Abrizhel
Mar 6, 2013 19:02:54 GMT
Post by abrizhel on Mar 6, 2013 19:02:54 GMT
Name: Abrizhel (Abrizhel Draper, Abrizhel of Pentos, called the Merchant Maiden)
Age: 25
Place of Birth: Outskirts of Pentos
Current Place of Residence: Officially Pentos, but she spends much of her time traveling.
House: None
Family:
Father: Lontiro, formerly an innkeeper
Mother: Charindel of Qohor
Sister: Kifrinishal, four years younger
Appearance:
Garb:
Abrizhel favors bright dresses in silk or linen. She tends to choose yellows and pale oranges most often, although she's not averse to experimenting with colors all over the spectrum. She designs many of her own dresses, and occasionally still makes them. In hotter or dustier areas, she'll usually wear a gauzy veil over her hair. Now that she travels almost exclusively by carriage, she wears soft, thin-soled shoes. However Abrizhel draws the line at the more outlandish fashions she's come across - you won't ever find her in something so impractical as a tokar. If she truly needs to make an impression, she'll wear heavy, intricately embroidered samite, and small jewels in her hair.
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 125lbs
Personality:
Abrizhel knows what she wants and knows how to get it. While there are certain moral lines she won't cross, they don't always line up with those of others. She has very little regard for what others think of her, and when she's focused on a goal can be very single-minded about accomplishing it. Her work is her passion, the most important aspect of her life, and everything else, up to and including family, comes a distant second. She can sometimes come across as utterly emotionless. This isn't exactly the case; she does have feelings, she just doesn't let them interfere with her dealings with others, and believes being too emotionally expressive is a sign of weakness.
She's somewhat isolated. She has very little in common with the people she grew up with now, and for the most part she can't relate to the society she finds herself in. Abrizhel has never been sociable. While other girls would chatter, she would sit at her loom or counting coins for her father. In her youth she never took an interest in getting along with others, and now she doesn't really know how. Small talk baffles her, and the unwritten etiquette codes of the upper classes are even worse. That's not to say that she's friendless, only that those who want to relate to her on a personal level, rather than just talking business, have to be particularly tolerant of her eccentricities. She tends to be closest to those who can relate to her situation – other merchants, traders and craftsmen who have become wealthier than their parents could ever have expected to.
She takes little interest in politics, holding on to the attitude of the smallholder – rulers will do what they want, there's nothing you can do about it, protect what's yours and let them get on with it. Abrizhel takes the idea of protecting her assets very seriously. She's been called greedy, mercenary and amoral because of her focus on profits. She's also put about the idea that she won't ever marry because the idea of giving up even a portion of her wealth to a husband is unthinkable. The reality is a little more complex, though that's certainly part of it. It's telling that the so-called avariciously amoral Abrizhel won't trade in or own slaves as a matter of principle. She doesn't ever move to correct people's preconceptions, however. Her success speaks for itself, their opinions are unimportant.
Likes:
Dislikes:
Weapons: It's unusual for Abrizhel to carry a weapon, as she's rarely seen in public without a bodyguard or two, and if she really wants someone dead, there are people she can pay to see it done. However, she hasn't got any qualms about arming herself with whatever is available should she believe that she's in danger.
Skills:
Merchant Princess: Abrizhel has built up her own little business empire. From selling spare lengths of cloth to trading across the continent, she's worked hard for her success. She has a particular talent for picking out a good deal, and isn't averse to taking risks. Aware of the limitations society might place on her, she finds ways to work around them – if there's a customer she believes won't negotiate fairly with a woman, it's not Abrizhel but one of her proxies they'll meet in person.
Fortune: It goes without saying that Abrizhel is rich. Her fortune far outstrips that of most minor noble families in Essos, and at current rate of growth will soon match some of the wealthiest. She's not extravagant with it. Although she's made some costly mistakes when high-risk ventures haven't paid off, her personal spending is moderate compared to those born into wealthy families. She knows what it's like to be poor; there's no chance of her running up debts she can't pay.
