The Marquise Marie d'Anseny

• My lady
• Marie
• The Marquise d'Anseny
• d'Anseny

Background

Marie was the most beautiful girl in her village. All the lads in the village hoped to marry her and were saving for the fee that had to be paid to a serf's master for permission to wed. Marie, however, had other plans. She knew that her good-looks would not last long in the harsh life of the village and inspired by romantic ballads she expected every carriage that passed through the tiny hamlet to contain her saviour.

Eventually, she decided that simply waiting for rescue was not good enough. When she was 14 and her mother began to talk of marriage to the blacksmith's youngest son, she decided she could wait no longer. With only the vaguest idea of it's direction, she ran away to Paris.

It was a serious crime for a serf to run away from the land she was tied to, so Marie travelled as fast as she could along the muddy roads, hiding whenever anyone passed by. However, she couldn't hide from the occupant of one coach, who caught sight of her aura as she slept exhausted in a ditch one night. Intriegued by it's brightness, Francois Villion stopped his coach and woke the sleeping girl. Enchanted by her muddy beauty, he wrapped her in his cloak and she travelled the rest of the way to Paris in style.

At first, the Toreador merely used Marie as a member of his herd. However, he soon found another use for her in a long enmity he had held against another Toreador of the City. His rival had been promoting a mortal pawn at the French King's court, to the extent that Villion's influence was being undermined. Therefor, Villion decided to strike back by persuading the pawn to marry Marie, then revealing her origins as a serf. The pawn would be humiliated and Villion's position restored.

Villion set about grooming Marie for her new role as a member of the aristocracy. Marie proved to be a quick learner and Villion soon realised how clever and determined she was. Shelving his plans to use her against his rival, he continued to promote her within society, even arranging her marriage to a suitably aged and rich noble. She proved a useful spy, always able to ferret out secrets from the retainers of rival Kindred.

Marie enjoyed her friendship with Villion. However, he never made her into a ghoul, because he found her more useful when her aura did not arouse suspicion amongst the other Kindred. As the years passed, Marie began to detect the signs of aging which she had so feared as a young girl in the village. She knew that once her looks had faded, so would her use to Villion and she began to hint that he should Embrace her.

Villion ignored these hints for as long as he could but finally informed Marie that he had no intention of Embracing a serf from the provinces and that she had got far above herself lately. If she didn't stop her whinings, he would take her back where he had found her, or even kill her.

Marie was both frightened and enraged. In all her years in Paris she had never truely felt safe from the threat of a return to the village, and to hear Villion spell it out so harshly drove her to desparation. Choosing one of Villion's least powerful rivals within the Toreador Clan, she approached him and offered to tell him everything she knew of Villion's plans if he would Embrace her. Intrigued, the rival agreed. However, after the Embrace, Marie escaped from his house and sent a message at once to Villion. She informed him of her Embrace, but offered to keep the information she knew to herself, if he would take her back and protect her.

At first, Villion was enraged. However, once he calmed down, he found himself overcome with admiration for Marie's ingenuity and agreed to her request. This time, however, he took the precaution of Blood Bonding her.

Over the next decades, Marie became a prominent figure within the Clan. The secret of her lowly background was know to few in the fief, none of whom really wished to risk her wrath by revealing it. In addition to her own power, she remained a close friend of Villion. Marie loved mortal culture and society and always had a mortal persona which allowed her to join the balls and salons of Paris society. It was at such an event that she met her first Childe, Eduard. After she Embraced him, she became somewhat estranged from Villion, although they remained friends.

When the Revolution came, Marie waited until the bitter end to leave Paris. Although she hated and feared the peasents and the Paris mob, she could not bring herself to believe that the monarchy could fall. Some of the greatest of France's Kindred perished in the fury of the Revolution but Marie and St-Simeon escaped the conflagration at the last moment. They travelled around Europe for years but could not settle. There were many Kindred fleeing France and everywhere the Toreador of the greatest cities guarded their Status and Elysuim against the newcomers. Marie would not settle for a new place at the bottom of the hierarchy. They eventually came to rest in the growing fief of York. Marie saw the potential of the fief for expansion and planned to make herself the center of the Toreador society which would grow with it.

Marie's plans received a setback at the hands of de Lascy, when the council of York was formed. Although Lord Marcus had come to the fief after Marie, de Lascy chose him to sit on the council. De Lascy firmly believed that women were unsuited to rule and permitted no female Kindred onto the Council. Marie instead became friends with Prince Richard, who shared her thwarted ambitions in the fief. Although she knew about his plan to overthrow his Sire, she took no part in it, realising that the fief would back de Lascy.

Her relationship with Marcus deteriorated again when he Embraced Branwell Bronte. Marie had been conducting an 'affair' with the young man (she is the 'real' older woman who broke his heart.) After meeting him in Marie's company, Marcus conceived one of his great passions for the young man. Although Marie was beginning to find Branwell tiresome, she petitioned the council for permission to Embrace him in order to annoy Marcus, not really intending to carry it through. However, overcome with passion at the thought of losing Branwell, Marcus himself Embraced the young man.

After that, she and Marcus maintained a subtle but ferocious feud. Marie didn't really take it personally as she is firmly of the opinion that life is empty without an enemy and anyway he was much better company than most of the other Toreador in the fief. As Branwell was already Blood Bonded to Marie when he was Embraced, he is still devoted to her. She has several times tried to play his jealousy off against St-Simeon. However, her first Childe has persistantly refused to get involved.

Now that Marcus has suffered the Final Death and Marie is Toreador Primogen, she is well on the way to her ambition of becoming Prince. Wild horses could not drag her away from her seat on the Council and she has begun to plot the return of Prince Richard to the fief.

Clan

Image

Marie wears whatever is appropriate to the occasion, always beautifully hand made. Marie prefers breathtaking evening wear which makes men fall drooling at her feet, where she can ignore them.

In her ideal setting, Marie is the perfect French noble woman. Graceful and feminine, but always ready with an appropriate witty or cutting remark. With servants or other lesser beings, she is remote and imperious. Marie prefers to be the center of attention and always tailors her behaviour to match the situation. Languid, flirtatious or serious, Maire is a consummate actress and it is impossible to tell her real feelings.

Influence

Secrets

Habitat

Marie is a great hoster of parties, which are usually well attended, especially by the Toreador. However, her guest lists usually included Ventrue and Tremere as well and Marie is responsible for many of the Elder gatherings in the fief. Because she keeps well up to date on the latest scandle and gossip, her parties are usually exciting events, although they can be a little uncomfortable for those whose secrets she has discovered recently. However, Marie is careful never to drive her guests away.

Marie always had a large herd of infatuated young lovers from which she feeds. They are usually penniless artists, musicians, playwrights or poets. Marie is happy to finance their work, until she becomes bored of them. She enjoys their gratitude and attentions much more than their art. The chateau is nominally the base of the Left Bank Foundation, a charity which funds the aspiring artisits from whom Marie draws her herd.

Ultimate Goal

Immediate Goal

Her experiences during the French Revolution left Marie with a bitter hatred of revolutionaries. She sees it as part of her duty as Primogen to persecute any anarchs in the fief.

To expand her power as a new member of the Council and to pick up any influence or power made available by the deaths of the old Primogen.

Marie believes that it would be dangerous if anyone found out about her ambitions for power. Therefore she cultivates a facade of 'Toreadorness', where her main goals seem to be status and finding out gossip and scandles.

Resources

The ultimate arbiter of status in the fief.

The services of Damien as a security expert.

Marie is vastly wealthy, a fact which she takes pains to seem uninterested in. However, she greatly values her wealth and the security it brings her.