↳ details; cisfemale, 29. (born 476 AC )
↳ status; bisexual, unmarried, no children.
↳ faceclaim; beren saat
↳ hails from; braavos
↳ loyalty; entirely self-loyal
↳ position; business entrepreneur & intelligence broker
↳ religion; loosely faithful to the moonsingers
↳ spoken languages; the common tongue high valyrian & bastard valyrian
↳ reason in kings landing; to escape the past and seek new challenges.
↳ type; enfj
↳ alignment; true neutral
↳ star sign; scorpio
↳ positives; resourceful , charming , resilient , insightful , passionate , cunning
↳ negatives; duplicitous , secretive , obstinate , volatile , listless
she was born on the shores of braavos with no family name - or at least none that she knew of. if one existed, her mother had never made her privy to it. rather , myriam knew first and foremost that she was born to the rosefinch, and that such heritage was an honor. being the daughter of one of braavos’ most revered courtesans meant being treated to a life of extreme comfort. inheriting her mother’s beauty meant that her career path was assured. the name , or one of her own , would replace the empty space behind her given name that fatherlessness had left behind.
becoming a courtesan was not something that happened over night. she was groomed for it tooearly, and the bitterness resulting from a childhood cut short set root in her heart. though she did not interact with patrons, education and refinement took precedence. too often, she would hear the sounds of children laughing in the streets and know that she was not meant to laugh and play as they were. instead, she buried her nose in books & learned how to dance, and sing, and smile. a good head for facts and figures saw her keenly invested in learning the more transactional side of her mother’s business. if she was to conduct herself similarly, she reasoned, she ought to learn how to do it independently. too early, she was exposed to the trade-off’s that came with her future profession. she saw men treat her mother with contempt and cruelty, believing that because they had paid for her, they were given leave to do as they pleased. myriam knew that one day she would be subjected the same, and so she steeled herself for it.
years of training did well to prepare her for the day she, too, was put to work. her mother, not yet ready to retire the moniker, helped her choose a name, and soon enough she was sitting upon her own barge as the starling. at first, her clientele were no more than what she could attract out of sheer curiosity. was the starling as good as her rosefinch mother ? men asked. but soon enough , it was made evident that her abilities were entirely her own. her ability to charm and woo was unrivaled, and her biting wit & general saavy made her sought after in her own right. bravos fought in her name for the chance of a night with her. lords from the farthest reaches of westeros nearly put themselves in debt to obtain her ‘favor.’ myriam’s wealth grew with each passing day, as did her fame. she wore these things like armor.
there was one westerosi lord, however, that managed to worm his way into her heart. a traveling second son who belonged to no one until he belonged to her. to him, she gave her heart freely. for him, she was willing to leave her fortune behind. he disappeared with the change of the tide, and was soon lost to her - or as good as lost, as a lady wife now occupied his bed. myriam’s heart was lost with it, never to return entirely as it resided in his hands.
myriam began to grow tired of a life that relied entirely on what someone could offer her. her heartbreak had ignited a restlessness, and a search for change. seeing her mother safely and comfortable retired, she utilizing the connections she had developed with westerosi lords. in her time upon the barge , myriam discovered in herself a keen ability to be able to obtain secrets from even the most reticent of souls, and thought westeros, the pit of vipers as it had been described to her, might find particular use of it. with the help of her allies, and a fortune from the iron bank of braavos, myriam crossed the narrow sea and relocated permanently to westeros.
these same connections served as third party representatives to help her buy up several pieces of property. though she had given up, for the most part, the life of a courtesan, it was difficult to stray too far from her roots. myriam became the madame of king’s landing’s finest brothels. while she considered it to be a great commodity, she wanted those she employed to have access to a better life than what they had experienced in the past. she wanted to do something with her life and fortune, and a part of that meant creating a safer working environment for these women & men.
it also meant training those who worked for her in similar methods of obtaining information that might prove useful in the future. girls began to bring tidbits of information to her, and she would sell what she found to the highest bidder. what began in king’s landing soon started to spread surreptitiously across the seven kingdom’s, as new brothels sprung up under the watchful eye of myriam’s most trusted employees. soon enough she was the proprietress of one of westeros’ most lucrative chain of brothels as well as the majority of those on the street of silk in kings landing, and an incredibly secretive underground network of highly capable spies to gather information she could then sell on.
she was not the first to use the bedroom as a means of intelligence procurement. far from it. however, developing an operation of in-house spies that worked solely for her, and entirely separate from the crown, was a bold undertaking. she was bound to no one, and was free to trade her secrets as liberally as she wished. occasionally, she would offer her personal services to lords and ladies with enough coin in their pocket, or information to make the trade worth it. she became affectionately known by many as ‘lady’ myriam, her considerable wealth bestowing her with the fittings of a noblewoman, and her ability to capably interact with the highest echelons of society allowing her to reasonably blend in.
now, with the capital & westeros in the throes of sheer chaos , business has never been better.
myriam is an incredibly capable social chameleon. she adapts the way she presents herself according to who she is interact her. few that see her will ever truly know her. she strives to distance herself from the girl she was in braavos , the wide - eyed girl whose hopes were often dashed. those who are allowed a glimpse at the woman behind the various masks know that she is a woman capable of extreme feeling. passion flows through her veins , as does a temper and an unstoppable stubbornness. she’s equipped with a quick wit, and a silver tongue, and uses her words like weapons to accomplish a task. though she does her best to establish herself as an entirely neutral party , she is not without sentiment. to those she cares for, she is endlessly loyal. compassion & kindness are far from foreign concepts to her. she is used to being alone, and actively pretends that it does not make her lonely. though far from amoral , but her code of conduct is entirely self-dictated, which is not to say that she would not fight for the good, if there is a choice to be made. she’s unashamed of who she is, despite what the world might think of her.
though myriam tends to flit about westeros as it suits her work, for all intents and purposes she primarily resides in oldtown & the capital, as it is easiest to operate there. as a whole , myriam finds westerosi politics & power grabbing to be tedious and silly , as it is so different to the life she knew in westeros. she has no real opinion
