crimson_drachma

Name: Rosalind Strange (Lysandra Kastaros)

Age:  real age is well over 2000 years, apparent age is closer to mid to late 20’s

Appearance:

Height: 5’8’’

Weight: 147 lbs

Eyes: blue-hazel

Skin: light tan

Hair: long, curled, light or dark brown depending on the season and sun exposure

Chosen PB: Natalie Portman

Personality:

Rosalind was born at a time when girls were not expected to do much more than learning to weave, dress prettily, marry, and have children, which is often reflected in how she carries herself. Her early interest in fighting and related masculine activities meant she had to constantly prove that she was worthy enough to teach in the art of combat and that competitive side has yet to die out. After receiving the blessing of tutoring from her father, she quickly proved herself to have a stubborn streak much like her father’s and for good or bad, she’s never saw a need to distance herself from it.  She also sees a warriors’ profession as being noble and worthy of praise and will be swift to reprimand those who do not see the beauty that lies within combat and the many ways in which a person can fight.

In spite of her masculine profession, Rosalind is incredibly feminine and quite happy to have been born a woman. When questioned by members of her family about why she would allow herself to walk a path as perilous as that of a soldier, she would inform them that it is what the Fates decided her life would be. To refute the will of the divine is a folly she’ll never take part of. When she isn’t training, Rosalind is content to enjoy many aspects of the arts and has a fondness for strings and woodwinds in orchestras. Among her favorite musicals and operas are The Magic Flute and Sweeney Todd.

Being half-divine and extremely long-lived has also left Rosalind prone to situations where she is quite capable of guessing what people are feeling, although she does not show this trait often. The side most people see upon first meeting her is a confident and beautiful young woman who looks like the sort who’d fit right in at an outdoorsy kind of career, like a park ranger. She dresses primarily in feminine clothing and loves long and flowing skirts that swirl around the legs, partly because the effect is particularly stunning while dancing. Rosalind is also the loving sort and enjoys the company of children, as they remind her of her large and extended family.

This doesn’t mean she is without her issues, of course. Balancing out her gentle and loving nature is a fierce temper that has claimed lives in the past when offenders to her sensibilities lacked sense enough to run away. She’ll exercise caution when facing an opponent, but rarely runs from a fight once it’s presented to her. Rosalind can also have moments of arrogance where she sees herself as being superior and can be quite bull-headed when engaged in an argument. The only thing worse than being wrong, at least for her, is being incapable of defending her own stance on something. Rosalind also has a fear of being alone, and often seeks to become a part of a group.

On a whole, Rosalind is the kind of person who would make a great ally and a loyal friend, if you don’t mind her dominating personality and ego.

World Information: Rosalind’s world is essentially our own, but she is capable of commenting on how the gods of the Greek Parthenon, and others, are still influencing the world long after people stopped believing in them.

 History:

A basic summary of the life of Rosalind Strange:

Rosalind was born in Sparta during the period we call Classical Greece. She was born of a union between her mother, a priestess of Ares, and the god himself. Her mother’s husband, a wealthy soldier, was away at a small conflict with a neighboring city-state at the time. In her earliest years, Rosalind showed equal interest in swordplay as she did more traditional feminine crafts, culminating in a staggering defeat of an older boy in a fist fight when he insulted her status as a bastard child of Ares. Her father, flattered and displeased with this display of honor in his name, comes to Rosalind in a public space to declare that she will die as a warrior. Leaving it at that, her father ordered that Rosalind be trained by friends of his in order to be a good warrior, lest they bring to them the wrath of the god of war.

Up until her early teens, Rosalind quickly proved herself to be as skilled as any man her age in combat, and when word came to her city of a monster in the countryside, she was among the many warriors who go out to slay it. Sadly, she was the only one who returned, and presented the head of the beast as an offering at her father’s temple. Shortly after, Rosalind met and fell in love with a Spartan soldier who returned her affections. Before they could be wed, he was slain by enemy soldiers in a conflict away from Sparta, leaving Rosalind with a shattered heart and no will to live. In her grief, she threw herself into more and more dangerous situations until her father stepped down from on high to give her a vicious dressing down for her behavior. Ares took her before Hades and gave her two options: accept a punishment for her behavior, or die stripped of her honor.

