Phèdre nò Delaunay
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Name: Phèdre nò Delaunay

Gender: Female

Age: Appears in her early Twenties, though arrived at the Mansion after her active life was over

Fandom: Kushiel's Legacy by Jacqueline Carey

Journal: phedre_25

Typist: Wil

Quick Biography

Details of Phedre's life
Phèdre nò Delaunay is a 'whore's unwanted get' who was sold as a bond servant to the first of Thirteen Houses of the Court of Night Blooming Flowers. As a young child of Cereus House, she learned all the gracious ways to serve those who came to her house to appreciate the transient beauty of the resident courtesans. Unfortunately, she was born flawed - by a pinprick of bright blood red in one of her eyes.
Recognized by her mentor, as pricked by Kushiel's Dart and his instrument, her bond was bought and she was trained as a courtesan and a spy. The 'crimson mote' in her eye marks her as one who is bound to endure pain as pleasure, which makes her more than a little into kink.
Of course, from there, she is thrown into a world of intrigue, with Melisande Shahrizai as her nemesis, though she and her share a deep fascination for one another, partially due to their respective natures. Of course Phedre being the hero, she eventually succeeds in the tasks she is given, and is promised 10 years of peace before her troubles would begin once more.
Those 10 years gone by, Phèdre is called in the line of duty again, in a plot that ties a lot of lose ends for her and brings on a relative truce between her and her long-standing nemesis Melisande Shahrizai.
Another few decades pass, and her foster-son Imriel gets into a lot of trouble, where Phèdre bails him out occasionally, though most of the heroic deeds are his own, and throughout these travails, she enjoys a relative peace with her beloved Joscelin.
Typist canon: However, her current incarnation has lived through all her life in Terre d'Ange, where she outlived Joscelin and grieved for him, and so she comes to the Mansion with a heart relatively free for new attachments (though should Joscelin show up, she would be more than disturbed).

Appearance

With long, wavy mahogany hair bistre eyes, this voluptuously pale female is the embodiment of beauty, as is any D'Angeline - they are, after all, the product of interbreeding between Angels and humans. She is toned from hardship and keeping herself in shape.
The two major and most recognizable features are her marque, a bleeding black rose which extends from the base of her spine to the base of her neck and covers her whole back in brambles in black and red. Her other most significant feature is the blossom of red in her left eye, referred to as Kushiel's Dart, or the scarlet mote. It looks more than a little unnatural, and even D'Angeline folk are unsettled by it, whether they identify it for what it is, or not.
WARNING, SPOILER -> Those who are psychically gifted might find something odd in her mind - she carries the name of God in her thoughts.

Personality

Phèdre possesses a vanity for her looks and pride in her skills as both a courtesan and a spy. She prizes her own intelligence and would far rather take suffering upon her own shoulders - directly designed to carry it - than to allow any other to suffer for her. She is willful and can be stubborn to a fault, though this Phedre has matured much, and her experience helps tone down the temper which used to be much fiery. As her cut takes place after Kushiel's scion, she has a very distinct motherly and tender side, and is swayed by psychological suffering, something she has learned to both endure and recognize in others. Having gone through hell and back, she is extremely patient and able to adapt.
One of her favorite phrases is, "All Knowledge is Worth Having" and in the pursuit of that knowledge she knows several languages and is well versed in both history and religion. She is modest when it suits her patron's needs but she'll pretends nothing and give everything, unless the assignation serves an ulterior purpose, usually an assignment of covertsy.
Her spiritual life is not small deal to her. She revers Blessed Elua, whose motto is "Love as thou willt", and thus jealousy is a sin which she endeavors to avoid. Marked by the punishing Angel Kushiel as his Chosen, she enjoys submitting herself to extremely violent lovemaking, from which she derives an otherworldly and addictive ecstasy. She can be singularly tender with those who touch her heart, for Kushiel's justice is never delivered without love. Dedicated to serve Naamah, the Angel of carnal pleasures, she has no qualms about promiscuity and is generally very laid-back about such matters.

