NIKOLAI SELWYN; ALTERNATE UNIVERSE: DISTRICT ONE VICTOR Descended from Julius & Amara Selwyn, both revered Victors from District One, the Selwyn siblings are Career tributes who won the Hunger Games in consecutive years. Having trained throughout their lives to compete in the Hunger Games, both Nikolai & Rosalie attended a special combat academy & were trained by past District One victors. Both siblings won their respective Games at the age of sixteen.
[ The June Rebellion of 1832 -- The French Revolution of 1848 ]
The streets are filled with the poor, the rich pass by without any acknowledgement, preferring to spend their money at whorehouses than donating to charities hard-pressed for funds. Filled with the fire for revolution, a group of university students known as the Order rise up and barricade the streets of Paris in an attempt to free the people from the tyrannical rule of the French monarchy. They are crushed ruthlessly by the French military, slaughtered in the streets with never a proper burial, a revolution crumbling into dust.
He is left more utterly alone than ever before; a boy shunned by society for his parent’s sins, without friends to find solace in and without a place to lay his head. Yet thirteen years later, an old mentor finds him in a desolate with a whisper of hope: the phoenix of revolution has risen again from the ashes -- this time to truly establish a democracy. And so he works, and rises, and sacrifices, and hopes. He will strive so that his friends did not die in vain.
"It is often said of the Malfoy family that you will never find one at the scene of the crime, though their fingerprints might be all over the guilty wand. Independently wealthy, with no need to work for a living, they have generally preferred the role of power behind the throne, happy for others to do the donkey work and to take the responsibility for failure. They have helped finance many of their preferred candidates’ election campaigns, which have (it is alleged) included paying for dirty work such as hexing the opposition."
MUSE CHALLENGE OO2 | A CLOSER LOOK AT THE BURKE FAMILY;
CINDY CRAWFORD AS PHILLIPA BURKE
ANDRE VAN NOORD AS GREGORY BURKE
JON KORTAJARENA AS MARCUS BURKE
ANDREI ANDREI AS TOBIAS BURKE
LEIGHTON MEESTER AS ADELAIDE BURKE
While the Burke family has always been part of pureblood high society (their name being among those listed on the Sacred Twenty-Eight), there is not a surprising lot people know about them. This is not for their lack of public appearances or social contacts, no ━ the Burke family is just incredibly private, and they prefer to keep it that way. While they have not always been this way (about eight generations they were probably one of the most well-known families out there), there is definitely reasoning behind the extreme lengths they go to for keeping their privacy. The first, of course, being their immense wealth.
The Burke family is old money, like most of the families that shared a spot in the pureblood directory of Cantankerus Nott, but many fail to grasp just how large their fortune is. With a real estate portfolio that included properties all around the world (including two castles), at least four vaults at Gringotts (and two more in other countries, in case the economy took a turn for the worst), and a jewelry connection most museums would’ve killed to get their hands on ━ even some of the other old money families would be shocked at all the assets they possessed.
From an early age on, it is instilled by either the parents or grandparents that retaining their privacy and never acting like the nouveau riche is the most important thing when it comes to their family. They must never speak publicly about their assets, never mention where they stored their money and how, and most importantly, act humble enough to make sure no one suspects a thing. The right families would know enough about them anyway.
Phillipa Burke (née Parkinson), was often referred to by her mother-in-law as the child she was meant to have. While Gregory was not a disappointment in his parents’ eyes, he was not as cunning as they’d wished him to be, he had a weak spine, a tendency to let things slide by. Phillipa was the opposite, which was exactly why they had chosen her to be his match. Nowadays, she is the true matriarch of the family, the old Lady Burke having passed away not two years after Adelaide was born and Lord Burke spending most of his time running his shop. Gregory handed her the reigns to their family without so much as an argument, and Phillipa keeps them all on a tight leash.
Marcus and Tobias Burke almost right after each other, with Marcus being the firstborn and Tobias forever stuck as the middle child. Both were complete and total Mama’s boys ━ perfectly following the path Phillipa had carefully laid out for the both of them, sorted into Slytherin, marrying respectful pureblood girls their parents had picked out for them, making their career at the Ministry while their wives stayed at home taking care of the children.. There was not much special when it came to them.
The two boys took up quite a bit of their time, which was why Adelaide didn’t arrive until 5 years after her brothers. Phillipa had wanted a girl for so long, one she could launch into society wearing beautiful gowns and dresses, one she could see carrying the Burke jewels with pride, one she could marry off to the perfect suitor and Adelaide was that girl, for a while at least ━ but not anymore. Of course, vanity is still one of her favorite sins, but Adelaide had larger ambitions now than just looking pretty and finding a good husband, larger ambitions than both of her brothers, who had their Ministry jobs practically handed to them, and she is terrified of the moment Phillipa finally notices them.