Name: Persephone Ascanius
Age: 18
Birthday: January 2
Symbol: A stylized dragon scale with five horizontal lines running through it, similar to a music staff or a lyre.
Favorite/Fuku Color: dark burgundy
Likes: music
Dislikes: work, being unable to speak
Hobbies: playing the violin and piano
Gemstone: Emerald
Aspirations: To live out her life as a musician in the court of some high-level Hecto.
Favorite food: oranges
Least favorite food: olives, not so much because she dislikes the flavor but because they remind her of the grove where her mother and brother are serfs.
Strengths: Persephone was better educated than most humans, and can read and write out of necessity.
Weaknesses: She's mute, and very stuck up. She considers humans not of her ranking her inferiors, and treats them as such.
Family: Persephone is the daughter of Icarus Ascanius, a seven-braid servant of the Hecto Typhon, and Ariadne, a serf. She has an older brother named Heracles who is also a serf.
Class: seven-braided Servant (highest human class in Europe)

Appearance:
Persephone is somewhat tall, about 5'8'', with red-orange eyes and a mature build. Her green hair is cut somewhat haphazardly, with seven small braids woven into it. One of these braids is much longer than all the others, and much longer than the rest of her hair.

Personality:
Considering the status of most humans at the time, Persephone has lived her life in comparative luxury. She is very proud of her seven braids, and will treat anyone with less as an inferior, either condescendingly or ordering them around with the same callousness the Hectos have for humans. She also has a lot of pride in her musical skills. She is unable to speak, but she can hear, so she always carries a small pad of paper and a pen with her to write down what she has to say-the trouble is finding someone with the ability to read it.

What the braids mean:
A system has developed in Europe in which the number of braids in a human's hair display his or her status. Serfs wear one braid, Peasants two, and the varying degrees of Servants three to seven. Only the most valued human Servants are allowed seven braids, those who directly serve Seconds, Warriors, and the Nobility. Though a serf is not likely to have a change of braid number, it is not unheard of for a peasant to move up to a three- or four-braid servant, and there is a great deal of mobility between the three- to six-braid servants. Becoming a seven-braid servant, though, is very difficult, and only about one in one thousand humans in Europe have this rank. In some situations, a seven-braid servant may be considered equal to a low-ranking Hecto, but in most cases they are still inferior.

History:
Persephone's parents were named Ariadne and Icarus. Ariadne was a peasant with a two-year-old son named Heracles when her husband died. Unable to support herself without him, she was sold into serfdom, and worked at an olive grove owned by the Hecto Noble Cerbeus, close to the Mediterranean in what was once Greece. Icarus Ascanius, seven-braid Servant of Typhon (the Hecto Second who runs much of Europe), met her during a routine inspection, stayed two days, and nine months later Ariadne gave birth to Persephone. Icarus was not aware that he was a father until he was making his next inspection, just before Persephone's first birthday, when she was to be branded. He claimed her and prevented her branding, then took her back with him to the court of Typhon, promising to return for Ariadne and Heracles as soon as he could.

Icarus was allowed to bring Ariadne to Typhon's court in what was once the city of Rome to take care of Persephone, but Heracles, now four years old, was forced to stay at the grove, and after Persephone was two years old, Ariadne was forced to return. Icarus made another attempt to have Ariadne and Heracles promoted and brought into residency at Typhon's court, but he didn't try too hard, for fear of losing his own status as a seven-braid Servant. Meanwhile, Persephone's own hair had been twisted into seven braids, and she was looked after by a nurse called Atalanta.

It had been noticed that Persephone was a quiet child, but when she had not uttered a single word by the age of three, Atalanta indicated that she thought the girl was mentally handicapped and should be sent to serfdom. Icarus interceded on his daughter's behalf, and since he outranked Atalanta, his words were heeded. Persephone was to be taught to read, write, and to play music.

So began her training. Persephone started out on the piano at the age of three, the recorder at four, and the violin at five. Able to read and write better than most humans at the age of six, she was introduced to a world of learning few humans experienced. Still, she never uttered a word vocally, though she became adept at writing quickly and concisely so that conversation was possible. Though sign language had long been forgotten, she derived a system of hand signals that she used with her father and others who were close to her; Atalanta, the six-braid servant who was her governess, and Achilles, Atalanta's son who was a six-braid servant in charge of accounting. Even then there was still a formality between them; the discrepancy in rank was felt.

When Persephone was eight, her father took her to meet her mother and brother. Seeing serfs for the first time since she was a baby was a shock to the sheltered Persephone, and knowing that her own family were serfs hurt her even more. She had always considered serfs perhaps a level above insects in importance, but now she was really aware that her own mother and brother belonged to that class. Heracles could not even read the words that she wrote, and her mother could just barely struggle through them. She became so upset and angry--not to mention ashamed--that she refused to visit her family again until she was fifteen.

By this time, she had mastered the instruments she played, her favorite being the violin. Persephone never knew the hardships most humans knew--she was a Servant, but her job was to play music, and to her it didn't seem like work. She didn't know how the lower ranks of humans hated the privileged seven-braid servants almost as much as they despised the Hectos. Though she tried to be polite to her mother and brother, Heracles lost his temper at her condescending manner and refused to speak to her. Ariadne, also hurt by her daughter's arrogance, cut all of Persephone's long hair, leaving only one braid long, the rest short. "Let this remind you that though you are privileged, there are others who are suffering, and we are all of the same race," she told her. This made Persephone think, and she has kept her hair in this style.

Not long after Persephone's visit, Heracles disappeared. Rumor had it that he had joined the braidless, the rebels against the system responsible for little more than petty vandalism, but wanted dead by the Hectos. Persephone still saw her mother occasionally, and accepted her, but only as an exception to the rule that serfs were inferior. She reached her eighteenth birthday.

At this time, the braidless plotted to raid Typhon's castle. The high-ranking servants were to be killed, just like the Hectos, but Heracles still felt some compassion for his sister, and came to smuggle her out before the attack commenced. Against her will, he sent her to Gnibbud, where others involved in the rebellion would take care of her and protect her. She has arrived, but does not know what has become of her father or her brother, though the official news in Gnibbud is that the European rebellion was crushed.