Cora Mills

[Deleted]

| ~ • ~ | Character Basics | ~ • ~ |

.:Name:. Cora

.:Nick Name:.
The Queen of Hearts
.:Affiliation:.
Villain
.:Status:.
Royalty

| ~ • ~ | Appearance | ~ • ~ |

.:Physical Appearance:.  
Act what you want to be is Cora's motivation, so it comes as to no surprise that Cora wants to make a long lasting impression and she is rarely seen without one of her numerous puffy dresses on. Her style is what makes her unique and therefore Cora always carries around her big, elegeant dresses with her, her favourite being the red attire which reminds her of her tenure as Queen of Hearts in Wonderland. Be it said, Cora likes to switch things up with a more modern ensemble consisting of a red scarf to remind her of who she was and a classic black suit to represent the darkness inside of her. Whether her hair is tied up in a bun or gracefully let down, this Queen's presence will definitely not go unnoticed. 
.:Height:.
5' 5"
.:Portrayed by:.
Barbara Hershey

| ~ • ~ | Personality | ~ • ~ |

.:Personality:.
Kind and benevolent are never the terms that come to mind when describing Cora. Cora is ambitious and driven, all she ever wanted is to succeed in advancing in the hierarchy and she knew that her emotions will get in her way of doing so, so she decided to rip her own heart out at a very young age. By doing so, Cora lost everything that would ever stop her from advancing her status however she was also devoid any emotions, she had lost the ability to love those around her or feel anything for that matter. Cora's obsession is power and since she has no heart, she will do whatever it takes to achieve it by any means necessary even if she has to rip a few hearts out in the process. Her greed is also what drives her to never stop her quest for power and thus will never be fully satisfied until she is the most powerful being in the world. She is skilled in the arts of manipulation as well as dark magic, there is no method no matter how cruel it is that Cora will not resort to, to get her Power. 

.:Strengths:.
Her powerful magic, her determination, her collection of hearts which gives her command over anyone, being heartless means that no emotion ever gets in the way of getting things done, there is no regret or sorrow.
 
.:Weaknesses:. Her daughter Regina, the only man she ever truly loved Rumple, the fact that her heart is no longer in her body makes Cora vulnerable to the fact that anybody can grab hold of her heart,  
Cora's greed knows no boundaries whatever power she gains is never enough and could be her eventual downfall. 

| ~ • ~ | History | ~ • ~ |

.:Birthplace:.
The Enchanted Forest
.:Family:.
The Miller (father) Zelena and Regina (daughters) Prince Henry (Husband)
.:Occupation:.
None
.:History:.
Cora's childhood was not as pleasant as everyone else's, having lost her mother at a young and having a father as a drunk, everything fell down on Cora's shoulders. Even at a young age she had to work at the mill, delivering flour to the entire kingdom as well as working at a tavern to make some extra income. However this was not enough for Cora, she knew this was not the life she wanted for herself, she knew she could be something greater. It was during this time that she had met Jonathan who claimed to be the Prince of the land and fell head over heels in love, quite possibly more so because of the fact he could make her royal, and Jonathan proposed to Cora before spending the night together. Cora went to look for her beloved at the royal palace to share the news that she is carrying a child however she discovers the shocking truth that Jonathan led her on all along, he was in fact the gardener not the prince. Outraged, Cora threatened to expose the man to the royal family however he manages to escape. Heart broken and ashamed, Cora comes across the real Prince, Leopold who reveals he still has doubts about being king and the two show a mutual attraction however Leopold is actually engaged to Princess Eva. Due to his love for Cora, Leopold calls of the wedding and decides to marry Cora instead. This was it finally Cora had achieved what she set out to do from the beginning she was going to be royalty and not just a simple peasant. Just two days shy from the royal wedding, Jonathan returns and threatens to tell the Prince the truth unless Cora paid him off, fearing that her dreams may be at risk, Cora reluctantly agrees however she is unaware that Eva was over hearing the conversation all along. Eva runs to Prince Leopold about these events who in turn confronts Cora about the child and the former brushes it off. Leopold then discovers the truth and has the guards throw Cora out and decides to go along with the original plan of marrying Eva. Not letting her child get in the way of what she wanted, Cora gave up her first born saying that she could not give Cora what she wanted and returned to her father's mill.

