Characters:Vivienne/backstory

Background

Vivienne was born in a great world-city composed of spires of stone and bone. The rain there fell upwards from ground to sky; even as an adult, it is a secret source of entertainment to her that there are so many worlds where it does the reverse.

Her childhood was tightly regimented: breakfast at dawn, then lessons. Lunch at noon, then exercise and more lessons. Dinner at dusk, and then to bed. Free time only became available if one excelled at one's studies. It was a 'sound body, sound mind' sort of society, where those who didn't keep up the high-level exercises (mental and physical) were slowly pushed to the edges of society. Vivienne was bright, and if not the most interested in physical pursuits, she was at least good enough to hold her own. One of her dearest friends, Katriona, was badly scarred as a pre-teen, and could no longer keep up the physical side of things, though she retained her clever mind; it was through her that Vivienne became interested in the poor and the desperate - and in thievery.

She's never become one of the great thieves - particularly once she mastered the ability to summon - but she'll turn her hand to the work now and then. She did more of it when she was a teenager, but she found she was much better at organizing groups for larger work than carrying out smaller jobs - and she enjoyed it, too. She began picking out the intelligent, nimble youths that just hadn't made the grade in greater society and directing them to other thieves for training. By the time she was brought out of her home and into Amber, she had quite a pack of thieves looking to her for direction: teenagers, young adults near to her age and Katriona's, and even older and wiser adults who recognised a talent for organization when they saw it.

In Amber, she quickly grew bored and impatient with Court. While there were certainly socerously-minded individuals, there just wasn't the general level of thought she was accustomed to - particularly among the upper eschelon, who had always been the most intelligent at home. She furthered her studies of art and magic, particularly once she had taken the Pattern, but when she was in Amber and at loose ends, she gravitated towards the lower city, observing the lay of the land. It didn't take her long to find herself a few thieves disgruntled with the local guild.

Even better, she quickly discovered that there were some very clever children in the local orphanage - and that she could set up a boarding school for those children under the guise of 'charity,' hiring the thieves she'd found as teachers (or training them up as teachers if she had to), and she had her own little guild. This didn't do anything good to her relations with the reigning guild, who hadn't been thrilled with her when she befriended her newly-minted teachers and started sending them out on jobs. There have been terse arguments, occasional threats, and at least one instance of a building mysteriously burning down while leaving its neighbors mostly untouched - which Vivienne might know something about, although she hasn't bothered sharing what she knows with anyone but her cat - but thus far, the two guilds have managed not to bring down too much attention to themselves.

The school is called "Vivienne's Academy for Higher Learning" - or just "the Academy". The cirriculum looks innocuous enough: craftsmanship, reading and writing, mathematics, physical pursuits like sword-work and riding. It's just that the real classes happen after the students have been there for a year or two, and usually after dark - or on market day, or during a parade... The school is supported by donations, which Vivienne keeps strictly anonymous. After all, it would hardly do to let the general public know that a lot of those "donations" were made when the donatee wasn't present.

Vivienne only sometimes teaches classes, though she's been known to tutor a student or two if she happens to spot one that she thinks might be beyond the regular teachers - especially the highly intelligent ones that might be capable of learning a bit of magic. She visits the orphange weekly, looking for prospective students, and has grudgingly resumed regular Court attendance, if only so she can hear when nobles are going to be out. She sets aside time each day to exercise her magical abilities, although she tends to neglect the physical exercises of her youth in favor of the odd night out with her guild.

Character and Viewpoints

I think what her goals actually are and what she'd say they are are two different things. Her stated goals would be to have the best thieves' guild she can nad to keep it secret while furthering her magical abilities and skills - but I think subconsciously, she's really trying to recreate the society of her youth and make it *better*, so that people like her friend won't slip through the cracks.

I'm not sure how well she would get along with most of her kin. I think she's going to rub some the wrong way. Her personality seems to have ended up somewhere between "cat" and "the girl who used to be looked down on by all the pretty people in school but is now lording her greater intellect over the people who looked down on her." I don't believe she's entirely arrogant, but she's possibly over-proud of her intellect and mental abilities.

She seems to be a shade of grey, honestly - most of my characters are. I'm not sure she especially enjoys children, but I think she enjoys seeing them learn and grow, and she'll do the best she can for them. At least as long as they don't do something that causes her to need to eject them from the program - not entirely certain that I know what those criteria are yet, aside from the obvious 'squealing about certain nighttime activities'. I can see where the orphanages might not be entirely happy to see her, because she is likely to be a bit abrupt and extremely picky.