Aemma Vunatis

Lady Aemma Vunatis (403 AC - Current) is the Lady of Sunstone and a Pirate Queen. She's the daughter of Silvario Vunatis and Samya Valysar. She's famous for having lead a large pirate fleet on the Jade Sea and for her sorcery and witchcraft. She serves under the command of the Lord of Bloodstone, Vyrmidon Melos.

Appearance and Character
Aemma has an almost otherworldly appearance, with a classic Valyrian look of pale silver-gold hair, soul piercing violet eyes and high cheekbones. Her eyes and eyelashes are always painted, as are her lips, in dark tones of black, sea-green and blue. She's tall, with full breasts, large hips and thighs and well-defined muscles, bearing battle scars and tattoos scattered around her body. She has a deep, breathy voice with an eastern accent when speaking in the Common Tongue. Aemma prefers to wear eastern clothing and uses eastern fragrances. Her exotic looks support her mystic appearance.

Aemma has a serene and powerful aspect to her, and although claims and myths about her character paint her as a bloodthirsty sorceress, she in reality acts with dignity and respect to others, despising slavery and pointless killing. Not much is known about her actual character to anyone in the west though, and she's shrouded in mystery.

Early Life
Aemma was born at Lys in 403 AC by Silvario Vunatis, a rich Lysene merchant and naval officer, and Samya Valysar, a Volantene noblewoman. She grew up in Lys alongside her cousin Shiera Vunatis, both becoming close childhood friends. Aemma's father was a stern man, and wished to make Aemma inherit his business and enlist in the naval career, a bold and strange choice for a woman, but one he was willing to make as his wife was too frail to bear him any more children. He got Aemma introduced into naval warfare, navigation, shipbuilding and sea charts as young as 6 years old. When they were kids, Aemma used to read to Shiera, and draw her pictures of the stars. Shiera would later join a pirate crew in 411 AC after a heated argument with her father due to her late night escapades, leaving home with several friends of he, even inviting 8 year old Aemma to come with her, but Aemma refused.

The First Voyage East
House Vunatis is an old and once wealthy aristocratic family of the Free City of Lys. The Vunatis traded in spice, silk and other exotic products from Qarth and the far east, where they sent large decked treasure ships upon long voyages, taking almost two years to go all the way through the Jade Gates and back. These extremely risky enterprises came with huge profits, when succeeded, to the Vunatis family who would raise and fall in influence and power in Lys throughout the years.

When Aemma turned 15, in 419 AC, Silvario brought Aemma to one of his voyages east with his trading fleet, in order to test her and introduce her to his contacts in Qarth and the far east. There she was enchanted by the eastern customs and culture, but much more so by the magic of the east. During her stay at Qarth she met an unusually kind warlock, who showed her magic tricks such as blooming flowers on her hair and creating animals made of fire with his hands. She was in awe of these, and wished to learn these magics, but the warlock warned her that these weren't mere mummer's tricks, and that the price she would pay would be severe, most likely everything she had. She left Qarth, however, before she could learn more as her father obviously did not approve of her interest on the matter.

Soon their voyage led them to the fabled port city of Yin, where Silvario would meet a shadowbinder from Asshai. She would tell him, and an eavesdropping Aemma, his future which she saw on the flames, and gave him a prophetic warning: "The flames told me as such. I saw a vice-admiral standing alone, with the sailor's coffin beneath his head and the bright blue sky above his feet. Why didn't you listen? Beware the Daughter of the Sea.". Silvario was quick to dismiss the witch's words, but he would remember and beware of them until the last of his days.

Later, during their stay at the port of Turrani, the ship's compartments were so full of spices, fruits and gold that they had no more room for any Lengii goods, porting there only to supply on water and food for the long voyage home. Aemma met the most beautiful person she ever saw, a Lengii noblewoman, seven feet tall with long legs and slender, yet full of hips and bust. All Lengii were very handsome in ther looks. Aemma ended up bothering the woman due to her constant questions, who then told her of the deep dark gods that inhabited beneath the island of Leng, who would sacrifice foreigners to grant powers to the God-Empress herself and her chosen. Instead of being horrified by the story though, Aemma rather asked if these gods still granted powers, even to foreigners, which disconcerted the woman who told her the caves to such ruins were the gods dwelved were sealed shut hundreds of years ago, and that all who dared try to enter were sentenced to death, which bothered Aemma, saying that keeping all this knowledge secret was unfair. The voyage back to Lys was very long, as had been the voyage to get there in the first place, and they returned in the year 420 AC with plenty of exotic goods which where sold by a fortune. She would 2 years later go on another voyage east, this time under her uncle's Khorane Vunatis' command.



