Laure Shahrizai
Laure.jpg
Fullname: Laure Shahrizai de Saumur
Played by: Andrea Riseborough
Gender: Female
Age: 34
Birthdate: July 18th
Class: Noble
House: Shahrizai
Occupation: Vicomtesse de Saumur
Province: Kusheth
Country: Terre d'Ange
Parents: Damien Claude Shahrizai and Eléonore Anne Shahrizai
Siblings: One older (deceased), two younger
Marital Status: Happily married to the same books as Tristian Philippe Toluard de Shahrizai (b. 1269)
Children: Eliot Tristian (b. 1297), Henri Philippe (b. 1299), Jeannette Eléonore (b. 1302), Emmanuelle Damienne (b. 1311)

Known Information

Background

Laure Renee Shahrizai was born in 1277, the second of the four children of Damien Claude Shahrizai, Vicomte de Saumur, and his lady wife, Eléonore Anne Shahrizai. When she was four years old her eldest sibling perished of illness, leaving her heir apparent to the vicomté.
A scholarly child, she took to her studies with great delight. Knowledge came easily to her, but her most prized acquisitions came not from books but from observing those around her, a penchant which saw her branded as being too clever and too much in other people's business than benefited her. Those betimes ill-gotten insights were put to use as one employs strings to manipulate a marionette, with an added streak of Shahrizai cruelty.
When she gained her majority Laure's sense of noblesse oblige was tempered in the philosophers' halls of Tiberium, where she studied for several years before returning to make good on a marriage arranged in her absence to a minor son of the Toluard family from Siovale. The match proved to a strong one, sustained by a commonality of academic interests between two inveterate readers, despite the absence of any great romance between them.
Compelled to place herself at the epicenter of news Laure relocated to the City of Elua with her husband Tristian. A year later, in 1297, she gave birth to their first child, Eliot Claude; in 1299 she provided him with a brother, Henri Philippe. Due to her father's declining health, they returned to Kusheth in the summer of 1302, where they remained in residence until after the difficult birth of her daughter Jeannette Marie in 1303, and her father's eventual passing.
Not one to be remiss in her duties, the now-Vicomtesse de Saumur remained at her own seat, a haven of orchards and vineyards in the sometimes inhospitable province of Kusheth, raising her family and administering her lands — until she could simply endure no further rustication.
The Saumurs returned to court in 1306, leaving the day-to-day responsibilities in the eminently capable hands of the steward retained from her late father's time. Not long thereafter her middle child Henri was entrusted to the care of Mandrake House as a fosterling. Laure meanwhile immersed herself in Elua's games of politicking, and gained a reputation for knowing entirely too much: though it's unusual for anyone to recall having given her such information, in so many words, and unheard of for her to let slip tidbits unknown to her interlocutor of the moment.
Laure and her family have spent the last several years summering in Kusheth — much to the delight of her youngest but the chagrin of her eldest, whose Shahrizai cousins play games too rough for his delicate, bookish soul — and wintering amid the excitements of Elua. However, with the advent of an unplanned pregnancy, against which she was warned by healers at the time of her daughter's birth, the Vicomtesse has been forced to review her options. Unwilling to abort the child, she is considering instead a sojourn in the seat of Eisheth's line: Marsilikos.

Inspiration

Contacts

Logs

(1311-11-16) Alienor's Debut
Summary: The debut of Alienor nó Rose Sauvage, at a decorous tea party in the solar of the White...


(1310-12-25) When Mercy Seasons Justice
Summary: Laure Shahrizai seeks divine justice at the Temple of Kushiel; the former Dowayne of...


(1310-12-25) The Quality of Mercy is Not Strained
Summary: Two Shahrizai ladies, until now just cordial cousinly acquaintances, find a deepening...


(1310-12-18) Terre d'Ange's Got Talent
Summary: Eglantine House hosts a talent contest for nobles to win tokens for the Longest Night Fete...


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