Celeste Verdani



Celeste Verdani (a.k.a The Traitorous One, Number #25) is a tribute from District 12 but lives in District 13, originally created by Billie (The Targaryen of District 4)

Basic Information
Age: 16, 17 on the second day of the Games

Gender: Female

Birthday: November 12th

Alignment: Perceived to be Neutral Evil, when actually she's Chaotic Good

Hair Colour: Brown

Eye Colour: Blue

Height: 6'0

Weapon(s): Dagger

Family:  Home: District 12 (birthplace, formerly), The Capitol (formerly), District 13, Panem
 * Aedus Verdani (father, deceased)
 * Taiga Verdani (nee Howle) (mother, deceased)
 * Heath Verdani (half-brother, deceased)
 * Melinda Verdani (half-sister)
 * Fait Verdani (long lost half-sister)
 * Amelie Verdani (former first stepmother, enemy, deceased)
 * Carya Verdani (second stepmother, deceased)
 * Lyanna Verdani (former third stepmother)
 * Morrisea Verdani (former fourth stepmother, enemy, deceased)
 * Maria Verdani (former fifth stepmother)
 * Francesco Buscerion (estranged husband)
 * Jace Verdani (uncle, patron, mentor)
 * Jaesse Verdani (distant relative)
 * Capricorn Equinox-Verdani (distant relative)
 * Aquarius Equinox-Verdani (distant relative, mortal enemy)
 * Isabella Ascot-Dermanis (distant relative)

Occupation(s) before Games: Former member/deserter/target of The Organisation, former heiress to the District 13 Verdani residence and secret fortune, former owner of the District 13 Verdani residence and secret fortune, second eldest child of the late Aedus Verdani, only surviving child of the late Taiga Verdani, former fugitive, murderer, prisoner

Organisation Rank: Commander (before her desertion)

Usual affiliation: The Verdani family, Jace Verdani (formerly), The Organisation (formerly), those who support her religion

Usual alliance: She will be a loner.

Love Interest(s):  None

Backstory (long version)
Celeste was born on November 12th to Aedus Verdani and his first wife, Taiga Verdani, in District 12. She was the only surviving child of the couple as Taiga had several miscarriages.

Taiga was overjoyed with her newborn daughter but Aedus was initially not. He wanted a son that he could name as his heir, so that when Aedus died, the heir will inherit the secret fortune and the residence of the District 12 Verdanis. But he kept telling himself that he can always keep trying for a boy, so eventually he became happy.

Celeste, Taiga and Aedus were a happy family. Aedus and Taiga endlessly tried to conceive a son, but failed as Taiga's pregnancies resulted in more miscarriages. Whilst this took place, Celeste received an education via private tutors.

However, life for Celeste would take a traumatic turn when she reached the age of five, as Aedus had now grown bored of Taiga due to her failing to give him a son. This caused their marriage to slowly fall apart. Not only Aedus' boredom of Taiga affect Taiga, it affected Celeste too as she was finding herself to lose most of the privileges she had.

Eventually, Aedus divorced Taiga and revealed his desire to find a new wife that would give him a son. Taiga believed that she would always be Aedus' true wife and was reluctant to proceed with the divorce at first, but soon gave in.

After the divorce had been finalised, Taiga was forced to move out of the private Verdani residence and move into a much smaller one. As of Celeste, she was separated from her mother and was forced to live with only two of her private tutors in another residence.

To make things worse, Taiga had been diagnosed with a terminal illness, meaning that she was bound to die soon. Her skin turned yellow with jaundice and due to her muscles weakening, she became bedridden.

Celeste spent her days weeping, wanting nobody but her mother. She had no idea that she was about to lose her mother.

Meanwhile, Aedus was romantically pursuing a beautiful woman who went by the name of Amelie. He desired for Amelie to be his next wife. Noticing Aedus' interest, Amelie's power-hungry family (who had less power/were lower in the social hierarchy than the Verdanis) encouraged Amelie to "advance" Aedus' interest in her. They saw this as a gateway to a potential marriage and that marriage would enable for Amelie's family to gain more power/get higher in the social hierarchy.

However, Amelie was a strong-willed woman. When Aedus asked Amelie to be his mistress, she outright refused, telling Aedus that if he wanted to be intimate with her, he'd have to marry her. Aedus respected Amelie's wish and so proposed to her. Amelie accepted, pleasing herself, Aedus and her family.

