Basic Statistics
Physical Traits
Hair: Blonde; reaches slightly past her shoulders and is worn pulled back in the fashions of the day
Eyes: Blue-grey
Complexion: Slightly pale; burns easily
Height: 5’ 2”
Build: Average; on the slimmer side
Distinguishing Features: One hole in each ear
Mental Statistics
Strengths: Charlotte is organized to a fault; she does work quickly and efficiently. She has a firm reign over her feelings and does not allow herself to become all emotional in public. She is good with words. She is intelligent and seeks to educate herself in all the new technology that comes out. She is decisive and quick-thinking. Moderately strong and quite fit.
Weaknesses: Is it because she has such control of her emotions that it is sometimes hard (to a casual observer) to distinguish what she is feeling. She coops up her emotions and only releases them around people she is very close to (which is few), or in the privacy of her room. Stubborn, dislikes accepting help, though she is all right with occasional guidance.
Fears: Charlotte fears that somehow her power will be taken away from her, that she will be killed by her people, that she will lose the war against Bacatti. She fears death, and fears dying without securing her empire.
Favorites:
Food: Well-done steak
Color: Blue
Music: Classical, some opera
In General: Autumn, the Fieroes, a good book, being in power, a glass of wine with dinner, intelligence
Least Favorites:
Food: Ham
Color: Green
Music: Most modern songs
In General: Parades, interacting with the people, the war, Bacatti’s government, winter, hard liquor, stupidity, inefficiency and disorganization
Hobbies: Reading, entertaining guests, attending the opera
Talents: Ruling without magic, planning military strategies, public speaking
Personality: Charlotte, to family and friends, is seen as a friendly, kind woman with a good sense of humor. However, she rules with an iron fist; she is harsh and controlling and strives for improvement. She is very eloquent and good with words, though she does not like talking too much. It takes her a while to trust anyone. She prefers to lead, not follow, in everything, be it marriage or politics.
Family Statistics
Mother: Elisabeth Rozabela Altebrücke (née Wolff): Born September 10, 1941 in Juvelstadt, Juvelprovinz, Donumia; died December 5, 1991. Elisabeth was extremely devoted to her husband and often appeared beside him at public events. She was close with her children when they were young, but as they grew older, she grew more distant with them.
Father: Johano Vilhemo Altebrücke: Born August 5, 1938 in Juvelstadt, Juvelprovinz, Donumia; died May 7, 1989. Johano was a tough dictator, but still somewhat benevolent; the people regarded him as sufficient, though agreed he could be better. In his private life, he was a strict but devoted father. He treated his children more like soldiers than children.
Sibling(s): Mikelo Johano Altebrücke: Born February 3, 1969 in Juvelstadt, Juvelprovinz, Donumia; died May 12, 1989. Mikelo was always highly competitive in every aspect of life. He and Charlotte were never close because of it; she found him extremely annoying. Mikelo envied Charlotte for being the heir to their father’s empire; he thought her, as a woman, unsuitable for the job and desired it for himself. Because of these feelings, he helped start a plot to kill her and his parents so he could be leader that much sooner. Unluckily for him, Charlotte found out and instead had him executed for treason.
Spouse: Aleksandro Tomas Georgo Fiero: Born June 10, 1965 in Juvelstadt, Juvelprovinz, Donumia; died July 26, 1995. Aleksandro was a son of one of Johano’s officials, and as such he was already well known to the family. He was very fond of Charlotte, and liked to dote on her even though she was unused to such attentions. He died of testicular cancer when he was thirty.
Children: Glorinda Charlotte Elisabeth Fiero Altebrücke: Born August 19, 1992 in Juvelstadt, Juvelprovinz, Donumia; died October 1, 1992. Died of crib death when she was only a month old.
Primary Home Language: Esperanto, though occasionally mixed with Donumian, the other official language which somewhat resembles German
Nationality: Donumian; born in Juvelstadt, Juvelprovinz, the capital
History
Charlotte was the first born of Donumian dictator Johano Altebrücke and his wife. Johano’s grandfather had built the initial empire and declared himself king of it. As befitting a king, he was given the best – the best house, the best food, the best education for his children. As such, Charlotte attended the elite Donumia Academy, like her father and grandfather had done, starting when she was five.
Johano was strangely not picky as to the gender of his heir and so Charlotte, being the first born, was declared to be the heir shortly after her seventh birthday, though Johano had decided this from the moment she was born. During the summers, when she was home, Johano began to instruct her in how to be a leader, and from then on, she had no more time for being a child. She was learning and growing at home and school. Her mother protested this, saying that she was too young and that she should be having fun at her age. Johano ignored this, saying that was how he had been taught, and it had worked for him.
From there on, she quickly learned how to become her father’s ideal heir. This pleased Johano, and he continued to instruct her. Her brother Mikelo kept bothering her, trying to be better at everything. For the most part, she viewed him as a braggart and simply ignored him, much to his annoyance. She continued to push herself, becoming better, more knowledgeable.
Although women were not permitted to join the army, Johano wished for Charlotte to get a military education as well, since he decreed it necessary in order to sustain the empire. To please their leader, Charlotte was trained in military strategy and taught how to use a few weapons by the country’s top soldiers. Charlotte was not as good a strategist as her father, though she was still decent at it.
