Character Profile ~ Empress Shizaaqa
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yrae
1. Raw Basics (Quick Reference)
Birth
Autumn 43rd 4012MY (April 4th)
Age: 41
Death (if applicable)
NA (during fic? Maybe? Buggered if I know)
Physical description
Tall, wavy, coppery hair that reaches to her shoulder blades when down but is always tied up, unnaturally bright green eyes, looks younger than she is, especially to Raykinian eyes, elegant, ample cleavage, sharp nails, always painted in bright colours
Personality traits
Used to getting her way, every bit the empress, supremely confident, refuses to take the blame for anything, short temper, seductive purely to get her way, ignores problems unless they directly affect her. When she respects someone, it has nothing to do with rank (eg Flannel Flower).
Mannerisms/habits
Very good posture, always walks and sits with spine straight, looks down her nose at people, even foreign royalty who are essentially her equals, inspects her fingernails when she’s thinking (has an ominous look since they’re always sharp), overbearing.
2. Physical Description
Distinguishing features/marks
High hairline/broad forehead, pointed eyebrows, long nose but round face
Hair-do
Always tied up in some fashion, usually a high ponytail. No fringe, only wears her crown when she’s meeting with someone important, always adorns her hair with feathers. High hairline
Height/build/weight
187cm, 6’2”,
71kg, fine-boned
Accessories
Gold crown, encrusted with green and blue jewels, backed with golden feathers. Always dripping with gold jewellery and brightly-coloured feathers.
Casual wear
Family Colours (blue, green and gold; see ref pic), and a long silk skirt or sarong
Battle attire (if applicable)
NA
Best/worst qualities
Shizaaqa is pretty well-sculpted and with the help of any number of face creams, she looks astonishingly good for her age—closer to thirty than forty. She always has an aloof, holier-than-thou expression that is intimidating to all but the strongest individuals.
3. Speech and Language
Speech
Extremely high-class and snooty. Clipped syllables, particularly hissy. Why use one word when you can use five? Higher-pitched voice than suits her.
Reading/writing
Flowing handwriting that looks beautiful but is difficult to read.
Languages
Fluent in Raykinian and Llayan, knows enough Tsaythi to have a conversation, but not about politics. Generally only speaks in Kazinian though, and will only resort to her second languages when the person she’s talking to can’t understand Kazinian.
4. Battle
Worst enemy
The entire kingdom of Raykin, more specifically whoever’s leading it at the time
Preferred weapon
Her bouquet. Elite assassination squad, one assassin based in each capital and codenamed some sort of flower native to the region
Fighting style
Shizaaqa fights with words or armies, never her own hands. That’s a menial male task.
5. Lifestyle
Typical day
The first two hours are spent readying herself for the day, washing, dressing, having breakfast and rationalising what meetings she’s due to have over the course of the day. Any number of these may be pushed back or ignored completely, usually on Shizaaqa’s whim, or pawned off to someone ‘better suited’ to the task.
Lunch is the big meal of the day for Kazinians, and Shizaaqa often spends hers with officials or her family, mostly so she can interrogate them and know if they’ve been doing their jobs. They have a marginally more comfortable cocktail hour in the evening before a light dinner, then the rest of the evening is reserved for Shizaaqa’s own time, on which not even a foreign monarch can encroach.
Occupation
Empress of Kazin
Favourite food/drink
Anything cocoa-based, especially her cocoa liqueur
Early bird or night owl?
Night owl
Hobbies
Walking through the extensive palace gardens or aviary
6. Personality
Greatest flaw
Her almost complete inability to listen to any other facts or opinions that contradict her own. Sociopath
Strongest point
Her ability to take complete and unquestioned control of a situation
Greatest ambition/goal
To unite all the Kazinian states and ultimately take over first Raykin then Llayad
Self-confidence
Unhealthily high, despite many of the Kazinian states being against her
Give orders or take them
Nobody would dare give Shizaaqa an order for fear of execution or at least imprisonment.
Introvert or extrovert
Shizaaqa is secretive, but not introverted.
Coping skills
She tends to ignore any of the people problems in Kazin or even in Assiraz, but if a problem directly affects her she very easily takes control.
7. What to say
“I love you”
Emotions are relatively inconsequential to her. A declaration of love is a sign of weakness that she will exploit.
“I hate you”
To the dungeons with you.
