Florentia Barlas
Duchess Florentia Barlas
Florentia Barlas is the young and ambitious leader of House Barlas, the second most powerful family in the Kingdom of Alsona. As a child, she was best known for her enjoyment of the outdoors and the world beyond the walls of the family estate. Rather than living in the decrepit urban centers of Pegrama itself, she was blessed with the great tracts of land offered in the rural regions surrounding the city. She learned to play and run in the fields, and took an active interest in the agriculture and fields of the lands owned by the family. As a teenager, she began studying the methods of the tenant farmers, and seemed poised to modernize and develop the family's businesses, turning away from the intrigues of Alsonan courts.
Everything changed with the outbreak of the Wingo War, as Florentia's mother rode off to war along with the other nobles and their levies. In the Second Battle of Valtkos Wingo, her mother was slain by the dwarves, along with a good chunk of the house's army. Florentia's father soon followed, having been serving in the rear guard. Forced into a position of authority at only the age of nineteen, she found herself forced to turn the dedication she had displayed towards the fields to her role as the sole heir and head of the house. She found herself nearly victim to three assassination attempts by wayward cousins, and when the dwarves and elves crossed into The Patridaxos, they began raiding. Florentia's beloved home estate was burned, as were the fields she had treasured so much.
Consumed with vengeance, Florentia tapped into the sizeable finances of the family, which had been untouched after the deaths of her parents. She was able to channel these funds into the reconstruction of her family's levies and guards, ignoring the formation of the Royal Army of Alsona and the centralization of power under Queen Miranda. The volunteers she rallied were predominantly from the farmers and herdsmen surrounding Pegrama, and most harmed by the enemy raids. Under the banner of House Barlas, these warriors served well, driving off raids, and helping protect the city from further devastation. The culmination of this was the Battle of Pegrama in which Florentia's army defeated a small invading force that threatened to burn the outskirts, while the Royal Army was elsewhere.
Having been forced to learn the ways of war, the end of the Wingo War brought about new change, but the brutality of the conflict and death of her parents drove Florentia into a rage, believing that the war could have been won if it had been pushed just a little further. She blamed the Queen for the treaty, and immediately turned the ferocity that had served her well into the court intrigues she had once shunned. With a strategic marriage, two daughters, and new alliances forged among both old and new wealth in Alsona, Florentia looks to build new power, and take revenge upon all those who have wronged her.
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Ethnicity
Date of Birth
Ashfall 19, 1002 AF
Year of Birth
1002 AF
39 Years old
Family
Children
Current Residence
Gender
female
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