Isindra Solstare
"She’s not hiding behind a stone wall. She lives inside a glacier, and I don’t expect anybody will ever find a way to the center.”
Name: Lady Isindra Solstare
Known Aliases: Former Minister of Ascalon Settlement, Countess Barradin, Isindra Locke, The Crown, The Curator
Age: Appears to be 25
Gender: Female
Race, Nationality: Human, Ascalonian
Profession: Scholar; Collector, Dealer, and Appraiser of Art and Antiquities.
Language(s): Common, Ascalonian, Old Ascalonian, New Krytan, Old Krytan, Old Canthan, Elonian
Known Residences:
The Barradin Estate (Fields of Ruin)
The Solstare Estate (Southern Queensdale)
Private Townhouses: Ebonhawke, Divinity’s Reach
Isindra stands at a slightly-shorter-than-average height, her figure slender. Light blue eyes are ever watchful and calculating, a wry smile dancing more often than not upon tinted lips. Blond silken strands spill from loose braids to fall across her shoulder, framing delicate features upon an almond porcelain complexion. She moves with a poised grace and speaks with a pointed eloquence that alludes to years of charm school and an undoubtedly high-priced education. Yet beneath the impeccable visage of noble blood lies a subtle hint of danger and deviance.An intricate pendant in gold and diamond design adorns her neck, a sapphire-hued gem shining from the center. Fingers glitter and sparkle, long slender digits bejeweled by rings - most noticeable is a ring worn on her left index finger, a gold and diamond band claiming a sapphire that echoes her necklace.
Her Personality
Isindra is a woman of many faces, her personality often a changeable mask suited to each occasion and each companion. By default, her demeanor is wry and charismatic, both amused and amusing. In reality, however, she is a careful construct of defenses - a trapped maze of illusion full of false starts and dead ends designed to shield an all-too-vulnerable core.Highly educated with ties to the Priory, Isindra claims a passion for antiquities. While initially eluding her brother's attempts to marry her off, she established a career as a dealer, appraiser, and collector of art and relics. She has provided Noble Houses with many a rare painting, and many a highly-sought trinket. Of course, she politely declines to answer any inquiry regarding her methods.For several years, Isindra has served within the ranks of the Durmand Priory as a Magister - her duties often taking her away on extended absences to lead expeditions.While she keeps her views closely guarded, Isindra has dedicated her life to reclaiming the treasures of her people - treasures destroyed and buried by the Charr invasion. As such, she harbors a deep resentment for the barbaric race, and an indignant sense that a land and heritage rightfully hers has simply been handed over by a weak and cowardly Queen. When the Catgut Quarterly landed in her hands nearly a decade ago, she was only a few aptly-timed phrases away from claiming the title of Separatist.A woman of such fortune as hers should have many reasons for which to thank the Gods, yet Isindra shows little regard for the Six. She returns their silence with a silence of her own - and that suits her just fine. She’s not one to create jagged ripples across the surface of a conversation, however. In many social settings, she will simply smile and pay lip service to those who are religiously-inclined.
Virtues & Vices
Virtues:
Beauty
Resilience & Independence
Philomathy & ConfidenceVices:
Cupidity
Selfishness & Pride
Manipulation & Callousness
"Gold is tested by fire, man by gold."
Her First Love
And they lived happily ever after. The End.Their story was never destined to be a fairy tale, no matter how closely it might have resembled one at times. But what many did not know, nor understand, was that there were two tales to the Jester and the Noble...The first is bittersweet, an epic to be remembered upon the tongues of women and the hearts of bards. They met. They loved. And in loving, she sacrificed the very crown upon her temple. But her happiness was discovered and she was stolen by the villain - for there is always a villain - and locked away in a towered trap intended to snare a white knight that never came. A white knight who had not the faith enough to believe she had not left him. A tragedy...beautiful, painful, and sweet.And that is where the story should have ended, that is where the quill-laced hands of fate should have ceased to burn the pages with the lines, for the second book written is far less satisfying to the reader.She bought her own freedom, signed a dotted line that would prove inevitably to be the final straw. She had been replaced. Not by one, but by many. And though he tried in careful steps to retrace the damage done, a broken heart is never mended exactly as it was. The mistakes were many and made by both - for there was no villain - each clinging desperately to the threads of something once treasured and priceless. Embittered, she shared herself as he did, dancing from one bed to the next as the threads became increasingly tangled, increasingly frayed. When once more she was asked to repeat her sacrifice, she had not the faith to do so.And in the end there was no dramatic farewell, no final scene, no endless weeping...in the end, they simply existed separately. Both changed, and perhaps not for the better. But not every story ends well if the pages continue for long enough.This tale, I think, is best left without the details, without blame. Left as a tragedy...beautiful, painful, and sweet.They met. They loved. They lost.The End.
