|OOC;
Name: Lily
Preferred pronouns: She
Over 16?: y
Contact: aeneia @ plurk
Time zone: +10 GMT, East Coast Australia
Other characters: N/A
|IC;
Type: OU
Name: lakshmi bai, manikarnika, "manu", "chhabili", "bai saheba"
Canon: The Order: 1886
Canon point: Sir Galahad leaving to confront Sir Lucan
Age: 58 ish
Appearance: 
Personality: ❝ 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, mother and battle hardened immortal.
It’s hard to say exactly what she was like before the events of canon exactly, but in history she was a passionate young woman, only 18 when her son and husband died from illness, and not finished her 22nd year before she "died", at least outwardly, and personally lost everything on the fields of Gwalior. By the stories, she was a playful, kind-hearted young woman who leant towards being tomboyish and fierce. Devoted to her husband and to the people that had become hers. All of which was put to the test in her many battles. 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 one who expects to be listened to and treated with respect. She tends to be restrained in a lot of her more emotional responses or more sentimental topics and from time to time, that playfulness can still be seen. 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. Tact is something she will disregard when and as she feels it’s important.
Her greatest strength is her determination and willingness to keep on fighting. Even when odds are miserable, she stays strong with remarkable resilience. Coming from complete defeat to start up another rebellion that is half way through 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. Her own death doesn't trouble her very much. 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 if required, 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."❞- chapter 9, an uneasy alliance
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. When she is confronted about that cost, she 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. She is mostly unforgiving about such things, 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 the first time and they are little more than enemies in an alliance, she doesn't spare him talking about his dead mentor and oldest friend who she had caused to die. Using his memory to her own purpose. Later when she and Galahad are friends, she is determined to go off to fight to save their mutual friend, Nikola Tesla, 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 with is something at her disposal, to be directed to a more important fight, and she treats him like that 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."❞Not that she's constantly 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 them despite her misgivings about the situation. 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. But she will always be a queen that is happy to die for her people.
Background/AU details: ❝ MEN WERE NEVER MEANT TO LIVE THIS LIFE.❞
note: this is an "alternative history" canon, it weaves back and forth between actual history and their version of it freely, and many events are as they occurred in history. The linked setting information explains about the supernatural elements and how that has changed the course of history, but is particularly limited to England, below I’ve outlined Lakshmi’s history prior to canon according to what she says and the canon changes.
Lakshmibai was born Manikarnika, the daughter and first child of Moropant Tambe and his wife, unfortunately, her mother died when she was just four years old, and it would not be many years later when she would have a half-brother when her father remarried. Her father was a retainer of the Peshwa - Prime Minister of the Marathi Empire of India, Baji Rao II. She was greatly favoured by the Peshwa who gave her the nickname Chabilia, because she was would smile and laugh often and often got into trouble near him and it was he who arranged such a prosperous marriage for her. Her education was one of the best due to being raised amongst the children of other important families, despite her father's lower station. From a very young age, she was taught to read, fight and ride. Her father, loving his then only child but not knowing what to do with a daughter, raised her in many regards like a son instead. 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 thirteen, she was married the Raja Gangadhar Rao of Jhansi, and became his Rani, taking the name Lakshmi Bai upon her marriage and becoming Queen.
Their marriage was a happy one, Gangadhar was a statesman and by most accounts, a good ruler. Once she became part of his household and his Queen, her instruction turned to also include how to manage a household, including things like cooking and as her husband was of the Brahamin order, many religious aspects. 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. Jhansi was, under them, a prosperous state.
However, happy as they were, it was not to last. Their marriage was childless after their only son, Damodar Rao, died within a few months of being born. Some time after this, Gangadhar took ill, and one drawn out year later, he too passed. On his death-bed, together they adopted a second son who was born Arnand and renamed Damodar, he appointed Lakshmi his regent until their new son was grown, the next day, Gangadhar died. 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 their son illegitimate, 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 what was actually happening as the United India’s influence grew. 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. The Half-Breeds and Vampires were not known for subtlety and they kill indiscriminately, some of them losing themselves so completely that they won’t even turn into their monstrous forms, and will just feast on whoever crosses 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, who were born rather than turned to their form, and 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 lost. Lakshmi was facing something she was not equipped to fight, and what happened to Jhansi was 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. Beyond even India. Whenever it came about, by that time, it was clear she wasn't fighting against just a Empire with colonialist ideas, but something far greater and with more sinister intentions that was pulling the strings of the British Empire to further spread the Lycans and Vampires across the world. Now in out and out revolt against the United India Company and the British Empire, after she lost Jhansi she took her armies and fought battle after battle with them on multiple occasions. The key battles being and Kelpi and Kunch, where they were overwhelmed. 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 its figurehead, 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".
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 and was presumed dead. Lakshmi says little as to how or why they met, just that he died, and his blackwater was passed onto her. 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 moment's 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 treats her like her successor to the fight against the Company and the Vampires & Lycans. 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 toppling the United India Company and trying to kill it’s leader, Lord Hastings, 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 company's 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. The reality is that the Order is completely unaware of the war that’s going on outside of them between the Rebellion lead by Lakshmi against Lord Hastings and the United India Company to stop the spread of the Half-breeds across the globe. Which after the death of Sir Perceval, Sir Galahad in a revenge-fuelled need to find out the truth of what is occurring, finally seeks her out and their paths finally cross. Even though, initially, he thinks the leader of the rebellion is Devi, who is Lakshmi’s more public face in England, Lakshmi steps in to stop them from shooting each other and reveals the truth of the fight to him.
