
What has gone before...
Cordelia Chase. May Queen, leader of the most popular group in school, what Cordy says, goes. Daughter of one of the wealthiest men in Sunnydale, Cordelia grew up to regard herself as the center of the known universe and everyone else revolves around her ("Well revolve out of my light!")
This wilfully narcissistic view didn't make her many friends in the lower circles of school, and created a monster: The We Hate Cordelia Chase Hate Club (Treasurer, Xander Harris)
When new girl from LA, Buffy Summers, started at Sunnydale High, Cordelia tried to befriend her, but cut her loose when she saw her getting friendly woth the 'lower elements of the school' (Xander, Willow and Jesse) and nearly getting staked by Buffy didn't help either.
Cordelia stayed out of their way until people around her started getting hurt; her then-boyfriend was beaten up in the locker room and her best friend Harmony was pushed down a flight of stairs. Cordelia came to Buffy for help. Buffy tracked down the invisible girl that was plaguing Cordy's life and saved her from getting a free face-job of said invisible girl.
Slowly, Cordy started to get integrated into the Scooby Gang, saving Willow and Jenny Calendar from a horde of vampires when the Master rose.
Cordelia took the weirdness in her stride and started to become an (occassionally) essential part of the Slayerettes, giving lifts, doing research ("Wow, they have a dmeon for everything.") and even getting her hands dirty and fighting.
She also found love in the Slayerettes in the form of Xander Harris, a boy she considered to be a total loser. This being said, she tried her hardest to hide her attraction to him from the rest of the school by carrying out their affair in a number of broom closests. But word still got out and facing huge amounts of ridicule, decided to dump Xander on Valentine's Day which led him to cast a love spell on her (that went badly wrong). When she realised what he had done for her she decided that "she wasn't a sheep" and could date whoever she liked "even if he was a total loser".
Unfortunately, love didn't run smoothly for Cordy. Xander fell in love with his best friend Willow and found them kissing when she and Oz (Willow's boyfriend) came to save them. A little distraught, she ran off, falling through a weakened stairway and impaling herself on a metal pipe.
After dumping Xander (and once again being the ridicule of the whole school) Cordelia met Anya, a the Patron Saint of Scorned Women (disguised as a twelfth grader, who told her to make a wish. Cordy wished that Buffy (the bane of her life) had never come to Sunnydale.
The wish was granted and Sunnydale changed. No longer a fairly safe place to live it was ruled by vampires, there was a curfew and the school was nearly deserted (because so many of the students had either been killed or changed).
Wandering the streets of the alternate-Sunnydale Cordelia ran into Xander and Willow, now vampires. They tried to attack her but she was saved by the 'White Hats' (This reality's version of the Slayerettes, Giles, Oz and Larry) She tried to explain to them that Buffy needed to come to Sunnydale to stop the Master, but unfortunately before Buffy came to town Xander and Willow caught up with her and killed her.
Giles believed Cordelia's insane story about another reality and everything being different and found Anya's magic talisman and smashed it, breaking the wish and returning everything back to normal.
However, things didn't get better for Cordelia. Lonely in amongst the popular group and seperated from the Slayerettes she thought life couldn't get any worse. This being Sunnydale it did. Her father had been making a mistake on his taxes (for twelve years) and the IRS found out. Now her family was penniless, and Queen C has to get a part time job to pay for her own Prom dress.
Things did look up for a while with the arrival of Faith's new Watcher, Wesley, but after discovering he was a terrible kisser Cordelia decided to leave him well alone.
The Ascension came, and went. Cordelia graduated, managed to survive High School (although the school didn't survive them). There was nothing left in Sunnydale for her, it was time to make a new start...
The Present...
Now that Cordelia's father has lost all his money and Cordy can't go to any of the colleges that accepted her, she's at a bit of a loose end. Knowing that staying in Sunnydale would be the death of her social status she decides to go to the bright lights of LA and become a movie star.
Something that is easier said than done.
