Millicent Rodin

### Relatives

Claire Ludlow (mother) Carndas Rodin (father) Keyair Rodin (twin brother) Beatrice Knox (daughter) Zephora Knox (daughter) Half-sibling to Claire's children with Richard Holdenhome

## Physical description

### Eye color

Blue

Millicent Rodin is the twin to Keyair Rodin, daughter of Claire and Carndas Rodin. She is the mother of Zephora and Beatrice Knox, and estranged wife to Odysseus Knox. She currently lives with her half-sister Yarrow.

## **Biography**

### The Twins' Life

Milly was born in 1042 alongside her twin Keyair Rodin. They were born premature and the trauma of their births rendered their mother unable to have any more children after them. Keyair was born the traditional way, but Milly had to be cut from 45-year-old Claire's belly due to complications.

Despite Keyair being born first, both twins were named equal heirs to the estate of their father Lord Carndas Rodin.

When the twins were only 4 years old, the Pirate War began. Both their parents left to fight in the war and the twins were left in the care of servants and non-combatant relatives in Homefast. They were close with their youngest half-sister Yarrow Holdenhome. Although their half-sister Magnolia Holdenhome was present for two years before she, too, went to fight in the Pirate War, they didn't particularly click with her like they did with Yarrow.

Their early years were spent beside other infants born just prior and within the years of the Pirate War. Such as: Yver Holdenhome (1046), Solara Holdenhome (1047), Fiona Holdenhome (1048), Maeve Klossner (1048), and Maria Klossner (1052). The Pirate War ended in Drake's Moon of 1052, when the twins were 6 years old.

When Claire and Carndas came back from the war, they considered moving to Carndas' estate near Bastion City. Due to the influx of grandbabies from Claire's older children, they settled on staying in Homefast and using the Rodin Estate as a holiday home. However, Claire was still a representative for House Holdenhome and often used the estate on her ventures to Bastion City. Sometimes the twins would accompany her and their father.

### Her Own Person

Although Keyair and Millicent were Claire's youngest, Milly always had a great affinity for small children. At Homefast, she loved spending time with her younger nieces and nephews, and was delighted by babies. Between 1053 and 1061, she doted on: Yvenna Holdenhome (1053), Nolvenna Holdenhome (1054), Jakov Klossner (1055), and Edith Holdenhome (1058). Unlike her older half-sisters, she didn't take up combat as a skill, preferring to fill a more traditional woman's role. She did learn how to shoot a firearm but hates the loud noises and rarely hits a target.

Milly married Odysseus Knox in 1061 (14th of Last Moon) on Mainland, she age 19, he 18. Despite his great physical deformities, she was drawn to his mind and personality. She gave up her half of the Rodin inheritance to Keyair, believing she would go on to have children with Odysseus. She pressed him at every opportunity to try and conceive, but it was clear one of his deformities was halting the process.

Odysseus and Milly agreed to conceive via a donor. Odysseus' cousin Glenn East was the best candidate for relative of Knox blood. Glenn and Milly didn't share the act together. Milly was delighted when the first attempt took immediately, and she gave birth to twin daughters on the 6th of Fool's Moon in 1064.

Zephora was born before Beatrice, both difficult births, but Milly was young and thankfully recovered from the ordeal rather quickly. Despite their actual bastard status, both were given the surname of Knox and raised as Odysseus' own. He was a distant father, but Milly was happy.

Milly loved her children terribly. Perhaps her love for them overrode what warning signs she should have seen with Beatrice.

In 1074 (when Milly was 32, and the twins 10), Belladonna Knox was born to Odysseus' sister Cassandra Knox, who sadly died in childbirth. Milly gladly accepted the child into her household upon Odysseus adopting her, and clearly doted on her. But over time, she realized something - Odysseus was treating this baby like it was *his*. He treated Belladonna better than he had her own daughters. Even Zephora and Beatrice were aware of this, and Milly could see the resentment brewing. Gradually, she found resentment stirring in her own heart, and that resentment turned from Odysseus and onto the baby Belladonna.

Beatrice had always had a natural proclivity to hurt things, as much as Milly denied it, and finally she escalated as her jealousy grew. Beatrice took a candle and set light to little Belladonna's cradle in 1075. Thankfully Milly was able to lift the baby from the flames before she was badly burned, but Zephora ran to Odysseus to tell him what had happened. So distressed was Odysseus that he fell into a fit of seizures, and Zephora started screaming for help. It was the one and only time she told on her sister.

Belladonna was all right, but when Odysseus had recovered, he insisted Beatrice be sent to Untergrad. Milly begged him not to send Beatrice away, that they could work through this - but Odysseus' decision was final. Beatrice was sent away, leaving Zephora and Milly devastated.

Over the year that Beatrice was gone, Milly's resentment towards Odysseus grew. She realized Odysseus' late sister - and mother of Belladonna - had been to Untergrad and experienced atrocities at the hands of the doctors there, all in the name of finding a cure for her madness. Odysseus knew this. And as his punishment for Beatrice, he had sent her there to experience what his sister had. Milly began to realize she might actually hate her husband.

Beatrice came back in 1076 a quiet 12-year-old girl. She rarely spoke and her eyes were kept downcast. Zephora became exceedingly protective of the girl in an attempt to make up for ratting her out to Odysseus. Milly tried to tell Zephora it wasn't her fault Beatrice had been sent away, but it was clear Zeph didn't believe her. For any small misdeed Beatrice committed, Zephora would take the fall.

In 1078, Milly's twin brother Keyair was found dead by hanging at the Rodin Estate. It was assumed he had taken his life due to the trauma he went through during the Brecilidian Rebellion of 1070-1073. This shook Millicent greatly, but she kept it together for the sake of her family.

In 1080, when the twins were 16 years old, Milly's world came crashing down.

Glenn East's body was found in the Knox estate, with over seventy stab wounds all across his torso. His genitals had been removed, his eyes taken, and his heart hacked from his chest and left in a bloody mulch on the floor. An investigation was launched, but it was short-lived. The missing genitals would be found in Odysseus' bed, and the eyes eventually discovered stitched onto a painting in his chambers. Also missing were the twins, and a letter of apology was left on Zephora's pillow.

Zephora apologized for the murder she and Beatrice had committed. She claimed they were given no choice, but did not expand upon the statement. She apologized to their mother for being terrible children. She finally stated they would not return.

Odysseus immediately made Belladonna Knox his heir. The finality and suddenness of the act left Milly reeling. She had only just lost her own daughters, and her husband wasn't even allowing a moment to grieve. They had been replaced.

Milly left her husband's household and moved in with her half-sister Yarrow.

Over the following five years, Milly's desire to have children did not wane. She did not try to find her daughters, knowing that contact with them might lead to their arrest. Estranged from her husband, by 1085 (age 43), Milly is fighting her loyalty as she aches, realizing this is her last chance to fall pregnant.