Muse Galaxy 4.1
Like most Immortals, Princess Penelope of Xanthia survived my keeping her eye on the long term goals and prizes that she coveted. Born in the Fourth Century, around 310-320, she was raised as the daughter of Phillipus Ambrosius Junius, one of the most loyal of Constantine the Great's generals turned statesmen. Due to his long and profitable service to Constantine, as well as his marriage to one of the Emperor's half - sisters, Anastasia, he held massive lands, many slaves and great wealth. Penelope was his only child, due to the death of her siblings during infancy. She was the sole heir to the impressive fortune and political power of both her mother and her father, and her marriage was a subject of great planning and debate. Not just any man was good enough for her father, and few men could manage the vast power that her husband would enjoy upon her father’s death. Indeed, even Constantine himself was involved in the decision, while the wishes of the intended bride were no more important than the wishes of a horse being traded. In the class structure of the Roman Empire, even during the decline, women were subject to patria potestas, where the father held absolute power over them until they married. No matter how much the governor loved his only daughter, he would still expect her to bend to his political will. Penelope Juno was pretty, but not considered to be a great beauty, especially not in Roman society, filled with exquisite women. She was extremely well educated, for a woman of that time, and many found her tongue to be too sharp, and her manner too prickly. She preferred the bow and arrow to needlework, and riding to running a household.
Near her seventeenth birthday, her father announced he had settled on a match for her. The young Roman had fought his way up through the Legions, and was ready for the reward of money and power that he, as well as others, felt he deserved. Penelope was introduced to the man at a gathering, but the way he looked her over with a dismissive sort of glint in his eyes, even as he paid the attention due to a woman being offered for marriage, rankled the rather spoiled girl. While she may not have been as lewdly beautiful as some of the women of the Empire, she was quite pretty. And, while she found the man attractive, she was put off by his manner and his obvious thirst for power. He had no interest in marrying her, only her inheritance. Appeals to her father fell on deaf ears, and as the day approached for her to be transported to her husband, she felt far more nervous than she let on as she kissed her parents goodbye.
Fortunately for the girl, she had met a rather lovely young woman, who had become a friend, and Athenea seemed to understand her reluctance to marry the man she had been promised and dowered to. Not much encouragement was needed for Penelope to run away with her new friend, with the gold purse intended for her groom, and the two women set off on adventures far away from the crumbling empire. When Attila rose to power, the two girls were not around, and Penelope suffered her first death. Now Immortal, she chose to emulate some of the ways of her friend, and she became more of a fighter, and less of a tomboy.
Rumours had swirled that the Great Attila was not dead. He had been buried in secret, and the men who buried him were killed. In the wake of his death, a power vacuum existed, and the descendents of his tribe scattered. One large group, about four hundred strong, simply disappeared. It was rumoured that they had been slaughtered by the Visigoths, but, instead, they had stepped through a Stargate, leading them to Xanthia, where they created a new society. Penelope had joined them, and the King adopted her as his daughter. However, the one thing she had not counted on was the worship of the Scourge of God…Attila…a man that she now knew was a fake. Penelope knew that their beloved God King was nothing more than a former Roman slave turned Legionnaire turned jilted groom. She smiled as they all bowed to his images, which sprung up all over the planet, and she bided her time.
Now, centuries later, she was in the court of her former intended. However, Penelope was no longer the little mousy brunette, no longer a tomboy. Standing beside her adopted father, who was flanked by her adopted brother, she could barely hold back the smirk as she was introduced with all of her titles, past and present. The rich, jeweled gown she wore outshone any there, and the lovely cleavage exposed when she curtsied rivaled that of any lady present. But it was her golden hair, delicately coiffed in ringlets upswept around her diamond tiara, that she knew would put the icing on the cupcake of frustration for the man who lost all he had fought for because of her. The best part was? There was nothing he could do about it, and the glee in her eyes was unmistakable. In fact, she gave his handsome son a rather dazzling smile, one that she didn’t keep on when she looked at the former Attila.