History: A long, long, LONG time ago, was the Holy War. A gigantic battle which found the complete forces of Good and Evil, facing each other in an ultimate struggle for victory. It was a war larger and more cruel than anything before it.
And it had absolutely nothing to do with Beth-avin.
Instead, her story starts only a little less than two thousand years ago, more specifically the year 38 AD, in a patrician mansion some miles away from the city of Rome, Italy. On the specific day that Beth's story begins, the mansion was in a state of excitement due to the wedding of Lucius Cassius (light, empty and vain) and Justina Fabus (Justice bean. What, me silly? Noooo. It is an authentic Roman name, after all.) Lucius, 17 years old, was the oldest son of the old and wealthy patrician Seneca Cassius (old, empty and vain. What a positive name.), and the whole large family had been eagerly expecting his wedding ever since the boy was born. The woman who were to be his wife, Justina, age 15, came from another wealthy family that the Cassius family had long been wanting to connect with, preferably through marriage – now this was happening and everyone was more than happy. Only the coming bride and groom were indifferent, mainly due to the fact that they had never met before in their whole life. Bah, details - the young 'uns were married anyway, and then the crowd went WHOO! ^^;
As time passed and the two teenagers who were now wife and husband finally had time to get to know each other, they discovered that they were actually quite fond of one another. No. Very, very, very fond of each other. Probably they were just very lucky. In either way, the pair eventually settled down into their lot of life, the life of the upper class. Aside from the country mansion, they too owned a good deal of the Cassius family home in Rome, several farms run by slaves, a few smaller businesses, fine stables and an army of slaves for any occasion. By and large, everything a Roman patrician family could wish for. Except for children.
Though they had tried for several years (remember the 'very, very fond' part?), went to loads of different healers, and prayed to pretty much any god in the Roman Pantheon, Justina was still completely barren. And so the couple pulled out the big cannons. Let's just say 'not-that-pretty sacrifices to not-so-politically correct deities', shall we? Indeed, the people 'down there' have a lot to offer, and indeed, nine moths later, Justina gave birth to her first and only child, a daughter. Sadly, as it happens when people mess with less politically correct deities, the happy givers wanted a bit more than they had been getting. Specifically, they wanted Justina's soul. For demonic powers, it takes almost nothing to make a childbirth go horribly, horribly wrong – in ancient times, it was probably even easier than that. No matter what, the young Phoebe Cassius lost her mother only a few hours old. Though he was heartbroken over the loss of his wife, Lucius nonetheless got himself together and became focused on doing everything he could to make his tiny daughter happy.
And thus, Phoebe Cassius became a horribly, horribly spoiled kid. She belonged with the group of 'rich kids that makes you want to kick their sensitive butts', getting anything she pointed her tiny finger at – and if she for some instance couldn't get what she wanted, she would throw a fit until she got it anyway. In lack of a mother, the child was cared for by a small army of nurses and servants, leaving her father time to continue his political work without a bad consciousness. When you're rich, you can afford such things. And even so, Lucius would spend as much time with his daughter as his work allowed him, which was pretty much twice the time other patrician fathers bothered to spend with their children. And Phoebe absolutely loved it. From an early age, she adored her father, but she too started to love the wealth, power and luxury that would, in the end, be the reason for her fall. But that is far from yet – a lot more stuff happened along the way that made Phoebe Cassius who and what she is today.
As little girls do, Phoebe eventually matured into a little and, at least in the eyes of her father, very beautiful woman. And as tradition prescribed it, little beautiful women were supposed to be married – preferably as fast as possible. Of course, a lot of rich old men wanted their rich but not old sons to marry Phoebe, who was not only little and beautiful but also very, very rich – luck had it that Lucius wanted his daughter married to a rich young man as well, certain that would be Best for Her. Well, father pays, and in a few months after the first proposals were received, 13 years old Phoebe was all set and ready to marry her Chosen One (that is, chosen by her father), 18 years old Aulus Aurelius (golden palace). The only problem was that Phoebe was definitely NOT going to get married. Heck, she was still in her 'boys stink' phase, and if something stunk, that would be leaving her beloved daddee for good to live with some strange and astronomically old boy.
So Phoebe wailed. And she cried. She threw temper tantrums. She clinged to her father's legs. She refused to move. She held her breath. And nothing helped.
