Anarietta of the Gilded Isle

Anarietta in 1074AE

The King's Whore (by the commons)

The Concubine (by Victoria Knox)

Astrid Blackthorne (daughter)

**Queen Anarietta Blackthorne**, née Anarietta of the Gilded Isle, was the second wife and Queen-Consort of King Gordon I Blackthorne. She had one child with her husband, a daughter, Princess Astrid Blackthorne. The Gilded Isle, Ana's homeland, was a gold-mining region of intense wealth and her father Sinbadgo was its elected leader. She was brought to court by her family when she was 17 years old in 1067AE where she met and struck up a relationship with the Elder Prince; they married after his separation from his first wife circa 1069AE. She gave birth to their daughter shortly thereafter. When he ascended the throne, she was named as his Queen.

Ana's opulent lifestyle in a time of increasingly strife and poverty, as well as her lack of empathy to the lower classes, caused fury among the commons and she was a figure of great hatred, despite the King's overt affection for her. She was eventually captured in the storming of the Royal Palace during the 1077AE Revolution, given a swift trial, and senteced to death. She died on a guillotine before an eager crowd of spectators in 1077AE, minutes before her husband met his end on the same blade.

## Appearance and Character

Anarietta was considered one of the most beautiful women in the realm, with a heart-shaped face, a slender figure, and the exotic coloration common to denizens of the Gilded isle with golden eyes and hair; in Ana's case, her hair was a particular white-gold that seemed almost like Platinum. She dressed opulently in extravagant fabrics and jewellery.

Raised among the aristocracy with little engagement outside its bubble, Ana had little frame of reference for the prvilige she enjoyed as a member of a wealthy elite. She had no interest in charitable endeavors and enjoyed a life of constant spending and thrillseeking, fond of spending thousands of gold pieces on expensive clothes and parties and pet elephants. Despite this she was not believed to be a particularly cruel or malicious person; her stepdaughter Gwenavere, who resented her strongly in their time under the same roof, is inclined to think of her more kindly posthumously. Ana doted on her daughter Astrid, and loved her husband Gordon dearly.

## History

The Gilded Isle, Ana's homeland, was a gold-mining region of intense wealth and her father Sinbadgo was its elected leader; she grew up in extreme luxury and lived an almost hedonistic lifestyle as a member of its highest-tier merchant caste.

tbc

## Legacy

The commons still nurse a simmering hatred for their former Queen. Ana's image is used in Industrial propagnda to represrnt the wealth and excesses of the old nobility. Many momunments to her, established by Gordon, have been vandalized and defiled by the vengeful public; Anarietta's Dock in Bastion City was renamed as Whore's Dock.

Gwenavere remembers her stepmother with mixed feelings. While there was no love lost between them in the 1070s, the older Gwen thinks of Ana as a foolish girl who was too young to truly realize the gravitas of what was happening to her until it was too late.

## Trivia

As Gordon is based on King Louis XVI, Anarietta is based on Louis' wife Marie Antoinette, with her portrayal by Kirsten Dunst in the 2006 Film of the Same Name used as her image ref.