The Pride of Lys' Eyes
Aemma began to gain fame in the Lysene society, even amongst the common folk, for she was a rare jewel of exotic beauty, the famed vice-admiral's daughter. Many suitors started to flock to her father's choice, but he refused them all, fearing that the bounds of marriage and betrothal would keep her from his grooming. These connections would make Aemma start to become politically savvy, meeting with important houses, swaying them with charms and a sharp mind, she was regarded as a promise amongst high society of a great future house leader. Her father would arrange her to marry a rich Myrish noble in 425 AC named Jaeros Drahar. Aemma actually refused at first, but Jaeros charmed her with his braveness and his velvet singing voice, he was the one to first teach Aemma to use the rapier. Aemma's and Jaeros's marriage was very happy, making her even more popular amongst the high society of the city. Aemma started leading her own trade missions after that as a wedding gift from her father, leading ships not only to the east but also to the Summer Sea, Pentos and Myr, proving her a skilled and cunning captain and trader. Even so, Jaeros started to get impatient at Aemma's failure to bear him a child. They'd constantly fight over the issue, which led Jaeros to later become an alcoholic and excentric, openly cheating on his wife and commonly found on pleasure houses of Lys. Jaeros would eventually die in 428 AC, when he drunkenly fell to his death into one of the city's canals and drowned. Aemma, having just left to lead a fleet to the east on another trade mission only got the news after her return months later. Later tales during her pirating career would claim that she actually killed Jaeros due to him discovering she actually had sons, but would sacrifice them to demons in order to grant her more powers.



Silvario's Expedition
In 413 AC, after hearing of the chaos of the War of the Three Thieves, the now pirate captain Shiera Vunatis, basing her operations on the Narrow Sea, sailed her ships south to join forces with Aeryn Targaryen on his campaign to conquer the Stepstones. She conquered Sunstone on his name, defeating and killing the famous pirate captain Leganos Jaqarro, being granted by Aeryn Targaryen the title of Lady of Sunstone. After Aeryn's death in 427 AC, she would launch a bloody campaign, laying claim to Aeryn's crown. Back at Lys, the Vunatis family came under fire from the merchants and other aristocratic families of the city. Shiera's constant raiding and plundering of merchant ships to gather funds for her campaign severely destabilized the trade between the Summer and Narrow seas. Noblemen in Lys started to blame the Vunatis for Shiera's actions, citing their inaction as a reason Shiera could strenghen herself so much. Silvario Vunatis, head of the family and Vice-Admiral on the Lysene navy, as well as uncle to Shiera, decided to launch an expedition to Sunstone in order to destroy Shiera's fleet and clean the name of their house. He amassed his forcers during the year, preparing his ships for comabat, recalling Aemma from a trading mission to the Summer Isles back to Lys. Silvario spent lavishly, building a grandiose dromon he named Warbringer. The ship had sharpened spikes (which were used to sheer off the oars of rival ships), a wooden castle at fore and aft from which marksmen could fire bows, crossbows and scorpions, a great company of armored marines for boarding, four large lateen sails and two banks of rowers, the top bank holding 25 rowers per side and the bottom holding up to 35, which meant the ship could be crewed to up to 120 rowing men. Upon arrival, however, Aemma and Silvario disagreed over the necessity of the expedition, with Aemma claiming that kinslaying was not necessary and that the noblemen of Lys were already conspiring against the Vunatis even before Shiera's rampage, with aims to steal their share of the lucrative trade with the far east and steal their contacts and buyers. Aemma was also close to Shiera since childhood, and wished to negotiate with Shiera, perhaps backing her campaign to unite the Stepstones and bring stability to the region. But Silvario refused to negotiate with pirates, "glorified thiefs" and "traitors". Aemma was forced to go with her father, and Silvario's Expedition left port in 428 AC to Sunstone. Arriving at the island, Shiera's fleet was already, expecting their arrival. Silvario engaged head on with his mighty Warbringer, ramming several smaller ships like a hot knife on butter, destroying Shiera's first line of defense in minutes. But, to his and everyone else's surprise, Aemma turned her ships around and left the battlefield before even engaging the enemy, taking almost half of his fleet with her. Upon this mass desertion, Shiera would take the fight to Silvario, engaging all of his remaining ships and taking her flagship to personally board the Warbringer, with the intent to capture her. She fought a bloody battle, her crew barely pushing the larger crew of Silvario's ship back. During the fierce combat, she ended up heavily wounded and had to retreat back to her palace at Sunstone with her men, leaving the remaining ships and men to fight without her. Three other ships started to board the Warbringer simultaneously, and Silvario knew the battle was over, and that the prophecy had finally came to be. Not wishing to see his ship fall to the hands of the pirates, he ordered his men to sail the ship against a rocky islet nearby, sinking it. The crew did as ordered, and abandoned ship as soon as it started to sink, but the admiral stayed with his vessel, and fell alongside the Warbringer as it slowly sunk into the depths of the ocean. Shiera would later die of her wounds in battle, leaving Sunstone vacant to be disputed once more amongst the pirate lords of the Stepstones. Aemma was then exiled from Lys, marked as a traitor to her country and family. House Vunatis fell to become a bitter shadow of what it once was, now merely a minor noble family in Lys.

