Aoi Grenbüch Melhilde, Sword of the Empress
25, human, lady
Queenmaker -- Aoi Melhilde is a heroine of no small stature in her homeland. To young men and women throughout the Empire, she is the Sword of the Empress, a figure of great solemnity and intelligence, leader of men. The kind of person you'd expect to change the world, really. Like most heroes, though, she is not very impressive once you get to know her.
Most people, for instance, imagine she would be taller.
Aoi is a charming young lady who is capable of being terrible. Provided you like your humor dry and inappropriately timed, anyway. She has a sweet, almost angelic smile; she's free with her physical affection, being as she's poor at expressing herself through words. The Sword of the Queen shows a great awareness of her physicality, and has a great many mannerisms that might have come from the Empress's own training cadre, though it's widely known she's from a neighboring country. She's capable of great insight, provided you can accept tactless propositions of exactly what you ought to be doing. Her understanding of politics is mostly that she's bad at it. Her understanding of trade is also that she's bad at it. But she's aces at picking out the best warrior in a group, and she picks up kinesthetic tasks with great rapidity. And she's capable of compassion, though she lacks a great ability to empathize.
What she isn't capable of is confidence. She's extremely awkward in social situations because she knows she's bad at them. Aoi is chronically incapable of saying the right thing at the right time and absolutely spot-on at saying the wrong thing at exactly the right moment to humiliate herself and the people around her. She can't conceal her emotions at all, which is extra stupid because people keep trying to teach her how. Her commentary can be downright moronic and she knows it--the attention of others flusters her, which is why she dresses to ward people off, in bright prints and patterns that emphasize her foreignness. She'd rather be left alone at the edges of a party than be included in its nucleus.
Regardless, she is charmingly hapless. Though all of her military prowess is unfaked, she doesn't keep the Empress's guard around her through being a mother to her men; most of them think of her as a dweeby little sister who is incapable of putting on her own ceremonial armor in the morning. Then they get on the battlefield and she is the Queenmaker.
It's a tough life, man!
Tribute -- Born in Mirchuska, a city-state with an average GDP less than a third of the surrounding nations, Aoi was the fifth child of a merchant family that rather preferred boys. Not only that, but she was a b*****d brought into the family by her mother. Saying she grew up disadvantaged would be an understatement. She learned dirty-but-effective fighting from brawling with her brothers, and quickly distinguished herself from her peers by being that one kid who picked a fight every thirty seconds. She likely would have simply been a social shame for her family for the rest of her life if she hadn't been (un)lucky enough to be selected by the oligarchs of Mirchuska to be sent to the neighboring Empire as part of a peace treaty.
Apprentice -- In the Empire (formally known as the Kaising Faufreluches, thus explaining why everyone called it the Empire; the formal name had passed out of use some fifty years earlier) Aoi was given into the care of the current Emperor's First Sword, a position generally held to be something of a bodyguard and champion. This was unusual; most children given to the Empire in tribute tended to end up highly-placed servants at best and dead in a ditch at the worst. However, something about her attracted the attention of the Armiger, Sebastian Grenbüch, and he adopted her into his care rather than sending her to the Tributary. From Sebastian, she polished her talent for fighting; she studied the coursebooks of the Empire's elite training cadres, with extra lessons in more feminine pursuits. This was where she met Hannelore, a servant girl. Most servants were tributes, like Aoi, or b*****d children, but this one seemed to have come from nowhere at all. Hannelore and Aoi were fast friends, almost from the moment Aoi arrived at the palace. However, a simple life as a Sebastian's protege was not in the cards for Aoi.
Royal Blood -- Sebastian was not simply a collector of young girls; he had seen on Aoi a distinctive birthmark, one that characterized the members of the Empire's rulers. He intended to use her as a figurehead to take over control of the Empire, with Hannelore as collateral. Once Aoi became aware of his plot (thanks to Hannelore's near-omnipresence) she and Hannelore constructed a plan to get out of his home and out of the Capitol. It worked.
Why Try? We're Lucky -- While Aoi was completely incapable of subtlety, even if her life depended on it, Hannelore was a born liar. It was Aoi who handled their physical altercations, and Hannelore who talked their way into what they thought was simply a safe place for people who didn't want to be found--but turned out to be a rebellion. Headed up by a deposed noble, Aoi's birthmark was instantly recognized. Seeing the legitimacy that their budding revolution required, the noble--Niklaus Rache, once Steward of Trade--allowed them into the rebellion's stronghold and then promptly shut the doors behind them. Aoi's bloodlines bought them safety and education, and because they wanted to keep her close, they allowed Aoi and Hannelore both to study topics that interested them as the rebels continued to sow the seeds of their coming civil war.
