Claudia of Greenwood

Coppery brown curls crest just below this woman's slender shoulders and appear to, even in the lowest of lights, glow. Eyes bright as emeralds rest beneath finely manicured brows and straddle either side of a button nose. Her mouth is tender as a feather and full as a pale pink rose in perfect bloom. She is of average height for a woman, with delicate curves, and she moves with an easy, natural grace.

Claudia is originally from the Duchy of Greenwood, still part of the Realm of Intis when she was born. She grew up in a village, Fallholt, upriver from Wright's Rest, the daughter of local shopkeepers - comfortable, by the standards of local commoners, but hardly wealthy. Growing up, she was eager for more than that, whatever "more" might even be. The village scarcely noticed when the Greenwood War of 617 happened. By the time the Salfeld coalition had taken Wright's Rest, the war was over. It did, though, give Claudia an idea. Within months of the war's end, she set off to the castle to seek to enter service there, as domestic staff at first.

Claudia spent a few years in the castle, listening and learning. By about the age of twenty, having learned quite enough, she began to offer her insights to the Salfeld nobility, where she could. It certainly pushed at the boundaries of propriety, but she was able to tread carefully. At twenty-two, she moved to Sanctuary full-time, to the Salfeld residence there. It was then that she became far more conscious of the wider world, and there, when she encountered courtesans of the Rose Salon, that she determined at last what the "more" she might want was: the connections and the opulence of being a Rose. With the leave of the Salfelds, she sought employment at the Salon, and entered as a Petal. She styles herself as Claudia of Greenwood rather than Claudia of Fallholt, feeling it adds a little extra grandeur to her name.

After her apprenticeship, she found herself a popular Rose, for her ability to listen, to empathise, and to offer counsel.

Claudia is warm, empathetic, and consistently interested in the people she meets. She rarely forgets what people have told her, and they tell her a very great deal. She enjoys people, especially high society - service to the Salfelds was one step, but entering the Rose Salon opened the door to meeting many more people too. She enjoys opulence and luxury too, whether in her garb, her general environs, the food and beverages to which she has access - although she is careful not to overindulge - and indeed her own accommodation, with her suite in the Salon already being lavish.

Claudia is a comfortable amid high society and is a fine listener.