Beatrix was a 6th generation Toreador who was known to be the Prince of Foix and later became Prince of France after the reign of Geoffrey and Salianna.
Description[]
Her appearance evokes Athena — beautiful, wise and martial.
Biography[]
Beatrix was the Prince of Foix during the Middle Ages. She eventually became the Prince of France.
The Prince of Foix was a long-time ally of Esclarmonde the Black. A fine politician, she supported Esclarmonde to become queen of Toulouse, by serving as a lightning rod to attract the wrath of Salianna. When the Toreador queen had to flee Toulouse during the Albigensian Crusades, it was in Foix that she took refuge.
Lozois and la fraternité de la montagne noire (the Brotherhood of the Black Mountain), an important coterie which gave hard blows to the invaders of the Great Court in the county of Toulouse, fell under the influence of Beatrix. This forced him to face the facts: Esclarmonde, his grandsire, had become an obstacle, she only had her interests at heart and the beautiful culture of the Occitan country would disappear. But Beatrix could put everything back in order, Lozois just has to make the right decision.
Éon de l'Etoile, seeing that the Ventrue-Toreador alliance of the Great Court is on the verge of collapse, maintained an abundant correspondence with Beatrix, Esclarmonde's position becoming more and more precarious despite of the fierce resistance she shown, the prince of Beziers, and leader of the crusade, found in Beatrix an ally of choice and a future queen of Toulouse who will know how to be generous with those who supported her.
While Esclarmonde catalyzes attention and desire, Beatrix patiently forged friendly relations with the whole Languedoc, and with the fin amor, up to three kindred of Toulouse simultaneously claim the status of lovers of the Prince of Foix.
Ultimately Beatrix was convinced that the reign of the Toreador matriarch was coming to an end, weakened by her alliance with the young Geoffrey.
The alliance between Salianna and the methuselah Mithras became stormy, following the losses of Plantagenets lands in France, especially in Normandy and Guyenne.
At the same time, Geoffrey got closer to Julia Antasia and the Prometheans, as Salianna was allied with Lord Hardestadt and the fiefdoms of the Black Cross, increasing the tension between the two.
During the same period, Jehanne, a former spy of Salianna in the south of France, was charged by the Grand Court with monitoring the Inquisition. Fearing for her unlife, she put herself under Beatrix's protection and shared with her some secrets of Salianna, which would be very useful to her in the near future.
Further north, Charles de Poitiers was at the origin of the rumors about Etienne de Poitou, Queen of the Court of Love of Poitou being secretly allied with Mithras, against the interest of Salianna. Charles was also in contact with Beatrix in order to oppose the projects of the king of Poitou. Of course Charles de Poitiers was not aware of the danger posed by the Prince of Foix, whose ambition and long-term views far surpassed those of Etienne de Poitou.
In 1244, the Countess Jeanne de Flandres was embraced by Salianna and quickly became Queen of Flanders, leading to significant tensions with the Flemish Ventrues, increasing the tension between Salianna and Geoffrey.
Following the fall of Montségur in 1244, Guillaume and his Centurie des Epines went to Toulouse to try to drive Esclarmonde out. To convince the undecided, he argues that, in the new world where an out-of-control Inquisition is rife, the flaming queen represents a danger to the Silence of the Blood, and therefore to all kindred in the city.
For Beatrix, it was time to set in motion the first part of her plan: she joined her forces with the Centurie des Epines, to overthrow her “friend" Esclarmonde and take her place, a logical development to get closer and gain the trust of her real target — Salianna.
The Toreador-Brujah alliance in Flanders would lead to the fall of the kindred of Bruges, Ventrue allies of the Grand Court, in 1302, marking the beginning of the more tense relations between Salianna and Geoffrey. The latter will accuse her of having manipulated him to prepare for the arrival of her last infant, Jeanne de Flandres, whom she observes since the latter, still a child, had come to educate in Paris in 1208.
In barely a century and a half, Beatrix became Queen of Toulouse, then Queen of France. By overthrowing first Salianna, then Geoffrey, she arrogates to herself the cumulative powers of the old Courts of Love and of a decaying Grand Court, too busy fleeing the fires of the Inquisition. While the beginnings of the Anarch Revolt made the Elders tremble, no one dared openly to oppose her, fearing the loss of a powerful ally in the fight against these neonates, thirsty for the blood of their elders and hungry for independence.
Trivia[]
- Beatrix was originally a creation in the unofficial supplement ‘’World of Darkness: France’’, published by Ludis International in 1997.
References[]
- DAV: France by Night, p. 30 , 82, 91 , 118 , 131-132
- DAV: L'Hérésie Cathare, p. 71 , 77, 102