Post by Ze Flying Wraithetti Monstress on Mar 20, 2010 12:56:57 GMT -5
Name:
Nagendra Ramakrishna
Age:
Thirty-five years
Race:
Human
Appearance:
Nagendra is rather far from most people’s concept of a lord. As opposed to tall, majestic, and regally clothed, Nagendra is slender, small at 5’8”, and wiry, more suited to agility than brute strength. Besides that, any resemblance to a lord stops short at his wardrobe and appearance. Physically, Nagendra looks different form the men of Alagaësia- he has the moderately dark skin colour of his people, and has a bold, but narrow, good-looking face, with small, almond-shaped eyes, a sharp nose, strong chin and high cheekbones. He has a very slender, almost tiny figure, with an evenly toned body from spending most of his time riding horses and having sex rather than swinging massive weapons. He has dark, intelligent eyes that usually possess a sadistic gleam, and thick black hair that hangs to his shoulders. Nagendra occasionally paints streaks of colour into his hair, and changes his eye colour with his wife’s magic.
Nagendra enjoys and prefers to add to his natural beauty with the help of makeup. He uses soot, chalk, lead, henna dyes, ground minerals and plants, plant secretions, and many other natural ingredients for his make-up. However, some items he uses, such as mercury and poisonous plants like belladonna, cause him to sometimes get unpleasant infections and have him lying in bed for several days at a time. He applies it all over his face and body, and the colours match his dress and mood. As for clothing, Nagendra happily swapped the usual silk robes and costumes for the scantiest, most revealing women’s clothing he could get his hands on. Silk corsets, high-heeled boots, and see-through leggings are among the scandalous items that make up the entirety of his wardrobe, much to the discomfort of visiting diplomats. Nagendra also highly dislikes wearing pants, preferring short skirts or just laced undergarments instead, proudly showing off his long, shapely legs and narrow hips. Very little of his body is left to the imagination, especially when he gets into a particularly liberated mood and walks around entirely naked except for a special accessory. Nagendra’s wardrobe is politely overlooked by his staff and subjects.
Nagendra has two items that he always carries on his person. Though most people think of the diadem as the signet of the ruler of Teirm, it is actually the heavy gold necklace that constantly hangs around Nagendra’s neck that is the Ramakrishna family’s symbol of power. Hanging on a heavy gold chain, the amulet consists of black onyx embedded with a crystal ship, a fitting symbol for Teirm. Nagendra never removes this chain, carrying it around almost religiously, and becomes extremely aggravated if anyone, even his wife, touches it. The second item he carries is Røde Lam, ‘red hand’ in the ancient language, the heirloom one-handed longsword of the Ramakrishna family. The sword is made of bone and starkly white in colour against the ebony hilt of the blade. The reason for the name ‘red hand’ is because of the rubies studded into the hilt of the sword. The sword has the three colours of House Ramakrishna- black, red, and white. It is, however, an entirely ceremonial weapon, and isn’t much use in an actual fight. Nagendra’s physical strength is mostly due to rigorous sex rather than actual fighting, and he generally avoids it as well, being a hemophiliac. He leaves most of his battles up to his bodyguards.
Personality:
Nagendra is an absurd person. He knows it, and is quite proud of it. He is a flamboyant, hot-headed individual with a penchant for the outrageous and the unusual. Noble breeding and upbringing gives him an air of elegance and authority suited to a king, perhaps the only thing that gives away his status. As a person, he is manic, wildly passionate, and will do absolutely anything for shock value. He always makes time for his own affairs, even if it includes putting aside his lordly responsibilities. His affairs are usually sexual, revolving largely around massive orgies to sadomasochism to simple suggestive flirting. Sex is Nagendra’s lifeblood, and as long as someone is willing to do as he commands, he doesn’t care who they are, their age, gender, or about the consequences that might arise from whatever they do together.
Nagendra also holds a particular fondness for torture. His favourite game is playing with people’s minds, as is all forms of torture, from simply not letting a lusty someone have him to true gore, which he usually participates in with his wife. Nagendra loves Malandra for her beauty and her shared passion for torture, but he isn’t in love with her. Nagendra doesn’t have the ability to truly love someone or something, instead having short-term obsessions that he eventually tires of and throws away, unless, rarely, they have the ability to keep up with his whims, which only two people have managed to do so far. He largely ignores most of his family, seeing them as simple objects in his life. He is easily moved to lose his temper, and those that get in his way are promptly punished, whether they were at fault or not.
