Karen Katsburrow

*“To each his place, mine is on this couch!”*
*- Karen Katsburrow*

Karen Katsburrow is a noblewoman from the Kingdom of Felix, great aunt of King Basil, mother of Ayslinn and Director of the Archives.

**History**

Born in 2740, Imperial City, Felix Prime, Karen was the only child of a noble, wealthy family, as it is often the case.

Daughter of Joan Katsburrow, Director of the Archives, she spent her childhood in the capital city, far from hard labor and poverty. Spoiled but smart, she naturally thought the world was hers and nothing could stop her ambitions. Amongst the best students, she was able to graduate with honors while being constantly punished for mischief.

During her studies in History, she met a young, energetic and charismatic nobleman called Gilbert Lomesh, who was studying in economics. Member of a newly ennoble family that bought his way to the court, he was constantly fighting the system, his accomplishment shadowed by more prominent families. First uninterested in this low-born trickster, she quickly fell in love and spent more and more time with Gilbert and his best friend Armand Duchateau.

Her parents were against her union with a Lomesh, but managed to get their approval at one condition: Gilbert and the kids will take the Katsburrow name, ending the Lomesh line. With great pain, Gilbert accepted out of love.

They married in 2761 and she became immediately pregnant. Upon graduation, she became Deputy Director with her father. Gilbert and Armand both tried to corner the market of ship building, Armand with an engine factory, and Gilbert with an assembly line. The projects were going extremely well, the Katsburrow becoming even richer, while driving unwanted attention from rival who did not appreciated a newcomer to the market.

In 2767, Gilbert was found dead in his office, his head had received an energy blast from his pistol. The police ruled it as a suicide the same day without any research, despite Karen’s protests.

Unable to live with the lost of her loved one, Karen fell into alcoholism and mundane futility. Her daughter, Ayslinn, was as smart and imaginative as her parents, but became distant and cold due to the lack of attention. In 2775, Karen became Director of the Archives, after her father’s retirement.

The following years, she kept on her uneventful life, fighting the sadness with pills and alcohol, having given up on everything else. Her only light was Ayslinn, the young ambitious troublemaker who reminded her of herself. When Ayslinn became a young adult and Deputy Director, Karen tried to strengthen ties with her daughter by buying her an expensive apartment in the royal complex called “The Antechamber” and being more present in her life.

**Personality**

Karen is a kindhearted, disillusioned and sarcastic women since the death of her husband. Once a cosmopolite, energetic and brilliant women, the uselessness of her job coupled with a deep feeling of loneliness pushed her to a switch of personality of blandness hidden by alcoholism and fashion.

Despite good intentions, she neglected her daughter at a young age, and she became increasingly distant and independent. While proud of her daughter’s intelligence and wit, Karen saw her aggressiveness and lack of respect for institutions as problematic, however she was too demoralized to act.

Karen realizes the uselessness of her job and the slow decay of the Kingdom. However, having lost her will to fight, she accepted as a fact the gloom of the world and only compensate with alcohol and partying.