“Someone you love is dead”
Again, she doesn’t really love in the true sense of the word. If anyone she’s close to in a political sense, which includes her own family, was killed, she would send the army out to hunt down their killer and have them tortured for as long as they were able to survive it. She’d probably do the same to whoever told her, or whoever was supposed to and didn’t.
“Someone you hate is dead”
She probably planned it.
“You will die”
She’d kill whoever told her of this and any of their associates, then up the security at the palace.
“Help me”
Another weakness to exploit
8. Dealing with it
Anger
Shizaaqa keeps a cool façade, but has been known to scream with rage to anyone she sees to be deliberately pissing her off. Outwardly she tends to keep her cool, but inwardly she’s planning on how to deal with the cretin who’s irritated her.
Sadness
She doesn’t do sadness, rather she’d turn straight to anger and laying the blame.
Loss
She would make a show of her pain, or shut herself away from all but those select few closest to her.
Stress
Ignore the one who brought it on, then go and have a long bath and pretend it never happened. Apply more face cream
Conflict
She probably started it, and either way she’ll see that she ends it. Unless, of course, it’s not in the room with her, in which case she’ll ignore it completely.
Social events
She often holds them herself at the palace, and is the picture of a powerful, elegant empress.
9. What would be most likely to make her…
Happy
A new bird to add to her aviary, a pleasant evening cocktail hour
Sad
Shizaaqa’s sadness lasts for three seconds tops, then it turns to anger. That brief period of sadness would be brought on by the death or illness of someone close, including her birds.
Scared
One of her assassins turning on her before she had time to prepare
Angry
Anything not done to her satisfaction. Shizaaqa has a short fuse.
Surprised
Very little surprises Shizaaqa. She wants to know what’s going on everywhere, and not too many people in her circle have what it takes to keep anything from her.
Embarrassed
She’s too controlled to embarrass herself, and too intimidating for anyone to do it to her, so it’s never happened. She would probably completely lose her cool and screech the culprit to the dungeons if it ever were to happen.
10. Relationships
(how she see others and how others see her)
King Yan
She believes he existed, but didn't hold any power of the yrae stone. What does Yan think of her? Wouldn't you~ like to know?
King Mithé
Neither of them have ever seen eye-to-eye, and Shizaaqa’s aloofness frustrates the hell out of Mithé. She holds very little regard for the kingdom on her southern borders, even less the problems caused to them by her own empire, and she thinks Mithé worries far too much about it. Mithé hates how little responsibility she takes for her people and how self-absorbed she is.
Yamin
NA. Shizaaqa’s never heard of Yamin, and Yamin’s always been at too great a distance to have any opinion of Shizaaqa.
Nimay
Shizaaqa looks down her nose particularly at Nimay, though her opinion of her has raised just slightly with the knowledge that she’s become General. The Kazinian army is seen as a menial task only for men, and women have no need to degrade themselves to such ranks. They’re far better use in the political sphere, where they can actually use their minds.
Nimay, for her part, is unimpressed with the empress. She’s seen how a monarch should operate, and Shizaaqa’s disregard for her people disgusts her.
Nolryn
Sparks always fly between these two. Nol doesn’t have quite as much restraint around Shizaaqa as his father, and it’s much harder for him to keep calm around her. Shizaaqa knows this and almost makes a game of provoking him. It amuses her to see Nol one day taking the Raykinian throne, and this is ultimately the reason she wants to invade Raykin. Nol, she thinks, will be a pushover.
Nol used to be quite intimidated by her, as any sane person would be, but he’s since realised how much of a show her appearance is. Despite only being crown prince and not yet king, he knows he has a whole lot more control over his kingdom than she has over her empire. Some of them may not like him, but at least he can walk the streets of any town in Raykin without an entourage to protect his life.
Community
Palace staff and politicians alike are shitscared of her. Many of the politicians, her advisory panel in particular, have made an art of concealing this, but they know that one foot wrong means substantial physical pain and possibly deformation. They do their best to diplomatically advise her of the right course of action without making it sound as though it’s the only option. The empress always has the final say.
Shizaaqa holds some measure of respect for her advisory panel, and will at least humour them and pretend to listen to their ideas. Sometimes she even follows their advice, but only if she hadn’t already formed a prior opinion.
Other Kazinians
Depends entirely on the state. Outside the capitals, though, the people are largely indifferent until they’re made to pay taxes.
