecund

Negative Traits: Melancholic, Vengeful, Ambitious, Witch



Alysanne is a striking individual, described by her contemporaries to be either fair or beautiful, with high cheekbones, deep green eyes, and thick red hair that falls in waves just below her waist. Her downy soft skin is pale like winter snow, but brought to life with the faintest undertone of pink and a light splashing of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Furthermore, she is tall for a woman, standing at 5’9,” which grants her an air of regality and accentuates her Venus de Milo-like figure.  No stranger to the bedroom or birthing chamber, she has known what it means to carry new life on seven separate occasions. Her breasts are full and round with rose-colored nipples, and the consistent usage of corsets with good diet and frequent exercise have kept her waist trim. Birthing hips give way to thick thighs and a round backside. Overall, she is very Gaelic in appearance, but the added height is an extension of her mother’s Franko-Lorrainer origins—her uncle the Duke of Lower Lorraine and all his brothers are reportedly 6’2."  

Among her virtues is the quality of temperance, preferring to observe moderation in food, drink, and pleasure in order to balance the whirlwind of activities and need for constant show of grace that is the life of a queen. Furthermore, she is slow to wrath, but even slower to forget a slight once it has been dealt her. Her upbringing fine-tuned a woman of serene disposition and level-headedness. While not one to display her emotions publicly or divulge her personal opinions on certain matters, the expressiveness of her eyes and general propensity of redheads to blush are tells for those who notice. Those who serve in her household or as companions agree she is a firm but pleasant mistress.

Despite the more "barbaric" reputation of her native-land, Alysanne was raised granddaughter and later daughter of kings, and so her mannerisms and attitude are reflected in this—be it for the better or worse. Nonetheless, it has, on many occasions, brought her a certain joy to perpetuate the stereotype in the presence of her mother-in-law…as much as common decency would allow anyway. Religiously speaking, she professes and finds conviction in the Catholic faith, never failing to demonstrate the proper piousness in public or in private; however, her paternal kin are known sympathizers and reformed practitioners of Celtic paganism, and her mother’s line claims descent from the water goddess Mélusine. Many at court have long suspected her of witchcraft, but her royal pedigree has been a hedge of protection thus far.



The Princess Alysanne of Alba, sometimes known as Alysanne of Scotland or Alysanne Mac Alpin, was born in early Autumn 930 C.E. under the reign of her cousin King Constantine II to Prince Máelcom of Alba, Duke of Moray of Moray (son of King Donald II) by his lady wife, Ermengarde of Lower Lorraine. One brother preceded her in birth, and a brother and sister followed after. By her thirteenth birthday, Alysanne's father ascended the throne upon Constantine's abdication to become a monk. As the oldest trueborn daughter of House Alpin, it was deemed necessary that she marry to further the nation's political standing. At the age of two she was officially betrothed to the crown prince of West Francia, who was relatively close to her in age and provided a suitable alliance for Alba.Tutors were brought in to educate her in the ways of Frankish culture and history as well as the French D'Oïl Vulgar, D'Oc Vulgar, Norse, and Latin languages.

Furthermore, her devotion to the Roman Catholic faith was stressed in order to present the recently converted Albae royal family as pious to the rest of Europe. Many in Scotland still held Pagan beliefs, and as such it was deeply rooted into the culture, and therefore not completely inseparable. Practicing certain traditions as well as cultural attire would lead to speculation concerning the sincerity of her fervor later in life, for which she’d have to compensate. At the age of thirteen she departed Fife and set sail for Calais, where she was introduced to the court and joined the queen’s household until the time of her marriage a year later to Prince Dietrich. King Bero III warmly welcomed his daughter-in-law to be, but the reception from Queen Hildegard was notably cooler. The two women learned to tolerate one another through mutual love of family, but never for love of one another.

The relationship between the princess and her fiancé was initially pleasant but formal as the prince was nearly six years her senior; nonetheless, a great show was made of their courtship much to the delight of the onlookers…and Alysanne. They were wed in a grand ceremony in Paris and their coupling was witnessed by hundreds of courtiers, in which both were noted for their vigor. It proved to be a happy union, both seemingly cared for one another and shared many similar interests. Less than a year after the marriage took place, King Bero was fatally wounded while hunting and Prince Dietrich assumed the throne as King Dietrich IV. The new king was crowed in Paris in just a few months, but the queen’s coronation was delayed due to her confinement awaiting the birth of their first child—Princess Amicia. Shortly after, Alysanne was crowned at Reims Cathedral.

