PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION

Height: 6'1"    Weight: 180 lbs.     Build: Tall and Sleek
Hair: Black      Eyes: Gold             Skin:  Black

Colors: Gold and Black
Emblem: A lion's paw print

Clothing Colors/Style:  If Vivian *has* to wear clothes, and most of the time she does, she prefers very simple lines and fabrics without much adornment.  She will rarely, if ever, wear any form of jewelry or cosmetics.  Vivian is extremely proud of her Tambudze heritage and will dress to Tambudze fashion for any occasion.  Formal wear would be formal Tambudze wear -- sarongs, togas, Egyptian-style gauze wraps.   Casual wear would be simple blouses and trousers.  Extreme casual wear would be a wraparound skirt of brightly colored fabric.   She prefers trousers to skirts or dresses, and will only
wear the latter on formal occasions.   Whenever possible, she dresses in her 'colors' -- much gold with some black.

        Vivian is very picky about footwear.  If her shoes are not perfect, she just won't wear them.  She does tend to go barefoot much of the time and is her fastest when unencumbered by hard soles or heels.  Perversely, she detests sandals as a half-assed answer.  Either shoes yes or shoes no, between measures don't cut it with her.
 

CHARACTER BACKGROUND

Chapter One -- A Child in Tambudze

        Vivian was born the third of three daughters to Queen Beatrice of Tambudze, the first monarch to reign over the majority of the Shadow.  Her father -- and the father of her older twin sisters -- is Prince Benedict of Amber.  Her sisters, Valerie and Victoria, are some sixty years older than she, making her very much the baby of the family.  As such, Vivian grew up spoiled, willful and more than a little wild.

        She was born roughly forty years before the Patternfall War in the Ziggurat at Tambudze.  Her father was present for the birthing, which went well, but with mixed omens.  For the first five years of her life, Prince Benedict was a fairly regular fixture at Tambudze, despite occasional squalls with his wife, Queen Beatrice.  This was the last time that Benedict was 'presence' within Tambudze, rather than a visitor.  And all three girls have fond memories of their father from this period of time.

        As Vivian grew, she became more and more interested in the wildlife of Tambudze, especially the animals of the Zerget plains.  By the time, she was ten it was already difficult to keep her within the walls of the Ziggurat.  Queen Beatrice bowed to the inevitable and extended the family 'camping' trips to sending her youngest in the company of various trusted advisors -- most often her sisters -- on month long expeditions throughout the Shadow.

        On one of these expeditions -- into the lower Shemele regions -- Vivian once again eluded her guardians.  She was fourteen at the time.  A night's exploration brought Vivian to a ruined city hidden deep in the jungle.  There she met a ... person, for want of a better word.  A twisted and bent old woman, with dark features, a *very* odd sense of humor and an aura of deeper knowledges.

        Bariabi, as the woman called herself, quickly fascinated the young Tambudze girl with stories of strange creatures and environments.  Before Vivian was really aware of what was happening, she had spent several days in the company of Bariabi, forgetting entirely about the entourage that was frantically looking for their lost Princess.

        When Vivian eventually emerged from the jungles of the Shemele, she found that her sisters had been summoned from the Ziggurat and that she was in deep trouble.  Valerie and Victoria questioned Vivian thoroughly about what had happened and when their little sister described Bariabi to them, their eyes met knowingly.  Punishment was light and in later years, the family looked aside when Vivian would occasionally vanish into the Shemele again for days or months at a time.  Though Victoria was the most adamant with warnings that Vivian must be very *very* careful around Bariabi.

        Vivian emerged from one particularly long disappearance with the ritual scars that now adorn her face and ... a way with the creatures of Tambudze.

Chapter Two -- Young Princess

        When Vivian was eighteen, she was formerly presented to the Court of Amber and its Monarch, Oberon.  It would be two years before Oberon would 'tire of Court life' and leave.  Vivian was also presented to Prince Eric, then serving as Seneschal.  She walked the Pattern with Prince Eric and Princess Deirdre as witnesses -- her mother and sisters in attendance.  The formal presentation and Walk was followed with a gala that went on for several nights, and that Vivian managed to only minorly disturb with some of her usual antics.

        Vivian's presentation was followed with a tour of the Golden Circle Kingdoms in the company of her mother, Queen Beatrice.  This tour was approximately one year in length and Beatrice took great pains that Vivian would learn the people (and the politics!) of her fellow Golden Circle monarchs.

        After the tour, Vivian was sent to her father for training.  For the next nine years, Vivian trained with Benedict briefly in a minor Shadow but for the majority of the time in Avalon.  It was during this time that she met her cousin, Faris -- daughter of Fiona -- and conceived of a minor distaste for her uncle Corwin.  Though Vivian was very much aware that Benedict's forces were cleaning up the mess of a 'shadow Corwin', some things leave a bad taste in the mouth.

