#devani getting an intro upgrade too

[devanitoland]

♛ → DORNE presents DEVANI TOLAND, the LADY of GHOST HILL. the THIRTY year old CIS WOMAN who was FLAMBOYANT & ADVENTUROUS before they saw the first of the flames, is now MERCURIAL & DISHONEST after seeing the last. they’re often associated with the salt-spray of the ocean on your face, the thrill of the unknown lying before you, old maps lying haphazardly on top of one another, annotated with untidy handwriting in fresh ink. ( sobhita dhulipala )

pinterest ⊹ playlist ⊹ wanted connections ⊹ character building ⊹ timeline ⊹ ghost hill lore ⊹ tasks ⊹ house toland

tws: mentions of neglect and narcissism, infertility, child abandonment, post-natal depression, botched medical treatment, murder

history.

north

devani tvesha toland was born to house toland, the third child and second daughter of varun and amara toland. she would be their youngest child, too. future children would not grace their household, but lord and lady toland had their heir and spare and an extra for marrying, and while disappointed that there would not be further children to help further their house's status, that was enough.

with her older brother, aditya, the heir presumptive to ghost hill, devani was expected to support him in securing his position. she was brought up by a demanding mother from a young age to be perfect, so that she may one day serve on dorne's small council or become wife to an important lord.

while her mother was controlling, demanding excellence at every turn, her father took little interest in his children. a sailor on an essoian trading galley before he was a lord, and a second child himself who became heir upon his elder sister's death, some of the few conversations he had with either of his offspring were lamenting the loss of his glory days at sea.

it's difficult to say why devani turned out the way she did. perhaps it was a natural rebellious streak that clashed with her mother's overbearing nature, or she took her father's melancholic reflections of his life before lordship to heart, but she developed an uncooperative attitude to her mother's attempt to bring her in hand. over the course of her childhood, she became a mischievous troublemaker, always doing the opposite of what she was asked to, prone to escapades that made her mother despair of her. she became wild, and found that she enjoyed that far more than she enjoyed trying to please anybody but herself.

she might have had an ally in her siblings - but never were there children more different. devani was curious and adventurous, seeking fun and enjoyment wherever she went, but aditya was smug and pompous, far too under his mother's thumb, and prone to telling tales on his sister. her sister, pallavi, was different again, a carbon-copy of their scheming, controlling mother, ambitious and cruel. from a young age, there was very little love lost between the three, and no sense of sibling camaraderie.

east

by the time she was a teenager, devani was practically uncontrollable. she rejected every attempt by her mother to bring her under control, went where she pleased, when she pleased, and spent little time at home, instead preferring the company of dante uller, her childhood best friend, and ruqaiyah dayne, who she developed a romantic attachement to.

she was little more than a child when she departed westeros for good, slipping into her brother's clothes and stealing away in the night at the age of sixteen. there was nothing for her in ghost hill - she had always been a silly, selfish girl with a willful mind full of tall tales. silly she might have been, but she was tricksome, too. she'd planned her escape from dorne well enough that she was already on her way to essos by the time anybody realised she had gone, her family forced to conclude that there was nothing they could do but wait for her to return home.

devani never had any intention of doing so. she didn't even write to let them know she was alive until five years later, and even then, it was a simple note that gave no indication of how to contact her. devani did not want to be found, and she would make sure that she was far beyond the reach of her mother at all costs.

she spent the years travelling essos, visiting cities she had only read about in books, learning new languages and cultures. she's ridden with a dothraki khalasar, swam in the waters of the jade sea, and stood on the edge of the shadowlands of asshai. she travelled light all the while, keeping close to her only a small collection of near-worthless treasures that she could carry with her to remind her of her adventures.

south

she's taken many lovers in her years away from home, but rarely does she stay long enough for them to leave much of an impression. her romances have been short, passionate, and over long before they can begin in most circumstances - with one notable exception.

there was a man once that charmed her so completely that she forgot to leave him: bennaro nogarys. she was twenty-three when they met, and married him only two weeks later. devani thought she loved him deeply, more than she has ever loved anything, more than even herself. the only other person who has ever made her feel like that is ruqaiyah dayne.