Her Last Love
“Trying to escape me so soon, love?”Her lips curved in a playful smile with her tease of a greeting as Isindra stepped through the trees into the forest clearing. The roguish man, bent over the brush edging the opposite side of the sunlit grove, laughed as he straightened and turned to watch his wife approach.A smirk playing across his own features, Flint lifted the bundle of wildflowers clutched in his hand as he closed the distance, “Well, I was going to use these to seduce a local barmaid, but since you’re here, I suppose they will have to be for you.”He caught her in his arms, her own soft bubble of laughter at his words drowning against his lips. It was always easy, always perfect. It had been several months since they had eloped and vanished from the trappings of their old life...from the titles, the expectations, the friendships and betrayals; from the Cause itself. He had never been happier, and her smile had never been so bright.“Is this real?” was murmured against his cheek before she drew back with a quiet, contented sigh. She drew her fingers through his hair, splaying digits across the back of his neck in a light caress.He smiled wryly, “I’ve said before, Mrs. Locke...if this is a dream, gods help the man that tries to wake me.”She awoke, hours later, as the fading sunlight bathed the clearing in a golden hue. There were leaves in her hair, blond strands falling disheveled across the muscular arm that curved beneath her head. She rolled within the protective grasp of the man beside her, leaning to peck a kiss to the tip of his nose. A grin tugged at her lips as the sleeping man stirred with the gesture, and for a moment, the noblewoman simply lay still and watched the shadows play across the curve of his jaw.“I love you,” he whispered in the silence, his eyes still closed. Isindra smiled; she knew every cadence of his tone, every rise and fall of breath, every gruff edge, every gentle touch. It had taken more than a few heartbreaks, more than a few engagements, and more than one marriage, but every dark moment had been worth it the moment that Flint Locke had walked into her life.“I love you more.”The man scoffed, cracking one eye open to capture her beneath a challenging gaze that was returned with an impish grin of her own, “We should head back. I left Chen pouring over one of my old books, but he is bound to start worrying soon.”“He worries too much,” Flint replied, rolling to pin the woman with a dangerous smile, “I’m not done with you yet...”The crack of a nearby twig turned both their heads, the moment interrupted as her husband withdrew to snatch his dagger from the grass. They had never stopped looking over their shoulders, not really. Not even here.They dressed hastily, and Isindra was still fiddling with corset strings as her husband stalked to the edge of the clearing. Something moved through the bushes in a swift rustle of leaves, and with his blade in hand and his wife at his heels, Flint gave chase.The treeline appeared without warning, the forest receding in sudden boundary to tumble their steps out into the open. The grassy slope of a hill rose ahead, and they both lost a breath, their pursued prey forgotten, as their eyes crawled to the apex.“By Lyssa! Flint...is that…?”“It’s the mirror.” His playful charm and bold recklessness dissipated instantly beneath a grave look of genuine concern. “Isi, we should find Chen.”But the Priory scholar turned antiquities dealer wasn’t listening, and she had already slipped past him to climb the hill.“Isindra!”“I just want to take a closer look. I won’t touch anything!”He had told the story, all those months ago, about the magical mirror he had once discovered. And about the shadowed creatures that had crawled across its reflection. She should have turned back, but she didn’t. She was spellbound by curiosity, every step luring her closer to the ancient secrets that might lie within the mysterious relic.As she approached the mirror, blue eyes searched the reflection but she saw nothing of shadowed creatures...she only saw herself, leaves in her hair and her dress just a touch askew. A step closer. Another. Then another. She hadn’t meant to lie, but the energy that pulsed from the aged wood and shining glass was irresistible to the mesmer, and a hand rose to stretch slender fingertips towards her reflection.“Isindra, no!”She felt the shove against her shoulder, hard enough to send her tumbling across the grass. She hit the ground with a thud, and the breath left her in a stunned ‘oof’ before she sat up to cast an incredulous glare towards her husband.Yet the anger froze on her features as she saw Flint. It was not the long tendrils of black ink that had snaked from the mirror to ensnare him that caused terror to lace like ice through her veins, however. It was not the struggle against its grip that he was swiftly losing as he was pulled inch by inch towards the shimmering surface. It was the goodbye in his eyes as he sought her gaze, the resigned smile of a martyr as the noose tightened around his neck.“I love you,” he said.And then he was gone.Isindra didn’t hesitate for a moment as she scrambled to her feet to follow him, wherever he may have gone. But her hands hit glass, and nothing more. Her scream echoed across the treetops, and she beat that unbreaking surface until her hands were raw and knuckles bleeding.Chen eventually found her, a cloudless sky stretched in endless darkness above the hilltop. Huddled at the base of the mirror, she still pawed at the glass, rage having long fallen to helpless pleading to an indifferent object. He knew without needing to ask.“Isindra, we must go.”“No! No, I won’t leave him!”Grief had rendered her void of anything but an endless stream of tears. She struggled against the tengu as he carried her away from that hilltop. From that mirror. From everything she cared about.
