Dominika van Gravendrecht

Title(s)	Baroness, Grand Pensionary
Born	1503 AFS
Spouse	N/A
Issue	N/A
Realm(s)	Highland Freestate
Race	Hinterlanders
Culture	Hinterland

Physical description:

Dominika is 26 years old and is big for a woman. She is 192 cm and has long brown hair, which defines her. She has blue-grayish eyes, which her whole family has. She is very fashionable and wears a lot of extravagant clothes. Dominika has a small waist and is very thin. Besides this, she also got enough muscles to handle a man alone. She has very wide shoulders, which gives her an athletic look and a strong core. Her legs are toned and strong, allowing her to be agile and quick on her feet. She also has a great sense of balance and coordination. All in all, Dominika is a powerful and athletic woman.

Characteristics:

Dominika is caring because she has been through a lot with her family. She falls in love fast, and when she bonds with someone, she doesn't want to lose this bond. She loves all animals and isn't scared of any, and this is besides the fact she doesn't have any. She is very social and connects with many people; she needed this when she was a tavern owner. She loves to play music but isn't very good at it. She has a visual memory.

History:

Dominika was born into a not-too-wealthy family. They lived in a busy city situated in the Hadrian Empire. At the time of her birth, she was alone with her oldest brother, Raffael, and her parents. Her parents, Daisy and Reuben van Gravendrecht, worked around the clock then. They worked in all sorts of places to make enough money to support their children. Her first two years of life were difficult, but she survived. Shortly after her third birthday, her mother gave birth to another child. It was another girl; they named her Diana. Dominika found this super cute and wanted to meet the little girl immensely. This was also when Dominika took her first steps. When the mother came home with her sister from childbirth, Dominika began to step like crazy toward her mother. Like any two-year-old child, she naturally fell on her back. She fell with her left arm on a sharp object and received a cutting wound. This cut later evolved into a scar, which she still has. After giving birth, Dominika became a little more difficult to survive, but it worked. With five men now at home, Dominika's mother decided to live on sick pay, which she had arranged with the state. Her mother could normally live again and had the chance to raise her little sister. Due to being home and spending time with her father, her mother was again pregnant. During these first years of life, not much happened. Real life started after the birth of her youngest brother, Ricardo.

They decided to move. Since they did not belong to the richest class, they had to transport everything on horseback. And this to Prezza L'Aquila. Just before they had a chance to leave, her parents were infected with the plague. They did not survive this. Her brother, Raffael, barely an adult, had to assume the parental role. He carried through plans to move to Prezza, looking for work. Raffael was enormously fascinated by art and architecture, and he found work in this field. He became an architect in Prezza and earned tons of money, with which he could provide the best for his family. After a few years, Dominika also started working, and together they provided the family's income. Dominika worked as a note-taker at the States General and was not paid enormously for this. This job was in the category that interested her, but she preferred to be the one who talked for the States in General. One day, the army invaded their house in Prezza, and her brother was arrested for fraud. Her brother was keeping money from the buildings for himself, not applying it to the index. Eventually, Raffael was released and allowed to continue working with a lower income. Around this time, the town was renamed Wakkerdam. After working as a note-taker for two years, Dominika was fired because, as a woman, she could not keep her mouth shut during a meeting. At that time, Raffael had saved enough money to provide a separate home for Dominika. Dominika was given the tavern. A new world opened up to Dominika, and thus many new stories.

Everything happened very quickly, and suddenly the tavern's opening was there. There was a massive turnout since no tavern had opened in the Hinterlands area for years. Initially, she sold all kinds of drinks she purchased from the well-known Boris Krüger, but this was expensive after a while. Boris offered to teach her how to brew her drinks. She accepted this offer and began this study at a very young age. It did not go smoothly, but she almost set the building on fire upon her arrival. She learned quickly and completed her studies here early to start her brewery near Wakkerdam. She founded Bières d'Artisanal du Hinterland and brewed several beers that she named after her family. The beer became wildly popular and ran neck and neck with Boris. She often went on trips around the world at that time to promote her beer. Her immigration progress in the town took years, but to finally be fully recognized as a Hinterlander, she had to adopt an appropriate last name. Her new name then became Dominika van Gravendrecht instead of Dominika Egorova. This was made official by the Stadtholder, Arnoud I van Leuveren.