The realization that she had no way to escape the situation was almost apocalyptic to Phoebe. Up to this point, she had been able to get everything she wanted by crying or raging, but now, her father simply refused her pleas with a “It's the best for you”. It fueled a little flame of pure hate that has been burning inside Phoebe ever since then, a flame that later led her on the wrong path like a will-o-wisp.
Then the wedding was held, Phoebe being silent and angry with everyone through the whole thing while the crowd once again went WHOO! over the unification of two families. His legal wife, Phoebe, who now carried the name Aurelius, moved with Aulus to his mansion several Roman miles away. There, she spent several months crying and whining about her misery, her husband and the lack of her father. And when she finally started to show just a little bit of interest in him, Aulus turned out to be a Damn Boring Man, caring not for anything but his businesses here and in Rome. Well, he had been forced into the marriage as well, but to Phoebe, that was no reason to completely ignore her. And ignored she surely was. Though her servants took well care of her, Aulus saw Phoebe as nothing more than an annoyance, or at the very best a birthing device – there was plenty of cold air between them, yes. As the years passed by, Aulus spent more and more time away from home, apparently working (but probably in the 'company' of a few slave girls) and Phoebe had to find something to spend her time doing. That is when she discovered Herself.
Phoebe had always been very concerned with her own well-being, very much into whether or not she got what she deserved, but now as she had to spend more and more time on her own, that old inflated ego suddenly grew to enormous proportions. Having, in her own opinion, lost the love of her father and never received that of Aulus, she concentrated all her energy on herself and her own wishes. Everything she did, she did to make her own life more comfortable. She dwelled in her own luxury, spending all her unknowing husband's earnings on extravagant clothes, foods and luxury items. Phoebe became an important figure in Roman social life, throwing some of the most extravagant parties in the empire, all in celebration of herself. Her 17th birthday party was remembered more than 50 years after Phoebe's presumed death.
But though she did everything she could to make herself happy, Phoebe discovered that she was only growing more unhappy. Obviously, this was due to neither receiving or giving love for most of her youth, but she herself wouldn't accept that fact and instead blamed Aulus and her poor servants. As time passed by, the once (at least sort of) kind lady became cruel and uncaring, treating her servants and slaves like trash and behaving horribly in social situations. (People still came to her parties though, because they were, as said above, darn huge.)
The first big turning point in Phoebe's life came as she was 18 years old. One otherwise perfectly normal day, a messenger arrived at the Maison Aurelius with this message: Lucius Cassius had passed away. That moment, Phoebe discovered that she, too, was a mere mortal.
In a way, this came as a shock to Phoebe. Of course, she had always known that she was human, but as it sometimes happens with the rich and powerful, she had been viewing herself as some sort of demi-god; nothing truly bad could happen to her, especially not something as utterly terrible as death. Losing her father, possibly the only person she ever really cared about, was a shortcoming of her own divinity, a shock that changed her life. From thinking that her wealth could solve any problem, Phoebe went to a state of powerlessness, finally faced with a desire she couldn't satisfy. From that day on, the 19-year-old Phoebe started to stare into a mirror like a woman going on 50, searching each millimeter of her skin for the slightest wrinkle. She became ridiculously obsessed with her own health and beauty, always carrying at least three mirrors on her person and rarely going anywhere without her slave doctor. Aulus, when he was at home, just laughed it off – which he surely shouldn't have done.
As her obsession with mortality grew even more dominant, Phoebe became determined to pursue eternal life at whatever cost. After realizing that the gods of Rome could do nothing to help her achieve her goal, Phoebe went in the footsteps of her mother and digged into the Dark Arts. Reading, learning and practicing, Phoebe suddenly isolated herself in the cellar of the Maison Aurelius, determined to reach her goal. She worked day and night, made bloody sacrifices and other sorts of yucky stuff I won't go into detail with, but finally, after almost a year of isolation, Phoebe Cassius managed to complete a ritual that would change her life. Or rather make sure her life would not change which was what she wanted but not what she got. Er, did anyone get that?