Exile to the East
Aemma took her fleet east, past the Jade Gates, seizing and plundering merchant ships all along the Jade Sea Trade Route. She soon captured an island in the Cinnamon Straits as a base of operations. Aemma used fear as a weapon during her attacks, terrifying her victims into surrender, utilising her otherworldly aspect and sorcerous powers to do so. This led her to gain fame as a sea witch and helped spread rumors of her life, such as how she would have congress with the demons of Leng, that she bathed in the blood of maidens to keep her beauty or that she devoured the flesh of fallen captains to absorb their power. On 434 AC, off the island of Marahai, Aemma engaged a large Asshai'i warship, the famous Dawntreader, escorting 500 slaves bound for Asshai. The Dawntreader was actually luring Aemma into attacking her, leading her into a trap. Asshai had built the ship with the sole intent of destroying the pirate chaos Aemma had brought with her pirate fleet upon the Jade Sea, as it had heavily disrupted trade with Asshai and the city was starting to suffer shortage of food and fresh water. Aemma noticed the trap, however, where several dozens of ships on the other side of the island's cape were ready to ambush her. She would cunningly burn down the Dawntreader's sails with her fire magic, stranding the ship on place. She then confronted the remaining ships, making easy prey of them by ramming them and cunning manouvering, sinking all of them. She went back to the Dawntreader and boared her, which surrendered after a quick fight after seeing their sails burn down and their ships sunk. Some slaves joined her crew, while the rest and the ship's crew where left ashore. Aemma heavily refitted the ship, expanding it and turning it into her fleet's flagship, renaming her "The Sunless Dawn". She now commanded one of the most powerful ships on the entire Jade Sea. With 15 ships and over a 1000 combined crew, Aemma rampaged through the coast of the northeastern Jade Sea, capturing and burning merchant ships, as well as the Yi Tish colony of Leng Yi in Leng. She would then sail west, to the coast of the Golden Empire, where she wrought havoc amongst Yi Tish shipping, and earned herself a new nickname, "The Mistress of the Waves". But despite many prizes, morale was low amongst Aemma's crew, as they hand't had a big haul in months and the men wanted gold. She would then sail back to the Cinnamon Straits, where she was based. In a bold move, she blockaded the city of Port Moraq for a half a moon, seizing goods and hostages from any ships entering or leaving the harbour. Port Moraq is a large trade town on the southern tip of the island of Great Moraq, where traders often stopped at the port upon return from the Jade Sea Trader's Route circular winds. She profited immensely from this enterprise, but this was stepping the line for the Golden Empire of Yi Ti, who sent it's massive fleet out to chase down Aemma either out of the Jade Sea or to it's bottom beforer she had any ideas to do the same on one of their cities. Aemma chose the former, sailing with all her riches and ships west, out through the Cinnamon Straits into the Summer Sea in 436 AC.



Return to the West
Aemma left the Jade Sea with 30 ships and cargo holds full of gold, spices, silks and other various oriental goods. She would then stop from port to port from Slaver's Bay all the way to Volantis, where she discovered that Sunstone had been recently claimed by an upstart pirate from the Summer Isles named Xhobar "Black Bone". Aemma, seizing the opportunity, set sail to the Stepstones and took over the island with relative ease by setting ablaze all the ships on Xhobar's fleet during a surprise night attack. She titled herself as the Lady of Sunstone, restoring the title of her late cousin. This has led to a certain tension between Sunstone and Lys, ther latter feeling closer to her exiled child than the nobles in the city would prefer. Aemma is feared and hated by the Lysene people, with even a famous Lysene folk song being chanted about her promise of a great leader, her betrayal of her father at the Stepstones and the prophecy that warned her father about his fate. She would then bend the knee to the Lord of Bloodstone, Vyrmidon Melos in 438 AC, after seeing him with his dragon Stormsong, cementing her position as ruler of her island and as an active political figure of the Three Daughters.

