Genevieve Montclair (WoD)

SchreckNet Data File

• Real/Birth Name: Comtesse Jeanne de La Motte-Valois de Saint-Remy
  
• Known Identity/Mortal Alias: Genevieve Montclair
  
• Place of Origin: Fontette, Bar-sur-Aube, France
  
• Height: 5'6"
  
• Occupation: CEO, Montclair Corporation
  
• Apparent Age: Early-30s
  
• Embraced: 1756
  
• Kindred Status: Elder
  
• Sire: Maria
  
• Clan: Toreador
  
• Clan Status: Primogen
  
• Sect: Camarilla
  
• Sect Status: Primogen of Clan Toreador
  
• Player: NPC

Appearance

50%

Genevieve is naturally a striking classic French blue-eyed beauty, with dirty blonde hair, although she typically dyes in a different, more striking hue, favouring golden blonde but on occasion going brunette, redhead or black hair as she thinks best befits the occasion. There is no one typical way she keeps her hair styled, as this changes on an almost nightly basis (and at times, various times a night) to best suit whatever occasion is required. She has a classic figure and knows how to use it - always wearing high-fashion clothing that is both elegant, and maximises her appearance for the occasion. She is always fully accessorized and has perfectly-applied make up. Genevieve has various retainers and employees, but her personal assistant Marie,

Her smooth, naturally flawless figure and complexion is marred by a fleur-de-lis tattoo on her left shoulder. Whilst relatively small, simple and attractive, it is usually covered by whatever clothing she wears. On the occasion that is has been visible, the more perceptive people have noted the the tattoo appears to be strategically painted over scar tissue that appears to be likewise shaped like a fleur-de-lis. Few people know if there is any significance to this, and asking about it is a sure way to earn Genevieve's wrath; which few people are willing to do - and those that would, mostly already know anyhow.

Background

Genevieve rarely talks about her mortal days - or even much of her unlife - except with other Elders who have her respect; or if there is need for it. However anyone with internet access, and who knows or discovers Genevieve's mortal name (which is an open secret - Genevieve does not hide her past, she merely states that it was a past [mortal] life and has had no bearing on her existence since her embrace.

Genevieve was born Jeanne Valois to a poor descendent of the royal Valois blood, the third of six children (and one of only three to survive infancy). She and her sister Marie-Anne were neglected, went barefoot, tended the cows and often found it necessary to beg for food. They were rescued by the abbot of Langres, who took them to Boulogne near Paris where a priest and one of his rich parishioners, Madame de Boulainvilliers took care of them. Jeanne and Marie-Anne went to a boarding school in Passy. They were supposed to become nuns in the Longchamps monastery, but instead chose to go back to Bar-sur-Aube where they lived with the Surmont family. As she became a young woman, Jeanne noticed how drawn men were to her looks, and quickly learnt to use her feminine wiles to take advantage of naive and well-meaning nobles. On 6 June 1780 Jeanne married Mr Surmont's dim-witted nephew Marc-Antoine-Nicolas de la Motte, an officer of the gendarmes with a loose claim to the title of Comtess. At the time of her wedding Jeanne was heavily pregnant; only one month later (7 July) her newborn twins were baptised as Jean-Baptiste and Nicolas-Marc de la Motte, although both children lived only a few days. Jeanne never cared for Marc beyond his utility to her ends; and secretly was almost grateful of the death of her children as they served a means to an end and would have likely been an inconvenience to her plans, but Marc was all-too-easy to manipulate, and she used him for an elaborate scam involving Queen Marie Antoinette and Cardinal de Rohan that history would soon name The Affair of the Diamond Necklace. The plan worked and made herself and her husband rich, but she had expected the monarchy would quietly cover the incident, and failed to anticipate the scandal and public uproar it caused. Jeanne's involvement came to light when the Cardinal was arrested, with herself and other co-conspirators arrested soon soon thereafter. In a very public trial that had the opposite effect that the monarchy desired of defending their honour, and made the public see the Queen as the guilty party, Jeanne expertly played the part of being an unwilling participant, and gathered public symathy, although she and her conspirators were found guilty. She was publicly whipped, branded with a fleur-de-lis on her left shoulder, and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Salpêtrière. Of her siblings, Jacques died on military duty on Saint-Louis Island, and Marie-Anne went back to religious life; none of the three Sant-Rémy children had living descendants.

