Titánia Fleetbrook-Stroud

Titánia Fleetbrook-Stroud is considered one of key figures throughout the Chimeran Wars. In later Parlavian faith she was deified, received the name “The Lady of Mourning,” and is most commonly associated with death, re-birth, love, beauty, perseverence, family, dance, music, sex, intellect, shrewdness, and accuracy. Traditional Parlavian heraldry depicts her as a white fox in front of a purple flame and shrouded in silver stars.

Early Life

Titánia was born to Tristana and Damean Fleetbrook and is the third of their seven children, she inherited the family crest at eighteen after being made a ward of house Glitterdelve following the death of its Patriarch, her Pallantium blood father, and younger brother Sylas Fleetbrook. Titánia’s kindred brand bears the guise of a multi-tailed fox with red and purple accents to its face and flanks. At her denotation, Titánia was ordained by an unknown prelate and received an Augur classification.

Titánia was born in the eastern provinces of Naedoh in 824 P.V. On her sixth birthday, Titánia was taken by way of tribute to serve under the masters of house Glitterdelve, a vassal of the Khorlian Highhouse Dawn. Titánia’s aptitude for the arts was quickly established and when house Glitterdelve hosted a troupe of artisan performers she was presented the convoy’s presiding lady, Astrid Dawn for consideration. Impressed with her potential, Titánia’s aesthetic rights were purchased for two hundred and thirty seven rohnthin, the largest sum ever paid for a denizen of the eastern provinces. Titánia served as parlourmaid to Astrid Dawn until the troupe arrived in Gatekeep City and she began her aesthetic training at the Confederate School of Performing Arts.

Titánia first entered Khorlian high-society at the age of nine with her role in The Amber Island Players’ production of the Illirian legend, The Judicator. While the production received mixed reviews with many critics stating the production favoured style over substance, Titánia’s performance was met with universal acclaim. The production house would go on to present several performances featuring the now rising star which all performed admirably with audiences, grossing a respectable profit.

Titánia’s time off stage was not nearly as glamorous however as her newfound success drew the ire of the troupe’s previous starlett, Hateno Raindancer who believed it a great offence to have a member of the Pallentium play second to an Augur. In an attempt to retain her position as the production house’s leading act, Hateno claimed she had seen Titánia accepting personal favours from low-born patrons, an act considered abhorrent to the troupe’s reputation. As a member of the Pallantium, Hateno’s accusations resulted in an immediate suspension of Titánia’s performances and her training was placed on indefinite hold. Desperate to not lose her public spotlight, Titánia requested a formal investigation be conducted to prove her innocence. With no conclusive evidence of Titánia’s misconduct ever found, she was able to resume training; however, Hateno had once again returned to front run The Amber Island Players’ Production suite and Titánia was forced into supporting acts. In order to secure her position at the production house’s main attraction, Hateno continued to sabotage Titánia’s training, and would regularly deprive her of sleep in order to ruin her performances.

Desperate to regain public attention and free herself from Hateno’s shadow, against her mistress’ knowledge, Titánia announced publicly that she had completed her training and was ready to accept propositions from various Houses to become an Aesthetic Yield at the start of the next lunar cycle - a full year ahead of schedule. News of such an early announcement spread quickly with prospectors from many of the Khorlian High Houses seeking to acquire such a promising Yield. Furious at her disciple’s actions for putting the reputation of the school at risk by presenting an untrained Yield to the market, Lady Astrid Dawn took it upon herself to teach Titánia in private.

Forced to learn more than a year's worth of the curriculum in less than a month and with Parlitain Laws of Association forbidding personal interaction between Titánia as an Augur and Astrid as a member of the Ħuthim, Titánia was forced to train in secret. During this time, Titánia would first complete all of her current training regime and daily duties to the school before beginning her training at night with Lady Astrid. Astrid’s training itself was relentless with the master often stating she believed the only two ways for the school to succeed would be to either complete her training or break Titánia down to a point where she could no longer perform. Under Astrids eye, Titánia was forced to learn nearly a year’s worth of court manners, entertainment routines, histories, dance performances, musical numbers and ceremonial tradition.

When Hateno found Titánia practicing in Lady Astrid’s own robes, she brought Titánia before the Lady Astrid in an attempt to have her expelled for violating Parlavian Laws of Association. Titánia received no such punishment however when Astrid revealed that she could not expel Titánia without first banishing Hateno for her sexual involvement with a member of the Ferrum, the very patron Hateno had accused Titánia of seeing herself, a crime which, if revealed, could very well destroy the school and production house’s reputation.

Under Astrid’s strict regime and against all odds, Titánia was eventually prepared to make her debut performance as a fully recognized and ordained Yield. On the eve of her performance however, news arrived in Gatekeep City regarding the assassination of the Highhouse Patriach Marcus Howlgloom by members of the eastern province’s Reshi Liberation Army.

Following the assassination and open rebellion in her homeland, discontent towards those with ties to the eastern provinces grew within Gatekeep City and as a result, Titánia’s debut was placed on indefinite hold. With her homeland in disarray and no chance to perform as a result of her lineage, Titánia was taken out of the public eye and, with Astrid still wishing to keep her close, made to work as a seamstress in one of Dawn’s manufacturing houses.

