Dhanavati
The Great Queen of Negapatnam
The Great Queen of Negapatnam Dhanavati
The girl who would become known at Dhanavati was born under fortunate stars. For years beyond counting, her family had served the gods — both those who walked by day and those who walked by night — as priests and priest-kings, concubines and the mothers of the god-chosen. The girl was born in a city by the sea, with the marks of great promise already upon her. Her parents, minor members of a minor branch of the great family, brought her trembling before their elders, and while she was but a child too young to open her eyes she was declared to be a goddess in flesh, to be worshipped all the days of her life and beyond.
It was thus that she was raised: taken from her mother as soon as she was weaned and given over to the care of the priests and attendants who would be her only companions. It was thus that she was taught: to hold herself forever apart and above all others, to sit upon her throne of lotus blossoms and nine-fanned serpents and accept the prayers and adoration of those who heaped flowers at her feet. It was thus that she learned to bow before a god greater than herselfand accept his cold caresses, his burning kisses that brought her such terrible pleasure and, when the time came, to offer herself to him to be made into a goddess twice over — a goddess who walked in day and then in night, called by her new name: Dhanavati.
Within the brood of gods-in-flesh and demons-in-flesh who made up her sire’s court, she was among the favorites. She had learned her lessons well and more. She had acquired patience and persistence, diplomacy and statecraft, when to act and when to remain still. And when her sire chose to retire to the sleep of the ancient and powerful, he also named her to succeed him as ruler of the temple-city of Negapatnam, the crossroads of a half-dozen faiths.
The politics of the living world intruded upon her peace. Wave upon wave of mortal invaders broke upon the land and brought with them god-kin of an unusual nature, creatures who did not recognize their own divinity and disputed with those who did, who seemed to follow no dharma or at least none whose precepts made any sense. Dhanavati took counsel with her fellow rulers and found discontent among them. She was personally not pleased with the activities of the most vocal of the invaders, who seemed intent on not only pillaging for Resources but tearing souls away from the true path of dharma in order to glorify their own alien gods. Still, she did not think that open warfare against the invaders was wise; the brahmin were too few, the invaders too many, and the kshatriya far more interested in fighting among themselves than mounting a unified resistance.
And then another option presented itself.
A newcomer came to the court of Dhanavati, who approached using the proper forms of respect and reverence, seeking to pay homage and offer counsel. For months, the outsider acted as a go-between for Dhanavati’s court, her Allies and the intractable invaders, in an effort to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the hostilities between them. His fervent belief that peace could be attained without unnecessary bloodshed between the factions convinced Dhanavati to open her court to more western envoys and prevail upon her Allies to do the same. It was this decision that sealed her fate. In 1857, long-simmering resentment erupted into open rebellion against the British Raj in the north. In the south, the invaders took advantage of the sudden distraction among the southern courts and struck. Precision assaults against courts hosting western diplomats, by Kindred assassins inserted into their entourages, literally beheaded many of the native principalities. Negapatnam was one of these.
Dhanavati does not remember how she fell, or at whose hands, nor who prevented her final destruction. She descended into Torpor in 1857 and did not rise again for nearly a century. When she finally did emerge from the sleep of ages, she was as weak as a kitten and was forced to spend decades relearning the radically altered shape of the world. It took a great deal of time, and she still has not regained all that she lost, but it doesn’t matter. Before anything else, she desires a reckoning.
It was thus that she was raised: taken from her mother as soon as she was weaned and given over to the care of the priests and attendants who would be her only companions. It was thus that she was taught: to hold herself forever apart and above all others, to sit upon her throne of lotus blossoms and nine-fanned serpents and accept the prayers and adoration of those who heaped flowers at her feet. It was thus that she learned to bow before a god greater than herselfand accept his cold caresses, his burning kisses that brought her such terrible pleasure and, when the time came, to offer herself to him to be made into a goddess twice over — a goddess who walked in day and then in night, called by her new name: Dhanavati.
Within the brood of gods-in-flesh and demons-in-flesh who made up her sire’s court, she was among the favorites. She had learned her lessons well and more. She had acquired patience and persistence, diplomacy and statecraft, when to act and when to remain still. And when her sire chose to retire to the sleep of the ancient and powerful, he also named her to succeed him as ruler of the temple-city of Negapatnam, the crossroads of a half-dozen faiths.
