Cynara Dhaval
From Crossroads Wiki
| Cynara Dhaval | |
|---|---|
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| Nara at Seal Cove, Spring 507 | |
| Background | |
| Marital Status | Single |
| Offspring | |
| None | |
| Full name | |
| Cynara Gavrila Ilham Dhaval | |
| Titles and styles | |
| Lady of Gateway Lady Venator | |
| Royal House | House Dhaval |
| Father | Lord Danvers Dhaval of Meritas |
| Mother | Sara Josepha Lancaster of Miller's Isle |
| Born | March 28 485 Meritas, Ethos, Draught |
| Occupation | Imperial Venator, Assistant Advocate, Investigator |
| Biographical Information | |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Female |
| Height | 5' 7" |
| Weight | N/A |
| Eye Color | Amber |
| Hair | Red-Gold |
~ Sir Francis Walsingham in a letter to his son
Overview
| A Firecracker's Past |
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"We plan our lives according to a dream that came to us in our childhood, and we find that life alters our plans. And yet, at the end, from a rare height, we also see that our dream was our fate. It's just that providence had other ideas as to how we would get there." ~ Ben Okri The first of a brood of three, Cynara was born to Danvers Dhaval, younger brother of Lord Saul Dhaval of the Lordship of Meritas, and Sara Josepha Lancaster of the Barony of Miller's Isle. An inquisitive child since birth, Cynara was considered very bright for her age. She had a thirst for learning even while very young, and she absorbed and applied what she learned faster than what her parents expected. Given Sara's background and love for science, her parents pressed her to start her schooling early. They pushed her into an early admission at the College of Sciences in Draught. Growing resentful of the pressure, Cynara started to rebel. She ignored her studies while the rest of her siblings toiled away diligently, she disobeyed her parents at every turn she could. Her parents tolerated it as much as they could, but she tended to push them to their limits. As a child, she was spoiled, her intelligence made her arrogant, and she was, essentially, a brat to almost everyone who was an adult or who she had been forced to interact with, because Cynara had developed an abhorrence for being forced to doing anything. Figuring her fiery temper and her unpleasant disposition could be tempered by introducing her to a few friends, her parents attempted to get her to play with the Soranus children, especially Helena, who was her age. The attempt met with disaster. Helena was a nurturer by nature, and after a few encounters, she recognized the ruse for what it really was. After a confrontation and a tearful tantrum, Cynara and Helena forged a friendship while Helena was 7 and Cynara was 8, that took two years to even start. For the longest time, Helena would be the only person she would listen to. Her young cousin, Joshua Dhaval, gradually became an exception to the rule due to his young age. With all his potential siblings having miscarried, leaving him to be the only one to carry on the main Dhaval branch, Cynara saw her own loneliness and a similar pressure on him. Helena's growing influence on her tempered her fiery, rebellious ways somewhat. Slowly, but surely, she started to warm up to her parents, and even regain an interest in science again.She gradually grew closer to her mother, Sara. At 13, her father had been sent to Gateway in his lord brother's place on certain business. While exploring the city with her mother, several brigands kidnapped the young, female Dhaval, with the intention of ransoming her to her connected family back in Draught. However, as authorities closed in on them, the band spirited their captive away from Gateway, presumably never to be seen again. Her mother, Sara Lancaster, died of heart failure out of guilt and grief. After all, given such risky cargo, they've probably killed her already. In truth, her captors spirited her off to Guardian, where she finally found a chance to escape after the band of brigands got into a skirmish with some local merchants a day after setting shore. A long way from home, it took all of Cynara's intelligence and guile to survive. She had to grow up quickly, and learn the ways of her new surroundings fast. Recognizing the immediate danger of being a young woman on her own, Cynara cut off her glorious, red hair, and dyed it black - while she was vain about it growing up, the circumstances she found herself in didn't leave much room for vanity. It is in Guardian where she scraped the means to survive while trying to find her way home. Along the way, she befriended Linette Barca, who shared her rebellious streak. For the longest time, Linette thought she was a boy, albeit a somewhat effeminate looking one. For close to two years, they became partners in crime. Somewhere in those two years, Linette found out about the truth, and swore to help see her friend home. It came to pass that Linette had to travel to Guardian to become, or so she hoped, the first female knight. Cynara went with her on her journey, but it was clear that they would have to part ways when reaching Gateway. The fact that she was so close to getting home rejuvenated her spirits, and Cynara proceeded to find her way back to Meritas, her home. She was a sight when she returned, her hair cropped short, dyed black, and dressed as a boy at 15. Whatever happened to her, she kept under wraps save for a chosen few. Her father couldn't deny her eyes, the one thing she shared with her mother that was obvious and despite the disguise, he recognized her and welcomed her home. When Helena found out about her friend's return, she paid a visit and helped treat her injuries that she had accumulated on the way, though she could only help the scars on her wrists fade, made by the shackles that had bound her when she had been younger. Some say only Helena knows the whole story. Despite her knack for it, she abandoned science, though she still understood it like nothing else. She decided to become an advocate instead, and was educated in rhetoric, logic, oratory, and laws. At 19, she moved to the Gateway to specialize in criminal appeals, for those who had been wrongfully imprisoned, and would lend her services pro bono to those who are indigent. She and Helena reunited for a time, when it had been the young Soranus lady's turn to visit Gateway. They parted again, however, when a strange matter in one of her cases required her to travel past the barrier and into Tyr. |
| Her Rising Star |