Principled: Due to her upbringing, Abrizhel refuses to contemplate purchasing slaves to work in her cloth manufactories. While this does cause her problems – her pricing will never be competitive enough to make a dent in the markets in Slaver's Bay – on balance, it's seen as a sign of her moral integrity. Slavery is technically illegal in Pentos, but she has seen the loopholes exploited and decided she wants no part in it. She's not political about it and, if asked, will simply say that it's a personal decision. What others decide is up to them.
Weaknesses:
Uneducated: Abrizhel has had very little formal education. She's mostly illiterate, although she knows numbers and can keep accounts, and can sign her name. All written correspondence has to be relayed to her by an advisor. She speaks Pentoshi-dialect Valyrian, and while she's well-traveled enough to understand most of the dialects of the other Free Cities, and be understood, any further afield and she's going to need a translator. She's keenly aware of these deficits, since her social circles now tend to consist of better-educated people, but she says she doesn't have the time to remedy them. In truth, she'd be embarrassed if it was known that she was being taught.
Social Graces: She tends to come across as blunt, saying outright the things that others would imply. Abrizhel doesn't care much for socialization without a purpose, she's out of her depth. It's sometimes hard to get her to talk about anything but work. She has a poor grasp of etiquette and doesn't care to learn otherwise, dismissing it as 'courtly nonsense.' It's not unusual for her to be judged as eccentric or even outright rude.
The Scandal! Abrizhel has been betrothed twice, both times at her father's insistence. Both potential husbands died under circumstances that could be seen as suspicious before the marriage could take place. Now that she's older and independent, every suitor who has approached her has faced a none-too-gentle rejection, mostly with comments about how their profligate families won't get their hands on any of her money. Some people (mostly, it must be said, spurned would-be husbands and/or competitors) have begun to spread rumors.
History:
Abrizhel was born in a small village on the outskirts of Pentos. Many people passed through it en-route to the city, and her father, Lontiro, operated a thriving inn catering to travelers. Her mother was named Charindel, and although born in Qohor, she had moved to Pentos in her youth and settled in that same village. Abrizhel was their first child, and her father was a little disappointed that she wasn't a boy, who he could pass the inn onto in due course.
Nonetheless, her early childhood was relatively happy. Like the daughters of most smallfolk, she began helping her mother with the household work at an early age. By the age of four, she had her own drop-spindle and although her thread was coarse and uneven, it was good enough for string to tie bundles. Nothing was wasted. Before she turned five, her sister Kifrinishal was born. Abrizhel was old enough and observant enough to be aware of her father's grumbling. Again, he had wanted a son. However, it was not to be; Kifrinishal was the last living child her mother would bear.
Making the best of the situation, Lontiro began to instruct Abrizhel, once she was old enough to understand it, in the rudimentary aspects of the business. He told her that she would need to help her husband run the inn one day, and she ought to know how. He was a gruff man, with little patience or tolerance for errors, but much of the knowledge he imparted to her was sound, even if she didn't value it at the time. She would rather have been helping her mother.
Unlike much of the rest of the known world, Pentos remained at peace throughout Abrizhel's childhood. Whenever her father paid his taxes, he'd tell stories to Abrizhel illustrating just why they were necessary: to pay off the Dothraki who would otherwise ride through the city, burning and pillaging and enslaving. To this day, she's terrified of Dothraki and the threat they represent. Her father might as well have been talking about the end of the world.
By the time she was almost fourteen, Abrizhel's textile work was better than her mother's, and she spent as much time as she could at her little hand-loom. It was certainly more to her liking than trying to meet her father's demands, and she didn't like to spend too much time around the customers. The drunken ones were starting to make lewd comments around her, and it made her uncomfortable. Before long, she had woven such a surplus of cloth that her mother sent her to sell it at market.
She went into the city with one of her cousins, and it wasn't long before she found a buyer, offering to pay more than the price she had intended to charge. She wondered aloud what he planned to make with her lengths of linen, only to be met with a good-natured laugh. He was a merchant, he explained, he was going to sell it on to someone else.
