Lianour of Amelien
Posts: 3
(4/11/04 8:21 am)
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Calanthe of Sigishold
Personal Info
Name: Mayo
Contact Information: msn: thepageswing@hotmail.com
Character Info
Name: Calanthe of Sigishold
Gender: Female
Age/ Birthdate: 10/ February 18
Position: Student
Location: Mother of the Mountains Convent
Personality: Perhaps Calanthe is bright- but it would be rather a waste of time to find out. She would be quite ashamed if she found out that she was, and would do her best to hide it. ‘Women, who are smart,’ as her mother has told her so many times, ‘will never be able to find husbands. Men do not want women who know more than they do; this offends them.’ School-work is generally meaning-less to her, and she does not realize that the convent teaches anything other then ‘the lady-like arts.’ And so Calanthe has taken her mother’s words to heart, and appears to be as stupid as possible.
The most important thing in the world, to Calanthe, is appearance. She judges everything on how a person looks- that, and their social status, as she has been told many times not to associate with commoners or peasants, or anyone with less wealth than she has. She is also obsessed with her own appearance- her most prized possession is a hand-mirror that she carries everywhere with her so that she can gaze upon herself. Calanthe is rather gullible- if someone that she judges to be worthy of her friendship (someone who is (or tells her they are) as rich, or richer than she is) tells her something, she will most likely believe it, no matter how outrageous it may be. As Calanthe was raised conservative, boys are almost always better than girls at everything, and she will compliment them outrageously at every chance she gets. She despises the notion of girls being able to do anything. She also despises foreigners, for her mother has explained to her quite clearly that they are lower life forms, and Tortallans are the people chosen of the gods.
Calanthe is her mother’s favorite child, and anything that Criseyde says, she believes. Some of her mother’s lessons she takes too literally, though- when her mother told her that foreigners were lower life-forms, she somehow developed the notion that some Tortallans kept foreigners as pets, and treats them as she might a cat. (Not a dog; she is deathly scared of dogs and keeps well away from them.) Being mostly sheltered from the outside world, Calanthe knows next-to-nothing about politics, and oftentimes can barely remember the name of the Queen. She is a rather forgetful girl, although she has an excellent memory for who is who and what their social status is. Calanthe’s dream, which she has imagined countless times, is to be presented at the palace in the most beautiful dress imaginable, which, when she is bored, she describes to herself in her head.
Background: Calanthe’s father is Adras of Sigishold, a weak-willed, rather cowardly man who is dull in both appearance and personality. He is thirty-five years old, and has muddy-brown hair streaked with gray and small eyes of a murky, indeterminate color. Her mother is Criseyde, a woman of twenty-eight years who has instilled into her children a strict belief in conservatism. Her waist-length hair is a rich auburn color, and her eyes are dark blue. She never ventures into the sunlight, and thus her skin is very pale in color. As she rarely eats, she is slender to the point of abnormality. It is her belief that a woman’s purpose in life is to marry, have children, tend the household, and die a quiet death at an age when she has not yet grown old enough to appear ugly.
Calanthe has a brother, Erbin, and a sister, Maline. Erbin, aged twelve, is at the palace, training to become a knight. He is a quiet, shy boy, and Criseyde believed that the training master of the pages would be able to help him ‘outgrow his cowardice,’ as she put it. Maline is nine, a year younger than Calanthe, and has always been outshone by her older sister. She is a rather plain girl, taking after her father in looks, and has been told that she will not amount to anything in life, namely be her mother.
Calanthe’s upbringing was strictly conservative. Because her mother’s family is quite wealthy, she was most often given anything she asked for, and has a large amount of possessions she will be taking with her to the convent, packed away in the seven trunks that she will be bringing with her. Her mother had been going to send her to a convent that she considered to be quite ‘respectable.’ In other words, those who taught there were mostly conservative, and most of the girls there were the daughters of Criseyde’s friends. However, at the last minute, that convent burned down in a freak accident involving a lantern and a cow, and Lady Criseyde was forced to find another option.
Appearance: Calanthe’s hair is a somewhat lighter auburn color than her mother’s is- long, and falling in waves almost to her knees, because, as everyone knows, it is fashionable to have long hair. Most often it is worn down, but when Calanthe is in a bad mood, or feels that her appearance is more plain than it should be, she gets her mother or sister braid or plait it into some elaborate style. Her features are delicate, and perfect, she feels, for the most part. Her eyes are large and as dark blue as her mother’s, and framed by long, auburn lashes; her mouth is small and delicate; her skin is an almost ashy pale; and she has a slender, graceful build. Her only flaw is a medium-sized freckle on the left side of her nose, a freckle that is the horror of her life. She has tried everything from potions to eating nothing for a week to get rid of it. In a fit of rage some years ago, she tried to cut of the offending piece of skin with her father’s best knife. Fortunately for Calanthe, the episode left no scar, but the freckle mysteriously remained, and that was the last time Calanthe was allowed near a sharp object. As for clothes, Calanthe wears mostly long dresses in rich, bright colors with full skirts.
Strong Points: Calanthe believes that she has many strengths: she is beautiful, knows her place, comes from a wealthy family, and was born Tortallan.
Weaknesses: Calanthe is not quite aware of her weaknesses, although they are many, and involve gullibility, academic incompetence, and some might even call her conservative upbringing a weakness.
Magic: None.
Pets: Calanthe’s kitten, Lilac, was a recent present from her father. A small, mischievous, fluffy white furball, he is nevertheless adored by Calanthe, who insists that he is female and pampers him to a great extent.
Writing Sample: The kitten clambered up onto the large, lacy bed, where Calanthe began petting it. “Calanthe, dear,” her mother said anxiously, “are you sure about that animal? I’m not sure if the convent will allow…” she paused. “Will allow young ladies to have pets.”
“Oh, Mother,” Calanthe said, picking the kitten up and dumping onto the floor as it began to scratch at her bedclothes. “I’m sure they will absolutely love Lilac… she’s such a dear, sweet kitten, and she could never do any harm.” Lady Criseyde winced, but said nothing, humoring her daughter, as the tore a large hole in the red velvet drapery that hung from the bed with sharp, pointed claws. “And proper nobles should have pets, shouldn’t they Mother?” She looked up anxiously at the woman when she was still silent. “Shouldn’t they?” She gazed into the mirror that hung on the wall, admiring her elegant hairstyle. Looking at her appearance calmed her down when she was feeling nervous, as she was now.
Finally, the woman spoke. “Perhaps we shall just see what they say when you arrive.”
Mayo- She's only a squirrel, right?
Edited by: Lianour of Amelien at: 4/11/04 8:23 am
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