She met a girl named Isabella Nora van Leuveren. She was the Regentes of The United Provinces of the Hinterlands - where Wakkerdam was located. They quickly became best friends and did a lot together. They broke into an Elven school and messed around. They quite did everything together for a few months. Together with the local-farm girl, and Isabella's younger sister Alice, they were a cool friend group. Since she needed to keep her tavern open, she couldn't always attend events planned with the friend group. During a short period, Dominika became friends with many people, including Celestine Tzyrnowksi, the then Tzarina of the north, and Emi Al-Khra'yama, who was of royal blood from the desert. She also met Sahrot Kodaav, an important person from the northern lands. They became close friends, and Sahrot developed feelings for Dominika. He wanted to ask for Dominika's hand, but he couldn't since he had to marry Alice van Leuveren, a friend of Dom's.

A small chapter of her life was dedicated to the education of young people. She was hired by Al-Jabrid University and worked there for a few weeks, but since she missed the social interaction with her customers and especially with her many friends, she decided that this chapter of her life would be short. She decided that instead of working there, she would learn about politics. This she could combine with her normal job as a tavern owner. She has been interested in politics since she was a note-taker in the Estates General. She achieved a high-graded diploma in politics and decided to join the Estates again, to become a participant. She wanted men and women to be treated equally, which was the ideology she followed. Dominika was appointed Administrator of the United Provinces. She took this job very seriously and put a lot of time into it. She did many things for the nation and was loved by the citizens.

Suddenly everything went dark. Isabella went crazy and fired Dominika without any reason. Dominika realized that the only thing Isabella sought was power and not love. During this time, she also lost contact with her brothers; her younger brother, Ricardo, even moved out of their shared house. Isabella betrayed Arnoud and decided to create an empire in the southern part of Eden. She called it Catamora. Wakkerdam was no more, and Dominika had nowhere to go. A new chapter of Dominika's life had begun, but a chapter where she had no idea what to do and where to go. At that time, the Veronians were still reigning in the Hadrian lands. But a few years before these events, there was a civil war between humans; she was afraid of seeking shelter there. But still, she did, and Wendelin De Augassi allowed Dominika to become a Veronian citizen. She was also allowed to change her last name to her mother's, which she did for a few years until the call of Catamora. She lived her life as a maid and couldn't reveal herself. Many of the inhabitants of the then-Veronia, weren't the biggest fan of Arnoud. But Dominika stayed loyal to him ever since Isabella overthrew him. Because of some circumstances, Roderick Withmond's son took over the throne, which assured her citizenship in the Hadrian Empire. Together with Roderick and some other diplomats, she visited Catamora. On the arrival of the group, she experienced a near-dead situation. Isabella tried to kill Dominika on the spot. But of course, she couldn't since the Emperor of the Hadrian Empire was in her presence. During this time, she heard that her family had become of noble blood since her brother was fully made of nobility in Catamora. This made her also part of the noble bloodline. After this event, she continued living her life until something enlightening happened. Letters were spread through the Hadrian Empire, and Dominika was able to obtain one of them. The letter said that the heir of van Leuveren had returned. She was very happy to hear this and immediately departed. When she arrived at the recently found settlement Hooghlandsche Vrystaet, she met Silas. Silas is the son of Isabella but is here to do better and proceed with what Arnoud had started. Silas had read many of how things went back in Wakkerdam. The Vrystaet had the same kind of government as Wakkerdam had back in time. Dominika again decided to participate in the Estates General. During one of the first meetings, she was announced as Baroness, which made her nobility again. Silas did because Dominika had stayed loyal to Arnoud after all this time. Shortly after that, she was appointed Grand Pensionary, allowing her to lead the government and the Estates General. Together with Silas, she now wishes to ensure her citizens a bright future and a free state of living how they want to.

Trivia:

As a result of the union between Daisy Bloemdam and Reuben van Gravendrecht, four children were born. First it was Dominika, then Raffael, finally followed by Diana and Ricardo. Despite this family of five, Daisy made it work when times were tough. Going from working around the clock, to eventually retiring at home on sick pay, Daisy was the one who stayed beside the children the most. Though much didn't happen in the first years of Dominika's life, things took a turn for the worse when the family took all their belongings and moved to Prezza L'Aquila. Unfortunately, Daisy and Reuben did not survive. Together, hand in hand, they died of the Rotting Plague, and Raffael had to step up to care for the family when he was barely an adult.