Mist: Hierarchy - Cassandra
Cassandra: Tide of the Southeast
"I remember my mother telling of icy polar winds whipping sleet against the windows of the lighthouse my family kept the eve I came screaming into this world. It was apparent from that moment that I was different. Our family, the Dubannets, had been Keepers of the Light at Snake Head Bay for over five centuries. They are also human; my features are anything but. As I grew, the slant of my cheekbones and fine-boned frame were all too apparent, to the shame of my mother, Lillian, and the anger of my father. A tryst with a passing sailor had left a blight on the family name, one both I and my mother were constantly reminded of. I grew up alone and unwanted. I came to love the companionship of the wind and waves. Sailors would bring supplies but also tales of Lady Doom, The Goddess of Storms. I would haunt the dock, listening to them, reveling in the wildness of her nature. I'm not sure when, perhaps as I drew closer to puberty, but I began to devote my life to the Lady of the Sea. I built a shrine in a private childhood haunt and prayed there.
Despite my mother having borne him two healthy human sons, my father never forgave my mother, often making her the object of his drunken rages. One night as the wind howled outside the walls, father once again taunted mother. In a show of will I didn't know I had, I stood up to the brute. I was so angry I could not see straight. He turned his fists on me, calling me a bastard and a disgrace. He chased me up the steps and out onto the deck overlooking the sea. I remember angry waves and cold winds driving the water onto the rocks below. Just as he reached me, sodden and enraged, an enormous surge swept him from the deck and onto the rocks below. I remember saying a prayer of thanks to Lady Doom for the timely wave, and I headed back inside only to be met with furious accusations from my brothers and mother. Stunned and hurt, I fled in the storm to my only haven, the sea and my personal shine to Mist.
The morning brought calm to the waters but also a rim of destruction. A ship was tossed to the rocks because there was no Keeper of the Light the night my father died. I scoured the wreck and found three things: a mace of shining metal, a purse of gold, and a small amulet engraved in Elven. The mace I made my own. The gold I used to buy my way aboard a merchant ship. And the amulet hangs around my neck as a reminder of the cleansing power of the storm. I made my way from ship to ship, port to port, living off my wits and the grace of Mist. My elven features combined with my long wavy hair and ice-blue eyes made me a target of many a sailor's advances. However, the remembrance and pain of my family's betrayal keeps me from reciprocating. That's why they call me the Ice Princess, I suppose. The name has stuck, ironically, since I call on the sleet that heralded my entry into this world to send many an enemy target out of it.
My appointment as Tide of the Southeast came as a surprise to many'most of all to me'but the Tempest, in her wisdom, knows things that I and others do not. And I will see to my responsibilities with all the fury of the winds and rain that Mist desires of me."
