Name: Laure Rothschild Stephens Occupation: Owner of Westriver Gardens / Clan Pretorius Representative Age:Â Appears 47; actually 678 (April 14) Sexuality: Lesbian Pronouns: She/Her Species: Vampire Clan/Pack/Coven:Â Clan Pretorius Hometown: London, England Relationship Status: Widowed It's Complicated Personality Traits: Machiavellian, disarming, arrogant, gregarious, strategic
Biography (tw: mentions of bubonic plague, death, murder)
Laure doesn't think about her life before the bite. It seems frivolous, unnecessary even. She had somehow lived an entire lifetime by that point, with children and grandchildren even, and then the plague came and took them all. Laure survives because a vampire finds her, half-delirious as she tried to tend to the corpses of her family despite being on death's doorstep herself.
Her sire disappears before her transition is even complete, but Desdemona takes their place as she wakes. She teaches her how to stand up for herself for the first time in her life, to find the voice that had been buried by marriage and social structures and expectations. She finds her power and knows never to look back. Desdemona takes on the role of a man, donning the name 'Markus' so they can exist freely in a world that is actively hostile to them.
They make a charming pair, perfectly fitting in within the fabric of history, but not in any way that's conspicuous or obvious. Markus acts as advisor to some of the most powerful men in the world, his influence evident if one knows where to look, but unnamed in any records. To others, Laure is everything from his wife to his assistant to his whore. The reality is that they are partners. She acts as history's witness, producing art and literature that leaves behind a record of the life they've lived. She paints with Da Vinci, sculpts with Bernini, and was an avid participant of 19th century salons. Her art hangs in galleries under pseudonyms and his theories are parroted by intellectuals. Neither of their names are ever recorded, but they are satisfied with their ability to shape and influence society as it unfolds. Laure enjoys learning about people and how the function, how dynamics shift when individual or in a group, and soon she learns how to pull their strings while remaining unseen.
It's not as flashy as a life as literature might suggest for their kind but it works for them. What's between them is mere common interest, not really love, but more like a shared goal and comfort after centuries by each other's side. But all good things eventually come to an end. Markus decides that he is done watching and recording history from the sidelines, and that he wants to live it instead. She says nothing when he leaves, and continues on with their work instead.
By then, history has somewhat progressed, enough that a woman with enough wealth can purchase a plot of land in 1942 without too many people raising an eyebrow. The country is embroiled with the rumblings of war, and she settles in Port Leiry to continue her vigil over history. The conflict between the species is tentatively over, and she watches, intrigued, as the different groups coexist.
The Gardens are a happy coincidence, originally meant to be a way for her to preserve the beauty that has always inspired her art. As the city builds up around her, she maintains her property, with her personal home on the edge of the property and the rest of the grounds dedicated to the natural world. With advances in technology, it turns out that Laure doesn't need to be physically anywhere in order to deploy her influence. With the amount of wealth she had accumulated over the years, she is able to make her will heard without issue, behind an army of lawyers and shell companies who shield her from the public eye, and the protection of one of the oldest and largest vampire clans in the world.
Ironically, there are some humans who call her a witch, for her solitary lifestyle and her refusal to cede any of her property for development. But Westriver Gardens becomes a popular destination for vampires and the uninitiated alike. By day, she rents out the small chapel for weddings and photography sessions, and by night, it operates as a prime feeding ground for vampires. To the truly big spenders, the entire property can be rented out for what can only be called "hunting parties", in which vampires can indulge in their natural instincts and hunt their prey across acres of land. To Laure, it's a cycle of influence and money that fuels her day to day and it pays off when she is elected as the Clan Pretorius High Council representative, a position she enjoys relatively unchallenged for the most part. Those who underestimate her based on her appearance are quickly shown why that is a mistake.
Laure lives 662 years before she understands what it means to fall in love. What she once mocked others for becomes astoundingly clear to her when she meets Kiri. The witch is wary at first, rightfully so, rebuffing Laure's initial advances, but eventually, a relationship grows, genuine in a way she had never before experienced in her nearly seven centuries of life. Despite the differences between their species, the impossible happens, and an unlikely bond forms not just between Laure and Kiri, but between Clan Pretorius and the Circle of the Phial as well, an example of the power they can have if they work together. When Kiri turns 45, the question turns to one of turning into a vampire, and Laure wants nothing more than eternity with her wife.
Eternity turns out to be a mere handful of months. The plans are made, with permission granted from the High Council, and a small intimate ceremony of their closest friends. Two days before the arranged date, Kiri goes missing, with a staggering amount of her blood left behind. On the day Laure should have been welcoming her wife to immortality, she received a package with Kiri's finger inside, still wearing the ring she'd given to her.
