Character Avatar: Helen McCrory
Player:Desdemona
Character Name: Lucrèce LeCleric
Age: 55
Birthday: June 18th
Height: 5' 4"
Rank/Title: Citizen/Steward of Monceaux Marquisat
Race: d'Angeline
Country/Province: Siovale
Townhome Request: None
Country Home Request: Lives at Reichard Monceaux's estates.
Appearance: Lucrèce has stately features that are both beautiful and hansom. Her eyes are a warm brown in color. They are eyes that can be as kind as the warmest of mothers or as stern as the sternest of tutors. She has the notable sharp d'Angeline cheek bones which only become more accented when she smiles. Her lips are a perfect bow, though one that can be stern when she wants to get her way. Her hair is a dark brown that she usually keeps around shoulder length. She ties it back most days, but will wear it down when there is a suitable reason. Even though she has no noble blood, she has lived among the Monceaux family long enough to pick up all of the proper protocols and walk appropriately. Her rougher origins rarely show in her mannerisms.
Personality: Lucrèce is a proud woman. She got to the position she has through hard work and some amount of cunning, though mostly just hard work. Though she doesn't work for the easiest of employeers, she still manages well and always shows pride in his accomplishments when in a public forum. How she feels about him in private is a whole different matter. She is serious most of the time, but she will loosen up a little when attending fetes as a representative of the Marquisat.
Additional Information
Marital Status: Single
Known Languages: d'Angeline and passing Aragonian
Strengths and Weaknesses:
Strengths: shrewd, self-disciplined, natural born leader, high achiever
Weaknesses: pretty egotistical (though she hides it well), prone to envy
Family Members/Important NPCs: Employeer: Reichard Monceaux
History: Lucrèce was born in the slums of Siovale. Her mother worked as a house maid for the noble class, but had far too many kids for any of them to invite her into their home to live. When Lucrèce's mother, Elise, was young she came to the incorrect conclusion that secretly getting pregnant would make the man she wanted marry her. She lit her candle at the young age of 16 and Eisheth didn't hold back in granting her wish. Elise had her baby and the father was long gone. She did her best to care for the baby on her own. Elise grew up in a family where her parents barely kept their kids fed and didn't do much else. Elise found love that she'd never really had before in her first child and decided that the real answer to her happiness was in having a lot of children.
By the time she became pregnant with Lucrèce Elise had already had five children. She would have three more before Eisheth, or her age, finally closed her womb. Elise loved her large brood of children, spending pretty much every penny she earned on their care and only buying new clothes or shoes for herself when hers things were literally falling apart. If money was short she could send her older children to beg, but she only did this if the family was truly hungry. Though some of the father's of her children showed some interest in their well being, Elise had tried to purposely choose partners that were not interested and she never told them when she would become pregnant. It was only by accident that any of them knew of their children. The two who did were not about to pay for nine kids to be fed and they would simply come by on occasion and leave some gifts for the child that they thought was actually theirs. One would take his son on day trips when the mood suited him, feeding the child until he popped and keeping him in newer clothes.
Lucrèce never found out who her father was. She grew up as one of many. Her mother didn't really single out any of her children for special attention. She liked having all of them give her love. She treated them more like her subjects than her actual children. She feed them, kept them clothed, but didn't really teach them much. Her kids ran wild when she was out of the house earning her keep. Some of them resorted to petty crimes so they could live a little above their means. Lucrèce witnessed some of this and their constant running from angry shop owners or the Siovalese guard. One of her older brothers was locked away for three days an made to give free labor to one shop owner. Lucrèce decided that she didn't want the life of a crook and she also knew that she didn't want to stay in the slums.
When Lucrèce was 10 she begged her mother to take her with her when she would clean. Her mother let her, bringing her to the home of the Baron Charrier. Lucrèce helped her mother and the Baron was more than happy to let her stick around if he didn't have to pay her. She had only been there a few months before she overheard a lesson given to the Charrier family's three children. She watched with fascination as the tutor taught their young children how to read. The tutor spied her, and let Lucrèce join in.
She talked to Lucrèce after that first lesson and learned that she had basically been working for free, wanting to learn how to do something other than roam the streets of Siovale. The tutor decided that she would teach the girl and, with some stolen cakes and treats from the kitchen, the noble children were also sworn to secrecy. The Baron and Baronnes did figure out that their child servant was getting free lessons. Their kids were happier and seemed to do better having the girl around, so they pretended to be oblivious.
Lucrèce was a bright child, and even though she started learning at an older age, she was soon caught up and had surpassed the noble children. She started skipping her lessons when the Baron and Baronnes were out of the house, stealing into their library and reading their books. Lucrèce had a mind for detail and she was always careful to put every book, paper, and anything else she spied on exactly where she had found it.
