#palais.task2

I. BASICS –––  

full name: sofia mbalenhle kreutzwald.

sofia: from the greek, Σοφια, means “wisdom”.

mbalenhle: from zulu, imbali, for “flower”, and hle, for “beautiful”.

date of birth: october 12th, 1814.

age: thirty-one.

city of birth: tallinn. she always loved her home, or perhaps it has always been thanks to her parents, who she loved and learned a lot from.

country of birth: estonia.

position: princess of estonia, duchess of glücksbierg (in denmark).

marital status: widow.

sexuality: demisexual.

gender identity: cisgender female.

religion: catholic. a believer, but rarely a praticant.

II. RELATIONSHIPS –––

number of siblings: five.

order of birth: first born, the oldest.

father: taveet kreutzwald, late king of estonia. relationship: her best friend — sofia isn’t afraid to admit that was her father to her. the man who had taught her so much and made her who she is, gave her glimpses of what was like to rule a kingdom even if he knew she wasn’t the one meant to take the crown. although the man would say he had no favorite child, anyone could see how he was closer to his two oldest: they were the ones to spend more time with him, watch him work and dare to make suggestions, help in his choices. he is, even in death, sofia’s safe haven.

mother: zola kreutzwald, late queen of estonia, former princess of swaziland. relationship: although closer to her father, she would never say she didn’t love or wasn’t fond of her mother — zola was just as inspiring as her husband for little sofia. she was the one who made her grow fond of reading and drawing, to have a brain of her own; she taught her how to be graceful and held her whenever she cried — especially in the day of her marriage and the last time she saw both her parents. she misses her dearly, and keeps a necklace that was owned by the woman with her at all times.

relationship with siblings: being the oldest has turned her into one of the most responsible ones among them. although with her head in the clouds and nose stuck in a book through most of her youth, she has shown to be one of the siblings that sees reality differently, with kind eyes and a good moral compass. the relationship to each sibling needs to be determined as applied.

former partner: gerhard thorn, duke of glücksbierg. marriage: april 1839 to december 1844. relationship: ( SEXUAL ABUSE TW! ) their marriage was a proposition that came from the duke himself in one of his trips to estonia — back then, the king had thought this would be a good idea, as if the story repeats itself: it was travelling that he met his wife, fallen for her beauty and intelligence, and he had thought this was gerhard’s case towards sofia. he was wrong. the duke was a narcissist, a careless man who barely cared for anything but benefiting himself — it is true he has “fallen” for the princess’ beauty, but she was far too smart for him, she wasn’t impressed by his looks or by him at all, different from the many women he had been with until then. she was a challenge, a prey that he would get and feel glad to have in his hands, wanting her or not — those harder to get were the best, after all. she has never complained ( much ) about the man to her father before the marriage, but he was no fool and had seem how scared and disgusted she looked after every meeting with the man — he had suggested to call it out, but at the age of twenty-five, she judged herself old. it was out of luck a man felt interested in her, even if it was only for her physical, in her opinion — she should continue with that, for the benefits of their own small kingdom. a child came out of their union, forceful, with marks that would take a while to fade from her golden skin — she thought it would be a challenge to love her son, that memories from the nights that haunted her mind would come across every time she looked at him: and it was, at first. for the first months, sofia wouldn’t want to see the baby and felt disgusted of herself, but it was in a moment she was alone with the baby and she saw her own curious eyes on him that she fell in love: hendrik, she had decided, would be the only thing that mattered to her. her marriage, unhappy and abusive, remained for the following years and some would be the times her husband would manage to get to her room and she would accept have him there, just for the sake of it — but he had his mistress, who were much better than her ( luckily ), and with the time he would grow tired of her company in bed, although never once letting go of the idea to expose her as his trophy wife. his death came suddenly, but with a lot of relief to sofia — more than she should’ve let it show, which brings questions to anyone who has known either her or gerhard, or both, doubts of his death, so sudden and not of plague, looking very much like an ordered murder.

children:

hendrik sipho thorn, born in february 15th, 1840 (six year old). his hair and big curious eyes give him away as sofia’s son — but he is far from looking like her, with his skin being lighter and some small features showing some of his father’s. hendrik is a smart danish boy — he has been learning more languages since he learned how to talk, always taught by his mother; he doesn’t have as much accent as she does when speaking other languages, being a fast learner, catching things just by hearing them. he’s agitated, always needing to be moving and going somewhere; and one of his passions seems to be animals, probably something that could be blamed on sofia and her choices of reading to him.

III. PHYSICAL –––

height: 162cm, 5ft 4in

weight: 54kg, 119lbs

eye color: brown.

hair color: brown.

natural hair texture: curly, thin.

body build: slim, slightly curvy.

prominent features: a mole next to her upper lip, on the right side; a scar on her left ankle ( thanks to childish plays and running around, tripping and twisting said ankle in a small rock ).

accent: she sounds most fluent in estonian and danish, being the languages she has practice more during her whole life, with the kind of alliances her father had. but in english and french, which are the languages she tries to keep up nowadays, she has an obvious accent, but still easy to understand. she is fond of learning languages, so her practice usually go until she doesn’t sound as much of a foreigner as she is.

speech: even insecure, sofia is one to speak with the most certain kind of tone, very rare to stutter, and usually sounding like someone who knows better. for some, she may sound as a mother or a scholar, which would be compliments to her. her vocabulary is quite extensive in any of the languages she speaks and that’s noticeable just by talking to her a few times.

general health: in good health and trying to keep herself this way, she has been rarely engaging in anything that might get her sick or hurt. she only puts herself on this sort of priority for worrying for her child — if she gets sick, chances of him getting too would be considerable.

IV. PERSONALITY –––

habits: tapping her fingers on any surface, being too observant, acting as a “mom friend”, chewing the inside of her cheek when nervous, rubbing her arm.

hobbies: reading, collecting books, drawing, learning, tasting different cuisines, taking walks in the garden, being alone, writing.

morning routine: she usually wakes up very early, able to see the first rays of sunshine to appear in the sky; most of the times, she likes to take her time waking up her son so they can have breakfast together. it isn’t unusual to see her walking around the gardens either, as she judges the morning sun to be the best and most enjoyable, along with its breeze.

nightly routine: to read and kiss her son goodnight is probably the only thing that happens every single night. sofia deals with the darkness of the night in different ways, most of them being by lighting a candle and reading a book on her own, or writing something — when she feels too lonely, she reads her father’s old letters and see old sketches in her journals. sometimes, she would dare to leave her quarters, take a walk to spare her thoughts and to go to the library, either to get other books or to watch the night sky through its windows ( a better view than the one she has from her own room ).

skills: drawing, she’s good at sketches, but is far too insecure about it to even show many people; is a fast learner, people don’t need to explain anything twice before she is already knowing how to do things.

V. SIGNATURES –––

theme song: “saturn”, sleeping at last.

strengths: intelligence, optimism, responsibility.

weaknesses: stubbornness, prejudice, impatience.

what would be in their trunk?: books, an old journal she likes to write or sketch sometimes, hendrik’s blanket, her father’s letters.