Abrizhel reflected on this on the long walk back to her village. If he could sell it on, that made it worth even more than what he had paid her for it. She had never really looked upon her work as being so valuable, and it made her wonder about the possibilities. By the time she got home, she had decided to take a risk. She gave her mother only a portion of the coins she had earned, saying she hadn't been able to get more. Charindel scolded her daughter, and threatened to beat her for having so little sense, but Abrizhel barely heard.
The next time she went to market, she brought not only her own woven linen, but that of all her friends in the village, whom she had enticed to sell her their cloth, paying out the rest of her coin. After selling to the merchants in the city, she went home with a healthy profit. By the time her parents actually realized what she was doing, many months later, the bag of coins she had kept hidden from them was heavy. She convinced them not to take the money from her, saying that she was saving it, that one day she would have her own cart and her own market stall in the city, and she could buy cloth from every woman in the village.
Her father was angry with her for the deception, but couldn't help but see the potential in her plan. He never gave her a word of approval, but told her he wouldn't forbid it, so long as her chores at home didn't suffer on account of her grand plans. For a while, everything went smoothly. Until, that was, the slavers came to stay at the inn. Abrizhel, now sixteen, didn't think anything of it at first. Then she caught her father in a heated argument with one of them, and as she approached him, the man turned on her, pulling at her dress as if to tear it, and roaring something unintelligible. Her father drew a knife and chased him off, but Abrizhel was shaken.
Lontiro explained that the man had wanted to buy Abrizhel. At first she misunderstood, and thought the man had mistaken her for a whore, but it was worse than even that. He had been trying to convince her own father to sell her into slavery. It was illegal in Pentos, she knew, but that didn't stop it from happening. Abrizhel immediately declared that she found the practice to be disgusting, and that she hoped that man died horribly and that his soul froze for all eternity.
It did make Lontiro realize, though, that Abrizhel was old enough that she ought to be married. He picked out a husband for her – Vethaio, who was a wealthy farmer. Abrizhel objected, saying that he drank too much, his sisters said that he was unkind, and she didn't want to marry anyway, she still had dreams of opening up her market stall. Twice she had had to use most of her savings to help the family pay debts an uncle had accumulated, but she still hoped that someday she would fulfill her ambition. Lontiro, however, insisted that she marry Vethaio, and there didn't seem to be any objection she could make that carried weight.
One night before they were married Vethaio approached her on the street, so drunk he couldn't walk straight, and half-dragged her towards his farmhouse. She was going to be his wife, and he wanted her now. Abrizhel had been anxious about the prospect of her wedding night, but this was worse. Especially since the few bystanders ignored her when she called out to them, as if they thought it was his right to treat her that way.
Abrizhel stopped trying to fight him off, and let him take her into his house. The next morning she emerged, sobbing and crying out that Vethaio was dead. He had drunk too much, she said, and died in the night of it. Certainly, there was no evidence that might disprove this version of events.
That same month, Abrizhel bought a cart and a horse to pull it, and set up her own stall in the market. It was left to her younger sister to help at the inn, while Abrizhel devoted herself to this new venture. It was a resounding success, and she soon had a network of regular suppliers and customers. A portion of the proceeds went to her family, and the rest she kept for re-investment.
Two years later, she had several stalls. A second man her father had chosen for her to marry had suffered a tragic death at the hands of an irate mercenary who had picked a quarrel with him. There were those who whispered that coin had changed hands between the sellsword and the newly-affluent Abrizhel Draper, as she was by then known, but such rumors remained quite unprovable. Either way, her father was unable to find a third match for her. Abrizhel was left to her work.
By the time she was two-and-twenty, Abrizhel had her own cloth manufactory. She bought the fibers from the farmers, and the women who worked for her would spin and weave and dye the linen, which was then sold all over the city. She was contemplating importing silk for processing, knowing that it would cost more, but fetch a much higher price than her linen. She could afford to wear silk, and ride in a carriage, and the other wealthy families in the city were taking note of her. She even had a few offers of marriage from the younger sons of minor nobles, all of which she immediately declined. The Merchant Maiden, as the city smallfolk teasingly called her, was to remain unmarried.
