Character 100-ish 043: Queen Shala
Mar. 21st, 2014 09:35 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
annarti.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
yrae
Drew her on Monday and kinda forgot about her until now. Whoops.
This one did not come out so well. Meh. At least she looks related to Shizaaqa.
NAME Queen Shala of Sirrona
WHO IS THIS PERSON Clue is in the title! She's also Empress Shizaaqa's youngest sister.
GENDER Female
AGE 36. She hasn't aged well, apparently.
BRIEF BIO Shala is the youngest in a family of four--big brother and two sisters. Like her big sisters, Issa and Shizaaqa, Shala was raised to rule, and ridden hard for it. She would never inherit Kazin, of course, but there are a dozen provinces that need queens. Shala started out hating it as a girl, until Shizaaqa took her aside and said plainly that she needed Shala to be strong and rule because she needed people she could trust. That faith from her big sister was what made Shala reluctantly start trying, but under their mother's hard eye, she was always pretty timid. She was afraid to make decisions, because of how hard the empress would fall on her when she got them wrong. She took it all personally, not so much as a learning experience (to be fair, though, Empress Yasina made it personal).
The empress died when Shala was 13, and her big sister was crowned empress. Shala felt more than a little relief, but of course Shizaaqa started riding her has hard as Yasina had. She was given important positions in Shizaaqa's court, especially dealing with people from the mountains and Raykinians, because Shizaaqa had decided she was going to be queen of pretty much the most important province outside Assiraz.
... Man this is really sounding more like Shizaaqa's profile than Shala's. But that's pretty much what Shala's life has always been, anyway. She's Shizaaqa's puppet. Shizaaqa kept her around the Assiraz palace for over a decade, during which time Sirrona cycled through two other queens and Shala became more and more dependant on Shizaaqa's advice and patronage. So, when she was finally shipped off to be the queen of Sirrona at 25, Shala's head was filled with Shizaaqa's ideas, but none of her fire.
Shala has genuinely only been in power for as long as she has been because everyone who would challenge her knows exactly why she's there. Shizaaqa is ruthless with anyone who speaks against her family, and they all know she'd declare open war on Sirrona if any harm came to Shala. So the puppet stays put.
CHARACTER Weak, tries to put on a strong face but clearly knows little of what's going on. She had been expecting to be taking orders from Shizaaqa, but has found herself left very much alone. All Shizaaqa demands of her is that the taxes be paid, and leaves Shala to figure out how to do it. Shala is very susceptible to outside influences, and will generally just follow the person with the strongest opinion, be they on her advisory panel or foreign royalty.
POINTS OF INTEREST
She probably has children but I don't know where to fit them in. I'm going to say they're all sons because Shala is useless otherwise there'd be an heir floating around somewhere.
There have been plots to kill her, they just haven't worked out and Shala hasn't known about them. Her people keep these things from her, because if she knew then word would get back to Shizaaqa, and death would rain down on Sirrona.
This one did not come out so well. Meh. At least she looks related to Shizaaqa.
NAME Queen Shala of Sirrona
WHO IS THIS PERSON Clue is in the title! She's also Empress Shizaaqa's youngest sister.
GENDER Female
AGE 36. She hasn't aged well, apparently.
BRIEF BIO Shala is the youngest in a family of four--big brother and two sisters. Like her big sisters, Issa and Shizaaqa, Shala was raised to rule, and ridden hard for it. She would never inherit Kazin, of course, but there are a dozen provinces that need queens. Shala started out hating it as a girl, until Shizaaqa took her aside and said plainly that she needed Shala to be strong and rule because she needed people she could trust. That faith from her big sister was what made Shala reluctantly start trying, but under their mother's hard eye, she was always pretty timid. She was afraid to make decisions, because of how hard the empress would fall on her when she got them wrong. She took it all personally, not so much as a learning experience (to be fair, though, Empress Yasina made it personal).
The empress died when Shala was 13, and her big sister was crowned empress. Shala felt more than a little relief, but of course Shizaaqa started riding her has hard as Yasina had. She was given important positions in Shizaaqa's court, especially dealing with people from the mountains and Raykinians, because Shizaaqa had decided she was going to be queen of pretty much the most important province outside Assiraz.
... Man this is really sounding more like Shizaaqa's profile than Shala's. But that's pretty much what Shala's life has always been, anyway. She's Shizaaqa's puppet. Shizaaqa kept her around the Assiraz palace for over a decade, during which time Sirrona cycled through two other queens and Shala became more and more dependant on Shizaaqa's advice and patronage. So, when she was finally shipped off to be the queen of Sirrona at 25, Shala's head was filled with Shizaaqa's ideas, but none of her fire.
Shala has genuinely only been in power for as long as she has been because everyone who would challenge her knows exactly why she's there. Shizaaqa is ruthless with anyone who speaks against her family, and they all know she'd declare open war on Sirrona if any harm came to Shala. So the puppet stays put.
CHARACTER Weak, tries to put on a strong face but clearly knows little of what's going on. She had been expecting to be taking orders from Shizaaqa, but has found herself left very much alone. All Shizaaqa demands of her is that the taxes be paid, and leaves Shala to figure out how to do it. Shala is very susceptible to outside influences, and will generally just follow the person with the strongest opinion, be they on her advisory panel or foreign royalty.
POINTS OF INTEREST
no subject
Date: 2014-03-24 03:11 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-03-25 07:20 am (UTC)