        Shortly after her cousin returned to Amber, Vivian was also returned to Tambudze.  There she spent her time refamiliarizing herself with the peoples and nature of the Shadow.  It was also at this time that she established a reputation as the wild princess of the Circle, keeping open contacts with other young Circle nobles, including Martin of Rebma.

        When Vivian had lived 36 Amber years, Tambudze became reluctantly embroiled in the Succession confusion that was sweeping through the Court of Amber.  Oberon had been missing for several years.  His son, Prince Eric, with the support of some of his siblings, had stepped into the vacancy and had been coordinating Amber's political responsibilities -- including those with Tambudze -- for several years.  Prince Eric had decided to make his Monarchy official, and Tambudze backed him as did the other Golden Circle kingdoms.  Though it was not an easy decision, and Queen Beatrice made sure that Tambudze had options in case things did not go well.

        Things did not go well.  As Prince Bleys and the newly reappeared Prince Corwin plotted and executed their invasion of Amber, Prince Eric and Prince Julian made sure that the Golden Circle Kingdoms lived up to their various treaties.  It was with *great* reluctance that Tambudze sent a token force under the command of Vivian to oppose the armies of Prince Bleys and Prince Corwin.

        Beatrice made sure that Vivian understood that the Tambudze forces were to oppose the 'forces' that were invading Amber, not the Princes themselves.  And that Vivian should stay as far away from the warring lions as possible, strictly adhere to the 'wording' of the treaty, and *NOT* get involved in the wars of siblings.  This Vivian managed excellently, cutting away small token slices of the invading armies without bringing herself to the attention of her uncles.

        Unfortunately, it also made her present as a Commander and a Princess of Tambudze at the coronation of King Eric.  And the blinding of Prince Corwin.  Despite her distaste for Corwin, this is not one of Vivian's fonder memories.

Chapter Three -- Dark Times in Tambudze

        After Prince, now King Eric's coronation, Vivian returned to Tambudze.  For a few months all was fine.  Then ugly rumors began to leak out of the Shemele.  There was talk of a growing 'poison of the land' emerging from a new-found crevice in the side of Mount Matassas, an ill-omened place with a long evil history.  Queen Beatrice dispatched her daughters to investigate.

        After a long and unlucky journey across the Zerget, the sisters came upon the edges of a growing blight that had spread into the upper reaches of the Tessemgari.  The land itself had become pale and blighted, the soil ashen, the plants withered and dying, the animals strangely twisted, the people nowhere to be found.  Grey dust covered everything, and a dry dead wind blew through the land carrying the ash and it's poison further out over the Tessemgari and toward the Zerget itself.

        As the expedition camped for the night they were set upon by creatures that resembled large sickeningly pale jackals with glowing red eyes.  The Ash Jackals -- as they later came to be called -- were ferocious fighters.  Their jaws carried disease, their claws filth.  Every single member of the group who was even slightly scratched or injured during the attack of the Jackals eventually sickened and died from a horrible poisoning/disease.  The three sisters fought valiantly but their party was eventually driven back to the edges of the Tessemgari.

        After the surviving members of the expedition were secured behind a make-shift stockade, Valerie, Victoria and Vivian set off into the blighted lands alone.  The sights they saw there haunt them to this day and none of the sisters speak of it.  Not even to one another.

        The three did not reach the crevice in Mount Matassas.  They were attacked by another group of Ash Jackals as they climbed through the dead and decaying remains of the once lush Shemele jungle.  That night Victoria fell ill, touched by evil dreams.  Valerie and Vivian suspected that the foul ash laden air was responsible for their more sensitive sister's decline.  And swiftly retreated out of the Tessemgari back to the stockade.

        After a fierce conference, it was decided that Vivian would carry her ill sister back to Tambudze while Valerie remained behind to organize some sort of defense against the predations of the Ash Jackals and the slow poisoning of the land.  Victoria and Vivian's return was ill fated from the beginning and disaster seemed to dog their steps.  Eventually, Vivian reached the capital bearing her unconscious and near death sister in weary arms.

        Victoria was immediately placed in the care of the palace Shamans.  And Vivian made her report to Queen Beatrice.  For the next three long and weary years, Tambudze suffered and was slowly consumed by the Ash Blight.  No magic that the recovered Victoria could muster was able to push back the poison ash that seemed to drift everywhere.  No army that Valerie raised was sufficient to hold back the Ash Jackals for long.  No tricks or strategies that Vivian pursued gained more than a moments respite
before the blight continued its evil inevitable spread.  Beatrice sent for help from Amber and the other Golden Circle kingdoms only to discover that each and every one was beset by some similar horror.

        Grim choices and hard decisions were made in Tambudze.  Things that none of the royal family are proud of were done.  But it was all for naught.  Soon the Ash Blight completely surround the capital and the Ziggurat.  The once proud city was now crammed with refugees from all over Tambudze.  The rivers flowed down with filth from the completely poisoned Shemele.  The rains had not come for three whole years.  The once great herds and predators of the Zerget were gone.  And Vivian, Valerie, Victoria and Beatrice knew that they were looking at the final days of their homeland.

        As they and their people prepared for their last battle on the very steps of
the Ziggurat, relief came.

        At the head of a column of the army of Amber rode Prince Benedict and with him, his brother Julian.  They brought the news that King Eric had died defending Amber against the forces of a Black Road, and that Prince Corwin  -- of all people -- had turned the battle with a new weapon out of Shadow.  The tide of the battle was turning.

        Reinforced by fresh forces from Amber, backed by the sorcerous might of Princess Fiona, the Ash Blight was turned back.  However, Tambudze did not have time to recover.

Chapter Four -- The War in Agate

        Benedict brought news that the forces of Amber were mobilizing against the place that had sent the Ash Blight to Tambudze -- a far off Court named Chaos.  Amber would not be able to remain and help rebuild the devastated kingdom of Tambudze.  Instead, Amber had come to ask for its jewels to aid in the retribution against Chaos.

        Benedict and Beatrice spent a long, long night, filled with arguing and tears.  But eventually it was decided that Beatrice would remain in her kingdom, working to undo the horror of the Ash Blight.  However, Benedict's daughters -- his three lions -- would accompany him on his war down the Black Road.

        All three of the Royal sisters agreed to this decision and eagerly spent the next three months driving the forces of Chaos back down the Black Road.  While neither Vivian nor Victoria became particularly enamored of Prince Corwin's firearms, they learned to use them... and well.  Valerie developed a fondness for the long riftle.

        At the Battle of the Abyss, the daughters of Benedict acquitted themselves well though they were too far from the Edge to observe any of the stories that were later told of those events.

        Vivian was in the middle of the battlefield, directing the units under her command, dealing terrible damage with spears and rifle when a roar behind her drew her attention.  Looking up she beheld the sky tearing itself apart and a wall of thunder and cloud sweeping down upon her.  The sight was so awe-inspiring to her, and the front of the storm moved so quickly, that she did not have time to react to save herself or her men before the greyness and oblivion swept over her.

        Afterward Vivian slowly came to her senses.  Strange things had occurred but Julian's horn was calling the officers together.  Vivian dutifully reported in as did her sisters from their respective positions.  Benedict outlined his plan and gave the orders that lead to the final assault on Castle Agate.  Vivian, Valerie and Victoria were among the first to enter the palace -- after the Princes and Princess of Amber.

        The battle was long and brutal but eventually Benedict's forces were triumphant.  Once the Castle was secured, Benedict dispatched his lions to comb the twisting Ways for Council members and other war leaders who were not honorable enough to accept surrender.

        Vivian, shapechanger and tracker, led her sisters through the strange and alien corridors, ever quick on the scent.  Victoria, strong in magic, crafty, kept her sisters safe from hidden hostile forces.  And Valerie made sure that all they met, were brought before Benedict's justice and his sword.  Only two escaped the stalking of Benedict's lions.

        The three were present for the execution of Queen Viradechtis Pendaran and also present for the coronation of Aweirgan Aurellan.  After the pacification of Agate, Vivian became curious -- overly curious -- concerning the place's desmones and its denziens.  Benedict dispatched her home to Tambudze before her legendary prying could get her into *real* trouble.

Chapter Six -- Return and Renewal

        Vivian reluctantly left Agate but as her feet brought her home to Tambudze, her heart lightened.  Only to crash at the sight of her devastated homeland.  Beatrice had done well.  Crops were planted, people healed, life going on.  But the animals... the great herds, the predators, the phantoms of the jungle, birds of the air, creatures of the rivers... they were gone.  Only a few miserable survivors remained.

        Vivian remained closeted within her chambers for an entire two months, rarely talking, barely eating.  It was the longest the Princess had ever been willingly sequestered and many of the people of Tambudze became concerned that the war had changed their laughing, willful child forever.

        When she emerged, she fled the Ziggurat out into the denuded Zerget plains.  There Vivian began perhaps the only work she had ever seriously pursued in her life.  She began to harbor and nurture the last straggling surviving creatures of Tambudze.  Working with fast time shadows, shadows where genetic manipulation and cryonic incubation were common, shadows where sorcerous breeding and blending were common -- Vivian worked to rebuild the wildlife of Tambudze.

        These projects occupied the young Princess for much of the time following the Patternfall War and recently Vivian has seen much success.  The wildlife of Tambudze, while not fully recovered, is well on its way to becoming once again lush and diverse.  Many of the herds and species that she was personally overseeing have become self-reliant and self-sustaining and Vivian is finding herself once more with too much time on her hands.