Her business continued to grow. She began to sell not only linen, but silk and cotton, and not only in Pentos but across the Free Cities, sending agents of hers along all the trade routes. At her prompting, her father sold his inn, moved into the city and began to advise her on the trade in ales and wines. The network was there, she didn't have to limit herself to textiles. Soon, not only wine but spices and precious metals were being sold by Abrizhel and her associates.
Her lack of knowledge about the nuances of commerce proved a problem in several areas, particularly in the regions where most trade was controlled by guilds who didn't appreciate her attempt to break into the local markets. At first, she ignored this, but she underestimated the power of the guilds and lost quite a bit in trying to outdo them. Now, if there's a particular commodity monopolized by guild members in a particular region, she'll leave it well alone. There are other profits to be made.
The reputation of Abrizhel of Pentos has spread across the Free Cities, and many of those who do business with her know nothing of her humble background. It's usually obvious to anyone who spends any length of time with her, but most of her customers she never meets. She's unfailingly honest and fair in her dealings with others. Her sister Kifrinishal did marry into a noble family. Abrizhel wished the couple well, but told her new brother-in-law that if he was marrying her sister in the hope of trade concessions, he'd be sorely disappointed. Abrizhel doesn't play political games. She doesn't care who happens to hold power, as long as they let her alone to do business as she pleases.
She's currently looking into expanding her ventures even further – across the sea in Westeros, or in Qarth. A contact of hers recently brought back a peculiar rumor about a dragon in Qarth, but she ignored it. Those who listen to tales about mythical creatures and take them for truth strike her as overly credulous.
RP Sample: Already seen
Player: Hallie
Other characters played: Halaevia, Matilys, Liesel
Any plans in mind for the character? Getting even richer! Maybe selling her best cloth to noble ladies. Maybe someone could convince her that someone like her actually has more political power than your average peasant.
Do you agree to the rules: Yes
Who invited you to the site? Already here
Age: 25
Place of Birth: Outskirts of Pentos
Current Place of Residence: Officially Pentos, but she spends much of her time traveling.
House: None
Family:
Father: Lontiro, formerly an innkeeper
Mother: Charindel of Qohor
Sister: Kifrinishal, four years younger
Appearance:
Garb:
Abrizhel favors bright dresses in silk or linen. She tends to choose yellows and pale oranges most often, although she's not averse to experimenting with colors all over the spectrum. She designs many of her own dresses, and occasionally still makes them. In hotter or dustier areas, she'll usually wear a gauzy veil over her hair. Now that she travels almost exclusively by carriage, she wears soft, thin-soled shoes. However Abrizhel draws the line at the more outlandish fashions she's come across - you won't ever find her in something so impractical as a tokar. If she truly needs to make an impression, she'll wear heavy, intricately embroidered samite, and small jewels in her hair.
Height: 5' 6"
Weight: 125lbs
Personality:
Abrizhel knows what she wants and knows how to get it. While there are certain moral lines she won't cross, they don't always line up with those of others. She has very little regard for what others think of her, and when she's focused on a goal can be very single-minded about accomplishing it. Her work is her passion, the most important aspect of her life, and everything else, up to and including family, comes a distant second. She can sometimes come across as utterly emotionless. This isn't exactly the case; she does have feelings, she just doesn't let them interfere with her dealings with others, and believes being too emotionally expressive is a sign of weakness.
She's somewhat isolated. She has very little in common with the people she grew up with now, and for the most part she can't relate to the society she finds herself in. Abrizhel has never been sociable. While other girls would chatter, she would sit at her loom or counting coins for her father. In her youth she never took an interest in getting along with others, and now she doesn't really know how. Small talk baffles her, and the unwritten etiquette codes of the upper classes are even worse. That's not to say that she's friendless, only that those who want to relate to her on a personal level, rather than just talking business, have to be particularly tolerant of her eccentricities. She tends to be closest to those who can relate to her situation – other merchants, traders and craftsmen who have become wealthier than their parents could ever have expected to.