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"It gives me great pleasure indeed to see the stubbornness of an incorrigible nonconformist warmly acclaimed." ~ Albert Einstein Cynara returned to the Empire in the early January of the year 506 in what was to be a brief stay before heading off again to Pais de Leuvier and immerse herself in another culture. However, Fate had other plans for her and has since anchored her to the land of her birth. And by the way things were going, she wasn't leaving any time soon. She returned to her practice at the Advocacy Offices of Hartford and Gates that winter, where work had been considerably minimal. It didn't take long for things to spiral into a flurry of activity, starting from the discovery that she was one of the last surviving relatives of the Lancaster Family of Miller's Isle, which made her eligible to claim the barony and the reason why her father wrote her telling her to come home. The disappearance of the Draughtian ship The Altune put her back in investigatory work on top of her advocacy practice, having taken up investigation during her past clerkships to hone her analytical skills so she could debunk fraudulent findings presented in court. Considered very much an unknown figure in the field, her name was suddenly shoved into the public eye when the assassin Erik Daae published a series of letters addressed to her and distributed them to the public, challenging her to stop him from wiping out the Vusatunell Family of Kraken Shoals. While he was never caught, her efforts aided in protecting the youngest of the line, Maia Vusatunell, from being murdered after Erik managed to kill her older sister and brother. Since then, activity in her office flourished. To this day, she isn't certain as to how to feel about the publicity. Other investigations took her across the isles, further cultivating her reputation and honing her skills - so much so that her acclaim as a capable investigator threatened to take over her professional reputation as an advocate. Her brushes with danger grew more frequent, though she was never the type to shy away from them. She managed to save a few lives in these confrontations, notably Imani Paggion and Mathis Cardiff. In many ways, her exploits brought her to the attention of several notable personages, and she has not made any indications that she was stopping her activities any time soon. The year 506 was incredibly busy for her, full of shocking revelations, reacquainting herself with friends, family, and forging new connections, the foremost of them being Baron Matthew Forester, then Wyndham, who had been a highly sought-after investigator in his own right before he was betrothed to Phoebe Forester. A private person despite her fast-moving public life, she managed to keep her relationship with Athar Soranus, Baron Ethos, quiet - and it remained quiet when they parted ways in the next year just before she was swept up again in other inquiries that took her all over the Isles, shaping the year 507 to be even busier than 506. On September 8, 507, the Keeper of the Isles, His Majesty Maximilian Rourke Thomas Sebation Caprios, raised her up as the first Lady of Gateway. His Majesty also bestowed on her the added position of Imperial Venator, being one of the first and the first female to hold the position, and charged with handling Imperial matters and investigations all over the Empire. Senior Advocates Josiah Hartford and Horatio Gates, who mentored her since her teens after Minerva Laurentus relinquished her hold on her, joked that there was no way she'd be seen in their offices ever again after her appointments - a jest and no more as the newly-minted lady still seemed determined to be a full-fledged advocate, putting in her hours between tasks assigned to her by Phoenix Forester, the head of the Venators. She also managed to defy persistent word that heartbreak had made her inaccessible socially, more often than not a fixture in social events held in Gateway or wherever she's invited, and spending a good amount of time with those closest to her whenever she could. |
| Her Fall From Grace |
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"I'm comfortable with morally gray." ~ Noah Bennet, Heroes The onset of 507 saw the return of Iain Arx in her life, after close to a year of believing, like those who knew him best, that he met his end looking for something that purportedly didn't exist outside of the barrier. To her frustration, and some say horror, rekindling her friendship with the infamous womanizer took her through a good chunk of the year in a state of abject confusion and awkwardness until a situation involving a very good friend propelled her to do something reckless to clear the air.... with unexpectedly happy results. As the old addage goes, the Truth shall set you free - or at the very least, occasionally guarantee you a pleasant surprise. He would not be the only instance in a sudden series of seemingly self-destructive behaviors, as surely two intelligent people know very well that nothing lasting could ever come out of their respective situations. Remarkably, the two seem to be rather at peace with the fact despite the inevitable, painful end of what resulted from a two-year waltz fraught with misunderstandings, countless shenanigans, and, as either one would confess, "very shitty timing." It stands to note that around this time, she was somehow volunteered to be an unwilling guinea pig for a new formula Coleridge Eisenhart was developing, though yanking the full (and extremely embarrassing) story from the lady might require some kind of archaic torture device. The late December of 507, less than a year after the emergence of the Path of Light in which Athar Soranus merged the three paths of Purism, the Lady Venator broke away from the Faith. Speculated reasons as to why are numerous, though those who knew her best were confident of the fact that whatever her reasons were, they were good ones. Still, the action didn't come without its consequences as breaking away from the fold was for the most part unheard of, the worst of which had her beloved cousin, Joshua Dhaval, declaring, in no uncertain terms, that she was dead to him and the rest of his side of the family. Her breaking from the Faith, being the first high profile member in recent memory to do so, prefaced another devastating blow amongst the Faithful when the Lady Baronet Ravelle Soranus, much loved and highly regarded as the Jewel of Purism, took her own life by Honor's Chase on January 4, 508.
