Margarita de Ferre is the matriarch of the de Ferre family.
Biography[]
Margarita was born into a poor farming family in Farrun. Her life was intended to be rather typical. But when she was not even 7 years old a mysterious force of darkness attacked her family home, killing her entire family. The same fate would have befallen young Margarita, save the necklace she wore suddenly lit up and emitted a red wave of energy which repelled the darkness. Young Margarita fled her now destroyed family home, horrified by what she had seen, she made it to the docks and stowed away on a boat bound for Winterhold. Curiously the boat was on course to deliver supplies to the College, the master wizard at the time was the one who found young Margarita and brought her to live as a ward of the college, they took particular interest in the necklace she wore but she never allowed them to take it from her and even when they did manage to convince her to allow them to take it, it always flew back to her. As the years went on Margarita proved herself to be a naturally adept mage, she was excelling ahead of her cohort much to the confusion of her tutors, due to her exceeding even the elven students.
Between the ages of 16-22 she was part of a group sent by the college across the continent, firstly as ambassadors to the various magical institutions in Cyrodil, next she went to the city of Elinhir to study with the cities mages guild, during her time in the city she became familiar with descendants of the famous Blackcasters and received a wealth of knowledge from them. She also spent a year in the city of Taneth, where she met her best friend, a street rat named Maziar.
After spending a time in Hammerfell she departed for Solstheim, being presented with a unique opportunity to study under Neloth, it took weeks but eventually the old Dunmer realised that Margarita was unlike the others who had come before, she was someone intent on learning and had the ability to carry out that learning. Margarita was able to charm her way into the extremely isolationist House Telvanni and their society, earning respect from the elves for her undeniable talent in the magical arts. She has surprisingly regular contact with many Telvanni mages, even in the 5th era, whilst she does not agree with all of their customs, she understands it is not her place to question or try to change their minds on their culture.
She then travelled to The Summerset Isles to study further, brought by an Altmeri friend who vouched to keep a watchful eye over her, after a while of debates, she was finally granted access to Alinor, she found this to be the best place in the world for magical education.
It was in her journey to her final destination, The Adamantine tower that she was drawn to the island of Betony, she sensed a great deal of magical energy emanating from the island and was curious of its origins. She spent some time there, learning the history of the island from the ruling family, the de Ferres and learning of the families history. The de Ferres were quite welcoming to her and after a while treated her as there own, such is the trusting nature of the family. Secretly she pursued a relationship with the youngest of the de Ferre children, Carstan, who had just recently been knighted, it was when Carstan was near fatally wounded in a battle, and Margarita used her powerful healing magic to save the young lords life, did he finally announce his plans to marry her to his father, whom he feared would out right disown him.
Much to his surprise, Count Trystane de Ferre, the current head of the family, gave not only his permission, but his blessing to the young couple, he was fond of the young Margarita and did not wish to see her leave.
Soon after the wedding Margarita was due to have the couples first child, but unfortunately she miscarried, and this was followed by multiple other miscarriages. Still the two remained optimistic and were blessed with a healthy baby boy, Trystane, named for his grandfather.
Fair haired with bright golden eyes Trystane was the picture of perfection the day he was born.
Many people would say that Margarita was born to be a mother as it was just something that came so naturally to her, she loved baby Trystane with all her heart and swore to protect him with all she had. Trystane mirrored his father as he grew in chivalry and sword fighting prowess, it’s said that Margarita and Carstan considered sending the boy to Taneth to be educated at the Hall of the Virtues of War but as Trystane didn’t wish to go they decided they would not force him and they also thought it wouldn’t make much sense to send a Breton to learn a hammerfellian fighting style.
Not even a year had passed when she was expecting again, Trystane was on the verge of his second name day when baby Alistair made his arrival to nirn. A curly mop of pitch black hair and forest green eyes he was the perfect baby, he didn’t cry, he slept soundly each night and even as he grew remained quiet and out of the way from everyone else. Margarita would occasionally travel between Betony and Winterhold but when Carstans father passed away and he took control of the family she made the decision to dedicate her life to her family, although she does keep regular contact with the college and her old classmates.
