Player: Vicky H
Rank: Viscountess (Rank 3)
Religion: Church of England
Email: anastasia_hamilton@albion.chaosdeathfish.com

A beautiful and wealthy young widow. Slightly eccentric, although she is always immaculately turned out she prefers men's clothing to women's, finding it more practical. She is meticulous about everything she does and has a extremely good business head. She also enjoys throwing elaborate parties and society events. She is a kind hearted and generous sort, or at least as much as someone who likes throwing expensive dinners to raise money for charity can be said to be. She often holds fashionable soirées with high ticket prices to raise money for the poor. In addition, her right hand was crushed in a riding accident several years ago and never fully healed. This gives a general impairment to most physical activities.

Most of her wealth is invested in various business ventures, although a proportion of it is in her family's lands. She also keeps a small force of men-at-arms, though most are in fact women, who are dedicated and well trained and act as her personal bodyguard.

She has a Bachelor Hermeniensis in alchemy from the Invisible College. She held the rank of Major with a brevet posting of Colonel in the Logistics division of the Earl of Essex's Dragoons, until receiving a promotion to the honorary rank of Colonel upon her resignation after the passing of Parliamentary legislation prohibiting active service in multiple services. In the last year she has made a meteoric rise through the ranks of the new Royal Navy. Initially assigned the role of the first Colonel of the Royal Marines she has now become the Admiral of the White. In addition she sits in the House of Lords and has been made of a member of the Privy Council.

The play was discovered in the early 17th Century in a collection of drafts written by the playwright Henry Bowcott. His reasons for writing a play celebrating the life of the dead traitor Anastasia Hamilton are obscure, some speculate that it was a commission placed in secret shortly before her demise and others that it was the result of losing a drunken bet. It has been performed only occasionally, and never with the license of the Lord Chamberlain, by a handful of disaffected artists.

The following is from a playbill from performances conducted in defiance of the government during the Piecework Riots of 1769.

The Death of the Rose is the tale of a woman who fell from Grace, the Lady Anastasia Hamilton, who begins the story as both naive and beautiful. Proud servant of her King and Country we are introduced to her as the women of her Household Guard discuss her achievements in the founding of the Royal Navy and the conflicts in Venice and Rome. The protagonist does not appear at all in the first scene, but instead the common folk in he service relate her drive to see Albion great once more.

We are not introduced to Admiral and Lady in her public life but instead in an intimate moment, a secret tryst with the Baron Wyndham. Their relationship is portrayed as one based on genuine love, as he struggles against an empty marriage, but also presented as the chief cause of her eventual demise. Even in private and secret the affairs of the Kingdom intrude upon them, for they have a genuine passion for the country though it drives them to conflict with their peers.

The climax of the play comes when the Admiral is confronted by Elemiah, angel of Journeys, who presents her with three choices. She can stand back and allow the eventual decline of Albion or she can struggle against overwhelming odds and hope to see the country returned to its former glory. Her final choice is to cast aside her scruples and do what must be done whatever the cost to herself or her morals, increasing her chances of success but risking the damnation of her soul. In the end she chooses the third option by symbolically cutting out her own heart. At this point there is a dramatic change in her personality. Whilst still devoted to her cause, she ultimately becomes completely obsessed with it, even to the brink of madness.

The play's ending is something of a disappointment. Perhaps Bowcott simply saw no way of presenting the actions of Hamilton in a favourable light or learnt of the death of his possible patron and the drawing shut of her drawstrings. Whatever the cause the play's ending is somewhat unsatisfying, ending as it does on something of a discord. The Admiral's final closing speech is both impassioned and stirring, as it speaks of the need of duty and sacrifice. But in the end it has come to naught, as she dies and her legacy is destroyed. The audience is left with a feeling of uncertainty about which side was right.

In our performance we add the controversial final scene, sketched out by Bowcott but never completed, and here written by the revolutionary dramatist James Sandford. A young traveller enters the stage and from the ground plucks the last single rosebud of the spring. His words speak of hope and renewal. There are some that argue that the play's patron deliberately requested that this be omitted from all but a few manuscripts, whilst others believe it was added at a later date to give the audience a sense of catharsis. Nevertheless in this ending not all has been lost and there is the implication that Albion might once more return to its former glory.

21 long years. 21 long years of hiding away in secret, whilst the self-righteous bastards wallowed in their own undeserved successes. 21 long years before to wait before I can claim justice against those who were too weak to understand my parent's ideals. 21 long years before I shall return to the shores of fair Albion to reclaim my birthright…

Richard Jonathan Riegler some might say was a man of uncanny, perhaps even unnatural dedication to a cause. He was raised, so he claimed, in an obscure part of what once briefly was the Holy Roman Empire. He was orphaned at a very early age and so was brought up by the Parish Priest as a devout Anglican. Whilst having no particular position when he arrived on Albion's shores, a tidy sum of wealth bequeathed to him by his late parents enabled him to purchase the now reviled Viscountcy of Hexham. Whilst rumours abounded about this strange gentleman's history, none could deny his skills both political and military. He took a keen interest in both the Armies of Albion and in the House of Lords, proving himself to have a keen intellect.

He did not restrict himself to matters of politics, however, and became known as something of a socialite. His sense of style was commented to be impeccable and many of the young ladies who met him commented on his sense of charm. He was seen at most fashionable events and took something of an interest in the theatre. It could also be noted how he took a particular shine to the young Princess Unity, trying to charm her at any given opportunity.

I will seduce the Princess and make her my own… I will mingle my blood and the blood of my parents with that of the Royal line. I will slowly convert the armies of Albion to my control and in the end I will make them love me. Whilst it is doubtful that I shall ever rule Albion, perhaps some day my progeny will.

What is spoken of in perhaps more hushed tones is the young socialite's sense of ruthlessness. He was never one to shy away from destroying a political rival would the opportunity present itself. And he did so with a dramatic sense of efficiency. Darker rumours speak of torture and murder as a means to ensuring his own advancement within the ranks of Albion, but such things have never been proven…

From Fairytales of the Mariners, a book sold in coastal towns and on the smaller islands of Albion and largely sold to mothers anxious to ensure their sons and daughters do not venture to sea.

[…] and it is said that the soul of the traitor Hamilton was too black and evil for even Hell, and that when she reached that fiery place that she was spat back out by the fearful demons. It came to rest with a great splash upon the floor of a great abyss in the ocean and there it was so filled with hate and malice that it shaped itself a new body out of the sunless brine and the eyeless creatures that live beneath the deepest deeps. It hungers there, and when it feels the passage of brave men and loyal - for those are an affront to its nature - it sucks in with all its might and conjures up a great whirlpool with which it sinks ships and swallows bodies.