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| Into the Breach |
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"The torment of precautions often exceeds the dangers to be avoided. It is sometimes better to abandon one's self to destiny." ~ Napoleon Bonaparte The onset of 508 saw the gradual pull-back of the Lady Venator's presence in Gateway's social events, largely due to her new duties that only seemed to increase as the months wore on. With the sudden explosion of scandal surrounding House Forester later in the year, Cynara's involvement in some of the biggest events in Gateway have been surprisingly nonexistent -- which was somewhat unusual for one who rose to her position by virtue of getting in the middle of everything. The lapse in activity, however, wasn't meant to last. The Great Schism of 508 found her in the thick of it again, riding with Baroness-General Wilhelmina Conway to marshal the Legions after the disaster which hit Gwencalon during the Schism's fallout. Sent back to Gwencalon after, Cynara boarded a ship back to Gateway with several pieces of news waiting for her, including the current fate of Meritas and the difficulties facing her estranged cousin, Joshua Dhaval, certain grave circumstances surrounding Imani Paggion, the deaths of most of the Forester clan, and Iain Arx's sudden status as a father and, some say, Baroness Regent Iseldis Vasala's paramour. |
Personality
Her tumultuous childhood and the dangerous circumstances which she had been thrust into in the middle of her young life had forced Cynara to emerge from it a changed woman. After two years of scraping by and taking on a different identity just to survive, the young woman has become extremely grateful for what she has. It gave her more insight to how the world was, the sort of problems that plagued every day citizens, and after a few violent events, has been taught no small measure of humility. She dedicates her life, now, to freeing those who have been wrongfully imprisoned, and the indigent. Having managed to use her wits, intelligence, and guile to survive, Cynara has naturally grown to be fiercely independent and spirited, and while mindful of social graces, she has a habit of being opinionated, and being vocal of those opinions. She's the sort who would give it to someone straight. A busy advocate trying to better the world one person at a time, she has no patience for trivialities or games.
She has a temper, but this is reined in these days, a far cry from her infamous tantrums back when she was a child. While she looks delicate, with her pale skin and her large eyes, she won't hesitate to defend herself - and she's become, despite the lack of formal training, rather good at it. Certainly not up to par against swordsmen and the like, but she can handle knives and shoot a bow. It would seem that the ordeals of the past have released her into experiencing more of life. She's a much friendlier person now, quick to laugh and joke, and she amuses herself whenever she can. The little things make her happy. She can also be a bit of a prankster.
Despite her gregariousness these days, she tends to keep her personal connections private, but her closest friends are rumored to be Helena Soranus, Linette Barca, Imani Paggion, and, perhaps surprisingly, Iain Arx, who later managed to transform that friendship into something else entirely. She is also said to be extremely close to her father, Lord Danvers Dhaval.
Her Work
Just a little over a year since her return from Tyr, Cynara has been involved in various investigations that she juggles along with her advocacy work and the countless other things she does on the side. This list is in no way complete.
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| Investigations |
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Connections
Click Here To View Cynara's Connections
Trivia
Despite not having gone on as a scientist or inventor, Cynara still keeps up with the latest innovations and discoveries.
Cynara has no artistic skills whatsoever. None. She can dance, and dance very well, but one wouldn't want her trying to play an instrument or drawing anything, ever.
Having no maid or waitstaff on her own given she's been living alone for several years, Nara has learned to cook. And cook very well. Baking, however, is another story, but when it comes to entrees, she wields a mean ladle/spatula/insert-cooking-tool-here.
For most of her time in Guardian, Linette knew her as "Brad." Thanks to her influence in girlhood, Cynara has become a skilled equestrian and archer.
Nara has a fondness for flowers and croissants.
