Aemma Vunatis

Lady Aemma Vunatis (403 AC - Current) is the Lady of Sunstone and head of House Vunatis. The Mistress of the Waves as she's called, is a Pirate Queen, currently based on the Stepstones.

Appearance and Character
Aemma has the classical Valyrian look; She has piercing violet eyes and long, pale silver-gold hair. She has full breasts, large hips and thighs, and a high cheekbones. She has a soft, breathy voice with a Low Valyrian accent when speaking in the Common Tongue.

Recent History of House Vunatis
House Vunatis was once an old and wealthy aristocratic family of the free city of Lys. The Vunatis traded in spice and silk from Qarth and Jade Sea where they sent large decked treasure ships on long voyages, taking almost two years to go all the way through the Jade Gates and back south passing by Faros. These extremely risky enterprises came with huge profits, when succeeded, to the Vunatis family who started amassing influence and power in Lys. In 339 AC, one of the Vunatis trading galleys landed on Lys on her way back from the Jade Sea, bringing treasure and a new horrible disease to Lys: the Summer Sickness. The Lysene slew the ship's oarsmen as they came ashore and burned the ship at anchor, but the rats crept down the oars and paddled to the quay on cold stone feet. The plague killed over two thousand people in the city before it ran its course. The Targaryens of Lys, in an attempt to steal the Jade Sea trade, conspired alongside the Alchemy's Guild on a slandering campaign against the Vunatis, claiming that the family had brought the plague on purpose in order to create chaos and seize control of Lys. The Vutanis were known for their wealth and ambition, making them easy scapegoats. They were exiled from Lys, their riches, ships, palace and business seized, being left with a single transport ship and some gold, which they took to Qarth in hopes to be welcomed by one of their trading partners. The Vutanis were welcomed and lived in Qarth under the protection of members of the Tourmaline Brotherhood for several decades. The members of the family got introduced into piracy by the Brotherhood, joining in raiding beyond the Jade Gates and around Slaver's Bay. After hearing of the chaos of the War of the Three Thieves, the pirate queen Shiera Vunatis, who was basing her operations on the Narrow Sea, sailed her ships south, joining forces with Aeryn Targaryen on his campaign to conquer the Stepstones. In 413 AC, she conquered Sunstone on his name, defeating and killing the powerful captain Leganos Jaqarro. She took Sunstone as hers, styling herself as Lady of Sunstone and allying with the pirates of the Saan dynasty. After Aeryn's death, she would contest Vyrmidon Melos and his conquest to the Stepstones, but a mutiny led by her uncle, Illyrio Vunatis, aboard her own ship, the Warbringer, saw her killed. Illyrio took control of the Warbringer and the Vunatis fleet, bending the knee to Vyrmidon.

Life History
Aemma Vunatis was born to the pirate captain Silvario Vunatis and a Lengii noblewoman named Khiara in the year 403 AC. Silvario had an affair with Kharia during his stay at Turrani as he was emptying his ship, trading in spices and gems. As soon as Khiara told Silvario she was pregnant, he took her back to Qarth, where the Vunatis where still mostly based. Silvario married Khiara, and Aemma was born soon after. Khiara would stay at Qarth for some years, raising Aemma, until they both joined Silvario in his voyages, thus the last Vunatis left Qarth at last. Silvario and Khiara would lead an expedition to Naath in 411 AC in an attempt to steal silk worms from the island. They managed to land and sacked several silk plantations, but got caught on a mighty storm which broke their masts and struck them down, the wild sea waves pushing them to the doomed shores of Valyria, where the Ashen Adder, Silvario's ship, wrecked. Aemma was the only survivor, waking up on a beach of dark sands and filled with wrecks of her ship. She survived a three days on the coast of Old Valyria, without food for it was not found on the island nor water for she believed it to be poisoned and polluted due to it's foul odour. She saw large greasy patches of yellow smoking rocks and hills of pitch-black earth filled with a thin red grass. She would hear strange sounds and see glowing yellow and white eyes from the woods, where silhouettes of statues amongst the endless ruins would appear and disappear from hour to hour. The shadows drew closer to the wreck every time she checked, and would follow her along the shore with their malignant eyes. She managed to escape on a makeshift raft made out of the wreck's wood and ropes. From sea, she watched as a hundred deformed shadow men, with skins of grey stone and white eyes with no iris, sacked the ship bare and dragged out the bodies to the woods, biting them as they went and devouring what they could, more beast than men, they sounded horrid noises of hiss and cackle. The Fourteen Flames burned in the distance as she drifted away, the living mountains with veins of molten rock and hearts of fire erected towering columns of dark smoke. 500 years and they still burned like a smoking embers of a firepit.

The Sunless Dawn
Aemma commands the ominous Sunless Dawn, a large triple-deckered galley with midnight blue sails. It has a black and midnight blue hull with golden ornamental lines on the sides. The hull is fully reinforced on the outside with iron plates and lead bars. The ship has a roaring golden dragon head as figurehead with a long blunt ram on the bow. The deck is of pitch-black wood with golden edges and blue hatches and walls, filled with fire braziers in the center.

The ship got it's name and reputation for it's very skilled crew of crossbowmen who would rain down flaming arrows at enemy sails and decks, setting them on fire. They'd use hollow pointed quarrels and shoot them from special made crossbows in a volley fire tactic, ensuring constant fire.

Aemma's quarters is more akin to a palace room than to a captain's cabin. The dimly litted cabin's air is filled with incense and narguile smoke, with sea green walls and a roof filled with scarlet curtains. The stairs handrails are decorated with white dragons and the floor is covered with several Qartheen carpets of red, purple and gold with pillows scattered all around. There are statues of fantastic beasts and gods all around the floor, and a low but wide Ironwood table near one of the corners of the room, with fruits from Sothoryos and the Summer Islands and boxes of several ingredients and trinkets. At the far back, surrounded by the only windows of the room, there is a golden throne with sea green cushions, detailed with dragons. Surrounding it, there are two closed iron cauldrons, with it's peppered lids revealing the tips of burning incense sticks from Asshai. Behind a door on the wall there is a closet, filled with boxes containg from maps to cosmetics, pigments and ingredients, as well as several clothes hanged on the walls, with dresses of silk and Essosi cotton, scarlet, wool, velvet and pelts.

Family

 * Lucerys Vunatis
 * m. Kiera of Lys
 * Lysandro Vunatis
 * Silvario Vunatis
 * m. Khiara of Leng
 * Aemma Vunatis b. 403
 * Khorane Vunatis
 * m. Taena Vunatis
 * Shiera Vunatis b. 392
 * Illyrio Vunatis