— 🌙 𝐚𝐩𝐩 𝐟𝐨𝐫 voidtreckerexpress —

[moontwin]

Player Information

Name: Kazie
Age: 30+
Contact details: notanybunny
Other characters: N/A

Character Information

Name: Cleopatra Selene II
Canon: The Shards of Heaven trilogy
Canon Point: 23 BCE, two years after the events of Carthage (chapter 30 of the second book, The Gates of Hell)
OU/AU/CRAU/OC: AU. She is the only one who escapes the demons that were summoned in Carthage, losing her husband Juba and her handmaiden Isidora. She's remained queen of Mauretania by some clever political maneuvering, but she knows it's only a matter of time before she's made to marry another man of Octavian's choosing, or worse, summoned back to Rome and in a way reunited with Tiberius.
Age: 18

World Information: The Shards of Heaven is a historical fantasy trilogy comprised of The Shards of Heaven, The Gates of Hell and The Realms of God, set during the rise of the Roman Empire and teeming with magic and mythical lore. Central to the series are the Shards, magical stones with unearthly, destructive powers said to be the broken pieces of the Throne of God: the Trident of Poseidon (Water), the Ark of the Covenant (Earth), the Aegis of Zeus (Life), the Palladium of Troy (Air) and the Lance of Olyndicus (Fire).

Personal History: — CW: mentions of war, suicide, rape, abortion —

Selene is the only daughter of Cleopatra, former pharaoh and queen of Egypt, and former Roman triumvir and general Mark Antony, and she was raised and highly educated in Alexandria, the capital of Ptolemaic Egypt, in a manner appropriate for a princess. When she was only ten years old, both her parents committed suicide after they were defeated in the Battle of Actium, while her older half-brother Caesarion was believed to have been killed during the siege of Alexandria. Selene and her remaining brothers were captured by Octavian before Cleopatra could take them with her to death, though Selene did their mother one last favor by smuggling in the asp that would take her life.

She and her twin Alexander Helios were brought to Rome and paraded in thick gold chains and collars made from Egyptian gold; their younger brother Ptolemy Philadelphus had died en route, though Helios also died in prison not long after. Selene was then raised in Octavian's household, and while in Rome she found one of the Shards, the Palladium of Troy, and later stole it from the Temple of the Vestal Virgins with the help of Tiberius, Octavian's stepson.

She was betrothed to Juba, Octavian's adopted brother, likewise a conquered prince of the Berbers, who she'd agreed to wed in exchange for the life of her father's legionnaire, Lucius Vorenus. They were married just weeks after she turned 15, then she'd accompanied him to Cantabria, to the front lines of Octavian's campaign in Hispania. In Vellica, they found the Lance of Olyndicus, held by the fearsome Cantabri warrior Corocotta, and both Octavian (then called Emperor Augustus) and Juba were captured in the siege. It was also in Vellica, while both men were missing, that Selene was assaulted by Tiberius, which resulted in a pregnancy that she later aborted.

Taking the Palladium and the Aegis of Troy, she snuck into the Cantabrian camp and rescued her husband and the Emperor, with the Roman legionnaires later swooping in for a decisive victory. Two months later, Octavian sent her and Juba off to rule the frontier client kingdom of Mauretania, along with nearly one million Sesterces and two of the Shards, the Lance and the Trident of Poseidon, for he never wanted to see the artifacts again. After the horrors of Vellica, the couple decided to lock the Shards away — they already had all the known Shards except the Ark of the Covenant by then — and start a new life together. Well aware that the knowledge of her rape and pregnancy would crush Juba, Selene decided to continue keeping both a secret from her husband, and pushed through with the abortion.

A year later, in Mauretania, the couple were visited by the Alexandrian astrologer Thrasyllus, who brought news about the weakening power of the Ark and how Didymus, her old tutor, believed that the power of the Shards were greater in some places ("sacred spaces") than others. Still haunted by the events of Vellica, Selene confessed her rape, and Juba, swearing vengeance on Tiberius, agreed with her plan to bring the Shards to Carthage, a sacred space, and discover what other powers they contained. They took the Shards to the temple of Ba'al Hammon, where Juba, alas, inadvertently opened the gates of hell and brought demons forth into the world.

[canon divergence begins here] Only Selene survived, escaping back to Mauretania with the Palladium. The demons had the Trident and the Lance, and quite possibly the Aegis too, since Juba never returned. She hid the Palladium away and held her ground on Mauretania, but she couldn't keep her king's absence a secret for long, the news eventually reaching Rome and Tiberius.

Personality:

God had died to give them all the freedom to choose. Right or wrong, good or evil, she'd always had a choice. No one had forced her to sneak away from the palace so many years ago, to make her way to the Great Library, where she'd first learned about the Shards of Heaven. No one had forced her to confront Caesar. No one had forced her to bring the asp to her mother. No one had forced her to swear to avenge the death of her parents, or even the rape she had suffered at the hands of the vile Tiberius. No one had forced her to convince Juba to come here, to reach for greater power than she'd already been blessed to receive.

She'd had a choice. She'd always had a choice. That was what God's sacrifice had given her. That was His gift.

Yet she'd chosen vengeance. God had given her true life, and at every turn she'd chosen death.

Selene has been sheltered and well-protected for at least the first ten years of her life, given her status as a member of the Egyptian royal family, but war has hardened her considerably, forcing her to mature in just a few years and filling her with a strong need for vengeance. She's gone from a proud queen (her parents had named her queen of Cyrenaica and Libya via the Donations of Alexandria, which had been one of the things that had sparked the war between Rome and Egypt) and daughter of a god (Cleopatra had ruled as the physical embodiment of the goddess Isis) who has never known labor to adopted daughter of the man who'd brought war and ruin to her family, biding her time until she could find the opportune moment for vengeance.

