Post by Syren de Winter on Jan 18, 2013 0:19:32 GMT -5
Syren de Winter
NAME: Syren de Winter (formerly de Bors)
ALIAS: The Winter Queen
RANK: Queen
ALLEGIANCE: Viktor de Winter
PHYSICAL: Syren has long, dark brown hair with a slight reddish tinge that curls gently over her shoulders. Syren is a petite woman, and particularly light of foot. She’s very talented at sneaking about unnoticed when she wants to, years of experience slipping away from attendants lending itself to her ability to disappear at will. Her eyes are light brown with a golden tint, rimmed by dark lashes, and despite living in the north for many months, her skin retains it's sun kissed sheen from spending so much time outside in Summer Land.
CLOTHING FAVORED: In the past, Syren would always wear light, flowing dresses with freshly picked flowers in her hair, but now that she lives in the Winter Lands she has to wear warmer clothing. She has trouble staying warm in the chilly halls of the castle and usually wears a shawl or fur mantle over her heavier gowns, and while in the past she would often wear slippers or even go barefoot, the stone floors of the Winter castle are too cold for her to go without boots. She favors lighter, brighter colors for her clothing, although her clothing choices have become much more limited in the North, and she finds herself wearing much darker clothing than she necessarily likes. And obviously, there are no fresh flowers to put in her hair.
PLAY BY: Camilla Belle
OUTWARD PERSONA: Energetic and impulsive, Syren rarely thinks through her actions to their consequences, often acting recklessly and relying on a combination of luck and magic to see her through. She's young and rambunctious, and possesses a deeply inquisitive side that leads her to break the rules and rebel when she wants to do things she isn't necessarily supposed to; she's not used to getting into trouble for her deeds, being a spoiled princess, and she'd always rather beg for forgiveness than permission. Fortunately for her, she possesses a very sweet, innocent demeanor that makes it very easy for people to forgive her, especially when she decides to turn the charm on.
DEEPER DETAILS: Syren is very much aware of the latitude her pretty face and seeming innocence wins her, and she knows how to use it to her advantage. While she's hardly possessed of a devious mind, she does have a slightly manipulative edge to her, and knows how to use her womanly wiles to get what she wants. And while she can be very sociable and bubbly when it suits her, she would rather spend her time alone than with those she does not like, which has led her to seek out the company of animals more often than that of people. It is, unfortunately, not very difficult to win Syren's trust, as she lacks the experience to really know when someone is playing her like she plays others.
STRENGTH OF CHARACTER: She's very compassionate, willing to look past a person's outward demeanor, she both trusts and forgives other easily.
FLAWS OF PERFECTION: Syren is very emotional, and being as young and immature as she is, she tends to act recklessly and without thought to the consequences.
TRADE: Being a Royal
TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Her innocent smile and manipulative mind
FINANCIAL STATUS: Wealthy
CURRENT LOCATION: Winter Land, the Fortress in the Ice
AFFILIATION: The Winter Kingdom
MAGIC ABILITIES: Ekhon (the ability to speak to another in their mind, but not hear their thoughts), Janun (the ability to push a single object away or pull a single object toward you, but not with accuracy), and Gaea (the ability to know the mind of an animal, and reply one's mind to it). Because her powers were gifted to her by her mother, her Gaea ability is extraordinarily strong, and allows her to converse with elder creatures beyond the ability of any other mage, such as the dragons.
BIRTHPLACE: Summer Land, the Castle in the Meadow
FAMILY:
Father: Rowan de Bors (Deceased)
Mother: Sybbyl de Bors
Half-brother: Merek de Bors
Husband: Viktor de Winter
SCHOOLING: She has been extensively educated in history, the arts, and etiquette. She’s also been trained to use her magic and to care for injured animals.
HISTORY: Syren de Bors was born into a life of luxury; her father’s kingdom was secure and safe, blessed with riches in terms of land and wealth, and as the only princess of the kingdom, she was beloved by both her parents and their subjects. She wanted for nothing in her upbringing and was provided with the best tutors in whatever subject she so desired. Like her mother, Syren was born with the gift of magic. Her particular talents gave her an affinity for animals, and she was constantly bringing home stray animals and sneaking new pets into the castle to keep her company. She always was a little on the wild side, slipping out from the watchful eyes of her tutors and attendants when she wanted to get away, and she could often be found picking flowers or playing with field mice in the meadows around the castle.
Syren doesn’t know why her mother chose to give up all her magic, as it was as much as shock to the princess as everyone else when the Queen bestowed her vast magical powers on the young girl. It caused her natural talents to swell, and she inherited her mother’s powers as well. After that, her mother spent more time teaching her daughter to control and master her new gift, and she found herself more drawn to the creatures of the earth than ever before, especially if they were injured or in pain. While she learned to use her powers for the good of all and learned more about her responsibilities to her kingdom, the flighty, rebellious and even immature princess remained. She continued to sneak out when it suited her, and her parents indulged her, their beloved daughter, meaning Syren rarely had any consequences for her actions.
When she came of age, Syren was more excited than anyone to have a ball thrown in her honor. She picked out her perfect dress, and the flowers she would wear in her hair, and spent hours bossing around servants to make sure they decorated the grand hall just right. And then, as the hour drew near and she put on her perfect white dress and pinned up her long hair, she heard the agonizing ringing of an animal in pain, calling out to her not audibly, but in her mind. Her mother had taught her to respect her powers and the forces of nature, and she knew she couldn’t just ignore it, so she gathered up her voluminous skirts and snuck outside the castle, out to the meadow…where they were waiting for her.