Two days after the wedding of Aedus and Amelie, all the paperwork was signed, officially making Amelie Aedus' second wife. Aedus asked his new father-in-law to pay a visit to both Taiga and Celeste, wanting his ex-wife and his daughter to acknowledge the marriage.

Taiga reluctantly and sadly signed the paperwork, showing her acknowledgement. But Celeste, now a six year old by this point, refused to do so. She told Amelie's father that the only lawful wife of Aedus was her mother. The man and the young girl got into a heated argument, before Amelie's father gave the order for Celeste's private tutors to be taken away as a punishment.

Before leaving, Amelie's father revealed to Celeste that her mother had "died" (when in actual fact, she wasn't dead yet). Celeste collapsed to the floor, once again in a state of trauma and distress.

Amelie and Aedus settled down to married life, but there was still drama. This drama was that Amelie despised Taiga, wishing she would die, whereas Aedus did somewhat care for Taiga. Amelie didn't know Celeste well and so she made it one of her goals to pay a visit to Celeste and offer her a chance to be reconciled with her father if she would only accept her as Aedus' lawful wife.

Celeste, sticking to her beliefs, told Amelie that she didn't want to be reconciled with her father and that Amelie would never be Aedus' wife, only his mistress. This was the start of hatred between Amelie and Celeste.

A day later, Taiga officially died. Whilst Amelie was overjoyed when she heard about Taiga's death, Aedus deep down was devastated.

Amelie would be the next to "punish" Celeste, punishing her for calling her Aedus' mistress. She punished Celeste by forcing a betrothal between her (Celeste) and Francesco Buscerion, the son of a wealthy landowner. She later enforced the rule that this betrothal would end when Celeste reached the age of 14 and Francesco reached the age of 16, because then they would marry. Celeste wanted nothing more than to continue living in solitude. She didn't want to get married.

She went to the residence solely due to secret death threats she received from Amelie, to meet Francesco. However, Celeste wasn't bothered by these death threats as all she was going through was making her become mentally/emotionally stronger, as well as intelligent for her age.

She learned from meeting Francesco that the boy she was betrothed to was two years older than her and was horrifically cruel. His father was no better, being a sadistic man who was always trying to gain more money, despite being wealthy already.

Celeste spent a lot of her time at the residence exchanging cold glares of hatred with Amelie. Once Francesco and his father left the residence, Amelie and Celeste argued. Aedus intervened, siding with his wife. Amelie smirked as she turned Aedus against his daughter.

But it was Celeste who got the last word, publicly declaring her hatred for her father, her stepmother, her stepmother's family, any children that Aedus and Amelie would have together and Francesco and his father. She also told her father that she had no desire to reconcile with him and that the only person she ever cared about was her late mother.

Before she could be apprehended for her public outburst, Celeste quickly ran away from the residence. You'd expect her to be crying, but that wasn't the case for Celeste. This was just the foundation of who she was to become.

Aedus and Amelie remained married for two more years. Amelie became pregnant and Aedus was hopeful that he'd receive the male heir he craved. But he was to be disappointed for a second time, as Amelie gave Aedus another daughter, Melinda.

Meanwhile, Celeste, now eight, had accepted a new religion. Celeste's religion included the idealogy that there were two deities: life and death. She worshipped both of the deities, but she worshipped the deity of death more. She prayed to the deity of death to eliminate her enemies for her.

The young girl felt some satisfaction at being enlightened/finding her "voice" and vowed to be pious and dedicated to her religion.

In anger due to the events at the residence and how she had been treated, Celeste prayed to the deity of death to eliminate Amelie. Unbeknownst to her, her prayer was to be 'fulfilled' as Aedus was now in search of his next wife and in order to marry a third time, he had to get Amelie out of the picture.

And so Aedus divorced Amelie, before hiring a hitman to kill her the following night. The hitman succeeded and Aedus was free to marry again.

Melinda was taken out of the Verdani residence and was moved into a private residence, like Celeste.

When Celeste received news of Amelie's death, she finally felt hope, now that she was religious.

It was not long before Aedus found his third wife, who was a kind hearted woman called Carya. Almost three days after Amelie was killed, Aedus and Carya got married. Celeste was worried about Carya at first, wondering whether she was like Amelie. But after observing her, she realised that Carya was nothing like Amelie.

It was Carya's kindness which caused Celeste to take a liking to her.

Aedus still wanted a son. He thought that his wish was finally going to be fulfilled. Meanwhile, Carya spoke to Celeste, wanting to get to know her new stepdaughter.

