So, I recently created a minor character, and her situation in life is unique enough that I was thinking it might be interesting and enlightening to post about her here to see if anyone has any thoughts or observations about stuff I should consider when writing her. In summary, the setting is the early 1990s, and immortal supernatural beings like vampires and werewolves and elves and dwarves live among us in secret. The location is a town where the humans who live there are aware of the existence of immortals. It's a place where the immortals who can't pass for human can live without having to spend their lives as recluses or cave-bound hermits, and it's also a place where immortal parents can raise their children without having to move mid-childhood when it starts getting alarming how little the child's parents have aged. One of the races of immortal, vampires, can't actually have children with their own kind, because they're undead and female vampires' wombs cannot support a living child. Both male and female vampires, however, can use their body's venom to impregnate human women, who will give birth to children who will become vampires at the moment of their death. The other thing is that while vampires can turn humans into vampires, there are four tiers of magic (gamma, beta, alpha and cambion in ascending order), and you can only turn someone of a lesser tier, which means that cambion humans cannot be turned at all. However, cambion vampires, if they wish to have a guarantee (instead of a very slim chance) of having cambion children, must have children with a cambion human, who can never be turned into a vampire and thus their vampire lover and their child will almost inevitably outlive them. Which means that many high-born vampires choose to marry other vampires and then hire a surrogate cambion human mother to bear their children, so that they can still have a family and fulfill their duty to the species to create strong heirs, all without having to start a relationship with someone they will inevitably outlive. That's where this character comes in. She's an old cambion human woman who, in her youth, made a living bearing the children of immortals, mostly wealthy high-born vampires. She spent basically her entire youth pregnant with these children, and is now enjoying her retirement, brewing potions mostly as a hobby. This backstory of hers seems absolutely fertile with characterization potential, but I'm having trouble wrapping my head around what this would even be like. I haven't even heard of a fictional character whose backstory was anything like this. Does anyone have any thoughts?
My first thought is to characterize her as a sort of Earth mother goddess type. Large, broad of body and of mind and of personality, wise, with sparkling eyes and a sparkling wit. Motherly toward all. Almost as if she in some way is the Earth itself in human form, from which we all are born. Maybe not intelligent in standard terms, but with that unfailing wisdom about matters mysterious to most of us, matters of growth and development and the needs of the young. Deeply benevolent, but also a proponent of tough love, so necessary to the development of children. I know she's only the surrogate mother, and she doesn't raise them herself, but I'm basically describing the Earth mother goddess type, which seems appropriate. Her personality seems to enfold and encompass everyone and everything, she takes it all in stride and is never hurried or stressed.
Another way to go could be to characterize her as a lean old wolf that's nursed too many cubs. Wasted, hollowed-out and spent, all nourishment gone from her frail old body because it was drained away by the vampiric presences she bore inside her all these many decades (centuries?). And yet she has some preternatural strength and toughness that carries her on despite it all.
