The Appalling Strangeness of the Mercy of God [M - OOC Hannelorian & DuchessLivilla]

[Hannelorian]

Our story begins in what is classically regarded as Victorian England (1837-1901). However, in a departure from history, our Victorian age instead sees the rule of King {{insert name here}}. The isles of England are largely isolated, self sufficient. For our cast of characters, little is known or cared for of the world beyond their borders. King, Country and above all God are the pillars of society. His Majesty rules absolutely with divine right of Kings as given by God above. Religion dominates each and every household in the realm, a radical form of Christianity asserts traditional values. Every member of every class must know their station within the society and strive not to step where they have no business being.

We endeavor to explore the lives of those at every echelon of society through the lens of the household of the Duke of Suffolk. Below stairs the servants scurry about, completing their tasks while endeavoring to be paragons of the faith to those they serve. While they lead their lives with no excess, those above stairs lead their lives with every excess. The Duke himself sits on the council that advises and reports to the King directly, giving all those on the estate an air of absolute privilege.

Hannelorian's Characters

Above Stairs

Name: Arabella, Duchess of Suffolk
Styling: Your/Her Grace
Age: 25
Appearance: Arabella is best described as hauntingly beautiful. She is above average height and exceedingly thin, a trait best attributed to religious fast. With delicate and soft facial features, and pale skin she has been remarked upon as the belle of the proverbial ball. She is a fair haired blonde with piercing green eyes.
Personality: It seems likely that Arabella missed the biblical instruction regarding kindness. She is well known for her icy personality and exceptional manners. She runs the home with an iron fist and generally believes that those who work below stairs are to be seldom seen and never heard. The Duchess has been known to snap at servants who overstep their bounds or err in their duty, for example when a chamber maid awoke the lady of the house while tending the early morning fires, the chamber maid found herself without employment or recommendation. Her patience for her family, particularly her sister decreases by the day as the girl continues to question authority, and act out against the faith. It should be noted that Arabella shows an exceeding degree of kindness and compassion for her husband, the Duke of Suffolk.
Other notable information: Owing to the untimely death of her parents, she has taken responsibility for her younger sister until such time as a suitable marriage can be arranged. Her greatest failure in life is her continued inability to produce an heir.

Name: Christian III of the United Kingdom
Title: King
Stylings: Your/His Majesty
Age: 47

Appearance: His Majesty is quite tall for a man of his time standing at just over 6 feet. He is of an average weight for a man of his height, if not slightly on the thinner side. A handsome man in his youth, his skin is scarred and serves as a painful reminder of small pox during his youth after a failed attempt at variolation. He has pale skin, dark eyes and greying hair. He is always dressed in the latest finery.

Personality: The King is gregarious, outwardly friendly, and at times can be considered boisterous. His seemingly jovial nature keeps him in the good graces of the general citizenry. However his good humour is cover for a dark personality known only to his family and several of his councilors. The King is demanding and a perfectionist. His identifies himself as the paragon of piety whose will shall remain unchallenged. God has anointed the King as his divine representative on Earth, and as such his will is akin to the will of God. The King demands absolute obedience and absolute reverence for the Church. He is often quick to temper and will act first (perhaps rashly) and ask questions later. The one area where his faith trembles is in adultery, he is quite well known for his infidelity to the Queen by those in his inner circle.

Other Information: The King's Grandfather, King Edward VII (later taking the regnal name of Christian I) is responsible for the religious revolution that transformed England into a theocratic monarchy, and imposed largely isolationist policies. He admires his grandfather greatly and looks up at him as something of a heroic figure. Comparatively he viewed the short reign of his father (Christian II) as an abject failure, feeling that he was not nearly as committed to the faith and demonstrated to great a degree of lenience.

Below Stairs

Name: Alice Sutton
Styling: None, she's a peasant, a commoner, a woman without a title.
Age: 22
Position: Ladies Maid to Duchess Suffolk
Appearance: Conventionally attractive brunette, slim with distinctive blue eyes.
Personality: Alice is kind yet unassuming in the presence of the Duchess. Below stairs she is equally kind, but rather vivacious and generally gets on well with the other servants. Alice is an active member of the Church and outwardly appears to be the devotee required, however personally she is quite the non-believer, with no one knowing of her true feelings...yet.

