information
guzla
PLAYER
NAME: Vee
AGE: 19
PERSONAL LJ: no thanks
EMAIL ADDRESS: afanasy.mefodi@gmail.com
AIM SCREENAME: on winds of thor
EXPERIENCE RPing: same as it was last time
CHARACTER
NAME: Haydee Tebelin (Countess de Monte Cristo)
CANON SOURCE: The Count of Monte Cristo
TIMELINE: After "The Fifth of October", Edmond has reciprocated her feelings and they've spent several years at sea.
CANON ABILITIES: Beauty, languages, vengeful spirit, wealth, royalty, true love, classic character throughout the ages (aka none)
PERSONALITY:
Haydee Tebelin, daughter of Ali Pasha of Janina and his favorite concubine Vasiliki, was raised in a house of nobility and surrounded by great wealth. She is a princess through and through, poised and elegant, beautiful and demure, intelligent and accomplished in the arts. She is well traveled, is familiar with many different hospitalities, and can speak many languages. She has a beautiful and welcoming smile, but in truth she is guarded and distant. As a child, she suffered greatly: her father was betrayed and murdered, and her mother expired from the grief before her. Haydee spent many years as a slave and this has hardened he. She is determined she will never again bow before any man or woman save for her husband, the avenging angel who freed her. Publicly, she is a reclusive and soft-spoken woman, but her fine manners veneer a strong and vibrant spirit.
Haydee despises all forms of falsehood and treachery. She has a vengeful spirit that will drive her to seek recompense on all who affront her on those grounds. When thusly impassioned, she has a heart of steel and a will of iron. Underneath her silks and makeup, she is a force to be reckoned with, but she, like her husband, is skilled at staying behind the scenes until it is time to step forward.
This is not, however, to say she is cold. She is a charming hostess and a devoted wife. She loves Monte Cristo with all her heart, is certain she will die without him, and has great compassion and empathy for those who have suffered the cruelty of the world. She has a few very close friends-(Maximilian Morrell and Valentine de Villefort are like brother and sister to her)--and the enthusiastic, loving, brilliant, and optimistic woman she truly is shines through when at ease. Edmond describes her as having "charming and poetical ideas."
She also shares a close, but respectful, relationship with Monte Cristo's most faithful servants. Anyone proven to be trustworthy beyond a doubt may be considered a friend of hers. However, proving oneself to be trustworthy to her is quite an ordeal. She has learned to be a discerning judge of character from her husband.
As a noblewoman and a count's wife, she is, admittedly, somewhat vain. She enjoys her fine clothes and beautiful jewelry, her Greek foods and smuggled hashish and exotic teas and tobaccos. However, she and her husband are both very philanthropic, donating to those in need worldwide. She has no qualms with mingling with lower economic or social classes, but often the people themselves do not appreciate her 'condescension'. She has a regal air. Even as a slave, one could always tell she was a princess. She has great dignity and haughtiness about her. She is proud to be Ali Pasha's daughter, she is proud to be Monte Cristo's wife, and she is proud of her accomplishments in life. Including seeing that bastard Mondego completely destroyed. She won't hide that for anyone.
CANON HISTORY: Haydee was born as the daughter of the statesman Pasha of Janina and his favorite concubine Vasiliki. She lived a happy life in peaceful Janina until the age of four. At this time, the Turks were warring with the Greeks and the Greek garrison deserted from fatigue over the long fighting. The Turkish sultan made demands for Ali Tebelin. So, Ali gathered all his faithful servants and all the treasures in his court and brought them to a subterranean island for guarding. Should negotiations with the Turks fail, Ali intended to blow up the small island, taking everyone and everything with him rather than let the Turks get their hands on it.
A French officer by the name of Fernand Mondego was sent to oversee these negotiations. He was very well loved by Ali Pasha and betrayed the leader's trust by bringing back false news of agreed terms. The Turks ransacked all the treasures and killed Ali Pasha. The traitorous French officer dared not keep Haydee and Vasiliki as his own war prize and sold them into slavery. While waiting to be sold, they witnessed her father's head mounted in the imperial streets on a pike. Vasiliki was so distraught over the death and disgrace of her Pasha, she died there in the streets. Haydee was then purchased by a rich Armenian, the Sultan Mahmood, and finally the Count of Monte Cristo, who promised her revenge.
She lived in Monte Cristo's care for several years before he brought her with him to Paris. She was a reclusive girl, seen only on rare occasions at the theater. Rumors about them abounded. Monte Cristo provided for her every comfort, allowing her to surround herself with the Eastern finery she was familiar with and hiring Greek servants. She was also close with his most loyal servants Baptistin, Bertuccio, and Ali.