Dietrich’s early reign is noted for its peacefulness and affluence, aside from inconsistent raiding along the northern shores by Vikings. Alliances were secured with both Burgundy and the kingdom of Wessex, the latter of which the young queen helped to broker by securing a marriage to Dietrich’s younger brother and an Anglo-Saxon princess—despite the Queen Mother’s objections to the match. This provided Francia with a strong ally closer to home and gave Wessex a shot at having a close kinsmen potentially inherit the neighboring kingdom. Nonetheless, the younger prince was displaced as heir following the birth of a son to the king and queen just two years after the succession, Crown Prince Odo.

The birth of the crown prince had proven to be straining on the queen’s body, but the king insisted on resuming conjugal relations sooner than was advised. She conceived again in less than a year’s time but suffered greatly throughout the pregnancy from bouts of nausea as well as crippling sciatic pain. Twin sons were delivered prematurely, one dying within the week while the other larger boy lasted a year before dying in his cradle. Post-partum depression worsened matters causing Alysanne to become withdrawn and refuse to make public appearances. It was soon discovered that the king had taken up with a mistress and fathered a healthy bastard. This led to a falling out, but the king’s brother and chancellor successfully reconciled the couple, who were soon expecting again.

Dietrich’s taste for whoring only grew with time, but this did not quench his desire to secure the inheritance of his kingdom with many legitimate sons. One miscarriage followed the other as well as a stillborn before a small but healthy daughter was born, Princess Brigid. The celebrations surrounding the child’s birth and good health were short-lived as a frost ravaged Europe, destroying crops and leading to starvation. A respiratory illness accompanied the frost, sweeping across the land and taking with it the lives of nearly a quarter of the population. The aristocracy sequestered themselves behind their high walls, but the plague spread faster than they could manage to escape. What's more, Viking launched a massive attack against the kingdom's Northernmost Duchy of Normandy.

“The Sweat,” or so they called it, seemed to affect males more harshly than females and discriminated against neither peasant nor lord…nor prince…The robust and handsome little prince Odo fell victim to the sickness, wasting away in his bed for a fortnight before dying in his mother’s arms. Alysanne’s screams could be heard as far as England, or so the singers say. Not long after he was laid to rest in the royal crypt than was his father struck down, confined to his bedchamber with only his wife and mother allowed to enter, apart from the dark-masked physicians and priests swinging sage to purify the air. Dutifully, the queen remained at her husband’s side until he breathed his last breath, and the crown was passed to his younger brother Vaefar, Duke of Normandy. If Alysanne’s cries were heard in England, Hildegard’s were heard in the Holy See itself, for she lost not one but two sons that day. Mere hours after becoming king, Vaefar I fell in battle against Viking invaders, leaving yet another brother king—Adalman II.

Not all was lost that day, or so the royal family discovered when the council pointed out that the Duchy of Champagne, originally joined with the crown by way of marriage to a former Duchess, was not subject to Salic Law. Rather, immediately upon her father's death, The Princess Amicia was now a royal duchess in her own right. With a queen for a mother, her regency went without question to Alysanne. This news was not warmly received by Queen Hildegarde, who sought to have the lands returned to the crown by way of marriage with one of her Capet sons, but she was refused by the girl's mother. Hildegarde took the slight for what it was and sought to remove her son's widow from court by offering her as part of the peace agreement to the Norsemen now holding Normandy but found that Queen Alysanne had escaped from Paris with the help of Dowager Queen Haunild, mother of Bero III, and fled to Champagne.

Queen Regent Hildegarde's men chased after the fleeing royal family, going to the palace at Reims; however, after the men torn the residence to pieces the little Duchess and her family were nowhere to be found. Their party had secretly rendezvoused with yet another Dowager Queen, Genevieve of Wessex, and fled to Le Château D'Ombrage in the Champagne wine region. The château was an ancient fortress with modest but comfortable apartments, and its strategic location on a river island in addition to thick Roman walls and a drawbridge made it a hard target. News reached the capital by way of an official decree to the public and all the nobility of the realm that the royal women were taking up residence there due to an unfortunate accident that had befallen the palace at Reims, and they swore love and loyalty to the crown and House Capet. Hildegarde's hands were tied, as any strike against them would be VERY poorly received during a time in which approval was life or death.

