APPLICATION | REDSHIFT | RANI OF JHANSI

[shri]

PLAYER INFORMATION

Name: Lily
Over the age of 18? Yes
Your preferred contact: themajesty @ plurk or pm to aeneia
Other Characters: N/A

CHARACTER INFORMATION

Name: Lakshmibai ( Rani of Jhansi )
Canon: The Order: 1886
Canon point: after Galahad leaves to find Tesla
Age: Canon never directly states, but at minimum she's 58.
Species: Human, magically enhanced human.
Appearance:
Additionally: Lakshmi drinks a magical elixir that prolongs her life, so she's much, much older than she looks. But she is in very good health, physically she's at a peak, and doesn't appear much older than 30, she's unlikely to ever age beyond this point.

Background:

S E T T I N G.

note - as this is an "alternative history" canon, for most of her early life, before canon, I've deferred back to history, except where she hints about the supernatural. It's all pretty vague, but I try to stick to some lines about it, since it seems to all have gone the same.

Lakshmibai was born Manikarnika, the daughter and only child after her mother's death to a prominent family in Northern India in the early 1800s. Her father, loving his only child but not knowing what to do with a daughter, raised her instead as a son and a solider. From a very young age, she was taught to read, fight and ride. Not usual for many women of the time, but Lakshmi took to it not only well, but showed young the head of a commander and became proficient in a varied amount of fighting techniques. Certainly it didn't put her in a bad place socially, because when she was sixteen she married the Raja Gangadhar Rao of Jhansi, and became his Rani, taking the name Lakshmibai upon her marriage and becoming Queen. Their marriage was a happy one, Gangadhar was a statesman and by most accounts, a good ruler. They struck a nice balance between them, and Jhansi was a peaceful, protected Kingdom. Whilst not being as large as others, they traded fairly with the British, as India was for the most part under the control of the United India Company, it made a certain amount of sense to trade with a ally as powerful as they were. But mostly, they were sufficient enough, ruling fairly, and with no small amount of devotion to their subjects, such which made them deeply loved by them.

However, happy as they were, it was not to last. Their marriage was childless after their only son died within a few months of being born. Some time after their child died, Gangadhar took ill, and one drawn out year later, he too passed. On his death bed, he appointed Lakshmi his regent until she could raise an heir of her own and see to the Kingdom as its ruler ( historically, they adopted another son together when it became clear he was dying, but it's never mentioned, and Devi seems to take his place as far as its hinted ). The British however, took objection to this and via a law called the Doctrine of Lapse that stated any kingdom that was without a fit ruler, was annexed into the Companies hold, proceeded to take it for themselves. Lakshmi was not considered a capable ruler, and she was stripped of her position and told to move from the palace to a lesser one, had most of her holdings seized and made to live on a reduced stipend.

It's not stated exactly when their real intentions and purpose became obvious to Lakshmi but somewhere in all this, no doubt after she was forced to step down when they could do what they liked it became clear. They were bringing in literal container ships full of Half-Breeds and Vampires under the guise of trade and imperialistic intentions. Historically, a lot of small fights broke out between the sepoys and british officers for many different reasons, in this case, it was probably between people and the vampires now feeding on them.

Eventually, it came to a head. After a mutiny of the English officers and their families that were put in place to hold Jhansi ( they probably also were vampires ), she took her palace back, and in turn, the British declared her a rebel and sought to take Jhansi again for themselves. They did not just send ordinary soldiers - she instead speaks of fighting Elders/Pure-Bloods of the Half-Breed kind, a far more powerful and ancient force which were apparently where they had been disappearing from England. When Galahad and Igraine fight an Elder, it nearly kills the both of them, and if not for the Blackwater, they would be dead. What happened to Jhansi must have been slaughter against that sort of force, because she says they are not, as Galahad suggests, dying out, more, as it happens, they'd just been mobilized and directed to the United India Companies bidding. Still, she did survive it to go on to fight.

Nor does it seem it was a trickle of migration or isolated to her given the scope of United India's control of India that is shown in trade routes, when Galahad asks about how many are getting moved, she responds that there is "enough to infect a city" which is quite probably the odds she was facing when it all came down, and what she had witnessed happening not only to her Kingdom, but all the others that the United India Company held. Whenever it came about, by that time, it was clear she wasn't fighting against just a colonial, power hungry Empire, but something far greater and with more sinister intentions. Now in out and out revolt against the United India Company, after she lost Jhansi, she took her armies and fought battle after battle with them on multiple occasions. She joined others that had also taken up arms ( again they're not mention but given what the United India Company was doing, the rebellion probably had as many people joining it as it did historically ), and she became something of it's figure head, loved as she was by her people, so too the others came to her side in turn. Becoming as Galahad sums it up "the famous warrior queen who took up arms against our forces in India".

