Cassandra of Alamar

Cassandra Louisa Staunton (16th of the First Seed, 1513 – 8th of the Sun’s Smile, 1600), commonly known as Cassandra of Alamar, was the Viscountess of the County of Alamar, as the wife of Viscount Bryce Horen-Vimmark. As the daughter of Percival Staunton, Duke of Courland, her marriage with Viscount Bryce was intended to create a familial trust between the two northern powers. Cassandra lived for quite some time, seeing the entirety of her family be killed and witnessing her allies and enemies rise and fall.

History

Childhood

Her father was Percival Staunton, the First Duke of Courland, a northern duchy under the Holy Orenian Empire during the time of Vailor. Cassandra was born and brought up in the northern reaches of Vailor, and was of the blood of the first Stauntons, before they obtained titles and power. Her youth was refined and rich; her lord father’s intentions to bring her up as an eligible noblewoman to create alliances when she was old enough to wed. Cassandra and her siblings were brought up with a rich education, provided by their wealthy father. She was born in the hamlet of Fjordham, and as she entered her years of adolescence, Cassandra obtained a residence within the ducal keep amongst her family. An early betrothal was proposed between Cassandra and a de Savoie prince, though nothing came out of it. Cassandra spent most of her youth in Dour Watch as a ward, and learned much of her courtly prowess there, alongside Adelheid de Sola.

Adulthood and Marriage

One of Cassandra’s first feats was her involvement with the coronation of John Frederick I Horen. She had stood upon the walls of Dour Watch and had seen the dragon banners of Horen flying as a small retinue of soldiers marched toward the keep. The de Sola house was one of the first to rally to the cause of Horen, and as she was accustomed to doing, Cassandra watched and listened at court. One evening, she approached John Frederick and announced her identity; and the Horen descendant was impressed. She became one of his imperial courtiers of his early court, in exchange for her to ride north to her father, and bring him word of John’s arrival. Cassandra had established a meeting between Percival Staunton and John Frederick, and such brought the House of Staunton into the imperial fold.

As a daughter of one of the three northern great powers, Cassandra was sought after by many young lords as a potential bride. A recorded scandal was of her cousin, William Staunton, and his fervent and mad infatuation with her. Cassandra had been given the title of Lady Regent of Kraken’s Watch, a keep that neighboured the Courland capital city. Her charge was to safeguard it from any Vanir loyalists that could still linger, and take care of the common people and their affairs. She was well into a year of her tenure as Regent when her cousin had reportedly scaled the walls and pushed himself into her chambers, proclaiming his love in an obscene and erratic fashion. Cassandra refused his advances and alerted her father immediately; whom saw an end to his behaviours. William Staunton disappeared shortly after the disaster.

Cassandra often frequented the imperial palace, becoming a close friend to the Empress and her flock of ladies. It was there when she met Bryce Horen-Vimmark, the Grand Knight of Oren. They exchanged brief words, though there was a charm about him which kept him in her thoughts. It was a summer afternoon in Courland when Cassandra heard a scuffing on the stones of the tower, and from her height atop the balcony, she saw Bryce climbing upward. He had taken her breath with such a feat, and that was the beginning of plentiful visits from the Viscount of Alamar. The romance budded and there was a curiosity and a passion that bloomed between the two. The betrothal and marriage was overseen by the Empress Adelheid de Sola – Cassandra’s childhood companion. Upon marrying Bryce of Alamar, Cassandra ended her time as Lady Regent of Kraken’s Watch, and gladly welcomed the title as Viscountess of Alamar, and Lady of Saltstone.

Cassandra and Bryce lived and ruled from the impregnable and glorious castle of Saltstone, and together they built a township and filled it with winter gardens and soldiers of their own banner. Their relationship was dynamic and brilliant. Deeply in love, they were, and treated one another with high regard. The lower chamber of the Saltstone castle was reserved for meetings and councils, and famously known as the cabinet of the Saltstone Diet. Bryce had built two thrones for he and his wife to sit, and together they would discuss and engage in the affairs of their people. Cassandra learned considerably from her husband, the Grand Knight. Cassandra and Bryce discussed their plays in the great game of lords and war, finding allies in Cassandra’s friends from Istria, and slipping spies into many of the noble courts. Cassandra and Bryce eliminated their enemies effectively and swiftly; and strengthened their alliances through Bryce’s status and calculation, and Cassandra’s social prowess and political intelligence.

The two were both intelligent nobles with great capacities, and when in function together, were powerful.

The court of Saltstone grew considerably with the arrival of Cassandra, and as a Horen-Vimmark she became a figure in both the north and the south. In 1533, Cassandra gave birth to twins, and as husband and wife they decided to name them after the Storm King and Queen, Maric and Ayana.

