Princess Meredith

Princess Emeritus of Centralia

👑

race

Asterian

birthday

March 15 (nominal)

age

unknown

pronouns

she/her/hers

title

Her Royal Highness

residence

PalaceOfSerenity (former)
PrincessMeredithsPalace

consort

DameAdorabelle (informal)

succeeded by

PrincessJeanette

Princess Meredith was the founder and first ruler of Centralia, as well as the first Asterian to come to Earth.

Biography

Arrival on Earth

Long before the founding of Centralia, an ethereal being made of pure magic traveled to Earth from the distant planet Asteria. Upon arriving on Earth, the Asterian assumed the form of a human woman...much to her confusion, as she had never seen a human before. The Asterian found herself in the middle of a dense forest, where she wandered for several days, simply taking in the sensations of her new home planet. The sights, the sounds, the smells, even the tastes: The Asterian was in awe of it all.

After a few days in the forest, the Asterian came face-to-face with a human for the first time. While following a creek through the woods, the Asterian happened upon a young human woman wading in its shallow waters. The Asterian was absolutely captivated by the sheer grace and elegance of this unfamiliar life form, and asked one simple question: "Are all of this planet's creatures as beautiful as you?" The words came naturally, despite being in a language she had never heard spoken before. The human woman responded simply by thanking the Asterian for the compliment and asking her name. The Asterian, of course did not have a name: the very concept of names was completely foreign to her.

The human woman, who told the Asterian her name was Adorabelle Wallace, invited the Asterian inside, offering her food and clothing. The Asterian was unsure of the purpose of food and clothing, but Adorabelle insisted upon giving them to her, so she assumed that eating and getting dressed must be important rituals for humans. Adorabelle then proceeded to patiently explain names to the Asterian, and together they decided the Asterian would adopt the name Meredith.

And thus began a close friendship that would last for centuries to come.

Princess of Centralia

While magic had existed on Earth long before Meredith's arrival--Adorabelle herself was a very powerful mage--the people of Earth quickly found that Meredith's magical abilities far exceeded any of their own, verging on omnipotence. A faction of Earth creatures thus decided to appoint Meredith as their leader, and the Principality of Centralia was established, with Princess Meredith as their sovereign.

During her reign as princess, Meredith remained close with Adorabelle, even appointing her as her official royal advisor. It was often observed that their relationship seemed to be almost romantic in nature, though they never formally married. When a second Asterian arrived on Earth, this time a small child, Adorabelle persuaded Meredith to take her in and raise her alongside her, effectively making her their adopted daughter. That Asterian went on to be known as Jeanette.

Princess Meredith, being effectively immortal, initially saw no reason to draft a succession plan, expecting that she would simply rule Centralia for eternity. Adorabelle, however, urged her to adopt a succession plan to ensure the nation's stability if, for any reason, Meredith were ever unable to carry out her duties. Meredith thus reluctantly declared that each Princess of Centralia would appoint her own successor. Meredith originally intended to appoint Adorabelle herself as her successor, but Adorabelle declined. Meredith eventually chose Jeanette as her successor, citing her familiarity with both Asterian magic and the culture of Earth creatures. (The immense magical ability inherent to Asterians also probably helped.)

Adorabelle's assertion of the importance of having a successor would be proven right far sooner than she anticipated.

"The Santa Claus Incident" and abdication

Princess Meredith's unfamiliarity with Earth culture proved problematic at times. The most notable example occurred one December when Meredith became convinced, for reasons that nobody ever quite understood, that SantaClaus was a pretender to the throne and wished to stage a coup. Meredith responded by attacking Santa during his Christmas Eve rounds. Santa successfully fought off Meredith's assault1, and Meredith was eventually subdued by members of the CentraliaHonorGuard, who, after many hours, managed to convince her that she was mistaken in assuming Santa wanted to usurp her.

While Meredith maintained that she had done nothing wrong, she abdicated the throne a week later, on December 31. "I've been doing this whole 'ruling' thing for a long time," Meredith said, "and it's really, really hard sometimes." PrincessJeanette acceded to the throne the following day, on January 1.

Unfamiliarity with Earth and "unique" lexicon

As the first Asterian to arrive on Earth, Meredith initially lacked familiarity with many aspects of Earth life, especially language: If she does not know the word for something, she will usually just make one up. Examples include "wingbeast" (bird), "beanwater" (coffee), and "lowercase people" (babies or toddlers).

Adorabelle often found herself in the position of explaining Earth customs and traditions to Meredith. For example, the two once had a conversation about birthdays:

In another example, Adorabelle attempted to explain carbonated soft drinks to Meredith:

Flight

Unlike other Asterians on Earth, who mostly walk like humans, Princess Meredith frequently uses her powers to levitate herself or fly.

Meredith had the PalaceOfSerenity built with trapdoors in most floors, allowing her to float between stories of the building without needing to use stairs. Other palace residents and staff learned very quickly to pay attention to where they were walking, as Meredith often left these trapdoors open.

Flight comes so naturally to Meredith that she often has difficulty determining what beings or objects could or could not easily fly. This led her to commission the RailroadTrackLeadingToACliffAndNowhereElse as a platform for flying trains. While the track was laid, the flying train project never got off the ground (pun very much intended).

Miscellaneous


preceded by
(office established)

Sovereign Princess of Centralia

succeeded by
PrincessJeanette


CategoryRoyalty CategoryRoyalty

  1. Notably making him one of the few creatures to display power rivaling an Asterian. (1)

PrincessMeredith (last edited 2023-03-05 19:32:13 by CentralAvenue)