Sable

(bio by xokami)

Sable was born the youngest of three, a princess by birth. Spirited, charismatic, and strong, her clanmates deemed her to be the next head, but the endless stream of rousing compliments about her blossoming beauty caused her to grow vain and proud. All three siblings bore the same patches of color on their wings, a gene they carried from their father, but Sable had the darkest skin—the most lovely, they always sighed.

But behind her back, whispers grew, swelling like Shadows at nightfall and spreading like Plague. Her vanity was becoming distasteful, and it did not work in her favor nor in the eyes of her peers. Sable didn't carry the same shining brilliance of her mother's wings—as did no one else in the clan—but her clanmates began to question her legitimacy. They believed that the next matriarch should have those gem-like wings to be able to properly lead the clan in serving the Gladekeeper: to be a Regalia, a beautiful and decorative symbol of royalty and, in a way, of servitude.

Ever since she overheard, Sable has nursed an aching desire and adoration for facet wings like those of her mother. She unfurls her own with a twinge of shame in the presence of her clanmates and wistfulness in that of none, no longer taking pride in the accent of green that matches her eyes. Sable has maintained her false bravado; her clanmates know nothing of her insecurity, and she does not allow it to affect the way she leads.

Sable remains in training, as are both of her siblings, but her taste for leadership and power has soured. She is a princess by birth, but she is becoming a queen in her own right.