Relationships

RP Canon

At ye olde Mansion

She has returned to the Mansion, having raised and passed her estate to Imriel de la Courcel, and is likely passed onto the Mansion, which is nothing more than one of the many aspects of Terre-d'Ange-that-lies-beyond.
Upon her arrival, she was greeted by Melisande Shahrizai, though Melisande having been pulled out of her universe earlier, she is unaware of the latter developments in the saga. For this reason, Phedre is very secretive in general about the particulars of the situation in Terre d'Ange, for fear of altering timelines. (And of giving out spoilers.) Being of an adaptive nature, Phedre readily accepted her new surroundings, and settled in her former room on the second floor, one with a view on the Lake and the Meadow, after Hedda Gabler confirmed that it was indeed available.

However the room she coveted was neighboring Henry Fitzroy's, who was exiting his own, hoping to walk off the hunger. Vampires (and this one was almost out of control) and anguissettes are like fire and oil, and so she had her first assignation that night, a fact which Melisande did not miss when they met for tea the next day. To this day, they remain close friends and lovers - Phedre is also his confident, and knows all about his HUGE crush on Anita Blake - and as she is a true D'Angeline, she doesn't mind in the slightest.

Having not known the time of bounty, she was much grateful to Agravain for offering venison to the Mansion's guests, and rewarded his generosity by accepting an assignation with him. She never knew the blessed times when the Plothole was around, but she did sign up to be one of the pickers and servers when Kay attempted to organize the Mansion's living. She also met Georg Zirschnitz at the kitchen, much to their mutual delight, attempted to comfort Caliban Leandros (doesn't everyone?) and freaked out Locke Lamora. She is getting also along very well with Georg Zirschnitz and adores Lucivar Yaslana. She wants wings just like his. She's also good friends with his sister Jaenelle Angelline.

She had a strangely dysfunctional affair with Kay. Also seems to have struck a good "friendship" with Sagramore, for whom she cried with Hero when Henry Lascelles killed him. Conclusion, she has three lovers at the moment, might gain more - like Molly Seagrim, she loves freely, though deep down, her heart still belongs to Joscelin Verreuil.

She was very surprised at finding a copy of the book she's out of at the Mansion, though, something she and Henry discussed, as it seems their link seems to be akin to that of an adept's and a very cherished patron. She was very sad when Sagramore died - mostly because he was nice to her, and didn't need her to do anything for him. She's very glad Caliban's doing better - she cares about the kid, but then again, who wouldn't be moved by a gloomy 20 year old who reeks of vulnerability? All would be well for her if she hadn't witnessed the death of Steerpike at the hands of Lucivar. More than moved by the Eyren Prince's fate, as the apple crackplot destroyed his wings, and maybe his sanity, she accepted to let Anita Blake drain her life force and nourish it to him, in an attempt at restoration.
Later Sagramore returned, much to her delight - and she has since then taken Caliban under her wing as a mother might, though she would never say so. She also happened once more onto Locke Lamora, which is interesting enough.
She's met Zara, and finally got a change of dress - thankfully so.

The truce was not very long - she met Not!Caliban and it triggered a possession by the Angel Kushiel on her part. This clearly freaked out Darkling (and likely saved her life) - we don't know if this means Kushiel will fight Darkling if he returns to the Mansion. She spent a while taking care of Caliban and crying on people (namely Sagramore).
Now has to deal with Henry being a murderer - something that she does not like at all, and is still toying with accepting a possible assignation with Melisande.
In the middle of that, she met Ilmarinen while he was questing for a wife. Let's see how that works out.

And here we go. More problems as Locke Lamora goes angsty, and decides that Phedre is a threat. He goes into her room, steals the copy of Avatar that was there (another one is in an undisclosed location), and then proceeded to interrogating her and blackmailing her. As they don't quite get along, that didn't go so well, and death threats were thrown out (at Phedre, and not by her).
So she's crying (again) on Sagramore, whom she adores more and more, even if he has seizures.
Let's admit it, it was not the best day ever. In her own words: "So. Today, my dark secrets were stolen from me, hurled at a lake, I was black mailed, threatened, then I argued with my not!boyfriend about him not killing said bastard, we had angry!sex, and he had a seizure in my bed. Now he's made a mess of my floor, he's sleeping there, and I have a drunk Locke apologizing outside my door, whom said not!boyfriend in question might try to kill were he not already passed out. ….. why me?"
Locke Lamora went to apologize to Phedre, which might have actually worked, except that she fainted, Henry Fitzroy appeared, assumed the worst, and proceeded to strangle Locke. That was fun. Saved by the timely intervention of Anita Blake - sort of - he might have been all right, except for how there was a conversation of epic fail where we're not sure what Locke was trying to do, but ended up provoking Henry to the point where Jaenelle used magic to knock him out. As you can imagine, went over very well.
In the process of that epic fail conversation, Anita, Henry and Phedre almost came to a happy Menage-a-trois situation, but then Locke provoked Henry into anger again, and Anita got jealous again, and now they're back to square one, with Anita in full denial mode, Henry sort of torn(ish), and Phedre still heart broken.

We thought she might dump Henry soon and take on another regular lover instead, that she just couldn't handle all this heresy anymore, but we're not sure exactly how or why, it seems Henry and her have made up, and are back to being friends and lovers. She's also still pursuing her affair with Sagramore, is getting to know Courfeyrac, and is also maintaining her relationship with FitzChivalry Farseer.
Good news is, she's not suicidal anymore - maybe it has to do with that sprained ankle she got in front of Locke's door, and the fact that Locke, of all people, told her Henry loved her.
ETA: In the wake of Anita Blake's epic fail, she and Henry seem to be once more on talking (and snogging) terms, after much drama and arguing. She is also still with Sagramore, who worries her (but she can't say it), and is also worried about Cal (whom she knows is hurt but doesn't know why).

Phedre's love life has been epically complex: Henry and her are still not really speaking (they fail at being civilized to each other). She and Fitzchivalry tried to be together, but he got too busy with Other Things. Then she got unwillingly intoxicated and slept with the Ugliest Man Ever, Sandor Clegane. They have been hotdorable together ever since, wtf. Also, she has been taking care of Robb Stark, who seems to need lots of motherly love.His father's arrival might complicate matters, considering her current association with the Hound. This is made worse by the fact that Oberyn seems intent on killing Sandor, though he doesn't know that he is his secret rival. In the midst of all this, Phedre's friendship with Mildmay is proving to be a haven of peace.

At the New Mansion

The typist has failed to update this page regularly, so please forgive any omissions! Interactions are not in any particular order:

  • Greeted Armand Saint-Just (musical) when he arrived from the cold.
  • Introduced Lucivar Yaslana to Icarus, hoping that they would fly together. She later hurt her ankle when escaping his rut. Sandor was not pleased.
  • Has met Aramat and taken to being her student of poisons - in exchange for these lessons, Phedre accepts assignations on a regular basis.
  • Met Brian Moser both as an adult and as a child, and is very disconcerted by him.
  • Was reunited with Favrielle nó Eglantine quite happily, though Phedre has problems of her own and hasn't had a chance to notice her disappearance yet.
  • Befriended Richard Dinardo and eventually slept with him, in a bid to alleviate his intimacy issues.
  • Has befriended Fuchsia Groan, who has yet to show her some of her poetry.
  • Made peace with Henry Fitzroy, at long last.
  • Adopted Icarus with Sandor Clegane - the both of them are very worried about him, pursuant to his confession about having an expiry date, which he made the day he realized that Nellas wasn't coming back. Phedre has enlisted the help of Jaenelle Angelline to prevent the inevitable.
  • Has calmed down Iphigenia when she started freaking out about her love life.
  • Met Isolde through Icarus.
  • Has taken a patron in Kazutaka Muraki, whom she suspects is not as holy as he seems. He's given her a tanto as a sign of the boon he owes her. There was much hilarity when Phoenix Wright busted Muraki's door, thinking that Phedre was being assaulted.
  • Was Oberyn Martell sate at Robb Stark's wedding.

2013 update

December 2012:
Phèdre nò Delaunay - lost Sandor (her consort) and Oberyn (her lover) in the quake. She's also bed-ridden and in the care of Muraki and Icarus, in a cottage, with two broken legs. There are enough people who know where she is that she can be found, though - and she'll be asking a friend to look for Dean, actually. ^^ Also, she's got a great, great joy, in the person of her recently arrived brother, Alcuin.

January 2013:

Phedre is going to be back on her feet very soon! So I think she could do with a post, possibly to the comm so she can be widely available. Anyone interested?

She's got a bunch of things going (a brother! A Dean! a son! an Iphi! and Muraki!) that I'd like to keep developing. A thought in particular is that she may have it in her head to play match-maker for Iphigenia (not like Cat with Sansa, because Phedre is D'Angeline so she's looking for Twu Wuv and not a ~proper match~, and is merely going to want to facilitate things for Iphi, but never force a thing, because Love as Thou Wilt, friends.)

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