Celeste talked to Carya about her religion to begin with. She (Celeste) discovered that they both shared the same faith, delighting her. Carya told Celeste that she regularly prays to the deity of life to watch over her family, even if they were usually mean to her.

Celeste didn't tell Carya about her regular prayers to the deity of death, thinking that this was something which should be kept untold.

The pair bonded, becoming good friends, and Celeste was finally able to open up to her stepmother, telling her about everything that had happened to her. A spark of determination grew within Carya when Celeste told her about her forced betrothal to the incredibly cruel Francesco, which was arranged by Francesco's sadistic father and Amelie. Celeste also told Carya that Amelie told her that this betrothal was a punishment for refusing to acknowledge her as Aedus' lawful wife and for calling her Aedus' mistress.

Carya responded by reassuring Celeste, telling her that the betrothal was not a punishment but rather an act of cruelty by Amelie. What Celeste didn't know was that Carya was now determined to rectify the problems of the Verdani family; she wanted to end the betrothal between Celeste and Francesco by talking to Francesco's father, she wanted to give Aedus the son and heir he wanted and she wanted to "restore" Melinda and Celeste into the family.

Her strategy was to rectify the problems one at a time. She decided to deal with the issue regarding Celeste's betrothal first.

Before confronting Francesco's father, Carya confronted her husband, hoping that maybe he could help. However, Aedus was of no help, telling his wife that she shouldn't be worrying about Celeste, who still hated him and no desire to reconcile with him.

Carya wasn't going to stop worrying about Celeste, however. Celeste was more of a friend than a stepdaughter to her now and she wanted to make her friend happy by dealing with the issue that troubled her for her.

Celeste was confident that Carya was the person who would persuade the father of her betrothed to finally end the betrothal. She prayed constantly to the deity of life, hoping that this was the case but unfortunately, Carya didn't succeed in persuading Francesco's father to end the betrothal.

Carya, explaining what had happened to Celeste, repeatedly asked Francesco's father to fulfill her request to end the betrothal but he outright refused to do so each time. Carya reminded him that Amelie, who set up the betrothal, was dead.

But Francesco's father had a logical argument against Carya; he also helped arrange the betrothal and that the betrothal can only end if those who arranged it are dead or eventually change their minds. He was alive and he supported the betrothal; he was not going to change his mind any time soon. He also stated that killing him was pointless as he was more powerful than the Verdanis.

Carya told Celeste that there was nothing else she could do. Celeste was devastated as she had to face the fact that she was to get married when she turned 14.

Carya was ashamed of herself for not being able to get Celeste out of her situation but Celeste reassured Carya, telling her that she was appreciative of her efforts.

Three weeks later, Carya discovered that she was pregnant. Aedus was overjoyed. Maybe life was changing for the better, he thought.

Nine months later, Carya went into labour. As Aedus didn't want Celeste in the residence whilst Carya was giving birth, Celeste stayed in her residence. She spent the whole night in a chapel-like room praying to the deity of life to watch over Carya and to help her get through childbirth.

She did this until she fell asleep on the floor.

Carya gave birth to a boy, who she and Aedus named Heath. Heath's birth meant that Celeste was now 2nd in the line of inheritance, Melinda being 3rd.

Celeste didn't mind, however. Her position in the Verdani line of inheritance was the least of her concerns. Aedus held a great party to celebrate the birth of his son.

Celeste was allowed to attend the party. However, she disguised herself as she didn't want to be surrounded by people who would talk about the controversy surrounding her whilst she was present and end up forgetting the fact that they were at a party.

At the party, she interacted with her half brother and placed her beloved teddy bear in his crib, giving it to Heath as a gift. As she prepared to leave, due to only coming to the party to see Heath, a mysterious man approached her. This man didn't reveal his identity, but he knew who Celeste was. He wasn't fooled by her disguise.

The man gave Celeste a slip of paper with a mysterious codeword on it, before leaving. Celeste shrugged this off and placed the slip of paper in her pocket, before resuming to leave.

Little did she know that she would later use the codeword to become a member of one of the most powerful assassin companies in Panem.

Little did she know that she was a pawn in somebody's masterplan and had been her entire life so far.

More tragedy would eventually strike for the Verdanis, specifically for Carya. After giving birth to Heath, she became severely ill and was then diagnosed with a terminal illness. Celeste was saddened, knowing what was going to happen next.