The punishment ended up being a simple, yet harsh sentence: she would live as a near immortal knowing neither death nor illness so long as she took the lives of others in battle. Rosalind, faced between supplication and dishonor, accepted this punishment, and the rest became hundreds of years of history.

As her age suggests, she became quite skilled at being a bringer of death and living up to her divine parentage and often dedicated her kills to Ares. Rosalind lived through many ages, and came to think fondly of her first love. The years saw her outliving her mother and her mother’s husband as well as many other people she had grown up with. Though loneliness clawed at her from the inside on many occasions, she continued to kill and live on through the ages and traveled from battle to battle.

Among her many lifetimes, she lived primarily in Western Europe, although once in a while, she would travel eastward to safety or another grand war filled with bloodshed. Very rarely did she find herself able to properly step onto a battlefield, but she was no less able to ease her way into a position where she could find a life to take in her father’s name. Numerous conflicts extended her life until she found that there were many decades before her to live without needing to worry about who her next kill would be. During these times, Rosalind lived as an ordinary citizen of whatever nation she happened to be a part of and enjoyed the finer things in life as they were presented to her. In these years of relative peace, she took on more lovers, although they were few and far in between. Regardless of her age, Rosalind was apt to mourn for decades after the loss of someone she had fallen for.

She has held positions as a maid, midwife, blacksmith, soldier, spy, assassin, pirate, smuggler, weapons dealer, apothecary, farmer, and countless other professions suited for a woman with a strong will and a stronger back. During these professions and the decades she lived through while engaged in them, Rosalind came to see human nature and how it played out in the long run. Conflicts became less about honor and more about oppression, something she could never get behind. In spite of the Crusades and Inquisitions being among some of the bloodiest periods of human history, she rarely took lives during these years. Slowly, but irrevocably, Rosalind grew to become disdainful of bloodshed and conflict.

The last major conflict Rosalind was in was World War 2, during which she acted as a smuggler for Jews so that they could escape the Nazis as they spread through Europe. German soldiers died by her hands on many occasions, but by the end of the war, she had made up her mind to finally die. Enough lives still loomed over her to keep her alive for a good couple of centuries, and as Japan and the United States made their peace over the atomic bombs, she vowed to hang up her weapons except for the truest of emergencies. Ares, who had long been impressed with his daughter’s tenacity and ability to live, respected her wishes.

Now in her twilight years, Rosalind is in the midst of speaking with her divine and mortal family to prepare for her eventual death.

Strengths/Weaknesses:

Rosalind has long been a capable warrior and is able to lift well over one-hundred pounds. She often does some form of exercise every day, but switches up what she does and the intensity to suit whatever she is doing for that day. Weaknesses include a fondness for wine that can leave her smashed if she doesn’t have someone to watch over her.

Abilities:

Proficient in fighting, dancing, singing, and various crafts.

First Person:

[She is wide-eyed and alert the moment the train began to pull into the station and immediately hops onto her feet in a defensive stance. No one else with her… But how did she come to be on a train?

Looking cautiously out the window, she frowns at the buildings approaching as the train stopped. Rosalind disembarks with a frown on her face and reads the signs with disdain. Ruby City.]

Wonderful. [A quick pat-down of her person reveals the pocket watch hanging off of the belt of her dress, and she opens it. The video feed is instantaneous.] All right, where in Hades am I?

Third Person:

No access to her family; no clue as to where the city actually is; no means of getting home… It was enough to make Rosalind tear out her hair, but she opted for taking it out on the carcasses of dead animals instead. As twilight drew near, she prepared a small bonfire in the park. It wasn’t very fancy and wouldn’t give off much in the way of significant heat, but it would serve the purpose she wanted of it.

“I offer this flesh of cattle and poultry to my kinsmen.” One by one, she placed steaks and slabs of chicken breast on the burning wood. The fire grew quickly and ate at the raw meats as Rosalind offered prayers to whoever might be able to hear them. “Circe, Hecate… If anyone can hear these words, please let my people know that I am still safe.”

The fire kept burning long after the sun had set and left a slightly scorched patch of grass behind once she was through with waiting for a reply. Nothing. Not even word from the fickle Iris. Much as the thought worried Rosalind, she would not allow herself to be stopped. All this meant was that she’d have to try that much harder to find a way home.