Character Avatar: Angelina Jolie
Character Name: Arduinna de Toulouse-Lautrec
Age: 31
Height: 5'2"
Rank/Title: Aristocrat
Race: D'Angeline
Country/Province: Terre d'Ange/Siovale
Townhome Request: Renting in Woodlawn Glen/East Borough [Not really a request, just sayin]
Country Home Request: Siovale: Fons Cognitio – The Wellspring of Knowledge, more the name of the hot springs their home is built around, is the family estate of the small, but antiquated line of the Toulouse-Lautrecs. It is currently the home of Baroness Mnemosyne Toulouse-Lautrec, her husband Flavian and their children.
Player: Merle
Appearance/Personality: Arduinna is a petite thing, short and fine-boned, though voluptuous enough to be noticed as such. But her figure is hardly all that is notable about her. Wide, vivid green eyes watch the world with an insatiable inquisitiveness, ringed by long, thick lashes, exquisitely sculpted brows arching over them. Though her reading glasses can sometimes distract from that. Thick, lush lips give the young woman's mouth a permanent seductive pout, and though her jaw is somewhat square, it does nothing to detract from her femininity.
Over all, her features are sensually cast. Set against pale, smooth skin that has the tendency to warm to a honeyed tan if given enough time in the sun. Her voluminous, dark tresses -which she usually keeps up or back- are similarly effected, the exposure bringing out rich mahogany highlights. Both of which are common in the summer months, as even though she is a bookish sort, Arduinna frequently likes to take her reading outside. She looks for unusual and out of the way places to ensconce herself as she does, and has even occasionally been found perched in a tree with whatever book has caught her fancy... or simply been within reach when she was looking for something new to read.
She is driven by curiosity and fascination with the world around her, and there is little that she doesn't find intriguing. As a scion of Shemhazai, she reveres knowledge and the pursuit of it, taking the creed 'all knowledge is worth having' to heart. To that end she is a voracious... and very swift... reader. She will even read an entire shelf in a library bottom to top on occasion, either from interest, boredom or simply a desire to be thorough.
Like many scholarly sorts, Arduinna can be somewhat socially inept, but she's neither shy nor self-conscious. She isn't one to blush or retreat from interaction, though she'd generally rather be alone. Instead it is that she lacks a filter and can be a bit tactless in her pursual of information, frequently saying or asking exactly what she is thinking regardless of propriety or personal boundaries. She's quirky, incredibly intelligent and a touch absent-minded at times, dozens of ideas going through her mind at once as her thoughts pursuit various tangents... leading to people sometimes having a hard time following her in conversation.
It's something that frequently baffles or frustrates her, and is one of the reasons she usually prefers solitude. But she definitely values those who can keep up with her, and in those situations can be quite talkative. She also appreciates those who see beyond her superficial qualities and recognise her for her intellect and personality... as she has all too frequently known those who would have preferred her to be an empty-headed plaything. One of many contributing factors to the briefness of practically all of her emotional entanglements.
History: There is an old legend, or a piece of local history depending on how you look at it, that Shemhazai was in the mountains of Siovale one winter and came across some hot springs. There He found a family who had crudely harnessed that heat to keep their home warm in the harsh mountain winter. Fascinated with the concept, He stayed with them for a time, both sating His curiosity and offering his own insights on that matter and many others. But when it came time for Shemhazai to go, He left behind more than just the knowledge and wisdom He'd imparted, for the family had had a comely daughter...
For a long time, two separate Siovalese families claimed this as their origin, and sometimes there was a bitter rivalry between them for it... though their feud was often handled in a more intellectual and civilised manner than actual fighting. But one day, like something out of a romantic epic -though this part of the story is much more well documented, a young man from the Toulouse family and a Lautrec woman decided that if they joined their houses as one they could both rightly claim the tale as their family's birthright.
When the houses were joined, they chose to settle together at the hot springs known as the Wellspring of Knowledge, thought to be the very same from those old tales... even utilizing it in the same way to heat the various homes built over the generations. Even now Fons Cognitio remains the ancestral estate of the Toulouse-Lautrec family and the seat of their barony. Theirs isn't a large clan, or the most influential, and the lands of their mountainous home are not the wealthiest, but their line is pure and proud of their heritage.
