Shayne Barca
From Crossroads Wiki
| Shayne Alaina Locksley | |
|---|---|
| |
| Background | |
| Spouse | Aaric Barca |
| Father | Dane Locksley |
| Mother | Marian Locksley |
| Born | May 19 479 Oreann, Smithfield, Guardians |
| Occupation | Duchess Guardians Legion Strategist |
| Biographical Information | |
| Height | 5'8" |
| Weight | Try again |
Shayne is the second child of seven of Marian and Dane Locksley, a rich merchant couple with roots in Oreann. Dane's great-grandfather was a third son of the Lord of Oreann, and when the lord died, he left a rich diamond mine and a pleasant manor to his son. In the following generations, the Locksley family has built that diamond mine and its produce into a successful trading and shipping venture, amassing a good deal of wealth.
And so Shayne was born into a very rich family, and one with some respectable standing in both Guardian and the Empire at large. She was raised, along with her siblings, to understand the family business and to represent the family well. At an early age, though, it became clear that Shayne had a gift. She took to lessons on numbers like a fish to water, and could spy patterns in the ledgers without even trying. Her parents were thrilled with their daughter, and began to groom her to take an important place in the family business.
Lessons in music, behavior, politics, and, of course, self-defense were all lavished upon the girl, who took it all in easy stride. When she was eighteen, though her parents suggested she need not, Shayne insisted upon serving her time with the legions like anyone else. It was then that the path of her life began to change.
It didn't take long for the tribune in charge of the legion to recognize Shayne's gift and see another use for it. Within a month, Shayne had been moved from the basic training legion into a smaller, more select group, there to train with military intelligence and analysis. Shayne was thrilled, seduced by the excitement of the legions, the life and death nature of the work so much more vibrant than counts of diamonds and silk.
When her six months was up, Shayne begged her parents to allow her to stay for a longer term, to enlist in the legions for the next three years. Though they were reluctant, Shayne pointed out the connections time in the legions would allow her to make, the contracts the legions might then make with the merchanting side of the family for supplies and goods. In the end, her parents relented, and Shayne began her training and work.
Within a year, it was clear that Shayne was one of the best. Increasingly generals and tribunes brought their reports and quandaries to her for interpretation, to make sense of them for the bigger picture. Guardian's secret intelligence inquired about recruiting the girl, but the legion insisted she was too useful exactly where she was to risk her out in the field.
By the time Shayne began to get bored with her desk job, she was much too useful for the generals and tribunes to risk her in the field. Frustrated by the fact that lives and battles now seemed little different from the diamonds and silks in her parents' ledgers, Shayne took to training herself more strictly for battle, trying to prove to her superiors that she wouldn't be at risk in the field. And she was good; she was just much more useful at a desk than she would ever be in the field.
During the civil war, Shayne served with the loyalist legions, guiltily grateful for the chance to find a challenge in the tribal tactics used by the opposition. She was instrumental in getting supplies to the Barca troops around the rebels, but when the war was over, she gave her allegiance with the rest of the legions. War, after all, is hard on trade, and Shayne always remained loyal to her family and in touch with them.
When Philip declared himself Duke, Shayne was serving with one of the generals based in Gwencalon. When the new Dux Bellorum, Cael Kilgannon, shifted the people in charge, Shayne stayed with the new general. With encouragement from her family, though, Shayne went to find out more about the baron, and at her general's request, to find out more about where both the baron and the duke stood.
It turned out that Shayne's family had another purpose for her presence in Gwencalon. Her father had supplied much of the ready cash to the Duke for his coup, in exchange for massive interests in the Barca mines. In exchange for forgiving the debt, Dane suggested that Aaric consider one of the Locksley girls for his bride. Shayne, with her connections in the legions, a part of Guardian with which Aaric had little pull, was the obvious choice. When Aaric returned to Gateway, Shayne followed.
What was expected to be a swift marriage turned out, instead, to be a prolonged courtship. First, Shayne had to prove herself to the Keeper and the court, a task only slowly accomplished over some six months time. Then followed the official betrothal. It was nearly a year from Aaric's coup to their wedding in November 506. Shayne's wedding dress, a spectacularly begemmed creation, caused a good deal of talk.
Once Shayne was formally Duchess, however, many found that the woman was somewhat less charming than she had initially seemed, ruthlessly practical, with a smile and smooth, polite manner that never quite hid the sharp steel beneath. Rumors of much disagreement between the duke and duchess were rampant; it was, after all, a political marriage, and one some would say Aaric had been backed into.
Whatever problems the Duke and Duchess may have had, it seems they have been at least somewhat resolved. Their progress in July of 507 ended in the announcement that the Duchess was expecting Guardian's heir. Indeed, after the announcement, it became clear that the couple had been hiding the pregnancy for quite some time: seven months, at least. Shayne was rarely seen after the progress, though whether because she's too vain to be seen in the advanced stages of pregnancy, or out of concern for the safety of the heir after a failed assassination attempt during the progress has yet to be determined.
Family
- Greydon Locksley, 32
- Shayne Locksley, 28
- Gavan Locksley, 25
- Evelyn Locksley, 24
- Madelynn Locksley, 22
- Sawyer Locksley, 18
- Tyra Locksley, 16
