Browse wiki

Anywhere else in the Compact, Donella would have been born the heir presumptive to a great house. But she was not born anywhere but Maelstrom, and to no other family but Thrax in a time when only sons would rise. All the same, before the untimely deaths of good Prince Elton and Princess Dena, she was well-educated and trained to exemplify Thrax virtues. She learned to embrace ALL her heritage with clear-eyed realism, and learned statecraft, diplomacy, and economics, while her siblings were allowed more idealistic pursuits. Amongst a generation of war-orphaned princes and princesses, Donella showed the most early promise as an administrator and politician... or simply provided the best means to shame the princes, as Prince Donrai made her his Voice. Probably, some expected her to end as a cautionary tale, but instead she proved resilient. Her leadership went a long way toward stabilizing the Isles after her grandfather's death and the rise of another High Lord; one who also made her Voice, and later heir. Her time as Voice opened the way for women, as a proponent for the measured undoing of customs serving only to weaken, and divide the Isles from the rest of the Compact. It seemed Donella might standing behind the throne in the Isles forever, until she unexpectedly accepted an offer of marriage from Prince Darren Redrain of Farhaven. A smart match made, they say, for love of all things.

A striking woman with ivory skin and hair dark as a raven's wing. She carries herself with a quiet strength. Her eyes are a deep beryl blue that gives little away, except the suggestion of a nimble intelligence; thoughts swimming behind her gaze like shadowy leviathans turning in the depths of the ocean.

Though a quiet soul who can be overlooked in a glittering throng, Donella's tart tongue has built her a reputation for being clever, even playful company. In political life, she tells it as she sees it, and her candor has won her entry into halls which should have traditionally been closed to her. She has never been without ambition or pragmatism; there is always a method in mind for obtaining her aims. She likes to feel useful and gravitates toward people who know things, and causes she can engage with on a personal level. Failure is taken extremely personally. She has been described even by enemies as a formidable woman, and in spite of rigid self-control, more than once someone has found themselves fleeing her displeasure and temper all the way out of Arx.