Selenya Targaryen

[ WIP ]

Born a bastard, Selenya Targaryen is the eldest child and sole daughter of Evaeline Targaryen. Though the identity of her father yet remains unknown to her, her mother would regale her at night with tales of his numerous feats of strength and displays of courage, assuring her that he was "one of the greatest warriors in Westeros".

With her family holding a magisterial seat within the city's ruling conclave, Selenya's life has been one of luxury and prosperity. Groomed and raised in the image of her mother from a young age, she was well-equipped to take the mantle of head of House Targaryen of Lys with Evaeline's relatively recent passing.

Appearance and Character
Despite the gradual dilution of the Targaryen blood in her family, Selenya arguably demonstrates the most Valyrian of features. Her cheek bones are high and angled; her jaw line is well-defined, coming together at a delicately chin. With an aqualine nose, finely sculpted lips, petite ears, and large lilac eyes, few can argue her beauty.

The only claim to be made against her Targaryen ancestry is that of her hair, but even that is an empty argument. As a child, Selenya encountered a number of Tyroshi with hair as vibrant and variable in hue as a rainbow following a heavy rain. Since then, Selenya has enjoyed playing with dyes of various shades. Although she prefers muted and subtle colours of pale gold, rose, copper and even the occasional lilac to the vibrant choices of the Tyroshi culture, her natural hair colour is a silver so pale it borders upon white.

Tall and straight-backed, she maintains her chin poised aloft and the hint of a smile perpetually upon her lips. With long legs and a lean frame, she almost glides as she walks. Like her mother, she carries herself with a regal disposition and air of pride. Though not as personally ambitious, Selenya is every bit as deviously driven as her mother in achieving whatever goals she sets. Loyal to those who are loyal to her, she is an enigmatic paradox of selfish altruism.

Early Life (381 AC - 394 AC)
Like many noble-born girls, Selenya enjoyed a variety of comforts and luxuries. From an early age, her health was attended to by a maester that her mother had hired from Westeros, who likewise contributed to her intellectual and social development. Unlike many noble-born girls, Selenya also had the privilege of being directly attended by her mother, receiving lesson after lesson of appropriate etiquette, attire, manner, and character. She excelled in lessons of history and politics, but her favourite subjects to study were the intellectual games of cyvasse, anatomy and physiology of the human body, and alchemical properties of various compounds.

Selenya may not have had friends or peers her age, but she grew close with her mother and was constantly surrounded by friends and members of the upper echelon. Two men in particular come vividly to mind when thinking of her past.

The first she knew ironically as Ser Nick, though she preferred the moniker Uncle Nikki. He was a whale of a man, rotund and hefty, but had come into her mother's employ frequently enough over the years as a sellsword that he had become akin to family. And he certainly acted the part, sharing pasties and treats with the young Dragon on more than one occasion. It could quite possibly be said that he was single-handedly responsible for her education of the finer arts, regaling her at every opportunity with epic poems and various oral traditions from across the Free Cities. On more than one occasion, she would listen to the retelling of The Thousand Classical Poems of Lys with him in tow during the annual festival in their honor.

Even more than Uncle Nikki, the second man, known as UncaBee, quickly became her favourite source of entertainment. A sellsword in Essos as well, he visited frequently, staying for months at a time sometimes when his war excursions were either nearby or in recess. For hours on end, she would demand stories. He would speak of brave knights and grand tournaments and war and conquest in Westeros, but above all of those, she enjoyed when he would tell her all the dragon lore he knew. As she grew, it was this draconic knowledge she craved. She dreamed of one day sitting atop a dragon of her own, knowing well that without the Leviathan, her great grandfather Baelon would not have had nearly the same level of success that he did. However briefly. So much was her love for them that UncaBee gifted to her a music box featuring a dragon, all made of bronze with gold and ebony accents, a gift she treasures to this day.

Life as Selenya knew it changed quite dramatically after the birth of her brother, Aeryn, in 391 AC. With her mother sitting upon the conclave of magisters for the majority of her childhood, Selenya had grown rather accustomed to having her run of the manse. Kept and quiet as it was, she was free to do as she pleased, particularly when she was old enough to take her leave with a guard or two to explore the city proper, or make appearances at the various festivals and political functions.

With her brother’s birth, however, she was discouraged from leaving him to his own devices – not that she desired to. With him around, there was never a dull moment. She quickly became something of a mother for him: attending to his needs as an infant, helping him to crawl, applauding his first steps, chasing after him when he’d learned to run. And as soon as he was able to go off on his own, he would return to Selenya with bruises for her to kiss and scrapes for her to mend. The use of various slaves, poultices and dressings soon became second nature for the girl.

An Unexpected Proposal (395 AC)
As soon as Selenya had shown interest in the management of her family’s affairs, her mother had encouraged her involvement. Thus, she had taken a role in the various pleasure houses from a relatively early age. For the most part, she took part in the lessons, learning of the arts of love and pleasure alongside the slaves of her age, mastering hygienic practices and socioemotional connection as well as physical technique. In particular, she took interest in ensuring the happiness and health of the staff. As it was, she was not actively involved in the profession until her fourteenth year when her mother informed her that she had arranged a most suitable match.

