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Ophelia has tan skin and dark hair like the Krytas of 250 years ago. She has large eyes and soft features and high cheekbones. Her jaw isn't very defined and her cheeks are somewhat full and she appears to be closer to sixteen rather than twenty-three. Her eyes are a rich brown and her hair is short and is often kept up and away from her face and eyes. She's slightly short and fairly skinny and is hardly ever seen outside of luxurious soft fabrics or well-made leather. She attempts to keep her face neutral at most times or with a polite smile, but depending on the conversation she can often be seen with a smirk or a slight frown. Personality[]Ophelia is sarcastic, sadistic, and slightly racist. She is also fairly childish and tends to take things too far and has a hard time deciding when enough is enough. She doesn't like people that aren't human, and even then she doesn't much care for humans that aren't Krytan in their lineage. Unlike some humans she doesn't hate Charr, at least not any more than she hates the other races. Ophelia's young appearance is a very touchy subject for her, and when someone mistakes her for a girl or someone younger than she is she tends to lash out with her words, then her weapons. When she gets agitated, which is often, she tends to swear incessantly and insult people for no reason. Because her status as a member of the secondary branch of her house, Ophelia's one source of wealth comes from her uncle, and it all goes into attempts to make her appealing to a member of a different house. Ophelia's purpose in her family is to find a noble husband and start a family, thereby solidifying an ally for House Engelram. Though she had no desire to marry and had spent more than a year amassing wealth within the Cartel, Ophelia ended up in an engagement with Toxa Vanschiver. In order to keep the engagement, a thing she very much desires, she has (mostly) given up her thieving habits in an effort to craft a better image for herself. Ophelia distrusts nobles because she is convinced that they are all two-faced sneaks that say one thing and mean another, all in an attempt to gain power or see others fall. She herself tires of such charades, but finds them useful at times, though anything beyond diplomatically friendly escapes her abilities. However she's slowly finding other nobles that have many things in common with her, both within the Cartel and outside it. She strives to make connections for the sake of the Union and her image while making sure her fellow nobles won't see past her mask of a polite woman to the Rat that still lies within. Character Background[] Allegiances[]Ophelia is somewhat loyal to her uncle who raised her, the head of her branch of the house Effisio, and is begrudgingly loyal to the primary branch of House Engelram (she's a member of the secondary branch). She's very loyal to Kryta and Divinity's Reach, and respects the Seraph and the Shining Blade. She's currently engaged to Toxa Vanschiver and is loyal to him and to an extent the house, sect, and society he leads. She also has ties to the Krytan Ministry and acts as a representative there for the Union. Duties[] Crest of House Engelram Besides keeping up appearances for her House and her future House, and also maintains the Court of Rooks as the current legate. She balances those duties with her Council Representative Position as the Speaker, and her Ministry position as the representative of the Trade Union. Family[]Ophelia is a member of House Engelram, an old Krytan house from before the rise of the dragons. She's a secondary member of the house as was her father, who died in a centaur raid. She was raised by her uncle who never married and is considered somewhat of a black sheep, similar to her cousin Alanzo. She's engaged to Toxa Vanschiver and is slowly learning the names of all his numerous cousins and her future family members. Early Life[]Infancy Ophelia was born a member of the Engelram secondary family branch on 133 of the Season of the Phoenix. Her father was killed by a centaur while he was on his way to a social event at Beetletun. Her mother was murdered soon after in her bed and many, including Ophelia, suspect it was the White Mantle since her mother was vocally against them. Since she was just a baby she doesn't remember her parents but still feels a loyalty to them. After her mother's death she was taken to her uncle, Kayne, who raised her.  Adulthood Though she stopped growing when she was sixteen, Ophelia did eventually become an adult, and with that came responsibilities. She, as a member of the Engelram family, was obligated to settle down and make an ally with her marriage. Kayne set up suitor after suitor but she rejected each one, claiming they were too snobby, snooty, stuck up, and fake. Her basic schooling was completed and she began learning more about her family's trade with the Sylvari and the Tengu and the many different social skills required to be a member of the noble community. Kayne took her on her trips to Caledon, the Grove, and Tengu trading areas where she began learning Canthan and the ins and outs of their diversely different cultures. She would much rather spend time with Palija, who had become a fairly successful courtesan once she turned seventeen. Ophelia liked spending time in the brothel and would exchange gossip with Palija who had learned considerable amounts about certain noble men that came to visit the Elonian woman in secret, some of them the same men that had attempted to court her. The number of suitors dwindled considerably; Ophelia believed Kayne has given up but Palija was convinced he has simply run out of noble men. Betrayal As she continuously saw nobles put on a facade at gatherings while showing their true sides in the darker parts of Lion's Arch, Ophelia's cynical and spiteful side grew. She began slowly distrusting everyone around her, even Palija who had only shown a puppy-like blind devotion. When she caught Enver, the to-be head of the secondary branch and her cousin, attempting to maim Palija, the doubts that Ophelia had about nobles were solidified and she sold Palija's services to a spinner named Johara. Her distrust, now confirmed in her mind, slowly migrated to everyone she encountered. Gone was the sweet if
 Ophelia the Rat Knowing that her only purpose in her family is to marry, Ophelia began collecting wealth to prepare for the time when she'll eventually be kicked out of her house for not wanting to marry the stuffy men that Effisio seems to keep throwing at her. Eventually, Kayne decided the pursuit of suitors would continue while Ophelia began training for the Seraph, a common place to end up in her family if a marriage was not likely. She took this as a sign that she would likely need to leave her home or else be faced with the choice of becoming a Seraph or marrying an undesirable man. She trained with another woman named Lanfen who had recently been adopted by a noble family as a gesture of charity. Lanfen and Ophelia bonded over a mutual distrust of nobles and most people in general along with a talent for theft, and soon Lanfen and Ophelia were running the rooftops of the Reach at night and practicing petty thievery. After stealing an Aekart chalice, Ophelia was confronted by a Rat's Den handler and was initiated to a full member. Her growing skills within the school of Denial began developing away from the mesmer magic Kayne had hoped for and more towards shadow magic. Kayne at first was disappointed, but saw promise in her abilities and potential uses for them. He insisted that she be trained to use her abilities in tandem with a fighting style more showy and face-to-face rather than the backstabbing way of thieves and tricksters. Combining her new-found thieving talents with her training, Ophelia began developing a fighting style that was more flamboyant than anything else. She tended to use her daggers, both throwing and combat, to fight her enemies while confusing them with shadow-stepping and vanishing before their eyes. Her Seraph training was completed and she had only amassed the fraction of the wealth she desired in the Coin when she had what seemed to be a fairly minor encounter at a party with a spinner named Toxa.  Portrat by Artemis How Ophelia Engelram joined the Cartel[]House Engelram is a house built off of trade, so Lord Effisio had Ophelia join the Trader's Union to both learn more about trade and to be a liasion between the House and the organization. She originally was an initiate for a long time, content to be a low ranking member within the Coin. Then, on a raid with Lanfen, Ophelia stole a chalice from a large mansion but was having a hard time selling it. Whenever the fence saw the phoenix etched on its surface he would immediately hand it back, almost as if the phoenix had caught fire and burned his hand. She tried fence after fence until she found one who offered to buy it. The fence offered her gold and when she reached for it he hit her on her temple with the hilt of a dagger. She was knocked out cold and woke up blindfolded and tied to a chair. A voice offered her a choice: work for the Rat's Den or be brought to the Seraph. Fearing for her life and her family's reputation she decided to finally go through an initiation and join the Rat's Den within the Coin. Roleplay Preferences[]OOC Limits
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