Laure returns to the life she led for six hundred years before meeting Kiri, but it's dull in comparison. She now knows what it means to have something, and what it means to lose it. She withdraws to Westriver, emerging only for her duties as Council Representative. She maintains the greenhouse and garden that Kiri had cultivated, filled with magical plants and herbs that were difficult to find elsewhere. To honor her late wife, Laure permits Phial witches to use the garden for their needs, so long as they respect it. It comes with a monetary cost, but she is fair in her dealings.
She sees her eighteen months after Kiri dies, and her world finds color again. A near perfect vision of her late wife and the delusion is born. Laure watches from the shadows, learning her schedule until it is ingrained in her memory. She imagines a chance to redo what has already been done, to recover what she lost. When she goes to the High Council again for permission however, she is denied. They see her actions as obsessive, driven by her grief and emotions and she can't deny it. But she decides she doesn't need their permission anyways.
It's simple to orchestrate a meeting at the Serval, a rare outing away from Westriver. The girl is still young and all too trusting, and Laure almost pities her as she struggles feebly in her grip. It pains her to leave her sprawled in an alley, for anyone to find, but she reminds herself to be patient. She's waited a year for this, she can wait a few months longer. And finally, maybe, eternal happiness is within her grasp.
The Game So Far
The Masquerade changes everything. An event that the Council spares no expense in throwing, to trap the hunters that have been a thorn in their side since the raid on the Siltshore Mausoleum. Laure is not expecting it to be a trap for her as well. In her first public appearance since Kiri’s death, she arrives with Aria on her arm, while Morgan and Autumn trail behind them for some light refreshments. Had she known her wife was there under her own mask, she might have operated with more discretion.
She doesn’t expect Morgan to kiss her that night either, setting off a domino effect that she is still trying to manage. A week later, Kiri appears in Westriver in a dramatic fashion, undead but still alive, and she learns that this is a longstanding plot against her in retaliation for something she barely even remembers.
For the first time in her life, Laure is more preoccupied with personal relationships rather than playing an influential role in politics.
Plot Ideas
Other Pretorius Vampires - Laure’s doing a pretty shit job of being Pretorius representative. She’s flouted the rules against turning without permission twice, and her disinterest in local affairs is pretty obvious. This could be a point of contention, someone could try to use this to get in her ear, etc.
Arts-Adjacent - While Laure is an artist herself, she also occasionally acts as a patron of arts to promising young artists. Accepting her sponsorship might be considered the equivalent of taking blood money, but she does have an in with several local galley owners and museum curators if your art entices her enough.
Connections
The Successor (Blair Davenport) - Kiri’s niece and member of the Circle of the Phial was chosen to be Kiri's successor as liaison with Clan Pretorius after she transitioned into a vampire, a position that Blair filled even though that plan never came to fruition. Blair’s everything tends to frustrate Laure, but she also considers her part of the family and would eviscerate anyone who dared to harm her.
The Council (Viktoria Lomidze, Aoife O'Sullivan, Nsilo Castillon, Kali Shukla) - Laure's fellow Council members who denied her permission to turn Aria because they were worried about her increasing instability. She defied their orders and turned Aria without their permission, but has also been increasingly checked out of Council matters since the return of her wife.
The Plotter (Cordelia Verges) - Laure has been the Clan Pretorius Council Representative for Port Leiry for almost 30 years, and had grown increasingly more erratic since Kiri's death. She is wholly unaware of Cordelia’s designs on her seat.
The Intrigue (Morgan Moss) - After her wife’s death, Laure developed a habit of visiting local grief counseling groups in an attempt to see whether she could find anyone who could understand what she was going through. She killed four men who tried to hit on her over bad coffee after the meeting before happening upon Morgan. While it initially started as an idea to kill her, she found herself utterly intrigued by her instead, thus selfishly drawing her in further into the world of the supernatural.
The Fledgling (Aria Boughton) - Another unfortunate victim of Laure’s obsessive tendencies, only she had intended for Aria to replace her wife, whether the younger vampire wanted that or not. With Kiri’s reappearance in the world, Laure isn’t quite sure how to approach the relationship with her fledgling, though there is an attempt to help her if she needs it.
The Wife (Kiri Stephens) - To say things are complicated between Laure and Kiri is an understatement. Laure truly believed that her wife was gone and had begun to move on with her life, though it was still marked heavily with grief. But from Kiri’s perspective, it felt like being forgotten.
TBA