She takes little interest in politics, holding on to the attitude of the smallholder – rulers will do what they want, there's nothing you can do about it, protect what's yours and let them get on with it. Abrizhel takes the idea of protecting her assets very seriously. She's been called greedy, mercenary and amoral because of her focus on profits. She's also put about the idea that she won't ever marry because the idea of giving up even a portion of her wealth to a husband is unthinkable. The reality is a little more complex, though that's certainly part of it. It's telling that the so-called avariciously amoral Abrizhel won't trade in or own slaves as a matter of principle. She doesn't ever move to correct people's preconceptions, however. Her success speaks for itself, their opinions are unimportant.
Likes:
- Her work, and amassing wealth.
- Good wine. It's unusual for her to drink to excess, but a glass or two is a treat she enjoys.
- People who can focus on business and make solid deals instead of posturing.
Dislikes:
- People who use violence as a first resort. They're ignorant.
- The nobility. Abrizhel won't respect your wealth unless you've earnt it.
- Being expected to socialize for what seems like no good reason.
Weapons: It's unusual for Abrizhel to carry a weapon, as she's rarely seen in public without a bodyguard or two, and if she really wants someone dead, there are people she can pay to see it done. However, she hasn't got any qualms about arming herself with whatever is available should she believe that she's in danger.
Skills:
Merchant Princess: Abrizhel has built up her own little business empire. From selling spare lengths of cloth to trading across the continent, she's worked hard for her success. She has a particular talent for picking out a good deal, and isn't averse to taking risks. Aware of the limitations society might place on her, she finds ways to work around them – if there's a customer she believes won't negotiate fairly with a woman, it's not Abrizhel but one of her proxies they'll meet in person.
Fortune: It goes without saying that Abrizhel is rich. Her fortune far outstrips that of most minor noble families in Essos, and at current rate of growth will soon match some of the wealthiest. She's not extravagant with it. Although she's made some costly mistakes when high-risk ventures haven't paid off, her personal spending is moderate compared to those born into wealthy families. She knows what it's like to be poor; there's no chance of her running up debts she can't pay.
Principled: Due to her upbringing, Abrizhel refuses to contemplate purchasing slaves to work in her cloth manufactories. While this does cause her problems – her pricing will never be competitive enough to make a dent in the markets in Slaver's Bay – on balance, it's seen as a sign of her moral integrity. Slavery is technically illegal in Pentos, but she has seen the loopholes exploited and decided she wants no part in it. She's not political about it and, if asked, will simply say that it's a personal decision. What others decide is up to them.
Weaknesses:
Uneducated: Abrizhel has had very little formal education. She's mostly illiterate, although she knows numbers and can keep accounts, and can sign her name. All written correspondence has to be relayed to her by an advisor. She speaks Pentoshi-dialect Valyrian, and while she's well-traveled enough to understand most of the dialects of the other Free Cities, and be understood, any further afield and she's going to need a translator. She's keenly aware of these deficits, since her social circles now tend to consist of better-educated people, but she says she doesn't have the time to remedy them. In truth, she'd be embarrassed if it was known that she was being taught.
Social Graces: She tends to come across as blunt, saying outright the things that others would imply. Abrizhel doesn't care much for socialization without a purpose, she's out of her depth. It's sometimes hard to get her to talk about anything but work. She has a poor grasp of etiquette and doesn't care to learn otherwise, dismissing it as 'courtly nonsense.' It's not unusual for her to be judged as eccentric or even outright rude.
The Scandal! Abrizhel has been betrothed twice, both times at her father's insistence. Both potential husbands died under circumstances that could be seen as suspicious before the marriage could take place. Now that she's older and independent, every suitor who has approached her has faced a none-too-gentle rejection, mostly with comments about how their profligate families won't get their hands on any of her money. Some people (mostly, it must be said, spurned would-be husbands and/or competitors) have begun to spread rumors.
History:
Abrizhel was born in a small village on the outskirts of Pentos. Many people passed through it en-route to the city, and her father, Lontiro, operated a thriving inn catering to travelers. Her mother was named Charindel, and although born in Qohor, she had moved to Pentos in her youth and settled in that same village. Abrizhel was their first child, and her father was a little disappointed that she wasn't a boy, who he could pass the inn onto in due course.
