Julia Aubigni's page

You see, I had a talent, one that went beyond good breeding and a comely face. I could sing. Pretty well in fact. And when I mean “pretty well in fact” I actually mean I was a prodigy. It was a fairly welcome talent, especially when all my others drew my family’s ire. Said other talents included learning how to curse in Kelish, escaping my courtesy teachers, treating the servants like actual people, fighting with cruel lordling boys, attempting to run away from home to join the circus on multiple occasions, and host of other examples of most unladylike behavior. Oh, and there was the fencing but that came later. Let us focus on the singing for now.

I love to sing. Truly I do. When I was a little girl it was my way of expressing myself when all else seemed determined to keep me quiet and plight. Many a sleepless night was spent looking from out of my window longingly and singing some chivalric ballad of romance and adventure in some far-off land far away from stifling Aubigni Manor. It would actually be on one of those nights that my talent would first be discovered as something useful rathe just novel by my parents. You see, they had been wining and dining some influential grande dame that night when she heard me singing from the and became enraptured by it. Needing to meet the songstress that had graced her ears with such music, she was shocked to discover that little old me, an utter novice at that point, had been the one to make it. On the spot she offered me a place in one of the great art academies of Taldor so I could hone my craft. Seeing the great opportunity that lay before them by having one of their children rubbing shoulders with the scions of Houses whose wealth made our own seem pitiful, my mother and father accepted the invitation eagerly. Problem is, I did not. I refused it. Right then and there. The gasps were deafening and oh so satisfying to hear.

Yes, yes, I know. How could I refuse such a thing when I already admitted that I love to sing? Well, if I may be honest, I was something of a knave in my girlhood. For the first time in my life, I had something over my parents and was rather determined to use it for everything it was worth. So, I made a demand. In exchange for attending the academy and giving it my all I would also be given the chance to learn how to hold a blade like all those chivalric heroes I admired. I’d tried my hand at learning how to fight in secret whenever my father forgot to keep the family armory locked, but a seven-year old could only do so much without formal training. But I digress. To say the negotiations with my mother and father was trying would be understatement but in the end they buckled. I would learn to sing by day, and I learn to fight by night. A splendid duo of skills if I do say so myself, and ones that I managed to merge altogether rather nicely. How? Let me explain.

Whilst the first few years of my education were mostly centered around harnessing my voice and learning the basics, I did eventually find my niche and muse, and it was a scandalous one at that. Opera! Though largely despised in my homeland for its connection to our hated diabolical cousin in Cheliax, I could not help but fall in love with the art form. How couldn’t I? The high drama! The grand stage! The sheer bombast of it all could seduce Shelyn herself, I’d wager. Moreover, I was able to incorporate all my martial training on the stage as well. It took some time, but I became one of the academy’s greatest stage combatants, weaving blade and song in each grand performance! It might be sanguine to admit it but those days of artistry with my fellow students may have been the happiest in all my life. Speaking of which, I also got to meet the most interesting people at the academy. Getting somewhere thoroughly with merit is a woefully rare thing in Taldor but the academy was one of the few places that bothered to actually recruit the best and brightest. Oh, sure, most students were highborn like me, but a few were decidedly not. I learned much from them. Taldor can be a gilded cage to those born into wealth but its manifestly far crueler Hell for those without coin or influence. I suppose that’s when I started to get political but we’re still not quite there yet.

Once I graduated from the academy I had to once more contend with my parents’ conservative notions of my proper place. I was to be married to some young lord who’s eye I apparently caught despite the fact that I barely knew him. In the end, I made the decision to rather dramatically break my betrothal and abscond from Aubigni House for good by eloping with a certain Shelynite who had won my heart while we were both students at the academy. The whole thing was rather scandalous and my infuriated betrothed and his family tried their level best hunt us down in Oppara. Despite my best efforts the fools did manage to find us, but Shelyn smiled on us that day nonetheless. You see, my fool would-be husband thought he could win my respect and regain his wounded pride by beating me a public duel. Suffice to say it did not work out for him, my years of fencing in the training yard and the stage winning the day. I won my freedom that day, but the tale doesn’t end there. Besides making a career on the stage I also got involved with the rising politics in Oppara. A desire for change was on the horizon in the streets and the senate and after my very public duel with my former betrothed one of the agents of that change came to me one sleepless night with a question: What would I give to save my country from its own dogged stupidity? My answer won my new patron over and the next I knew it I was invited to the Exaltation Gala.