Calypso Malvici
Description
One could be forgiven for seeing an angel in Calypso's graceful curves and fine-boned aristocratic features, but the intensity in her round rime-blue eyes is a reminder that angels are also terrible. Her full lips and oval face cannot mask the intelligence and calculation in her gaze. Her smiles range from generous to cruel, but quiet confidence animates every expression. She often keeps her blue-black hair away from her face and out of her way. Her toned form, with its rounded silhouette, is capable of filling out the fashions of the Lyceum or bearing the weight of battle armor, as the situation demands. Her melodic mezzo-soprano voice is usually brisk and businesslike. Above all else, she embodies professionalism, for she is an officer and a lady - in that order.
Personality
Calypso Malvici never forgets that she holds the burden of command. She is tireless in the pursuit of excellence in herself and in her subordinates. She has generally been content to leave the politics to her brother, but when she and Hadrian clash is frequently over military risks. Her devotion to her troops leaves her distrustful of political risks that can cost lives. She distrusts notions of "honorable warfare" just as much. She is a deep thinker in whom duty and loyalty are second nature. That everyone she doesn't trust is implicitly suspect is a rarely-voiced belief, but it guides her actions. Calypso is deeply compassionate and implacable both. She sees no contradiction.
Background
Her mother Adona had a reputation as an excellent judge of character. As Calypso grew up, she realized how well-suited she was for the military path the Duchess laid out before her. In the aftermath of the Tor-Southport War, she embraced the martial life that defined House Malvici and the city of Southport. She had always stood apart; her younger brother's enjoyment of politics saved her from a role she never wanted. Calypso was in field training by the age of twelve and commanding patrols by fifteen. She lived and breathed strategy, logistics, tactics, and leadership, but it was the time among soldiers in the field that she appreciated most. She grew to love them as much as she did her brothers.
The inevitable deaths and losses among her troops led her to work them and herself harder. She was a highly-demanding commander, never settling for less than the best and scant with praise. Her success at bearing the same burdens as the common troops as her training prolonged their lives won her fierce loyalty from Southport's soldiers. When her mother abdicated in favor of her younger brother Hadrian, his first act was to make her the commanding general of House Malvici's armies. She wasn't yet twenty-five years old, but some said the promotion was overdue.
With the tension in Arx, Calypso finds herself needed for her counsel and good judgment as much as commanding soldiers. Though she gratefully passed the responsibility of rule off to her young brother so she could follow her passion for martial mastery, she is still determined to help. She intends to make the most of her first diplomatic excursion outside the Lyceum, aiming to learn as much as she can about potential enemies, seek out allies among those who respect the pragmatic use of force, and set her tactical experience to work in the ballrooms and audience halls. After all, she reasons, diplomacy is war by other means.
