Fanon:Chrysanthema Pellaia Kinnamomona

Chrysanthema Pellaia Kinnamomona, born March 2, 2001, is Kallistrata's newest resident disciple and hence lives with the core members at the main house at the main Naos-Stratopedon. Chrysanthema is a prodigy of sorts, having already made a potion as a kid, something not even Demetrios or Eunike has done. Chrysanthema has mastered Logic and Martial Arts, having in addition to that 9 points in Cooking, 8 points in Sculpting, 7 points in Invention, 4 points in Athletic Skill, and 2 points in Writing, as well as 6 points in handiness and Painting, and 2 point in Nectar Making.

As shown, Chrysanthema specializes in Martial Arts and Cooking, unlike Esomena choosing a purely mechanical route and Pyrrha going towards the technical Arts for a career in Forensics.

Chrysanthema is of blood type O.

Discipleship
Seeing the success with the recovery of Stratonike and Lysistrata back into the order, Kallistrata saw a need to further the religion's cause, and wanted another disciple after having trained the Mathetai, and more recently, the current Initiate members. However, the household was already rather crowded with 7 fully operational main members of the religion, and despite their numerous travels in time, no kid was to be found, only some money, lower quality fire fruits, and some books. Fed up, Kallistrata chose the simple path of adopting a child, and the child was wearing what seemed to be school uniforms when first adopted. Kallistrata marked the child, and the child developed pink hair as well as the Ambitious trait, perhaps indicating that Kallistrata chose Chrysanthema as the successor.

And with adoption Kallistrata immediately subjected Chrysanthema to training, and thanks to Kallistrata's veterancy at teaching, Chrysanthema learned fast, and Kallistrata lamented the lack of the option of teaching other useful skills, such as Handiness and Martial Arts due to Chrysanthema's quick learning, rather reminiscent (although much slower compared) to Thornton Wolff. Not long after Chrysanthema's adoption, the family, along with most of the faithful, moved to the new region of Hekatonschoinos, where Chrysanthema would be trained to carry out her duty as an disciple of Alexandros, including vilifying romance, promoting academic pursuits, and foremost to be the forefront of the intellectual movement. While in Hekatonschoinos, Kallisto largely took over Chrysanthema's tutoring, and Chrysanthema became fast, close friends with both Kallisto and Kallistrata, and loved to play balls despite her ineptitude in the field. Kallisto also found a use for Chrysanthema: Unicorns react positively to Good sims, and Kallisto wanted Chrysanthema to spearhead the capture of a Unicorn for study and advancement of the religious influence.

Chrysanthema however had her own agenda, and despite her affiliation with the Church, Chrysanthema had no intention of staying in the Church for the sake of the Church, and was anxious to get to a position of power, which would have to wait until she graduated. And as such, Chrysanthema took the task of skill development very seriously, as Chrysanthema took the time to read the codex and to learn about the operational methods of the Church: she wanted to be a part of the decision-making class as soon as she would be able to, and more so build her own power base independent of the Church. Kallistrata was well aware of Chrysanthema's ambitious nature, and as such, Kallistrata not only wanted Chrysanthema on a tight leash, but more so to direct Chrysanthema's thirst for power to benefit the Church, and as such, Kallistrata gave directives to Chrysanthema to learn speechcraft: Kallistrata's course of action was to send Chrysanthema to Appaloosa Plains, and since Chrysanthema's main motivation was power, Kallistrata's expectation was that Chrysanthema build a power base that would directly conflict with that of Antigone's heretic grouping.

However, the Swanson girls helped neutralize Antigone, and Chrysanthema was projected to establish a power base nominally subject to the Church authorities. Kallisto and Kallistrata well knew this and in fact, wished that to happen: even if Chrysanthema will not submit to Church authority or take part in it as a core member, Kallisto and Kallistrata was still more than able to manipulate Chrysanthema's ambitious nature to their advantage.

Paying a Visit... and much more.
Although Kallisto and Kallistrata spread the rumor that the Chapter would visit the Sunset Valley to lull the Appaloosa Plain's heretic movements, Kallisto took an interest in sending the 3 disciples there to see how the Sunset Valley chapter was running. And when the disciples came in, the media outlets in Sunset Valley went crazy over the visit, since the disciples received the celebrity bonus transferred to them by the benefit of being a part of the celebrity-dense Church. Chrysanthema particularly was interested in Hypatia's wargame, believing this information to be prized by the likes of Kallisto. The disciples also took note of the new member Cycl0n3 Sw0rd, who was well-known throughout the higher ranks fo the Church and thus the disciples found it unsurprising that he eventually went with the group.

Chrysanthema was soon to be a centerpiece in the Church's sudden festive mood: first, Not only did the disciples came unaccompanied, they were accompanied by Kallisto, Kallistrata and Stratonike, who were all too happy to see their old friends in Sunset Valley. Secondly, the Sunset Valley Chapter had contributed to a massive surge in popularity for the Church when they raised several dead people, and not only did they revive them, the revived also regained their youth on top of all that (Artie, who was grumpy, was so elated to the point where he dropped the Grumpy trait for Excitable trait). This conquest of death had made the Church which was already a celebrity faction truly adulated by the masses, and the timing couldn't be just better. If that was not enough, Chrysanthema reached adulthood there, and Chrysanthema then had 72 points in skills, at the level of the likes of Demetria and Achaia focused all on the technical/creative fields, qualifying Chrysanthema to be promoted to a core member. Kallistrata was utterly excited, since Kallistrata saw her disciple having reached the coveted status alongside the few others.