Name: Genevieve of Wessex
Sex: Female
Age: 24
Culture: Anglo-Saxon
Ethnicity: Anglo-Saxon | Nubian

Primary Title: Dowager Queen of West Francia
Secondary Title(s): Princess of Wessex, Dowager Duchess of Normandy
Style: "Your/Her Majesty"

Liege: King Adalman II of West Francia
House: Royal House of Wessex
Religion: Paganism | Publicly Catholicism
Location: Chateau D’Ombrage, Champagne, France

Sexuality: Heterosexual
Spouse: Vaefar I, King of West Francia†
Lover(s): None

Father: Æthelwulf I, King of Wessex
Mother: Lady Gwendolyn of Essex †
Offspring: None




Height: 5'1
Weight: 110lbs
Eye Color: Green
Hair Color: Brown

Dominant Hand: Right
Distinguishing Features: Dark Skin, Freckles

Scar(s): Sickle Shaped Scar On Her Left Upper Arm
Jagged Two Inch Scar On Her Right Hip | Bite Mark Scars
On Her Upper Back Near Her Neck
Piercing(s): Ears, Nose

Education Focus: Diplomacy

Languages: Saxony, Norse, French D'Oïl Vulgar
D'Oc Vulgar, Latin Languages, Gaelic, Celtic

Positive Traits: Brave | Beautiful | Generous | Compassionate

Negative Traits: Melancholic | Vengeful | Lustful | Stubborn




Genevieve is not what people of her time would call a classic beauty but an exotic one. Her maternal line began at the arrival of Bedivere of Perfect Sinew, a one-armed Nubian prince, who joined the King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table. Through four centuries of English nobility and Nubian royalty breeding, Genevieve is a woman of rich brown skin with dark freckles smattered across her nose and cheeks. Her olive green eyes shine with an inner light and dims with her bouts of melancholy. With her eyes beset on all sides by dark, long lashes and her full mouth, she is known for her seductive looks and warm, enticing smile. Her thick, dark curls drag along the floor behind her, often in thick braids adorned with ribbons or jewels.

Though she comes from a line of large, brutish men and average sized, buxom women, Genevieve barely clears five feet with only her modest bustline and shapely hips to distinguish her from growing boys her height. Nearly everything about her can be counted as delicate and small, but she is feisty -- a trait that did not sit well with her late husband. Brave, stubborn and quick to jump to the defense of others, she took many a beating from the man for speaking out of turn. Her treatment in the house of her husband has made her a touch manic and is the cause of melancholia, making it quite difficult for her household to keep up with her shifting mood and meet her everchanging needs.

When not taken by the tide of her extreme emotion, Genevieve is fierce and kind. Despite her upbringing, she sees little difference between herself and others and is very compassionate to her fellow man or woman. She is not one to be spoken over, or dismissed easily, unwilling to go down without a fight of some sort. Complex and at times unforgiving, Genevieve, at present, is doing her best to keep it together.




Genevieve of Wessex is a royal with a complex and colorful heritage. Growing up, she heard tales of the beginning of her lineage, which was always credited to the great legend of Arthur and his knights of the round table. It was said that the one-handed knight, Bedivere, was an exiled Nubian prince. After losing his arm to his brother in a battle for the hand of a woman, he was given the choice of death or exile and took a merchant ship to the pale lands. There he became a loyal warrior to Arthur himself and was dubbed a knight of his legendary council. When word of his deeds reached his homeland, two of his brothers joined him and the King's council.

Bedivere married a druid priestess. His issue was great, though less than half survived. Those that did were greatly influenced by the pagan beliefs of their mother and the spotty knowledge of their father's homeland belief. However, they were nearly smothered under the increasing press of Catholicism.

Bedivere's most notable issue was, Amhren, who surpassed his father's feats on the battle field and his council to the king effectively elevating their house to true nobility as the first Earl of Essex. Amhren's, youngest daughter, traveled back to their Nubian homeland for some time and returned with a princely husband and several children, some of whom did not survive the journey back. And so it went, that the House of Bedforge, founded by Amhren, continually strengthened their ties with their English king and their Nubian roots through marriage.

