Querida Solana Beraza de Morua

[Solana]

Name: Querida Solana Beraza de Morua (nicknames: Rida, Sola, Lana, etc. I'm probably going to call her Sola most of the time.)

Age: 24
Height: 5'7"
Weight: ascetic and bony.
Race: human

Appearance & Personality:

Dark haired with warm brown eyes, Querida Solana is nothing if not a haughty, uptight, spoiled bitchlet. Though she's no beauty of Morua's court, she sure as hell thinks she is, and in some circles all that matters is how high you hold your chin. She's the distant (probable) cousin x amount of times removed from the main branch of the Morua family (from her mother's side, which is even worse since whatever children she has will no longer carry the Morua name unless she marries another distant cousin, oh tragedy!), probably about as distant as you can get without being unrelated, but related she is and you'd best not forget it, shoelicker. If it helps her appearance any, her skin and hair are flawless, but her eyes are too close together and her forehead too high for beauty, instead giving her the sort of pinched expression you'd expect to see from a fishwife at the market.

She's a handmaiden to the eldest daughter of the Morua family (four children), Her Ladyship Sarita Terceira de Morua Riestra (and really honest-to-the-Changers hates the little whore). In the tradition of Morua, the eldest daughter of the first son takes over the duties of the Spymistress. As that would make Sarita Terceira spymistress that would make Sola the gopher (being the eldest handmaiden of the de Morua line). So, in effect, Sola does the majority of the work, and if stuff turns out right Sarita gets the credit, and if stuff goes sour, Sola gets punished. It's a pretty damn sweet arrangement, if you ask Sarita.

Still, though an arrogant froof of a noblelady, Sola isn't stupid. She can handle the strategy and planning necessary for spies, even command the small fleet of ablebodied spies, but the only problem is that to a man, they all hate her. She puts it down to laziness and idiocy (after all, who could hate her?), but even so, it reflects badly on her when reports come in late, movements aren't reported, unnecessary updates trickle in ahead of the important ones. Yet, she rules her fleet with an iron fist, and woe to the man or woman who screws up one too many times -- or worse, is proven to be slacking.

Her form is like her personality: stripped of any sort of pleasures and laid bare. She's skinny, bony, without any sort of feminine charms, and known by the court gossips to walk and sneer like a man; doubtless the very worst insult that could be given to any gentle Lady of the court.

But what does she care? So long as she rises through the ranks and keeps in Sarita's good graces and does a good job with the spies, she's got a sure road to power paved in gold. That is what matters most to her: power. She doesn't care for romance lest it give her more wealth and a more solid position at court, or good ties to other likeminded individuals she can always backstab later. In the meantime, though, she insinuates her oily presence throughout the court, so that no matter what Sarita wouldn't be able to do anything if Sola were to be gone; so that the spy network of Morua would crumble.

Other than currying favor and power, Sola rather enjoys strategic games and fencing. She believes herself to be better and smarter than everyone else, and takes great pleasure in winning. This has earned her a bit of a reputation of oddity within the court, but her control over the spy network gives her a bit more leeway in terms of her behavior than she otherwise might have.

Strengths:

Intelligent in a wily manner. She's good at handling the business of spies, and excellent at using people.

Carries herself well in fencing. She has the skill to poke holes in peasants and nobleladies! Fear her!

An indomitable will. Seriously. People who think they're gorgeous when they're really not have skillz, yo.

Grit, and determination. She's like a fucking bulldog. So much so that the other ladies call her 'Sarita's dog' behind her back.

Can read, write, and carry numbers.

Weaknesses:

Terribly, terribly, terribly allergic to fish.

It's really hard to not hate her, if you're working under her. She's the object of many bets, ruminations, and dares; if she were to need help, she really wouldn't get it. Her peers hate her because she's competition and is competant, and her betters dislike her because she's an underling and a bit of a suckup.

Prone to ear infections.

Can't make do without her servents to wait on her every whim.

Essentially useless out of the court setting. She can't even get dressed on her own. She's not really even ever handled bishani, always having attendants to buy things for her since she can't be arsed.

History:

It was difficult when they stripped her of her gauzy over shawls, satin garments, gold embroidered cincher, silken underthings. It was hard when they yelled at her in a way she couldn't possibly understand. But it was worst when they threw a rough wool shift at her, laughing at her, and told her to dress herself. She had not dressed herself in any memory.
But that might be starting backwards.

The Beraza family was old and blue blooded. Old enough to make up for its poor holdings within the interior of Morua, old enough to be forgiven its rustic charm and country ways. Conniving enough to sneak themselves back into a slightly higher power base by marrying off one of the lesser sons to a lesser daughter of a forked Morua line.

The resulting children were enough to get a foothold into the basest positions at Morua's noble court. Sola was one of those children.

She was fostered by her mother's cousin's wife, and was sent dumpy and droopy to court to learn how to be a fashionable young lady. No one was really particularly surprised when she, at nine years old, did not in the least fit in. The other children laughed at her, and teased at her, and Sola soon learned that the only way to get your way was to have the highest connection to the most powerful person. Then you could make them shut up.

It wasn't such a leap when in her teen years she made the decision that the best of the best ways of having things go as you want was to be the most powerful person. So, grim and rather uncouth, skinny and unfashionable, she set out as a gawkish young girl to do just that.

She was still laughed at quite frequently, and was one of the very, very, very few girls to not have suitors or even prospective suitors. It was a rather difficult time, and it played no small part in getting her to hate people. Really. Hate. People.

At age 17 Sola made her debut into adult society, and to make up for the lack of glamor on that occasion, her mother finangled Sola into being the very first handmaiden to Her Ladyship Sarita Terceira de Morua Riestra, whom hitherto had been subject to old nannies and governesses who were most strict and not exactly boss-aroundable. Well, Sola was bidden to do as Sarita asked, much to her deep chagrin, and she learned quickly exactly where she was in the pecking order.

Rather than fold under the heavy weight of teenage awkward embarrassment, she struck out to be useful. More than useful. She aimed to be necessary. If Sarita was capable of spending a day without needing Sola, then Sola was doing something wrong. Time passed in this fashion, and when Sarita was deemed fit to learn the art of being a spymistress from her Aunt, Sola was brought along too. And eventually, Sola was tasked with the majority of mundane upkeep of the spy fleet. This suited her perfectly.

Through much manipulation she arranged to have a few of her more adventurous spies unearth the truth behind the old Jodof scandal between Corezo and Hasele; namely to pin the current head of Morua as having lied to the empire's council -- a thing that would definitely topple him from power and allow Sola to manuever Sarita into a position to be married to the next successor, who would be a distant cousin if loyalties lay where Sola counted them on being.

But she, arrogant in her youth, had miscounted the loyalties of her own underlings. Understanding what they lay to gain, one of her spies double-crossed her and reported her movements to Sarita's Aunt, who, properly horrified, took the information up to the top. The truth of what had happened those many years ago never left Corezo. It never left Morua. Instead, Sola was branded a traitor and retained her life only by virtue of being of Morua blood.

She was sentanced to be exiled, sold into slavery in the wilds of the most southern part of Eyropa, within the bounds of the strange and exotic city Semerkhet, which is about when they stripped her of everything that made her who she is and told her to dress herself like some lowly --

like a slave.

Only horrors exist for her from now on.