My Friend, The Ambitious One -- Again, it was Hannelore who pulled Aoi's fat out of the fire. Like Sebastian, Niklaus had ill intentions--while Sebastian had intended to use Aoi as a figurehead, Niklaus wanted to rule the Empire outright as its Emperor. This would have implied marriage to Aoi, who, at the ripe old age of 16, was not exactly looking to marry a middle-aged man. However, security at the rebellion's stronghold was much better than at Sebastian's villa. Aoi posited a risky plan that, while it certainly would have been successful for her, left open the chance of Hannelore being caught. They both knew neither of them would leave without the other, and so Hannelore proposed a different tack: they would cooperate with the rebellion, get an idea of the size of it, and then see if they couldn't decapitate the whole thing.
On Whose Side? -- It took two years, but once the rebellion began to ramp up for its eventual public takeover, Hannelore and Aoi were able to gather the information they needed to stage their own little coup. To their advantage, Niklaus had begun to shop them around, showing off Aoi's royal birthmark; while Aoi played the incompetent showboat of a royal heiress, Hannelore suborned Niklaus's allies and collected those who were on the fence. Hannelore introduced Aoi to the guard cadres of the nobility, where she won their hearts even as Hannelore won the minds of the nobiles. By the time Niklaus tried to launch his first attack, more of the troops were loyal to Aoi than their own generals. Aoi and Hannelore successfully took control of the rebellion.
The Aggression of the Roses -- What followed was four years of intense, bloody warfare. It was the Roses--as Niklaus had named the Rebellion--against the Griffons, the standing royal family. While Hannelore was brilliant at social events, her
need to control things around her almost lost them the war in the first three months of sustained combat. Aoi wrested control from her best friend by going behind her back to the commanders of their forces and giving out separate battle plans, eventually even going so far as to travel with the host. There were victories and defeats, the best-known victory that of Gamont Kaising, the ancient fief of the ruling family (the Grishilde) where Aoi destroyed the defending force and broke a siege that had lasted nine months. Aoi became a nigh-legendary figure, a benevolent general and queen. Except... there was a problem.
Makeup Is A Utility Knife -- Aoi didn't want to be Empress. She liked making war and leading men into battle, wearing armor, that sort of thing--but as Empress, all of that would be taken away from her. Hannelore, though, she wanted to rule. She had always been ambitious. So they devised a plan to deceive the nobles who had followed them; using a few cunning tricks, they 'removed' the birthmark on Aoi and 'revealed' the birthmark on Hannelore. Hannelore took the surname Grishilde, and when Aoi took the Capitol, she was crowned Hannelore I Grishilde. She named Aoi as her Sword after a lengthy tournament, during which Aoi handily beat all competitors--many of whom said it was an honor to be defeated by the woman known as the Queenmaker.
Destiny Gave Me A Sword -- However, someone with such an adventurous nature couldn't be happy inside a palace. Aoi left, and adventured throughout the Empire--and eventually beyond it to the Regency of Lernaeus, where she began to hear rumors of a mysterious weapon. Investigating, she discovered a reliquarium, which held many ancient treasures, some of which were from the era before the long-ago Purge. Among them was an unnamed b*****d sword, forged long ago in the empire which preceded the Kaising Faufreluches. After twelve labors that ate up most of a year, Aoi was granted the right to name the sword and bond it to her hand perfectly. She named it Cloudborn, a name Hannelore would later roundly deride as uncreative.
Back to the Farm -- In the two years since overthrowing the former emperor and discovering Cloudborn, Aoi has occupied herself mostly by tournament competition and occasional challenges for her place at Hannelore's right hand. She is the Lady of the Great Glass Sea, with a surname of her own: Melhilde. With another year gone, the newest crop of tributes is brought to the Imperial Capitol, and a new chapter of her story begins...
Cloudborn -- A b*****d sword for a b*****d daughter. Cloudborn was forged in the ashes of the Durendal Emperium, from which rose the Kaising Faufreluches. Originally intended for the High Prince of the Emperium, his death at the hands of the first Emperor of the Kaising prevented him from blooding or naming the blade. Over a thousand years later, it was discovered by Aoi Melhilde the Queenmaker. In her hand, Cloudborn grants her the ability to reject physics; Aoi can stop on a dime, change directions in midair, and gravity only has effect on her if she wishes it to.
Ceremonial Armor (pictured above) -- The cloud-and-wave are Aoi's personal heraldry; Hannelore commissioned a set of basically useless armor pieces for ceremonial wear while Aoi was off gathering Cloudborn. Drawing upon her Mirchuskan heritage, as well as the symbology associated with the Glass Sea, Aoi rather enjoys her ceremonial gear--though she would never admit it aloud.
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