Nadejda Kharityna

[Nadejda]

Played by Tov

Name: Nadejda Kharityna (na-DEZH-duh kar-ee-TEEN-uh)
Age: 38
Race: shifter/werewolf

Physical Description: Tall, pale, cold, and highly capable, Nadejda is much younger than a family leader typically is, especially for Kharityn. She can easily pass as someone less dignified than her rank suggests, though she would likely never do such a thing. She has long, silvery-blonde hair that is typically tied back in an intricate braid and flashing, usually very reserved, green eyes under straight eyebrows. She has a long, thin nose, high cheekbones, and full lips, and is considered one of the great beauties of Zhaltev.

Muscles bulk out her thin frame and there is barely a scrap of fat on her. She takes immense pride in her strength and works hard to maintain it. To protect against the Zhaltevian winters, she wears reindeer hide trimmed with mammoth fur and silks, the latter imported from far away places she doesn't care to go. The reindeer and mammoth pelts she has obtained herself. A rather traditional woman, she considers it a mark of shame to wear hides someone else has hunted.

As a wolf, she is on the smaller/medium size for a shifter wolf, but she is not to be taken lightly. She is pure white with the same green eyes and long, silky fur. While she may not have the bulk of some of the larger wolves, just like in her human form she is made of pure muscle.

Possessions: Nadejda owns very little herself, but she does reside in Kharityn Hall, one of the oldest buildings in Zhaltev. It befits her rank as head of Kharityn family. Kharityn Hall is as cold and austere as anything can be when filled with hot-blooded shifters, though the Hall is rather imposing with its white marble and amber accents and high, vaulted ceilings. Many of Kharityn family live within the Hall and its surrounding buildings.

Besides an assortment of furs and other clothing, Nadejda keeps almost nothing in her room at the Hall. She sleeps on a pile of furs on the ground, has a few ancient tapestries depicting various points in Kharityn history, and a few personal trinkets like some sparkly rocks and a lump of salt pulled from the sea.

Powers or Strengths: Nadejda has had to grow up very fast, and as such she is remarkably collected for a shifter. She rarely shows emotion and almost always appears very calm, even when she is furious with someone. She never shifts to her wolf form out of anger or a lack of control. She is quick to defend her family, but even in those fights she never anything but cool and calculating in regards to winning the fight.

Nadejda has an amazing amount of tenacity. She will take on a mammoth or a bear by herself to protect someone she considers family. It's never been quite certain to her or anyone close to her if this tenacity is bravery or foolishness but it has gotten her out of a lot of bad situations because she refuses to accept losing as an outcome.

As both a wolf and a human, she is amazingly quick and agile, but also has enough power to take on a larger opponent in a fight. From a very young age both her mother and her father taught her how to fight, and she turned out to be a perfect genetic blend of them both, with her mother's nimbleness and her father's strength.

Weaknesses and Flaws: Nadejda grew up immersed in Kharityn culture, and because of this considers all shifters that are not werewolves to be lesser creatures and not deserving of the same rights and rank as wolves. Other races besides shifters are even less worthy. It is a typical Kharityn belief that often gets the Kharityn wolves in some trouble with other clans, but no Kharityn would ever renounce the idea... on pain of being killed or banished from the clan. Nadejda herself holds a few doubts about this belief due to her brother, but she would never voice them and as a whole does buy into the Kharityn ideal of the perfect shifter being a wolf.

She can be a bit rash when it comes to protecting someone who is her family, and will sometimes throw herself into a situation that could be resolved without her there at all. Despite that, she is difficult to get close to, though she does consider all of Kharityn her family. But just because they are family does not make them friends, and she's not great at making friends.

If she was ever in a situation where she was unable to transform and was required to fight with weapons of any sort, she would be completely lost. Swords and weapons in general are considered cheating in disputes among Zhaltevites and Nadejda has never had any reason to learn how to use them because of it. She can do some hand-to-hand fighting, but her preferred fighting form is her wolf shape and if that was taken away from her she would be very easy to defeat.

History: Born into the Kharityn family, Nadejda grew up with a strong sense of self. She was a werewolf from birth, with her first shift happening just before her fifth birthday. She grew up with one brother, older than her by five years named Demyan. The siblings were very close as children and young adults.

