|
|
Background
One of the great seductresses of the Imperial Age, Miranda bewitched Archduke Bryar Haldis, bore him his long-sought-after heir, and now acts as adviser to her their Duke Darren Haldis. As the Lady of her own house, she is a deft political schemer with the ruthlessness and savvy to rise further still.
'Defunct' is really such a dirty word.
Besides, it's not entirely true. The t'Alvis of Carsonne are no longer, but mostly by virtue of the fact that Carsonne itself is no longer. The Alvis of Pacitta, however, are alive and thriving, successful merchants in the city state formed as a result of the fighting that might have wiped the family off the face of the map forever.
Some consider it selfishness, while others consider it a lack of morals. Becoming the lover of a powerful man is not always motivated by either of those qualities, however. When one lives on the border of an opposing kingdom with whom yours is soon to become embroiled in war, actions require not selfishness, but the opposite. Selflessness, sacrifice, and devotion to a common goal are required to survive. That fact is true of both armies and families alike, and the then-t'Alvis were no different. After all, the Giraldis and the Marchettes had a tendency to behave in such a way despite looking, from the outside, like they’d make rather formidable enemies. Cooperation is often the wiser choice, and such was the case in this particular story. For these reasons (and perhaps a few, unnamed others), our protagonist, seventeen-year-old Miranda t'Alvi, took a lover. To the benefit of her and her family, that lover happened to be the Archduke Bryar Haldis.
Everyone knows (or likes to think they know) the details of what happened next: in the early stages of the Thirty Years’ War, an unmarried Couvieri woman wheedled her way into a noble Rivanian house with exceptional influence and bore him an illegitimate son when his wife failed to provide him with any live children at all. Naturally, they all forget to mention the part where Haldis’ forces had invaded the Alvi castle, and Miranda was faced with the decision to capitulate or get creative. History tells us she chose the latter which, in her case, meant delving deep into herself and mustering as much charisma and flattery as she could. It worked out in her favor: Bryar was charmed, and the two became a pair.That would be taking their side, though, so it’s often swept under the rug. Whatever the truth of her initial feelings was, whispers became shouts and the rumors have yet to die down, most probably because that aforementioned wife’s family is awfully sore about how she made out on the whole deal. That, of course, adds another layer of interesting relations to our tale.
That unmarried Couvieri woman was very young when her role in all these matters became important, and was unknown before this time. In fact, she was not even twenty when her eldest child, the future Duke of Eastfield, was born in 1832. She didn’t know that he’d succeed his father, or that he’d even be legitimized. Perhaps a baby wasn't entirely her plan from the beginning, but these things happen, and why not roll with them? She’d discovered both her skill with and enjoyment of using her charms to engineer situations to insure her success. Such flexibility is what had gotten Miranda into position as a favorite before, after all, so why would it fail her now? If she'd been at all on the fence about just what her baby would mean for her family or Rivana at large before his birth, she certainly was no longer after it was revealed she'd delivered a boy.
Darren was her world. There'd been little space between her own childhood and the launch into motherhood during the turmoil of war, but her little boy was Miranda's bright spot. There wasn’t (and, really, still isn’t) anything she wouldn’t do for him. It wasn’t even that he was a valuable pawn in a larger scheme like her many critics often said of her doting behavior toward the boy. Something just ‘clicked’ when he was born, their bond was strong and developed early, and, in her mind, she couldn’t not shower him with love and affection. He showed talent and physical prowess at a young age, and her pride, mixed with a sense of importance as his mother, motivated her to continue pushing him to do better in everything he did. Even with the additional and unanticipated obstacle of raising him away from his father's court, she still did what she could to prepare him to become a functional member of high society, regardless of what his ultimate place would be.
Well, until Armando Giraldi came along.
When unmarried, it’s easy to focus attention on a single task, or maybe two, to the exclusion of all else. When married, and when married to a high-profile businessman whose prominence in society only added to her infamy, Miranda had to devote more time than maybe she’d have liked to her marriage. Darren had spent half his life as the legitimate heir to his father’s duchy by this point, so perhaps the wedding came during a lull for Miranda. Regardless, it skyrocketed her to the forefront of gossip once again when she and Armando were wed in 1844. He needed her support (read: fortune), after all, to elevate himself to the High Council. He needed her on his arm at social functions. And, perhaps more immediately, he needed someone to succeed him. Fortunately for Armando, Miranda was still just thirty when they married - still young enough to bear children (and oh, did she). It all looked so positive for the family, and it only got better; within their first year of marriage the two welcomed a son, Raimond, the heir to that newly-risen House Giraldi. Within the next two years, she’d birth two more children. Miranda, it seems, was proficient at having heirs when they were necessary.
