Ilviana Wickham

Basic Information

Birth Name: Ilviana Jane Wickham
Aliases: Ilviana Venice, Shadesiren, Dicey Venice, D. Wickham
Birth: February 12th, 1554, Sevenoaks, Kent, England
Age: 26 apparent / 454 actual
Sex: Female
Current Occupation: Web designer and Graphic Artist
Past Occupations: Writer, Artist, Singer, Secretary

Appearance

Hair Color: Dark dark red, almost mahogany
Length and Style: Hangs loose to just below her shoulders, lightly layered
Eye Color: Blue Grey
Skin Color: Gold/lightly tanned
Height: 5’6"
Weight: 145 lbs.
Nationality: English
Race: Vampire
Body Type: Athletic

Description and name of your creator:

Simon Guilford had a passion for art. He had been turned in his middle years, still a prime specimen, but no longer young. His hair was only slightly grey, his face weathered but still somewhat handsome. With no artistic talent of his own, he instead sought out the undiscovered talents, the poor, modest, and overlooked, and he found the diamonds in the rough. Seeing himself as a fine jeweler, cutting the rough stones and turning them into sparkling gems. When he discovered Ilviana Wickham, he was ecstatic. Her talent was exactly the sort of thing he thrived on. he envisioned a future where she gladly painted for him alone, without stopping to consider she might prefer something different. As a human woman, her options were limited, painting for him alone was an advantage. As a vampire, her options are limitless, and she'd much rather be free and paint as she likes. He finally realized that, when he let her go. Turning her was unquestionably destined. He was sure she had been brought to his attention by fate, in order to save her talent for the future. Losing her was a most traumatic event. He wanted to keep her close, but finally, he realized she was right. He would destroy her if he didn’t set her free. The packages she sends him are his consolation, and he has learned, finally, to live with that much. He sees her like a father would an estranged child, aware the estrangement is his own fault, but deeply regretting it.

Personal Questions

1. Describe your character's personality

Ilviana is curious and adventurous, but primarily in the way she's willing to go out and about to new places, and meet new people. She isn't likely to go skydiving or bungee jumping, or pick a fight with the local bully, but she's not afraid to try Indian food, or ask the fiercest of natives to sit for a quick portrait.

Relationship with the clan will be a bit more difficult to explain. Simon didn't want to share her talent, he envisioned a future where she gladly painted for him alone, without stopping to consider she might prefer something different. As a human woman, her options were limited, painting for him alone was an advantage. As a vampire, her options are limitless, and she'd much rather be free and paint as she likes. He finally realized that, when he let her go. Once she was free, I'm not sure how or when she might have come in contact with the clan, or what they might have told her if she had. She's likely to have spent a lot of time with fairly poor people, the kind that are always willing to share with a stranger (aka new friend), even if they don't have much. She'd have to be careful - poorer people are likely to be more superstitious, and therefore more likely to be afraid of a vampire, so she wouldn't have advertised that fact.She’s fascinated by technology, by the way the world evolves and grows and changes. She values her freedom above all else, to the point of having a slightly claustrophobic reaction to being restrained. She likes to be creative, and nearly always has a sketchbook and pencil case with her.

2. Describe how your character would appear to a stranger (I.E. typical dress, way they carry themselves etc.)
There are two common Ilvi’s : The running jumping climbing trees Ilvi, and the ‘working’ Ilvi. Action Ilvi wears jeans and sneakers, feminine shirts, and a khaki messenger bag slung across her chest. Her dark red hair hangs loose and wild. If it’s cold, she wears a light brown suede jacket, and a green velvet cap. Working Ilvi wears her hair up, clipped, or pierced by chopsticks. She wears long skirts, is usually barefoot, and wears the same feminine tops she usually does. If she’s drawing or working at a computer, she tends to completely forget the rest of the world, and becomes completely engrossed in her work.

3.What does your character like?
Peppermint, Purple, Green and Blue, Writing, Drawing, technology, Irises and Lilacs, freedom – making her own choices, doing as she pleases, not following the rules.

4. Dislike?
People who take themselves too seriously, slavery, green bell peppers and anchovies, being told what to do/ordered around, orange.