[more edits coming, TBD]

[DuchessLivilla]

Above Stairs

Name: The Lady Alexandra

Styling: My Lady/Her/Your Ladyship

Age: 21

Appearance: In any other house Alexandra would have been thought quite beautiful but when compared with her sister most people find her lacking, or so Arabella tells her constantly. Where her sister is pale, she is dark; her hair is raven black and lightly curled, falling in soft ringlets when not pinned up. Her eyes, thought her best feature, are cornflower blue and sparkle in a delightfully mischievous way. Her skin is not as pale as her sister's, often earning her the taunt that she 'looks like a farmer's daughter' rather than a great Lord's. Another point for her sister to taunt her with is her weight; in reality she is a perfectly healthy weight for her height...but when compared with her sister's painfully thin figure, Alexandra's healthy appearance stands out.

Personality: Alexandra is naturally kind and not one of the servants can recall a time when she raised her voice or threatened them. In another time she would have been a girl who laughed much and delighted guests with her wit...Now she must keep such things to herself. She often looks gloomy and depressed, finding little in the world to cheer her. Outwardly as pious as she needs to be in order to survive, there are hints that she is far from a true zealot, unlike her sister. She often questions why the poor cannot be helped, and surely charity is in God's plan, is it not? Something that sets alarm bells ringing in most heads.

Other Info: Though she currently has no use for it, Alexandra has a photographic memory and, for reasons she doesn't know, she has taken to gathering whatever information she can about all manner of things. Her brother-in-law being on the council, she makes sure to pay close attention to anything that is said.

-----

Name: Anthony Lennox

Occupation: Ordained Priest (religious rather than secular- meaning he owns nothing of his own, has taken strict vows, has no income and relies totally upon his religious order to provide for him)

Age: 29

Styling: Father Lennox

Appearance: Anthony, being an ordained priest, has limited options for his own personal looks and even less for his clothing; as such he sports neat, short brown hair, left side parted, and a close cropped, neat beard and moustache which gives him a look of intelligence. His honey-brown eyes are kind and welcoming, which is rather unusual, given the coldness of many of his ilk...real or affected. When not performing his public duties, such as Mass, ceremonies and such, he, like his brothers in the Abbey, sports the plain black cassock of his order, long to the floor almost, over a white shirt and black trousers, with the traditional white, heavy starched collar of the priesthood.

Personality:

History: Like many of his brothers and sisters in Christ, Anthony was raised at the Foundling Hospital in London, and then, when he reached twelve years old, was set before three paths...The Priesthood, the Army or a life of service. Not that this was a choice any of the boys actually made themselves -or the girls, who had the Nunnery, an arranged marriage, or a life of service before them- and the council of directors of the hospital made his choice for him.

The lad, quiet, docile and given to piety, was naturally selected to become a priest, and sent with several other boys of the same age, to various seminaries around the city to be trained. At least he was a true believer, as it were, and took to his profession happily, taking his vows at the earliest age he could, dedicating his young life to God.

Spoiler: NOW BOTH DEAD 

Name: Richard, Duke of Suffolk

Title: His/Your Grace

Age: 54

Appearance: Tall but gaunt looking from regular fasts, His Grace looks older than he is, though he is stronger than he looks. His hair, once thick and red-gold, is now thinning and greying, as his is beard. Pale, from lack of sunlight and always dressed in rich but dark colours, he cuts an imposing figure next to his delicate looking wife.

Personality: The Duke is a passionate and devoted member of the council and society; signing and agreeing to any number of cruelties for 'the greater good'. A true believer in what is going on, he lacks any and all compassion for those who suffer under the regime, believing that they must have sinned, and therefore deserve all they get. As cold as his wife, Richard is not above physically beating his servants for slight infractions. It is clear however he deeply loves his wife and joins her in devote prayers for a son.
He trusts her implicitly and leaves the running of the house to her for much of the time.

