Ilaria

House of the Profligate

XX

Sobriquet:"Illi

Appearance

Ilaria was a gangly young girl that Rambert found in Verona. She came to the Pageant a young girl not fully developed. While she had a certain attraction for the men who bedded her, she was unhappy that in the Pageant she would never develop fully into the woman she was destined to be. She made a deal through Mauritanis to age several years and become the woman she thought she should be. Whereas before she was a youth, she has blossomed into a twenty something fresh woman with perfect skin and beautiful hair. Her eyes are a glittering blue, with sensuous smoky intensity.

Behavior

Ilaria hasn't aged, but her personality has grown and developed in her time with the Pageant. She has become the Succubus of the Profligate House, the woman who chooses the rich men, rather than being chosen. She happily fleeces them of their money, using her wiles and beauty to cloud their judgement. Her personality has become harder, and she is more inclined to use people, rather than just accepting what fate hands her. Ilaria has an irrational fear of fire of recent months, something she is unsure about, though now she can be transfixed in horror looking into the flames, as a dark and painful memory plays out in her mind.

History

A young girl of Sicily, working as a prostitute in a brothel in Verona. Bedded by Rambert and lured into the Pageant.  Ilaria was the fourth daughter of a relatively poor basket maker.  When she was twelve her father received two silver denary for her, and she became a brothel girl.  Life as a whore was hard, but in some ways better than at home.  She had more to eat, and most nights only had to share her bed with at most two others.  Even in the winter there was warmth in the brothel, so that customers would undress somewhat to use her. Four years passed, and she became a stoic young woman in a business that killed her coworkers early.

Along came Rambert, the wonderous Merchant of Dreams, sweeping her from her feet and convincing her to run away with him on the grand adventure of the Pageant. The food was better, Rambert had coin he lavished on her for clothes and face paint. Jewelry adorned her neck and ears, and she found the purses of people not of her town to be easier to lift. She knew that in a few days the Pageant would move on and she would be safe from angry men looking for their coin back.

Relationship with Rambert

The relationship with Rambert is strained. Ilaria has girlish feelings for the man who brought her to the Pageant but also has a deep dread of him she doesn't understand. She remembers nights of sex and warmth in his furs, but also can't clear the sensation that he has hurt her deeply thought she doesn't know how. Ilaria knows that something happened with Rambert, and has been working up the courage to ask him, to explore why at times she feels her skin being peeled away in flames, her throat raw with heat and smoke, her screams loud in her ears.

Recent Events

She recently died in a ritual gone wrong at the hands of Rambert. But a few nights after her funeral, she returned, not as one of the undead, but as a living woman seemingly without any memories of her death and Rambert's involvement in it.

Her return from the dead wasn't without mental consequences. Nightmares plagued her nights when not working, and sleep was hard to find. She found herself in the Shrine of Kairos, where she spent time gambling some, using her services as payment when she ran out of coin. Rais told her that she was too skinny, and needed some meat on her bones to be a real whore, that she would always be a child playing at a womans' game. At first she didn't care, but eventually it began to niggle at her, like a worm that wound it's way through her thoughts. She asked around and several Pageant folk said that there were those that could grant boons, give gifts of a magical nature.

Her friend Anush told her that Mauritanis had great abilities, that he could help her get older. Ilaria saved her coins, stole jewelry, in order to have things to sell the Ring Master. When she went to the black man he laughed at her, showed her chests of gold and silver, and baskets of jewels. He loudly told her she had nothing to give him that was of this world. Confused she offered herself, again he laughed, and told her that her body had no attraction for him. Tears running down her cheeks she ran from his tent and from the Pageant. All night she stalked Trier, trying to find some worth to give to Mauritanis.

In the early hour before dawn she returned to the Pageant and wandered it's quieting paths. She observed the magician Fedlemid carrying a slightly glowing orb into her tent. Ilaria padded close, and peaked through the drawn flaps at the elder woman. Inside the Abotionist was packing away a crystal globe that swirled and moved with light and shadow of it's own. Ilaria returned to her tent, and began to make plans. As the Pageant was leaving Strassbourg, Ilaria found a chance to steal the crystal ball. Fedlimid was furious, and began to search the camp at every chance, but the old woman did so stealthly, never telling anyone what she was searching for. Ilaria knew she had acquired a truly wonderous item. When she took it to Mauritanis, his smile nearly split his head it was so wide. He agreed to fulfil her wish. When Ilaria woke the morning, she appeared older, and much more beautiful than before.