[list]Name: Ariana Hasikos
Species/Race: Inburian
Sex: Female
Age: 18
Court Alignment: Red Wyvern
Role: Pretender
Appearance: 5'5'', youthful and slender with dark eyes and hair.
[hider][img]https://i.ibb.co/hsVSyZS/Arianaflux.png[/img][/hider]
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[h3]Strengths and Weaknesses[/h3]
[list]
Skills: Has the manners of an aristocrat and the skills you might expect of a well-to-do farmer's daughter.
Weaknesses: She's a nervous, uncertain teenager.  Can do terrible things when her anger is woken.
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[h3]Background:[/h3]
[list]Backstory: Ariana never had any aspirations of grandeur and was always a little bit of a wallflower growing up, hidden in the shadow cast by her vivacious, coquettish older sister, Andronika.  Despite this, or perhaps because of it, there was never any rivalry between the sisters and both have friendly natures and, being very close together in age, were extremely close friends growing up.  Ariana was similarly close with her father, though she never knew her mother, who had died giving birth to her.

Unlike Andronika, Ariana was not betrothed, though she was certain her father would find her a suitable match at some point...

That was until that fateful day Andronika was arrested for a crime Ariana, and their father Dakis, were convinced their sister was innocent.  Ariana had no need to steal and was (with the exception of her behaviour with the boys around the farm) a pillar of virtue.  Dakis protested the arrest vocally and when he received no satisfaction, by all accounts threatened the Sir Respen, their local lord.  Ariana wasn't present to hear the threat, but it was enough to have him tried for sedition and executed by hanging.

The double blow shattered Ariana and while she was now in control of the farm she withdrew, allowing the farm hands to run the place while she slunk off to the local tavern to drink, alone with her thoughts.

It was here that a merchant called 'Marius Panayi' found her, in the wake of the shocking assassination of the Emperor and the battle between his sons.  Payani wanted to use the civil war as an opportunity to throw off the yoke of Haltian oppression and he wanted Ariana to lead the cause.  She took very little persuading.

With a core of veteran soldiers in the pay of Payani and a flock of angry peasants, Ariana burned Sir Respen's hall to the ground and, in retribution for what had happened to her family, had Sir Respen's wife and children impaled, before impaling the elga Lordling himself.  She regretted the action as soon as her anger had simmered down but Respen had been hated enough that it seemed to encourage others to join their cause.

Word reached Ariana soon after that her sister was alive and had raised her own standard in the West.  In deference to her, Ariana inverted the colour scheme of her standard, changing the white wyvern on a red field to a red wyvern on a white field and she expects to link up with Andronika at some point.  As to when, she's not entirely sure.  She tends to leave the big decisions to people who know about war and politics.

Ariana was not present on the field at Rodelkog, her advisors had her at a nearby house, though she did tour the field afterwards and was surprised to learn that around 2,000 Imperial prisoners were ready to join her ranks, replacing the 1,600 or so of her people dead or missing after the battle, with soldiers, she is assured by her advisors, are of higher quality than the levies they lost.  The idea of fighting for a cause, then joining your enemies seemed odd to Ariana, but she was assured this was the way of things and better for everyone involved.  War, she decided, is a strange business.[/list]