Midst all this, somewhere along the line, Lakshmi met Sir Bors de Ganis, a knight who disappeared during the time the Grail was first found. When in turn, he died, he passed his vial of Blackwater to Lakshmi, and she joined ranks among those that would now have eternal life, if not out and out immortality.

Eventually the rebellion all came to a head, at the fortress of Gwalior in the heart of Northern India. The battle raged for five days outside the walls. Ultimately, the rebellion failed, and in the ensuing chaos, Lakshmi made some kind of choice that this fight against the Half Breeds and the corruption of the United India Company, it's many abuses of power and infection of cities, wasn't going to be stopped in India itself, and that if this was ever going to end and to save not only her own people but the rest of the world, it must be cut off at the head. Whatever it was that tipped it, she elected to leave the fight there and to do so, she faked her own death. As far as India and the British were concerned, she died heroically on the fields of Gwalior, sword and gun in hand. Unfortunately, whatever remained of her family and her country, was killed and subjugated. Historically, because of her rebellion, the East India Trading Company was dissolved, in this case, the United India Company became even stronger, and became further entrenched into India itself after her "death". Some thirty years later, she finds out that they have taken almost every kingdom in India for their own.

She shed most of her old life when she left. The only person she took with her it seems, was Devi, something of a bodyguard, body double and a daughter ( Lakshmi was famous for taking on young female fighters, training them and keeping them close as her personal guard, such was the loyalty she commanded of them and of her people, these women can and would die for her on a moments notice, many did so over the course of the rebellion ). Devi probably would have been quite young at the time, given how long it was between the rebellion and the start of canon. In that regard, she is very much all Lakshmi has left of her home, and whether actually her daughter or not, Lakshmi very much treats her like her successor to the fight against the Company and the Vampires & Half Breeds. With Devi she journeys to England to take the fight to them, so to speak. Unfortunately being the rallying point that she was, dying was probably the only way to ensue she had some freedom of movement. The arrogance of the British meant they didn't go looking, something she happily took advantage of.

There however, England's political climate is reaching a tipping point, it's people unhappy with a queen who is too busy mourning her husband to be a ruler, and a system that cared more about companies profitable goods, than what its people suffer. There had been rebellion before, but it had been disorganised, and she in turn, takes it in hand. She begins forming a Rebel Force that is on one hand, fighting for the rights of the common people, but also how she begins to strike back against the United India Company by finding out which shipments of theirs carry vampire kindred and half breeds and sabotaging them. Her experience commanding, and her own charisma makes a devoted fighting force that answers to her, and she in turn fights by their side in everything, not only to better their state, but for all the people that she might save from the same fate that befell her own home.

It's a fine line between rebellion and terrorism and the destructive nature of destroying the United India Company puts her in turn into the path of the Knights of the Round Table. Who unbeknownst them are being used to protect Lord Hastings, the head of the Company, and his holdings. Not that this slows her down even slightly. She is more than effective, despite it turning Whitechapel into a war zone, she conducts many successful attacks against them both, destroying much of the companies property. Eventually, she gets in contact Nikola Tesla, who makes weapons and technology for the Order, and tells him the truth of the fight. He agrees to turn mole for her, and sends her guns and other armaments, along with information, which mobilizes her and the rebels even further. The pair of them are friends, and she seems to care for him, not just his usefulness to her. Though it eventually becomes obvious someone is arming them, and Sir Perceval, one of the oldest knights begins to question for himself just what exactly the rebels are actually fighting for and against. He and three other knights, Sir Galahad, Lady Igraine and the Marquis de Lafayette sneak in behind rebel lines only to find that the London Hospital is under attack by Half-Breed, and ends just about as well as expected.

It all comes to a head when the Knights end up on the airship Agamemnon that is bound for America, following Sir Galahad finding out information about the rebels planning an attack on Lord Hastings, as they had a base set up in the hospital. What they don't know is that the airship is full of vampires, and the rebels want it destroyed, and that what the knights had actually walked into the middle of in the hospital, was Half-Breeds trying to attack rebels, rather than the rebels working with the half breeds as they originally assumed. A fight inevitably ensues on board when they attempt to neutralize the rebel threat, and the airship goes up in flames when a suicide bomber explodes it out of the air. But not before he makes some cryptic remarks to Perceval and Galahad about them not knowing the whole story. Only to then crash land into London itself, utterly destroying the famous Crystal Palace and killing Sir Perceval. Sir Galahad, who trained under Perceval, wants revenge for it - but after everything he's seen, he realizes he has a few questions of his own, and that Sir Perceval would want it followed through.