She is a creature of emotion, even though she'd been taught not to be. She is quick to anger and easy to rile up; she's just very good at concealing it. One of the things she'd learned and practiced growing up was maintaining a "divine look" which involves keeping one's bearing upright and regal, eyes fixed forward on the same distant point far beyond the walls of the room, face impassive, voice stoic.

She has always been headstrong, and far more than her brothers. Her older half-brother Caesarion had in fact noted that she seemed to feel that it was her right, if not her duty, to push back against anything that threatened to hold her down. She certainly considered her brothers (save for Caesarion, who she'd thought to be the best of men) to be weak, thus she often took the lead with them, especially when their mother was absent. But she has a mischievous streak too; she used to sneak out of the palace to explore and do as she pleased, giving her guards grief.

She has a kind heart, and she is fiercely protective of her family and those she cares about. She would hold back burdening those close to her with her problems if she could see they already had a lot to carry. She'd sworn that she wouldn't rest until her family was avenged. When one of her father's most loyal legionnaires was to be executed by the Romans, she'd struck a bargain to see to the man's release, consenting to the marriage Octavian wanted for her. She'd always tried to cheer the melancholic Tiberius up, as he was her only friend in Octavian's household.

She believes in love, though she didn't expect to find it in an arranged marriage. She hadn't been interested in her mother's way of pursuing power through lovers, wanting to hold power between her hands, not between her sheets. Thus while her mother had taught her how to pretend, manipulate and seduce, she would rather not resort to such measures, though she's also ready to take that route if she's left with no other choice. Interestingly, she believes that her mother loved both Julius Caesar and Antony, and that Cleopatra had committed suicide out of love, wanting to be with her father even in death. (She did, however, vehemently protest to Cleopatra's plan to take them all with her.)

Many characters have called her clever, and she's been curious and inquisitive growing up. Though she's admitted to knowing little of the arts of war, she knows a great deal about politics — or, as her mother called it, the game of kings. She has long realized that she tends to be underestimated because of her gender and her age, and she's learned to use that to her advantage. She's also good at keeping secrets, and therefore at lying, though it's more lying by omission than fabricating stories.

She's a survivor, and she's been incredibly resilient in the face of everything she's been through, though she still has nightmares about her mother's suicide, her time in prison, and being paraded in Octavian's Triumph. She feels angry with herself whenever she's afraid, not wanting to feel weak and vulnerable, and she uses her desire for vengeance as a way to keep herself grounded.

Key themes:

• Revenge — She spent many years blaming Rome for the misfortune that had befallen upon her family, even plotting to take the Empire down with the help of her husband Juba, but later they both made peace with Augustus and agreed to rule Mauretania, one of Rome's client kingdoms. She remained tempted by her desire for vengeance, however, indirectly leading to the tragedy in Carthage. And now it would haunt her in a different way. 
• Love — Despite all the tragedies she goes through, her life is about love. In one of her key moments later in the third book, when she comes face-to-face with and battles her most hated enemy, the narrative reads: A small corner of her heart wanted to revel in whatever pain he felt, in whatever ways he was being torn apart, but in truth she felt sorry for him. She pitied him, for he was not strong. He did not have love. And love, she had learned, was the greatest power of all.
• Family — She's very family oriented, something that manifested during the 4th Wall Event. She hadn't wanted to leave Diagad, despite knowing that it was all an illusion, if only because she'd had a family there again.

Main Motivation: Family. This part of the first book best sums it up:

"I won't rest until we are avenged," she said. "I swear it."

The queen of Egypt smiled. "I'm glad to hear of it, my daughter. You've much to learn of love and life, but hatred and vengeance is a lesson best learned early. I hope it will serve you well."

"I remember all your lessons, Mother. I... I love you."

"And I you."

Skills: She doesn't have special abilities of her own, but she's one of the few people in her canon who can actually use the Shards, which is a testament to the strength of her will. With the Palladium she can manipulate air — and eventually she'll be able to use it to literally fly.

Item: The Palladium of Troy, a small stone statue of the goddess Pallas (Athena) that was said to have kept the city of Troy from being conquered for decades, until the hero Aeneas spirited it away to Rome and preserved it in the shrine of the goddess Vesta. The Shard had been hidden within it, up until Selene cracked the statue open prior to her departure from the Roman camp; it's about the size of a throwing stone, smooth and round like a slightly flattened egg, and it would've fit perfectly in her palm if it wasn't still nestled within the lower half of the statue like a jewel within its setting. Just like all the other Shards, the stone is of a glossy darkness, a pit with no color.

Sample: link

Notes:

• This is the Selene that was part of the 4th wall mission, not her younger self who'd been on the train previously. She'll have been back home for a couple of days or maybe weeks before arriving on the platform, but she won't remember being on the train previously. (Because this one's AU while the former Voidtrecker was OU.)
  • Accordingly, I would like to submit these threads for mission points: Atem, Atem² & Yondu | Elidibus | Atem
  • I may have a few more threads that might reach the required comment count in a few days, can I submit them later but before the end of the month?
• Yes, her mother is the Cleopatra. Though her series is a fantasy take so it's technically an alternate Earth.
• Her primary language is Kione Greek. She knows Egyptian though she's not as well-versed as her older brother Caesarion, and she learned Latin when she moved to Rome.
• While it might feel weird for her to be 18 and already a widow and having been pregnant, the legal and marrying age in the Roman Empire is actually 15. So yes, with enough CR development, she might be flirting and kissing again. Just try and stop her.