5. What are your fears?

1. Being held against her will/helpless/forced to serve someone against her will (self-explanatory if you read her creator’s story)


2. Bees (hornets, wasps, yellow jackets, etc, not honey bees) – One summer her mother was attempting to shoo a bee from the house, and accidentally pushed Ilvi into a closet and shut the door on her, in an attempt to keep her away from the angry insect. They didn’t realize the bees had a nest in the roof above the closet, and several stung Ilvi before she could get the closet door opened again. From then on, as long as she has plenty of room to get away, she’s mostly ok around bees, but in confined spaces, she may panic.


3. Being unable to ‘do her art’ – Her most treasured ability, the talent that she lets partially define her, the thought of losing that would be like losing her own identity. Not being able to see, or control her hands enough, or whatever it might be, she fears it happening and taking away her greatest joy.

6. What is your character's strengths and weaknesses?
Ilviana is creative, curious, and friendly, but she’s also a bit naive (especially for her age!), and idealistic. She has spent almost no time among other vampires, preferring solitude or the company of humans, whom she understands much better. Among Vampires, she is nearly clueless as to the proper manners and rituals and what not. Simon didn’t want to share her with other vampires, and after her experience with him, she tends to avoid them. She firmly believes they have a superior attitude (something that makes her misbehave – she has trouble resisting annoying them), that they think they have the right to dictate their lives as if they were pets. While she does KNOW this isn’t really the case, she tends to give each person the chance to prove her wrong, while expecting them to prove her right. She is shy in new relationships, often afraid to speak first when meeting new people, afraid of saying the wrong thing. When inspired, she often can’t wait to write down or draw it out, and usually carries her sketchbook and pencils with her. If she gets into a project, drawing or working at her computer, she can become almost dangerously focused. She loses track of time, her surroundings, the longer she works. She usually uses timers to break it up, so that she doesn’t get too engrossed.

Vampire

Abilities: Glamour, Empathy, Savage Savant


Flaws: Won’t feed on unwilling victims, Pacifist

Hobbies & Skills: Ilvi is primarily interested in Art. She draws, paints, sculpts, anything art-related. Her primary focuses right now are her drawing – and turning those drawings into digital work. She makes her money by creating web sites, graphics, and occasionally, on her art. She gives away as much as she ever sells, but gets paid well for the web design, so doesn’t worry too much. She manages several small business sites, as well as several personal sites.

Cosmetic Traits: From the edge of her shoulders, along the line to her neck, up to her hairline, and down along her ribs, well below her waist, one side to the other, her back is covered in a tiger striped tattoo. The stripes are dark midnight blue, and the "fur" is light blue, to icy near white along her ribs ad shoulders, mimicking the coat of a real tiger. This was done a long time ago, the ‘old fashioned way’, with a long bamboo stick, but a master tattooist in China. She also has two small kanji tattooed on her hip bones below her waist. About an inch high, on the front of her hips, one is Chinese for Honor, the other Chinese for Truth.

Quirks and Habits worthy of mention: ALWAYS has a sketchbook and pencils on her, or nearby. Smiles a lot, listens to music through earphones a lot (especially when she’s working or drawing), smiles a lot.

Personal History
Ilviana was born to a modest family in Sevenoaks, London. Her father worked for a painter, mixing paints, stretching canvases – whatever needed to be done. This freed his employer, a small time portraitist, to only need to put brush to canvas, and create. Ilviana’s mother worked in the kitchen, and Ilvi spent her childhood free to roam the house, often playing in the corner of the studio where their master worked. She much preferred the magic there to the work to be found in the kitchen. At six, she was helping her father, and sketching on castoff papers when she wasn’t needed. While the relationship was strictly servant to master, the Artist couldn’t help but notice the burgeoning talent in his employee’s offspring. Seeking to invest in this future talent, he offered to pay for her tutelage. First, he taught her what he knew, and then, he sent her on to a friend to learn more. By eighteen, she was painting portraits herself.
Being a female painter in the 1570’s wasn’t easy, but Ilviana’s determination got her enough work to support herself, and eventually, her parents. To her surprise, she acquired a patron of her own – a customer that seemed to love her paintings so much, he would commission them, one after another, paying in advance for the privilege of taking ownership the moment the paint was dry.
She had no idea of his plan to immortalize her talents. She was given a glass of drugged wine one evening as they talked, and awoke restrained. He hadn’t trusted her to simply accept his gift, and tried to reason with her now that she was helpless. The idea frightened her, the reality of the situation was terrifying, but her patron, her friend, tried to soothe her. In the end, she acquiesced – though bitterly. She felt she had no other choice – could he let her go now that she knew the truth? Afterwards, another realization set in – having turned her, he felt a new form of ownership over her. She had been his employee, now she was his childe – he envisioned her immortality churning out masterpieces for his own private enjoyment. Without realizing it, he envisioned her as his slave.
And so it went, for a few years, until she felt she had enough money to take care of her parents, and start a new life. She told him she was leaving – he insisted she couldn’t. She left him behind, taking her parents, and moved to Europe. She settled them in a small town in Italy, where they lived comfortably until they passed away, unaware of all that had transpired to their child. Simon, left behind in London, was furious, and spent the next several decades following Ilviana. He would not have her harmed, for it was her talent he valued, but neither was he ready to fogive her for leaving – for refusing him. After her parents passed, Ilvi confronted him, and after a long fight, and a longer talk, they reached an accord. He let her go to make her own life, and every so many years, he receives a package – paintings, drawings, whatever she deemed to send him.
Ilviana liked traveling, liked seeing so much of the world and meeting so many different people. She always seemed to find friends, people who were kind, generous, and free-spirited, like herself. Along the way, she was given a kitten, a present as she departed from a new friend’s home. Ever since, she’s had one as a constant companion. When one passes away, she waits, and fate unerringly sends her another. A gift from a friend, a surprise find under a bush, a stowaway in her carriage, they always show up soon after the other has gone, and she loves each one as much as the first. In India, a friend told her it was possible each was the same soul, reincarnated into a new kitten, to stay with her forever. While it’s a nice thought, she can’t say for sure if it’s true – or if she’d like it to be.
She’s slowed her gypsy ways a bit, over the past hundred or two years. She stays as much as five to ten years each time, and even has two large steamer trunks of belongings she takes from place to place. It’s not unheard of for her to pack up, put most of it in storage, and spend a year just wandering, only staying days in each place. Then she finds a place she can settle, and she has everything shipped in, and settles for a while.

Her initial opinions of Vampires were of self-indulgent creatures that lived "above" humans, treating them like pawns and possessions. This would be why she tends to stay among the commonest of the commoners, and avoid the upper class. She imagines all vampires live amid wealth and riches, doing as they please without regard to any consequence, more powerful than any human authority.

Reality has shown her this was nothing like how it was. That was Simon, yes, and maybe some others, but Vampires technically, really are just people too. Maybe some are powerful, but some are like her – after all, if she herself exists, there must be others like her. As I say, I’m sure she met with some over the years, and if so, would they talk clan? She wouldn’t have brought it up, so it would be a chance they might have. Over four hundred plus years? I’m thinking it must have come up at some point. So, she must at least know what her clan is. Her affiliation would be tenuous at best. Unless required to, she wouldn’t seek them out.

She’s feeling more at ease, and wants to finally mingle with her own kind. She’s lived in every kind of human city you can imagine, and somewhere, probably several somewheres, there’s a storage area full of sketchbooks and paintings of those places. She’s ready to know more about who she is now, but she’s only just admitting this to herself. Deliberately moving to a city where there are many vampires is her way of forcing herself to interact with them, learn about them. It’s likely she’s finally grown lonely, finally tired of knowing everyone she meets will die soon, while she’ll be the same. Sure, it’s the same old thing, everything immortal has to really realize that one day, it’s just her turn. She’s not all angst-ridden, it just means it’s time to make a friend or two that’ll be around in the next century or two. Or at least one that she can really be herself around.

Her current companion is a black and white soft-furred tom named Duncan. She pays for a license and the little tracking device for him.

OOC Checklist

Player name (online is fine) – Ilviana aka Shadesiren
Other Characters you play – None yet
How you came to SA (Other board, friend, etc) – from StudioMMO via the Angry Crayon
Have you read all the Rules? Yes!
Do you understand that this is an adult board with adult content (sometimes graphic and violent in nature)? Yeppers
This board is adult only. Are you over the age of 18? Absolutely!