Llayans, Tsaythis and Raykinians
The general populations don’t really have an opinion on her, but politicians and royalty always dread having to do business in the empire that would have them dealing directly with Shizaaqa. Unless she can see she’s going to come out well on top, they know she simply won’t care. Most foreign monarchs try to deal with the separate queens of the states rather than converse with the empress.
11. Beliefs/Superstitions
Yrae
She believes something happened back then, but it wasn’t anything to do with magic.
Is the glass half-empty or half-full?
The glass is whatever she makes it.
Superstitions
Shizaaqa doesn’t do superstitions, and she makes certain that none of those in her court believe in them, either. They’re detrimental to running an empire.
Lucky charms
None of those, either.
Ulzaq and Nizaaz—what part do they play? Do they exist?
Yes, but they’re unlikely to start actually affecting her life until she’s closer to death. For the moment, the priestesses are not high on the yearly budget.
12. Facts of Life
Birth
Painful as all hell and completely undignified.
Death
Death is death. It’s not something she thinks about often.
Life
She has the same mentality as most Kazinians: no life is more important than her own.
Love
Shizaaqa has a weird concept of love. As far as she’s concerned, having mutual respect for each other is enough. I don’t think she’s capable of actually loving someone else.
Sex
Sex is for
making babies and that’s it. She’s made babies and now she’s done with that part of her life. She’ll openly use her womanly wiles to get what she wants, though.
Killing
She’d never do
it with her own hands, but that’s only because it’s messy and undignified. Man’s job, you see. She has no qualms about ordering the death of someone else, though.
Magic
Magic doesn’t exist, and no amount of arguments will convince her otherwise until she actually sees it in front of her.
13. Magical Attributes
NA
14. Education
Schooling
Private tutelage separate from her siblings, because being the oldest daughter she was set to be empress. She sat in on every meeting she could and taught herself when she wasn’t having formal lessons.
Survival skills
She doesn’t need them. She rarely ever even leaves the palace, let alone the city.
15. Family
Parents’ names and occupations
Empress Yasina (mother, deceased): Empress of Kazin
General Nazir (father, 63): former General of the Assiraz army (still gets called General because he held the position for decades and is still highly respected)
Relationship with parents
Strictly professional. She learnt how to be an empress primarily from her mother, and as much about the military as she felt would be useful from her father. Any bedtime stories came from the nannies.
Siblings’ names and occupations
Commander Rezzi (brother, 43): Commander in the Assiraz army
Queen Ishkani (sister, 38): Queen of Syzra
Queen Shala (sister, 35): Queen of Silrona
Relationship with siblings
Again, strictly professional, though she does favour them more than other queens and army men.
Other family members
General Misbah (partner, 45): General of the Assiraz army.
Again, professional relationship. Mutual respect for each other, he and her father probably the only men whose opinions she actually values.
Prince Sahid (son, 20): Archer in the Assiraz army.
Prince Kanera (son, 17): Training swordsman in the Assiraz army.
Prince Shoaib (son, 15): Training archer in the Assiraz army.
Crown Princess Assili (daughter, 12): Empress in training.
Although Shizaaqa has lunch and cocktails with her family (including her father) everyday, the conversations are more like interrogations, moreso over lunch. For cocktails there are often officials for Shizaaqa to speak with. Assili is the only one allowed to speak out of turn, and she knows her every word is scrutinised by the empress. There is little—if any—family time in this family.
16. Before Silent Harmony
Childhood
Being the next in line to the throne, Shizaaqa barely had a childhood to speak of. She was tutored extensively in the history and languages of each of the separate kingdoms, less so those of Tsayth because they’re so far away and secretive, as well as everything to do with politics. In her spare time between formal tutoring, she sat in on meetings her mother had with officials, or watched the birds in the aviary. Really only her rank has changed over the years.
How current position was reached
She was born as the first daughter and was hence in line to take the Kazinian throne. She studied hard to know all she does to be a strong empress.
Best memory
Her coronation at age 22
Worst memory
As a child, she had a favourite bird in the aviary: a brightly coloured bird of paradise that dropped a feather on her head the first time she saw it. A wild jaguar got into the aviary one day and killed a few of the birds before it was shot down, the bird of paradise amongst them. Shizaaqa hates jaguars now.
Turning points in life
Really only her coronation, but that didn’t change her a whole lot. It just meant her mother wasn’t there to share the burden.
17. After Silent Harmony
How has she changed mentally?
Hell knows. I barely know how the main four will change by that point.
Physically?
Spiritually?
no subject
Date: 2008-05-26 03:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-26 05:37 pm (UTC)