One day, Cora is delivering flour to King Xavier's kingdom due to her father being too drunk to do the job himself and comes across the one who cost her her one true shot at royalty, Princess Eva who in turn recognizes Cora and trips her to further humiliate her. Cora then learns that King Xavier is holding a ball to marry off his son to a noble princess in hopes of saving his kingdom from bankruptcy and she attends. King Xavier recognizes her and Cora claimed that she could help the kingdom because she had the ability or spinning straw into gold. King Xavier locked her in a tower and gave her one night to spin all the straw into gold or else he'd have her killed however if she really did to this feat, she'd be Henry's new bride. Just as she was about to give up, Rumpelstiltskin appears and offers to spin the straw into gold only if Cora gives him her first born daughter to which Cora agrees however her greed comes into play and demands the imp to teach her instead of just doing it. Cora learned that the secret to magic is to channel her anger and she remembers the events of that day where she was forced to kneel and apologize to Eva. Cora successfully harnesses magic and the following morning, an astonished Xavier announces that she is to become the new Princess of the kingdom however she is only 5th in line to the throne. Cora is finally closing in on her dreams once again however all this changes when she gets closer to Rumple and decides to run off with him in the name of love but not before ripping Xavier's heart out. On the night they were supposed to run off together, Cora visits Xavier who informs her he knows of her plans with Rumple and tells her that the love she is feeling is a weakness and makes Cora realize that her heart is the one thing stopping her from achieving what she always wanted and therefore rips her own heart out and stays with her husband Henry where their daughter Regina is born.


In order to give her daughter a better life than what she had, Cora poisons the current Queen of the kingdom who coincidentally was Cora's rival, Queen Eva, and kills her, finally getting the revenge she wanted after all these years. Cora then manipulated events so that Regina would marry Leopold and become Queen in Eva's place however Regina was already in love with the family stable boy unbeknownst to Cora. After getting a young Snow White to reveal the details, Cora confronted her daughter and warned her that if she runs off with the stable boy she will be nothing more than a common peasant much like Cora was and Cora did not allow this to happen as she had put in a lot of effort for her plans to be ruined. To the horror of her daughter, Cora kills the stable boy by crushing his heart and forces Regina to marry Leopold, telling her that love is weakness, the same lesson Xavier passed on to Cora many years ago. Despite numerous attempts to escape the clutches of her mother and the wedding, Regina married King Leopold and became the Queen but not before, thanks to the help from the imp Rumple, banishing Cora to another world, Wonderland. It was during this time were Cora climbed her way to the top and became the Queen of Hearts. During her tenure as Queen of Hearts, she rips the heart of all her subjects and keeps them in her vault along with her own heart. She also manipulates the Red King's new bride, much like she did her daughter, and teaches her magic. 

While in Wonderland, a pirate sent by Regina is sent to Wonderland to assassinate Cora by ripping her own heart out however Hook fails to do so as Cora's heart is not in her body and Cora enlists the help of Hook to help her kill her daughter. However, Cora decides against this when she hears Regina admit that her mother was her weakness and that she was the person she loved most and only wished to have her killed just so that she won't have any weaknesses when she casts a curse. Instead, she protects herself and a small land from Regina's curse and promises that she will see her daughter again when she's broken and has no one else to turn to.

With the help  of her ally Hook, Cora manages to travel between worlds and arrive in Storybrooke where she plans to reconcile with her daughter. 
 

| ~ • ~ | Sample Post | ~ • ~ |

The atmosphere in the kingdom was serene. Two guards patrol a room, ensuring that no one breaks in and that no uninvited guests trespass in this kingdom. The room is actually the Queen's quarters. The Queen was inside carefully plotting her next move on how to relieve the Red King of his control on Wonderland. As of this moment, all her warnings and threats were dismissed, the Red King is a fool who does not know who he is dealing with.



