Lisaniettia is an Unseelie Sidhe Wilder of House Balor and ruler of the Duchy of the Delta Crescent in the Kingdom of Willows.
Overview[]
Born into a Cajun family in the bayous near New Orleans, Lisette Levay knew from childhood that she might someday undergo a change. Black Spiral Dancer Kinfolk, the Levays took note of Lisette's differences (time outs when she seemed to be somewhere else, her penchant for talking to people who weren't there) and assumed she'd be changing into a werewolf someday. instead, she underwent her Chrysalis during Carnival soon after puberty. A motley of changelings acting as one of the Carnival Krewes found her and helped her through the change.
Lisette discovered she was a sidhe, a noble faerie of House Balor named Lisaniettia. Knowing what a disappointment she'd be to her hopeful family as a mere "fairy," she decided to disappear. She took a job as a waitress in a small beer-and-oyster joint in the French Quarter and got an apartment with three other girls. On her days off she explored the French Quarter, then branched out to the rest of the city. She found few other changelings within the city limits. All the wrought iron in the city bothered their delicate fae natures. Finally meeting another member of House Balor, she discovered that her house had little difficulty with cold iron. She also heard about the Shadow Court... and thought it sounded really cool. Almost on a par with being a Black Spiral Dancer.
Lisette found life as a waitress all too boring, though, and decided she should meet some new people. Styling herself as a voodoo queen, she began performing fortune telling at a nearby bookshop, reading palms, cards, and tea leaves. After only a short time, she found it more lucrative giving readings than waiting tables and quit her first job. Further, she was able to tell from her clients which of them possessed the ability to feed Glamour to her through their creativity. Even more frightening, she started communing with the dead for real. Contacted by a group known as the Pilgrims of the Bright Road, Lisette learned about walking the Bright Road, hoping to cheat her death and reincarnate as a sidhe when the time came.
In the years that followed, she made contacts with various criminal groups in New Orleans, including the Setites. She also renewed her contact with her Black Spiral kinfolk and learned of her other kin, called Fomorians. Acting on their information, she discovered and claimed an abandoned freehold called Spirit Hall in the swamps of Barataria south of the city. Setting herself up as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, she invited the area's other changelings to come to her "court" and party. Utilizing the swamp's spooky atmosphere, Lisette tells fortunes atop the stump of an old, twisted cypress tree that marks the boundary of her freehold. Sometimes she even summons "haints."
After the other changelings acclaimed her ruler of the city, she followed the suggestion of her fellow Shadow Court members and appealed to Meilge to declare her ruler of the Duchy of the Delta Crescent. Utilizing her drug contacts through the Setites, Lisette began supplying Meilge's gangs in return for his patronage. On the advice of the Shadow Court, Lisette claimed to be of House Eiluned rather than House Balor. Meilge was delighted to accommodate her.
For now, she is content to consolidate her allies and learn what she can from the Shadow Court. Soon, though, she won't be happy ruling just the duchy. Meilge's job appeals to her; she's just not sure she wants to live in Atlanta...
For all her acquired urban sophistication, Lisette is a child of the bayou. She grew up surviving in the swamps, learning to hunt, fish, and run a skiff. She relies on her skills in fortune telling and bamboozling the people who come to her to read their future. She has mastered the Arts of Chicanery and Soothsay and is well-versed in the strange Art of Chronos. She's working on Sovereign, hoping that knowledge of the Art will prove helpful in her drive toward greater power. She has begun classes in martial arts and is a dead shot with a rifle.
Image[]
At 5'10" and almost 170 pounds, Lisette towers over most other women. She has short, curly brown hair and green eyes. When she does her fortune telling, she wears a long, black wig and colorful "voodoo queen" clothing. She disdains court attire, preferring comfortable jeans, tunics, and boots. As a member of House Balor, she has a deformity: a twisted knee that makes her limp.
Personal[]
Lisette revels in being Unseelie like a child enjoys the sensation of being "bad." Although she still enjoys partying and thumbing her nose at authority, she is beginning to appreciate power more. While it's nice to be "queen," she wishes she had more control over the Shadow Court. Sometimes she gets tired of following their "suggestions." Someday, she'll be powerful and popular enough to issue orders to them. After all, they taught her that House Balor should be in command; they ought to realize that sooner or later she'll be true to her house.
Treasures[]
Lisette doesn't own any treasures but has access to all the ingredients for making both Dreambane and Dreamshield. though she lacks the enormous wealth needed to make it in quantity, she could probably trade favors for just a little of the potent drug and its antidote.
War in Concordia[]
Lisette's drug connections among the Shadow Court provide the expertise in combining Glamour with a narcotic that makes the imbiber very suggestible. Called Dreambane, it is the drug Meilge gave to High King David. Lisette is unhappy that Riel gave the secret to Meilge. She had hoped to use it on the King of Willows to make him abdicate in her favor. She might be persuaded to tell what she knows in return for a promise to name her the new Queen of Willows.
Overview[]
- CTD. Kingdom of Willows, pp. 109-110.