The rest of the events of the game can be found here:
❝ONE DAY ALL OUR BURDENS WILL END, BROTHER.❞
Strengths & weaknesses:
strengths
• Physical: Trained Warrior & Commander, in both close quarter combat in city situations and open battle field combat. Swords, Knives/Daggers, Pistols, Rifles. Skilled horseback rider, mounted combat. High level of endurance and pain tolerance, with and without the blackwater. Experience with Guerrilla Warfare. Stealth, surveillance, subterfuge, assassinations.
• Mental: Personable, listens to others, willing to compromise without caring about her own pride if it’s important, loving, personally loyal, respectful, well mannered ( when she feels like it ), has previously successful run a country and government, charitable ( if the situation allows it ). Can change her outward persona depending on the circumstances. Thoughtful
• Other: Speaks three languages, English, Hindi & Marathi, keeps a strict personal structure, as the wife of the caste of Brahmin, has stood in on religious matters in particular ceremonies. Can wear a hell of a lot of bling and be comfortable with it.
weaknesses
• Physical: dependence on the blackwater to keep her strength and age away. Without the blackwaters enhancement, is an ordinary human, but does not act like one. Prone to near sucidal acts of daring. ( Famously, she rode off the side of her fortress to escape the british with her son strapped to her back, levels of insane ).
• Mental: Arrogant, Reckless, Demanding, Blunt, Ignores tact to make her point, Ends always justify the means, Hard to rush into decisions. Cagey about her secrets and private life, keeps a lot of secrets even from people she trusts and loves. Likes to be purposefully cryptic and evasive even when she probably doesn't need to be.
• Other: Stubborn Old Woman, Limited to about WWI era technology, excluding planes, thanks weapons supplier Actual Real Life Nikola Tesla.
Depowering/humanization: ❝ Blackwater is a blessing and a curse: To the Knights of The Order it provides longer life, but they live to see everyone that they love die.❞Lakshmi, like the Knights, drinks the Blackwater. A purported Holy Grail, though whether it is truly the blood of christ is up for debate, but its effects are not. It grants everyone who drinks from it long life, if not outright immortality. Lakshmi, too, has long outlived her more natural years without aging even slightly from it. The blackwater, after first drinking from it, is mixed with a person's blood, and their blood alone can restore them. It can be shared with another, but it isn't done lightly by anyone, and Lakshmi doesn't share her own even with her family.
Not having the blackwater over a long enough time frame, however, will kill the person who drinks it.
The Blackwater has several enhancing abilities:
- Long Life: All who drink the blackwater do not outwardly age in any real manner. In Lakshmi's case, she's at minimum 57 years old, but doesn't look much older than her late twenties. Some of the knights are six and seven centuries old and don't look much more than mid-fifties. However as soon as they stop drinking the Blackwater, they begin to age rapidly. This seems to be where lack of Blackwater really kills them.
- Healing: Drinking the Blackwater means that outside of an immediately fatal wound like being shot in the heart or head, or being knocked out and unable to consume it, they can heal almost any wound in seconds. More serious wounds will take some minutes and fatigue them for longer, but it does not kill or even cripple them long term. Lady Igraine, for instance, gets her spine broken and one sip of it later, she's up and walking after awhile. Galahad survives being in an airship crash into the crystal palace.
- Increased abilities: All who drink the blackwater are faster, stronger, enhanced sight, smell and hearing. It's not truly super human, but it's well and beyond what a peak human can do. In the case of Lakshmi, she's able to comfortably dead weight lift Sir Galahad who is over 6', wearing weapons and heavy clothes, single handed up a wall with very little exertion. They can't say, throw cars around, but they're well and truly able to do things the average person can't.
- The Blacksight: The exception to the above is when they enter what is called the Blacksight. It's a heightened, almost peak state where they react faster, see, hear and smell clearer and process in a way that makes the rest of the world almost slow down to how quickly they move.
As discussed here, Lakshmi will need to keep drinking the Blackwater, given her dependency on it, but she'll pick up right where she left off so far as ageing goes. She also will become weak if she doesn't have the Blackwater anymore.
Placement preference: Cetagandan. No matter where she's put, over enough time, Lakshmi will end up on the side of Barrayar, but I would like her to join the Cetagandan's to begin with as it will be more interesting to see her handle it. However, if it's a numbers game, I definitely don't mind where she's put.
Character goals: Lakshmi won't be able to help herself but getting swept up in it, even if she'll try to maintain to herself that it's not her fight, it's way too close to home for her. ( Again, there's no way she won't fight for a rebel force trying to keep their kingdom ). Likewise, she'll give herself way to easily to the service of others wholeheartedly and it's going to mess her up. Especially given that it's going to take her awhile to realise that she can't heal like she used to, she's probably going to get herself injured.
Sample: THREAD WITH PIOTR
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