When she was sixteen, she was “brought out” into society, though by that point her beliefs were instilled into her so much that she did not particularly care for courtship and marriage. Johano lightly suggested that perhaps it would be wise, as an heir would be necessary for later, but Charlotte, for once, ignored her father’s advice, choosing to immerse herself in strategy instead. Even when he suggested that the man adopt her name to keep the Altebrücke line, something completely unheard of, Charlotte ignored it.
At seventeen she witnessed her first assassination attempt; her father was shot at while on the balcony of the (former) Parliament building; she saw her father get hit and crumple. Before then she had been oblivious to what had gone on, her father having sheltered her from it. The shooter, whoever they were, did not stop with hitting her father; they continued to shoot and Charlotte was shot twice, once in the shoulder and once in the right side of her torso. She recovered from these wounds but carried a handgun with her after that.
The attack, although causing her to become more alert and aware of her surroundings, was a good reminder of her own mortality. She decided that her father had been right, as he usually was, and that she decided she needed to consider marriage in the near future. She was reminded that she should not neglect her duty to the people and country in favor of a marriage, though she already knew this. She began looking for someone with similar ideals as her; that way they would not object to her actions. When she was eighteen, she met Aleksandro Fiero. Aleksandro was already well known to her family, being the son of one of Johano’s officials. After a short while, when she was nineteen, they began to court each other, though Charlotte was not thrilled with the whole grandiose display and the submissive actions society required her to take.
The two of them married when Charlotte was twenty-one, in a quiet, private ceremony. Aleksandro did not like the idea of taking on Charlotte’s name, so as a compromise he took it on as “Aleksandro Fiero Altebrücke”. Aleksandro then moved into Charlotte’s house and the two began living together as a couple, something Charlotte took a while to get used to. She became pregnant when she was twenty-two, but she lost the baby.
When she was twenty-three, her father died from a heart condition. From there on, Donumia was in Charlotte’s hands – and she planned to not repeat her father’s mistakes. Her leadership was declared only hours after Johano’s death. He was buried and she began to vigorously promote herself, trying to appeal to the populace. For some time now she had been aware that Mikelo had planned on killing her; he dropped strange hints and, after searching his things one day, discovered the plot – and he was planning on killing her next, if she didn’t act. She did the only thing she could do: spied on the group and had them executed for treason.
Charlotte’s rule started out similar to her father’s, but as time went on, her hold over the country became tighter and tighter as the conquered countries struggled to regain independence. Harsh laws were passed, secret police were roaming the streets, and people just seemed to disappear. Magical users, in order to distinguish them, were required to wear bright patches on their clothing; they were then recruited into a special unit in the army, or part of the secret police to assist them. Ones that refused usually disappeared. Rationing was put into place as the troops went out to conquer more land, making the empire grow larger. She even had her own mother killed when the woman, afraid of all these measures, tried to confess everything to a rebel group.
Aleksandro died when she was twenty-nine, of testicular cancer. She was saddened by the loss, as she had grown fond of him, at the very least. They had had children, though they never seemed to have any luck with them: one miscarriage and one crib death. Nevertheless, Charlotte buried him and then set her sights back to the welfare of the country, if not simply to distract herself. More lands were conquered. More people disappeared.
At one point, it was decided that she might be able to make use of the magical peoples that refused to join her ranks – instead of secretly killing them, segregate them into small, isolated communities and have them work in factories making war supplies. In theory, they should be able to use their powers to quickly make better, more efficient weaponry and supplies. And so, in 1997, this went into effect: ghettoes popped up, usually on the edges of major cities, and all the magical persons were sent there to live. Charlotte rationalized this with the fact that previously they were not doing anything useful in society, primarily entertainment due to the small population, and now they were contributing to society like everyone else. The people, indoctrinated by her propaganda, agreed to this.
Around 2000, the ghettoes started to become inefficient as the inhabitants subdued their captors with magic to escape. Charlotte’s response was to establish a forced labor camp for them to live in, rather than the ghettoes, with stricter requirements: those declared unfit for work or seen as rebellious were shipped off to be killed before they could cause a fuss in the camps. This was an efficient way of dealing with the trouble-makers, and the rest were making much-needed supplies. The public knew a little about the camps, though only that was where the magical peoples worked creating supplies. Assuming that this was the reason, they agreed to the idea, saying that it was time they paid their debt to society.
In 2003, Bacatti, one of the last free places in the continent, formally declared war on Donumia, for they had attempted an invasion. Donumia had been somewhat at peace for several years now, so the wartime restrictions were not looked on kindly. Rations were once again introduced and eventually a draft was put into place. The war has been raging for the past three years, with no immediate end in sight. Before then, Charlotte had to put up with several failed assassination attempts, most of them by escaped magic users.
She has continued to fight valiantly against Bacatti, as the war has not yet ended. She has managed to add more land to her empire, though not as much as all her effort is focused against conquering Bacatti. This is quite stressful on her, though she is determined to persevere.
Magical Statistics
Magical Power: None, she rules harshly but without magic
Weapon: Carries a handgun with her at all times. Also wears a small circular identification tag around her neck.
Accessories or Anything Else: None
Other Notes:
