Boudicca

Lhiannan -x- Story 29 - Bellum Horarium

Appearance: Boudicca, like her brother Brutus possesses both Latin and Brythonic physical traits. She is dark complected like her father's gens, while her eyes and hair are both fair like her mother's clan. She is tall for a woman, in that she can look most men in the face, but slender and athletic. She is darker than her brother for all the time she spends swimming naked in crystalline lakes and hunting along rivers and streams. In Boudicca, the combination is one of smouldering youthful sensuality; she is like a living avatar of Diana the Huntress. Her mother's people say she has inherited more than a little of the fey blood from her ancient forefathers.

Background: Boudicca was the last child born to Martinus Pontius and Feidlimid; she was three years old when the Pict raiding party attacked the family homestead. She saw her father speared like a boar and her mother gang raped. The Picts would have taken Boudicca to be raised as one of their own, but her mother killed herself and in so doing, drenched her child in blood. The Pict shaman considered this a dark omen, foretelling that she would be a cursed child, touched by darkness and the death of any man that touched her. None of the Pict warriors wanted to inherit this curse by killing the child, so they left her there, in the cooling blood of her mother. She would be found several days later, running and playing in the forestland around the burnt farm. She had no recollection of the tragedy, but said that by day she played games with the forest people and by night she feasted with them. She would not remember the grisly details of her parents murder until the year she had her first blood and thereafter for months she would scream in her sleep and refuse to eat. Eventually she was given into the protection of the Sisters of Coventina who healed her mind and educated her as one of their own. Things are difficult between Boudicca and Brutus, they are separated by a number of years and she didn't meet him for the first time, until his return from the Caledonian Wars.

Circa: 211 C.E. Recently Boudicca has seemed, not herself, and has begun to behave in the most precocious manner. She has become involved with her elder brother Brutus and his legionary friends, even accompanying them on their mission of vengeance, north of the Antonine Wall. She seems to have discovered a martial side to her life as a cleric and the daring of a woman decades older. That mission brought her face to face with Cathbhadh during the destruction of the First Century of the Ninth Legion. Her encounter with the legendary dark druid seems to have tempered her recent enthusiasm for war. Now, she accompanies her brother and the survivors of the Ninth Legion on their mission to protect the Roman Empress Julia Domna on her journey to Rome. The sisterhood has given her permission to travel to Rome and study with the Vestal Virgins in the hopes that her meeting with the dark druid is a solitary event and not a dark new trend.

Personality: Boudicca's is an old soul. She is perfectly comfortable spending days or even weeks alone in meditation or roaming the wilds of northern Britannia. On the other hand, she is very fond of her sisters in Coventina, has many friends among the local Britons and among the Romans. Boudicca's defining trait is an unerring ability to sit by quietly and listen to the problems of others; people who have only know her for a few hours, find themselves speaking about things that they would never discuss with a friend or family member. This ability has come in quite handy, now that she is a full-fledged priestess. Despite or perhaps because she was raised by an all female order, she has begun to show a distinct interest in the masculine sex. This new found interest is a source of dread to the Sisters of Coventina, who know the truth of Boudicca's curse and do not wish to see the girl struggle with additional suffering. Though Boudicca takes her oath of chastity seriously, more seriously than a young woman her age normally would, her self control may well determine who survives - as she can kill with nothing more than a touch.

Destiny: Boudicca will travel with the Empress Julia Domna, becoming her most trusted confidant and friend. Upon her arrival in Londinium, she will see the Cult of Mithras for what it is and come face to face with a god. She will prove her worth as a warrior on the journey to Rome and once there, she will study with the Vestal Virgins, eventually becoming one herself. The bright moments of her life will be brilliant, but brief, as she will become involved in an ill fated tryst with the young Emperor, Publius Septimius Geta. The power of her curse will prove itself, when their relationship is cut short by Geta's greatest fear, assassination instigated by his elder brother Caracalla. Caracalla's Damnatio memoriae of Geta and his persecution of all those loyal to his dead brother, forces Boudicca to flee Rome and return to Britannia. But, when she returns to the Nymphaeum of Coventina, she will discover that it has been transmogrified into a blood cult dedicated to Magda, the Witch of Connaught. Despite her best efforts, she will fall victim to Magda, becoming first a blood bound servant and eventually a childe of Lhiannan. Over the next few centuries she will become Magda's most trusted progeny, until an ill fated second encounter with the dark druid Cathbhadh. The dark druid will break Magda's hold over Boudicca and together, they will conspire to imprison the Witch of Connaught. Cathbhadh's curse will lock Magda in endless torpor, making Boudicca the de facto leader of the Lhiannan bloodline. Unfortunately, for Boudicca, shortly after Magda's imprisonment, the faith of the Christ-god will spread like a plague throughout Britannia, Caledonia and Hibernia. Its fanatical hunters will claim countless Lhiannan victims, including Boudicca in 1197 C.E.

• -- Boudicca's Statistics