Astoria Umbridge

Astoria on her wedding night

Jason Umbridge (brother)

Henry Blackthorne (son)

Edgar Blackthorne (son)

Edwin Blackthorne (son)

Aradian Temple

Lady **Astoria Blackthorne**, born as **Astoria Umbridge** and later known simply as **Sister Astoria**, was the widow of Sir Edward Blackthorne. She had three sons with him who would all go on to lead House Blackthorne; her eldest was Henry Blackthorne, was born in 549AE, and her twins Edgar Blackthorne and Edwin Blackthorne would born in 551AE. She refused to remarry after her husband's death and spent time as a figure in Western politics, and later briefly as a servant to the Aradian temple.

## Appearance and Character

Astoria had elven lineage through her mother's side and retained her mother's pointed ears. Her hair was blonde, and her eyes blue. Many accounts describe her as beautiful, though they also mention that she was prone to sudden alterings of her appearance--becoming alarmingly thin from fasting or shaving her head bald--that prevented her from being seen as such.

She was an unstable personality, known to have flights of hysteria and anger that caused her to be feared and distrusted by much of the nobility. Astoria was obsessive in her interests, flirting most often with religion. She had a difficult relationship with her husband, alternating between hating him and adoring him. When Edward died she claimed she would never love again--though she would go on to aggressively pursue his brother Balin and be frequently infuriated when he refused her advances. She was close to her younger twin sons, and passed much of herself on to them, though each twin recieved different aspects of her mania.

## History

Astoria was the eldest child of Geraint Umbridge by his wife, Wisteria Thormund. Her grandfather Vortigern Thormund was a veteran war-general, highly respected for commanding campaigns in Brecilidia and for his displays in the Lists at various Tourneys. Perhaps owing to "a few too many knocks to the head over the years," Vortigern was starting to become senile and incapable in his 60s. He famously failed to keep a leash on his unruly squires, including the heir to House Blackthorne, Edward. Astoria was introduced to the squire group on the day that Edward was to be knighted; as if she were a peasant girl in any of the towns his Boys frequented, Edward baited Astoria into his tent. Historians are divided as to whether the subsequent encounter was consensual, and the subsequent Blackthorne cover-up would press the agenda that it was, but Astoria would frequently proclaim that she was raped by Blackshank's Boys.

She was discovered to be pregnant after this, aged only 15, and refused to revoke the accusation against Edward specifically. The boys' father Allister struck up a deal with Lord Umbridge to quieten the scandal, and the two were forced into an arranged marriage. Astoria later miscarried that first baby, a daughter, but remained locked in matrimony with her attacker. She had always been an eccentric and changeable child, but her marriage swiftly caused her to deteriorate into genuine mental illness. She had three living sons by Edward, and constantly alternated between doting on her husband and openly hating him, going so far as to slash at him with his own dagger on their wedding night.

Following the death of Edward and his father, Astoria's eldest son Henry was named as the new Lord Blackthorne. Astoria was given a position on the boy's council; like in most other aspects of herself, she proved a changable politician, swinging between extreme of political action at meetings and in constant histrionics. Her husband's brother Balin, hand of the house, pitied her greatly and always tried to speak in her defense. Eventually however she was barred from the chamber for frightening her own son too much; Henry was a mild and sensitive child and had grown to fear his mother's aggression.

Astoria spent more time with her twins. She was famously involved in a mixup around the time of 563AE, where the wrong twin was sent away to be fostered with relatives at Huperbrigge. Edgar, the elder of the boys, had been taken in by one of his mother's flights of fancy concerning Aradian mythology, and during his supposed schooling for discipline he went deep into the Temple and almost became a Monk. Astoria herself alternated between weeping prayers to the Goddess to save her soul, and screaming blasphemies at loyalist Aradian priests. When Edwin, her youngest son, eventually took over as Lord in 569AE, he had a dispute with his mother that ended with her pulling a knife on him as she had done with his father years ago; he commanded that she be institutionalized, locked in an asylum as a madwoman. Edwin's uncle Balin hotly contested this, causing a falling out between the two that resulted in Balin's firing as hand of the House. Edwin subsequently softened his sentence and allowed Astoria to be named to a Temple convent instead, where she lived as a Sister until her death in 587AE.

## Legacy

While a victim of both society and her own mind, Astoria passed her various complexes onto her three sons; Henry was aggressively insecure, Edgar a pious zealot blind to the sensitivites of those around him, and Edwin prone to similar patterns of mania and depression--infamously, also taking the same up&down approach to his romantic life.