Ayesha Isor

Ayesha Isor
Full name	Ayesha Isor
AKA	Ayesha al-Osman
Physical information
Species	Human
Gender	Female
Hair color and style	Black
Eye color	Brown
Skin color	Light olive
Other	1.69 m tall
Biographical information
Father	Justin Guadalim
Mother	Samira al-Osman
Date of birth	14.IX.1660
Place of birth	Raynor's Keep, Shirekeep
Residence(s)	Chryse, United Benacian Republic
Nationality	Constancia  Raspur  Shireroth
Allegiance(s)	House of Osman
Occupation	Magistra of Antiquities, socialite

Ayesha Guadalim, more commonly known as Ayesha Isor, was born in the Magister's Chambers situated above the Western Quadrangle Fort of Raynor's Keep on 14.IX.1660. She was the eldest child of Justin Guadalim, Magister of the Palatini Corps (c.1655–1726), and his wife Samira al-Osman, the fourth daughter of Tokaray al-Osman (1582–1644). Lady Ayesha had two younger siblings, both sisters, Alissa and Mariyam. On 9.XII.1685, her engagement to Isor Verion of Chryse was announced.

Early life

As the first born child of the commander of the imperial guard and a prominent daughter of a notoriously troublesome noble house, it was only natural that her formative years were spent in the gilded cage of the Kaiser's court, under the close supervision of the Imperial Household Agency. Although most assuredly not a hostage by any means, the close attention paid by the Chamberlain to the well-being of the young off-spring of the officers of the Palatini Corps went a long way towards ensuring the loyalty of the majority at any given moment. After her mother departed to take up Governor of So-Sara in 1663, young Ayesha was retained at court and, under the supervision of a succession of nurses, eunuchs, and governesses, grew to be a wilful and free-spirited child who dreamed of greatness whilst remaining in awe of her father. Aged seven, members of the officer's mess of the Scholae Excubitores, nominated her as the subject of their toast to the beauty of the season, and they had her name engraved on the glass goblet used for this purpose.

It was at the age of seven that the Lady Ayesha was first enrolled into the Imperial Gymnasia and thereafter came, for the first time, under the appreciative eye of the Master of Pages and subject to his discipline for the next three years, earning thereby an accelerated consideration for admission into the corps of the Imperial Pages. After being chosen for admission into the Dirâsat-an-Nûr, the imperial school located within the vicinity of the Bâb-an-Nûr in the Outer Bailey of Raynor's Keep, she had scarcely settled into her new billet in the Outer Dormitory before the so-called Pages' Conspiracy had infested the Dirâsat-an-Nûr and events rapidly spiralled towards the infamous date of 12.VIII.1671 when, under the cover of an attack staged against the city by rogue Imperial Forces, a coterie of "Adept Pages" led by Jaap van Pijpervale had lured the Kaiser into secluded chambers there to fall under their knives. An act of betrayal and murder, motivated by squalid jealousies, this act of slaughter would go on to serve as the trigger for the Kalirion Fracture and the near collapse of the Imperial Republic. As a mere candidate page, Ayesha, who was simultaneously the child of parents of some consequence in the serpentine court of Raynor's Keep, was spared during the furious purge that swept through the Imperial Household in the wake of the Kaiser's assassination. Nonetheless the memory of what she saw during those dreadful days would abide with her.

The world of her childhood died by degrees in the months that followed as the provinces followed the example of the mutinous legions and began to secede, withdrawing their fealty from the Golden Mango Throne and allowing a deluge of blood and fire to wash over Benacia. With Shirekeep itself coming under a state of siege, with the rebellion of the Prefect of Shirekeep, Titus Morvayne, who had seized the opportunity to have himself acclaimed Kaiser in the Landsraad under highly dubious circumstances. Raynor's Keep was besieged by the mutinous cudgellers and palatini guardsmen subverted by Morvayne, whilst the Old City itself was blockaded by loyalist regiments of the Palatini Corps converging on the capital from their cantonments scattered across the urban sprawl of the Imperial County. Under these circumstances Ayesha was taken out of the Dirâsat-an-Nûr by her father and placed in the care of a female auxiliary of the Shirekeep Garrison trapped within the walls and assigned various menial duties within the Inner Keep. This subaltern proved to be a poor governess, for the education she imparted consisted almost entirely of superstitious tales and false notions concerning the history of Raynor's Keep. The state of siege would last until 22.XI.1672 and the flight of Titus from the city. During that time Ayesha, her imagination fired by stories of hidden tunnels and daemonic chambers had become adept at exploring the forgotten and timeworn portions of the keep. It would subsequently be alleged, and she never did trouble to confirm or deny, that she had one time fallen into the ostensibly sealed up Chamber of Mur, the infamous subterranean pit where the Kaiser Dominus had horrifically sacrificed to an abomination by her own grandfather Tokaray al-Osman twenty-eight years previously. How she had found her way into a sealed and forbidden part of the keep, and how she had clambered her way back out again was never wholly or satisfactorily explained. Nonetheless it was during those months of enforced boredom that her interest in antiquities and the occult had been firmly forged.

Seemingly left at her liberty, she had used the Keep's well-furnished library to "steal" her education by hiding in the library from four to eight in the evening every day. She taught herself High Praeta, a language usually reserved for courtiers and clergy. She secretly got a hold of the notoriously complex Praeta lexicon and by the age of thirteen, her handling with the language was on par with courtiers and officers who had struggled with the revived ancient language of governance for most of their adult lives.

Her father having proved his loyalty during the double-siege of the keep and city, there was no longer a pressing need to keep Ayesha within the keep for the purpose of leverage and thus it was decided, for the purpose of bettering relations with the Babkhi community found in the environs of the Imperial County along the borders with Alalehzamin in Elwynn, to send the girl away to join her mother.

Samira had by this time quit the Governorship of So-Sara, having fled the isles back in 1668 at the onset of the White Plague. In joining the wave of Modanese Migration to Constancia, she had found a welcome there based upon her familial ties and pedigree - earning an appointment as Minister for Raspur in the Imperial Constancian Government and Civil Administrator for Raspur. And so it was that in 1673 Ayesha found herself treading the irradiated sand of her Babkhan ancestors as she toured the ruins of ancient Raspur, Vey, and Kamalshahr.

During her time in Raspur she attended the Sarayzenana and there learnt the subtle arts of influence and persuasion, how to convey suggestion with breath and touch, and how to command with voice and gaze. At the same time, over the course of three years, she was trained to understand and to perform the duties necessary for the preservation of the Osmanid bloodline. This aspect of service to the dynasty was performed between the years of 1676 and 1678, after which she departed Eura with an entourage of retainers, a vast multitude of kul servants, a trove of antiquities, and a breadth of knowledge regarding the Imperial Bloodlines as to serve as her introduction into Benacian polite society.