After a chance meeting with Angel, Cordy decides to join forces with Angel and Doyle and help them set up Angel Investigations, but she'll only help until she gets that elusive big break...
...which seems a long time coming.
So she earns her keep by running the office for Angel (even though her filing leaves much to be desired). She doesn't realise that Doyle is in lust with her (or decides not to notice) and she doesn't even realise that he is a demon.
When her run down apartment turns into a holiday home for Cockroaches, Cordy decides to move in with Angel, not giving him the chance to disagree. However, after spending just one night with her, Angel begs Doyle to find her somewhere to live. Cordelia doesn't want his help though, because his ways are less than above board, but after seeing trashy apartment after trashy apartment she begs Doyle to find her somewhere nice. And he does, the place looks perfect, and best of all the rent's cheap. But it comes with a problem in the form of a horrible old lady ghost, who when she was alive, bricked her son up in the wall to stop him running off with a girl she considered a floozy. She thinks that Cordelia will do the same thing and tries to run her out of the house. She's not happy with Doyle but she refuses to be beaten by the ghost. Angel and Doyle try an excorsism, but it doesn't work and it takes the ghost of the son, Dennis, channelling through Cordelia to free him from the wall he was bricked up in and send his mother away.
Cordelia quite likes living with phantom Dennis, because he keeps her company, and helps her through the harder times in life, like when she was pregnant with demon spawn. He also tries to protect her, by trying to keep Wilson Christopher (the father of her demon babies) out of the apartment and trying to prevent Cordelia getting in when Faith was waiting for her.
As the weeks past she started to become more friendly towards Doyle and was almost jealous when his ex-wife showed up. In fact it got to the point where she was almost considering dating him, but she'd had enough of fixer uper's after Xander, she told Angel.
But it came as a bit of a shock to her when she found out that Doyle was half-demon and he'd never told her. This didn't change the fact that she still liked him and after slapping him for keeping secrets from her told him to ask her out for dinner. Sadly it wasn't to be. : (
Before he died, Doyle shared a kiss with her and gave her a parting gift. It wasn't until afterward though that she realised what he'd given her. With Doyle's scarfice there would be no link to the Powers That Be, knowing this Doyle entrusted her with his visions. She saw it as a curse rather than a gift, especially when she had a vision during the audition for a national commerical.
She took the arrival of Welsey in her stride, even though she did try to give him the visions by kissing him (As she did to Angel and a client) it didn't work though. Unfortunately her actions caught the attentions of a demon who sold magical gifts like hers at auctions and he kidnapped her. He didn't need all of Cordelia, though, just her eyes. At the auction she was sold to Lilah, one of the Wolfram and Hart lawyers, but before Cordelia had her eyes removed, Wesley and Angel saved her.
Cordelia didn't forsake the acting for demon hunting and got herself a role in a play. However, it was discovered by Angel and Wesley (who had to sit through it) that acting wasn't really the job for her, and when Angel was temporarily changed into Angelus, Angelus let her know exactly how bad her acting was.
The arrival of Faith from Sunnydale led to Cordy getting knocked out (and a black eye) from her which prompted Cordy to take a long paid holiday while Faith was staying with her boss.
Cordelia has never enjoyed having her visions and when Angel stole the scroll from Wolfram and Hart she had no idea how dangerous they could be. To sever Angel's link to the Powers That Be, Voach (the demon in employment to Wolfram and Hart) stalked Cordelia and gave her his mark. This mark (which looked like a tattoo on her hand) opened the gates of her visions and flooded her with images of every single person in LA who was crying out for help. It slowly sent Cordelia mad, and she ended up in hospital tied down to a bed and sedated. Once Angel and Wesley freed her from the vision Cordelia was a changed person. The vain teenager was gone, and in her pace was a new improved Cordelia who wanted to help all these people. She even let Angel move in with her and cooked for Wesley. They are her family.
When she found out that Angel would become mortal she tutted and bemoaned that it was typical, she is friends with the only person in LA who wants to grow old.