Ambessa Madarda

Personality

Ambessa is a confident person, showing no shame or emotional weaknesses. Merciless to her enemies, she prefers aggression over passivity due to the way her father brought her up and the Noxian culture she was raised in, as she also obtained through her epiphany after agonizing while pregnant during her warrior year. Accompanying her ruthlessness is brazen indulgence, freely enjoying the decadence of Piltover and the local cuisines of foreign lands. Eloquent and well-versed, particularly in military history, she is as capable of manipulation and violence, so long as it serves her, and her family’s, interests. Despite her relaxed stance on using violence, Ambessa does not appear to disregard diplomacy entirely, as despite Kino adopting a purely diplomatic philosophy, Kino was not exiled like Mel was. Additionally, Ambessa is selective with her violence, expressing a readiness to kill one if it means avoiding a larger conflict in the future. She is a survivalist above all else, willing to do whatever it takes to protect herself and more importantly, her family. Ambessa is one who respects aggression in any form, either in diplomacy or in war, but she also values cunning and guile, so long as it does not detract from a show of force. Ambessa describes this to Mel as a need for her to embody "both the fox and the wolf". Although one can embody an aspect of one or the other, one cannot succeed in her family without embodying both, but the most atrocious offense to her is a showcase of weakness and ineptitude.

Appearance

Ambessa is a muscular, brown-skinned woman with light brown eyes. She has coily hair in varying shades of grey to black, worn loosely above the shoulders. She wears Noxian styled clothing befitting her rank, mostly made up of black and red colours, with metallic silver elements, and a red cloak with black fur worn to one side. She is shown to have (battle) scars on her face and upper body.

Background

When Ambessa was ten, her father brought her to the aftermath of the Battle of Hildenard to collect weapons from the fallen in exchange for a gold coin each, exposing her to death at the tender age. Even at her young age, she realized death was not something to be feared but to be respected. As she grew up, she chose a soldier's life, quickly rising to the ranks to become a general in command of several warbands. She became a mother of her firstborn son, Kino. While she loved him greatly, she realized he would never have the strength of a warrior in his heart. Not long after the birth of Kino, Ambessa almost met her end in defending her ancestral home of Rokrund. As she lay among the bodies, drifting near death, she experienced visions induced by a An icon representing Universe:Kindred lone wolf who had found the surviving woman not yet giving in to death. The visions that Ambessa had seen that day had strengthened her resolve and ambition: She would bend to world to her will so that any weakness her children might have could not be exploited. When her grandfather, Menelik Medarda passed away, he had named no heir. Several branches of the family had vied for succession, however they were all outmatched by Ambessa. She vowed to forge a legacy worthy of the Medarda name. Now, she tried to imbue the same principles in her two known children, particularly in her daughter An icon representing Universe:Mel Mel, whom Ambessa tried to mold into a warrior and leader willing to do whatever is necessary to ensure their survival from a young age. This seemingly proved futile, however, as her son Kino preferred diplomacy and dismissed war as "A failure of statecraft", and Mel adapted his way of thinking, considering war and killing only as a last resort. Eventually, she sent Mel away from their home to Piltover, pointing out that her sentimentality would work well among the "soft-spined idealists", and would later use the excuse that it was for her family.