Lorna ShawAge: 20
Description: Lorna is just a little above average height, for a woman. Her complexion tends naturally to a light tan, even without much sun, which like most women of the peerage she strives to avoid. Her lovely, aristocratic features carry the stamp of her mother's Graecian people, and her eyes, dark enigmatic brown, are likewise derived of that lineage. Her lustrous dark blonde hair, however, is a trait of her father's family, even if she otherwise little resembles them. Her figure is slender, well proportioned, and she possesses the sort of delicate, sensitive hands sometimes associated with an artist.
Current residence: Temporarily lodging at the palace while doing penance.
Relationship status: Single -- previously betrothed
Parents: Father - Alaric Shaw, Marquess of the West March.
Mother - Cressida Shaw (née Floros) deceased, murdered -- daughter of wealthy, Graecian (rough equivalent of Greece) silk merchants.
Siblings: Older sister - Cassia Allander, married to eldest son of the Duke of Edinbyrne.
Positive personality traits: Driven, focused, perceptive, creative, imaginative. Able to empathize well in the cases where she wants to, or is actually moved to care for someone. Capable of taking the sorts of risks that require courage.
Negative personality traits: Cool hearted, vengeful, scheming, unforgiving. Often rationalizes the end will justify the means. Ambitions usually more important than people. Has a fear of deep intimacy, being dominated by another, and of being found out for what she is.
Background story up to the beginning of the roleplay: Things began auspiciously enough for the Shaw family. Alaric Shaw was granted the title of marquess, after a dozen years of faithful service as field marshal of the old king’s military. He was conferred the lands of the West March as his own, and after settling in, proceeded to play an important role in securing the kingdom’s border against the rebels of the adjacent lands. Shortly thereafter, he married the much younger Cressida Floros, daughter of wealthy Mediterranean silk merchants, and a lady of gentle graces and artistic sensitivity. The marquess was a very pragmatic, almost dour man, in his outlook. Known for being fair but stern, and as reliable as he was unswervingly loyal. If the two were a rough match personally, it could still be said that the marriage was a functional one, and their household peaceful.
Of course, the marquess desired to have a male heir, as did any man of station. However, the first child his young wife bore him was a girl, as was the second. The Shaw daughters enjoyed most of the better things that the world has to offer, during the family's early years. Certainly they wanted for nothing, and their mother's nurturing nature compensated for their father's more restrained affections. They played happily in the spacious keep that was their home; days of carefree innocence that seemed like they would go on forever.
Unfortunately, a beginning doesn't necessarily set the tone of what is to follow.
The first shadow to fall upon Lorna Shaw was a rare illness she contracted during her sixth winter. A virulent affliction of the nervous system, its prognosis was dire, especially when a child as young as she was stricken: progressively worsening seizures that ended with failure of the heart. The treatments known by the kingdom’s physicians were not cures. They needed more than a little luck to prevent fatality, and enable even a passable recovery; one that did not leave the victim a seizure ridden invalid.
The reactions of Lorna’s parents to this crisis contrasted markedly. Her father initiated arrangements for her to be treated by the kingdom’s most competent physician, but steeled himself for the worst, with his usual stoicism. Her mother, on the other hand, vowed fervently to find better than what the physicians had to offer. In spite of her husband’s skepticism, and his urgings against cultivating false hope, she dispatched servants to scour the countryside, and find the land’s most knowledgeable hermits, its most talented herbalers. Consorting with pagans and heathens was no consideration at all, if that might make the difference in saving Lorna’s life.
And so it was a mother's love proved victorious. But, while the herbaler's concoction halted and cured the disease itself, it could not repair the damage already done. Only alleviate its symptoms. Lorna would be dependant on taking the stuff the rest of her life, in order to stave off potentially violent seizures. It was an acceptable and manageable price; as long as she did so, she would enjoy the health of any other child her age.
The following years were again largely happy ones for Lorna, as well as for the Shaws in general. Recognizing her as her savior, Lorna grew even closer to her mother, and seemed to have inherited her artistic sensitivities. She began to learn to paint, and enjoyed lingering walks through the estate's flower gardens. The fact that her life had been saved by herbalore sparked an interest in the subject; one that her parents, mostly her mother, were happy to indulge. Understanding how to prepare her own medicine would provide Lorna an added degree of safety, and make her more self sufficient. She also became a more social and outgoing child, as her beauty began to blossom, and brought her added attention.