soon after the wedding, things changed. she and bennaro decided they would settle in his hometown of selhorys. once there, he began to limit her freedoms, which upset her greatly. she was planning to leave him when devani fell pregnant with her first and only child. the first wave of morning sickness brought with it all the doubts she hadn't thought about before marrying.

in her heart, devani knew she would make a terrible mother, and suddenly, all that she had ignored when she met her husband suddenly seemed like the end of the world.

she'd like to say that she tried. that she gave it her all and couldn't give anymore, but that wouldn't be true. she was twenty-four when she brought her son into the world on her own nameday, a sweet little baby with jet black curls and eyes too big for his face, named kheerat. she was twenty-four and three weeks when she left him with his father and disappeared from their lives as she once had from the tolands.

it wasn't that she didn't love her son, despite the fact she felt nothing but contempt for his father. she did, as much as devani toland is able to do. but she was not a natural mother. she'd heard other women speak of the joy of holding their baby in their arms, but felt nothing but anxiety and sorrow when she held her own. she loved him enough to recognise that it was only a matter of time before she let him down. she thought endlessly about her own father, constantly wishing for days gone by and the freedom he had lost. and so, instead of waiting to disappoint, she hastened up the process. she did what she had always done when things got too hard and too real - she ran.

west

devani has spent all of her adult life away from westeros. as such, it's been easy to keep tabs from afar in a detached, methodical sort of way. she's taken more of an interest of late now she's caught word of her brother's trial.

she's only in dorne to see how things go, with plans to claim her dues should her brother fall. however, she's flighty and easily bored, so may not be entirely capable of cleaning up the mess he leaves behind.

fourteen years, she's been away, and in that time she's lived a life of adventure. she's walked the streets of the free cities, joined and abandoned mercenary companies, and forged a path that is entirely her own. her return to dorne is her next grand adventure - she's nothing if not opportunistic, and what may be disastrous for her house could still prove advantageous to her.

her return to westeros was not received well by her cousin, joy manwoody. devani does not know her cousin's motives, but joy was able to uncover the existence of devani's estranged husband and child, and threatened to reunite the family in order to force devani back into the role of wife and mother. she would not succeed in this goal. a cornered dog bites, and devani bit back in order to protect the life she had built, scheming with armaan yronwood, who had his own reasons for wanting joy gone, to kill her cousin. she was successful, managing to subtly incite an infection once joy's twins were born and smothering her cousin with a pillow to finish her off. none but armaan know devani is a kinslayer, and she intends to keep it that way.

the death of dante uller hit devani hard. she could sense something was wrong, but was blindsided by how far gone he was. it is the first time in her life she has mourned anything, and an incredibly sensitive subject for her.

the weight of what she did to joy, dante's death, and the trauma of falling into the grave of a man whose murder she helped conceal in the crownlands has been weighing heavily on devani of late. her mental state is fracturing, and she's becoming more unreliable and out of control, even by her own standards.

recently, her estranged husband, bennaro, has died, and her son has joined her in dorne. for now, this is a secret known to none but devani.

personality.

basics

devani is incredibly confident, but also incredibly brazen. she acts completely without shame in every circumstance, and is only ever as respectful as she needs to be to not get herself in trouble. there's rarely ever outward disrespect there, but certainly an overfamiliarity.

she cares about very little in life, and so doesn't really take anything seriously. little matters to her - not politics, not family, not religion or material goods or loyalty her country. she exists to follow her own whims and desires.

she is a strange combination of chaotic and laid-back, operating with seemingly limitless energy, but letting most things roll off her back. she's a very go with the flow sort of person.

in a fight or flight situation, there's never been a time where devani has not chose flight. she doesn't just ignore issues when they arise, but she runs from her problems, her feelings, and anything that feels too serious. there are very few times she's confronted something head-on, and in times where flight is impossible, she will use underhand tactics to get what she wants. she's slyer and smarter than she appears, and can be incredibly tricksome when she needs to be.

she's been away from dorne for so long that she no longer sees herself as dornish. essos helped shape who she is far more than dorne ever had. as such, she does not hold many of the ideals and grudges of the dornish. with time and distance, they all seem rather irrelevant to her.

she's irresponsible and non-committal, avoiding all sense of duty and rejecting the idea that she has to do anything others want her to. the rebellious streak of her youth was never tempered over time, and she does not like authority much.

