Lilianne Le Parisian
- Nosferatu -x- League of the Night -x- Quebec City
Sobriquet: Lily for the flower that springs eternal.
Appearance: Lilianne is petite, just shy of five feet tall, weighing less than a hundred pounds and she seems as if a strong breeze would carry her away. Lily is something of Nosferatu siren, where most Sewer Rats are hideously scarred, her face is more or less untouched by the clan curse. She is bald with the coloring of a corpse, and strange pointed ears, but her face is almost fey and frames deep dark eyes of the most intense Egyptian blue. From her neck down, the flesh begins to pucker with scars and its clear that her spine and torso are seriously malformed. Worst of all are her legs, which she never shows anyone. But, in the right kind of clothes, she can with difficulty walk among humanity as a seemingly dedicated goth or cosplay girl and the mortals are none the wiser. She enjoys wearing the finest clothing with a Victorian sensibility, for she is usually covered from neck to ankles, and she always wears gloves. Her breath is surprisingly sweet, but her body gives off a strong odor of unwashed sexual muskiness that can by turns arouse or repulse those who accompany her depending upon their constitution. She travels about mostly with the aid of a cane or wheelchair, but there is no doubt that she probably couldn't run to save her life and that she struggles to walk or dance with any kind of grace. There is an air of tragedy that surrounds Lilianne, a kind of desperate melancholy sometimes seen in the defiantly crippled.
Behavior: While Lilianne's body is deformed and crippled, her mind is clear and sharp. She is fiercely independent with a passionate nature. On the surface she can be flirtatious and somewhat catty, but underneath she possesses a burning hunger for life that shines through the cloud of misery that seems to hang about her like a shroud. She is well educated and very well spoken, possessing a more than passing interest in the arts. She spends much of her time attending a variety of social gatherings as she maintains a wide selection of mortal friends and associates, as such she is well qualified to walk the halls of Elysium and is seen in its salons on a nightly basis. As she is the wholesome face of the Nosferatu in Quebec City, most parties who are interested in brokering deals for information prefer to do so through Lilianne rather than deal with her less attractive kin.
History: Lilianne was born in 1851 to an aging, but successful Parisian couple of Jewish extraction. Neither of her parents had expected a conception so late life, the result of a renewed romance. Despite this they welcomed another child for their next youngest had been gone from home for several years. The pregnancy posed numerous complications and the couple was not surprised to discover that Lily was deformed upon her birth. Perhaps because of her deformities, both her legs were formed incorrectly - a condition that would making walking difficult and running impossible, she received love and support not only from her family but from her community as well. So was that she grew up surrounded by those willing to aid her. Perhaps because of this, she grew up feeling smothered, controlled and over-protected. In retaliation, she became fiercely independent, strong willed and some would say headstrong. Although her childhood was far from idyllic, she wanted for neither education nor entertainment; what she did crave was the freedom to make her own choices.
19th century France, especially Paris was a glorious time to be the child of the wealthy middle class. There were many diversions and opportunities, and those options were just then opening themselves to young women of wealth or station. Unfortunately, young people can be cruel when it comes to imperfections like Lily's deformity. She could attend balls and dances, yet it was impossible for her to participate or compete with her contemporaries and young men might approach her and even speak to her, that is until they realized she was lame. The pain of social rejection was difficult for Lilianne, but she made friends through sheer force of will and through unladylike decorum she initiated more than one romance. Neither of her parents were comfortable with this behavior, but efforts to forbid or confine her from pursuing all manner of adventurous activities utterly failed. In the end, her escapades became a social stigma and her parents sought out the best mental health professionals at the time in the hopes of curring her of what they were assured was a form of nervous hysteria. But, Lily wasn't mentally ill, just precocious for a time when young women who were invalids simply didn't wander about doing whatever they liked.
The sanitarium's of 19th century France were a far cry from the asylums of previous centuries, but neither were they pleasant places to be confined and it was only a matter of months before Lily escaped. Once free, she took to the streets and took up the fine art of begging to survive. In this, her deformity served her well and the pity it generated provided her with a generous living with which to continue the pursuit of a liberated life. Her skill at begging became so great that she drew the attention of a fellow beggar who took her under his wing and eventually introducing her to her sire. She only lived on her own for two years before being thrust into immortality, but for the remainder of her existence, she would look back on those days as the best her life had to offer.
Her sire, Petit Lard, like her sire before her wanted to Embrace someone of a rival faith to cement her influence within a alien religious community and Lilianne's skill as a beggar and connections with Paris' current criminal class made her the perfect choice. Although Petit Lard would never admit it, even to her childe, she had been touched by pity at the young cripple's zest for life and its likely failure. To her sire's shock Lilianne somehow managed to retain some of her mortal beauty despite the curse of her linage. The Parisian Nosferatu reacted poorly to Lilianne's good fortune and perhaps because of their own misery, they rejected her out of hand. Only her sire continued to maintain relations with Lily, but the Kindred of other clans felt no such revulsion and despite being a Nosferatu Lily made many friends and allies among the Parisian undead. Within only a few decades her social skills made her an ideal envoy to the other clans and the Parisian Nosferatu were forced to finally acknowledge her. With this victory under her belt, Lily emerged as the social butterfly of her clan, not only in Paris, but throughout France.
By the turn of the 20th century, Lilianne held position of social prominence far in excess of her age, having gained the acknowledgement of Francois Villon, the prince of Paris. In a time when breaking the rules became the social norm, Lilianne thrived as never before, rubbing shoulders with artists, intellectuals and revolutionaries. Between the world wars, Lily was able to move her influence from the Parisian underworld into the world of espionage via the French Resistance among whom she struggled against German aggression. With the advent of the Cold War, Lilianne assumed the role of spy-master as she struggled against the agents of the Brujah Council and the more mortal Red menace, communism. For Lilianne it was more an opportunity to interact with the mortals of a new era that a pursuit of simple adventure, but to her mind neither were mutually exclusive.
Over the course of the 20th century she watched as France evolved into an entirely different country than the one in which she was born and raised. Yet it was a nation she had influenced in her own small way, through the actions of her agents, her social correspondences and through her participation in mortal society. But just as she sought to increase her influence, her sire Petit Lard dragged her to New France and embroiled them both in the colonization of Quebec City. While Lilianne was far from please to be so thoroughly caught up in her sire machinations, she has found Quebec City to be a home-away-from-home. The first few years were filled with a charming novelty, but the full scale Sabbat siege was another matter. Lily faced death more than once during that week of terror, but when it was over she realized that it had given her a renewed appreciation for her unlife. Since then she has taken every opportunity to fully realized her potential, interacting with the city's mortals and immortals alike. This new Kindred sect, the League of the Night is to her mind a resurrection of feudal ideals, though her sire laughs at such precocious beliefs. Whatever her sire's feelings on the matter, Lilianne chose to joined the new sect in the hopes of making a difference.
Recent Events: Tonight Lilianne is caught between her allegiance to the League and her loyalty to her sire. While she knows that she is more capable than Samuel Faucheux in every way that counts, she continues to use him as a beard while she plays her own game. After all, if he believes he is fully in charge, the target is firmly on his back which leaves her free to do whatever needs to be done without interference. The only thing stranding between her and greater authority in the League are these silly duels, Lily knows that if challenged to a physical confrontation she would lose, so for now she lets sleeping dogs lie. But she knows soon or late, she will have to rise to the occasion, but its all a matter of timing.
"The Magister 19:17, 19 January 2016 (MST)"