Nagendra is, however, very intelligent, and his abilities lie in his mental strategies. He can easily pick out talented people for his use, and will abandon them just as quickly should their usefulness fail. He views all people as his toys, and enjoys mixing them up to his pleasure, telling a lie here, stealing something there, and therefore engineering affairs, split-ups, getting rid of unwanted people, and causing confusion and havoc in his court in general. Nagendra is especially a fan of magicians for their value and because of creative ways to use their magic in bed, and has freely opened his court to them.
Nagendra is more than comfortable with his position. He has a very relaxed approach to ruling, viewing his palace as his playground, and all the people within it as toys placed there specifically for his whims. Truthfully, he cares far more about his superpower status than about the welfare of Teirm, and leaves most of the work to his staff, who so far have managed to keep up the impression that he actually gives a damn. Nagendra doesn’t even really understand the seriousness of ruling a huge city, but he does understand the seriousness of what could happen should the population become unhappy after what happened to his brother-in-law. He avoids this by keeping close tabs on his staff as well as ushering any questioning individuals straight to the chop.
History:
The Ramakrishna family wasn’t originally Alagaësian. Back in the old days, when the Age of Riders was in full swing, they were lords in the eastern country of Dakhla and visited Alagaësia as diplomats and ambassadors for their homeland. However, when Galbatorix’s reign began to rear its ugly head, Nagendra’s great-grandfather Ravana was unable to get himself and his family to the port in time. Soon, the Forsaken closed off all exits, and no one was allowed to leave the newborn Empire. Rather than die like millions of others, Ravana turned to Galbatorix and offered to help him assimilate the common folk. The Ramakrishnas were rich and powerful, and Galbatorix accepted his proposal. Though the family played little part in the Riders’ downfall, they did aid financially, as well as eliminating any other ambassadors or diplomats that stood in the king’s way. In reward, Galbatorix made Ravana Ramakrishna the Lord of Teirm.
Shiva Ramakrishna, Nagendra’s father, was the Lord of Teirm when he was born. At seven feet in height and adept with blunt weapons, he was a fearful ruler as well as war-mongering, but a skillful politician. Having little interest in marrying, his five children Devi, Madhuri, Rajani, Ereshkigal and Nagendra were all bastards from various attractive visiting ladies. Nagendra shared a mother only with his sister Ereshkigal, an actress called Lakshmi. Lakshmi gained fame in performances throughout the Empire and beyond, and by the time Nagendra was four years old, she had been heard of even in Urû’baen and received several invitations to star in plays there.
Eager to appear in noble courts in cities including Ceunon, Dras-Leona, and Belatona, but not eager to bring her children along, Lakshmi left without them, and Nagendra never saw her again. Part of this was because he was rather unimpressive as a child- he was painfully shy, never spoke a word despite years of coaxing by nursemaids, and was frequently subject to heavy nosebleeds. Besides that, he was a hemophiliac- his blood was unable to clot, and this made him badly suited to being a warrior. So, he was entirely ignored by his father, having very little chance of being heir to the Seat of Teirm anyway, and was sent away to schooling with his sisters in the countryside.
Nagendra was picked at, mocked, and eventually largely ignored by his teachers, fellow noble children and even the servants. Only Ereshkigal, perhaps because of their shared mother, showed kindness to him. She, however, left for Urû’baen when Nagendra was nine when she was found to have exceptional magical abilities, and he didn’t see her again for many years. Nagendra lay swathed in misery for some time, which didn’t end until he was thirteen. That was when Lucrezia, a young visiting noblewoman who couldn’t seem to stop noticing Nagendra, approached him while he was sitting alone in his bedroom one day. Without provocation, Lucrezia started to clean Nagendra, starting at his feet, onto his knees, along his thighs, and all the way up from there.