do not trust a word out of this girl's mouth. she's a liar and she enjoys it. she's not even bothered if people believe her or not, and she just lies for the hell of it. half of the stories about her adventures are true, but half are outright fabrications, and she will never tell you which is which. she's also a thief who takes everything that isn't nailed down, even from her nearest and dearest.

there are no circumstances where devani has put another human before her own needs. she will always choose herself.

despite her many flaws, she's incredibly fun to spend time with, loves entertaining, and has boundless energy. she's not a loyal friend, but she's a lively and positive one.

she's spent so long moving from place to place that she doesn't like being still for too long. she gets itchy feet, the urge to move on and continue her travels often overtaking her. she's curious about the world around her and the people in it.

to the surprise of many, she's not argumentative and isn't easy to anger. she has a rather cool, even temper, doesn't easily take offence, and usually laughs off attempts to insult her without engaging in further mud-slinging. rage is not a feeling she knows well. ruqaiyah dayne is perhaps the only person who can reliably incite anger in devani.

rumours

devani encourages rumours about what she was up to in her time abroad and actively confirms every single one, whether it's true or not.

when she initially disappeared, many rumours swirled about what exactly happened to devani toland, ranging from the fact she was still in ghost hill hiding a pregnancy out of wedlock to that she had died. initially, her mother tried to claim she was ill with greyscale, but without being able to prove it, she was eventually forced to admit she had no idea where devani was.

she is promiscuous, having known many lovers, and this is no secret. in particular, she is rumoured to have been dante uller's lover.

goals

devani's loyalty can be bought by the highest bidder, and that does not necessarily mean gold. she holds no patriotism towards dorne or sense of duty to her family. she puts herself and her values first in every circumstance, but what she values changes like the wind.

above all, she craves freedom, adventure, and fun. she doesn't reach for power, money, or political importance. living her life on her own terms and according to her whims is one of the only consistent things about her.

with the arrival of her son in dorne, her perspective has shifted. she's looking to secure him a place and a future - the one thing she is capable of doing as a self-admitted poor mother.

fears

she considers herself to be fearless, but her courage comes from her blasé attitude towards most things. her confidence could one day be her folly, but she truly believes in her own capacity to wriggle out of any situation - and to be fair, she's yet to be proven wrong.

when you strip back the layers of who she is, the one thing she truly fears is the loss of her freedom. she makes her worst and most treacherous decisions when that freedom is threatened and squirms away from any sort of duties and commitments that might hamper it.

other.

there is one person in the world, besides her son, that devani has cared about almost as much as herself, and that's dante uller. reconnecting with her best friend has been the highlight of her return to dorne, and she has transferred all the loyalty she has for him to his uncle, doran, since his death.

her relationship with her family is strained, at best. she was never close to her father, and did not shed tears at his passing, nor does she get along with her mother at all. her brother she views as a weak-willed mummy's boy with no mind of his own. her sister, pallavi, was very similar to their mother, and the two girls fought like cat and dog - like their father, devani felt very little when she passed away. her paternal aunt married into house manwoody, and while she once shared a close relationship with her cousin, joy, they had no contact whilst she was away and grew hostile when she returned.

devani is not a fighter. she prefers to use her wits and charm to escape sticky situations, but that doesn't mean she isn't capable of defending herself. she's more the type to try and disarm or distract her opponent to buy her time to escape than a skilled warrior, but when she does engage in combat, she favours a whip.

in essos, she maintained the guise of a wandering bard rather than a lady of house toland. she's played the sitar since she was young and can sing and dance well enough that this was never questioned, and has earned her enough money to live on when she's been in a pinch.

at 5'11, devani is an incredibly tall woman. her father was tall, too, but her mother and siblings are all far shorter than she is. her height serves her well when she wants to be noticed, and she will often accent it with heeled shoes. when she wants to go under the radar, she opts to dress as a man so her height does not give her away.

she has kept tabs on kheerat over the years from a distance. during their estrangement, she kept in touch with a friend from selhorys, who was the one to see him on a ship bound for westeros after his father's passing.

her clothing style is gaudy, with bright colours and a distinct essoian flair.