She would spend the next three years under the eye of head seamstress Yirid Spindelhook. While she initially dreamed only of returning to the school, at the passing of her twelfth birthday (the standard age for a yield to become recognized) and no end in sight for the eastern conflict, Titánia tried desperately to keep up her skills, creating audiences from empty reems of yarn and using her new skills as a seamstress to create her own costumes. Titánia would use the proceeds she generated from small performances within the local gardens to eventually pay off her debt of rights and training to House Dawn.

By the time the rebellion was quashed in 837 PV and Titánia returned to Gatekeep City, Hetano had taken over as headmistress of The Amber Island Players. However, no longer a child prodigy and with no patreon or sponsor to bankroll her debut, Titánia was left with few options and was eventually forced to return to her ancestral home. Upon her return, she found years of war had turned once lush fields into barren wastelands and little remained of the land she once called home. Her family had suffered greatly in the war, losing their Patriarch, Titánia’s father and two oldest brothers. With his Pallantium branding, succession as the House Prime fell to Titánia's younger brother, Sylas.

Titánia would go on to engage in any opportunity she could to support herself and her family; however, as she had never gained full recognition as a Yield, Titánia was forbidden to start her own school and was limited primarily to working in textiles.

In 842 PV, Sylas Fleetbrook, her familial Patriarch and younger brother, was arranged to marry Alice Glitterdelve, the daughter of their sovereign. While such a betrothal would typically be met with heavy criticism as Alice’s Mox branding stationed her several degrees above Sylas’s own Pallantium brand, the rebellion had substantially weakened the eastern provinces bloodlines, and with tensions increasing in the cities as a result of the Dekarn Plague, few options remained. In response, Titánia once again came into the employ of house Glitterdelve, though this time she would be met with resentment as her failure to ascend into the Khorlian aristocracy had prevented the Glitterdelve house from gaining favour with Highhouse Dawn.

Despite her failings, her familial relationship with Sylas and the fact that many of the province’s Yields had left during the years of war, eventually lead the Matriarch Alinity Glitterdelve to ask Titánia for assistance in training Alice in Gatekeep City’s aristocratic candor in the months before the wedding. During this time, Sylas revealed to Titánia that he had been contacted by members of the Reshi Liberation Army and he had promised them his support. Titánia’s tutelage of Alice Glitterdelve continued until her marriage to Sylas in the last lunar cycle of 842 PV. In what Titánia would later describe as one of the worst and best days of her life, Sylas and Alice were married, placing Fleetbrook’s considerable land and holdings in the hands of house Glitterdelve and securing Alice’s now sanctified Mox branding, elevating her position to Matriarch Prime of house Glitterdelve. Before the wedding feast had finished, a messenger arrived revealing Sylas had been murdered by Reshi Liberation assassins before even consecrating the marriage. Titánia was then imprisoned when Lady Alinity Glitterdelve named her as a suspect.

For the second time in her life, Titánia found herself at the mercy of an accuser but against the express wishes of Lady Alinity, Alice Glitterdelve, now Matriarch Prime, cleared Titánia of all charges. On the night she was to be released, Titánia was attacked by a member of Lady Alinity’s personal guard. The attack was thwarted however by a member of the Reshi Liberation Army who asked that in return their leader be given a chance to talk with Titánia regarding the truth of Sylas’ murder.

While suspicious, Titánia accepted the offer and met with Merandas Seerfold, an Orium vassal under the Highhouse Howlgloom. Merandas revealed the Khorlian Highhouses had corrupted the Parlavian Oratory and bastardized the public by generating a caste system to stay in perpetual power. Merendas exposed the impossibility of children being born into brands above Orium and how the Highhouses used inkblots to rebrand their own children to place them in castes of Mox and above.

Sceptical such a conspiracy was possible, Titánia resolved to engage in her own investigation by observing the actions of a Mox, her now sister-in-law, Alice. During her investigation, while searching through the Alinity Glitterdelve’s sleeping quarters, Titánia found proof of Alinity’s involvement in the manipulation of Alice’s branding and Sylas’ murder. Her investigation was cut short however when Alinity discovered her in the act and, furious, attempted to have Titánia executed.

This order was, once again, rescinded by Alice, who insisted Titánia be given the chance to explain herself first. Believing her life to be forfeit regardless, Titánia revealed to Alice all she had discovered regarding Sylas’ assassination, the Highhouse’s conspiricy, and Alinity’s role in tampering with Alice’s brand.

Upon hearing this, Alice imprisoned Titánia, stating she could not allow her husband’s killer to remain unpunished and that they would be put to death by the end of the week.

When she was eventually led from her cell to the gallows, Titánia was shocked to find Lady Alinity shackled in her place. Alice then revealed she had imprisoned Titánia as protection against her mother. Alice further explained she had been suspicious of her mother’s actions ever since she had forced her to train under Titánia, as it made little sense for a Mox to learn courtier mannerisms when she had already been betrothed to a Pallantium.

After Alinity’s execution, Alice pleaded with Titánia for forgiveness, stating that while she herself had no knowledge of the events, she was deeply troubled by the actions of her family and felt responsible for Sylas’ death and the ongoing facilitation of the Khorlian Highhouse’s oppression.

Realizing Alice’s innocence, Titánia did not hesitate to reassure her former pupil she had committed no wrong doing. In thankfulness to her continued support and in recognition of her assistance to the house, Alice named Titánia a formal ward of House Glitterdelve.