It’s a tragedy to lose one’s husband, especially when one is the mother of small children. When these children are all still in diapers and one’s husband is found face-down in a canal, however, it complicates the situation significantly, especially when one is a controversial figure like Miranda Giraldi. Her youngest wasn’t even born when Armando was found murdered in 1847, the unfortunate target of a still more unfortunate idea spawned by a lesser family in Pacitta. Lydia, their daughter, would never know her father. Miranda didn’t even know she was carrying another child at the time. It was another opportunity for her to shine, however, and shine she did; while ultimately the family needed to scale back every proverbial cookie jar they had their hands in, this did not ruin them. The murderers were found, made to pay for their mistakes, and the foundation of their family never even shook, let alone crumbled.
This was a teaching opportunity, of course. As a mother, Miranda used the death of her husband to teach her children what strength was, and, as they grew older, what a man their father had been and what his successes meant for them. As the head of the Giraldi Trading Company, she used her change in position to prove to Pacitta that their family, while no longer on the High Council, was still a force to be reckoned with. As if she needed to further drive the point home, and with no lack of ambition, she began to provide a knightly education for Raimond, her second son, much in the same way she’d had Darren educated, even with their differences in station. It was 1852, at this point, and Darren was 20, well-trained, and had been with his father in Eastfield for nearly a decade and a half. It wasn’t so much competition or protecting her interests, maybe, that she insisted that Raimond receive the same education so much as habit (and being in possession of a great deal of money). After all, it’s what she was familiar with, and with those things she’s most familiar Miranda is most confident.
As is customary with the passage of time, things began to change. Miranda continued to build her interests in Pacitta while overseeing and funding the education of her three younger children. In 1855, even with little ones at home, she became a grandmother when Darren’s wife Mariah bore him a son. Leander, her third child, was nine at the time - the same age Andre would be when his short life would end. It wasn’t something that even crossed Miranda’s mind and, though she regretted not being able to see the baby as often as any grandmother would like to spend time with her grandchild, she certainly didn’t let it get her down. She’d have the rest of her life with little Andre, anyway, and any siblings he might have. It was her mantra when she was stuck in the drudgery of managing family and business alike, and, when the Giraldis were summoned to take up living with Darren at Charger’s rest in 1864, it was a major boon for Miranda. Her demeanor improved, she was generally happier, and outside interactions with her became easier to bear. Her manner with her children never faltered, and she always treated them with love and respect, but with their relocation, it seemed, it was much easier for her to do.
Of course, nothing is ever easy; when Mariah took her own life and that of her beloved grandson Andre in the wake of events of the Rivanian Succession War, Miranda went into deep mourning. She hadn’t put on as public a show of her grief in 1860 when Darren’s father, Bryar, was killed. No, that was a time she needed to stand in and support her son more than anything. She took up in mourning attire and wore dark colors for the better part of the season, but her focus was entirely on her son. When Andre was killed out of pure selfishness, the loss of life made little sense to such a pragmatic woman. He was a kind boy with a bright future, much the same as any of her three sons, and after she’d disappeared into her chambers for the time between hearing of the boy’s death and his funeral, she emerged seemingly made of steel and clad perpetually in black. Miranda was determined, now, to protect her family and advance their interests at any cost.
Charger’s Rest wasn’t always a comfortable home. When she’d moved her family in, Miranda was, naturally, the instant target of her former lover’s jilted widow, Esme. Apparently the Marwyns can’t ever let anything go, and Esme’s continual jabs at her, publically and privately, were grating. They certainly weren’t motivation enough to leave for Pacitta, nor were rumors of all kinds of potential plots here and there - unhappy people want attention, and Miranda had known this almost as long as she’d known how to flirt. She bore them with grace, wit, and an equal amount of bitter sarcasm that she hoped would keep Esme at bay. With the rise of the Thorn Incursion, however, the sarcasm drained to apathy and Esme was forgotten, much to the latter’s chagrin. But the squeakier wheel was getting the oil, and Miranda preferred it that way. Her babies were more important, then and always, than a cranky rival from times past. Pacitta was her destination of choice, then, when Charger’s Rest was sacked by “the Butcher,” Alphard Haldis. It wasn’t a result of the sacking - had Miranda been there, there may not have been anything she could have done to protect herself or her family once put in shackles or worse, considering Haldis’ nickname - but it was aptly timed. She’d taken Lydia with her to check up on just how things were going with the Company as the city began recovering from the catastrophe of the Great Raid, and it couldn’t have been better planned. After hearing of the sack she lingered in Pacitta for a time, continuing to oversee the company and the restoration of various property while doing what she could to continue helping Darren and his forces by financing a mercenary force to come to his aid.