When King Ecgberht I of Wessex ascended the throne and began the campaign to unite the English territories, he took for his wife, Éaddoina of Sussex, his first conquered kingdom. Under Ecgberht even the kingdoms of Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Mercia and parts of Dumnonia were conquered, leaving only the wild Dane-ruled Northumbria. However, Mercia was able to win back its independence taking advantage of the discord between brothers on Ecgberht's death bed. In the end, as intended, the eldest took the throne. Æthelwulf I, ascended to his rightful place after a duel to the death with his younger brother. In the wake, he took for his wife, Gwendolyn of Essex, whom his brother also loved.

Gwendolyn was a renowned exotic beauty, but as a strapping young king and with no other true competition after he bed the woman, Æthelwulf's eye quickly wondered. Their marriage was amiable but not the true, the lack of a passionate romance Gwendolyn had hoped for causing her to melancholy. Still, she gave her king two large, healthy boys and a daughter that matched her beauty. However, each pregnancy took its toll on the Lady Gwendolyn. By the time Genevieve was four, the woman had withered to nothing and was laid to rest. Æthelwulf mourned his wife, but he had long since taken this mistress or that and soon after one of them came to him flush with child; a Viking woman who did not want to sail back to her settlement in Normandy with her unsteady pregnancy. Unbothered, Æthelwulf brought the woman into his household.

Inkerri Hávarðrsdottir was a shield maiden and fierce woman who captured Æthelwulf's attention with her quick tongue and strong ways. Her warband had come to the shores of Wessex to avoid a storm that combed through the channel on their way to Normandy to help their people. A tentative peace was brokered for a piece of land to become neutral in the Vikings travels and eventually brought another daughter into the king's household. Celestia Æthelwulfsdottir, the bastard daughter of the king of Wessex, was immediately taken in by her older sister Genevieve. Celestia became her baby-doll and Genevieve's protectiveness of the infant reached Inkerri, who lay elsewhere in the castle in order to heal. Once the woman was back on her feet, she treated Genevieve as her own in thanks and often brought the to the Viking settlement and taught her of their customs and beliefs. This drove Genevieve away from her Catholic upbringing and back to her Pagan roots. Begrudgingly, the woman professes Catholicism but her heart is married to those old Pagan ways.

With her father occupied with unifying his country and with two strong sons to succeed him, Genevieve was left to study and roam as she pleased.  As a man, who preferred to conquer rather than negotiate, Æthelwulf did not hold his daughters under the constant threat of marriage, and he had no woman of note in his household to remind him. The only female voices that carried weight for the man were Inkerri, Genevieve and Celestia, none of which were keen to the idea of being married off.

Then Vaerfar came.

Vaefar I was the Prince of Francia and the Duke of Normandy. Wild and handsome, he carried his mothers sharp features, hawk-like eyes and dangerous allure. He arrived on the shores of Wessex with a single-minded goal -- to marry Genevieve. Knowing his mother would not be happy about the match, he enlisted the help of his sister-in-law, Alysanne to barter on his behalf while he wooed the young daughter of the Wessex king. The man came in full force, charming not only the girl but her brothers and father as well. He led Genevieve and her father to believe she would be marrying for love and moving from the hands of one loving man to another. Once the union was approved by both sides, a happy Genevieve, her younger sister and a small party of her house, were taken back to Normandy.

And everything changed.

Vaefar was a madman, prone to fits of rages. Soon, Genevieve's exotic allure was not enough to keep him content. What he had worked so hard to procure was now his greatest curse and he treated her as such. The Duchy of Normandy that her husband ruled over was wrought with battle and constant siege of Viking forces then The Sweat came. While it seemed to cut down their forces it destroyed Vaefar's men as well. It took his father, his brother, and his nephews. Shortly after, Vaefar was fortunate to meet his end on the battlefield with some dignity; he and his wife holding the title of King and Queen for less than twenty-four hours. When the Vikings took Vaefar's life on the battlefield, they wasted no time in taking the castle but Genevieve, her sister and what remained of her small house, fled to Château d'Ombrage to meet with her sister-in-law, Alysanne.