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May. 19th, 2003 01:38 pmOkay, I'm giving it a go. Here's my Fading Suns character, first draft....
Yasmina Cortez was born into House Cortez, a family raised to nobility only with the advent of the New Dark Ages. A vassal of House al-Malik, the Hernandez family has gained in wealth since their advent to the nobility, but not in status. Her father holds only a minor noble title... something he can pass onto his children, but nothing to bring him great fortune. His estate and lands would be enough to keep one family in comfort with some of the trappings of luxury, but will never be enough to make the fortunes of his children. With this in mind, Viscount Stefan Cortez encouraged his children to seek out a useful profession at an early age, so as to prevent the necessity of selling themselves into marriage in order to keep themselves at a comfortable lifestyle, or else to rely on someone else's (or his) good fortune to make their own.
The Viscount had three children, two sons and a daughter. His eldest son and heir, The Honourable Carlos Cortez, (34 yrs old) is a dutiful son, devoted to helping his father manage their estate and increase their fortunes. He is married and has a son himself, little Stefan, but is a distant brother to his siblings, due in part at least to the age difference and status difference that separate them. He is twelve years older than Yasmina, and born to Stefan's first wife, Dolores.
Her next older brother, Rudolfo, was named for Yasmina's great-grandfather, the first Cortez to swear fealty to al-Malik and wear the title. Unfortunately, he has duplicated his ancestor's wild ways without carrying forward any of the shrewdness with which the elder Rudolfo. His father had him schooled in the best institutions as a boy, hoping that he would rise high in the service of a knight, but he made unfortunate friends and is rapidly mounting up debt after debt by playing beyond his means. He and Rudolpho share the same mother, Elsabet, her father's second wife. He is three years her senior.
Yasmina, in an effort to spare her the social intrigues that come of making a good match (as well as sparing himself the expense of fronting such a campaign), was apprenticed off by her father to the Charioteers as a girl. She and her father have never been close, though only in the past few years has she learned why, an unfortunate slip of the tongue by Rudolfo during a drunken rage: her father suspected her mother of infidelity, and thinks that Yasmina is not his child.
Her apprenticeship was the subject of a number of fights between her parents during her youth, with screams and blows exchanged behind closed doors. Still, her mother never openly said a word to oppose the arrangement.
She spent years among the Charioteers, traveling all over Known Space. She has risen in the ranks, her noble birth and manners making her a favorite with noble families of all affiliations, though she prefers to pilot for House al-Marik when she can -- old affiliations die hard.
Her mother recently passed away from an illness -- the Almathean was too long in arriving, they say, receiving the news of her mother's illness only a day before her death -- and Yasmina returned home for the services. Upon returning, she was given a small package in secret from her mother's former ladiesmaid, with instructions in her mother's handwriting only to open it upon leaving the house.
Yasmina had never known much of her mother, not sinceshe left as a child. She knew nothing of her background or family. What she learned from the package, then, shocked her. Apparently, her mother was not of noble birth.
Elsabet was raised as a gentlewoman, the ward of an Earl in House al-Malik, but in reality she was the child of a barbarian woman who fell during a raid on that world and was captured. She was injured, but survived long enough to give birth to a daughter. The only item Elsabet had from her birth mother was a piece of cloth, embroidered with curious patterns. Apparently, the woman had begged for the items to create it during the last couple of weeks before the birth, and worked unceasingly whenever she was awake. Elsabet then bequeathed it to her daughter, explaining in the letter that she felt it had ome meaning, but what it was she could never discern.
When Yasmina lifted the cloth to look at it, however, she was shocked. To her trained eye, she could see a star map, showing the location of something... possibly a barbarian world. She returned to her guild, researching the crude drawings in an effort to narrow down the possible targets. She has identified a few targets, and is now ready to embark on the Emperor's Crusade, with hopes of either reuniting with her long lost people, or else succeeding in Alexius's Quest -- and being rewarded beyond her family's wildest dreams.