She grew deeply devoted to Monte Cristo, whose story she knew and shared. She feared he was losing himself to his revenge, but would never dare to try to dissuade him from it, considering he helped to facilitate her own. Monte Cristo planted the seeds of doubt surrounding Fernand Morcerf, the officer who had once betrayed her father. Fernand had used his riches to buy a title and become a general in Paris. Through his machinations, Monte Cristo eventually arranged for Fernand to be tried for his betrayal and Haydee stepped forward to give testimony. Morcerf was stripped of all respectability, lost his son and his wife, and eventually committed suicide.
As the Count's schemes wound to a close, he offered to release Haydee from him, asking that she forget even his cursed name, and while she would obey his every order, she confessed she loved him and would live in misery without him. Monte Cristo at first protested that he was much too old for her, but he realized what kindred spirits they were. He accepted and returned her love and they sailed away together to celebrate the justice that had been served and their new life together.
HOW DIFFERENT DO YOU WANT THE MEMORIES TO BE FROM THEIR CANON? Almost completely the same, actually. Except the attack of the Turks is simply WWI, the ordeals in Paris remain. Her husband came in to money, holds a title (which was always used somewhat ironically, and continues to be used as such), they're wealthy and travel quite a lot, she is reclusive with a love of music and theater. She and her husband are both enigmatic figures.
They do not use the name Dantes, Edmond Dantes is dead. She answers to Haydee de Monte Cristo.
She was born in 1914, was 4 at the end of World War I when the Ottoman Empire capitulated. She was 18 during her time in Paris, she is 21 in 1935 coming to New York.
PLANS FOR YOUR CHARACTER: I would really love for Haydee's coming to New York to cause a stir, because that's what Monte Cristo does. He buys places that aren't for sale and then moves in with his Turkish carpets and Nubian slaves with completely unconcerned efficiency. He buys his beautiful wife, who is nearly twenty years his junior, a private year round box that had belonged to someone else the day before. He purchases her a car to take her here and there. He knows how much all of this makes him noticed. Everything he does has a purpose. And if you haven't heard rumors about the Monte Cristos' wild exploits, you haven't been listening hard enough.
She and Edmond both have suffered horribly at the hands of the 'law' and they do use their money to avoid dealing with such a corrupt self-interested system. Some of the times when Haydee claims Edmond is 'away on business' he may in fact be in the city taking care of corruption in his own special way. Haydee can act in his stead when it comes to some of this social intrigue. And she will.
She is not seen without guards. Very often this is Ali, Baptistin, and Bertuccio. Sometimes she is seen with Rocca Priori if Baptistin or Bertuccio have been called away to business by their lord.
The Monte Cristos have a habit of saving criminals condemned to death and redeeming them. They make the most trustworthy servants.
SAMPLES
LOG SAMPLE: New York was not to my taste. It was a cold place, a bawdy place, lined with modern marvels on every street and strewn with smoke and refuse. It compared poorly to the elegant nooks and cobbles of Paris, or to the sun bleached stones of ancient Janina. There was nothing natural about it, no beautiful Cypress trees that had grown since the beginning of time, no lake dappled by the sun, reflecting only the clearest of blue.
No, it was not to my taste, but it was where I would be staying for the time being. My beloved had treated me to a journey home in apology for it, and I very well understood that business necessitated he go away. He had begun exploring investments in Africa over a year ago now, he seemed almost ready to act. I trusted his judgment and his capabilities. And in the meantime, I waited in New York, ready to accept the invitations of the relevant businessmen. Though I confess, despite my many years of practice since Edmond and I had left Paris together, the task was far from an amusement.
I must admit I was somewhat prejudiced against the entire American strata. There was an air of arrogance without dignity to them, like powerful beasts that had not quite grown into their own bodies and spent much of their time stumbling awkwardly into everything in their path.
Ali agreed with me silently when I expressed this to him one afternoon. We both preferred our private box at the theater and we spent many nights there, waiting until Monte Cristo returned for us.
JOURNAL SAMPLE: [Beautiful script, a steady, feminine hand] We return from Greece and this is the gift I find? It is almost something I would expect my dear husband to find for me, but he's left no note and the other entries make it quite clear he played no part in this.
A motley assortment of possessors, I confess, but not wholly uninteresting.
[Transcribed into a number of languages: Arabic, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Hebrew, Turkish, Greek, Portuguese, Dutch, Pilipino, and Nepali. She makes little notes of various slavic dialects she is also familiar with. It is a short message, it does not take up too much room despite the many variations.]
Tell me, how many of these can you read? Who among you has the gift of language?
[This is in English only:]
I am currently looking to employ a tutor in Hindi. By chance, could any of you recommend one to me? I am beginning to fear I will have to send for someone.
NOTES: As a mature woman who has achieved her revenge and married the love of her life, I think she will be a little more confident and outspoken than she was in her youth. As for the issue of fourth-walling... I hate trying to tell people not to fourth wall her. I think there will be enough differences in the modernizing of her story that if it's mentioned to her, she can just smile and agree that yes, it is a rather ominous coincidence considering the sorrows that have occurred in her life.