Other Information: His Grace was married before, twice, in fact, but neither wife conceived. The first died of cancer and the second was quietly divorced due to her failures and put away in an asylum after she went mad. With such a record, his presence wife would do well to remember what might be her fate...

Below Stairs

Name: John Morgan (DECEASED - EXECUTED FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF ALEXANDRA)

Title: No official title. He was once the son of a councillor who fell from grace.

Age: 23

Appearance: John is a tall and well built young man, with neatly cropped dark hair. He has dark eyes and sports a well trimmed beard.

Personality: Despite being born to wealth and fortune and having lost all after his father's fall, John has nothing of the conceited nature of many of the wealthy. A pious young man, he managed to avoid falling even further -his father and mother were sent to the mines and have never been heard of again- by showing a dedication to God and accepting his punishment with a glad heart. A true believer in 'God works in mysterious ways' he is devoted to the regime and accepts he is now nothing more than a servant in the Suffolk household.

Other Information: Works as man-servant in the Suffolk household, sometimes as valet to His Grace, other times as messenger. He is at the family's disposal.

[DuchessLivilla]

Spoiler: Society Rules for Upper Ladies and Lower Women 

What follows is the strict etiquette and rules that women must follow in the society, some only apply to Upper Ladies, others apply to all women in any sphere.

Our Lady of Grace's Way of Faith

Marriage is the proper state for a woman and should be attained as soon as possible to prevent one falling to sin.

The home is sacred and a poorly run home reflects that sin of the wife.

Let the woman learn in silence; no woman shall presume to teach her betters. She must learn in silence from her menfolk.

A woman’s hands must be covered at all times; upper ladies to wear white silk, lower women to wear linen.

Children are the greatest gift a woman can be blessed with. The bearing of such should be a woman’s one goal and aim in life. A barren woman has failed in her duty to her husband and to God and should be replaced with one better able to do her duty to him.

Modesty is a woman’s greatest virtue aside from her purity that she renders to her husband upon marriage. A woman must dress modestly. This is pleasing to God. A woman who adorns herself monstruous apparel and paints her face is a disgrace to herself and her husband. You shall shun her.

No woman of any class shall be alone with a man not her husband or kin. Any woman found to be such shall be assumed to have committed the sin of lust and shall be forever marked as such.

A woman of any class who is branded as sinful shall not be permitted to marry nor raise any children she may have. Her marriage, should she be married, shall be annulled and her husband absolved of any taint from her. She shall be removed from among Godly people and not spoken of. She shall be as if never born.

A woman who is divorced shall never be permitted to remarry. Her children shall remain with their father. She shall be placed in service to a worthy family or, if her sin is great, she shall be removed from among Godly people and not spoken of. She shall be as if never born.

A woman who is widowed shall be permitted to remarry with the council’s permission if she is of age to bear children. If she is past such age, she shall be placed in service to a worthy family or to the state.

Once widowed a woman is permitted only to wear black, even if she remarries as a sign of respect for her husband.

Bright colours are for the upper-class only. Lower women shall wear grey, brown, or dull green only, in accordance with the wishes of their Master or Mistress.

No woman of any class shall wear red. A woman who wears red has been branded a sinner and shall be shunned.

A woman may only read approved works that enhance her knowledge of scripture and nourish her soul. Other approved texts pertain to household management and works for the teaching of household skills and childrearing. Any woman found to be reading banned books shall lose an eye. A second offense and she shall be blinded.

Attendance at church and services is mandatory with permission to be absent being granted by the council only. Only women in the final month of pregnancy may be absent, and worship in their home. One month after giving birth, a wife is expected to be once again in church, at her husband’s side. Unauthorised absences shall be punished by a whipping. Repeat offenders shall be branded heretics and banished.

