Opdracht 1: foto

Name: Jessamina della Lombardi

Age/Date of Birth: 75 years/11-3-1928

Gender: female

Species: Werewolf as of 12-21-1951. Before that: Human

Sexuality: straight

Looks: Jessamina is a slightly chubby woman of undefinable descent who appears to be in her twenties. Her shoulder-length hair has been dyed red. It is a color which meshes nicely with her lips, which are always covered in a thick layer of bright red lipstick. The combination of dyed hair, red lipstick and often excessive use of makeup give her a bit of a trashy appearance at times. Yet on other days it'll make her look like a free-spirited, bubbly and outgoing young woman who is out to enjoy life. Both impressions are mostly wrong. Jessamina is a woman who enjoys the freedoms her gender has gained during her life. But there is another reason for her looks, it is the reason why she has a bit too much of everything: Her hair's a bit too red, her lipstick's a bit too bright, the layer of makeup is a bit too thick: It makes people underestimate her.
The fifties may be long past, but Jess still prefers colorful dresses and skirts and old fashioned ones too. She rarely wears anything else. She has several large dresses which fit her in wolf form which she wears while hunting.

Character: There is a saying which goes: when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. It is a saying Jessamine has taken to the logical extreme. Rather than making lemonade, she torched the lemons, roasted her enemies on the burning lemons and is now selling wodka. Difficult situations can break you or make you stronger. Jess has pulled through some very difficult situations. She has always been a strong woman and the events in her life have only made her stronger.
Jessamine is a headstrong woman with a temper she inherited from her Mediterranean mother. But her temper will never interfere with her attempts to reach her goals. She is a skilled politician and manipulator and has spent a lifetime honing her social skills. Not even Jess' mother would be able to discern the lies she tells from the truth. Although to be fair, her mother is dead which tends to interfere with one's abilities to discern the truth.
When words fail there's always shadow diplomacy: Blackmail, bribery. She has developed a knack for finding the weak points within a person's personality and exploiting them to her benefit. And if such things fail there are messier solutions... And Jessamine is ruthless enough to order the assassination of anyone without a second thought if she deems it necessary.
All her actions serve a single purpose: To restore the Council of Romulus.
As you might understand, these are all excellent qualities for a rebel leader. Unfortunately she is rather lacking in the humor and charm department. It is these deficiencies which have hampered her ambitions for so long.

Background: Jessamine was born to an Italian migrant mother in New York and an unknown father. Jessamine went to great lengths to gather knowledge in a time where women were still expected to spend their days in the kitchen. She stole books, snuck into libraries and attained her high school diploma in a school were such an event was quite the accomplishment, even among male,s due to high drop out rates. Such was her desire for knowledge. After high school she started working in a bar to pay a college education. It was there that she met Klaus.
Klaus was the only thing that had ever detracted Jessamine from her quest for knowledge. He was a deeply devout Catholic East-German refugee who had come to America after the second World War and could barely speak English. She taught him English and he taught her German. Along the way Klaus also told Jess about European history, a subject which she found quite fascinating. He was one of the few men who supported Jess' quest for knowledge, even going so far as to stop by her work and dropping of a book or two. After a while Jess found herself head over heels in love. She didn't give a damn about roses, but books... Those were the way to her heart apparently.
Long story short, Jess started attending college, she married Klaus after attaining a degree in European history, and she discovered his big secret. It wasn't the usual big secret, such as secretly being gay, having a lover or an obscure fetish, but rather that he was a werewolf. An old one too: He had been along on the Fifth Crusade in 1217. He changed her in a werewolf too. Klaus' age alone had given him a seat in the Council of Romulus, the governal body which ruled over werewolf society, but it was his discovery of a way to extract magic from mages which made him a truly important figure in politics. Jess found herself in a world completely different from her own, but one in which she felt very much at home, moreso than Klaus who had never bothered with politics. For the next fifty years she was content to learn and attend council meetings.
Then things changed. A council member named Rorik, an old Saracen who had fought the Normandians, seized power. Most of the Council of Romulus was killed during his rise to power. Klaus and Jess were one of the handful to escape their fate. The others surrendered. Klaus refused to give up, reasoning that Rorik had no divine mandate to rule. Jess wholeheartedly agreed with him: They were all equal, no one werewolf should rule the others.
They were going to rebel and restore the Council of Romulus. To rebel they needed allies, soldiers and power. There were many still loyal to the old ways who gladly answered Klaus' rallying cry. The ancient werewolf had made many friends and his influence was great. Many flocked to their side. But it was not enough. They needed other influential allies. And one of the best way to gain those allies was to capture mages as gifts.
It was on a hunting trip that Klaus disappeared, leaving only a note in which he apologized to Jess for abandoning her. Without him the resistance movement fell apart. Jess did what she could to keep them together but she was far better as an advisor and working from the shadows. Without a banner to rally to nearly everyone left. Worse yet, some reported her to Rorik, and Jessamine quickly found herself hunted by lictors, the police force which had once guarded the senators and which now served Rorik.
And so Jessamine disappeared from the face of the world. She fled to the shadows and lies in wait, gathering power and allies. The republic will exist once again.

Hobby's: Jessamine is fond of cake and loves eating it. The same goes for human flesh. She does have a distaste for westerners, something which she blames on the lack of spicing in their food. She also loves to read and does so often.