Nonetheless, her early childhood was relatively happy. Like the daughters of most smallfolk, she began helping her mother with the household work at an early age. By the age of four, she had her own drop-spindle and although her thread was coarse and uneven, it was good enough for string to tie bundles. Nothing was wasted. Before she turned five, her sister Kifrinishal was born. Abrizhel was old enough and observant enough to be aware of her father's grumbling. Again, he had wanted a son. However, it was not to be; Kifrinishal was the last living child her mother would bear.
Making the best of the situation, Lontiro began to instruct Abrizhel, once she was old enough to understand it, in the rudimentary aspects of the business. He told her that she would need to help her husband run the inn one day, and she ought to know how. He was a gruff man, with little patience or tolerance for errors, but much of the knowledge he imparted to her was sound, even if she didn't value it at the time. She would rather have been helping her mother.
Unlike much of the rest of the known world, Pentos remained at peace throughout Abrizhel's childhood. Whenever her father paid his taxes, he'd tell stories to Abrizhel illustrating just why they were necessary: to pay off the Dothraki who would otherwise ride through the city, burning and pillaging and enslaving. To this day, she's terrified of Dothraki and the threat they represent. Her father might as well have been talking about the end of the world.
By the time she was almost fourteen, Abrizhel's textile work was better than her mother's, and she spent as much time as she could at her little hand-loom. It was certainly more to her liking than trying to meet her father's demands, and she didn't like to spend too much time around the customers. The drunken ones were starting to make lewd comments around her, and it made her uncomfortable. Before long, she had woven such a surplus of cloth that her mother sent her to sell it at market.
She went into the city with one of her cousins, and it wasn't long before she found a buyer, offering to pay more than the price she had intended to charge. She wondered aloud what he planned to make with her lengths of linen, only to be met with a good-natured laugh. He was a merchant, he explained, he was going to sell it on to someone else.
Abrizhel reflected on this on the long walk back to her village. If he could sell it on, that made it worth even more than what he had paid her for it. She had never really looked upon her work as being so valuable, and it made her wonder about the possibilities. By the time she got home, she had decided to take a risk. She gave her mother only a portion of the coins she had earned, saying she hadn't been able to get more. Charindel scolded her daughter, and threatened to beat her for having so little sense, but Abrizhel barely heard.
The next time she went to market, she brought not only her own woven linen, but that of all her friends in the village, whom she had enticed to sell her their cloth, paying out the rest of her coin. After selling to the merchants in the city, she went home with a healthy profit. By the time her parents actually realized what she was doing, many months later, the bag of coins she had kept hidden from them was heavy. She convinced them not to take the money from her, saying that she was saving it, that one day she would have her own cart and her own market stall in the city, and she could buy cloth from every woman in the village.
Her father was angry with her for the deception, but couldn't help but see the potential in her plan. He never gave her a word of approval, but told her he wouldn't forbid it, so long as her chores at home didn't suffer on account of her grand plans. For a while, everything went smoothly. Until, that was, the slavers came to stay at the inn. Abrizhel, now sixteen, didn't think anything of it at first. Then she caught her father in a heated argument with one of them, and as she approached him, the man turned on her, pulling at her dress as if to tear it, and roaring something unintelligible. Her father drew a knife and chased him off, but Abrizhel was shaken.
Lontiro explained that the man had wanted to buy Abrizhel. At first she misunderstood, and thought the man had mistaken her for a whore, but it was worse than even that. He had been trying to convince her own father to sell her into slavery. It was illegal in Pentos, she knew, but that didn't stop it from happening. Abrizhel immediately declared that she found the practice to be disgusting, and that she hoped that man died horribly and that his soul froze for all eternity.
