Viola Fallisci Runaway Senzivista and Swordswoman
Actress - Carrie-Anne Moss

Viola's Twenty Questions

1 - What country are you from?
I was born and grew up on Medico, the Fallisci Island in Vodacce although I tell people these days that I hail from Altamira in Castille.

2 - How would you physically describe yourself?
A non-descript swordswoman of Southern Théan origin. I am quite tall for a girl and am possessed of a figure which enabled me to pass myself as a boy successfully for many years. I wear my hair long as I have never had the heart to cut it even when I was passing as a boy but do not dress it much apart from placing it in a ponytail mainly to keep it out of my face when I am fighting. I try to dress like a reasonable stylish fighting woman a sort of female musketeer but I do own a dress, which is in the Eisen style since it was purchased in Freiberg, I lost my previously small wardrobe in Charouse (it’s a long story how that happened).

3 - Do you have recurring mannerisms?
I am passing to be Castillian but still speak with a slight Vodacce accent which those are skilled with languages or are Vodacce can still detect; very inconvenient!!. Apart from that I have no mannerisms I am aware of apart from being extremely polite, which I think is fading.

4 - What is your main motivation?
It is to do the best I can to secure the future of Théah and especially to rescue my sister from Vodacce.

5 - What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
My greatest strengths are my courage and skill as a swordswoman something I fully intend to keep developing. My weaknesses are that inverse side of courage; recklessness; I do not know when to back out of a fight. I am not particularly skilled with my head; I am very un-Vodacce in that I do not have the skill to conduct devious plans and it frightens me that I will have to learn Vodacce games to be able to rescue my sister. I am also far, far too trusting and have been duped by many people in the past. My love life is a mess too - I fall for men who have no interest in me and I’m not attracted to the one man who does care for me.

6 - What are your most and least favourite things?
As the daughter of a family famous for their wine it is not surprising that I love that wine with a passion and will purchase it whenever I get the opportunity to the extent it has been my undoing on one occasion. This seems to extend wine and indeed other alcoholic drinks in general; I have spent many happy hours discussing and drinking wine with a Castillian friend of mine and have also acquired a love of Eisen beer and schnapps due to spending time in a mercenary unit consisting of mostly Eisen men.
My least favourite thing is sea travel which I loathe due to the confinement and the fact I am a terrible sailor and the fact there is nowhere to escape to if the boat runs into trouble, especially since I cannot swim. I will try to avoid travelling by sea wherever possible.

7 - What is your psychology?
I’m sorry what does that mean? – Your emotions and how they affect you is it difficult for your anger or hatred? Does your passion get the better of you? etc. – I find it difficult to hide negative emotions anger, hatred, contempt – I am very Castillian like that. I suppose. I have a Castillian’s passion, temper and integrity. I should have been born a Castillian really – I seem to share their love for swordplay and admire their love for life. I love to sing and dance; like a Castillian.

8 - What is your single greatest fear?
Being sent back to Vodacce and burnt as a heretic is probably the greatest one but any situation were I am not in control and am forced to do anything that I do not want to. I fear what can be done to me by men as a woman and it makes me very glad that I can fight back both with and without swords. I also fear failing Theus and the aims of the daughters.

9 - What is your highest ambition? Your greatest love?
My greatest love is my sister and my highest ambition is to rescue her and for us to live a good life somewhere far, far away from Vodacce where we will be safe. I would like to become a swords master some day and perhaps once I have achieved grand mastery I can sent up a swords school and train people on behalf of the daughters.

10 -What is your opinion of your country?
I have a strange relationship with my homeland in fact I fear and miss her whilst despairing at her wasted potential. I suppose the overriding feeling is that it is a paradise inhabited by devils (or mostly by devils). It has such grace and beauty and such potential but is full of self-serving men intent on manipulating things to their own advantage. I used to believe that the problem lay mostly with the Villanova, but seeing how Fiora Bernouilli’s bastard of a father treats her has altered this perception. Vodacce is a lesson in how man can create his own hell just by the corruption of his soul. Life is so cheap there and whilst it is not hell by the standards of the devastated Eisen or the ravaged Castille, both men and women are just regarded as pawns with no regard for their rights or feelings, creating a moral wasteland.

11 - Do you have prejudices?
I try not to - but I regard the Explorers Society as fools playing with what the do not understand although I don’t regard that as prejudice though more like common sense. I have a similar view of the Inquisition who I believe to be downright evil masquerading as good. I think as I travel through Théah more and more I am starting to understand more about people. I still think that the Vendel and some of the Montaigne have much to learn about respecting other people but contact with people such as Explorers, Knights of the Rose and Cross has made me realise that there are good people within every group even those who are misguided. My chief volte-face has been to with the Knights of the Rose and Cross which happened after I heard about their rescue of Adara; a Senzavista who would become one of their members; who was left for dead by her father. It made me realise that Théah needs all the champions it can get as one organisation can not be everywhere.