As her two children grew, Saltstone became a place for the palace women to retreat to with their own children. Ayana Horen-Vimmark and the imperial princess, Phillipa Horen, quickly became friends. Several balls, feasts, and parties were hosted in the castle of Saltstone, as it was so well-defended and grandiose.

Cassandra had plenty of other children, each being born very close apart. She had six children all together; though her sixth was a daughter, and only after a few days, the infant died from a winter fever. Cassandra entered a grievous stage of depression after the death of her daughter, Leia; for she had been named after her own sister – who had been found lynched in their own garden.

In her mid-twenties, Cassandra took some time to stay in the County of Drusco, held by the House of de Bar. She became the governess of the Count’s daughter, Aurelia de Bar, and such was the beginning of Cassandra’s closest and important friendship throughout her entire life. Cassandra watched Aurelia grow from a child to a woman, and aided in her every aspect of life. She was one of the few that urged and accepted the marriage of Aurelia de Bar and Ser Aymer Fournier.

Saltstone Treachery

In the year 1539, however, the Vimmarks fell out of favour with Richard Staunton, the Duke of Courland and Cassandra’s own brother. She brought her children and her host of guards and servants with her when she visited the Courland palace, and Richard met his nieces and nephews coldly, his face hardened and his gaze steely. There was little compassion Richard held for the Vimmark children, who were of his own blood. It was whispered that Duke Richard Staunton was envious of the grandeur and might of the Vimmark house, and it made him bitter to see his own sister become a powerful figure in her own right. The two had a conflicted childhood, brother and sister always engaged in a fight. There was little love that existed between the two. Staunton mistrusted the Viscount and suspected that the Vimmarks intended on using the half-Staunton sons against him, to press a claim on the rest of the northern lands.

Cassandra was a political woman; she kept spies within her brother’s courts and received word of his discomfort. She kept her children away from Courland as much as she could, and confided in the Empress of her fears. It was rumoured that Cassandra and Richard met one evening upon the salt cliffs of Alamar, where she attempted to treat with him. He had drawn a blade on his own sister and went to slay her, when Cassandra’s demigryph – Stormwind – leapt from the heavy snow and swiped the sword away. Richard left in hot fury at his defeat, and Cassandra returned to her husband in silent triumph, though knowing that a violent fate would become of her two families. For less public reasons, the lord of Saltstone would also find an enemy in Josef Vladov, the Baron of Franzenburg, another one of the emperor’s intimate favorites.

As the Empress became antagonised at the imperial court, Cassandra lost her foothold there and she worried for her and her family. The widespread sentiment against her husband planted the seeds of a treacherous plot to have him removed from his imperial favours for good. Factions at the palace slowly began to influence the Emperor against his Grand Knight.

A climax was reached when Cassandra’s second-born son, Rendon, murdered the Emperor’s two nephews, Philip Augustus de Capua and Philip de Sola. The two youths were well-regarded through the south, and so because of their murders, there was a consistent demand for justice against the Vimmarks. The Emperor could not deny the bloody truth, and through the whispers and persuasions of the snakes that slithered in his court, he was convinced into sending a party to arrest Cassandra’s husband, Bryce Vimmark.

Cassandra was staying in her lavish apartment in the capital city of Felsen at the time of her husband’s arrest, and she was overcome with a wave of anguish and horror. She had received word of the treachery that had befallen upon her northern home; hearing of how her husband was slain atop the ramparts of his own castle. That noon, she wept as she watched her three sons, Richard, Eamon and Rendon all be executed within the city. She gathered her belongings and fled the city, taking her daughter, Ayana, and riding hastily into the night. The Emperor had taken her last living son, Maric, and spared him, and though it pained her so to know her son was being raised by the men that killed his family, there was naught she could do.

In 1539, Duke Richard of Courland disowned Cassandra and bastardised her from the house. In an attempt to further shame the Vimmark name, accusations were concocted by he and the others at the imperial palace labelling Cassandra unfaithful and lustful.

After years living in silence and fear, Cassandra and her daughter, Ayana, arrived in the Kingdom of Vandoria. They were without coin or soldiers, for the Vimmark loyalists they travelled with, died protecting them from Vladov soldiers. Cassandra arranged a betrothal between her daughter and the Count of Riverford, Jory I Marbrand, and settled into a quiet life within the royal court of Vandoria. There was nothing left for her in Oren, she realised. Her longtime friend, Adelheid de Sola, had been banished to Kaedrin, her closest friend, Aurelia, was unhappily bound to Horen ideologies, and her ducal brother had disowned her as a Staunton.

Death

Cassandra Louisa Horen-Vimmark died in the year of 1600 from a heart problem which had persisted throughout her older years. She was buried beneath a fir tree upon a northern mountain; surrounded by seven winter roses, symbols for the family she had lost.