Full Name: Esmeralda Blackthorn
Nickname: (if any) Esme
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Occupation: Struggling Heiress
Nationality: English Spanish
Languages: English Spanish French Latin
Current status: Manager of her family estate, and Occult Researcher/ Archivist
Current Residence: Blackthorn Abbey

Overall Appearance: Tall, but curvy. She has an olive complexion, and black hair so long one would think she had sworn to never cut it.  Dark eyes adorn her face with an almost searching and sometimes uncertain look.  Her bearing is confident when dealing with confrontation, but lacks something in social situations. She speaks slowly through full lips and barely a trace of a Spanish accent. Her appearance makes it difficult to believe she is half English.

Her dress is of the latest fashion from London in public and when receiving visitors. Around the estate, she dresses as she needs when working in the garden, or driving off the rare poacher

Height:5’7”
Weight: 145 lbs
Eye Color: Brown (almost black)
Hair color: Black
Hair Style: Long past her waist and Straight
Complexion: Olive
Body shape:  Slender, yet curvy
Distinguishing Marks: (If any and visible.)
Clothing: She wears the latest styles with a perfect fit, but her choices are often safe and with little daring unless she is on her own property.

Basic Personality: Esmeralda can be distant until you warm up to her. Often, she stares and smiles during conversations, uncertain of when she should interact and afraid to say something that might be considered gauche or stupid.  She considers the social landscape a dangerous terrain, preferring smaller gatherings to bigger ones.  Esme can be defensive, and sometimes uneasy if she does not understand conventions. Otherwise, she is warm and imaginative with a thirst for knowledge, and a desire to have everything turn out well for all she meets.

Magic Percentage: Ill 45
Special Skills:

Music(piano) Before losing his faculties, her father insisted on Esme learning the piano.

Fencing and the use of muskets Esme has had to learn the use of weapons and some minor woodcraft in order to ensure poachers steer clear of the old haunted property.

Research and Occult lore: Esme has had extensive training from her father on this matter as well as the collecting of rare books through a series of intermediaries. She has done much work in translation and copying, and has tried her hand at writing original texts.

Seneschal: Esme has had to take control of the day to day around the Abbey. She has learned the basics of gardening and grounds keeping as the gardener only comes by once a month or so.

History: Blackthorn Abbey was once famous for its wine. When the king disbanded the church and made himself the leader of the new religious order, the Abbey was cleared of the sisters that once prayed and worked there. Six refused to leave the holy shrine, and were threatened with charges of treason if they did not obey. They refused and were run through by the soldiers sent to evict them.

They say that the sister's blood mixed with the wine and the grapes being grown, cursing them and making them bitter. The Abbey and titles were given to a young knight who had won fame on the battlefield, but all was not well. The grapes would bear wine that no gardener or vintner from abroad could make  sweet again.

Arthur Blackthorn was old when he went abroad to find a Lady of appropriate station to wed. His second wife had already succumbed to a fever and his son was a sickly child who he feared would not live long enough to inherit the estate. The old man was obsessed with hidden lore and traveled extensively to find secrets and lost occult books. Blackthorn found his young bride among a declining estate in Madrid and took her back to England and his ancestral home. She died in childbirth, and the old man was stuck with a girl child. His own son died soon after and Blackthorn became more determined than ever to find whatever it was he was looking for.

Esmeralda grew up with tutors and servants as she followed her father around the continent and abroad. Friends were made, but only for short times as her father was always moving. She learned much from Arthur Blackthorn who had already compiled a large library of occult tomes and references.  Whatever he was looking for ultimately eluded him, and he had an attack one afternoon and a fall from his balcony that left him alive, but unable to speak or walk.

The last five years have seen Esmeralda grow into running the estate. She has already come out to the public, but with little training in etiquette, her first appearance was a disaster. Now a distant relation of her father's has appeared and wants Esme married off as soon as possible and have the Lord of the Abbey declared unsuitable to run the house so he can inherit the estates.

Update: Esmeralda became even more reclusive than usual after her public humiliation. She resurfaced later under the wing of Lady Ashcroft and has been seen attending several social functions in London and private estates. Now in her mid twenties, Esme has had no luck in marriage and is slowly slipping toward spinsterhood. She is often alone, but sometimes accompanied by other ladies.


Family (Living or Deceased?):
Lord Arthur Blackthorn - Father (currently an invalid)
Lady Elena Blackthorn - Mother (deceased)
Lord Jonathon Blackthorn - younger brother (deceased)
Lord Geoffrey Rougemont – distant cousin

Currently Wearing