Yasmina Cortez was born into House Cortez, a family raised to nobility only with the advent of the New Dark Ages. A vassal of House al-Malik, the Hernandez family has gained in wealth since their advent to the nobility, but not in status. Her father holds only a minor noble title... something he can pass onto his children, but nothing to bring him great fortune. His estate and lands would be enough to keep one family in comfort with some of the trappings of luxury, but will never be enough to make the fortunes of his children. With this in mind, Viscount Stefan Cortez encouraged his children to seek out a useful profession at an early age, so as to prevent the necessity of selling themselves into marriage in order to keep themselves at a comfortable lifestyle, or else to rely on someone else's (or his) good fortune to make their own.
The Viscount had three children, two sons and a daughter. His eldest son and heir, The Honourable Carlos Cortez, (34 yrs old) is a dutiful son, devoted to helping his father manage their estate and increase their fortunes. He is married and has a son himself, little Stefan, but is a distant brother to his siblings, due in part at least to the age difference and status difference that separate them. He is twelve years older than Yasmina, and born to Stefan's first wife, Dolores.
Her next older brother, Rudolfo, was named for Yasmina's great-grandfather, the first Cortez to swear fealty to al-Malik and wear the title. Unfortunately, he has duplicated his ancestor's wild ways without carrying forward any of the shrewdness with which the elder Rudolfo. His father had him schooled in the best institutions as a boy, hoping that he would rise high in the service of a knight, but he made unfortunate friends and is rapidly mounting up debt after debt by playing beyond his means. He and Rudolpho share the same mother, Elsabet, her father's second wife. He is three years her senior.
Yasmina, in an effort to spare her the social intrigues that come of making a good match (as well as sparing himself the expense of fronting such a campaign), was apprenticed off by her father to the Charioteers as a girl. She and her father have never been close, though only in the past few years has she learned why, an unfortunate slip of the tongue by Rudolfo during a drunken rage: her father suspected her mother of infidelity, and thinks that Yasmina is not his child.
Her apprenticeship was the subject of a number of fights between her parents during her youth, with screams and blows exchanged behind closed doors. Still, her mother never openly said a word to oppose the arrangement.
She spent years among the Charioteers, traveling all over Known Space. She has risen in the ranks, her noble birth and manners making her a favorite with noble families of all affiliations, though she prefers to pilot for House al-Marik when she can -- old affiliations die hard.
Her mother recently passed away from an illness -- the Almathean was too long in arriving, they say, receiving the news of her mother's illness only a day before her death -- and Yasmina returned home for the services. Upon returning, she was given a small package in secret from her mother's former ladiesmaid, with instructions in her mother's handwriting only to open it upon leaving the house.
Yasmina had never known much of her mother, not sinceshe left as a child. She knew nothing of her background or family. What she learned from the package, then, shocked her. Apparently, her mother was not of noble birth.
Elsabet was raised as a gentlewoman, the ward of an Earl in House al-Malik, but in reality she was the child of a barbarian woman who fell during a raid on that world and was captured. She was injured, but survived long enough to give birth to a daughter. The only item Elsabet had from her birth mother was a piece of cloth, embroidered with curious patterns. Apparently, the woman had begged for the items to create it during the last couple of weeks before the birth, and worked unceasingly whenever she was awake. Elsabet then bequeathed it to her daughter, explaining in the letter that she felt it had ome meaning, but what it was she could never discern.
When Yasmina lifted the cloth to look at it, however, she was shocked. To her trained eye, she could see a star map, showing the location of something... possibly a barbarian world. She returned to her guild, researching the crude drawings in an effort to narrow down the possible targets. She has identified a few targets, and is now ready to embark on the Emperor's Crusade, with hopes of either reuniting with her long lost people, or else succeeding in Alexius's Quest -- and being rewarded beyond her family's wildest dreams.