She never aspired for the leadership of Kharityn, much less the syordanship, though her father was Twelth of Kharityn and was slowly climbing the ranks. She was content just to be a well-respected wolf in Kharityn, spouting her family's ideals of blood purity among shifters and not making friends with anyone who was not a werewolf. She had few encounted with shifters who were not wolves, being much more content to remain around Kharityn family members, hunt with them, eat with them, live with them, than any other shifters. She had even less contact with humans and beings who were not shifts, save accompanying her father a few times in his dealings with them.

This continued up until she was thirty-three, when, to the horror and shock of her entire family (all of Kharityn), Demyan announced that he had mated and produced offspring with a falcon shifter and it was his intention to bring her and the twins to live in Kharityn.

He had come to her first, whispering his terrible secret in the night. Nadejda was both terrified and disgusted, but, for the love she bore her brother, her terror for him eventually won out. She told him Kharityn would kill him and his family and there was nothing to do but break off the relationship and deny his children, be they werewolves or... otherwise. Demyan was sickened by the idea and the siblings fought for the first time since they were children. It ended with Nadejda denying any relationship with him and telling him that he should die before shaming his family like this.

Three days later, Demyan announced his relationship to the falcon shifter and their children to Kharityn. Immediately wolves were dispatched and half an hour later, Demyan's falcon shifter mate and their two young children were brought in to Kharityn Hall before an audience of all the high ranking members of Kharityn and whoever else could fit into in the main room. Demyan was asked to renounce his relationship and he did not, and so the falcon shifter was killed in front of him without ceremony, swiftly followed by each of the children. Demyan, screaming and howling in rage and anger, broke free from his captors and launched himself at the leader of Kharityn at the time, Kasimir Kharityn.

Watching, Nadejda's heart leapt into her throat as her brother was caught and restrained again before he could reach Kasimir. Kasimir sentenced him to immediate death and as the Second was readying himself to deliver the killing blow, Nadejda stepped into the circle and challenged Kasimir for the leadership of Kharityn. The older, bigger, and stronger man laughed at her, but was bloodbound to answer the challenge. By tradition, everything, including Demyan's execution, was put on hold until after the challenge had been settled.

She fought without regard to herself, only fear for her brother, and when it was over the bloodied body of Kasimir Kharityn lay at her paws. Nadejda's own white fur was heavily lacerated and almost completely red from both her blood and his, but she turned human despite the pain and said, boldly and without hesitation, "I, Nadejda Kharityna, claim Kharityn as my own." The moment her words faded she bolted to her brother's side and snarled at the wolves restraining him to back down.

"I banish you from Kharityn," she murmured to him, allowing herself to caress his cheek for a brief moment and let him see the regret and sadness in her eyes before stepping back. "I cannot condone such behavior even among my own kin," she continued, in a louder voice. "I banish Demyan Kharityn from Kharityn territory and Hall, but he is not to leave the city, on pain of breaking oath. That is my word," she snapped, hearing a few disgruntled growls from her new subordinates. "Go," she commanded her brother, and he fled.

She could never tell anyone that she couldn't bear to let him go and leave Zhaltev, not when she was to be bound there until her death. She didn't know if he would ever want to see her again, but she did know that despite his failings as a Kharityn, she loved him no less than she did before she knew about his betrayal. And that scared her, because a good Kharityn would have accepted his sentence of execution and trusted her leader to know what was best for the clan. The fact that she had challenged Kasimir and won meant less than the fact that some now whispered that she was perhaps tainted as well. Nadejda quickly put those whispers to rest with sharp words and sharper fangs, but it made her wonder herself that her love for her brother was stronger than any pack tradition. And what did that mean for him and his now-dead lover?

The new leader of Kharityn, Nadejda quickly found her hands full. Between ordaining over her pack and its rights and running the day to day lives of her wolves, she turned inward and reserved. Being much younger than almost all the Kharityn leaders before her, and the youngest leader in the city, made her quickly perfect a blank face and calm emotions. She has had two challengers for leadership since she took power, both of which she defeated and killed. The Kharityn belief is that any challenger for leadership must be killed to prevent insubordination, and Nadejda adheres strictly to that idea.

The fact that her brother took a falcon shifter as a mate did have one positive outcome - in her private time, when she is alone and things are quiet, she wonders how, if other shifters are less pure and right then werewolves, how could her own brother fall in love with one? Only a few options ever occur to her - he was under a spell, he went mad, or, the most unsettling idea, a falcon shifter is perhaps just as worthy and pure as a wolf. She doesn't like to think about that last one.

[Saruna]

Approved.