Kallistrata initially wanted Chrysanthema to take a job as a doctor. However, Lysistrata's testimony dissuaded Kallistrata from this: although a job as a doctor is a moola generator, it has a relatively long work hour compared to the likes of a mad scientist, an occupation held by Hypatia and Eurydike, as well as the emergency times that throws off schedules. As such, Chrysanthema ended up working in the Culinary career to match her lifetime wish, although Chrysanthema got a head start, since the Church owned just about all businesses there, although quite justified in the fact that Chrysanthema mastered the cooking skill beforehand. Chrysanthema however would not have a mundane life, and Kallistrata knew this well. And as such, after building some experience, Kallistrata planned to send Chrysanthema to Bridgeport, to finalize its occupational plans and convert it into a colony, bringing Church ideas to combat what the Church saw as decadence of city life. However, such ideas were negated when Kallistrata herself along with the others decided to go nomad, leaving Chrysanthema et al. to take stewardship of the Sunset Valley for the Church.

Stewardship of Sunset Valley
Having secured core membership, Chrysanthema and the other disciples were charged with the stewardship of the said neighborhood. Chrysanthema was already a celebrated cook despite the fact that Chrysanthema was better talented at other fields such as Martial Arts, and Chrysanthema was already well set up to take leadership of the town: Chrysanthema had established a very positive PR in such a short time that was shocking even to the likes of Kallisto (who herself had trouble managing her PR), especially towards the commoners. As such, Chrysanthema became the de facto leader of the Sunset Valley chapter and by extension, Sunset Valley in general, as well as having the implied Church authority to develop additional land.

This became a problem when the Al-Dar became a growing presence on the political landscape of the Sunset Valley (which in itself was inevitable due to the large gap caused by the removal of the Big 6 from the picture): Al-Dar wished to build a mosque in Sunset Valley to cater to the Muslims (which comprised entirely of themselves and occasional tourists from Egypt) and conveniently enough, Al-Dar had Chrysanthema (since the Big 6 had left) as the only buddy outside of their household in Sunset Valley. As such, Ayham had applied for acquisition of real estate, but the problem was that Ayham had taken the application process through the Church (Chrysanthema was too eager to help out a seemingly disadvantaged people, especially with the approval given by the Big 6) and not directly to the City Hall, which was found insulting to the more conservative side of the Sunset Valley and leading to the creation of the Patriot Party.

Sunset Valley Renaissance
Ironically, the creation of the Papal State weakened the Ecclesiarchal hold on Sunset Valley: before the creation of an independent state, the Church could thanks to their massive influence impose ordinances without too much backlash, which for some time suppressed the papparazzi activities with an iron fist. However, once the Papal State came to being, such ordinances were no longer politically viable, and the Patriot party capitalized on that and hammered away at such ordinances. With such anti-rumor mechanism gone, Sunset Valley experienced a new age, a time of uncertaintly yet also that of creative thoughts and actions. To the Ecclesiarchy, which previously pretty much held a monopoly over creative avenues and products, this was hardly good news, which was not helped by the fact that scandals were once again potential troublemakers once again (Chrysanthema and Pyrrha were falsely accused. To Chrysanthema, this was devastating blow to the Ecclesiarchy's PR). Otherwise, Sunset Valley started to develop a farmers' market centered around the consignment store as well as a strong authors' movement, ranging from Eunike all the way to Ethan Bunch, and many a time one could see bestsellers, even if such books were not necessarily of best quality. Cycl0n3 Sword nonetheless maintained Ecclesiarchal control over the media, and ensured that Church news were spread around the town.

Despite the growth of an independent art and crafts economy, the Ecclesiarchy still dominated the economy of Sunset Valley. But without Kallistrata to head the Nectar making (despite the fact that likes of Chrysanthema were also masters of the art), the Ecclesiarchal control of the nectar market in Sunset Valley was effectively lost, although to Chrysanthema this wasn't too bad since the successor was none other than Al-Dar, led by Omar, Usaim, and Anwar. Al-Dar in particular soon took advantage of the vacuum left by Kallistrata and it was Usaim's gardening skills (as well as the initial set of high quality fruits introduced by the Greeks) that fueled Al-Dar's nectar industry. Sure, it was of considerably lower quality than say Kallistrata's Nectar of the Throne of Pella, but a new introduction and its greater openness to variety sparked a new nectar culture in Sunset Valley.

Trivia

 * There is no recorded usage of the name Chrysanthema, although there are similar names, such as Chrysothemis. Chrysanthema is a fictional combination of the word Chrysos and Anthos, which is also the etymology for the flower Chrysanthemum of the Asteraceae family. To sum it up, the name does not exist in history. However, Chrysanthea may be more fitting, since the plural form of ἄνθος is ἄνθεᾰ.