Deviation Actions
Description
Jaquelin Anastasia Mass
Executive Apprentice To The Sitting Executive Statesman
Age in Book 01: 16
Age In Book 02: 18
Age in Book 03: 20
Character Profile:
Jaquelin Mass was the first character I considered when developing Enter An Age of Combat at the tender age of sixteen. She was considered to be the main character in the first of seven drafts of the novel. (Still working on seventh draft now.) And was about my age at the time I started work on the project in May of 2006.
Over the years, Jaquelin has evolved to become a tough and powerful figure in my story. Standing toe to toe with the best women in my life. She is a powerful civilian in her society. She is also very humble about that power she has gained over her war weary fellow citizens.
Jaquelin Anastasia Mass was developed originally to be a foreign exchange student from a neighboring society known as Eygwa. In the first draft, she fights her way through the war torn city of Amani Unus on planet Keosteyon to return to her family on Planet Eygwa.
When I met my best friend Robert Manning however, that all changed. Jaquelin Mass – and the whole story, was revived six times since then, to match a better realistic and believable approach. Jaquelin Mass went from being a Spartan foreign exchange student, (Sparta BELONGS to Robert Manning) to finally being a citizen of Keosteyon and Amani Unus. During the sixth iteration of the story, when I joined DeviantART in 2008, Jaquelin's home world of Keosteyon was briefly renamed Costellon, and the name stuck. Additionally in 2008, her home nation was no longer a city state – but an entire interstellar republic known as the Interstellar Covenanted States. To better mimic the origin story of Pulse of the Universe.
Finally, Jaquelin, was given a more realistic background. Her history was designed to better mimic the origins of her people, her; and to flow better with the three books. Jaquelin Mass is based largely off of my mother, who is a strong woman in my life and who I see as a role model for being tough and resilient in the face of many challenges. Additionally, Jaquelin's high level of patience and modesty is a large part of my respect for my other best friend Caitlin Lemieux, who I met in 2009. During the seventh draft of Enter An Age of Combat, I replaced Jaquelin's firey nature with a more subtle nature resembling both women in my life. As it stands for the final time, she is now patient and modest, but strong willed and resilient. This I believe, is a perfect tribute to what I believe makes a great woman.
Character Background
Born Dolsa Al'lon, Jaquelin's father, King Hermoses the Dignified of Knod, gave her up for adoption at the tender age of five months. He entrusted her in the care of an ambitious young senator from the fledgling new city of Amani Unus on Planet Keosteyon. Across the ocean from the king's capital city of Diana. At the time, the King was hoping to cover up another illicit affair he had behind his wife's back.As for the senator from Amani Unus, Blavis Mass, he had one child with his wife Carah. Unfortunately, Carah was rendered infertile after a freak industrial accident in the nuclear power plant she ran outside of the city. They had wanted another daughter, and Blavis was willing to adopt in the overpopulated city of Diana – against his wife's wishes. Carah wanted a daughter who resembled her own, and insisted on adopting in Amani Unus. Behind his wife's back, Blavis went ahead to meet with the king regardless. And the result was a beautiful baby girl named Dolsa, or Hope.
When Blavis returned home to Amani Unus, he immediately stopped by the embassy of his best friend, Commander Darius, and spoke with Darius and Ambassador Patterson about possible Spartan names for Dolsa. Patterson, who was holding the young girl, decided on the name of Anastasia, while Darius thought of Jaquelin. Blavis agreed on both names, and went home to his bewildered and upset wife Carah. “Why couldn't you have kept the name Dolsa?” Carah inquired angrily.
Over the years, Jaquelin, whose skin was brown at such a young age, lightened. She resembled a Bahn, a subset of Costellon's human population, and her hair was straight and brown compared to her darker toned family. Carah and Manah, her adoptive mother and sister, often besieged her with jokes of being adopted, to which Jaquelin resented them for. Her father hid the truth from her, that she was of royal blood her entire life.
Jaquelin grew into an intelligent young woman over the years. Studying politics at the same apprentice shop as her sister. Like a vocational school, an Apprentice Shop, or trade school, is the most common type of schooling in the region where Amani Unus is located. Jaquelin grew into a caring, open minded young woman who studied hard and had few friends.
When Amani Unus was invaded, she fought to get to her family, who was visiting Knod at the time, and struggled for a day and night to get out of the city, and two days on the passenger ship taking her to Knod. After the invasion, she returned to Amani Unus with her family to rebuild. Prior to the invasion of the city, Executive Statesman, equivalent to President, Isaac Thomas Riley, decided to appoint her – at the request of her father – his apprentice.
Unaware that she was the last remaining high ranking official in the city during the invasion, and the first to return, Jaquelin built a following for herself, that, at the age of twenty, would overshadow her mentor in the general elections. Putting him squarely in the lead because of her successes. During that time, she'd find out about her true past, and would soon resent her adoptive father for his decision to hide that side of her. She would channel that resentment in running for public office, and continuing her apprenticeship with the Statesman. Five years later, Jaquelin will run for public office – in the same seat her adoptive father held.