The politics of the living world intruded upon her peace. Wave upon wave of mortal invaders broke upon the land and brought with them god-kin of an unusual nature, creatures who did not recognize their own divinity and disputed with those who did, who seemed to follow no dharma or at least none whose precepts made any sense. Dhanavati took counsel with her fellow rulers and found discontent among them. She was personally not pleased with the activities of the most vocal of the invaders, who seemed intent on not only pillaging for Resources but tearing souls away from the true path of dharma in order to glorify their own alien gods. Still, she did not think that open warfare against the invaders was wise; the brahmin were too few, the invaders too many, and the kshatriya far more interested in fighting among themselves than mounting a unified resistance.
And then another option presented itself.
A newcomer came to the court of Dhanavati, who approached using the proper forms of respect and reverence, seeking to pay homage and offer counsel. For months, the outsider acted as a go-between for Dhanavati’s court, her Allies and the intractable invaders, in an effort to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the hostilities between them. His fervent belief that peace could be attained without unnecessary bloodshed between the factions convinced Dhanavati to open her court to more western envoys and prevail upon her Allies to do the same. It was this decision that sealed her fate. In 1857, long-simmering resentment erupted into open rebellion against the British Raj in the north. In the south, the invaders took advantage of the sudden distraction among the southern courts and struck. Precision assaults against courts hosting western diplomats, by Kindred assassins inserted into their entourages, literally beheaded many of the native principalities. Negapatnam was one of these.
Dhanavati does not remember how she fell, or at whose hands, nor who prevented her final destruction. She descended into Torpor in 1857 and did not rise again for nearly a century. When she finally did emerge from the sleep of ages, she was as weak as a kitten and was forced to spend decades relearning the radically altered shape of the world. It took a great deal of time, and she still has not regained all that she lost, but it doesn’t matter. Before anything else, she desires a reckoning.
Physical Description
General Physical Condition
The maharani was a beautiful girl at the time of her Embrace, her hips slender and her breasts barely budded. This deceptive appearance has worked both for and against her. Now, she affects an older appearance with elegantly applied cosmetics and severely modern clothing that disguises her relative lack of figure, wearing her waist-length black hair generally unadorned. When presenting herself among elders of her own and other clans, she adopts the more proper costuming of her clan and caste: hair done up in an elaborate crown of braids, a choli and sari of the finest silk to be had appropriately patterned in golden lotus blossoms, hands and arms painted in hennaed swirls that denote her age and rank and lineage.
Mental characteristics
Personal history
For all her apparent youth, she is an elder of the Canda Bhanu, only recently risen from a Torpor caused by her near-assassination at the hands of The Invictus. Returned to a world that she barely recognizes, bereft of the blood-kin murdered by European treachery, she is driven by her fury and her desire for vengeance — both of which run hotter than any emotion she has ever before felt. She is one of the most vigorous proponents of the Alliance’s most aggressive possible courses of action, a fact not lost on those who would bleed for the restitution her anger demands. Should she ever learn that she was betrayed almost to her destruction by her own bloodline, who sought to make her a martyr for the purposes of their own political ends, her wrath would likely drive her to self-destruction. She might well take her small bloodline with her.
The hour has come for us to take back what was torn away from us, that which is more precious than our thrones, our honor and our virtue.
Ethnicity
Other Ethnicities/Cultures
Age
Apparent Age: Early Teens
Date of Death
Mid-1600s
Circumstances of Death
Embraced
Children
Aligned Organization
Physical Attributes: Strength 1, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3
Social Attributes: Presence 4, Manipulation 3, Composure 3
Mental Skills: Academics 3, Crafts (Painting) 3, Occult 4, Politics 5
Physical Skills: Athletics (Acrobatics) 3, Stealth 1
Social Skills: Animal Ken (Snakes) 3, Empathy 3, Expression (Dance) 4, Persuasion 3, Socialize 4, Subterfuge 4
Merits: Allies 1 (Provincial Police), Allies 1 (Provincial Government), Contacts (Religious Scholars; High Society), Caste Status 1, Clan Status (Ventrue) 1, Haven Location 1, Haven Security 2, Haven Size 1, Herd 2, Language (English), Meditative Mind, Resources 2, Retainer 2
Willpower: 7
Humanity: 3 (fixation — maintenance of ritual purity, 4)
Virtue: Faith
Vice: Wrath
Health: 8
Initiative: 6
Defense: 3
Speed: 9
Blood Potency: 4
Vitae/Per turn: 13/2
Disciplines: Animalism 1, Dominate 2, Majesty 2, Nightmare 2, Resilience 1