VixereCatherin de Rochefort
"I don't require a all that much attention, I swear! You can just mozey your way away, sirs, and I'll be perfectly fine!"
She normally would dress in more finery, but more often than not she dresses in warmer clothes whenever she can — her robes are a top layer, with long stockings being a second layer at the minimum; she more often than not wears thigh-high boots; this doesn't matter for the length of her robes, whether they're long in the winter or shorter in the summer. She often wears a hooded cloak no matter the weather, even if it occasionally hides the hair she hasn't restrained with a haircut in ages.
She's tall and gangly for her age, but also willowy. Her hair falls in practiced curls over her shoulders and reaches to her mid-back. Even if she's dressed more humbly or modestly she wears a number of hairpins in it — or at the least extravigent a purple bow weaved by a personal friend of hers (see the biography). Her grey-blue eyes often meet others with a soft but scrutinizing gaze. She doesn't try to give much away with her facial expressions, but she often smiles to happier thoughts without knowing it; she has an awful poker face.
Asset/Flaw
+Magic/-Defense
Class
Lord
Reclass Options
Mage
Age
19.
Sex
Female
Personality
Alignment
Neutral Good
Humble would be the best descriptor for Catherin; she hardly ever tries to brag about her position in life, and tries her best to not seem as a burden to others around her. She's occasionally on the sickly side, but not so often that she can't go outside either; she finds it hard, despite being so humble, to admit moments of weakness because of her fear of being burdensome. She isn't quick to frustrate about most things, and is patient with people for the most part.
She's a neat-freak. Hygiene, interior decorating, and cleaning living spaces are the only times she gets outwardly anal about the details. She used to be that way about even more things, but her apprenticeship and even matters of courtly manners have taken precedence to expressing her displeasure with the tiny details of her life. To that end, she is for the most part bound only to a vague cause of being good to others as much as possible, no matter their station.
She is the worst at flirtation and innuendo. A lot of the latter goes over her head, and a lot of the former comes across to her as just friendliness. Flirtation has gotten her into some trouble at court over the years, leaving a tiny trail of confused noblemen when she would reject their marriage proposals after accepting bouquets of flowers for the smell. No one knows whether to pin down if she likes anyone because most of her comments about people's appearances are too analytical to be anything other than platonic, and she says such things to both men and women.
She doesn't discriminate with her taste in food; it's beyond an ecclectic taste, as she'll eat almost anything that's of some food type or another. Herring? She'll eat it. Cow liver? Delicious to her. Pizza with anchovies, olives, and sausage? She'll shovel that down and leave most baffled as to where it all goes in her willowy body. Lutefisk? Maybe not Lutefisk—it'd have to be drowned in salt first.
She isn't discriminate in her taste in fiction. Because she's so sheltered, most of every kind of cheesy love story is like Wuthering Heights or Silver Linings Playbook to her — mind-blowing, no matter how illogical, or how creepy some of them get with an iota of thought. She doesn't care, just as long as it's a story with a happy ending it brings her to tears. Not that she'd admit tearing up over a fictional story in front of most people.
Biography
In short:
Catherin was born to a noble family with both her father — a ruler seen as weak as far as his foreign policy is concerned, but beloved by his people because of his great public works projects for the sake of the people — and her mother — a queen who had thought her arranged marriage was going to be a living hell, but grew to love the oaf of a king she calls a husband — alive. Thus she lived a happy childhood alongside her siblings: an elder brother who places duty above much else, and three younger siblings (two sisters, and a brother).
By the time she came of age to be arranged to betrothe a nobleman from outside the kingdom, she quickly established herself as the "odd one out" in the royal family by continually teasing an accepting answer to multiple proposals, and leaving a trail of disappointments that to this day the King is trying to mend to some degree or another. Her mother and father were so frustrated with her pattern of rejected suitors that they grew desperate enough to try something else. Maybe she's into women??? so went their thought process. A similar pattern emerged, even if she seemed more receptive at first, less standoffish, and more willing to maintain contact even after a refusal (even making one of her best personal friends as a result of such a rejection. The both of them thought it so silly that they maintained contact by letter, and occasionally laugh about how forceful Catherin's dad was about the whole thing).
Eventually, after a trail of "let's just be friends" answers, the King got so frustrated with Catherin's stubbornness that he sought out the services of a court Mage to apprentice her in magic, since clearly she wanted to live a cloistered life in his opinion. Really, it was something that Catherin took to surprisingly quick despite her early reluctance. All it took was casting a single wayward fireball and watching a pile of hay light on fire that she took to her apprenticeship much more enthusiastically.
Her apprenticeship has led her to live outside of the castle walls, but the king didn't leave her unprotected; two of his christmas-colored finest knights alongside one of the eldest were sent to keep a watch over her as she did any errands throughout town for her teacher. It was an effort she reluctantly appreciated, liking the Knights as people but finding them a little overbearing at times.
Thus brings us to the present: Catherin has been at this apprenticeship for 6 years, and remained in contact with at least one noble from her father's constant attempts at suitor introduction, and she's grown accustomed to a life outside the palace, in a tower that is her home away from home. Her siblings call her the "odd duck" because of this, or the "Tower Princess," but she still visits them over the holidays afforded to her. It's a rather peaceful life that most definitely gonna get wrecked by bandits or pirates or Verdanians or Mansterians or Plegians most definitely going to last the rest of time with no problems at all in the future.