Perhaps even more troubling to her rivals was just how Miranda was rewarded for her loyalty, love, and contributions to Darren’s cause: early in 1866, her family (‘her’ here being a very generous term, as she’d definitely married in) was ennobled and awarded possession of Watch Hill. Though indirectly, it appears as though money bought Miranda’s happiness; her generous and continual financing of mercenary forces to aid the Loyalists in the fighting to protect the rightful monarch of Rivana were key efforts in supporting the Loyalist cause toward victory, especially with the infighting in Eastfield and other key battles like those of Blackstone and the Three Crowns. It gave Raimond the opportunity to prove his mettle, too, as official (but perhaps not always de facto) commander. In all, it was a shining moment for the Giraldis, and Miranda felt their elevation was well earned - though she made sure to show grace and gratitude for such a gift as that in public, of course.
While it eliminated the problem of having the ‘other woman’ at court, it gave Miranda an obvious social advantage, one that she’s still flying high on now six months later. Naturally, the rumors came with the appointment from near and far. Back home in Pacitta, people wondered why a merchant family in a city-state with no nobility needed a castle. In Eastfield, tongues began to wag about how Darren couldn’t do anything for himself, and no wonder his father had fallen prey to such a woman as Miranda. None of it bothered her, though. She was confident enough in how she’d raised Darren to know he could handle himself, especially in recent years since his father’s death and with all the negativity that brought about. She couldn’t care less about what people said about her in Pacitta, either. Her company was making money doing what everyone else in Pacitta was doing - selling their wares and trading, even in the wake of the Raid - so there wasn’t anything for her to be ashamed of. They left Charger’s Rest, then, she and her daughter and their entourage, and moved in to Watch Hill shortly after. It was a happy moment for Miranda along the long path of her life so far, one that, even though it wasn’t terribly long ago, she can look back on and smile.
Now situated at Watch Hill, still currently the head of the Giraldi Trading Company, and with four grown-up children, Miranda is poised to enter a new, perhaps even more gruelling stage of her life. Given how well she’s handled the years that came before, her ambition, and her general
knack for timing things right, it seems as though she’ll face any foe and win.
On the Grid
Quirks
Personality Quirks
Ambitious - Miranda has spent her entire life constantly pursuing the goal of bettering her station, and she long since resolved that she will not stop doing so until she is dead.
Charismatic - Miranda has exceptional force of personality. She never fails to make an impression on all those she meets (for good or for ill…though usually the former, if at times begrudgingly)
Forward Thinking - Miranda has learned very well how to play the long game. There are very few people in the Edge that can claim to have been born to nobility, lost it, and regained it at the head of their own house.
Skill Quirks
Schemer - Miranda has triumphed over great adversity on the merits of her wits and a keen eye for seizing opportunity. Her political acumen kept House Giraldi alive in a situation where the cutthroat politics of Pacitta might otherwise have consumed it.
Silver Tongued - It's not just her great beauty that made Miranda the infamous seductress that she is. Her wit and charm could put many of the best courtesans to shame.
Social Quirks
Bad Reputation - Suffice to say being known as the most infamous seductress in the Edge does rather lead to a great many people speaking ill of you. "Whore" is one of the nicer things that's been said about her by those that disapprove of her methods. Couple that with her up-jumped status and the fact that she was born in what was at the time Couviere, and suffice to say the Giraldis are at best a…controversial family, and none more so than their matriarch.
Friends In Dark Places - The Giraldi family has long been the business partners of the legitimate side of the Marchette Syndicate, and Miranda has retained that friendship (and at times used it to mutual advantage).
Wealthy - Miranda has amassed a personal fortune that vastly outstrips most Great Lords. Her shares of the t'Alvi wealth and the Giraldis' profits have added up to a much more than considerable sum, and Miranda has proven to have an eye for good investments, which has only made that fortune burgeon further.
Logs and Sundry
(clara clarke emilia event gastogne log miranda odilia philippe raimond thaddeus tiadora)
(adrienne aidric alina antonia cathrynn dawn elaida emilia event gabriel graham jonathan justin log lorelei michael miranda raimond samuel samwell silvio thaddeus tristan)
Relationships
Couviere
Rivana
Duke Darren Haldis : My darling boy, and the one to make me a mother. He's always made me proud, and now that he's filled his father's shoes, it's no exception. |
Dowager Duchess Esme Haldis : Sorry, sweetheart. Your problems aren't my fault. It'd be nice if you'd wise up to this and get your family to back off. |
Duke Darren Haldis : My darling boy, and the one to make me a mother. He's always made me proud, and now that he's filled his father's shoes, it's no exception. |
Dowager Duchess Esme Haldis : Sorry, sweetheart. Your problems aren't my fault. It'd be nice if you'd wise up to this and get your family to back off. |
Lord (Sir) Raimond Giraldi : Keep making me proud, son. I see much of your father in you, but maybe even more of me. Only time will tell. |