Captain's Diary - List of Voyages
Trade Voyages under the Vunatis Company Military Expeditions
 * 419-420 AC - To Qarth and the Jade Sea alongside Silvario Vunatis
 * 422-423 AC - To Qarth and the Jade Sea alongside Khorane Vunatis
 * 425 AC - To Myr, Tyrosh and Volantis alongside Jaeros Drahar
 * 426-428 AC - To Slaver's Bay, Qarth and the Jade Sea
 * 428 AC- To the Summer Isles (cut short)
 * 428 AC - To Sunstone (deserted)
 * 429-436 AC - Pirating campaign on the Jade Sea
 * 429 AC - To an unnamed island on the Cinnamon Straits
 * 429-434, 436 AC - To the Jade Sea Trade Route
 * 434 AC - To Marahai
 * 434-436 AC - To the Northeastern Jade Sea
 * 434 AC - To Leng Yi
 * 434-436 AC - To the coast of the Golden Empire of Yi Ti
 * 436 AC - Blockade of Port Moraq
 * 438 AC - To Sunstone

Witchcraft
Aemma first became interested in the magical arts of the east during her first voyage, at 15 years old alongside her father. Along the course of the years, she would later go on more trade voyages which would help her get introduced in the world of sorcery and witchcraft. As a young lass, Aemma studied with warlocks and maegis at Qarth during her voyages, but never had time enough to pursue these studies much further. She brought with her from her second voyage east a Qartheen maegi back to Lys under the guise of her being an eastern handmaiden. This maegi, named Zarazza Daak, agreed to teach her in secret all her mystical powers, like rituals, sacrifices, blood magic and prophetic fortune telling by the taste of a person's blood. Later, upon Aemma's betrayal and exile, she would have much more time to spend learning of the warlocks' powers and their origins. She would attack their Qartheen rivals' trading ships at sea, helping crippling their incomes, in exchange for their dark secrets and knowledge. The warlocks would teach her the arcane secrets of blood sacrifice, of the types of blood and objects that may enhance a sacrifice and necromantic rituals banned elsewhere. Although this knowledge was not free and she worked for the warlocks, another price paid was of her old life and personality, which was severely changed by this process, becoming more cynic, cruel, pragmatist and uncaring. It is unknown if the warlocks wished her to join them, but she left Qarth as soon as she felt the warlocks' knowledge was not needed anymore. She continued to practice her powers to drive her victims into submission through fear.

The pirate Aemma would later go to Asshai, where she felt there could be much more the learned than the illusions of the warlocks. She had to disguise herself though, as she was wanted in Asshai after she took posession of the Sunless Dawn, painting her hair red and covering her face with a mask. In Asshai, Aemma bought the services of many teachers, both with gold, favors and blood, which the Asshai'i considered more valuable than normal due to her Valyrian descent. Aemma made sacrifices to eastern demons in order to bond her soul to the element of fire. She came into possession of the ancient texts of Asshai through shadowbinders who demanded from her many sacrifices, learning the secrets of the spawning of walking shadows, how to bring back the dead through necromancy and the many uses of blood magic to achieve unimaginable feats, although none of these feats would come easily, again making her darkening her soul and character, now but a dark shadow of what she was when she came to these strange lands of the east. Aemma would later, while sacking coastal cities at the island of Leng, explored the odd, overgrown ruins of the Old Ones, which lead to massive underground labyrinths and caverns. There she found ancient texts with even more information on rituals and demonic creatures. Aemma claims she talks with these demons in her mind, and that they tell her to do things, but that might just be another fear instigating tactic for her victims.

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 leathers. The ship has a mighty golden sea dragon on the front as a figurehead. The ship also has 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 on the center.

The ship got it's name and reputation from both it's very skilled crew of crossbowmen who would rain down flaming arrows at enemy sails and decks, setting them on fire, and her captain, who would conjure fires to destroy other enemy ships. They men use hollow pointed quarrels and would loose them from special made crossbows in a volley fire tactic, ensuring constant shooting.

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 b. 310 d. 371 (natural)
 * m. Kiera of Lys b. 343 d. 422 (natural)
 * Lysandro Vunatis b. 360
 * Silvario Vunatis b. 363 d. 432 (died sinking with his ship during his battle against Shiera Vunatis)
 * m. Samya Valysar b. 380
 * Aemma Vunatis b. 403
 * Khorane Vunatis b. 366
 * m. Taena Vunatis b. 370
 * Shiera Vunatis b. 392 d. 432 (died of wounds from battle against Silvario's Expedition to Sunstone)
 * Illyrio Vunatis b. 369