"Nahuseresh, if there is one thing a woman understands, it is the nature of gifts. They are bribes when threats will not avail. [...] The problem with bribes is that after your money is gone, threats still do not avail."
-- Attolia in The Queen of Attolia, by Megan Whalen Turner
BASICS
NAME: Attolia
GENDER: Cis Woman
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: Technically bi, deeply uninterested at the moment
BIRTHDATE: Spring 2752
AGE: 24 as of Summer 2776
LOCATION: Fort Weyr
OCCUPATION: Wherhandler
WING: Dawn Squad
APPEARANCE
EYES: Dark brown
HAIR: Black, thick and wavy
HEIGHT AND BUILD: 5'6", feminine figure
PLAY-BY: N/A
EXPY SOURCE: Attolia (Queen's Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner)
FULL APPEARANCE:
Cold and imperious, Attolia is as beautiful and approachable as a marble statue. She stands with immaculate posture and the air of a woman much taller and more important than she is. She keeps her long black hair braided in elaborate patterns and pinned to the top of her head. She tends to prefer to wear red, and clothes that are flattering to her figure while still not showing much skin. She wears long dresses as often as possible, but will wear practical clothes when need be. She didn't grow up doing hard manual labor, and it's still something she struggles with sometimes, but she's developing more callouses on her hands and getting a little more muscle definition the longer she stays at the Weyr.
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY:
Attolia is a very bitter and jaded young woman. She has difficulty opening up and trusting others, and she suspects betrayal at every turn. She doesn't often show this side of her, however, preferring to appear calm, cool, and in control, proud and regal as the golden queens in the Harper ballads. She doesn't like to take people at their word and will often double check what they've told her. She prefers people to think of her as cruel and unapproachable so that they won't try to cross her, and will actively spread or encourage such rumors. While she prefers to never appear flappable, sometimes her anger will leak out in small doses.
It's only in private that she'll allow herself to fully feel her emotions. They tend to explode out of her in uncontrollable spurts once no one is around to witness, and she's been known to throw and break furniture in her rage. Under the coldness she presents, she is a sad and lonely person afraid of being hurt by yet another person. The only one she truly trusts is her wher, but if she could be convinced to trust others, she'd prove to be a faithful friend, though she'll never be as warm as others.
She's quick-witted, clever, and capable. For those tasks which she isn't personally good at, she's good at finding the best person for the job, although she only trusts them to actually do said job if they have both a carrot and stick to encourage them to do it. She no longer thinks she's capable of being loved, and so she'll settle for being feared, and therefore respected.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
Parents, brothers, ex-fiance and in-laws, all vintners in Tillek
SIGNIFICANT OTHER: No.
BIRTHPLACE: Tillek Hold
HISTORY:
Attolia was born to prosperous vintners in Tillek, their only daughter. Assuming their sons would become vintners as well, they raised their daughter with the expectation that she would one day marry well and give more business to her family's label. However, when Attolia was in her late teens, her family decided it would be more advantageous to marry the first son of a rival vintner's family and end a generations long feud between the two families. It was not a marriage that would be based on love, but Attolia was proud to be able to help her family in the way that she could.
At eighteen, she went to live with her fiancé's family to get to know them better as an extended engagement. The man she was to marry was not especially bright, but he wasn't unkind. Her father-in-law, however, assumed that because Attolia was quiet and would sit and embroider, she was a fool and treated her as such. In full hearing of her while she'd embroider, he'd start trying to explain to his son how they'd eventually ruin and dismantle Attolia's family vineyards. Horrified, she wrote letters to her family, warning them of the plot, but the drudge she gave them to was loyal to his master and would throw the letters into the fire and instead relayed false messages to runners to send to her family. Attolia never learned of this, only knowing that the responses from her family seemed not to care about her warnings, assuring her that nerves were a normal part of newly married life and that it was normal to need time to adjust to a new home.
As several turns went by with her family continuing to not take her warnings seriously, Attolia came to believe that her family had never taken her seriously, that they'd only ever seen her as a tool to increase their own standing and wealth, and that she had no thoughts in her head. This belief was encouraged by the drudge who was falsifying her messages, in an attempt to drive a wedge between Attolia and her family and make her more amenable to her father-in-law's plans. It worked a bit too well; at twenty, still not yet married to a man who didn't love her, she ran away, taking the jewelry she'd brought with her to sell for safe passage with a caravan that was heading north. One of the traders exchanged a wher egg for her most expensive jewelry, a pair of ruby earrings, claiming that he wanted to be sure she stayed safe as a woman on her own. She agreed it was a good idea. Later, when it actually hatched, someone else expressed surprise: Apparently, the wher egg peddler often bought up runty and dud eggs to sell, and quite often they did not hatch. Furious that the egg peddler had tried to cheat her, and that no one else in the caravan had tried to stop him or warn her, she left them to join a different caravan going south.
This new caravan had wher guards, and they taught her how to handle and care for her odd colored wher. He was a devoted companion to her from the start, something she was not used to and sometimes found uncomfortable because of its strangeness, but she gave no indication that she wanted to break the bond all the same. Attolia stayed with the caravan for a few turns, knowing that she wasn't qualified for too much else, and that at least with them, Attolisk could help pay their way as a guard. Attolia did odd jobs, mostly involving keeping track of inventory, doing laundry and patching clothes, and balancing books. When Attolisk was a little over one turn old, one of the traders began showing interest in Attolia romantically. He made it clear he was holding off on actively pursuing her for the safety of her wher, and by all accounts he seemed to be a good man, attentive and thoughtful, but Attolia had learned well at her almost father-in-law's house. She made the man no promises, did not lead him on, but she did allow his attentions to make her life slightly easier in the caravan. Despite the fact that he seemed a good man, for some reason she couldn't trust that appearance. One night, close to when Attolisk would've been considered grown enough for her to be expected to give the man a solid answer, the wher revealed to her that he'd been eavesdropping on conversations and had figured out that the man believed Attolia was a wayward Holder's daughter, and that he wanted to marry her and take her back home to take advantage of the easy living that would come with that status. Disgusted that once again someone only wanted to use her, Attolia left this caravan as well.
Sick of craftspeople and the holds they served, sick of traders, there was only really one place left for her to turn to. Fort Weyr was the closest to her at the time, and so she went and asked to be allowed to serve as a handler there. The pair has been there for a few turns now. It's been a bit of an adjustment for both of them, but at least thus far no one has treated her like a commodity to be bought or sold. She's not entirely convinced that will last, and that they won't need to leave, but Attolisk seems determined to have this be the last home they will ever need; not that anyone else would be able to guess that, the way he tends to carry on.
Not that she'd ever say it, but she does care about her infuriating white
UPDATES
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