Margaret Swiftwind

Arthur Swiftwind's elder sister, Margaret, is a philanthropist and socialite and is known for never having taken a husband, choosing instead to invest her personal wealth wisely and throw numerous charity balls and salons throughout the year. Margaret is perhaps handling the death of her father better than her siblings are, and she has little patience for Arthur's tendencies toward flippancy and debauchery. Margaret does not have much faith in Arthur's idea of founding and funding a mercenary company, but she hopes that the project will keep her brother busy and help him manage his grief.

Age: 37
Eyes: Grey
Hair: Brown and lightly streaked with slate grey, long and wavy, usually worn pulled back into a twisted bun at the crown of her head
Skin Tone/Pigmentation: Pale, slightly flushed cheeks
Height: 5'7'
Weight: 140 lbs

Appearance

Physical Description

Somewhat stout, average height, and an imposing, confident posture.

Body Features

Long, wavy brown hair lightly streaked with slate grey, which she usually wears pulled back; when free, it is actually rather copious. Small, deft hands and shapely legs.

Facial Features

A strong nose, bright grey eyes, and a wide mouth. Generally wears a calm but somewhat guarded expression, and can be quite stern.

Mentality

Personal history

Margaret was always a quick learner. As a child, it became apparent to her that she would never be openly regarded for her many talents in the same way her similarly talented elder brother, Arthur, was. She was a girl, and society simply expected different things of her. So, Margaret spent most of her life learning to subvert those expectations with subtlety until, in her mid-twenties, she had amassed enough personal wealth and influence to begin building a network of trade and cooperation between various businesses, always turning a profit and looking to expand wherever she could. This made Margaret both threatening and appealing to her male competitors; many hated her for daring to take money out of their pockets and others wanted to marry her in order to eliminate a competitor and gain control of her wealth and familial status. Margaret would go on to confound them all, however; she has never married, and at the age of thirty-seven she is rather unlikely to.

Trained alongside her older brother in marksmanship, horseback riding, literature, mathematics, culture, and hunting, Margaret is a formidable woman in a fair number of ways and has been of similar physical capability to most of the men she has met in her life. She advised her father in the later years of his life and handled the matter of his death until Arthur unexpectedly returned, and now she advises Arthur in most matters. Margaret has also taken her sister Elspeth under her wing, attempting to teach the young woman the ways of trade and investment, but has met with difficulties inherent to Elspeths' nature that have sometimes left Margaret exasperated and ready to drink. A bit of a lush, Margaret has been known to get toasted and spend time relaxing in the lounge with a book or conversing with the butler, Templeton, in the atrium.

Education

Margaret received almost the exact same education as Arthur and, like her brother, has pursued her own studies well into adulthood. While Arthur attended college in Ardia, Margaret ended up studying at the University of Essenmark in Bellaerie, never straying too far from Lannora Ivy. Since graduating, she has expanded the library of Lannora Ivy by nearly forty percent, collecting various literature and encyclopedias to be used as reference material.

Employment

Margaret owns part of all of many different businesses located throughout all the areas that Arthur has traveled; in fact, part of a longstanding arrangement between the two was the Arthur would help establish contacts and make acquisitions for Margaret's various enterprises whenever he explored a new part of the world. This arrangement has left Margaret and Arthur both much richer and has also left Margaret an incredibly wealthy and influential woman from a prestigious bloodline. She remains Arthur's financial advisor as well as his general confidant in many matters despite Arthur's retirement, and Arthur respects Margaret enough that he takes her voice in matters of business and the family name seriously.

Accomplishments & Achievements

*See Personal History, Education, and Employment*

Failures & Embarrassments

Margaret has only ever been ridiculed in small circles for having never married, but she is not particularly bothered by this. Very little gets Margaret's goat, and she knows how to bide her time and let her success be her best revenge.

Mental Trauma

Believing Arthur was dead was difficult for everyone in his family, but it triggered a sort of defensive preparedness in Margaret that she still has not shaken off. Her desire to train Elspeth to care for herself began shortly after Margaret began to believe that Arthur was dead, as this meant that Victor would likely rush to marry Elspeth off and name Edward his legal heir. This would eliminate much of Elspeth's personal freedom and would leave the Swiftwind household and name in the hands of a man too selfish and impulsive to care for a family and an expansive estate. The fear of such insecurity terrified Margaret for her entire family, despite that she had a solid foundation built for herself. When Arthur returned just after Victor's death, no one was more relieved than Margaret, as this meant that Victor's original will would be honored and Arthur would become Lord of Oaksleigh. The impulse to prepare and guard against the worst has never left Margaret, though; to this day, she is still always looking for a way in which things could go wrong and looking even harder for a way to prevent it.

Intellectual Characteristics

Intuitive; analytical; insightful.

Morality & Philosophy

Does not believe in an objective right and wrong in most cases, but does believe that one's moral obligation to society is part of the price one pays for benefitting from the conveniences of human civilization. Margaret believes more in order than in law and more in commitment than in love.

person.sexuality

Margaret's sexual orientation is a mystery. Some have speculated that perhaps her siblings would know whether she is attracted to any sort of person at all, but if they do know, none of the three have cared to speculate on it.

person.gender_identity

Female; she/her.

Taboos

The standard universal taboos.

Known Languages

Common, Ardian, Farusa, Elvish