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Lady Duddug ferch Gwair
Glory: 169 (Non-knight)
Age: 21 in 480 (b. 459)
Physique: Heavyset and sure
Personality: Hedonistic, permissive, always busy, invested in her community and somewhat uncaring of others, slightly tomboyish, fiercely British
Style: Casual, steady, clever
Coat of Arms: Barry indented the one in the other vert and purpure, a bend sable
SIZ 13 (134 lb.) DEX 14 STR 10 CON 15 APP 17
Damage 4d6 Healing Rate 3 Movement Rate 2 HP 28 (unconscious 7)
Family Characteristic Good with animals (+5 Falconry, +5 Horsemanship) Wealth Ordinary
Distinctive Features Chuckling voice, motherly touch, quiet challenge in her eyes
Hair White Eyes Amber Culture: Cymric Homeland Venta, Logres [Caerwent]
Religion British Pagan Father's Class Man-at-arms Family Wealth Rich
Daughter Number Third Liege Lord Unit commander Current Class Household
Current Home Travelling with King Aurelius Ambrosius's Court
👰Chaste 0/20 Lustful 👰Modest 6/14 Proud
👰Energetic 22/0 Lazy Pious 13/7 Worldly
Forgiving 16/4 Vengeful 👰Prudent 12/8 Reckless
Generous 7/13 Selfish 👰Temperate 7/13 Indulgent
👰Honest 15/5 Deceitful Trusting 12/8 Suspicious
Just 11/9 Arbitrary Valorous 9/11 Cowardly
Merciful 13/7 Cruel
Gentlewoman 62/80 Religious Bonus: needs +9 Generous, +2 Proud, +1 Honest
Loyalty (Lord) 17 Love (Family) 16 Hate (Angles) 16 Honor 10 Hospitality 9
Awareness 6 Faerie Lore 3 Heraldry 1 Recognize 5
Boating 0 Falconry 15 Hunting 3 Religion (British pagan) 5
Chirurgery 15 Fashion 2 Intrigue 5 Romance 1
Compose 1 First Aid 12 Orate 2 Singing 6
Courtesy 5 Flirting 7 Play (harp) 5 Swimming 16
Dancing 5 Folklore 2 Read (Latin) 6 Tourney 1
Distaff 10 Gaming 3
Battle 1 Sword 0
Siege 5 Spear Expertise 0
Horsemanship 3 Dagger 5
Gwair's lucky placement and quick arm earned him a gift from Lord Ventrius, Duke of the Saxon Shore dating back to when his Roman ancestors still thought Britain valuable enough to rule, when Gwair saved Ventrius from an unseen axe's bite at the Battle of Windsor in 473. Lord Ventrius, technically Gwair's own lord thanks to King Aurelius Ambrosius allowing the Lord to marry the heiress of Caerwent, offered him the rare prize of a single, unlimited boon.
Gwair is a simple man, almost too simple for life in the 4th largest city in Britain. He knew his life and wished not to change it overmuch for fear of upsetting his stomach, but he was no dullard. Greatness was not his to bequeath upon his children by any means other than this one chance. A mortal hand might be offering it, but Gwair could sense the divine Toutatis behind it. One of his daughters, then, would have her fortunes improved by this means, but he could not choose among them.
Upon being given a choice in the giving of his gift, Ventrius looked over the three daughters presented him. The first, Glenys, looked with hungry, expectant eyes whose haughtiness not even a Roman could stand, so she bore the slight of being passed over. Arwydd, the second, the middle child, enjoyed her elder sister's misfortunes too greatly to be rewarded, while the youngest held her lord's gaze steady and smiling.
"You will choose me if you will, my lord," Duddug told him, "or you will choose one of them, the womanly Esus and Taran. I do not think you are the type of man who will break your own honor by retracting the gift you have given, but all is possible while Gwydion yet remains about."
"And care you not for your fortune, then, as your two sisters do?"
"Whatever their flaws, my sisters know a sister's duty and a daughter's joy as well as I do, my lord, or nearly so. Unless I have quite mistaken your nature, you will follow through with what you have vowed." Her eyes slid down his body with a brief sensuality, "though I might grieve my eye's loss should you choose one of my sisters, to gift one of us is to gift all of us."
Impressed by one so Mercurial ~ a comparison she herself had invoked by mention of Esus and Tarantis, leaving herself implied to be a feminine counterpart to that very god who had moved the ebb and tide of the battle to place her father behind Lord Ventrius's back at the same time as the treacherous Saxon ~ Lord Ventrius named Duddug his own wife's handmaiden.
None expected Duddug to advance beyond that level. Expectations are tricky things.
Lord Ventrius made many offerings to Asclepius the year before last, which wouldn't have been too unusual. After all, his son Lucius was born that year. Sadly, however, it wasn't the infant whom Ventrius was pleading with Asclepius to help. His wife malingered in the very bed where she had given birth. A deathly pallor had come over her skin and the sheen of sweat on her brow gave her face a pearlescent look.
The Lord of the Saxon Shore likes to imagine Philolaus among the gods on Olympus, smiling at the sweet smoke of the sacrifices, secure in having already sent his help. Duddug, ever the faithful handmaiden, never left his wife's side but once. The days stretched to weeks and even to months as the heiress of Caerwent fought heroically to win each breath, and always Duddug was there with a cool cloth and careful herbs gathered by the servants she so carefully instructed.
It was Duddug's constancy, imperviousness to exhaustion, and skill that pulled the Lady through. In his gratitude, the Duke of the Saxon Shore petitioned King Aurelius Ambrosius to raise her position even further. The King granted the petition, personally thanking now-Lady Duddug for ensuring that his gift to Lord Ventrius would bring joy and peace to the land for years to come.
Along with his goodbyes and wishes for fortune, Lord Ventrius gifted her with an old heirloom of his family's. One of his ancestors had served as the flamen Portunalis under the Emperor Constantine, who had been crowned in Britain. This was the emperor who first began to persecute the pagans. This was the emperor who closed the Temple of Portunus in the Forum Boarium. Lord Ventrius's ancestor sequestered away as many of the ritual objects and cult treasures there, including a box beautifully engraved with depictions of Melikertes Palaemon Portunus. He wished that they not be defamed by the followers of an arrogant and jealous god.
These treasures came to Britain when the family did, and that box came now to Lady Duddug. Home to a population of breeding pearls, its gifting was the one sign through Lord Ventrius's famously Roman gravitas that indicated how deep his gratitude for the Ventan town-girl ran.
Lady Duddug quickly made a home for herself in the King' court, embedding herself through bonds of honest work, playfully earthy sex, and just plain general friendliness. The many diversions of the court, and their great difference from the city-life into which she had been born, have spoiled her somewhat, but her easy way well-balances that scale.
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