The current holder of the title, Mnemosyne, inherited when quite young. Her father had been making a last trip into the valley for additional supplies before winter set in, but they hadn't even made it down the mountain before an unusually early and severe snowstorm hit, trapping them in the pass. If it had been on their return trip, the supplies they'd gone to fetch might have saved them, as there was a thaw some days later, but fate had decreed otherwise. When he didn't return even after the thaw, Lady Nem's mother immediately went out with a search party, not content to sit and wait and worry.
Though it warmed enough in the day to have cleared the passes, some snow remained in places, and the mornings and evenings were frigid. During their search, Mnemosyne's mother stepped into a patch of snow, not seeing the treacherous, ice covered rocks beneath. It would have been bad enough to slip and fall on those rocks, but tragically it was worse than that. The lady happened to be searching along the upper ridge of a ravine, and when she fell, it was down and to her demise, her neck breaking near instantly.
Suddenly an orphan, the young Nem was distraught. She had no siblings, and little family otherwise, and found herself thrust into a role of responsibility without much assistance. But for all her youth -she still had years before she would reach her majority- the girl was gifted, as many in that family are, with extraordinary intellect. With the help of their modest staff, she ran the estate and the affairs of the barony well. It was emotionally that she struggled most.
She was helped through her difficulties by her childhood friend, a local boy named Flavian. Though he was a commoner, Elua's precept prevailed and eventually the two married. At eighteen they welcomed their firstborn, a daughter named Euphrosyne, named after one of the Hellene Graces, as among their other studies, Nem and Flavian both had an interest in foreign culture and religious pantheons in particular. So, it was by this same convention that when Nem gave birth to twin daughters about a year later that they were given the names of the other two Graces, though Euphrosyne was the middleborn in the mythos.
One of the girls, Thalia, was perfect and hale... but it was immediately clear that the same could not be said of her twin, Algaea. Smaller and more fragile than her sister, instead of that mutable, infant blue... her eyes were pale, clouded and unfocused. Blind. It seemed, though, that besides her obvious ailment and a more delicate physique and constitution, that the girl was otherwise whole and healthy. As were Mnemosyne's next three children.
The next came two years later... their first son, a sunny haired, smiling boy they named Lugh, diverting from the Hellene pantheon to give him a name from Eiran mythology. He was followed in quick succession by yet another girl, curious little Arduinna, named for a regional Flatlander goddess of wood and hunt. And several years later saw the birth of the baby of the family. Another son, Horus, named for the falcon-headed Menekhetan god. Thus was their family completed, close knit, perhaps a bit strange at times, but for the most part content.
Education was paramount in their household and as soon as they were able to talk the children were being taught to read and write among other things. All except for Algaea. As the years went on it seemed that her infirmity wasn't only physical, and that she was a touch simple, though she still possessed the same curiosity about the world around her as the other children. Their parents, and all of her siblings, most especially Thalia and Arduinna, often read to her, and the frail girl was as happy as the rest.
Euphrosyne, or Syne as she preferred, settled into her role as Mnemosyne's heir eagerly, and took a particular interest in local history and lore, besides. As their mother had, she married a local boy and spends her days in the quiet solitude of the Siovalese mountains in domestic bliss. Thalia found her passion in the gift's of gentle Eisheth in her desire to care for her twin, and as soon as she was old enough she began training to become a priestess... which she now is, and married, as well.
In contrast to his more scholarly siblings, Lugh was always a physical child, and became interested in the martial arts quite early on, and so it was decided that when he was ten he would be sent to join the Cassiline Brotherhood. With two members of the clergy among them, Arduinna considered it for a time, revering Shemhazai and the pursuit of knowledge as she does, but it was quickly clear to her that she didn't have the temperament for it, though she learned much and enjoyed her time at the Temple of Shemhazai near her home.
When Horus decided to go to the City of Elua to study at the Academy, Arduinna chose to join him. They both shared a great thirst for knowledge, but Horus also had a driving desire to become a teacher and share wisdom, whereas Arduinna had no such specific goals or interests. All of her siblings had their plans, their places... but she simply wanted to go out, travel, learn. Above all things learn. About everything. So, when the Tour of the Nation began, while her brother remained at the Academy, Arduinna was eager for the opportunity... though somewhat chagrined by the fact that travel of any kind often made her sick, and worse yet, unable to read. But the experience and knowledge to be gained were worth that hardship, and thus she set out.