It did make Lontiro realize, though, that Abrizhel was old enough that she ought to be married. He picked out a husband for her – Vethaio, who was a wealthy farmer. Abrizhel objected, saying that he drank too much, his sisters said that he was unkind, and she didn't want to marry anyway, she still had dreams of opening up her market stall. Twice she had had to use most of her savings to help the family pay debts an uncle had accumulated, but she still hoped that someday she would fulfill her ambition. Lontiro, however, insisted that she marry Vethaio, and there didn't seem to be any objection she could make that carried weight.
One night before they were married Vethaio approached her on the street, so drunk he couldn't walk straight, and half-dragged her towards his farmhouse. She was going to be his wife, and he wanted her now. Abrizhel had been anxious about the prospect of her wedding night, but this was worse. Especially since the few bystanders ignored her when she called out to them, as if they thought it was his right to treat her that way.
Abrizhel stopped trying to fight him off, and let him take her into his house. The next morning she emerged, sobbing and crying out that Vethaio was dead. He had drunk too much, she said, and died in the night of it. Certainly, there was no evidence that might disprove this version of events.
That same month, Abrizhel bought a cart and a horse to pull it, and set up her own stall in the market. It was left to her younger sister to help at the inn, while Abrizhel devoted herself to this new venture. It was a resounding success, and she soon had a network of regular suppliers and customers. A portion of the proceeds went to her family, and the rest she kept for re-investment.
Two years later, she had several stalls. A second man her father had chosen for her to marry had suffered a tragic death at the hands of an irate mercenary who had picked a quarrel with him. There were those who whispered that coin had changed hands between the sellsword and the newly-affluent Abrizhel Draper, as she was by then known, but such rumors remained quite unprovable. Either way, her father was unable to find a third match for her. Abrizhel was left to her work.
By the time she was two-and-twenty, Abrizhel had her own cloth manufactory. She bought the fibers from the farmers, and the women who worked for her would spin and weave and dye the linen, which was then sold all over the city. She was contemplating importing silk for processing, knowing that it would cost more, but fetch a much higher price than her linen. She could afford to wear silk, and ride in a carriage, and the other wealthy families in the city were taking note of her. She even had a few offers of marriage from the younger sons of minor nobles, all of which she immediately declined. The Merchant Maiden, as the city smallfolk teasingly called her, was to remain unmarried.
Her business continued to grow. She began to sell not only linen, but silk and cotton, and not only in Pentos but across the Free Cities, sending agents of hers along all the trade routes. At her prompting, her father sold his inn, moved into the city and began to advise her on the trade in ales and wines. The network was there, she didn't have to limit herself to textiles. Soon, not only wine but spices and precious metals were being sold by Abrizhel and her associates.
Her lack of knowledge about the nuances of commerce proved a problem in several areas, particularly in the regions where most trade was controlled by guilds who didn't appreciate her attempt to break into the local markets. At first, she ignored this, but she underestimated the power of the guilds and lost quite a bit in trying to outdo them. Now, if there's a particular commodity monopolized by guild members in a particular region, she'll leave it well alone. There are other profits to be made.
The reputation of Abrizhel of Pentos has spread across the Free Cities, and many of those who do business with her know nothing of her humble background. It's usually obvious to anyone who spends any length of time with her, but most of her customers she never meets. She's unfailingly honest and fair in her dealings with others. Her sister Kifrinishal did marry into a noble family. Abrizhel wished the couple well, but told her new brother-in-law that if he was marrying her sister in the hope of trade concessions, he'd be sorely disappointed. Abrizhel doesn't play political games. She doesn't care who happens to hold power, as long as they let her alone to do business as she pleases.
She's currently looking into expanding her ventures even further – across the sea in Westeros, or in Qarth. A contact of hers recently brought back a peculiar rumor about a dragon in Qarth, but she ignored it. Those who listen to tales about mythical creatures and take them for truth strike her as overly credulous.
RP Sample: Already seen
++OOC Info++
Player: Hallie
Other characters played: Halaevia, Matilys, Liesel
Any plans in mind for the character? Getting even richer! Maybe selling her best cloth to noble ladies. Maybe someone could convince her that someone like her actually has more political power than your average peasant.
Do you agree to the rules: Yes
Who invited you to the site? Already here
