Selene Avent

Selene is tall and regal, with long red hair and green eyes. She closely resembles her mother the Empress. At Tenba she wore jeweled feet and black when she strode onto a ship's bridge.

Selene is an afterling princess -- an Imperial child born of the Emperor's later years. As an afterling, she and any prospective husband would not be permitted offspring by the High College. She has spent decades at a time in fugue-sleep. She is designated 'Ninety-Nine' by Legion communications protocol. She states she was not made to rule.

• William XXIII (Father, deceased)
• Maria Agrippina (Mother)
• Alexander Avent (Brother) -- called her a whore and disgrace on Tenba's steps; his forces seized her
• Aurelian, Ricard, Philip, Irene, Faustinus, Matthias, Eleanor, Cynthia, Titania, Vivienne (Siblings)
• Hadrian Marlowe (Husband) -- she shouted his defense on Tenba; he never saw her again after she was seized; she was taken to Earth and died
• Cassandra -- close companions
• Nicephorus -- she calls him 'Uncle Nick'; shot dead at Tenba
• Sir Verus (Excubitor bodyguard -- her personal protector)
• Bassander Lin -- a companion during the final campaign

Selene accompanied her brother Alexander to meet Hadrian Marlowe in the solarium on Forum. When Hadrian saw her, he recognized her from a vision given to him by the daimon Brethren at Vorgossos. She asked Hadrian to take care of her brother.

Approximately fifty years later, Selene invited Hadrian to dance at an Imperial gathering and was surprised to learn he had been disinherited. Emperor William XXIII proposed a marriage between them, though no formal betrothal was announced.

Selene led Hadrian on a ride through the Royal Forest and visited him aboard the Tamerlane. At the Grand Colosseum she guided him through court introductions and protested on his behalf before the Empress. A knife-missile attack struck Valka Onderra precisely while Hadrian was with Selene in the Royal Wood.

Years later, the Emperor again offered Selene's hand to Hadrian as compensation for his loss, noting she remained unwed.

Centuries later, Selene was sent by Prince Aurelian to receive Hadrian at the Porta Leonora landing pad on Forum. She informed him of the Lothrian Commonwealth's incursion and Aurelian's war council. She entered Hadrian's chambers in the Arx Caelestis at night to warn him of the Chantry's intentions and kissed him. When Hadrian underwent a violent physical crisis, she screamed and remained frozen in the doorway.

Selene witnessed Hadrian's death on Forum and insisted on joining the escape. After fleeing, she told Hadrian she had loved him since seeing him ride through the Eternal City with a Grass Crown, and that her father had kept her in fugue for decades in anticipation of his return.

On Latarra, Selene spoke before the High Court to defend Lorian Aristedes and transmitted a holograph message to Forum beginning weeks of negotiation. She departed with her brother Prince Matthias, then accompanied Alexander to muster forces for the siege of Vorgossos, approached the officer Ghoshal with evidence of Hadrian's murder, and joined the Emperor at Gododdin.

At Gododdin, Selene stowed away aboard Hadrian's ship Ascalon along with her Excubitor bodyguard Sir Verus. She survived a supernatural assault by the Watcher Ushara. She grew close to Cassandra during the campaign, struck her brother Alexander at the war council when he made an insinuation about her, and participated in civilian relief missions at Catraeth, where her food donation programs were defaced by protesters.

In the bunker beneath Cynon, the Emperor revealed that many of her brothers were dead and proposed she wed Hadrian to not rule alone. She agreed without hesitation. Their marriage was kept secret from the court. She urged evacuation time before the final battle, prayed when Gododdin was destroyed, and pleaded with Hadrian not to go alone to face Dorayaica.

The Cielcin commander Amon Kosis demanded Hadrian hand her over as a condition of his terms. After the defeat of Dorayaica, when told the Emperor may be dead, she stood stiff as stone but did not weep. She expressed she was not made to rule and was glad Hadrian had been named Emperor. At the round table council she announced that three children's licenses would be granted to every great house as part of the coronation jubilee. After Cassandra's death she staggered toward Hadrian and he held her.

Selene made private vows with Hadrian before her father on Cynon. Hadrian intended to renew those vows publicly at the Tower of Morne on Tenba. On Tenba's steps she shouted his defense against Alexander's accusations; Alexander called her a whore and disgrace. Two Sentinels seized and bruised her limbs. After Nicephorus was shot dead and the daimon Neema killed, she was bodily thrown over a Martian Guard soldier's shoulder and carried off. Hadrian reflects she was taken first to Avalon and then to Earth, where she died. He never saw her again after the plaza on Tenba.