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Queen Vashti of House Beaumayn, the Dark Star of the Burning Sun, is the Seelie Sidhe monarch of our Kingdom.
Born in Odessa, TX, as the daughter of an Iranian royal family in exile, Vashti was raised under a bevy of constantly watchful eyes: first, her own family, who wanted to ensure that her education, deportment, and public image never betrayed a moment of imperfection; and second, the US Government, who wanted to ensure that no rebellion was secretly building back in the old country behind its erstwhile princess.
While Vashti could have grown up rather cynical and untrusting, her Sidhe mother pushed her in a different direction. She was instead taught that an empty title was meaningless with no lands to hold and no people to protect. Royalty existed to connect the people to the land. A princess should be the heart and soul of those she rules, and her power came from those same people.
Underlying her mortal education was a sixth sense that extended beyond the mundane. A powerful scion of House Beaumayne, it was no surprise that over time, her dreams became waking visions, and glimpses of future events would glimmer among the clouds of the unknown. It was Vashti who first saw the fall of High King David, and though she didn’t understand the persistent nightmares of a melting crown, her elders did. Combined with her mother’s visions of the fall of House Gwydion, House Beaumayn was wholly prepared to take up the fallen crown when the entire Gwydion line in Burning Sun fell alongside the High King in the Battle of Samhain in 2004.
Vashti’s Chrysalis happened on her 16th birthday, on the Vernal Equinox of 2004. It is rumored that the explosion of Glamour that sprang forth from her Chrysalis drew the attention of every fomorian and chimerical creature for a hundred miles around. Her fae mien unveiled a glowing Beaumayn Sidhe with obsidian hair, amethyst eyes, and a glowing crown. She was the first Beaumayn in two generations to show a crown when parting the Mists, and so when House Gwydion fell as foretold, Vashti, young as she was, was the one placed on the newly empty throne.
For the first years of her reign, Vashti painstakingly consolidated her power and cultivated the methods by which she would rule. Those with eyes to see noticed early on that the girl queen was surrounded by a higher than usual number of viziers, advisors, and counselors, many of whom saw each other as competitors for the drips and drabs of power that come from association with a House monarch. Over time, as those competing solely for power had a tendency to murder each other, the composition of Vashti’s council shifted more towards those who genuinely cared about the good of the kingdom and the people in it.
Over the ensuing 15 years, Vashti’s court became populated with nobles who embodied the values of noblesse oblige, as well as outstanding commoners who had shown their worth in obvious ways. Particularly brave, wise, cunning, or caring individuals found themselves singled out and rewarded by tokens of esteem from the queen. Vashti appeared to be very careful to have a broad mix of courts, kithain, and commoners in her chosen circles. Those closest to her referred to her as “Shahbanu,” the Persian word for Queen, but the term clearly carries a sense of affection, belonging, and pride.