No amount of preparation and knowledge could have readied her for that night. Although he was quite a bit older than she, he was youthful, handsome, and as timid as a maid. To this day, still able to recall every detail of the union, Selenya holds no small amount of mixed emotions, particularly with regard to the following morning. Upon awakening, her client – evidently overcome by shame or guilt with the intensity of his apology – offered her a marriage proposal. She knew at the time that knowing nothing of his history or from what family he hailed, and beyond that, he was a client, she should not – could not – accept. Even still, despite turning him down as gently as she could, just as she had been taught, she accepted the signet ring he gave her, a red dragon bearing four heads carved into a plate of onyx.

With his departure, part of her wondered if he would ever return for her, to ask properly for her hand in marriage, but she never saw him again. She still wears his ring upon her neck as a symbol of a life she could have had.

Stepping into the Role (396 AC - 398 AC)
In the years to come, Selenya would gradually take over full management of a small number of the pleasure houses. For having had Evaeline Targaryen as a mother, Selenya was a rather gentle soul. When she wasn't tending to clients, or to the needs of her slaves, she was seeing to the general health of the rest of her family's slaves and employees. This attentiveness and apparent concern for others' welfare carried over into her profession, resulting in many of her clients finding her companionship as therapeutic as it was pleasurable.

It wasn't long before her lessons to selectively and tastefully accept gifts and offers were once more put to the test. Offers of full-time positions as a concubine became the norm, and as she developed a regular clientele, she began to expect the routine gifts they would bear her with each meeting. An ornate ring of opal and gold here, a flowing robe of blue and silver silk there. She would treasure every one - within reason - and take care to ensure she bore the gifts she was given over the years when next she met with that client. One such client had - by his own words - grown so enamored with her beauty that he wished to preserve it; and until he could devise a potion to allow her to maintain her youthful visage for all eternity, a man to guard her day and night from adversary would have to do. And so, Selenya acquired a personal guard, battle hardened from years of serving in the fighting pits.

Blooded and at a loss of innocence, Selenya stepped fully into her role. Like her mother, her mother's mother, and seemingly every maternal line that preceded, Selenya bloomed into her new position as a paid courtesan. Though she hardly minded the work, she did resent having been put into such a position of expectation. How it could possibly be to her benefit to her or her House to be subjected to participating in such a profession.. it was beyond her. But dutiful as she was to her mother, she obeyed, and like her mother had before her, she learned the value of secrets.

Trial by Fire and Blood (399 AC - 403 AC)
It was then to the trade of knowledge that Selenya turned. Any time someone posed her a question, she made a mental note to find the answer, often trading it back for another piece of knowledge. Preferences, distastes, the nature of close relations, fears, goals, she would systematically file away for later use as much information as she was able on whomever she encountered. Soon, she began to receive contract offers to find specific information on target individuals. As a result, Selenya began to cultivate a network of her own eyes and ears beyond the pleasure houses.

On one mission, she had the misfortune to have a number of her spies caught during an infiltration. Evidently, someone had tipped off the target, as counter measures had been lurking in the shadows awaiting an ambush. During interrogations, her agents revealed her name. For a time, her clientele base experienced a massive hit and she suffered the slander that pinned her as untrustworthy and thieving. Countermeasures had to be taken to dismantle the source of the rumor milling, a series of actions that eventually led to a number of upper echelons conveniently deciding to come forward, admitting deliberate efforts to wrongly soil her name and that of her family.

After two years of rebuilding her reputation, Selenya would be summoned to her mother's chambers. It was there that she came to learn that - given that information brokering and rumor mongering had been her area of expertise - it had been her mother this entire time, testing her abilities to see a contract through regardless of difficulty, to combat slanderous attempts to one's name, to realize the need for an enigmatic guise as a spymaster. Going forward, she would be known as Lady Misery in the underground, never again offering a face to the name.

Having survived the ordeal and come out on top, Selenya had earned her mother's respect sufficiently enough to be brought into the fold with the more lucrative aspects of the various businesses. Though she continued to refrain from having a hand in the banking and investments, nor in the breeding of slaves, she found a home among the high-stake tables in the lower levels of some of the pleasure houses. It was a conversation at one of these games that set Selenya's thoughts towards a market previously untapped by her family. Alchemical exports.

It was a subject she had always found fascinating - the way in which a concoction could just as easily aid a man as kill him - and one into which she soon dove. Within a fortnight, she had assembled a small lap within her chambers. And by the turn of the following moon, she had made a structural addition to a wine cellar at one of the vineyards. There, she would hone her crafts, researching beneficial and malicious potions alike as her networks scouted a source of buyers. By the year's end, she had entered the market, manufacturing and exporting various medicinal compounds such as Sweetsleep and Dreamwine, as well as Tears of Lys under the guise of Misery's End and other poisons.

Scarlet Tears and Frozen Hearts (404 AC - 405 AC)
In the year 404 AC, Selenya's mother stepped down unexpectedly from her position within the conclave. At the time, Selenya had been assured that it was nothing more than a temporary illness, a malady from which she would soon recover. As time passed, however, it became clear to her that there was more than her mother was letting on.

[To be continued...]

Personal Goals

 * Selenya seeks to see her House restored to the level of influence it carried in Essos upon its foundation
 * [to be added as the background is filled in]

Recent Events
[To be updated regularly as events unfold throughout the duration of the collaborative role-play]

Family Tree Edit

 * Baelon "Prince of Lys" Targaryen (305 AC - 334 AC)
 * m. Eireni of Lys (306 AC - 350 AC)
 * Saera "the Siren" Targaryen (328 AC - 374 AC)
 * m. Orenn Rogare
 * Evaeline Targaryen (353 AC - 405 AC)
 * Selenya (b. 381 AC)
 * Aeryn (b. 391 AC)