User blog comment:SalemtheCruel/Character contest/@comment-5156759-20130511154926

Sorry for how long it took me to do this, I had a hard time finding the time (ha ha) and inclination to complete this character. Now she's finally done though, so here we go.

Name: Queen Ursula Gender: Female Species: Wolverine Place of Origin: Somewhere from the west Appearance: Stately and graceful, Ursula moves with a slow, pondering elegance rarely seen in wolverines, who prefer brutal efficiency in their movements. Normally garbed in purple velvet or silk, her index finger on her left paw is adorned with a golden ring; a small pearl is embedded into her right ear. Though she is not fat, she is well-built, and coupled with her dignified movements she gives all the appearance of someone slow and sluggish. Far from it though, when she wishes to she can strike faster than an adder. She carries a dagger on her person, but keeps it hidden, preferring to use her silver tongue to get herself out of trouble. Ursula’s eyes are a dark color, not quite black, more of a purple in truth. Both her teeth and claws are well honed and sharpened, though she never uses them for battle.

Mannerisms: Manipulative, calculating, and excessively cruel, Ursula is not someone you want to be arguing with. There are few things quicker than her tongue or her wit, and she uses them often and to good effect, ruling with clever diplomacy and cunning negotiation as opposed to brute force. Knowing a great deal about psychology, she can effortlessly manipulate all but a few, pitting her enemies against each other or influence them until they end up being her allies without them even realizing it. Ursula takes great joy in this art, and spends most of her days doing exactly that; gradually expanding her power through the power of words. The rest of her time, she spends in her private chambers; she is greatly entertained by actors, the more well-spoken and intelligent they are the better. Writing is another devotion she is taken by, she enjoys writing novels quite a bit, though the wolverine often laments that she has nobody to share them with. When bored of art, she normally goes into the extensive torture chambers underneath her fortress, and orders various political rivals, irritating clan leaders or just unlucky slaves to be tormented for her entertainment. Although any type of torture pleases her, she most enjoys throwing creatures to the beast.

Stronghold: A stone citadel just a tad north of the Borderlands; though the climate there is nowhere as harsh as it is farther north, it is still quite cold, and there is a good bit of snow there in the winter. Tucked between a lake and a virtually impassable tangle of trees, her castle is well-defended from most attacks; though she is not one to conquer everything with a huge horde, Ursula still has formidable defenses in place should such an attack head her way. In addition to a fairly sizable force, war machines such as ballistae or catapults decorate the ramparts all around the bastion, ready to fire at a moment’s notice. Inside the castle, however, there is little to suggest its population is warlike; richly carpeted with a fine red weave from some far away islands, tapestries and paintings decorate the walls of Ursula’s home, creating an atmosphere much unlike one you would envision in the harsh Northlands. The true centerpiece of the castle is the throne room. Marble floors and walls, with a decorated and embroidered carpet leading up to Ursula’s throne, which in itself is a piece of art. It is huge, decorated with gold and pearls, too grandiose and large for even a badger to not have room left over. This is where Ursula spends quite a bit of time, dealing with the court, with potential suitors or with clan leaders she is manipulating. Behind the throne is a small, white door with a golden knob Ursula has to duck through, that leaders to her private chambers. After walking through a plain and surprisingly undecorated tunnel for about three minutes, you enter Ursula’s true place of residence. A giant, four-poster bed and a finely crafted mahogany table take up almost all the space inside the chambers. The bed is draped in purple silk and is covered in a fine blanket two, if not three times the size of Ursula. Her desk has a large amount of paper and ink, and several quills lie in wait for her disposal. Another door leads to a grandiose bathroom, with a huge bath taking up most of the space. And then we go under the castle, to the torture chambers. Extensively designed by the castle’s former owner and then renovated by Ursula, all sorts of torture devices are located in the many rooms, things of a terrible nature which can do just about anything to a creature’s body. What separates this from the other torture chambers (besides its size) is the vast area in the center of the chamber. A dome rises above the cold, poorly-lit area; encompassing almost all the space is a huge hole, inside which is a titanic glass tank, broken in half, filled with dark, murky water. And inside that water dwells the beast. Nobody knows anything about it, save for the fact it is bigger than anything they have ever seen and it has tentacles. Many tentacles. Nobody thrown into that pool, not even an otter can come out alive.

Background: Ursula’s background is a murky mystery nobody wishes to learn about. She arrived from the west one day, hauling two ships full of treasure, a third ship with a mysterious glass tank inside and a third ship filled with soldiers. After making her way inland on a river, she reached a lake, on the shoreline of which stood a castle. In exchange for treasure and her hand in marriage, the owner of the castle (a rather unremarkable stoat) allowed her to take residence there. Within a few weeks, the stoat was dead, and Ursula was ruling over the castle and its lands. The glass tank was brought inside, the entire fortress redecorated with marble and carpets and paintings and she established her base there. Everyone who had brought in the glass tank and seen what was inside was killed over the next few weeks; most of those who had done the job were former servants or soldiers of the stoat, so the wolverine got rid of two potential problems at once. She has slowly expanded her influence since then, establishing alliances, taking over clans and increasing the size of her empire, all done through masterful negotiation as opposed to brute force. Now, Ursula plots to expand her reach farther, to begin moving southward, where the infamous Abbey of Redwall was located…