Pyrrha Boucher

**Pyrrha Victoria Boucher** was the First Empress and began the Neoni Empire during Epoch Zero. She was deigned the Protector of the Genesse people by St. Genevieve herself, thus effectively beginning a line of God-Emperors, believed to be half-divine and in direct communion with the Saviour. Aside from her association with the holy woman, Pyrrha was a Mundane. She would become best known not for establishing the Empire, but for her long feud with the first Umushi, Niwatori Ametsuchi, which would last for the entirety of their lives.

## Early Life

Pyrrha was the first of three children to parents Aelius Avgeropoulos and Miriam Boucher. Of her siblings, she had two brothers. She was a rather serious child, though she had a quick sense of humour and a tireless dedication to pushing through, and as the eldest would often be assigned the role of "third parent" in the family, taking care of her siblings while her parents worked. As such, she learned responsibility early. She was not particularly social and lacked friends, making up for her lack of a social circle with imagination and dreams of the future.

She took an interest in piano playing during her teenage years, spending extra time at school to get lessons from her music teacher. All the while, she balanced this hobby with working out, keeping active as a manner of stress relief. All in all, Pyrrha was a slightly odd girl but considerably normal, with above average grades and a simple life ahead of her, but she was devastatingly lonely, worsening when she moved to study Communications abroad.

Following a suicide attempt, she would be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, though she would only have therapy for a few months prior to the Genesis Collapse.

## Personality

In her youth and early days of adjusting to Neo, and her new position, she had been a quiet, unassuming and melancholic child. At the same time, she had a brash way with her words and she was endlessly optimistic with an uncanny determination that would stay with her for the rest of her life. When she had laughed, she had laughed loudly. She was unusually serious for a child, which would bode her well as a leader. However, she was affected by depression, which impeded her inherently optimistic nature, blighting her to the point she made an attempt on her life. Following this and the Collapse, she would struggle with self-destructive tendencies and thoughts for the rest of her life.

## Appearance

Pyrrha had light brown skin with cold undertones, dark ash-brown hair cropped to her chin. Unkempt eyebrows sat over hooded eyes, which were ivy in hue; beneath, a hooked aquiline nose inherited from her father and thin lips often painted dark. Often her face fell severe, and as she aged the marks of her severity etched themselves into heavy lines that made her look older than she was. She was not particularly tall, but she was hardly slight; broad-shouldered, slim, athletic, she had long runner's legs and nimble pianist's fingers. Before the Collapse, she had been both of those things, and it showed. Throughout her life on Neo, the natural bulk of her weight and muscle disappeared, sinking away, out of stress, until she was sharp and angled, until she looked like a walking ill omen, an image of death. A hard jaw was often clenched, though when she smiled her face creased with dimples that made her look younger and kinder. She had pierced ears.

## Death

At the age of 42, Pyrrha died giving birth to her son, Amadeus Boucher, who would inherit the title of Emperor and continue the line.

## Trivia

* Her forename and middle name connote "pyrrhic victory": a victory that suffers such a devastating blow to the victor that it is tantamount to defeat.
* Boucher is a French surname meaning "butcher".
* In Western tropical astrology, she would be a Capricorn.
* Her temperament is Melancholic.