12 - Where do your loyalties lie?
To Sophia’s Daughters and Los Vagos, to my friends (especially to the Father Alejandro, Axel and Francine), to my sister and to any decent person within Théah. I also feel a strong loyalty to Clarisse Allais de Crieux who I regard as being one of the kindest people I have ever met.

13 - Are you in love? Are you married or betrothed?
No, to all of those. I used to be in love with Axel but that has faded since I realised he had no interest in me. I like very much and have a strong attraction to Pyotyr but I think Axel has made me wary of loving a man who may not feel the same. I wish I was in love with Aidan who loves me and is a decent man but I am not. I feel like I have pieces of a romance in different people but none of it fits together. I suppose I am still looking for someone who can bring the pieces together.

14 - What about your family?
I was born one of the younger members of a large family and a middle daughter of 3. I have always felt different to everyone else in the family. Father was always so remote that he seemed like a stranger, I feel I know more about our Prince than him. I was of no use to him in the great game so he barely noticed me therefore I learned to return the compliment. My elder sisters was married before I had the chance to become aware of her and I was brought up segregated from my brothers and only really remember them as boys who I used to envy whilst watching them practicing their swordplay. I miss my mother and wonder how happy she is and what family she used to belong to. I feel a great pity that I cannot find out if she is happy and attempt to rescue her too but she is growing old and I fear it is too late for her. I like to imagine that both she and Regina are looking out for me through the strands but this could be a romantic notion. Her and my beloved younger sister Regina were my only comfort when I was growing up and Regina was the only person who I was able to confide in. She was married to a Villanova the last I heard and Fiora Bernouilli states that she has not seen her in years even in the places where Strega usually gather. This makes me very fearful for her and especially anxious to become strong enough to rescue her.

15 - How would your parents describe you?
As I have stated before I doubt my father noticed me much - he would probably have described me as an inconvenience, a burden, a waste since I had no value which he could trade me for in the marriage market (not a beauty, not a Strega, not even a wit). My mother must have pitied me when it became painfully obvious I had no ability with strands but I am not sure if she regards me as a disgrace or is secretly glad that I have escaped; maybe it is neither and she still feels pity that I was forced into a terrible fate by my lack of Sorte. She may, like Fiora, understand my choice even if she does not question the system that women are forced to serve in Vodacce. All I remember is her kindness and her words of comfort that I would one day have the gift. I love her but the fact that I do not know how she feels makes me realise I do not really know her.

16 - Are you gentlewoman?
Sorry, I do not understand what you are trying to say. Do you adhere to a code of chivalry? – I suppose I do really although it’s not something I’ve thought about before. I suppose I try to be honourable which is close to being chivalrous.

17 - How religious are you? What sect of the church do you follow?
I am moderately religious I believe in a benevolent Theus and try to respect him. I have found myself beseeching him more of late than I used to. I pretend to be Vaticine because to anything else as a Castillian would arise suspicion but there is so much hypocrisy in the Vaticine church. The supposed ultra-Vaticine Vodacce keep the bits of doctrine that are convenient to do and disregard the rests whilst the Inquisition runs riot through Castille suppressing all knowledge and its foundation is based on a profound deception which is leadership may or may not be aware of but does not make it one whit better whatever the truth of the matter. The Objectionist faith as I suspect is closer to the truth and I would like to know more about it but a Castallian Objectionist would look odd and I suspect Theus cares not whether those who do his will are Vaticine or Objectionist .

18 - Are you a member of a guild, a gentlemen’s club or a Secret Society?
As you can deduce from my previous answers I am a member of both Sophia’s Daughters and of Los Vagos both of which aim for the betterment of Théah and fight against the Inquisition. I owe the daughter’s a particular debt since they were responsible for my liberation from Vodacce.

19 - What do you think of Sorcery?
I sometimes feel like an island in the middle of sorcery. My mother and sisters are “fate witches” and the “sisters” consist of many sorcerers. I don’t particularly envy them their powers as I think lacking in Sorte made following my natural path easier and it reduces the risk that anyone will particularly concern themselves with seeking me. I do wish I possessed the Scryers gift for being able to read a man’s heart instinctively as it would have enabled me to run a sword through some people while I had the chance and would make deciding who to trust easier. I suppose I mostly take the daughter’s stance that sorcery is a tool to be used sparingly but without hesitation when necessary but I think Francine may be over-using her gifts. Francine still doesn’t seem to understand how destructive Porte is.

20 - If you could what advice would you give Viola?
Take what strangers tell you with a pinch of salt and back out of a fight if you are getting trashed.