The resulting thrill was revolutionary for Nagendra. He was jump-started into speech and active socializing. Sex became his lifeblood, his unfailing saving grace, and he finished his education with skyrocketing marks when he was eighteen and promptly returned to Teirm. He worked on earning himself a properly respected place in the court, and after a few years had gotten a great deal of attention- all except from his father, who was still shamed from Nagendra’s lack of ability in fighting and now, his obsessions with women’s clothing and men, too. Determined to force his father to give him the respect he believed he deserved, Nagendra decided that the best way to do this was to eliminate his competition- meaning everyone in his way for the Seat. Ereshkigal was spared, as she had given up her chances in favour of being a sorceress, but that still left his three sisters Rajani, Madhuri, and the current heir Devi, in his way. First, he went after Rajani. Nagendra was inspired when he found a small snake in the courtyard one evening, and carefully hid it in a pouch. He blackmailed a servant into placing the snake under his sister’s pillow, which the servant, a boy named Cailan, reluctantly agreed to do. The snake was accordingly hidden, and when Rajani lay down to sleep that night, she was promptly bit in the neck and died an agonized death in fifteen minutes.
The city reeled with shock, and the whole court went into deep mourning. Cailan was so ashamed of what he’d done that he confessed to Devi about what Nagendra had forced him to do. Overcome with rage, Devi stormed into her brother’s room. Nagendra, unlike everyone else, was rather cheerful, and seeing this, Devi turned away to go rat out her little brother. Terrified of being found out, Nagendra snatched a ceremonial axe from the wall and buried it into her shoulder, killing her. Then, even more terrified, he worked fast. He found Cailan in the palace kitchens and murdered him in a similar way, then mopped up both his and Devi’s blood. Then he dragged their bodies into Devi’s bedroom, laid them on the bed and stripped them naked to make it look like they had been caught committing adultery against Devi’s consort. The court went mad, and Devi’s husband was accused of murder and locked in prison. Nagendra, satisfied that he’d eliminated two of his sisters, laid low for a while until things calmed down. Now that he was in second line for the throne, he figured he could wait a while until he went after Madhuri.
But things took an unfortunate turn for Nagendra shortly afterwards. Lord Shiva, mortified at his favoured daughter’s crime and at her death, became deeply ill, a sickness of the heart that not even the most powerful Imperial magicians could cure. Though he was religiously cared for, he eventually just stopped eating and died when Nagendra was twenty-five. Madhuri rose to the Seat of Teirm and her son, Mahisha, was set up as the new heir. However, mere days later, Madhuri was killed while arguing with her consort, Risthart. The argument took place at the top of a flight of stairs, and Madhuri accidentally slipped and fell to her death. Mahisha was automatically made the new Lord of Teirm, but since the boy was five years old at the time, it was decreed that Risthart would rule until his son was eighteen. Nagendra was shoved back into line for the Seat and was deeply wounded, having failed at his dream.
For seven long years, he lounged in depression and gloom. But then one day, Lucrezia approached him again. She, however, was no longer Lucrezia, but Malandra, one of Galbatorix’s scientists. She coaxed him back into the real world, plying him with praise and encouragement. Nagendra was eventually very taken with the woman, and recovered from his depression. He decided that simply being in line for the Seat wasn’t good enough for him anymore. He wanted to actually rule the city, bar none. Elated, he married Malandra, and with her help they began to plot.
They hired an alchemist. First, they allowed Risthart to reign unchallenged for several months, but then with Malandra and the alchemist’s help, Nagendra began to slip a variety of poisons into Risthart’s meals. First hardly detectable amounts, and then more and more as time passed. Risthart began to hallucinate and have wild delusions. His once-brilliant battle strategies became lunacy, and soldiers fell in hundreds to the Varden. Buildings spontaneously burned down. Trading screeched to a halt when Risthart deeply insulted the surrounding cities. Two years later, assuming that their lord had gone mad with power, the city rose up to overthrow him and Teirm became a hellhole. During the confusion, Nagendra himself plunged knives into Mahisha, took him out into the empty woodland, and left him to die there. Afterwards, he headed straight for his summer manor south of Teirm, and patiently waited for things to calm down.
It took several weeks, but eventually a chancellor arrived at Nagendra’s summer manor and announced his brother-in-law’s death. Since Mahisha had disappeared as well, and was most likely dead too, Nagendra was next in line for the Seat. His coronation was quick, as the city was eager to forget their previous ruler, and he happily settled in as the new lord.
