Victoria Olgimskaya

Pathologic=

Victoria Olgimskaya (Виктория Ольгимская) was the matriarch of the Olgimsky family. She was the White Mistress, and stood in opposition to Nina Kaina.

Description
Her gleaming, dark-golden, copper hair was either collected in heavy braids, or stacked up like that of noblewomen in the early nineteenth century. Next to her husband, Big Vlad, she seemed tiny in appearance, but was actually quite tall and wonderfully proportioned. Nevertheless, if the main feature of Big Vlad is heaviness, for Victoria, it was softness, which was manifested in everything about her, from her movements and her way of speaking, to the way she did business. At the same time, she was a strong and willful woman, able to quietly insist on certain things or "arrange circumstances" so that situations were resolved with her desired result.

Background
Victoria had been married to Big Vlad for a long time before she came to live in the Steppe. She and Vlad the Younger, a little boy at the time, used to live faraway when Big Vlad made the decision to counterbalance Nina's influence upon the town with his wife's inclination to protect people.

As a Mistress
She was a good patron of the city, yet she did not engage in charity: there was no distribution of money, no organization of shelters, nor patronage of those who could not take care of themselves, and generally very little concrete good—the very fact of her existence stopped the development of strife and eased devastating events. This quality, the ability to make people happy just being herself, she gave to her daughter, young Victoria. Generally, all that is good in Capella was passed down from her mother. Victoria, when alive, was so beloved because she gave people hope for future happiness: not backed up by any concrete promises, no real action, but still, effective and joyful hope. After her death, she practically became a local saint, evident by the decorations and tributes left daily by the townspeople on her tombstone.

Those who try to show Victoria's splendour by dressing her as a white witch who defeats the wicked witch are fools. This was not what made her splendid. Those who represent her as a good mother soothing children from a nightmare are naive. Warmth and cold, the house and the road, woolen furs and glowing light, the darkness and the stars: they personified extreme limits and were thus very close to each other. Only together could they share the universal loneliness of a Mistress.

The splendour of Victoria was that she loved her rival much more than she was loved by her. Although stronger than Nina, Victoria, protector of the people, opened the way to Nina and allowed her merciless truth to prevail.

Victoria died shortly afterwards Nina passed away, and some believe she did it deliberately in order to restrain her unbridled opponent, for Nina had acquired a mystical power over the town after her death. When Victoria joined Nina, the townspeople breathed a sigh of relief, comforted by familiar hands wrapping them at night, and invisible wings sheltering them from a newly opened abyss. Victoria, who in life had taught to love man for what he was, and to ask nothing more from him, had become the guardian of the family's hearth—protector of the weak and the poor.

Corpus
While the heads of the Houses wielded material power, such as governing, their women were traditionally close to the earth and the Steppe, so they had the sacred power. These women had the reputation of powerful telepaths that are able to communicate with the supernatural forces.

...Victoria Olgimskaya, The White Mistress, has practically become a local saint. Her tombstone is still decorated with heaps of flowers, and people keep bringing all sorts of foodstuffs, embroideries, apples, cups of salt and other tributes.

"...The town was torn in two by a confrontation between two formidable women. On some days everything was shackled by a terrible tension—this meant the Mistresses were "spinning their yarns". The streets were empty. People locked themselves in their houses, not daring even to stick their heads out, as if a hurricane was raging outside. It seemed that anyone that stepped into the threshold of this energy would be engaged in a whirlpool of forces with which a person wouldn't be able to cope. But those days always passed, and people opened their doors in relief; and the Mistresses, dressed in new garments, would visit the townspeople to their houses and lavish them with gifts, smiles and gracious mercy."

- [taur.4.1]

"While the heads of the Houses wielded material power, such as governing, their women were traditionally close to the earth and the Steppe, so they had the sacred power. These women had the reputation of powerful telepaths that are able to communicate with the supernatural forces. The first and most powerful Mistress was Olgimskaya, which is strange considering she was an outsider.

The mark left by Victoria Olgimskaya is still visible today. By all accounts, during her life she was an exceptional woman, and after her death, she practically became a local saint. Flowers, foodstuffs, embroideries, apples, cups of salt—all sorts of offerings and decorations are left daily on her tombstone."

- [taur.12.2]

"If the main feature of Big Vlad is heaviness, for Victoria, it was softness, which was manifested in everything about her, from her movements and her way of speaking, to the way she did business. At the same time, she was a strong and willful woman, able to quietly insist on certain things or "arrange circumstances" so that situations were resolved with her desired result. Overall, she was a worthy wife to a powerful husband.

Everyone in the town considered her their benefactor, although she never engaged in charity—there was no distribution of money, no organization of shelters, nor patronage of those who could not take care of themselves. She did little good, but was always "spinning her yarn". I understood this in such a way that the very fact of her existence stopped the development of strife and eased devastating events. People felt it, and for that they loved her.

This quality, the ability to make people happy just being herself, she gave to her daughter, young Victoria. All that is good in Capella was passed down from her mother, and please keep that in mind."

- From a letter by Vlad the Younger

"Victoria died shortly afterwards Nina passed away, and some believe she did it deliberately in order to restrain her unbridled opponent, for Nina had acquired a mystical power over the town after her death. When Victoria joined Nina, the townspeople breathed a sigh of relief, comforted by familiar hands wrapping them at night, and invisible wings sheltering them from a newly opened abyss. Victoria, who in life had taught to love man for what he was, and to ask nothing more from him, had become the guardian of the family's hearth—protector of the weak and the poor."

- From private correspondence

"Those who try to show Victoria's splendour by dressing her as a white witch who defeats the wicked witch are fools. This was not what made her splendid. Those who represent her as a good mother soothing children from a nightmare are naive. Warmth and cold, the house and the road, woolen furs and glowing light, the darkness and the stars: they personified extreme limits and were thus very close to each other. Only together could they share the universal loneliness of a Mistress.

The splendour of Victoria was that she loved her rival much more than she was loved by her. Although stronger than Nina, Victoria, protector of the people, opened the way to Nina and allowed her merciless truth to prevail."

- [libr.XIX]