The Vampire 'Hood - Duchess Jeanette Lenoir

The Duchess of Exulham

TL;DR: French High Vampire, WW1 veteran, autonomous governor of Exulham, powerful sorceress, tired mother and especially tired bureaucrat.

Lady Jeanette Marie Louise Lenoir is a High Vampire born in 1836 and turned around the late 1870s. As of 2038, she is 202 years old. A splendid age for an equally splendid woman. She led entire batallions to victory using unconventional hit-and-run tactics that vastly departed from typical trench warfare tactics of WW1. Expecting the world to mature after the first world war, seeing France fall in the second one broke her heart. Initially fighting for the free french forces, she has eventually fled the country and never looked back since, settling permanently in northern England where she had her first and only child, Elise, with some dapper British High Vampire to match her status.

When Elise was still young, her father passed away from desanguination (severe blood thirst). An incident where he accidentally feasted on an innocent young woman expecting a baby with her fiancée has scarred him for the rest of his life. He mistook her for a woman wanted for the robbery of a jewellery shop, and made the wrong call. He had never feasted on an innocent person before, and something inside him snapped. Elise's father would refuse any and all blood and flesh, fighting tooth and tail to survive off of a healthy human diet, but it wasn't enough. His newfound disgust for blood has lead to his tragic downfall.

Nonetheless, this event is what started a new arc in the life of Lady Lenoir - as Jeanette had inherited his wealth and royal titles, thus becoming the Duchess of the Autonomous region of Exulham - a title she would simply rename to "the Duchy of Exulham", but keep its autonomous status. Her daughter took her father's death badly, even worse than Lady Jeanette herself. She swore off eating human flesh and rarely consumed any blood. She only ever drinks blood from willing servants or volunteering donors, unlike her mother, who drinks expensive, imported blood from finely bred bloodlines with the best eugenic programs. She's had enough of her daughter's self-righteous blood abstinence, knowing very well how it went for her late husband, and doesn't even encourage Elise to change her ways. No, nowadays Duchess Jeanette simply mocks or ridicules her daughter for willingly malnourishing herself in a "vain attempt at rejecting her true nature". As cold as it may sound, you have to realize that Duchess Lenoir is a complex individual. The horrors seen in both world wars, as well as a childhood spent during the spring of nations have made Jeanette into the person she is now. Cold, calculating, careful, conservative in her actions, yet somewhat progressive in her beliefs. Aside from combat, spellcasting and military tactics, the Duchess is a woman of many talents. She's good with bureaucratic paperwork, law, keen on history and art, a lover of literature and an enthusiast of feeling comfy. Yes, the large and imposing High Vampire boss lady likes sipping coffee while reading under her blankets, sometimes spending her free days (as rare as they are) barely getting out of bed. As for her personality, she is a lonely woman whose loneliness results mostly from pushing away the people she holds dear. Her mental state is far from okay, but she hails from an age where people were never taught to talk their minds out. Hell, discouraged even. Her only friend to speak of is a fellow High Vampire - Florence Remington: a world-class actress and the mother of Wendy Remington, the very same girl that went on to found the Fallen Fangs punk rock band that is now taking the country by storm.

Florence is usually the one to visit Jeanette though, as Exulham's Duchess is always either too busy to hang out, or too tired to get out of bed.

As for her job, she had to enter into an uneasy partnership with the "Chi no Akuma Kyōkai" crime syndicate in a desperate bid to reduce Exulham's crime rate. In exchange, the "Blood Devils" (as they're called in the West Side) can freely work from the shadows - expanding their drug, gambling and loan shark empire, while simultaneously crushing lesser gangs just as the Duchess has ordered. To somewhat formalize their "pact", the Chi no Akuma Kyōkai boss pretty much "gave" his only daughter to Duchess Lenoir. Initially intended to be a mutual hostage situation, Jeanette intimidated the gang into a one-sided transaction instead. Realising his daughter might prove troublesome later down the life (given her sadistic nature), the Blood Devil boss sent his beloved Kozuki away for good, with no intentions of retrieving her in sight.

Duchess Jeanette holds her adopted daughter in high regard. She's a proud High Vampire that doesn't shy away from indulging in her true nature. A stark contrast to the "whimpy" Elise, as Kozuki herself would put it. Her own daughter is fighting a life-long battle against her vampiric nature, willingly starving herself to an extent, and on top of all that her career choice disappoints Jeanette to no end - for Elise is a performance artist of various talents: acting, musicals, opera singing, ballet dancing, fencing and even puppet shows. Of all of them, Duchess Lenoir is only really supportive of fencing. She views the rest of her daughter's passions, and largely her entire career in entertainment, as a waste of good talent instead of doing something with practical purpose. When you combine this with the fact that Kozuki has rather unexpectedly turned out to be a passionate scientist, spearheading the research in artificial blood that could save hundreds of millions of lives, it is no wonder that Lady Jeanette is playing favourites with the adopted one.

And now, as a final note of this exceedingly large lore dump on the character of Duchess Jeanette Marie Louise Lenoir, let's quickly wrap up how her career in politics is going:

Exulham, more commonly known as "The Vampire 'Hood", is a dangerous city full of infighting over autonomy and gang violence. The complex political landscape is difficult to fully grasp and must be treaded carefully. Luckily, Duchess Lenoir is an expert in twisting the political scene to her advantage. Her investments into the city combined with the war on organised crime have propelled her into national stardom. And what's better than a good governor? A popular, good governor. Money can get you far, but money and connections can get you ANYWHERE. She has plenty of enemies, sure, including one legendary Erina Ahlstrom - the governor of the Royal Autonomous Zone, but that doesn't deter her from fighting for the Vampire 'Hood. ...or maybe for her own interest after all?

TAG DUMP!
Generic tags:
( #oc #originalcharacter #originalcharacters #digitalart #art #illustration #comic #comics #conceptart #concept #thevampirehood )