EBC: Andromeda the dignified

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 NAME: Andromeda

            Meaning: Mindful of man
            Nicknames: Andro (friends) 

            Formally known as: Granite (a nickname given to her by her father), Killer Queen (in the circuit. She hated the title and never repeated it to anyone)
            Last name "Arlius" is the family name of her former master and she no longer uses it.

AGE:             
            Starting: 4 years
            Current: 11 years

            Birthday: Dec 31 56 BC /Jan 1 55 BC (born at midnight so exact day could be either I guess?)
            Sign: Capricorn ♑

GENDER: Female

SPECIES: Snow Leopard

APPEARANCE: 
No mutations
Being a snow leopard, Andromeda is short and stocky in comparison to other felids. Thus, her legs are sturdy and strong, giving power to her blows. For being a female, she is rather large, being more around the size of a male, weighing in at around 130 lbs. She stands at 2 feet, 10 inches at the shoulder and is a length of about 4 feet, 11 inches. Her tail is thick furred and is the same length as her body, if not a few inches longer. There is slight graying around the muzzle due to old age.
Scars mark her body in more than one area, her most famous scar being the one that stretches across and down her shoulders on both sides (from a bear). The left side of the scar has another smaller scar beside it. Her front paws have burn scars from working as a blacksmith. Scars on her underbelly are sometimes hard to see because of her fluff, but are from Scaeden. A commonly forgotten scar (from Alukard and Cerberus) can be seen on her left eyebrow. NEW scars from the war/raid include a scar across the back of her neck, a rip in her right ear that tore out her earring, a single scratch on her haunches on the right side, and claw scratches on her front left arm.

OCCUPATION:  

             Current: Fire Empire Leader
             Past: Fire Empire Silver Gladiator, Fire Empire Blacksmith, Roman Army fighter, Arena Fighter, Massilian Blacksmith assistant

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PERSONALITY:
             
            {Fierce} {Brazen} {Proud} {Dignified} {Selfless} {Compassionate} {Merciful} {Cynical} {Guilt-ridden}

    {Fierce} having or displaying an intense or ferocious aggressiveness.

Andromeda's ferocity in battle and when handling situations is well known for and usually tends to intimidate others into avoiding her at all costs. However unless angered, this side of her is usually not seen.

    {Brazen} bold and without shame.
Fearless and brave, Andromeda will do almost whatever it takes to win in battle, regardless of the enemy. When she's confident in her ability to pull off a move, she's not afraid to use tricky techniques to catch the opponent off guard and get the upper hand. 

    {Proud} having or showing a high or excessively high opinion of oneself or one's importance.
Andromeda has always been very proud of who she is, and who she's become, not to mention proud of her empire. She walks regally with her head held high confidently. At one point it peaked to the point of arrogance before she received a reality check. 

*Presently, this trait is hard to see, if at all, and will only return once she overcomes her guilt.*

    {Dignified/Serious} having or showing a composed or serious manner that is worthy of respect.
This trait is likely a result of her pride in herself and her empire. She is strictly professional and once used to demand that old formalities be enforced. However she realizes that times have changed and she must change with them, so she has let the old formalities go. Still, she holds herself in such a serious way that many deem her emotionless and heartless. After realizing such, she is trying to show a little more of her feelings without revealing everything she feels. 

    {Selfless} concerned more with the needs and wishes of others than with one's own; unselfish.
Always has been and always will be. Andromeda puts the needs of others (her empire, her cubs, etc) before her own. Whether it's eating only after everyone else has or doubling her patrols so her empire-mates can rest, she does her best to take care of those in her charge before worrying about herself. 

    {Compassionate} feeling or showing sympathy and concern for others.
When cats think of Andromeda, the last word that may come to mind is empathetic. Perhaps due to her former usual lack of facial expressions and reserved personality. But really, she has felt pain and she hurts when her empire hurts. It's not hard for her to place herself in another cat's paws. She'll try to give physical comfort to those in need, be it a simple touch of paws or allowing them to cry into her neck fur. She is especially soft on the cubs, and loves to play and spend time with them. 

    {Forgiving/Merciful} showing or exercising mercy.
A newer and growing trait, and probably the last thing expected of the vengeful Andromeda. Much time spent with Nedria before the war taught Andromeda that forgiveness was the only way to overcome hatred. She didn't want to believe it at first, but as time progressed she knew the former leader to be right. Now that the war is over, Andromeda has promised herself to be more lenient with those of her empire and also their Hunter enemies, giving them a second chance like her former mate would have, rather than killing them on sight.

