Rosamund ap Fiona
former Countess of Rowan-Oak

Rosamund was a sidhe of the Resurgence, finding herself at UC Berkeley in 1969. Her refusal to fight in the Accordance War, and her organization of safe-houses for non-combatant commoner and noble fae, meant that she was overlooked when titles and freeholds were granted in the wake of the war at the Treaty of Concordia. She instead concentrated on her academic career, pursuing graduate work in theater and English Literature while also teaching and directing student productions at the University of Michigan.

The campus had a freehold and court in place, and Rosamund found herself welcomed by Baroness Ault, Lady of the Arbor, becoming one of her chief advisors. As Lady of Revels, Rosamund staged many of the pageants and fetes which made the barony a legend in some circles and a scandal in others. After a particularly boisterous Highsummer Night resulted in the accidental death of a Dreamer, however, the Duke of Spruce intervened, the court of The Arbor was put under an advisory rule, and Rosamund gracefully resigned her post (even though she had no personal role in the unfortunate incident) and, with her Master's Degree in hand and a doctoral dissertation of Christopher Marlowe underway, sought a new position.

Some nine months later, she gave birth to a son. Settling in at Adena College, a small liberal-arts school in Ohio, she determined her child harbored a faerie soul. As much to shelter him from Banality as to make a place for herself, she used some of her own Glamour to found a small Freehold at the college, finally attaining a barony in her own right. She ruled there for nearly a dozen years before moving on, again to further her mortal carrer. Offered tenure, an considerable raise in pay, and the chair of a department, she committed her freehold to the care of her chancellor, and moved with her son to Blackstone, Virginia. She came to Rowan-Oak, typically, for the opportunity the move offered her to advance her mortal career, heading the Theater Arts Department at Blackstone University. Her rank as baroness was only confirmed by the cynical Count Vathek when she was able to create a small freehold on campus, reproducing the feat by which she first earned her title.

Perhaps it was this feat which earned her the county rulership in the lottery held to choose Vathek's successor, as well. In any case, Rosamund's selection by fior, while acceptable to the Duchess of Rhododendrons, did not sit as well to some of the sidhe who had been in the region since Count Malcolm's day. There was much muttering about Yankees and lowlanders, but Rosamund accepted the pennon with modest aplomb.

Jolly and good natured, Rosamund brushed any remaining hostility aside with a laugh. By and large, her rule was untroubled by the intrigues of her vassals, although rumor has it that various nobles were jockeying behind the scenes to unseat her, outraged by her presumption in having named a commoner, her satyr son Almond, as heir to the county. In fact, somebody went so far as to poison her, and although she was healed, the perpetator was never discovered.

Rosamund's thronehold is not large, and she prefers to hold court weekly at the various freeholds under her rule, so as to meet her subjects on their home ground. On the night of each full moon during warm weather, she holds a special revel in the garden adjacent to Caer Ondomorna in order to repay their hospitality each month. Favored guests may be granted an audience in the Blue Room, but most of Caer Ondomorna is strictly private.

Rosamund balances her time spent on fae matters with a full-time university professorship in the Mortal world. Since 1990, when she arrived at Blackstone, Rosie Mondie has earned her tenure, and heads the Theater Department. Although the machinations of academia can grow Banal, Rosamund shows no signs of fading. She is fortunate to have the assistance of a kinain secretary who sees that her departmental duties do not suffer when county affairs become absorbing. It was this secretary, Lady Jane Marlow, who helped revive the Countess from forgetting herself after an expecially grueling session of the Faculty Tenure Review Committee. Rosamund had her kinain factotum knighted for this service, and in recognition of her ongoing invaluable aid. With Lady Jane's help she has persisted in remaining aware of her fae identity and active in kithain affairs, in spite of being not many years from her fiftieth birthday. For the present, she hangs balanced between her worlds. How tenuous that balance is remains to be seen.

In mortal seeming, Rosie Mondie is an engaging, intense woman of middle height, with loosely curled auburn hair and warm brown eyes. She favors casual but professional attire, frequently including an outrageous ethnic scarf or unusual piece of jewelry to add a bit of interest. Although seemingly flighty, she has a knack for noticing important details, and for doing what needs to be done.

In fae mien, Her Excellency is a commanding presence. Statuesque rather than ethereal, and less aloof than most sidhe, Rosamund is a more comfortable presence for most commoners than others of her kith. Her hair is longer, and gathered up in a regal coil. She favors elaborate voile in rich jewel-tones, and heavy rings on her hands. Although she owns a noble blade, she never wears it. Instead, it hangs in the balefire hall at Caer Ondomorna. She is, however, never without a pen.