IROTH HANE, nee ROUSEL
'iroth' - a flower name.  It's the Nabierre name for Cyclamen, which are considered royal flowers; they appear on the coat of arms of one of the planet's royal families.
'rousel' - 'of the palace', as with her given name, this is a marker of nobility.

APPEARANCE:
 AGE: 27
 HEIGHT: 5'10"
 HAIR: White-blonde, frizzy
 EYES: Pale gray-blue

Iroth is tall and thin, with very little by way of figure and quite an ordinary sort of face - she is not beautiful, but she carries herself as if she is, and knows how to flatter herself with clothing and makeup so that she seems far more attractive that she would if all else were equal.  She has very fair skin and slightly tilted eyes that might make her look Asian if she weren't so extremely fair.  She keeps her hair chin-length because it is so extremely frizzy that if she allows it to get long, it mats something awful.  She dresses elegantly, prefering to look both sexy and unobtainable.


HOME PLANET: Nabierre

Nabierre is a small planet on the outer edge of it's system's habitable zone, and thus has thin air and a cold climate, the latter having been made considerably worse by a disaster that occured almost four hundred years earlier.  Prior to that time, a well-developed and luxury-loving feudal society flourished on the planet.  Then a meteor strike altered the climate, plunging the already chilly planet into an ice age.  The rainforests died off to be replaced by tundra, and the people were forced to migrate south.  A grand-scale reshuffling of social and economic order followed, along with a period of intense technological development, turning a culture reminiscent of pre-revolutionary France into a constitutional monarchy, developed enough to have a place in the Alliance... or so it appears on the face of things.  In practice, the elected officials understand that they are paid from the royal coffers for doing what the kings want them to do.  With most of its land unsuited for farming, Nabierre's survival has become dependant on a manufacturing economy; the planet imports raw materials and then exports the goods.  Because of the weak sun on their planet, the Nabierre are extremely fair - white skin, nearly white hair, and pale blue or gray eyes.  They have somewhat better hearing than most subtypes of human beings; their ears have limited mobility, and rather than being rounded, come to a series of points down the back edge.


BIOGRAPHY:

Iroth's father is descended from the younger brother of a Nabierre king (there are about fifty independant republics on the planet, making it one of only very few worlds in the alliance that do not look to a single world government), and Iroth herself is the third of five children (five is a lucky number on Nabierre, and most families have five children) and the only girl.  Her formal title would perhaps be best translated as Grand Duchess.  Like her brothers, she was brought up by governesses and tutors, her parents a pair of distant and constantly busy figures, and recieved a thorough and excellent education in the subjects suitable for a princess: history, languages, political sciences and the arts - music is a particular passion of hers.

Her country's recent history has been tumultuous - twelve years ago, a particularly ornery Prime Minister was elected, and he attempted to assert the rights of the parliament to overrule the monarch.  The King was eventually obliged to have him assassinated, and a lot of other people threatened, in order to regain control over his kingdom.  The entire affair made a political and financial mess and convinced Iroth that she had better things to do than be a princess.  Rather than simply marry well and settle down into a life of luxury, she earned a law degree and attempted to get a job... which was easier said than done; prospective employers were rarely interested.  Who ever heard of an attractive princess being a lawyer?  She was eventually obliged to leave her home planet to find somebody who would take her seriously.

She eventually did find work, and it was a legal case that brought her and Torquel Hane to each other's attention.  He was impressed by her intelligence and eventually first hired and then married her.  She figured out quite quickly that she was working for criminals, but she rather enjoyed both the thrill of doing something illegal without getting caught and the opportunities to be devious.


PERSONALITY:

Iroth is very proud of herself and what she is capable of, and will not stand to hear herself (or anybody else who has earned her respect - something that is sometimes difficult) insulted.  Having grown up in the backstabbing world of politics and worked in the equally unpleasant legal arena, she can when she wishes be very calculating and manipulative, and having been rather spoiled when she was young, she also tends to be motivated primarily by self-interest.  Most people find her vey difficult to get along with, as she often has little tact.  Even those who dislike her, however, tend to respect her or even fear her her a little; if nothing else, she is a formidable personality, and very good at accomplishing what she sets out to do