Timeline: Her Story Thus Far
Isindra Solstare excelled at rewriting her past in the eyes of the public, or perhaps she simply excelled at reshaping everyone's view of the truth. She bathed in scandal, but ask any society snoop about the woman and you would receive only splinters of an entire story. Sin Harlow broke her heart, they'll say, but they won't say that he tricked her into an engagement, and she killed the man's cousin. Nor do they have any idea that she eloped a year and a half earlier with a gunslinger, and it was he who irrevocably broke her heart. They might mention that she was once married to a Count...but they won't tell you that she was engaged to his brother first nor that she single handedly destroyed their family. They don't know that she single handedly destroyed her own either. Blood stains every fingertip on the pretty woman's hands, but all that matters is what they see...
1325 AND BEFOREpretty birds in spoiled cages
Lord Solstare is dead, in no small part due to threads pulled by the daughter to whom he showed little beyond sharp words and cruel hands. As House Solstare falls to her eldest brother, Errik, Isindra Solstare ventures from the walls of the Priory to carve an independent path for herself. Willfully estranged from her family and living in a small house in the Salma district, the Priory historian is known most for her career as a dealer of art and antiquities - though she fosters a dark secret obsession with soul stones and their mesmeric applications. Petulant, cynical, and still fettered by the naivety of youth, Isindra dances at the edges of noble society…yet unsure of her place in the world.1326 - S E A S O N of the Z E P H Y Rfor you, everything
Walking through Rurikton one evening, Isindra catches the eye of a street musician by the name of Jack Kinkaid. He reads her palm that night and warns her that she will soon have to choose between the two worlds she walks. They part ways with his charming smile and an amused roll of her eyes, but a series of chance encounters soon find the pair entangled.1326 - S E A S O N of the P H O E N I Xthe dangers of hope
Desperately in love with Jack, who is now posing as her personal guard, Isindra drags them both into the separatist world when a copy of the Catgut lands in her hands. Soon forced to choose between her nobility and her heart, she resolves to abandon House Solstare for the man she loves. However, her brother, Errik, refuses to allow it and has his sister forcibly detained at the family estate. Though Isindra waits for Jack to come, the bard believes she has left him willingly. Several months pass…until Isindra is finally released when she signs a contract agreeing to marry to her station within a year.1326 - S E A S O N of the S C I O Nfaithless creatures
Isindra returns to society to find that Jack has changed. Running a brothel in Lion’s Arch, the bard has become a leader within the Hangmen and boasts a rather disreputable reputation. The pair attempt to reconcile, though the rules are different now - and it proves their downfall. His many mistresses soon harden the woman, and not one to be outdone, her monogamous preferences begin a downward slide.his guinevere
When an operation to steal an Ascalonian artifact goes awry and Isindra is implicated, she places the blame on Jack. While he works to protect her reputation, a Hangmen Errant by the name of Markus Sharps is assigned as the noblewoman’s bodyguard. Markus would soon become her best friend, though to his eternal torture, she would always remain just out of reach of something more.a different choice
With Errik breathing down her neck to fulfill her contract, Isindra arranges a marriage of convenience with an old friend, Lazarus. Jack, disturbed by this turn of events, proposes to her - but this time, she chooses her nobility. When Lazarus confesses a love for her shortly afterwards, however, she promptly ends their engagement to marry his brother, Sirus Barradin. Her actions cause a rift between the two brothers that escalates to a confrontation that leaves Isindra badly wounded and her new husband cursed. Sirus has no choice but to leave his new bride in order to search for a cure.1326 - S E A S O N of the C O L O S S U Smend my broken pieces
Errik dies to an unfortunate accident, and none but Isindra and the new heir know the truth of Isindra’s fraticide as Lysander Solstare rises to Lord of the House to grant the remaining siblings financial freedom. Believing Sirus is dead, Isindra meets a gunslinger in the ranks of the Hangmen who calls himself Flint Locke. Hired by Isindra’s rival, Liliana Marat, to spy on her, Flint charms his way into the noblewoman’s bed…and, surprising them both, her heart. Theirs is a whirlwind romance, swiftly escalating to an elopement. As the year draws to a close and the Hangmen is thrown into a storm of inner chaos, Isindra abandons everything and disappears from society to become Mrs. Locke.1327 - S E A S O N of the S C I O Nthere is nothing left but the cause