After Lord Hastings escapes, Lakshmi organizes another attack, laying siege to a bridge in the hopes of catching the Lord in it, and has him pinned down, up until the Knights turn up. Hell bent on revenge, Galahad begins cutting through her men and frees Lord Hastings from where he was trapped. He continues even after that, and eventually beats one of her men senseless until he says where "the Indian woman" is. He then journeys back to Whitechapel to find her in a brothel he had previously visited and meets with Devi in her stead, and the two are about to shoot each other before she finally steps in to stop them and show herself.

It's tense, he naturally wants to shoot her on sight for getting his oldest friend killed, but after she shows him her own Blackwater and explaining if somewhat cryptically that nothing is what it seems. She invites him to talk with her privately, refusing to back down even when he draws a gun on her too, more than willing to lay down her life for her fight, if that's what it comes to. But when he goes to storm out, she insists to him that he should come and see with his own eyes, since he won't believe her otherwise. For whatever reason, in the end, he trusts her and relents enough to come.

She takes him to the Company docks in Blackwall Yard, and shows him proof of the vampires, hidden in hundreds upon hundreds of crates that are being shipped out the next day. Having undeniable proof, he helps her destroy the yards and protects her against attacks from Lycans as she goes about burning the place to the ground. Eventually they escape and she asks for his help, knowing how invaluable it would be. He declines, acknowledging that what she is doing is going to bring the British Empire crashing down, and that he needs it brought to attention of the council instead. She accepts this and tells him to be careful, warning him against traitors in the Order and parliament itself. Lord Hastings couldn't do it all without help, after all. She leaves him then to bring the information forward, saying that if he ever has need of her, all he has to do is ask for her in Whitechapel, and she will answer to help with whatever she can. The two of them, in their way, strike up a friendship between them, that comes with him trusting her, and her repaying it with loyalty in kind.

Which is useful not that much later. Galahad's claims are largely dismissed without evidence, and with Blackwall Yard burned completely to the ground, he doesn't have anything to show for himself. He does however convince the Knight-Commander and adopted son of the Lord Chancellor of the Order, to come with him to investigate at the United India House. He doesn't risk anyone else to come with him from the Order, instead he sends for Lakshmi and her rebels as the only ones he can trust at this point. She meets him in the gardens, and infiltrates the building with him. Lucan naturally, isn't pleased to see Galahad working with the rebel leader, and she isn't happy about having to work with the Knight-Commander, and after a few more tense minutes of even more everyone holding guns to each others heads, Galahad talks them all down and into working together. Though she trusts Galahad more than she does Lucan, and only does so when he pushes her gun down by way of asking.

Eventually they do find the proof they are looking for and even more so, when they come across Actual Vampire Lord Hastings, who admits to being Jack the Ripper. Galahad is shocked by all this, Lakshmi however isn't even slightly surprised by any of it, having confirmation of everything she knew anyway, and that she had more than a few reports of Lord Hastings coming to whitechapel to pray on downtrodden women there. Lucan reveals that he is actually working with Lord Hastings willingly, and that they are going to frame them both. Hastings nearly rips Lakshmi's throat out, but Galahad throws his knife into his shoulder and gives her enough time to get the hell out of there, throat intact.

Unfortunately, Galahad gets framed as the traitor and for trying to murder Lord Hastings, and associating with rebels. Though there isn't much she can do for him until he escapes and elects to throw himself off the top of West Minster Palace into the Thames rather than be executed. Tesla saves him with help of a mysterious man who is never explained, and when he leaves, Tesla calls for her to help him. She and Tesla nurse Galahad back to health, although eventually, Tesla says he has to go back to the Order to see if there is more he can do. He and Lakshmi quarrel, as she says she doesn't want him to go back there and risk his life when he has done so much already for her. He insists and she's left to care for Galahad alone.

Eventually, the knight does wake up, and she helps him get back on his feet, telling him all that is passed, and being particularly vague about how she and Tesla know each other when asked. She takes him back to the brothel where her base camp is in whitechapel, and begins immediate preparations for evacuation, knowing that the entire district will be crawling with the knights and half the army by the next day. Galahad tells her he is going back for Tesla and to confront Lucan about being secretly a lycan all these years. She fights him about it, calling him mad for going back there and walking into certain death, but when he persists, she says she's going with him. He tells her no, that he has to do this himself, and they have a moment where she finally relents to let him go, clearly unhappy with it, and in veiled words telling him to come back to her alive, deeply unhappy with him going off alone.

