Diana Walowik
Empress of Duwallen, Diana Walowik
Once merely the daughter of a well-to-do nobleman with a mile between her and the throne, Diana became the unfortunate target of a demon-worshipping cult from within the bowels of Menschen nobility. She was tortured, with strings of runes carved into her flesh so deeply that the scars remain chasms in her skin to this day, and used as the conduit by which a portal was opened to The Old World. Records of what happened afterwards are spotty and come from questionable sources, but legends say the demons who arrived through the portal took pity on the poor woman, slaughtering her captors to the last and bringing her back with them to their world for treatment. Less charitable rumors are that the demons simply coveted the magic embedded in her skin and kidnapped her, only for her to overpower them when she recovered.
Whatever the case, the combination of the runes and her time spent within the demon realm appear to have warped her physiology into something demon-like herself, granting her a massively extended lifespan. As such, she was able to return to her own world a full century later and lay claim to the throne by virtue of her ancient bloodline. She's held the position of Empress of the Menschen Empire for nearly another century, now, and still faces significant resistance from those she rules. Though her policies have generally been quite positive for her nation - with some even being popular at the time of their inception - her inhuman nature and frequent efforts to more directly ally with the demons of the Old World have earned her no end of enemies and attempted coups.
Physical Description
Identifying Characteristics
Diana is covered head to toe in the scars of the runic carvings that were used to summon powerful demons into the mortal realm ages ago. They form a continuous string of text that encircles her entire body several times over, covering nearly every square inch of her skin. In times of significant stress, they glow slightly with an internal violet light.
Mental characteristics
Failures & Embarrassments
In 982, Diana's son Ignatius was caught up in an assassination attempt that, by all accounts, successfully obliterated the young demon prince. Because the agent responsible was also caught up in the magical blast, it was never discovered whether they were a lone killer or part of a larger conspiracy against her, and the combination of grief and worry has plagued her to varying degrees ever since.
Mental Trauma
Diana suffers from bouts of extreme paranoia as a result of the numerous attempts on her and her family's lives. Justified though it may be, it often forces her to enter a state of emotional distance from the world in order to cope with major social events, enhancing her reputation among her peers and subjects of being aloof and inhuman.
Additionally, her entire ordeal with her capture and time spent with the demons has left her exceedingly distrustful of the gods and any religious zealotry she sees within her empire. She has no interest in outlawing religious practice or anything so extreme - after all, some of the gods do appear to be legitimately benevolent, and even those who aren't have their uses - but it's led her to create a more stark divide between matters of religion and state than any previous Menschen ruler on record.
Intellectual Characteristics
Pragmatic to the point of apparent sociopathy, Diana's emotional distance in front of people often leads to her making decisions that seem heartless on the surface, but truly have their needs at heart somewhere deep down. The needs of the many and the survival of her people as a whole take precedence over individual petty concerns... Aside from her own.
Living with the demons for as many decades as she did left Diana cutthroat and unscrupulous in her methods. Whatever it takes to have her will be done, that is what will be done. This doesn't mean she isn't without guilt for her methods; merely that she's grown distressingly comfortable in their use.
Personality Characteristics
Motivation
To make Duwallen the strongest, most progressive, and most prosperous nation in the world. She believes Menschen culture must adapt and become stronger if it is to survive the influences of the other cultures it must live alongside, even if that means discarding centuries of tradition.
Social
Social Aptitude
Diana is adept at reading tone and inflection, but absolutely helpless in reading facial cues due to her extended time away from fellow humans. She's been improving for decades, but still considers it a significant weak point, to the extent that she will hold some meetings with other humans facing away from them or across cloth screens, in order to prevent this weakness from working against her.
Relationships
Current Location
Species
Ethnicity
Year of Birth
999 MA
218 Years old
Birthplace
Sturmstadt, Duwallen
Spouses
Siblings
Children
Eyes
Violet
Hair
Jet black
Skin Tone/Pigmentation
Pallid gray, covered in violet runes
Height
5'10"
Duwallish, Tradespeak, and Demonic
Conversational:
Stirgan, Underspeech, Cephan
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