Character Avatar: Hedy Lamarr
Character Name: Andromaque Shahrizai
Age: 53
Rank/Title: Noble/Comtesse de Lautréamont
Race: D'Angeline
Country/Province: Terre d'Ange/Kusheth
Player: Merle
Appearance: Even among the jewels of the Shahrizai, Andromaque has always shone particularly brilliantly. While her age has begun to show in faint lines and the heaviness of experience in her sapphire eyes, she still remains an extraordinary beauty. She stands at a statuesque 5'9” and has a rather slender physique. Her high, proud brows rise over clear, long-lashed eyes and her bowed lips are frequently coated in a layer of carmine that is startlingly vivid against her porcelaine pale skin. Her typical blue-black hair naturally bears gentle waves, but she likes to wear it in curls that frame her face.
Personality: Though not truly ambitious to rise above her postion, the Comtesse is ruthless in her pursuit to keep what she does have. She's a harsh and stern matriarch, ruling her household with a silk-clad iron fist. That said, Andromaque is a passionate woman with a great deal of loyalty and affection for her family. Especially her children. She would give them anything within reason, and she would do absolutely anything to protect them.
Andromaque is as intelligent as any of her kin and runs her estate and fulfills her duties as a Comtesse efficiently and with ease. Her mind is also keen in its awareness of the intricasies of interpersonal relationships. She knows which servants talk to each other, which have grudges between them, and which she can push to get information on the others if she lacks it.
History: When Andromaque was sixteen she married Comte Edgard Shahrizai. Though they shared a family name, they were only distantly related. One might assume that the marriage was arranged by the girl's parents in a bid to improve their daughter's station, but that was not the case. Edgard's parents died young and left him the sole heir, so he was only a few years older than his bride. A dashingly handsome man, also reckless and a bit impulsive, he charmed the young Andromaque thoroughly and they married for love alone.
No matter the reason for their nuptuals, the new Comtesse flourished in her new position. In fact, it wasn't very long before Edgard left most of the day to day responsibilities in her more than capable hands. She learned early to keep abreast of all the household gossip and goings on. When she couldn't charm an answer out of someone, which was rarely, she had no qualms about using other means.
The Comtesse bore her first child, a son named Rosiel, not quite a year after her marriage, barely past her seventeenth natale. She'd never been so fiercely proud of anything in her life, and she loved the babe intensely. That went for Edgard as well, who cherished his wife and his son. It wasn't until some five years later that she gave birth to her second son. The younger, Andras, was still toddling when tragedy struck Andromaque's perfect life.
She was at home with the babe, who was precocious in the way of most two year olds, when Edgard decided to take Rosiel on a trip with him. It had begun primarily for business, but ever impulsive, the Comte had it in his mind to bond with his eldest son in their own little adventure. Though her heart ached to see them go, it was with an indulgent smile and her best wishes that Andromaque sent them off, only to have her soul shattered a couple weeks later when a messenger brought her the news of her husband's passing, and her son's disappearance and likely death.
With a strength of will even she hadn't known she had, Andromaque held herself together for her younger, and now presumably only, son and assumed all of Edgard's responsibilities as the Comtesse de Lautréamont. If she laughed a little less, and spoke with a crueler, sharper tongue than before, few could blame her. Yet she still doted on Andras and showered him with affection... perhaps more so even than before in compensation for those who were no longer with them.
Having been widowed at such a young age and holding such a prestigious title, not to mention her beauty, the Comtesse garnered quite a host of suitors over the years. But while she had numerous lovers, she refused to remarry. This was the case even after she birthed two more sons and a daughter, Iason, Emilien and little Charlaine. But the girl was ever weak of constitution and tragically didn't make it past her third year. This additional loss only made Andromaque more adamant to hold onto what she could. Though she loves dearly her title, responsibilities and the ruling of her household, she knows that someday she will have to hand the reigns to one of her sons and has done her best to prepare them for it.
In a twist of fate both incredibly fortuitous and cruel... ten years after the deaths of her husband and eldest son, Andromaque received a shock that ripped open those old wounds leaving her spirit raw and bleeding... Even as it was elated. Rosiel hadn't died those many years ago. When he'd reappeared, practically a man grown, at her doorstep, she'd known immediately who he was. How could she not? But though he was familiar to her as a limb, he was also a complete stranger.
Rosiel was charming, pleasant... and occasionally very cruel or odd. But in a family known for such things, Andromaque wasn't overly concerned. Instead she lavished him with attention and affection, making up for all their lost time. Still, over the years while she groomed her eldest son to take his rightful place as her heir, a fact that Andras was none too pleased about, she eventually managed to get the sordid tale from him. Rather than being horrified or pitying, a terrible wrath grew within her. If Andromaque can ever discover who has done such a thing to her beloved son, Kushiel himself won't be able to stand in the way of her vengeance.
