The Changeling
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Name: Cassia Wolfshadow
Nickname: Cassia of House Blackridge
Age: 16
Birthday: September 2
Bio:
From a young age, Cassia had always known she didn’t belong. Not exactly, although it wasn’t due to anything she received from her family. Contrary to her deep-down feelings, she had grown up knowing that her parents had died when she was a baby and a friend had brought her to the house of her uncle, who had taken her in without question. She had provided Tobias with a sibling, anyway, and the young girl had quickly established a place in the Wolfshadow household. Even more so when she’d grown old enough to assist her father with his work for the royal family of Westerloch. Magic was in her blood, people said. It was never questioned given the bloodline attributed to her. Wolfshadows had always been known to have magic, and she was the daughter of Elric’s sister…She rather became a shadow of her father, going up to the castle nearly every time he was summoned even as she’d regularly slipped away to play with the children of the castle. Nobody questioned her friendship with the royal children, although there had been wonderings about her perceived lack of closeness to Tobias as her brother, and soon enough the people of Westerloch had just accepted her as sort of an honorary Blackridge. She had been seen so often with the three siblings, either together or separately. While she was the same age as Jaime, the youngest, she spent the most time with his older brother or his sister, depending on the occasion. Her happiest times were when she got to visit the Blackridge dragons, even as Brandon had to be vigilant that Cassia’s kitten didn’t follow.
She had an affinity for creatures, especially Cinder who had become her shadow as much as Cassia was her father’s although she managed to befriend nearly every animal she met. Alysanne regularly teased her that it meant she was royal, but Cassia never took it to heart. Not really. Not when she was with the others, anyhow, as over the years she had begun nursing her own little secret and she only let herself think about it when she was alone. Namely, she had found herself falling for the eldest Blackridge, yet she knew it was hopeless. Even given the people of Westerloch’s belief that she was basically a Blackridge already. She knew she wasn’t, and she knew the rulers would never allow their heir to marry the head magician’s daughter. She kept it all to herself, along with the little voice inside her that kept insisting something else was missing as well, and it started to develop into quiet moments. Quiet moments that she fully believed no one else had noticed.
However, her introspectiveness had been noticed, possibly due to her confidence in Cinder and Wylla, her father’s direwolf. In any case, upon her fifteenth birthday, she received a rather unusual gift. A young phoenix, given to her by her father although he couldn’t explain his reasoning afterwards, aside from stating a hope that the bird would raise her spirits. Unbeknownst to any hidden meanings, Cassia and Gaia developed a bond rivaling that between her and Cinder although she listened to her mother’s advice and left the bird at home during her trips to and from the castle grounds. It avoided any questioning that Elric would get, anyhow.
Besides, rumors would spread again only a year later, when Cassia was given an even more surprising birthday gift: a yearling dragon for which she and Brandon had been present for his hatching. While she still harbored the feeling that nothing could happen with the heir, the gift had only made her love for him stronger. Unaware of the darker story behind her very existence that would shortly be revealed.
True Bio:
It was a rainy night in September when Queen Aurélie of Cadhath took to her bed feeling ill, about to have the child she and the King so desired. However, what should have been a joyful occasion quickly became otherwise, as after the birth one of the healers had come to the royal bedchamber with bad news. While Princess Augusta was healthy and safe, her sister, named Cassiopeia Aryana Bertram before she had even been taken to be checked over by the healers, hadn’t survived. Or so that was what the royal family had been told…The truth was that there had been machinations going on behind their notice for a while. Nearly the entire length of the royal pregnancy and spearheaded by the king’s adviser himself. Lord Malcolm Darkhead wasn’t what he seemed, even as his reasons were secret to everyone but himself. He had taken the infant Cassiopeia in the night, passing her to one of his loyal retainers who happened to be headed across the sea to the land of Westerloch, with instructions to install her in the household of Elric Wolfshadow. Even the man entrusted to the infant princess’s care was unaware of the lengths Lord Darkhead had gone to develop the story: he had ordered Elric’s sister and her husband, living peacefully in Cadhath, killed in a way that no one would suspect foul play just to give the story credence.
In any case, the infant princess arrived at her destination, given the name Cassia during the sea passage by the man entrusted to her care through possible designs of his own as it was difficult to truly desire hardship on the princess. He may very well have thought the name would allow for the ruse to be discovered sooner rather than later, yet his plans failed. Lord Darkhead had gone even further and ensured that there was no way the magician for the rulers of Westerloch would question the story he was given, nor would Elric’s family.
What he hadn’t counted on was Cassia’s ability to endear herself to everyone in Dragonmoor, especially the Blackridge family themselves. Nor had he counted on the magic he’d used on the Wolfshadow family to eventually fail, fifteen years after it had all been put in place although by then even Elric himself questioned what was influencing him to want Cassia to have the phoenix, or more accurately what had failed influencing him. What Lord Malcolm Darkhead hadn’t counted on was his plans failing.
Family:
Elric Wolfshadow, father/head magician for House Blackridge: Jeremy Irons
Serena Wolfshadow, mother: Thandie Newton
Tobias Wolfshadow, older brother, 20: Noah Luis Brown
Wylla, Elric’s direwolf
Gaia, her pet phoenix
Cinder, her snow Bengal cat
Victarion, her dragonTrue Family:
King Tristan Pace Bertram, father: Rufus Sewell
Queen Aurélie Clover Bertram, mother: Catherine McCormack
Princess Augusta Lucia Bertram, fraternal twin sister: Meghan RocheOther Important People:
Lord Corwyn and Lady Lyanna Blackridge: Liam Cunningham and Carice van Houten
Brandon Blackridge, 20: Richard Madden
Alysanne Blackridge, 18: Ebba Zingmark
Jaime Blackridge, 16: Garrett HedlundLord Malcolm Darkhead, adviser to King Tristan, Cassia’s kidnapper: Jonathan Rhys Meyers
Personality:
Curious, intelligent, gentle, adventurous, occasionally a bit self-conscious but also witty on other occasions, has melancholic moments sometimes better described as highly introspective, unsure of her own place in the world, kind, trusting, honorable
Likes:
Pretty dresses, creatures, spending time with the Blackridge children, watching her father perform magic, flowers, riding dragons with Brandon, strawberries, stories
Dislikes:
Jaime when he’s being particularly disagreeable, feeling like she’s missing something, rumors, the sight of blood, egotism, crowds, court intrigue, animal cruelty
Model: Helena McKelvie
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