Marchesa, the Black Rose

Known best for her distinctive, raven-black hair, and the ten intricate rings she wears on her fingers, Marchesa is one of the most powerful people in a city filled with them. Having spent most of her life caught up in the intrigues of the High Court, Marchesa eventually built up her own prestige and fortune by secretly working alongside various networks of revolutionaries.   Rose of the Court Marchesa is the only daughter of a high-level noble family, heavily involved in court politics. Her earliest memory is of attending a meeting of the court with her family, to see her eldest bother awarded with his own noble rank and title. Surrounded by the pomp and circumstance of the event, and seeing how everyone in court genuflected to the High King of the time, Marchesa has known ever since that she wanted to be the queen at the center of it all.   While her dreams were not an impossibility, as she grew older, Marchesa found herself overlooked by both her family and the Custodi, and her brothers given their favor instead. Marchesa had given her childhood to studying the laws and customs of Paliano, reading and researching the history of the city and its rulers, and absorbing every lesson she was given in rulership. But her efforts and presence at cour earned her nothing but the nickname "Rose of the Court" and the laughing disregard of the other nobles, who paid Marchesa more attention for her looks than her genius. When Marchesa's younger brother was given a formal title before her, she could no longer contain her disgust at the nepotism and ineptitude around her, and ultimately severed ties with her family, ceding any right to her inheritance.   Leader of the People Believing the Rose of the Court had finally been overcome by the stress of politics and driven to a nervous breakdown. Marchesa's peers wrote her off. But Marchesa's exit from the High Court did not mark an end to her ambitions, as many thought. Instead, Marchesa took her plans and ambitions elsewhere, using the small fortune she's slowly and secretly funneled from her own family's finances. Using the money, she began to fund a number of small-scale revolutionary efforts, buying her way into patronage and leadership for them, and pitting them against each other and the High Court. During this time, Marchesa bought tutelage from a number of assassins and slowly built up her own network of spies and informants.   When she was ready, she bargained, bartered, blackmailed, threatened, and intimidated half of the nobles in the High Court, and even a number of the Custodi. After a little over 5 years away spent secretly building her own underground empire, Marchesa returned to the High Court, surprising many with her sudden reappearance. That same day, she was awarded the fourth-highest noble title available, the youngest ever to receive it, and a land grant for a large attract in a prime spot in the High City. And in the hour after Marchesa had received it, contracts and permits were already filed, and demolition started to make way for her mansion.   The Black Rose Rumors swirled following Marchesa's appointment, as they always do in the High Court, and in addition to her noble title, the gossips and spymasters of Paliano had given her another- the Black Rose, something beautiful on the outside, but dangerous and tainted. It didn't take long for word of the nickname to reach Marchesa, who publicly embraced it, taking it for herself as a second title, as if proud of its implications. For Marchesa, the name conjured the idea of something unique, unapproachable by any other. The members of the gossip ring that created the name later disappeared, every single one of them, under mysterious circumstances.   Marchesa's ascension to the noble title she'd always wanted, and always knew she was worthy of, did little to sate her desire for power. Marchesa still had eyes only for her ultimate goal, the throne of the High City, and the position of High Queen of Paliano. But in the time since Marchesa had left, the High King Brago had been transformed into an undying spirit, presumably destined to rule as king eternally. This turn of events has not stopped Marchesa's scheming, and still, she waits patiently, searching for the right path to take that will give her the seat she has always deserved.