Post by SHIRIN SHIRAZI on Jun 21, 2020 15:28:54 GMT
SHIRIN SHIRAZI
|Amazon | 21 (born in 1528 AD) | “Claim me” as a Roman demigod|
|Total Control |Yasmine Aker| She/her/hers|
PERSONALITY
Shirin once believed that power was a virtue—now she sees that it only tears apart. Her own composure is withdrawn, uncertain of the changes in the world around her but resolute in her own beliefs. She will never allow herself to change, because only the gods can possess such revelations and even the grandest deities are flawed. She is pensive, perfectly in-control, unwilling or unable to allow judgment calls from an emotional intuition.
Her strength lies in her ability to read the world around her. She is adaptable to any situation, but her heart burns with the knowledge that she knows better. That she could do so much better if she no longer needed to hide. But it’s all she knows and first impressions stick with this girl. She is unshakeable, and she would not move even if the earth gave out beneath her feet. Her adaptability comes not from the ability to be inconspicuous, but from the assuredness of her own self-worth and an aura of authority and complete control.
She views emotion as weakness, uncertainty as death, and virtue as a fable. There is no universal concept of life, no expansive worldview that dominates every other. There is only the individual, what she perceives, and how she influences her environment.
Shirin is not bold, she is not explosive, and she will not compromise the mission for anybody or anything. She is contemplative, will watch until the very last moment, and will act when there is no other recourse available. She despises direct combat, anything that forces her to reveal her hand. She is secretive to the point of destruction, unable to share what is in her mind or heart for any motive at all. Shirin will willingly die before ever exposing her vulnerability again.
She is calculating and disciplined. Shirin is intuitively tuned-in to the world, because ultimately the world and its inhabitants has not changed. In her mission (whatever she may choose for herself), she will single-mindedly strive for victory, at the cost of everything else. She will never allow herself to waver, but she lets herself imagine sometimes…only in her most private of thoughts, in the depths of her soul where no other can see—what might life have been like if she had not been born in fire?
Shirin does not understand the finer pleasures of life—she prefers a minimalist and simple existence, far different from her childhood of splendor and wealth. She has systematically erased that part of herself, the part that played with silks and discarded gems as if they were dirt. Now she seeks a new purpose. Now she wants for nothing—nothing physical, at least. What could someone so out of time want?
HISTORY
Her world began in fire. The year was 1528—the Safavid dynasty was in jeopardy. Shah Tahmasp, with a perilous grasp on his throne, seemed unable to prevent courtly squabbles that quickly spiraled into internal rivalry and tribal conflict. The city of Shiraz, a treasure far from the main gaze of the Safavids, quickly descended into chaos. Among the burning and looting of the city, the seemingly endless waves of raids while Shiraz waited for the Safavids to rally, a girl was born in the household of the governor of the city. By this time the Romans had long perished, and any trace of their presence in Persia had faded. But in the far-flung corners of the Persian Empire their influence remained, and their gods could still hold some semblance of power.
The khan of Shiraz was a charismatic man who, despite staying away from court and in the periphery of the dynasty, was always able to secure courtly favor and prestige. Shiraz, the jewel of Iran, provided the governor a source of wealth and a secure life for his extensive lineage—even as tribal conflicts raged around them and lootings kept the city from too prosperous a growth. Shirin of Shiraz was born into this world, her family name long forgotten in the haze of war and the channels of history.
She existed to be motionless, to watch as life passed her by, as the world raged and crashed and left her behind. She was raised for her beauty and her rank, to live at the whims of a proper man who would multiply her family’s fortune and remove her as a burden to her family. In the court of Shiraz, a contradictory hub of interest to the Afghans and forgotten treasure to the Safavids, Shirin was meant to be looked at, to be admired…but never to act.
She learned, as a woman, what it meant to be both motionless and dynamic. To say a word and show a glimpse of a smile, to allow her victim to believe that they were in control of their actions and their path forward. She learned how to hoard power without ever sharing—her thoughts, her intentions, her heart.
It can be debated whether she was born as cold as a diamond, or if her circumstances removed any element of free will. It can be debated whether her soul escaped her body or if it’s buried deep inside. It is said that age deepens all feelings. Perhaps this is true. But Shirin has forsaken all mortal attachments.
Meant to be married at a young age—the right age—to some provincial noble whose name history has deigned to forget, Shirin was meant to wait. 15 summers was not too young, after all. But every fiber of her intuition screamed for the opportunity to act, and here appeared the first crack in the façade. The first chink in her armor of steel. She should have married, and she should have exploited every opportunity to amass the sort of power only women could conjure. But one day, when the sun beat high in the sky then sunk low to be chased by the moon, Shirin knew. She couldn’t wait anymore.
She didn’t know where she was going, or why it was time, or what her gods held in store for her. She didn’t know if she was meant to perish in the desert, a forgotten victim of the horror of war and history. But against all odds, she was found by a young goddess with knowing eyes and her Hunt. Shirin was meant to wait. To consider the path that lay before her, and to remember the past she had left behind. But she knew. She couldn’t wait anymore.
When the sands of time swirl around a never-changing force, time stands still. So it felt for the easily-forgotten daughter of Shiraz, the girl who slipped through history. 500 years of a world that changed so much, and yet remained as fundamentally corrupted and venomous as the day she left it behind hardened her. She was no longer of the world, only apart from it. And that could not do – only the gods had such a privilege as to be removed from mortals, and she was no such thing.
Artemis was discontent to lose a faithful disciple, one who had followed her without question for nearly 500 years. But to allow Shirin to venture to the Amazons, to the female warriors who had stood proud against the test of time, was an acceptable loss. And six meagre years has wrought little change in the Persian warrior. Her body ages again but her mind and soul remain static, frozen in time. Even the assignment to be stationed in the Amazons' premises in New Rome will change little. She will never let anything, or anyone, penetrate her shell. Shirin will never let her vulnerability be her undoing.
EXPLANATION OF ABILITY SPECIALTY
Total Control – It matters not if this ability was inherited or learned, because it all amounts to the same. From an inhibited childhood to a melancholy existence, Shirin has hardened. She is unshakeable – when the earth moves beneath her feet and her life changes irrevocably, she stands firm. And Shirin has perfect control of herself. No movement is unplanned, no reaction is spontaneous. No emotion goes uncontrolled. Every motion, every word, every breath has its purpose, and neither Shirin’s body nor her sentiments will ever betray her. What is the source of her total control of self? The knowledge that if she allows herself to be bent too far – she will break.
OUT OF CHARACTER
Alias: Jenny
Age: 22
Pronouns: She/her/hers