Personality:

lakshmi: "There are things worse than death, knight, much worse, and if it is mine you seek in
your misguided quest, then so be it. My death, is a worthy sacrifice."
- chapter 9, an uneasy alliance

Lakshmibai is equal amounts freedom fighter and terrorist, ruthless commander and devoted queen. It's hard to say what she used to be like before she took up the burden of apparently thwarting the entirety of the United India Companies plans. Undoubtedly it's changed her some in the thirty odd years between her leaving India and when she meets Galahad and convinces him to her side. But she stills presents herself with authority and the presence of a ruler who expects to be listened to and treated with respect, and tends to be restrained in a lot of her more emotional responses. Despite that, if she's decided something needs to be said, or she's made up her mind about it, she's blunt and to the point.

Her greatest strength is her determination and willingness to keep on fighting, even when odds are miserable, she keeps going with remarkable resilience. Coming from defeat to start up another rebellion that is half way to throwing down the whole British Empire. It is a long, unpleasant fight, but she doesn't skirt from it, believing wholeheartedly in what she's fighting for and the rightness of her cause. It makes her more than a match for the knights. Even when Galahad demands to know why he shouldn't just kill her for everything she has done, she doesn't hesitate from stepping into his line of fire. She doesn't hesitate in facing down her own death. In fact, she's quite accepting that even as a technically immortal being, she could die at any moment, and in the face of that, all she does is make plans for it. Plans that are as ruthless to her own well being, as they are to others. In that way, she is most like a ruler, she weighs and considers things around her seemingly constantly, when to hold and when to give, giving pause to each matter with some consideration. She can be a front line soldier, and rode out often with her own men into the lines, but she also tends to hold a strong if removed presence. Outside of a few matters, she is not someone who rants and raves with her rages, everything she does is considered, calm, and put to suit her and her fight.

lakshmi: [ laughing] "you are a empire of boot lickers
grovelling at the heels of the mighty united india company"
galahad: "guard your tongue woman."

Not that it makes her all that merciful in most circumstance, and in the end she is committing acts of terrorism that cost the lives of many innocents and huge destruction of public property. But when she's confronted with it, instead of showing much remorse, she just takes it in her stride as the cost of her fight. She is as ruthless as the knights in that regard, ends have to justify means when there is so much at stake, and no one seems more aware of it than she is. Instead counters that killing Hastings is more important, and that he deserves to die, as well as everyone that helps him. Nor does she have exceptional patience with Galahad when he defends his position as a knight, or the innocence of those who she knows to be on Hastings side, she mocks him and jabs at him, all but laughing in his face. She can be very scathing and dry, even when she cares about someone. In that way she is most ruthless and unforgiving, as far she behaves, she doesn't really have time for the niceties or sparing anyone's feelings when she's got a war to fight, and is just as sharp when she thinks someone she cares about is recklessly endangering themselves. When she is dealing with Galahad, she doesn't spare him talking about his dead mentor and oldest friend, and using his memory, and later when Galahad is determined to go off to fight, she more or less calls him a crazy idiot for endangering himself like that. At worst, she's perfectly calm and serious when she declares that the United India's guards aren't innocent and thus none of them deserve to be spared. Galahad to start wth as well is something at her disposal, to be directed to a more important fight, and she treats him until they become friends. Probably from being a ruler prior to the start of canon, there is shades of that in most of her dealings with others. Even the rebels are in part a means to an end for her, being crucial to her getting the cover and resources she needs to attack the United India Company as successfully as she does.

galahad: "the rani of jhansi?"
lakshmi: "I surprise you again, knight?"
galahad: "the famous warrior queen who took up arms against our armies in India? Our generals reported you dead in Gwalior."
lakshmi: "I have always benefit from the underestimation of fools."

Not that she's constantly like that, totally unfeeling and always serious or unable to compromise. With Galahad when they are in an uneasy alliance, she compromises on his request, and later when he says he trusts someone, she trusts his word about it. Teasing and joking with him, even when he really doesn't appreciate it, especially when things are dire and they're wounded and cornered. Fondly beginning to call him her gallant knight when he does things for her, she lights up, amused and pleased with him to see him after he kills someone for her. In that way, despite it all, whilst she's got a lot on her shoulders, she wears it well and finds ways to find amusement in the dark regardless of how dire it all is. Her childhood nickname meant playful, and she does seem to carry that on still. With it, she can be charismatic, and to an extent charming when she wants to be, shown especially that despite being a foreign queen, she rallies the disenfranchised to her side, who have no reason to trust her. Enough that on her order her people are willing to die without question and in total devotion to her cause and her way of thinking.

To that end she repays with loyalty with loyalty, even if it might just be a matter of useful tools. Whilst it is very hard to get close to her, once she cares about someone, there is very little she won't do for someone, within reason. This is most obvious with how she treats Devi, whose safety she puts above her own constantly. Not that she distrusts Devi to do her job, she sends Devi out into the field constantly to fight on rebel business and Devi is her stand in on many occasions operating with her full authority, Lakshmi does still send her away when they're in circumstance that they might be cornered. When she first meets Galahad, it's to step in between him and Devi, and her words are to draw his attention off the younger woman. She protects her, above her own well being, however she can. The same with Tesla, who when he insists on going back to the palace, she fights him on it, telling him that he's done enough, and that he should let her take up the burden because she doesn't want to see him get hurt. He touches her hand, and there is no small amount of affection between them that even as she lets him go, she regrets it. Though she will at times cut her losses and run, to fight another day ( in the instance of clearing out of Whitchapel as soon as she knows its going to be full of guards they can't defeat ), she still nurses and protects Galahad when he's recovering from his torture, to be utterly relieved when she sees him up and moving. When he decides he's going to fight, even if it's suicide, there's no hesitation that she would go with him to save Tesla. Treating him as 'we', and that she'd stand by his side even when he goes off to get himself killed as far as she sees it.

Between living so long, losing so much, she's quite withdrawn emotionally from most people, any instance where any of her own emotions are exposed, she tends to cover it immediately by joking or giving directions away from herself. Though she behaves pragmatically about a lot of her convictions, she is just as determined about them as the knights are, and she never flinches from her task even if it means her own death. She can and does face it down, and with a great deal of dignity. Whilst she's proud, she's not too proud to compromise and find other solutions, and living to fight another day even if it comes down to it, she's a queen who is happy to die for her people.

Abilities/Skills:

⥤ immortality.
Lakshmi drinks blackwater, which means she's effectively immortal unless she's killed completely in one go. There's no injury the blackwater won't heal even in the middle of combat, the effects are instant, and generally enhances her strength and abilities. She's not god levels of superhuman, but she's well beyond what even a peak ability human might achieve. She's comfortable lifting her own body weight and then some, as shown when she dead lifts Galahad in one hand up a wall who is much bigger and denser with muscle than she is. The blackwater as well, given it's nature, also gives them extended endurance, and they are capable of fighting and working for many hours. Being without blackwater however is disastrous for them, it's almost a drug for how much their systems needs it. Being cut off from it even for a few weeks means they begin to age and break down quickly, ultimately killing them. Ideally, she needs to drink it once a day, but could last a couple without it, if it came to it. Lastly the blackwater vial can only be refilled only with her blood, and canon is vague, but it seems drinking from it if you're not her, wouldn't be great. Without the holy grail itself, a new immortal can't be made either from her vial.

⥤ blacksight.
In particular, once or twice a day, anyone who drinks blackwater can enter something called Blacksight, which is a heightened state in which they are at a peak point in terms of strength, agility and reflex. However they can not keep it going very long, and frequent use does exhaust them. So she won't use it unless it seems really important.

⥤ combat techniques.
i. trained soldier. Lakshmi was trained from childhood to fight, thus has a lifetime training in traditional indian combative styles. For simplicity's sake, that boils down to sword, dagger & spear fighting, archery and as well as hand to hand / unarmed combat, mounted combat and is proficient with firearms circa the late 1800s, big and small. ( but they wield weapons that come from the world wars, so she'd be alright with newer things after some poking around at it. )
ii. horse riding, as with most people of her time, horses were a main form of transportation but she is noted being particularly skilled with a love of it. She rode into battle on horse back, navigating her mount with only her legs. There's also the famous story where she rode her horse off the side of the fortress to escape.

⥤ other.
i. reads and writes three languages. marathi, hindi & english.

Inventory:

⥤ vial of blackwater.
⥤ her clothes: boots, shirt, pants, jacket, sash and scarf, assorted gold jewellery.
⥤ greaves, vambrace, waist guard/reinforced metal belt.
⥤ M4 Dragoon Revolver + shoulder gun holster.
⥤ 2 x rounds of ammunition.
⥤ long dagger + sheath & holster.
⥤ assorted kit: lighter & other bits and pieces.


SAMPLES

THREAD WITH GILDOR
THREAD WITH HUX