On her deathbed, Carya asked Aedus, as her death wish, to 'restore' Melinda and Celeste back into the residence. Aedus was reluctant to do so, but because it was Carya's death wish and Carya had given him the son he wanted, he agreed to fulfill her wish.

This meant that Carya had managed to rectify two of the three issues she wanted to rectify.

And so the next day, Carya had died; her cause of death stated as complications from childbirth. Celeste was appointed as one of the chief mourners at Carya's funeral.

Aedus didn't marry again for a whole year. He focused on looking after his son. Meanwhile, Celeste had finally decided that she didn't want a relationship with her father or her half siblings, she'd be fine on her own.

As she secretly practiced her faith and regularly prayed to the deities of life and death, Aedus was slowly coming out of his grieving stage and was preparing to marry again. But this time, he wouldn't arrange the marriage himself. His trusted advisors would for him.

They managed to find a wealthy, yet old fashioned man from District 4, who was looking to arrange a marriage for his daughter, Lyanna. Aedus' advisors hoped that Lyanna would be beautiful. But the truth was that she was average looking.

This put the advisors in a tricky situation which could cost them their lives. They could be honest to Aedus about the appearance of Lyanna, or they could lie. They did the latter and made Aedus believe that Lyanna was beautiful.

Lyanna, who was only 19, didn't see Aedus until their wedding day months later. Celeste, by this point, was now a nine year old. She felt sorry for Lyanna because she didn't know just what Aedus was like.

Lyanna didn't reveal her appearance until after she and Aedus were declared husband and wife. Aedus realized that his advisors had lied to him. They were eventually killed.

The marriage was not consummated and Celeste discovered that she didn't have much in common with her third stepmother, save for fashion. In addition, Lyanna was not religious. But Celeste respected Lyanna regardless of this, due to having dignity.

Aedus and Lyanna's marriage lasted for two months. Lyanna was given Melinda's old private residence and some money to help her get by, once the divorce was finalized.

Celeste would find another enemy in her fourth stepmother, Morrisea (who was cousins with Amelie). She disliked Morrisea, believing her to be frivolous (but then again, Morrisea was only a 16 year old) and disregarding the value of dignity. Morrisea at first wanted to befriend Celeste, but once Celeste was brutally honest with Morrisea about how she felt about her, she reciprocated the feeling.

Aedus, who was becoming ill, treated Morrisea like a Queen. But Morrisea truthfully didn't want to be married to Aedus, believing him to be an old man who was going to die soon.

Celeste was the one who discovered Morrisea's secret affair with a much younger man. She saw this an opportunity to bring down Morrisea.

After praying to the deity of death to eliminate Morrisea, she secretly produced valid evidence of the affair and shown it to her father. Aedus didn't believe Celeste at first, but eventually he came around and divorced Morrisea, before ordering a hitman to kill her.

Aedus married one last time (he married a woman called Maria) before his death. On his deathbed, he made amends with Celeste, apologizing to her for how he treated her over the years. He asked Celeste if there were no hard feelings between the two. She confirmed this, stating that there was no hard feelings.

Now that her father was dead, Celeste prepared for life in an orphanage, believing this was where she was to go next. She did end up in an orphanage, but she was mistaken if she thought that she would spend the rest of her days there.

Four years later, she was taken in by the mysterious man from the party, who turned out to be Jace Verdani, her uncle. She hadn't seen Jace before until now.

She learned that Jace was one manipulative, ambitious man, who had been infatuated with Taiga, before her marriage to his brother, who he despised. He had a masterplan of his own, which if successful, would result in him controlling the entire Verdani family and possibly creating the start of the path which could lead to another civil war/rebellion in Panem (which he wanted):

Noticing that she looked like her late mother, Jace lied to Celeste about his feelings for her. Truthfully, he considered this as preparation for initiating his plan and his way of getting Celeste involved. He was going to use Celeste as the pawn in one part of his plan.

The first part of the plan was for Celeste to inherit the Verdani fortune and residence. Jace would make sure that this occurred by getting Celeste to kill Heath, the current owner of the fortune and the residence due to the Verdani line of inheritance. Jace would take care of making Heath's death look like an accident.

Once Celeste was in control of the fortune and the residence, the second part of the plan would 'come into accord'. This was for Celeste to then join The Organisation via the piece of paper with the codeword on it that Jace had given her at the party. However, as one of the laws which The Organisation members had to abide by was to not accept inheritances of land and money, so Celeste would have to hide this fact.

