PERSONALITY :
➸ On the surface, Elia seems like she’s a cold, uncaring person who typically avoids social gathering and dislikes conversation. While those last two parts are true, she’s not nearly as standoffish as she seems. Elia is a quiet, thoughtful person, typically abstaining from speaking unless circumstances are dire, preferring to communicate through writing or otherwise nonverbal means when she does have to.
Due to that quietness, combined with her unassuming and plain demeanour, Elia is very good at fading into the background and going unnoticed- A skill she’s thankful for, given it means she can very easily disappear into a crowd. Elia loves other people, but prefers being in crowds rather than actually engaging in conversation, although she’s always the first to want to hear people vent their feelings.
Elia, due to feeling far more comfortable with the written word, tends to write everything down. However, in stark contrast to the brevity when she does speak, most of the things she writes down are in more esoteric or flowery words. Elia is the kind of person who sees beauty in unlikely things, and though she’s never had much talent with visual art, the poetry she crafts is doubtlessly beautiful. She only really turns it down when properly communicating, preferring to listen more than talk.
Elia strongly dislikes her house, blaming her father for Gabriel’s death and the travesties she’s heard of from Duscur. She’s also acutely aware of her house’s unpopularity among the nobility, given the horrible things her family has done in the name of ambition. On some level, conscious or not, Elia considers herself guilty of her father’s sins and she carries a great deal of shame in herself and her house. She avoids speaking of her house at all costs, and can frequently be seen destroying correspondence with her father. When she does have to speak of her house, she’ll often bluntly admit there’s nothing good to say
BACKSTORY
The young daughter to Viscount Kleiman, Elia had the misfortune of being born without a crest while her elder brother did manifest one. While not outright disowned, Elia’s childhood was a lonely one, and she was frequently spoken over and compared to her brother. Growing up, in fact, her only friend was her brother, Gabriel. Born with a minor crest of Charon due to a bygone marriage, Gabriel was expected to carry the house to its future entirely on his own, and had a great deal of expectation put on his shoulders due to the low standing their home had in terms of nobility. Gabriel only really found solace in the company of his younger sister, and for much of their upbringing the siblings only had eachother.
Their parents, however, did their best not to allow the siblings too much time together. For much of her life, Elia was treated as a non-entity by her father, who only humoured the idea of her presence as a pawn for politics. As Elia’s presence was mostly responded to with insults or comparisons, she eventually learned to start minimizing her presence, to the point where she was easily able to sneak around her family home, and even outside if she so desired. The more Gabriel was made to train for the eventual responsibility of taking over their house, the more withdrawn Elia became, only ever choosing to speak to him.
This neglect continued until four years before her enrollment into the officer’s academy, during the tragedy of Duscur.
Gabriel had insisted on going with the group to Duscur, rationalising that if their father truly wanted their house to improve its standing, this was their best opportunity. Elia’s memory of the conversation was that of an argument, her father attempting to strongarm Gabriel out of the decision but not giving a reason why. Ultimately, however, their father was unable to stop Gabriel from leaving for Duscur, as the conversation was incredibly last minute.
When the news of the tragedy reached the Kleimans, Elia remembered her father’s first words to her in a long time- Bitter and angry, but somehow not surprised. “It should have been you.”
Regardless of any words said in anger, however, Viscount Kleiman was forced to accept the crestless Elia as his heir, as he lacked any other children. As their territory expanded, her father’s neglect turned into a hyperfocus, attempting to instil Elia with everything Gabriel had been taught before his death. Her lack of a crest, however, had him swiftly conclude that she wasn’t fit to lead their house on her own. The Viscount drilled one thing into Elia; Her worth in the future was entirely tied to what she could do for their house and, according to him, the most she could do was find a crest bearing husband.
Without a further word beyond this, Elia’s father sent her to the officer’s academy with the implicit understanding that she was there to secure their house’s legacy, nothing less. Elia, however, has very little love for her house and a sense of disgust to everything she’s seen her father do. Without Gabriel, she simply wishes to see the territory of her family given up so that she can go into a life of isolation. She holds absolutely zero intention of adhering to her father’s wishes, rather her goal is to take over her house to dissolve it, and wash House Kleiman’s hands of the blood of both Duscur and Gabriel.
Why would anyone want a legacy built on slaughter?
Fire Emblem OC, mainly, but I'm more than willing to play her in Fantasy Crossovers
