BUZAM. Title by , because he's awesome and I am not.

Also, love to for helping me out. Lighting isn't my friend.

I think my muse just died in a corner.

I spent like, a month on this. And it's not even lineless, yeesh. This is for ' contest, Create your own princess. While she was not created specifically for the contest, it did inspire me to do a HUGE overhaul on her history, personality, and general appearance. Like? Don't like? HATE!? yeah.

Name- Destiny, “Dez”, as she's much more commonly known.

Age – At present in this picture, about 2800

Personality- At some point in life, one has to learn two things:

1. Not everyone you meet will always like you, and

2. Not everyone can be rehabilitated.

Dez does not learn this until well after she becomes queen.

In her younger years, she is rather spoiled and can be considered spiritually weak. She is rather mule-headed and stubborn, and whether she is right or wrong she will stand by her decisions and beliefs to the end. She is known to be misinformed more than some of the time, and this gets her into trouble on several occasions. She is also very naive, too trusting, and she believes that everyone has a good heart no matter what they've done. This belief has nearly gotten her killed on several occasions. She is extravagant and very outgoing, and sometimes people have labeled her as overly dramatic as a young girl. As a child her dreams had no horizon, but as she grows older, they begin to dim down into a softer light. Everyone she's met has said, at the very least, that she has a good heart, but she has very much to learn and experience before she can make it on her own.

History- Destiny is the eldest of four children born to the Queen Anakira and King Zeir. Her name was chosen in Commontongue by Anakira's choice alone- Being the heir to the Norethian crown, she wanted the whole world to know who this little girl was going to grow up to be. Her nickname, also chosen near birth, is a play-on names- Dez happens to be a boy's name in their native tongue.

She grew up as most princesses would- very close to her parents, with private tutors, lavish and luxory. She held a strong family bond with her sisters, but especially her mother. Some in the castle even feared that their queen had chosen a favorite in her daughters, but most people brushed it off as the child simply being the heir to the throne. A family heirloom was even forged for the little girl, a sword made of gold with a lavish hilt made of a gorgeous red gem and adorned with the family symbol- a blue crystal made in the image of the Gods' Gift. While the sword was never meant to be used in battle, it was hung in the girl's room over her bed.

Around the age of 1300, (She would have physically been 13 or 14) it was clear things between Destiny's mother and father weren't going so well. More recently, the king had been shutting himself away from everyone, acting out violently when anyone came near. It was rumored he'd been killing anyone too persistant. Her suspicions were raised when her mother gathered her up one day and informed her of a vacation to visit a close friend in the neighboring country of Severia. The move was quick and quiet- she was given her mother's traveling cloak, a Severian horse, and the heirloom was tied to the saddle. When the queen relinquished her God's Gift to the princess, she should have known- but her mother quieted her quickly and before any questions could be off, she was sent on her way. She would need to find everything out later.

Her younger sister was relocated to the northernmost country of Linosinea, but in the process of moving the youngest children to the Dra'ken islands, Anakira was caught and in a fit of paranoia, Zeir slayed his wife and his two remaining children. The king had developed Paranoid Schizophrenia in his recent years and now it was going to take a heavy toll on everything.

The ride to Severia was uneventful for the most part, but less than a day's travel away from the Chancellor's palace she found herself attacked by a thief due to her naivety in leaving her luxurious belongings laying out after she'd fallen asleep the night before. To her surprise, a band of regally clad young men chased off the thief and recovered her stolen things, one of them stopping to question her about her business in the quiet country. When she relayed everything that had happened, he immediately discarded any suspicions he had, helped her onto her horse, and had her personally escorted to the palace. On the way there, he introduced himself only as Dark the Seventh.

Audience sought with the Chancellor, it was quickly agreed that she was to stay there indefinitely. Anakira had consulted with him prior, and arrangements were already laid out. She was to stay in the palace and train personally with the Chancellor, Seth and his son, Dark.

Funny, she had never heard of this man before, and as far as she knew, her family was tied rather closely with Severian royalty. Nonetheless, she very quickly grew rather close to Seth and Dark's hearts, and the princess found herself thinking of Seth as a second father. She trained with them, learning how to fight and how to perfect the magic she'd started to learn back in Norethia.

Tragic news came soon from Norethia, the news of the royal family taking a turn for the worse- Zeir claiming sole rule of the throne, the destruction of nearly every alliance Norethia had previously formed, and the deaths of the queen and the two youngest princesses, and the disappearance of the two eldest. A search was going on, but the oddity was that it was only for the crown princess, no one else.

What should have affected Destiny didn't. She mourned the loss of her family members and she moved on, but when confronted that she should go back soon and stand for her country, she declined. She explained she was quite happy where she was: She had an ambassador's title where she lived now, she had a father who cared, and she and the prince were beginning to fall for each other. She would marry him and reclaim a royalty's title, and from there she would live happily ever after. Besides, her father was much too strong to take on herself...it had been rumored that he'd even challenged and overtook the High Goddess to claim her power as his own. While Seth disapproved of the princess's outlook on life, he admitted there was nothing he could say or do to change her mind, and he never brought up the prospect again.

However, Dark did. They often bickered over her reclaiming her rightful place in Norethia, or at least fighting to make a difference. He could not stand for her just letting her home-country wasting away at the hands of a mad man, and he often threatened to fight himself if she wouldn't, knowing he wouldn't come back. One day, after nearly seven hundred years of standing idle, his threats became reality. When Destiny woke to find Dark missing, she stole one of the horses and went after him to try to convince him to come back home. She was two hours behind, though, and she didn't catch up to him until he had already confronted the dark Lord, and when she made it into the throne room, he'd already been cast aside- Zeir had the upper hand too easily and had cut him clean in half.

The princess immediately felt sick, and that sickness welled up inside of her into some twisted mixture of rage and a strange sort of hunger or thirst. The God's Gift she wore at her bosom glowed brightly, burned deep into her soul, and she poured every emotion she ever felt for anyone into her blade. The fight did not last long until she made a lucky, adrenaline-brimmed fatal blow. The sword never meant for war shed blood for the first time.

She collected the pieces of her lover and returned solemnly to Severia, relinquishing the prince's body shamefully to the Chancellor. He, however, didn't seem as saddened as she was, and then explained that all Severians become stars when they die, reincarnating at some point in time to live another life. Dark's case was even more peculiar; he was merely a drone forged from magic and earth to become a bodyguard for the young chancellor. This embodiment, however, protected Seth in ways that far surpassed the will and mind of a drone, showing signs of his own soul. Seth had him removed from the bodyguard program and began teaching him how to live in Severian society. From there, he was adopted as his son. There was no doubt that he would one day return- any being that could learn to love surly had its own soul to reincarnate.

Destiny was offered a permanent home in the palace, but she declined. She'd also declined the throne, claiming that she wasn't fit to take it just yet. Until the day she felt she was fit to rule, she would become a wanderer, training her mind and body as she sought out people to help.

She disappeared that day, and most people say she killed herself in grief, or that perhaps the battle with Zeir left her to die herself. Some people have had their hearts touched, though, and somewhere, Destiny herself has her heart touched. Each new day, she learns just a little more. Each new day, she comes closer to being able to handle an entire race of people.

One day.

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Even though I'm late and can't enter the contest, which I'm pretty upset with myself over, I still finished up the background. Aren't I noble. Anyway, it's finished. Huzzah.

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