As one of the very few people left bearing Lancaster blood, Cynara has a very legitimate claim on the Barony of Miller's Isle, being Sara Lancaster's firstborn child. However, rumors are that she voluntarily pulled out of the baronial race to make way for her cousin, Ethan Locke.
Before returning to Gateway, Cynara spent a year at Tyr immersing in the culture and getting to know their legal system to assuage her curiosity in a wholly different legal system.
It has been revealed recently that there was a book penned about her kidnapping, though its conclusions and analysis are rather dubious. The title of the book is Heiress Lost: The Connection Between Draught and Guardian and the Kidnapping of Cynara Dhaval.
She collects items from Outside-Barrier countries. These tend to decorate her apartments in Fairview. Most recent items that have come into her possession are a pair of delicate, blue, blown-glass earrings from Sansa Maeja. Whether these were a gift, or a personal purchase, however, is currently up in the air.
OOC: Her best friend, Helena Soranus, created this beautiful sim of Cynara and I love her for it
Logs
506-01-14: Murder At Homecoming - Having just arrived from business at Tyr, Cynara stops by the cafe at Gateway University for something to eat, only to meet Emmaline Sheppard and Mathis Cardiff, who informs her that Amalia Crestwood, Lady of Healer's Hall, has been murdered and that her services may be required.
506-01-16: Dinner After Mayhem - After getting injured by a runaway, mutant rodent, Cynara receives a token from Mathis Cardiff and Baroness Khalani Paggion. She invites both to dinner as a thank you. She is formally introduced to the Baroness, and Mathis springs for dinner. The Baroness tells Cynara more about Lady Amalia's murder.
506-01-18: Crossroads - Cynara runs across several acquaintances, namely Valentine Penurious, who she occasionally tutors in law, and Tarun Sheldon, the Legionnaire involved with the rat situation two days prior. She also meets Matthew Wyndham and his cousin, Tobias Branridge... who happened to be one of the lead investigators of her kidnapping case seven years ago. She also runs into Sritara Shaw, the good Samaritan who aided her to the infirmary after she was bitten.
506-01-20: Notes On A Kidnapping, Lasting Priorities - Cynara runs into Altair Margarelon in the bookstore. Tobias enters the same bookstore, and shows her something she didn't expect...a book written about her case. Later, she runs into Altair again at the Fire Pit, when he asks her about Tobias' "boyfriend" comment, which she brushes off and tells him that romantic attachments are low or non-existent in her list of priorities.
506-07-03: Seek and Ye Shall Find - Nara's fifth encounter with Iain Arx, in which an expedition is planned, romantic tragedies are discussed (since Evil will always triumph because Good is Dumb), and language lessons set up.
506-07-15: Attack of the Killer Pineapples! - Summer shenanigans with Captain Awesome and the beginnings of his purported "pineapple fetish."
507-11-20: Truth or Dare - Harvest is awesome. A planned obstacle course is rescheduled, leaving a group of miscreants bored and trapped by inclement weather in the local tavern. This is what happens when boredom and alcohol mix.
507-11-23: Harvest Obstacle Course - The moment of truth! Crossdressing, poultry, porky, and paintball shenanigans occur as Iain and Nara sponsor the first ever Harvest obstacle course race.
Soundtrack
| The Playlist |
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The Beginning Scars of Time - Chrono Cross OST - Instrumental In The Light - Full Blown Rose - Lyrics Dream On - Aerosmith - Lyrics Fuego - Bond - Instrumental Goldeneye - Tina Turner - Lyrics Withered Earth - Genso Suikogaiden 2 OST - Instrumental
Recent EventsSolace - Vanessa Mae - Instrumental Tourniquet - Evanescence - Lyrics Scared - Three Days Grace - Lyrics Wide Awake - Lacuna Coil - Lyrics New Divide - Linkin Park - Lyrics Take the Reins - Tsunami Bomb - Lyrics Sick Little Games - All Time Low - Lyrics Together - The Kin - Lyrics Paranoid - Alana Grace - Lyrics BECAUSE SOMEONE DID SOMETHING THAT PROMPTED THIS: First Time - Lifehouse - Lyrics The Skeleton Song - Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Lyrics
DedicationsSomething's Got To Give - Frank Sinatra (originally by Sammy Davis Jr.) - Lyrics Made of Steel - Our Lady Peace - Lyrics Purest One - Etro Anime - Lyrics Blame God Instead - Alex Bach - Lyrics 23 - Jimmy Eat World - Lyrics Now is Mine - K's Choice Lyrics
Purist No More
Ignorance - Paramore - Lyrics Live a Lie - Default - Lyrics Cells - The Servant - Lyrics Kryptonite - Three Doors Down - Lyrics The Sanctuary - Darling Violetta |
Gallery
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