Suddenly, The Queen could feel something coming from her most valuable room, her vault. Her whole body was aching, she could barely stand on her own two feet as she suddenly fell back on her bed. Someone's there, could it be a thief who snuck in the night, an assassin perhaps sent by the Red King himself or some poor foolish villager who came to retrieve the heart of his beloved. "I have allowed the Red King too much leniency, he has taken advantage of my generosity. Well no more will I be made a fool out of. It is time to show who he's dealing with. They must not find it. They can't find it".



As the Queen of Hearts rushed to the vault with a small patrol of her most trusted guards, the entire party came across the red and black guards who were charged with guarding the vault, knocked out, lying motionless on the floor. The Queen signaled for her party to halt as they tended to their companions as the Queen ventured forth alone into the chamber. She made her way as scuffles and bangs could be heard in the vicinity.





"It must be here somewhere. Where is it? I can't leave without it, here help me look before the Queen or her men find us. Wait did you hear that? Who's there?" The mysterious cloaked figure sent his friend to check as a large scream and thud echoed through the entire chamber. The Queen of Hearts waved her hand aggressively and the man was sent flying through the air as he was flung against the wall. "And what do you think you're doing? Show yourself thief!" the Queen yelled out. The figure then removed his cloak and revealed himself to be one of the Queen's guardsmen, her general in fact. "You! Surely you know the repercussions of stealing from The Queen of Hearts, you of all people unless you were sent by the Red King."



"Please it's not like that Cora please listen to me"the man cried out in his shaky voice. "How dare you! I am the Queen in this kingdom and I will not be addressed in this matter, I demand to be addressed as your Queen. I am no simple miller's daughter." The thief pleaded for The Queen of Hearts for mercy and for her to listen him out. "Mercy?" The Queen laughed to herself. "And what would the people think of me if I let a traitor go? Everyone would come and steal as they'd please from me." The thief then reached out to open a gold plated drawer and retrieve a box which obviously meant a lot to the thief after all, it must have been really valuable to be worth risking one's life.



"Oh and what are you going to do with that? Go ahead amuse me" The Queen let out an amusing laugh as she went along with this poor man's charade. "Let me have my heart back Cor-Your majesty please I beg you!" Having had enough, the Queen of Hearts opens out her hand and the box the man was holding is engulfed in a puff of purple smoke and vanishes from his grasp as it appears in the Queen's hand. The Queen then opens the box and holds out the guard's heart in her hands. "And why would I do that? Give me one good reason why I shouldn't crush your heart right now." Cora squeezed the heart as the man let out a cry of agony and fell to his knees. "Please I'm begging you. It doesn't have to be this way. The people follow the Red King. we must- must align with him if you hope to salvage your kingdom. The King has already reached out for an alliance which could greatly benefit Wonderland."



The Queen of Hearts stopped to ponder as she looks at the man with a gleam in her eye. "Do you really trust the King, do you think it would work?" The disgraced former general was convinced that he had managed to bring the good and sensible side out of the Queen. "Yes your majesty. I knew you could see reason, I knew you were not the monster people say you are. I know that you are gentle and kind and that when you align with the Red King, the people will love you-their Queen."



The Queen of Hearts was reaching her hand forward as if she was going to place the heart back in its rightful owner's body as she stopped for a minute. "Oh such a shame, it looks like I failed in teaching you one of the most valuable lessons in life. You see my sweet knight, Love is Weakness." Just as the Queen uttered this powerful phrase, she she squeezed the heart with all her might as the helpless man screamed in agony, louder with every squeeze. Finally, the heart was reduced to nothing but a pile of ashes which fell right in front of the guard's face as he lost all the colour from his body and and with a large thud fell backwards on the cold, hard stone.



The Queen rubbed her hands together to get rid of the dust as she put on her elegant gloves as her patrol stormed in. "Clean this mess, let this be a lesson to all of you who decide to play the part of the hero. Send their bodies to the Red King as an answer to his offer to an allegiance. Leave me" The guards dragged the two bodies off as they rushed out of the round room. The Queen closed the drawer that was disturbed earlier and approached a corner as she too opened up a gold plated drawer and took out a large box. The beating of the heart coming from inside the box was getting louder with each passing second and echoed through the room. "They'll never have it.", the queen muttered to herself as she placed a protection spell which caused the box to glow in red as she carefully placed it back in the drawer.

[Storybrooke]