    {Guilt-ridden} filled with feelings of guilt.
Andromeda finds it hard to get over the fact that she led so many cats to their deaths and capture during the war. Yes, she didn't force them. They had a choice. But they chose to follow her because she believed this to the right way of dealing with their enemies. But Fire Empire suffered more than any other, and all the empires seem to pin the most blame on the Fire Empire leader for having formed the Assassins. Instead of stubbornly defending them and her own actions, she has succumbed to the blame and agrees with them. Her empire's current state was her fault. The cats that have fled her empire, her fault. The deaths, the maimed, the missing. Her fault. Because of all this, she feels she is unfit to carry on as leader for the time being and has temporarily turned over responsibilities to her Silver Gladiator, Mirum. Until she can find a way to forgive herself, Andromeda will likely be quiet and slightly withdrawn with a bit of depression and hopelessness. She can be helped through this by encouragement from friends and family.

BELIEF: 

Sator and Ignis
        For years after her mate's death, Andromeda had a hard time believing any gods existed. Eventually though she had cubs and the miracle of childbirth made her think otherwise. She now does her best to have faith in the gods although sometimes she has doubts they'll listen to her. 

GOALS: 

Andromeda's main goal right now is to become a better person. Spending time with her family while her wounds heal is sure to help, as her mother has plenty of wisdom to share. She also wants to get to know everyone in her empire better on a one-on-one level and hopefully change their negative opinions of her so she can one day be leader again knowing almost the entire empire doesn't hate her. 

QUIRKS, FEARS AND FLAWS: 

- Her favorite place in Fire Empire territory is the Ancient Forest.
- When irritated or put off, she tends to flick her torn right ear. 
- The earring she used to wear in her right ear belonged to her brother, Germanus, and was torn out during battle in Massilia.
- She is a heat casualty, meaning heat related injuries like heat stoke and such can happen more easily to her again.
- The above is the reason she trims her fur during the summer.
- She used to have an underlying fear of bears, but she was able to get past it with help from Mitsu and Gorosh.

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SKILLS & ABILITIES:

Stamina: 4
Health: 8
Intelligence: 9
Tactics: 9

Strength: 8
Defense: 6
Armor Defense: 8
Attack: 7
Speed: 5

LOYALTY/TRUSTS:

90% Empires
0% Hunters
50% Itself
100% Family and Others
0% Humans 

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CURRENT APPRENTICE:  Athena the wise

PAST APPRENTICES:

Abella (alive)

Soon after joining Fire Empire as their blacksmith, Andromeda was given an apprentice. A younger snow leopard, Abella reminded Andro of her little sister Selene. The kindred memories made Andro treat and train Abella like her sister, and the apprentice's companionship did wonders for Andromeda's healing after losing her father. Abella turned out to be a natural when it came to smithing and creating, and flew through her training. It turned out to be a huge blessing, since after a sickness ravaged the land and took the lives of the leader and silver gladiator, replacements needed to step up. Since Abella was sound enough in her training, Andromeda left blacksmithing behind when she was asked to become Silver Gladiator. She continued to visit the forge often to help out and give Abella tips until she was confident working on her own.

Their relationship took a downward spiral when Andromeda began to train the Assassins, until whatever relationship they had had previously was non existent and replaced by hatred on Ajax's end. Andromeda left him alone as to not upset him further, but was distressed all the same when his bloody armor was found on the border. 

 Kat

After Milon had already become a gladiator, Andromeda and Kat had a talk about her training. Turns out her mentor had been rather distant when it came to training her, so Andromeda did whatever she could on her off time to catch Kat up on her training. The ocelot was finally promoted after the war in which her formal mentor lost her life. 

The Assassins

A group of strong and willing Fire Empire and Shadow Empire gladiators, Andromeda taught these cats killing techniques to use against the Hunters during the war. Knowledge of this private group was ill-received but Andromeda feels a sense of comradery towards the gladiators that trained under her and with her...even if some of them don't like her for her treatment of them during the hard physical and mental training. Regardless of their feelings toward their trainer, the cats who endured the hardship together now feel a kinship for each other and work better as a team, as according to Andromeda's plan.

Athena

A daughter of gladiators Zeus and Acacia, Andromeda had felt a lot of grief and guilt after the war that took the life of Athena's mentor. Thus, she hoped to remedy the bitter feelings the cheetah cubs might have for her by taking one as her apprentice and doing her best to ensure the cub grew up strong and wise enough to make it through life. Athena's training went easily, although in the start things were a little rocky. Athena proved to be obedient and willing to please, giving Andromeda little to no strife. She caught onto things quickly and throughout her training became very wise for her age, and in Andromeda's eyes is the perfect example of what a gladiator should be.


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