Regula/History

* Overview
* Skills & Abilities
* **History**
* Changelog
* Image & Misc.

## Backstory

She was born just in time to witness the collapse of the Burgundian Kingdom, although she was barely old enough to make sense of it at the time. What she did get to witness from a young age, was the intricate and complicated political scene within the Holy Roman Empire, as her family was nobility in the newly formed County of Savoy that lay within it. The many marriages, reforms, treaties and trade agreements between all the counties, princedoms, dukedoms and states that tried to stick together as a single 'Holy Roman Empire' was the standard topic of conversation at the dining table, or anywhere else in the house, for that matter.

Her education was exclusively catered towards one goal; making her the ideal marriage candidate for one of the many rulers within the Holy Roman Empire. The long days of studying etiquette and pretending to be the perfect lady were tiresome, but she pulled through somehow. Her main issue was with what she wasn't allowed to study. She cared more about the governmental aspects of being part of the ruling class than a woman should, so she was often reprimanded for sticking her nose where it didn't belong. With effort, she managed to pass it off as a mere 'interest' and kept her desires to be the one in power hidden.

This desire was growing ever so slightly any time she spotted faulty decisions being made by the men in power all through-out the Holy Roman Empire. She knew she'd be able to make the County of Savoy a better place than its current incompetent ruler ever could, or even fix some of the other places within the empire, as she had no particular loyalty to her own birthplace, but she'd never get a shot at it. She was a woman, after all, who's only goal was to give an heir to whomever she'd be married off to.

The destined fate of becoming nothing more than the 'mother of an heir' was her worst nightmare. It kept her awake at night and forced her into crafting her master-plan. She had her eyes set on a princedom to the north of the County of Savoy. The ruling prince was old enough to kick the bucket at any time, so if she'd manage to get married to his weak-willed son, there was a high chance she'd be there when he would take over the princedom's leadership. His easily influenced personality would make it easy for her to manipulate him, which would finally make her dream of being the one in charge come to fruition, even if it'd be from behind the scenes.

The first part of her plan succeeded, as she was married off to the prince's son at the age of sixteen. Whilst her marriage wasn't a happy one, as she didn't love the man in the slightest, she reached the position of power she had aimed for. Or so she thought. The second part of her plan, that of manipulating events from behind the shadow of her husband, was immediately foiled. It turned out another woman had already gained a firm grasp on the young ruler; the prince's mother had long been the shadow-ruler. She had even spent her time manipulating her husband before his passing. As such, she wasn't going to step aside and let some other woman get a hold of her son.

The two women clashed multiple times, but the already existing network of her mother-in-law turned out to be far too powerful to deal with. Eventually, she felt cornered; forced to be nothing more than meaningless decoration, other than her task of birthing an heir. The latter wasn't going well either. Try as she and her husband might, three entire years went by without a sign of success. She was fairly certain the prince's seed was as weak as his will, but she was the one that got blamed by society. It was likely a scheme of her mother-in-law. It was successful one at that, as she eventually got divorced on the grounds of being infertile. Her last hope of getting in power by outliving her mother-in-law and taking control after the woman's death faded away before her eyes.

Despite being only nineteen years old, she was forced to live out the rest of her life in a cottage in the mountains, with the intend of having her entire existence be forgotten by history. It was a destiny she wasn't willing to follow, so she took her fate in her own hands in the only way she could think off; by ending it all.

She was rather shocked to find out there was such a thing as a [god] in the world. She'd always thought that the 'Holy' part in the Empire's name to be equally meaningless as the 'Roman' one and merely faked piety for the sake of appearances. Rather than being sent to burn in hellfire, however, she was offered a new opportunity. Living as she pleased? She grimaced. Perhaps she'd manage to do so this time around. She sure as hell hadn't given up on her goals yet. She'd rule her own kingdom and if that meant going to another world and bringing that entire world in motion in order to achieve it, so be it.

## Current Life

When she opened up her eyes, she was surprised to find herself younger than she used to be. Was she sixteen again? She wasn't sure. Perhaps she was even younger. Slowly and steadily, information about her new life started to come to her, as if the memories of her past life and her 'current' life were merging. She learned her new name, Regula. She didn't have a surname, as her father was unknown and an administrative law made it so she couldn't adopt her mother's surname. She soon learned that she was living in far worse conditions than she'd ever experienced before. She also learned why her father was unknown, as her mother was a prostitute and she was the outcome of a job gone 'wrong'. The latter was rather odd, as the establishment her mother worked for had very strict countermeasures, but it wasn't something she could recall looking into.

