Princess Lenore is a Seelie Sidhe Childling and member of House Dougal.
Overview[]
High King David has an heir. When Queen Andalura was assassinated in 1985 CE, David took her then-infant daughter, the Princess Lenore, as his ward and heir-apparent. The move has further cemented the traditionally strong ties between Houses Dougal and Gwydion. The Princess Lenore is tutored by David's chamberlain, Baron Edgewick. Lenore is a typical sidhe childling. She is intelligent, full of life and somewhat spoiled. She spends most of her time in the palace of Tara-Nar in the Kingdom of Apples.
Under the tutelage of David and Edgewick, Lenore has grown into a beautiful young sidhe. It is to David's credit that he did not try to convert her to his house, although she seems to have the blessings of both in many respects. Since taking Dougal's Oath, she had gone deaf in her right ear. (A testament of the Dreaming's poetic license. It is the same ear in which an Unseelie arrow impaled her mother.)
Although quite young in mortal years, Lenore's Torgail Ainn approaches and it is time for her to prepare her apprentice exemplar to celebrate her change from apprentice to journeyman. She has taken to weaving with a skill unseen on Earth since the Shattering. Her skill has led High Lord Donovan to give her use of several Dougal journeymen to build a large loom for her exemplar.
War in Concordia[]
Princess Lenore. Art by Steve Ellis
Since her appointment as David's heir, Lenore has come to symbolize not only the hopes of House Dougal but also of the close relationship between her house and House Gwydion. In the War in Concordia storyline, she has recently passed her Torgail Ainn celebration and officially entered her Wilder years. To many, this change marks her "majority" and means that she has earned the right to rule without a regent to act in her stead.
She, though, has mixed feeling about her role in Concordian politics. The orderly, sheltered life she has led in Tara-Nar, under the watchful eyes of her tutors, has come to a disordered and abrupt end. Her beloved guardian, David Ardry, has disappeared. His sister Morwen, who Lenore had come to know and respect as a mother, now draws away from her and treats her with coolness and suspicion. Only Queen Mab seems to genuinely want what is best for the young heir to the throne. Because of the pressures at Tara-Nar and the growing tension between Lenore and Morwen, Mab intervened on Lenore's behalf and offered her a home with her in Caer Palisades.
She now finds herself in another double bind. Many courtiers from Tara-Nar followed Lenore to her new home-away-from-home, hoping to gain the good graces of the "next High Queen." These supporters of Lenore, many of them knights thought to belong to the Red Branch, form a protective contingent around the Dougal Princess. Queen Mab, though, also has a group of nobles who believe that she should rule Concordia or act as Regent for Lenore. Quarrels between the rival factions have grown more frequent, and the princess often finds herself forced to assert her authority to avert open hostilities.
She has almost reached a decision to leave Queen Mab's protection and strike out on her own.
Appearance[]
Definitely a wilder, Lenore exhibits a strange, pale beauty that takes familiarity to appreciate fully. her Dougal flaw exhibits itself in her lack of hearing in one ear. She has learned to compensate for her partial deafness through lip reading, although she has also developed the habit of cocking her head toward anyone who speaks to her for any length of time. Of late, since her emergence as a contender for the throne, she has taken to focusing more attention on her appearance, prompted, no doubt, by her current guardian.
Personality[]
Lenore knew that one day she would inherit the throne of Concordia. She has prepared all her life, or at least since David named her his heir, for the time when she would rule. She did not expect that time to come so soon.
She misses David. She was beginning to get to know his wife Faerilyth, but she cannot exactly say that she misses her; she did not get the chance to know her well enough to form an attachment to her. She wishes that Morwen did not turn away from her. Most of all, she wants the old days to return and the fighting to stop. Queen Mab has taken her away from her home to keep her safe from harm, but Lenore does not think that she can be safe anywhere so long as there are so many rivals to the throne. She needs to do something soon, but she does not know what that something is. Sometimes it all seems so hopelessly muddled she just feels like riding the carousel in Caer Palisades around and around, waiting for the golden ring to appear. She hopes the Dreaming will send her some sign that will give her a clue as to what her next move should be.
References[]
- CTD: Nobles: The Shining Host, p. 96
- CTD: Noblesse Oblige: The Book of Houses, p. 29
- CTD: War in Concordia: The Shattered Dream, p. 103