Anca Ravarath's page

Anca was the final and only girl child born to Lord Iozif and Lady Narcizia Ravarath. As a young girl, she watched her elder brothers, Andrezi and Grigori train in the arts of war to promote and advance the cause of their house. When she was only seven, Anca was awoken early in the morning by her mother's servants, stuffed into her very best dress, and then placed atop her father's horse. Lord Ravarath, flanked by his sons, quit the safety of their keep to hold court at the village below. Before the trio stood seven peasants accused of plotting a rebellion. Anca clearly remember the simple tools laid at their feet as evidence, and the mottled, almost purple color of rage spread across their faces as they denied the charges, swearing crude oaths at the witnesses that testified against them. Lord Ravarath adjudicated the case, pronounced the accused guilty, and lent his eldest son, Andrezi the family's blade to perform their execution. After, Lord Ravarath commanded his daughter to accompany him to the field. Stepping delicately around the expanding pools of blood, the pair made their way to the pile of evidence. Lord Ravarath summoned one of the witnesses, and extended a spade to him.

"The frosts have come early this year," he said. "If you've the strength to fight us, take this and put it to its proper use, with a mind to survival and not bloodshed."

It was not until some years later that Anca recognized her father's mercy. For what some would term his brutality, their family was feared. So far as Anca was concerned, she wanted for nothing in childhood, exceptional tutors, the companionship of her brothers, or her parent's love. She rode with their wards and servants through their holdings and was wholly safe, and though there were some years when the 'keep was forced to open its granaries to sustain the peasants, aide was distributed equitably and peacefully. As Anca matured, she showed a particular aptitude for rulership her brothers, despite having the best education their Lord father and Lady mother could afford, had not. While Andrezi had the firm hand and voice required to lead, his tact was lacking, and Grigori’s interest in the arcane consumed him for the most. Together, the pair would hold the keep in her father’s passing, but signs of fracture among them were already evident. Andrezi was proud, and would not share power easily, and Grigori’s studies seemed to grow more solitary as time progressed.

Fortunately, Lord Iozif had the good sense and preparedness to maintain a competent healer at the keep, and his own health through Anca’s early adolescence, for it became clear that despite Narcizia’s efforts a bride of any prominent standing could not be found to wed her elder brother. Andrezi, though displaying their lord father’s mein and sensibilities did not possess his strength, and furthermore he had little interest in cultivating relations with women. His rendezvous were always quickly and efficiently suppressed by Narcizia, who then recognized that neither of her sons would succeed their father.

At the age of twelve, Anca was sent to Caliphas to attend her mother’s sister as a maid to benefit from studying at the feet of the masters, and also to learn court intrigue. It was expected that she would be polished and refined into a worthy scion of House Ravarath, and cut as attractive a figure as a bride might to preserve the Ravarath holdings in her brother’s stead. It was in her period of study that Anca was introduced to the cult of Zon Kuthon. She did not recognize it then, but all had been arranged by her mother and her aunt, expert manipulators. Fearing the negative influences of bardic and foppish contemporaries with pedestrian sentimentality, Anca's devotion was encouraged by a charismatic cult leader who taught Anca that life ended at death, and that there were no greater purpose than service. A scion, Anca's flesh was spared her Lord's sweetest stings, but she was inexorably drawn into his worship, recalling memories of the beauty of her elder brother's artful form when he delivered killing blows to criminals. In particular, Anca was trained to obey her priest as she was to obey her betrothed.

Upon successful completion of her training, Anca was called home to be introduced to her intended bride groom. After a pleasant ride among the Ravarath holdings and a private dinner to discuss the details of the contract that had been drafted, signed and notarized in her absence by her Lord father and Lady mother, he beat Anca savagely, carving his intent into her flesh with a scorpion whip. Anca was tended by Narcizia and her elder brother Grigori, who laid into her main open sores woundweal, allowing her to heal naturally and scar. Grigori took a particular interest in the healing process, spending several hours each day beside her, occasionally reading to her from her favorite books, but for the most studying the effect of the woundweal on her flesh, even drawing in minute detail the wounds as they healed. When Anca could sit upright again, her mother visited and presented her with her her intended's signet ring.

"The temper of man is quick," her mother soothed her, brushing Anca's hair from her face tenderly. "Our profession has been and always will be harder. "

Anca's strict childhood discipline and social training have lent themselves to a rather... dry air of superiority when speaking with others. Her performances lack the passion usually attributed to the Varisian people, being noted more for their technical merit by her peers. Anca expects much of her party members, but more of herself. A noble scion and intended bride, she has a high strict standard of behavior and appearance to maintain.

Essentially, the inspiration for this character is Machiavelli's axiom - it is better to be feared than loved. A noble scion, fear is a tangible force to be reckoned with, of famine, of peasant uprisings, and the like. So far as the character is concerned, I know it reads as though she is wooden, but she has not truly been given license to live. It seems a challenge, and I am really stretching my abilities with this character, to develop into something... amazing, I am hoping.

Campaign Trait: On the Payroll While she was training, Anca was rarely truly idle. To put her studies to use, and earn some monies to supplement the meager allowance the Ravarath estates could afford her in the capital, Anca frequently took jobs from Professor Lorrimor in which she utilized her contacts in academic, social and political circles to obtain information for him. Rather than look upon her employment as embarrassing and something fundamentally beneath her station, Anca perceived the situation to be beneficial, using her innate and trained abilities to distinguish and promote herself rather than slovenly occupying space like many of her contemporaries seemed to. It was during these periods of employment that Anca felt most free, or at the very least engaged on a personal level. Despite years of training to suppress emotive response to stimulus, Anca felt a stirring of sympathy when she learned of Professor Lorrimor’s death, and being cited as a beneficiary of his will, she could not refuse to attend his funeral.

Rather than hazard a guess at the identity of Anca’s intended, I will leave that to you. Essentially, I’ve tried to leave it as un/ambiguous as possible that her mother and elder brother Grigori are into some freaky stuff, and may be plotting to overthrow her father, but ultimately I leave that to you.