An upper Lady may correct her servants as she sees fit, with the agreement of her husband as Master of the House. It shall be no crime to punish or execute a servant for a grievous sin. Such matters may be dealt with at home or turned over for the council for public salvaging of the soul where the sinner shall be executed or punished as the law demands. A list of crimes, sins and punishments is listed below.

Spoiler: Crime and Punishment 

The Book of Law

Heresy is the worst sin and crime that can be committed. The penalty shall be death; heretics of both genders to be burned alive before witnesses. Should the heretic have infected his or her family with this sin, the family is to fall from grace…The children shall be removed and adopted if they be under twelve years of age, the women to be assigned service to worthy families and the men to be sent to the mines.

Treason (including ‘petty’ treason against one’s Master or Mistress) is a sin against God as well as the natural order. Those below serve those above, it is the prescribed way. To go against the order of things is a grievous sin. Traitors are to be torn apart by wolves before witnesses.

Murder (of a superior) is petty treason and subject to the same punishment as above.

Murder (of a lower without good cause or being the Master or Mistress of said lower) is punishable by a fine. If this cannot be paid, a family member must make good the loss of said servant by providing a replacement.

Murder (of an equal in standing) is against God’s orders and is punishable by hanging for men and drowning for women.

Murder (of a child under the age of twelve years) is a grievous sin and crime for which there can be no forgiveness. It is punishable by being boiled alive before witnesses. Executions shall be drawn out to last over an hour to ensure maximum pain.

Theft is punishable via the lost of the left hand. A second offence by the loss of the right hand. A third offence is punishable by death by hanging.

Reading Banned Books (women only) is punishable by the loss of one eye for the first offence and then being blinded for a second offence.

Rape (of an upper woman by a lower man only) is punishable by stoning carried out by the women of the victim’s family.

• A lower-class woman cannot be raped by anyone. She has encouraged such if it occurs and shall be branded a sinner.

Blasphemy is a sin and a crime against God and His Majesty and criminals shall lose their tongues for their crime before being sentenced to hard labour.

Adultery (for women of all classes and lower class men with upper class women) is a sin against nature and society and shall not be tolerated. An adulterous woman shall be chained to her fellow sinner if he be a lower class man and both shall be drowned together.

Spoiler: Side Characters for Use By Either of Us 

Mary = A Maid

Mrs Lyle = Housekeeper

Josephine: A Maid

Edward, Marquess

Duke of Norfolk/Duchess of Norfolk

Albert, King of Prussia (48)

Princess Irene of Prussia (19)

Princess Elisabeth of Prussia (17)

Beatrix (newborn) daughter of Arabella and the late Duke of Suffolk (real rather John)

General Dobson (70s), an old General, possible ally to Arthur and Alex.

Thomas, Duke of Kent (20s), love interest of Alice

Duchess Adelaide of - (32) 3rd Lady of the Realm below Arabella and Alex, 'leader' of the Duchesses

Alexander, newborn son to Alexandra and Arthur, one of two twins.

Victoria, newborn daughter to Alexandra and Arthur, future Princess Royal, one of two twins.

[DuchessLivilla]

Below Stairs;

Mercy Little (16), blonde hair, blue eyed. Ex-foundling girl, now maid to her Majesty Queen Arabella.

[Hannelorian]

Additional mentions -

Harlow, 28 - a member of the Royal guards, bares a scar on his left cheek, personal guard of HM the Queen, Arabella. Loyal to King Christian.

Graves, 28 - a member of the Royal guards, personal guard of HM the Queen, Arabella. Loyal to Arabella.

Dr. Thomas, 58 (not to be confused with the Duke) - royal physician whose wife was murdered at the hands at King Christian, ally of Alexandra and Arabella, assisted in falsifying the death of Beatrix, Arabella's daughter.

[DuchessLivilla]

Dowager Duchess of Montrose (51) - Long-time Widow, loves gossip.
Mr Michael Morozov (47) - Alexandra's Russian tutor
Lord Henry North (31) - Member of House of Lords, Secret Traitor to the King.

[Hannelorian]

Elizabeth "Kitty" - mid 40s, Duchess of Cornwall