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☀️ ᴀʟɪɴᴀ sᴛᴀʀᴋᴏᴠ. ([personal profile] peasant) wrote2025-05-22 05:00 pm

SALTBURNT AU (FOR JUNE).



ALINA ATREIDES

⚜️ OUR LADY OF SALTBURNT
cw: incestuous themes, religious themes/religious blasphemy


    Sister Alina, eldest daughter of the hyper-elite Atreides dynasty, is a living contradiction: beloved icon and haunting recluse. Once hailed as the girl born to save the family, she now resides in Saltburnt's private chapel, part of the elusive Order of the Veiled Heart — a discreet aristocratic Catholic sect known for its luxurious austerity and spiritual elitism.

    She is both ghost and ornament to the estate: ever-present, yet never truly seen. Draped in high-fashion habits, velvet prayer books tucked into her sleeve, and rosaries heavy with family crests, Alina has become a living myth — watching Saltburnt’s decadence like a condemned angel behind glass: tragic, unreachable.




    BACKSTORY:

      As the Atreides family’s firstborn, Alina was groomed from birth to be perfect — the kind of girl who curtsied in custom Dior at thirteen and recited prayers in Latin before dessert. She was the one everyone assumed would inherit the family’s influence, charm, and strategic ruthlessness.

      Alina grew up delicate, devout, and adored — a strange, sickly child whose illness turned her into an object of reverence and mysticism. People said she was chosen, that she glowed, that she spoke to God. She nearly died at thirteen, and when she didn’t, the family called it divine favor. Proof the Atreides were blessed.

      It was Paul who stayed closest — reading to her, watching over her, brushing her hair while she coughed up blood into silk pillows. Their bond was pure until it wasn’t. She began to fear the thoughts she had when he touched her wrist, when he kissed her forehead, when he held her a little too long.

      By the time she turned 16, the sickness had passed. A year later, she was a debutante with a promising future in politics or media — wherever her family's shadow wanted her cast. She was sent to, and shown off, at galas and balls. Appeared on the covers of high fashion magazines. She wore powder-blue gowns and looked like porcelain — delicate, regal, detached. Her health was restored, but people still treated her like she was fragile, like she still might break. She learned to lean into it. She never raised her voice. She never needed to.

      When her family tried to arrange a high-profile engagement for her, she disappeared into the convent. Unforgivingly. Alina remains cloistered now — not just because she chose God, but because she knows she can’t trust what she'd choose if she were free.






    RUMORS:

      ☀️ Alina didn't speak until she was nine years old. The first words she spoke were, "We are not alone," while gesturing to a stained glass window of Jesus with a lamb.

      ☀️ Rumor has it the nun was institutionalized as a young girl, for manner unfitting of a polite member of society. She's called her mother by first name ever since.

      ☀️ Growing up, Alina would claim to see a monster hiding in her closet at night. When asked what it looked like, she said, "My brother."

      ☀️ When asked why she hasn't been invited to the last three of her mother's birthday parties, Alina simply responded, "I told her that her new nose was crooked."

      ☀️ She didn’t run from her engagement. She destroyed it. Sources claim she sent back the heirloom ring in a velvet-lined reliquary box with a vial of holy water and a Latin note that translated roughly to: "The flesh is weak. So is your lineage."

      ☀️ She refused to wear white on her vow day. Said she didn’t deserve it. Wore ivory instead. Valentino, floor-length, sheer sleeves — it made everyone else feel dirty.

      ☀️ She almost died at thirteen. Some fever no one could name. They say she saw God — and He looked like her brother.

      ☀️ “They shared a bed until she was seventeen. You know how those old-money families are — affectionate, European.”

      ☀️ She hasn’t spoken above a whisper since 16. Paul’s the only one who can make her laugh.

      ☀️ Alia Atreides has tried to get into the convent three times to see her sister. The third time she showed up in nothing but a rosary.

      ☀️ She keeps a pet rabbit in the cloister. It wears a tiny velvet bow and only answers to ‘Revelation.’

      ☀️ She once told a priest to ‘mind his own fucking soul.’ He retired that month.

      ☀️ She still has a walk-in closet. All her habits are designer. One has a slit up the thigh.

      ☀️ She wrote poetry once. One of the maids found it. Burned it. Said it made her sick to read.

      ☀️ “She left her mirrors uncovered during Lent. Everyone knows that means she’s possessed.”

      ☀️ She cried through her final confession before her vows, but wouldn’t say why.

      ☀️ “She used to be painfully plain. The transformation happened overnight. Bone structure doesn’t just appear like that.”

      ☀️ A bishop tried to excommunicate her after she called him ‘spiritually limp.’ He had a heart attack. She prayed over the body.

      ☀️ Allegedly sent a handwritten letter to Lana Del Rey thanking her for “understanding.” Lana never replied, but posted a selfie in a veil the next day.

      ☀️ Owns a diamond-encrusted chastity belt that was gifted by a fashion house. No one knows if she wears it. No one asks twice.

      ☀️ During Lent, she self-flagellates with pearls. Not rope. Not leather. Pearls. She once told another sister that suffering should be beautiful.

      ☀️ She’s only left the estate twice in the last two years — both times for funerals. Both times in couture black veils. Both times, it rained.

      ☀️ She sent Alia a crown of thorns for her birthday. No card. Just blood on the box.

      ☀️ A priest tried to exorcise her once. She smiled the whole time.

      ☀️ There’s a photo of her somewhere, taken before she entered the Order — sleeveless dress, biting a cherry stem. People pass it around like contraband.

      ☀️ There’s a rumor she once practiced not speaking by sewing her own lips with golden thread — just for an hour. Just to see.

      ☀️ Old lovers of Paul call her the original, the one who ruined him for the rest of them. “She doesn’t even fuck,” one of them once snapped. “She just breathes, and he’d burn down the world for her.”

      ☀️ The younger aristocrats call her “Our Lady of Saltburnt.” Not in mockery, but with a kind of terrified awe. None of them remember when it started.

      ☀️ A boy once confessed his love to her on the estate lawn. She kissed his cheek and said, “You should run now.” He did.





    IMPORTANT CONNECTIONS:

      Paul Atreides — younger brother, once her savior, now her shadow.
      Alia Atreides — the unrepentant baby sister.
      Father Gale Dekarios — holy companion, handles the more important affairs of the chapel vs. Alina as its face.
      August Moreau< — religious rival.
      Sanji Atreides — brother-in-law.
      .





    OTHER NOTES:

      ☀️ Eats little, but when she does, it's always something decadent: truffle, fig, burnt sugar.

      ☀️ Dislikes being touched without permission.

      ☀️ Carries Saint cards in her clutch like other girls carry lip gloss. Her favorite is Saint Dymphna.

      ☀️ Reads philosophy, fashion magazines, and martyrdom accounts with equal fervor.

      ☀️ Always cold. Gloves even in summer. Sleeps beneath velvet.

      ☀️ Pre-convent, she wore powder blue, ivory, and dove grey. Never black.

      ☀️ There’s a small garden behind the chapel, overgrown with moonflowers and poison herbs. No one planted it. She tends it anyway, barefoot, bleeding, murmuring to the vines like they're confessing to her.





    VISUALS: