Character illustration:<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://usera.ImageCave.com/synecdoche17/redandblack.JPG)</div></div>(picture shamelessly stolen from E's corset thread)<br/><br/><br/>Name:  Ambra Ginevra<br/>Gender: Female<br/>Age: 23<br/>Sexuality: bisexual switch (but with strong lesbian and submissive preferences)<br/>Personality: Withdrawn and sensitive, Ambra responds eagerly to the kindness of others. She can be fierce in the defense of her art and her loved ones. Insults aimed at her heritage enrage her like little else.<br/>Appearance: Ambra's thick, dark hair, proud nose, and olive skin hint at her Caerdicci blood, but her wide eyes and high, fluted cheekbones are gifts from her d'Angeline father.<br/>Brief History:<br/>Ambra was born the illegitimate daughter of a Serenissiman merchant-woman, Giolanda of the Mafalda family, and an unknown d'Angeline father, and denied her family name because of her grandfather Giacomino's anger over the affair, which had ruined an alliance by marriage with another Serenissiman family. As a child, she lived perpetually on the road with her parent, until her mother's family's wealth had grown so much that the two of them moved permanently to the City of Elua, where her mother oversaw the import and export of wines, oranges, textiles, and a variety of rarer and more specialized goods. It was here that Ambra found relief from her bitter grandfather's scorn, and, perhaps more importantly, art. She dabbled in sculpture, poetry, and weaving, but by her twentieth summer it was clear to all that the young woman was a portraitist of incredible skill. Her mother, who felt quite justified for all the expenses paid to her child's tutors, wasted no time advertising Ambra's skills, and commissions began to pour in. Soon, the price of a commission became astronomical, as her portraits became fashionable among the city's idle, rich aristocracy.<br/>Most of Ambra's fees flow into the family coffers, but that still leaves the young woman astoundingly rich. She feels somewhat discomfited by her new status, but not nearly as much as she does by the news that her grandfather is plotting an arranged marriage for her back in Caerdicci. She isn't sure she can survive without her family's backing, and, having suffered the consequences all her life for her mother's disobedience, she's terrified of crossing him. Ambra needs a new and powerful backer, now, or at least a husband who will be more tolerable (and tolerant of her own desires) than the brute her grandfather is negotiating her bride-price with.<br/><br/>-------------------<br/>Since I had two character concepts, I'm posting the second one here for 'storage' - if anyone's intrigued by her, I might pull her out for a scene or two. Otherwise, she's going to wait in the wings until I get bored of playing Ambra.<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide</div><div class="spoiler_body">(http://usera.ImageCave.com/synecdoche17/falconry.JPG)<br/><br/>Name: Colette Aurore d'Aiglemort, future Comtesse d'Alorraine<br/>Gender : Female<br/>Age: 19<br/>Sexuality: bisexual switch (strong hetero and dominant preferences)<br/><br/>Personality: Prickly and proud, Colette embodies all the conversational subtlety and decorous manners of her pike, which makes her, like her pike, somewhat unsuitable for the intimate and quiet salons of Terre d'Ange in general and the City of Elua in particular.<br/>Appearance: Like many scions of Camlach, Colette bears rich, dark hair and pale skin. Her short, strong chin and high cheekbones give her a pugnacious air abetted by her intense, dark gaze and tall, wiry frame.<br/>Brief history:<br/>Born to the sword and the bridle, Colette took happily to both. Her father Aimeric's retainers, men of Bassilisque, adopted their lord's d'Aiglemort daughter as their mascot, and the headstrong girl learned to fight alongside their common-born squires, enchanted by stories of long-dead heroes such as the Alban queen Grainne, or Isidore d'Aiglemort's heroic death. It wasn't long before the pressures of being an only heir asserted themselves; the Allies of Camlach need capable rulers more than swordarms, and the little swordswoman increasingly found herself confined to her studies. Her adolescence was spent alternately warring with her parents and escaping the estate to wreak merry havoc with a band of hangers-on. Truthfully, these episodes did nothing but give her an inflated sense of her self-worth and skill. When Skaldi raiders struck a nearby village while the Comte and Comtesse d'Alorraine were away, Colette asserted her right to command her father's guards, having just barely reached her age of majority, and ordered an attack, much to the approval of her equally hot-blooded peers. The Skaldi raiders were more numerous and far more skilled than the young d'Angelines had believed. If a passing battalion of the Duc d'Aiglemort's men had not been close enough to give succor, the skirmish might have been a total tragedy. Colette survived where many did not, though a Skaldi battle-ax split her forearm to the bone and cracked her ribs through her mail. Her irate parents had her shipped to the City of Elua, where the family fortune sufficed to call on the talents of a Yeshuite chiurgeon. The future Comtesse spent the next eighteen months in bitter exile, endlessly practicing with her slow-mending limb while guilt and regret chased each other in her thoughts. She diverts herself with games of chance and idle sports, waiting for something she cannot quite articulate - a chance to redeem herself, perhaps.<br/></div></div>