During the third (viable) pregnancy, Betony had entered into an unprecedented state of wealth, trade was at its peak and the de Ferres relationships across High Rock were blooming beautifully, it was all these signs of prosperity that led Margarita and Carstan to believe that this next child was something amazing.
After 3 days and 3 nights in agonising labour, the hardest of the three, one that brought Margarita to the very brink of death itself, Cassian entered the world.
A detestable little creature, with dirty amber eyes and sickly blond hair he was nothing like his brothers, what’s more is he was quite obviously malformed, a hunchback at best. His skin was blemished and flaky, nothing about him was the way it should’ve been. But Margarita didn’t care, she saw only her child and could only know love for him, she was his mother, how could she feel anything else for him.
Cassian grew to be a friendly but extremely odd little child, ugly from top to toe he was considered monstrous by many and the subject of gossip for many jealous noble families in High Rock, such is the way of Breton politics, even a child was not off limits to scrutiny. Cassian, out of all his siblings had the greatest affinity for magic, this made Margarita overjoyed and she took great pride in watching him grow and develop his abilities, although she was always cautious of his frequent meltdowns that could easily kill those caught within them, such was the case when the boy was only 20 years old he suffered a breakdown which almost resulted in both Cassian and Margaritas death. It was for this reason that Cassian was chased from Betony, by his brothers and father, unbeknownst to Margarita who was put into a coma for 2 months.
It was during the sweet summer that the 4th de Ferre child was born. The first and only girl, Rosalia. While Cassian’s birth may have been bad, it was Rosalia’s pregnancy that was by far the worst, Margarita almost died across the 8 months she was pregnant with her daughter due to Rosalia unknowingly sapping the magical life energy from her mother while still in the womb. Thankfully when she was born Rosalia didn’t display any negative traits, she was by far the most beautiful little baby in the world and many say she was sent by Mara herself, she grew in kindness, grace and humility, only striving to help others and be a good person.
Rosalia displayed an ability that was common in her fathers family, while most mages create and manipulate their own magic, Margarita noticed that Rosalia could not do this, instead she could siphon the magic from another source and then use it but unless she had access to another source of magic she was essentially powerles.
Only 2 years after Rosalia, the de Ferres were blessed with baby Caliban, a sickly little thing, Caliban was plagued with respiratory problems and it was only a few months into his life that he lost his fight. Unable to cope with the loss of her baby Margarita cried out to anything that was listening, unfortunately for her, the date was the 20th of Sun’s dusk, the summoning day of Mehrunes Dagon. The daedric prince restored life to baby Caliban but at a terrible price, he claimed the child’s soul and infused a significant amount of daedric energy into him. It became clear to Margarita as the child grew that he was unlike others, he enjoyed inflicting pain on others, breaking his toys and running rampant in the family home. He developed strong magic that made him exceedingly dangerous, leading to him incinerating a group of servants, this act was what had him bound in the family dungeon, far away from anyone that he could harm.
There was one child left after everything, little Alexio. A little imp of a boy, he possessed an uncanny ability to slip in and out of existence, which he used to constantly play tricks on the de Ferre staff and his own family, many recognised that he never meant any ill will and as such, allowed him to continue in his little escapades.
Personality[]
Above all Margarita’s main personality trait is that she is caring, she is quite maternal and allows people to treat her as a mother figure in life, this makes her very approachable and easy to connect with as she naturally makes people feel at ease and able to lower their guard.
Because of her years of study she is remarkably well read and very knowledgeable about most arcane, historical and political matters.
Another by-product of her travels is her accent is somewhat warped, she doesn’t sound like she belongs anywhere in the world really. The accent could be considered to be American mixed with southern English with over inflections and a tendency to over enunciate words when she speaks. Many people consider her voice to be out of place and some consider it downright annoying, she herself doesn’t recognise that she speaks with an accent.
Trivia[]
- Margarita is an avid bibliophile and can normally be found in the library of Chateau de Ferre
- Due to living the life of a commoner she is much more down to earth than her husband and her children, which gives her a unique perspective when it comes to ruling, this has made her highly favoured by the small folk of Betony.
- She is also an efficient teacher and often carries out magical lessons for people on Betony.
- Another result of her travels is her fluency in the Dunmer and Aldmer languages.