Finally, she learned that her daily life existed of being homeschooled and working for a nearby baker to deliver the bread in the early morning. It was hard work for little money, but it helped her and her mother get by. However, getting by wasn't what she wanted. She wanted to rule a kingdom. Even so, she knew she would have to take it slow. After all, a sudden change of behaviour would likely make things difficult for her in the long run. Instead, she started plotting out ways in which to achieve her goals, deciding to bide her time for as long as necessary.

There were multiple things she was going need. Supporters, wealth and a claim to nobility were among the most essential ones. It would be a pretty tough task to go from being a whore's daughter to becoming a queen, but she was determined not to fail a second time, regardless of how the odds were stacked against her all even heavier. She even figured she'd attempt a different route. She once read some stories during her lifetime of heroes becoming king, so why couldn't a a heroine become queen? If she'd manage to become someone strong enough, she'd have the means to gain supporters and wealth. All she'd need was a claim to nobility. The latter was why she eventually asked her mother about her potential father and attempted to press her for an answer. Her mother was tight-lipped and didn't reveal a thing.

Only a month after being reborn, she quit her job at the baker and started a new job working for a blacksmith. It was ridiculed by most of the people in her surroundings, but she didn't care. If she wanted power, she'd need a job that'd make her more powerful, which working a forge was far more likely to do than delivering bread. She didn't succeed. Whilst she had a fair bit of talent, she wasn't garnering the kind of strength she hoped she would. To make matters worse, she was given all sorts of menial, mind-numbing tasks that bored the life out of her and was heavily underpaid for it on top of it. It was clear she wasn't taken serious by anyone she tried working for.

Frustrated beyond belief, she eventually gathered up the courage to ask the most famous blacksmith in town to take her on as his apprentice; Rossle Deva himself. He accepted. With that, hope had been found once more. Whilst his lessons weren't easy, she managed to keep up. The amount of times he criticized her work into the ground and nearly destroyed any confidence she might have gained were countless, but he always gave the feedback needed to crawl back up and do better next time. Furthermore, she even got to work on some of her own projects while at it. She managed to experiment with magic in the rare hours during which she had some time to herself. Whilst she had a bit of talent for it, but couldn't quite figure out how to get the most usage out of it. At best, she could pull off some gimmicky tricks.

To expand on the latter, she decided to craft a weapon for herself, one that was unique and meant to be used by her alone. After many failures, she eventually created the first working weapon, which she baptised a 'combustion gun' upon its first successful shot. She's been working to improve it and its ammunition ever since. To that extend, she was found near the forge to test out some new idea she'd gained after her field-tests often enough that even Rossle's bear dog stopped minding her constant coming and going.

With her work at the forge, she'd made some money and a weapon. With her magic training and field-testing, she'd used those to gain some power. Both things gave her confidence, but it wasn't enough. It's why, after three years, the same amount of time she'd been married in her previous life, she confronted her mother again. After all, she felt like there was more to the story. She couldn't just be put into this world without any chance at obtaining her goals, there had to be more to why she was who she was. This time around, her mother finally gave her an honest answer.

She'd been born after her mother had worked as a courtesan in the royal palace, for none other than the oldest prince himself. The prince had liked her enough to keep her in the palace for almost half a year, during which her mother hadn't been able to access any of the usual preventative measures. She hadn't been brave enough to mention this issue to the prince either, which resulted in the unwarranted pregnancy. The latter got swept under the rug in record time, with her mother being thrown out and any traces of her extended stay in the palace being wiped away from the records and paid out off the minds of the few who might've seen her there.

It was difficult for Regula not to smile upon hearing the story. She was of royal blood. Now, she just needed to prove it and to use this fact to her advantage in a claim for the throne. If she could win over the favour of the public, she could even cause a revolution to put her on the throne. There were so many options that it was almost difficult to chose one. However, there was one thing that she'd need in any scenario; supporters. She needed people to back her in her quest for the throne, both some strong people to have in her inner circle and a large enough following among the commoners. She'd seen enough coupes fail in her previous life by fools who plotted it without firm enough support from either the public or those close to them. She didn't like to see her neck on the guillotine next.

It's why she decided that a good first step into becoming a queen was her earlier idea of becoming a heroine, which she could work on whilst keeping her eyes on for additional proof of her identity and whilst gathering more allies and resources. She'd need anything she could get for her ambitious plans, after all. Whilst goal was every so clear, the path towards it would be a long and treacherous one. Even so, she was determined to walk it. She just needed to chose a direction.