But this relatively idyllic period wasn't to last. In Lorna's twelfth year, the second shadow fell upon her life. And it was by far the worst.
Her mother had attracted a secret admirer, whom had watched her for some years. Like herself, he was a very talented painter, retained as the portrait artist for the royal family. He was also the Duke of Edinbyrne's youngest brother. Over time, his admiration for Cressida Shaw quietly boiled over into hot, demented obsession. Horribly, this culminated with her abduction, rape, and murder. And justice that was rather wanting. Rather than being executed, the Duke's brother was imprisoned -- ostensibly on the basis he was mentally ill, and not entirely responsible for his actions. In truth, he was spared by his family's close connection to the crown. The Shaw family was devastated by all of this , naturally. And Lorna expected her father to be up in arms, to gather his resources, take a determined stand for stronger justice. But he did no such thing.
Though his own grief was great, Alaric Shaw was a king's man, through and through. The crown had declared justice, and that was that. There was nothing more he could do personally for his murdered wife. And he had his duties to return to, as best he could.
Lorna was changed in the wake of this. She became introverted, detached. But this wasn't to say she was apathetic; rather, she retreated into study. This wasn't the escapism offered by literature and fiction -- rather it was purposeful, methodical, drive to expand her understanding of the world in which she lived. A tutor she somewhat admired had once informed her that knowledge was the very best of shields. She took that to heart now, and endeavored to construct for herself a very sturdy shield. Her study and practice of herbalism was approached no longer as a hobby, but as a serious discipline. Including the secretive learning of things whose use was other than medicinal. And though she still attended church, as any other proper young lady of the peerage, she no longer had faith in the supposedly omnipotent, all loving, merciful deity in whose reverence the majestic cathedrals were built. Old world religions began to interest her more and more. Especially the Graecian pantheon, of her mother's people, and one of its goddesses in particular.
In the awful void left by her mother's murder, there was at least her sister, Cassia. The two drew inevitably closer, even though they were growing to become very different women, in ways both obvious and subtle. And it was this relationship on which the third shadow fell.
Naturally, their father aspired to have his daughters find as proper and excellent marriages as were possible. Even more so since his wife died before producing a male heir. Marriages amongst the peerage were arranged for a host of reasons, virtually none of them having anything to do with love. Yet most brides to be could remain hopeful of coming to love their future husband over time, even if such feelings were not present at the outset. There was no such hope for Cassia, however. She and Lorna were utterly and equally stunned as their father revealed his plan to betroth her to a son of the Duke of Edinbyrne's family. Not only of the blood that had taken their mother from this world -- but a domineering, insensitive man into the bargain.
In the end, Cassia went willingly, and without real complaint. It was in her generous, gently compliant nature, to make such a choice. She accepted the realities of this world, as well as a woman's place in them, and saw no victory to be had in argument with their father. Lorna saw none either -- but her own reaction was greatly different, if just as quiet. It spelled the end of what remaining love she had for him. After Cassia was wed, the weighing effects of the marriage upon her soul and heart were so very hard for Lorna to observe. But it honed a cold-steel resolve that such a union would never be her own fate. Although this wasn't to say that her father didn't concoct similar plans for her too.
Lorna was wholly prepared for that inevitability. And had set her own plan by which to thwart it. It was the first time she stepped onto the wrong side of the law; maneuvering and manipulating to weave a web of false evidence, in which to ensnare her husband to be. And it wholly succeeded -- shaming and disgracing him sufficiently that the arrangement was called off. She was most encouraged by this success. Proof that the right sort of action could shield her from falling prey to the schemes and whims of others, as had happened to her mother and sister.
And this approach to life served her increasingly well, after that time. She also learned that this philosophy could be applied in more proactive ways. Such as when she discovered her mother's murderer had been liberated by some of his connections. He went into hiding, of course -- but Lorna had her own connections by then, and they helped her find him. Most people have their price, and she was able to meet that of one of those who were abetting him. The poison was a very subtle one; able to masquerade as the effects of a heart attack. Justice was finally and fittingly served, as she became responsible for ceasing the heart of the man who had frozen hers. This act of vengeance complete, it was time to pursue more constructive ambitions.
And so her eyes turned to the king's remaining heir, Theodore.
Additional Information (any relevant information not covered before): It's alluded to in the bio, though not specifically stated, that she is a secretive worshipper of Nemesis, Graecian goddess of vengeance. As also stated, she's reliant on a specially prepared herbal medication in order to stave off debilitating seizures.
