There's a place they can go if they're tired of chains,
And our roads may be golden, or broken, or lost,
But we'll walk on them willingly, knowing the cost --
We won't take our place on the shelves.
It's better to fly and it's better to die
BASICS
RETIRE INFO: Retire exact app, can re-use concept if Anakin still in play, adopt wher(s)
NAME: Padme
GENDER: female
PRONOUNS: she/her/hers
ORIENTATION: yes
BIRTHDATE: Spring 2733
AGE: thirty-seven as of Early Fall 2770
LOCATION: Semaca Weyr
OCCUPATION: former lady, wher guard, mother
SQUAD: Weyr Guard
APPEARANCE
EYES: brown flecked with gold
HAIR: brown, naturally curly
HEIGHT AND BUILD: five foot three, slender and strong
PLAY-BY: Natalie Portman
FULL APPEARANCE:
At no more than five feet and three inches in height, Padme is the very image of a petite Lady. She makes a striking image with her tall weyrmate, and the uninitiated might be forgiven for thinking that she was no more than beauty. Because while she is beautiful, Padme is also strong and intelligent. She hides this strength in many layers of dresses, which seem to belong to an endless collection. Her naturally curly hair is subjected to a variety of dressings, most of which Padme handles herself. She rarely ventures into public without her hair neatly coiffed.
Appearance means a lot to Padme, it being the first vehicle of authority. She carries herself with confidence, the second mark of authority, so that it takes serious comparison to realize that, yes, she is short. So she spends quite a lot of time on her looks.
PERSONALITYPERSONALITY:
Padme is a Lady denied a Hold. She has never known anything other than service to her people, and has never wanted anything else. Her strengths lie in fighting for the greater good, and her primary motivation is to establish and maintain peace. She is a negotiator, and will settle to a compromise if need be. But that compromise should never be seen as weakness - it just means that she is willing to give a little if the giving will result in getting what she wants.
For some, family comes before all else. Padme's family molded her into a political tool, shaped her with intent for her future, and discarded her when she made a decision that risked their alliance. So for Padme, family comes after politics. She is a slightly absent mother, depending on creche workers to help her with the twins. But she consciously makes time for her children, and she tries to be as present as possible.
HISTORY
FAMILY:
- Nabol Blood
- Sister-in-Law Ahsoka of garnet Ahsosk and white Ahsk - Early Spring 2743, Weyr Guard Lieutenant, Semaca Weyr
- Son - Luke, Late Fall 2760, Leia's twin
- Daughter - Leia, Late Fall 2760, Luke's twin
- Daughter - Shmi, Early Spring 2767
BIRTHPLACE: Nabol Hold
HISTORY:
Born to the Lord of Nabol and his lady, Padme was groomed to be a Lady Holder from a very young age. She was fostered to Benden Hold at the age of seven, and sent to Fort at thirteen to study under their Lady Ellaren. While she was there, she met a number of guardsmen and wherhandlers, including Wherhandler Quigon and Guardsman Kenobi. This is significant only because she also met their young protege, a boy named Anakin.
Nabol's Lord fell ill, and th e succession was called into question. Padme was officially made Heir to the Hold at the age of fifteen. She traveled back to her home Hold in order to stand at her father's side. Over the next decade, Padme studied to make the eventual transfer of power seamless. She got to know her Hold, and their weyr, in more detail than most of Pern thought to examine. It didn't take long before Padme was vehemently pacifistic, opposed to the violence that weyrfolk seemed to espouse.
Since she was the official Heir, Padme was never presented to dragon kind for their Searches, although she was permitted to Impress a fire lizard. Queen Amidala hatched in the late summer when Padme was twenty-one, a Very Proper Gold for the future Very Proper Lady. Given the destruction caused by their tithed weyr, Padme was quietly pleased that she was never tapped for the gold eggs that the queens laid. Her twenty-fifth birthday was a day of joyous celebration.
Her parents were very strict, and although Padme never doubted that they loved her, there was very little room for affection. She was a Legacy, part of a chain of power that wasn't supposed to have a personality. That's probably what made it so easy to fall in love with a former drudge five Turns her junior. And that love would, eventually, be Padme's downfall.
See, Nabol desired a better connection with Fort Hold. So it was suggested that Padme marry one of Fort's sons. Evander was chosen for the alliance, and Padme went with a small delegation to work out the fine details. But Evander was selfish, cold, and uninterested in anything that did not further his own pleasure. Padme disliked him from the first day, and used every excuse possible to spend time with Anakin, who was growing into a handsome young man with a crush on her. She much preferred Anakin's company to her suggested husband, and fought bitterly with her father about it.
Not long after the agreement fell through, Padme suffered a quick succession of blows that her reputation never truly recovered from. First, she was found in a compromising position with the soon-to-be-wherhandler. Next, her younger sister found a suitable mate and married him. As a result of these first two things, Padme was removed from the line of succession. That was both fortunate and unfortunate, given that their indiscretion lead to unforeseen developments.
It was fortunate for the Hold, because having an unmarried Heir with children did not speak well for her ability to produce children of the proper Blood. It was unfortunate for Padme, who found herself cut off from her family and pregnant.
Rejected and humiliated, Padme retreated to Igen Weyr, to serve under their Headwoman. She eventually could no longer deny that she was pregnant. At the usual interval, she gave birth to two babies, a boy and a girl. Not long after, Anakin Impressed a bronze wher. No one had a very good time that particular Turn.
All this meant that when Fort and High Reaches agreed to work with the other weyrs to populate the Summerlands, Padme jumped for the opportunity.
