Lady Margo Wilem, Duchess of Montesteae

Lady Margo Wilem, Duchess of Montestea was the second daughter of Crown Princess Aryanja Wilem of Flowers. She is known for having and giving the name to Margo Syndrome.

Early Life
While her mother Crown Princess Aryanja Wilem was pregnant, she experienced a traumatic incident in which she fell overboard on a sailing venture with her husband. The princess, heavily pregnant and wearing a massive gown, was pulled quickly into deep water. She was rescued after her husband and cousin, Felix Wilem, jumped in after her. For two minutes she was unconscious while being given compressions. When she awoke she was tinged blue and sobbing profusely. This incident is also how the original tiara of the Crown Princess' was lost. A month after the incident, Lady Margo Wilem was born on 10 Netep in 115 AE. Immediately it became apparent that Margo was plagued by some kind of deformity, though what was not known. The baby girl's face was paralyzed, her eyes crossed, and her left hand missing her pinky and ring fingers. The attendees to the birth were rushed out of the room and baby Margo was taken away by her wet nurse so that Aryanja would not see her. Rumors spread among the court that the princess had given birth to a monstrous creature, a daemon with nub horns, hermaphroditic, and without eyes.

When Aryanja awoke from her tonic induced slumber, she demanded to see her baby. Her husband, Lord Ivan Wilem advised her not to as well as her mother, the Queen Taurinja Wilem of Flowers. However, after storming from her bed and nearly falling down, the princess was brought her daughter. By then, Aryanja was expecting the worst but was shocked to see a sweet baby girl wrapped in silk and lace, no different from her other daughter save for her strange face. Furious with her family, Aryanja demanded to be left alone with her baby.

Margo had difficulties early on with feeding, mostly due to her paralyzed face. Aryanja traded places regularly with her wet nurse, Madame Dijana Vedric, constantly trying to find new ways to get the girl to eat. Their solution was to tilt the girl's head back at a certain angle, placing a rag soaked in milk in her mouth, then manually massaging her jaw and throat to assist in swallowing. Margo began to regain lost weight this way, soon being able to suck lightly and swallow without much assistance. Margo was not presented to the public as the other royal children were, not being seen in public until she was seven years old at the presentation of her sister Cycilia.

As a toddler, Margo was somewhat behind her peers in ability, though she was not lacking in mental capacity. Her difficulties in speaking were apparent early on, leading Aryanja to hire a special tutor from Barland called Luka Petrikov to train the girl. He and Madame Vedric worked to teach the young girl, employing a variety of techniques learned through experience and trial and error to get Margo educated and healthy. Margo was unable to eat solid foods prior to their intervention, subsisting off soups, purees, and creams for her first two and a half years of life.

Petrikov noted that the girl's tongue was too underdeveloped, beginning her on several exercises designed to strengthen the muscle. Madame Vedric would drill Margo on speech exercises. Petrikov also noticed that Margo's mouth lacked the room for her teeth, so many of her premolars were pulled to give space for her teeth at age three.

By her fourth birthday, Margo was able to function normally without great intervention. Her eyes, while crossed, were of only slightly less than average ability but she still wore a pair of Uruki spectacles. The little Margo was exceptionally happy, always ready to learn, and witty. She began to become more involved in court life around this time, no longer shrouded in a veil to cover her face. Margo was known to often interrupt official royal affairs with cute anecdotes which endeared her to the court. Luka Petrikov was knighted for his endeavors and given a plot of land in the newly acquired lands that were once Forzen, founding house Petrikov.

Teen and Early Adulthood
Margo was very close to her sisters, eventually attending the same school as them, the Lady of the Nine Wounds School for Girls in Akdur, Barland. In her teens, she was often bullied for her appearance, though she was quick to remind her peers that they were talking to a future queen. Her and her sisters had formed a pact that when Imogen became queen, they would all become co-rulers together. Margo experienced her first relationship during her stay at the School with another girl named Silvia Rubinovich. The two were eventually caught in the attic by a teacher, leading to the expulsion of Silvia and the return of Margo to her home of Fleur.

Aryanja was sympathetic to her daughter, allowing her a private tutor at Verdenston. Margo furious that her siblings were allowed to stay at the School while she was stuck in the palace, leading to several attempts at running away. Aryanja was distraught over her daughter's acting out and in 101 AE she begged for Petrikov to return to assist her daughter. Petrikov obliged, returning to try a new type of therapy on Margo. Petrikov's new therapeutic therapy focused on the mind, which he called Psychic Divination. The therapy consisted of the description of random forms, choosing of images from sets, the association of feelings with symbology, and the use of tonics and exercises to sanitize the mind. Margo's results were mixed, though she eventually praised Petrikov's work in her old age.

In 95 AE Margo remained unmarried. She was frustrated by this, not due to her desire to marry but because she saw it as her mother looking down on her. Aryanja attempted to find her a candidate but was unable to before her death in 94 AE from a stroke. Margo, suddenly without her mother's influence, began to act more boldly in court. In 87 AE, her grandmother, the still reigning Queen Taurinja, approached her with a special gift for her twenty-eight birthday. She offered Margo the title of Duchess of Montestaea which had been vacant since the war. Ecstatic, Margo accepted and within a year was moved to Castle Montestaea in the region of the same name in northern Fleur.

Margo was somewhat unprepared for the duties that came with being the duchess, but soon found herself in a steady rhythm of rule. Her focus on Montestaea was to keep the region largely natural, while consolidating the growth of small urban centers. She helped to transform the area around Castle Montestaea into a bustling modern township, moving isolated families from hidden mountain homes into the new capitol of the region. The city would be called after her death Marburg but then was simply known as Castleton.

Suddenly with power and influence, Margo found herself inundated with suitors. The understanding that they came only for her influence infuriated her, leading to the expulsion or public humiliation of most of them. Margo gained a reputation for being harsh to men, quick of wit, and not easily stirred. She took at this time a succession of female companions, all younger than her, who were rumored to be her lovers. Margo ruled Montestaea for forty-four years, gifting the title of duchess unto her sister Cycilia's daughter Lorelai upon her deathbed in 43 AE. She was seventy-two and her death is believed to have been caused by complications of her syndrome. She was buried in the crypts of Castle Montestaea, beneath a statue of herself lying on a bed being attended to by nymphs.

Appearance
Margo suffered from Margo Syndrome, leading to facial paralysis and the deformation of her left hand. On said hand she was missing her pinky and ring finger. Her eyes were usually crossed though sometimes they were able to briefly appear to move together. Her face was somewhat strange looking to others in that it was stuck in a permanent "dumb" look. Later in life, Margo was able to perform more facial expressions due to years of practice, though these were very limited. For example, when she smiled she only upturned the corner of her mouth very slightly.

Margo had light brown hair, somewhat hazel, which she kept short in her youth. It is said that whenever her mother made her grow it out she'd shear it off herself in big chunks with knives of any type. In her old age she began to grow her hair out, which she kept upon her head in a massive bun, as was the style then. Margo was dressed childishly into her twenties by her mother, usually in the loose white sailor-type gowns of Fleurian youths. Later she'd wear the dresses of workers or peasants though in more sumptuous fabrics before eventually falling in line with the then modern styles. Her favorite color was a deep navy blue.

Margo was thin for all her life, with pale white skin, and dark eyes.