Jace would then manipulate members of The Organisation into making an attack on The Capitol's elite. He would also manipulate the leader of The Organisation into giving Celeste a higher rank, so she could be in charge of a section of new members and encourage them into joining the attack on the Capitol.

Then the final part of Celeste's part in the plan was to abandon The Organisation in their time of need.

Celeste was blinded by love, as she accepted that she had feelings for Jace, and was thus excited for the plan, forgetting that it involved her murdering the son of the woman who was responsible for restoring Celeste back into the Verdani line of inheritance.

She asked Jace if this was in anyway against her religion (which it was). Jace lied to her by saying it wasn't.

Celeste, having been brainwashed by Jace and forgetting who she truly was, followed through with the plan. She killed Heath at night, before escaping. She managed to get away with the murder and later signed a document decreeing her as the new owner of the residence and the fortune.

However, Celeste was already making a grave mistake. People, including those who had been loyal to Amelie when she was alive and were now supporters of Melinda, noticed how odd it was for Celeste to have left Melinda completely out of the equation. This was one mistake which would eventually lead to the ultimate backfire of Jace's plan.

Celeste later joined The Organisation, using the codeword which Jace had given her. However, here's where the next mistake would come into accord. Celeste didn't know her distant relative, Aquarius Equinox-Verdani, was also a member of The Organisation.

Celeste pretended to be friendly with Aquarius, who welcomed Celeste with open arms. However, Celeste didn't know that Aquarius could see right through her. This was just a front.

The third mistake, just like the second mistake, wasn't really Celeste's fault, however. The leader of The Organisation had agreed to give Celeste the rank of Commander, but he knew that there was something strange going on between Celeste and Jace. He disliked Celeste.

Jace managed to manipulate The Organisation into attacking the elite of The Capitol. Celeste, due to this, paid a visit to The Capitol with the section of new members in which she was in charge of.

During her time in The Capitol, Celeste noticed a dragon muttation which had made it from District 14. She managed to tame and ride the dragon, before it was shot down by Peacekeepers.

After successfully encouraging the people she was in charge of to kill, she deserted The Organisation and made a swift escape with Jace, before she could be confronted by both Aquarius, who was loyal to The Organisation and the leader of The Organisation himself.

Celeste was finally happy that she had followed Jace's plan, when she was later told by Jace that she had been betrayed by Jace himself. All the enemies she had made were due to Jace and now many wanted her to feel their wrath. He had also revealed to Celeste that he had lied about her actions not being against her religion.

Before she could retaliate, Jace took her back to District 12 where she was then apprehended and forced to wed Francesco, now that she was 14 (she had turned 14 during her time at The Capitol).

The pair was then forced to consummate the marriage. The next morning, Celeste made an escape and went into hiding in District 13 for the next two years.

Jace then made one final move on Celeste, by blaming everything he had done on Celeste. Celeste was quickly apprehended by who Jace had informed, the District 13 soldiers.

She was then giving an ultimatum: volunteer or be executed for "her" crimes. Celeste agreed to volunteer, not knowing that her estranged husband was also volunteering for the Games.

Backstory (shortened version)
Celeste was born to Taiga and Aedus Verdani. She was their only surviving child, as Taiga suffered several miscarriages.

Aedus desperately wanted a son, who could succeed him once he died. Taiga couldn't provide him with the son he wanted, as this eventually lead to her downfall as Aedus would later divorce her.

Celeste was separated from her mother, who was later diagnosed with a terminal illness and eventually died.

Aedus then wed a woman called Amelie, who would turn out to be cruel towards Celeste as Celeste refused to acknowledge her

Personality
Celeste is mainly known for being extremely pious and dedicated to her religion. She prays to the deity of death to eliminate her enemies and there has been occasions when she has killed people who have taunted her about/insulted her religion.

She will only do something if it does not go against her religion.

But this all comes with a secretive deadly undertone, as Celeste is deadly. Her deadliness was at it's peak when she was a member of The Organisation, as she had managed to climb some of it's ranks before her desertion.

Trivia

 * Despite the dragon muttation being one of the traditional weapons of their family, both Louis and Cassandra have never actually tamed or ridden a dragon muttation. Celeste is the only one of my tributes who has both tamed and ridden a dragon muttation.
 * The part of Celeste's backstory involving Jace originally included Jace falling in love with Celeste (to make things more Sansa and Littlefinger-like) and thus Celeste would follow Jace's plan as she was love-struck/blinded by love, but I thought that her still being love-struck and later betrayed by Jace would be more scandalous and would make more sense.