It was an ambush. They planned the perfect way to get Syren outside the castle, while the guards and servants were too busy with the guests to notice, and they took her. They used something –magic, or a draft, she still doesn’t know—to make her sleep for the duration of the journey, so she wouldn’t be able to use her magic to escape, and when she woke up, she wasn’t in her own bed. Still wearing her ball gown, now smeared with dirt and grime, the flowers from her hair had wilted long ago, and when her feet touched the floor, it was unbearably cold. All too quickly it became apparent that she wasn’t in the Summer Lands any longer, but it would take her a little bit longer to figure out where exactly she was: the Winter Lands.
Viktor de Winter was her captor, taken to provoke her father into war. News of her father’s death nearly derailed the whole plan, but her mother’s efforts to get her daughter back served that purpose, their army crippled by her attempts. For her part, Syren did what she could to escape her captivity; the last time she tried, she actually managed to make it outside the castle. She was found half-frozen, unconscious in the snow less than a mile from the castle, defeated by the winter, and so ended her attempts to escape on her own. She begrudgingly accepted her captivity, but refused to be a well-behaved prisoner. Drawing on years of experience slipping away from attendants, she took to sneaking away from the watch-dogs who were supposed to keep an eye on her and exploring the vast Winter Castle on her own, going places she wasn’t supposed to and finding places where she could hide for hours while frantic servants raced around searching for her.
It was while she was exploring that she heard it; a muted cry, different from what she was used to, and it drew her deep into the dungeons, where she found a small, suffering little creature, locked up and all alone. It was a baby dragon. It was too young to truly speak to the princess, but she was able to understand its suffering, and she offered it comfort and warmth where it had known none. Syren took to caring for the baby dragon, going to visit it so frequently that it became impossible for the King of Winter not to wonder what she was up to. To her surprise, one day when she went down to see the young dragon, he was there, and to her even greater surprise, he unlocked the cage and gave her the baby dragon as a gift.
It wasn’t until her mother’s efforts were exhausted, their resources spent such that no further attempts to conquer the Winter Lands could be made, that Syren started to accept her position, realizing that she could not escape and no rescue would come for her. While she still wished to return home, she had grown close to the King of Winter through the course of her captivity, and he to her. When he made it clear that he desired her and planned to keep her, she made it clear she would be no man’s mistress, and that if he wanted he, he would have to marry her. So he did. When she carried his child, she convinced him to let her send word to her mother asking for peace. Her mother responded by sending assassins, not after her husband, but after Syren herself, and the child she carried. Heartbroken that her own mother would desire her death, she fell back on old habits, and slipped out of the castle unseen.
With more knowledge of her kingdom and how to survive, she got further than she had last time, wandering out into the wilds around the castle on her own, desperate for space to think. She didn’t know where she was going, and it wasn’t until she heard the flutter of wings overhead that she realized she had wandered into the territory of dragons. Coming face to face to one of the beasts, she found she could speak to them, as she could with other creatures. She stood her ground against the massive, ancient creatures, and this so amused the dragons that they developed a respect for the tiny human woman. But even as she conversed with the dragons, they became suddenly distressed, and she turned to discover her husband and his men had come after her. The dragons took their presence as a threat, just as the men saw the dragons as a threat to their queen. It was only with great difficulty that Syren managed to subdue the situation and convince the dragons not to eat the humans, and the humans not to provoke the dragons any further. Somehow, they returned to the castle unscathed, and over time, Syren has been able to improve their relationship with the dragons and they can now call them allies.
After she slipped past the guards outside her quarters, Syren didn't have much trouble making her way down through the castle. Her past attempts to escape had given her a good idea of where she was going, and while she had always gotten caught before, this time she managed to avoid the sporadic guards patrolling the castle, pressing herself into the wall as they passed and trying to make herself invisible; and surprisingly, it worked. She passed through one of the doors on the lower level unseen, and blinking against the harsh white light glinting off the snow, she found herself outside for the first time in weeks.[/blockquote]
A kind of ecstatic joy seized in her chest, and she breathed deep of the frozen air...and immediately regretted it as she was then seized by an overwhelming need to cough. She held it in, scanning the area quickly, she realized that she was in the courtyard. There weren't many people there, as no one went out in the cold who didn't need to, and even the men patrolling on the wall were more interested in that might come from beyond the wall than what was inside it. Seizing her chance, Syren took off, ignoring the fact that the thick woolen dress they'd given her was hardly suited for the weather outside, or that the same could be said for the soft leather boots she wore. She was free! And she intended to make the best of it.
She'd overheard the King speaking to some of his men about a patrol of Summer Land soldiers near the castle; she didn't know where they were, exactly, but she was willing to take her chances. Her luck hadn't failed her yet, and as she escaped out the frozen gate, she smiled, her cheer and elation staving off the cold temporarily. But that didn't last long.
She was out of sight of the castle by the time the chill really started to seep into her bones, dragging her feet, she wrapped her arms around herself for warmth, unable to keep her teeth from chattering, snow flakes caught in her eyelashes and blurred her vision. Will power was the only thing that kept her on her feet, but even that didn't last long as the sun began to sink over the horizon, far earlier in the day than she was used to in Summer Land, and the temperature dropped even lower. She stumbled in the snow, and shivering, she found she lacked the energy to even get up, and she curled up at the base of large tree, the only shelter she managed to get herself to. Shadows danced in her vision before she lost consciousness, unable to stay awake any longer.
