Madalena Valnaris

Name: Madalena Valnaris
Age: 27
Zodiac: Leo
Gender: Female
P.O.B: Sundarin, Valyria
Residence: Archeon, Valyria
Religion: Faith of the dragon
Magic: Alchemy
Sexuality: Heterosexual / it's complicated
Relationship status: Married


Family:

+ Vaegar Bertheon (father)
+ Elaehrys Bertheon née Laentaris (mother)
+ Alymera Bertheon (sister)
+ Maelerya Bertheon (sister)

Spouse:

+ Vilarys Callaeron (first husband, deceased)
+ Daenarr Valnaris (husband)

Other:

+ Hidde Alaïs (Daenarr's maidservant)

Positive traits: Clever, intelligent, passionate, cunning, creative, humorous
Negative traits: Self-centred, spiteful, ruthless, snob, lazy, stubborn, dominant, possessive
Description: Madalena is a woman who knows what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it. She doesn’t settle for less than she thinks she deserves, which is a life of riches and adoration. She has little patience for those she considers beneath her; they are often not even in her field of perception. She is the most important person in her world and expects to be to anyone else, as well. When she feels slighted, she will use any and all means at her disposal to make whoever wronged her rue the day they were born.
__ She doesn’t do anything by halves. She loves as fiercely as she hates and has a tendency of clinging to those who make her feel worthwhile, even though she tries to act aloof. She thrives on intellectual discussions and loves to argue with someone if only for the sake of arguing, but doesn’t like being proven wrong and will often disregard whatever valid arguments her verbal sparring partner brings to the table. Her clever mind and her creativity are her greatest assets; they are what attracts most people to her and what might compel them to stay when the more difficult aspects of her personality start to surface.


Madalena was born as the middle daughter of three to a poor family living at the outskirts of Sundarin. As the middle child, she had to fight for the attention of her parents and those within the community: her older sister Alymera was adored simply by virtue of her having been born first, while Maelerya was doted on for being the youngest. Madalena seemed forever an afterthought. Easy to disregard. Replaceable. Not worthy of any special note, even when she tried her hardest, was the cleverest of the three sister, put the most effort into her appearance despite her substandard means.

The family lived in abject poverty and there were often times they would go hungry. They owned cattle, with whom Madalena often sought her refuge, as they at least seemed to appreciate her presence, but when times were tough, it was often one of the animal that served as dinner or that was carted off to market to be sold. Madalena grew ever more lonely and ever more reclusive. The older she got, the more she vowed that, once she left the house to be married, she would never be this poor again.

When she was eighteen, she caught the eye of a wealthy nobleman from the capital, who was in Sundarin on business. She met with him a few times while he was in the city, then again several weeks later when he returned on another business trip. Vilarys was gallant and handsome and seemed wholly captivated by her; after having spent several afternoons together, he asked Madalena to marry him. It didn’t seem to bother him that she didn’t have a dowry to speak of. They were married within the month and moved to Archeon permanently.

After her move to the capital, life was, in short, wonderful for Madalena. Vilarys was almost ridiculously wealthy, especially when compared to the life Madalena had led before her marriage, so she enjoyed all the finer qualities her new life had to offer. She luxuriated in the finest dresses, the best food, the shiniest jewellery. She followed lessons in alchemy, which she had an aptitude for. She wouldn’t settle for less than the best. She even loved her husband, even if he was mostly absent and left her to her own devices in the city.

Two years after her marriage, however, she came across letters written by a woman she didn’t know, addressed to Vilarys. In it, she discovered Vilarys was growing tired of her and had expressed regret at marrying her when she was next to useless to his business. The woman in the letters, apparently an entrepreneur in her own right, reminded him time and time again how much she could help him. In later letters, she began expressing her delight at Vilarys’s plans to leave his wife.

Madalena was shocked – outraged. Almost instantly, fury grabbed hold of her and didn’t let go. How dare Vilarys think of leaving her. He had stood before an entire congregation and promised her love and loyalty in good times and in bad, and here he was, planning on leaving her for the first trollop to rear her head. With white-hot calm, Madalena put the letter back where she had found them and walked to her quarters, where she kept the room she practiced her alchemy in. She set to work, checking books and making lists. The next few days were spent in the seedier parts of the city to procure less-than-legal ingredients, and in her workroom to brew the potion she needed.  Once she had finished, she started adding it to her husband’s food in small quantities whenever he wasn’t looking.

It would take time for the poison to take effect, but Madalena was a patient woman, and she knew it would alleviate suspicion if Vilarys appeared to have succumbed to an illness. Six weeks later, the task was done, and Vilarys was found dead in his rooms by one of the servants – he and Madalena hadn’t slept in the same room for over a year, which really should have told Madalena all she needed to know. She acted like the appropriate widow, wearing black to his funeral and pretending to be generally inconsolable. She sold the business because she didn’t want the hassle of managing it and continued living the easy life she had grown accustomed to.

Another two years later, though, her funs were running out. The business had generated a new heap of income when she had sold it, but not nearly enough to supply her lifestyle for much longer, especially considering the amount of servants she employed. Unwilling to go back to the life of her youth, Madalena married again, to a man she had been introduced to at a function. They have been married for a little over four years.


For the past four years, she hasn't thought too much of Hidde, her husband's maidservant, until she overheard some of the other servants talking about Hidde's actual occupation within the house and she set out to investigate. She found the girl in bed with her husband. She watched from the doorway, hidden in the shadows, feeling oddly numb, until Daenarr let out a groan and sagged down to the mattress, spent. Madalena didn’t linger to see the aftermath; she closed the door soundlessly and retreated to her own rooms, where she sat up all night contemplating her next course of action. She didn’t feel the same rage she had felt when Vilarys had betrayed her, perhaps because she had loved Vilarys for more than his capability to provide her comfort. Daenarr was a means to an end – but he was her means. Something had to be done.

She knew she couldn’t do to Daenarr and Hidde what she had done to Vilarys, if only because she had grown too comfortable in her lifestyle to be subjected to the inevitable questions that would arise from a second person in her vicinity dying of the same symptoms. She couldn’t rely on her poisons this time, but something did have to be done. She wracked her brains over it until, just before sunrise, she came up with a plan to reassert her authority in the house. She went to bed feeling content and resolved to put her plan into action the very next evening.


+ Madalena doesn’t like her second husband that much altogether – she thinks he’s dull and uninspired – but he has the money and the means to support her and his eye doesn’t seem to stray as easily as her late husband’s, so she tolerates him. It doesn’t stop her from having lovers on the side, though.
+ Ever since moving to the capital, Madalena hasn’t seen her family once. She knows they came by her manor in the early months of her first marriage, but she refused to see them. Eventually, they stopped trying.
+ Despite the luxurious lifestyle she can now maintain, Madalena has few hobbies. She likes her alchemy well enough and can sometimes be found with a book, but isn’t interested in much else.
+ Since moving to the capital, she has spent many hours studying any and all topics she can – mostly because she never got the chance as a child.