Months have passed since she left with Flint, and she returns to society once more Lady Isindra Solstare. Distant and emotionless, she refuses to discuss her latest husband or the fate of their relationship. Returning to her separatist roots, she embraces the Cause with a renewed fervor. Ambitious and determined, her sights soon settle on the Krytan Ministry and the Ascalon Settlement seat recently vacated by her cousin, Baroness Charlotte Marlow.1327 - S E A S O N of the C O L O S S U Sfor Ascalon
The newest Minister of Ascalon Settlement, Isindra has thrown herself fully into the goal of uniting the Ascalonian diaspora and leading them home to reclaim their lost lands from the clawed clutches of the Charr. Walking a dangerous line in the public eye, she lives each day merely one mistake away from the Gallows.fickle hearts
Seeking an alliance with Ebonhawke in her quest for unity, Isindra approaches Captain Sin Harlow of the Ebon Vanguard. Harmless flirtation soon becomes the Captain’s obsession, and when Isindra’s secret request to the Hangmen to have Ambassador Allain Firaen removed from the equation results in the death of Sin’s cousin, Samantha, emotions quickly escalate. The Captain soon informs the Vanguard that he and the Minister are engaged - when Isindra finds out, she has little choice but to accept the engagement or risk losing the support she’s gained. Yet the Captain’s heart proves fickle, and after two months, their entanglement ends as swiftly as it began when his infidelity is discovered. Ties with the First Regiment are soon severed, and Isindra is left to find another path to unity.remember me
A ghost from the past returns bearing the face of Jack Kinkaid, yet void of his memories. A man now broken and rebuilt by the torture and mental conditioning of an extremist separatist cell, Jack leads the cutthroat and vengeful Scarecrows. With Jack now serving as the Deputy of the Ascalon Settlement Militia, the two are once more intertwined and on a dangerous path as she seeks to bring back the man she once loved from the shadows of repressed memory.1328 - S E A S O N of the Z E P H Y Rtangled threads
A business arrangement with Captain Liam Gale takes on a life of its own as an affair gives birth to an unlikely friendship between the princess and the peacock. With Alurien Black, a Shining Blade Captain, hot on the separatist's heels and finding herself increasingly drained by the dangerous scrunity of public office, Isindra resigns as the Minister of Ascalon Settlement.dove among crows
After years spent climbing the ranks of the Hangmen, the organization erupts from within and burns to the ground. Isindra, newly named to the Hanged Court, finds her goals shattered mere moments after the crown has touched her temple. She tries for a time to join Jack and his Scarecrows, but the man she loved is still gone and his new family has no love for nobles. Finding herself covered in ashes and surrounded by violent, unruly, and bloodthirsty strangers, the dove among crows takes flight and disappears once again.1335 - S E A S O N of the Z E P H Y Rall that glitters
Seven years have passed since the noble woman was last seen in Tyria, yet recently Isindra has been spotted once more gracing the streets of Ebonhawke and Divinity’s Reach. She appears ageless to those who once knew her, the youthfulness of her features untouched by the ravages of time. Rumored to have returned to restore the Barradin Estate in the Fields of Ruin, Isindra has reappeared with her fortunes far greater than she left, her gold coffers apparently overflowing as she seems to be hiring herself a veritable army of servants and mercenaries.
» My Server is NA Tarnished Coast «» My in-game handle is: Stormangel.9045 «» My Discord handle is: EmProphetic#2528 «» Despite being on a NA server, I live in the UK «» Available nights and weekends GMT «» Will RP in-game, Discord, or Google Docs «» Prefer one on one scenes or small groups «» Open to dark/mature themes. Have a conversation with me if you have an idea «» IC/OOC lines are important and non-negotiable «» NO MINORS. 18+ Only. 25+ Preferred «While this profile is based on the GW2 character, Isindra also has incarnations
in the universes of World of Warcraft, Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, and Elder Scrolls Online.