Anyway, Phoebe had finally performed the ritual she had been aiming for so long: within her pentagram of virgin 's blood and cock's feathers (and whatever other evil-ish substances she used) appeared a representative of the LoCD. (I don't know who this was. Was it you? Great, let's work some past-thingies out. ^^) Without much ado, Phoebe signed a contract in her own blood, selling her immortal soul and promising a lifelong service of Evil and stable supply of other peoples' souls for the benefit of eternal life, beauty and wealth, plus demonic powers. The contract was then burned so it would never be changed, and so Phoebe Cassius became the Lady of the Creeping Darkness Beth-avin, Maiden of Vanity.
It would take her several years yet to live up to her new status as demon, though. After 'making the deal', Phoebe, as she still called herself, returned from her isolation, never speaking a word of it again, and continued her old life, only she now seemed genuinely happy and confident. As a bonus, she seemed not to age a day while other patrician ladies her age started to develop their first signs of wrinkles and overweight. (In ancient Rome, most people didn't live to see their 50th birthday). Once again, Phoebe was part of the in crowd of high society Rome, throwing enormous parties that were remembered for years. Of course this couldn't last. Really, you expected her to live happily ever after?
The second great turning point in Phoebe's life came as she was 25 years old. Aulus had not really been around the Maison for a few years at this point, and because Phoebe never cared about him at all, she hardly even remembered that he was her husband anymore. So of course, it was sort of a shock to suddenly have him standing in the hallway again. The real shock to Phoebe, though was what he said. After 12 years of marriage, Aulus explained, he had had enough of a wife he rarely even saw, who had never produced him any heirs, and used up all his hard earned fortunes. On his travels, Aulus had found himself a new wife who would give birth to his son, live in his palace, and take over all of Phoebe's belongings. Phoebe herself was to leave the Maison by the next morning, left to her own destiny which, since both of her parents were dead, would most likely be a life in poverty. Aulus even introduced his new wife to Phoebe, a young, insecure girl, barely out of childhood but already visibly pregnant. As Aulus dragged his new toy to the bedroom, Phoebe felt a rage that was unmatched by any she had felt before. NO ONE should dare to replace her, let alone take her wealth from her, and NO ONE in the whole world should ever, ever dare to think they could make decisions for her again.
By the next morning, all three of them were gone, the Maison Aurelius laid in ruins.
This was the first time Beth used her powers, though she had technically been a Lady of Darkness for over 6 years at that point. Now that Phoebe Cassius was truly dead, Beth-avin installed herself into a new life. And another one. And another one. But they are not significant to her current persona (or maybe I'm just a lazy bastard.)
What is important, though, is the London arrival in Anno Domini 1995 of a beautiful young lady calling herself Belladonna Phoebe Cassius. Belladonna had moved her base to London not only due to the recent gathering of the LoCD in that particular city, but just as much because London was just getting damn hot where she used to live. And Beth wanted to be hot. So without anyone really wondering where she came from or while she was here, Belladonna got herself a flat in City of London, conveniently close to the shopping Mecca of Oxford Street and a job at Delilah's Hair & Beauty Salon, while making her entrance at the clubbing and supervillain scenes of The Queen's City. Wow, and this brings us up till today! Now don't say that wasn't convenient. ^^;
NPCs:
Gosegas: Has his own little profile.
Devil's Accountant: With a name that is so obviously a pun of the term Devil's Lawyer that it's not even funny, this guy is obviously mainly a source of comic relief. Not a real Demon From Hell (TM), he is basically an aspect of Beth's contract brought to life when necessary. Physically (if you can even use this word to describe someone who is mainly an aspect of an official document), he is your average stiff law-man: monochrome suit, monochrome briefcase, monochrome tie, monochrome bowler, monochrome skin, monochrome eyes. And little horns. Comical little horns that sprout from his head just beneath the bowler. His facial expression is unchangeable, and he has the voice of a typewriter. Yup, surely a charming guy. This doesn't stop him from being a constant threat to Beth's life, though. ^^
Mrs. Harris: Belladonna's boss at work, owner of the Salon Delilah and one of the few people on Beth's no-kill listing. Mrs. Harris is a plump, short lady around age 45, but definitely not one of those you would give a hug at any time. She is no cozy grandmother, and that is made clear on the first meeting. Mrs. Harris makes demands, and she expects those demands to be followed. Yes, she is not Beth's dream boss – but she's neccessary.