When Lucrèce was 15 years old she grew bored of the Charrier household. Over the years she had read every book that they owned with some level of importance and secretly knew as much about their finances as they probably did. They had offered her a small wage if she actually cleaned their house, letting her and everyone else knew that they had long known about the, 'secret,' lessons. Lucrèce had taken it, but it was meager and she wanted more out of life.
Servants gossip as much as the nobles, and it wasn't long before she heard about a Marquis that was looking for a tutor. The couple was a bit odd and their son was considered a down-right brat. They had already gone through four tutors and were apparently becoming desperate for someone to stick around. Lucrèce figured she could handle any child given the house that she had grown up in. She simply had to convince the family to hire her. Tutors did not come from the slums. They were often raised into the job like other artisans and priests were.
Lucrèce found a bland and forgotten dress in the back of a Charrier closet. She cleaned herself up in the Baron's house one day when they were gone and creeped out the back door. She used what little coin she had to hitch a ride on a traveling carriage and made her way to the Monceaux estate.
When she arrived Lucrèce turned on all of her charm and copied the tone and mannerisms that she had observed in the Charrier tutor. The Monceaux family was at their wits end and they hired Lucrèce on the spot. She was given living quarters within the estate and that is where she stayed, simply sending a note back to her mother so she wouldn't think that she would know that her daughter was alive.
Lucrèce was 17 and Reichard Monceaux was only 6 when she started tutoring him. Since she was starting with basic writing and numbers, it was an easy task for her limited training. She also ended up being his Nanny. Her patience and her need to stay out of the slums gave her the resolve needed to deal with the spoiled child and to slowly bring him around. She noted how his mother treated him like a fragile doll and she used that to her advantage, giving him similar treatment, but manipulating it so he would listen to her better than he did his own parents.
As Reichard grew older and needed more specialized training more tutors were hired in. Lucrèce had inserted herself fully into the family and she was never truly asked to leave. Instead she took on the role of managing Reichard's training. She had the Monceaux parents pay the tutors through her, giving her the ability to skim off enough of a payment for her to buy her own small, but cozy, home and enjoy some luxuries. She also saved and planned what she would do next once the Monceaux's finally realized they wouldn't need her anymore. She also manipulated Reichard as he became and adolescent and young adult, making him emotionally reliant on her when his parents were too busy with their duties to dote on him.
When Reichard was 20 his parents did finally terminate Lucrèce's service with them. They gave her a hansom severance pay and would occasionally invite her to fetes when Reichard would ask them to. She kept up a steady correspondence with the young noble and gave him advice when he wasn't pleased with that of his parents or colleagues. Lucrèce was able to use the connections she made during her many years managing Reichard's tutelage to become a liaison of sorts between the upper class and the various intellectuals in the area. She expanded her connections over the years and was able to make a hansom wage for herself. Her line of work was unusual, so she constantly had to work on making sure her name was not forgotten so that her services would continue to be used. Between her time with the Monceaux family and her own ventures she never found time for romance nor did she ever bother to light a candle to Eisheth.
So it was, at 42, Lucrèce found herself without a family and wrapped up in a business that was starting to hold little prospects of growing any further than it already had. She didn't really care too much about being a 42 year old bachelorette, even if her friends found it odd. But, she did not like feeling that she had found her limit to money or power. She had move far above the life of a child that grew up in the slums, but she had no real power nor could she afford the extravagance that she had seen the nobles enjoy.
As she considered her next steps she received a letter from Reichard lamenting the loss of his mother. She offered him words of comfort and said that she'd visit if he'd have her. He sent her a carriage and once again she found herself entrenched in the Monceaux household, though this time as more than just a tutor. Reichard was in no shape to run the Marquisat. It was easy for Lucrèce to convince him to hire her on as a stewardess.
Lucrèce has worked as a steward for the Monceaux household for 13 years now. She long ago sold off her old house and lands, moving into one of the large bedrooms in the large Monceaux Château in Siovale. She does her best to keep Reichard from draining all of the coffers. She still employees the same tactics that she used as a tutor. She appeals to his beauty and ego when needed, using them to manipulate him into listening. She has even gone as far as sleeping with him a few times, though only when he's instigated the act, since she doesn't really find him very sexually appealing. As Reichard as grown older and held onto his boyish immaturity she has grown more annoyed and disgusted with him. She still plays the game though. She is not a Marquise in title, but she can sometimes wield the power of one. She keeps close ties on all of Reichard's movements, his income, and his spending. She carefully records every possible slight and is biding her time until the opportunity comes when she can become more than just a Stewardess of one of the most childish Marquises in Terre d'Ange.
Updates:
Approved by Janet - 15th July 2018