A long, slow, ignoble living death at the Salpêtrière would have been her ignomous fate, had her ruthless manipulation, good looks and hedonism not caught the attention of the Toreador elder named Maria, a hedonist of Spanish origin who was in Paris with her progeny, Anabelle Triabelle, and had observed the whole affair with interest and amusement. Maria arranged for her escape from prison (disguised as a boy), then took her two progeny to England with her. In 1791 she faked her death due to injuries from falling out a hotel room window. In recognition of her new unlife, she renamed herself Genevieve, and spent decades learning much from her sire and the London Toreadors (and their conflicts with the Ventrue. In time, she followed her sire to America, and for a time resided in Chicago with Maria and Anabelle.

Genevieve was content awhile, but wanted to make her own fortunes and sought new opportunities. She found it when she met the Ventrue Kratus, with who she formed an alliance that would serve them both and make them close allies until the modern nights. Together they took the tiny town of Bakersfield from the Sabbat. Although only a small town, Kratus believed that the oil fields, if controlled, would grant power not just in the town, but throughout the region. Genevieve used her contacts to cause the water supply system to fall into disrepair, and set up sleeper agents. When the time was right, she used her pawns to begin a fire that quickly began to spread. When the fire response teams came, the sabotaged water pressure system was incapable of providing the needed pressure to put out the fires, which eventually burnt most of the town's buildings. The conflagration burnt many Sabbat as they slept, and Kratus and Genevieve led loyal allies and their ghouls to eliminate those few that escaped the fires. A few Sabbat that had turned traitor and aided their takeover were granted new identities and amnesty. Together, now-Prince Kratus and Genevieve as his Seneschal (and Toreador Primogen) soon re-incorporated the town as Ashford and encouraged the city's growth, developing it into a respected Cultural and Financial centre and one of the fastest-growing cities in America. Their combines power and fortunes were absolute and immense, but the Prince's recent death in the Sabbat Crusade has ended this lucrative arrangement and opened a new chapter in Genevieve's unlife.

Mortal Society

Genevieve is renown as the socialite owner of the Montclair Corporation a powerful conglomerate company that has subsidiary companies in the entertainment industry (Montclair Media recording company, and various tv stations and entertainment venues), hoteliering (the Montclair Group of Hotels), legal services (Montclair Legal LLC), real-estate development and brokerage (Montclair Realty) and public works (Montclair Water Co controls the collection and distribution of the water supply for domestic, agricultural and fire service use, on behalf of the Kern County water agency), as well as many other affiliates and smaller companies that she has absorbed into her business empire when they have been of interest.

The Montclair Corporation is currently the most powerful company group in Ashford, having recently usurped the Kratus group of companies after the board of directors and major shareholders recently disappeared or were murdered, including CEO Kratus himself who was killed in the infamous Opera House Massacre. In the corporate unrest that followed, Genevieve risked much with the Ashford stock index plummet and bought over several of the Kratus group companies; several being hostile takeovers.

In addition to her renown business acumen, Genevieve is known as a staunch humanitarian who sponsors many local charities and organisations, and especially as a patron of the arts, and her name is renown - although only those in high society, or political or business big-shots actually know her face; as she rarely deals with the little people directly.

Personality

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Genevieve has a powerful and ambitious personality, with the willpower to match. In her mortal days she was ambitious and was willing to break social, political and legal conventions to raise her status, and use or abuse anyone she could that would facilitate her rise. Unlife has only enhanced that, and time and experience have given her the experience to be a master intrigue player. She is at the top of the food chain of her Clan, and she knows it, and acts accordingly. She believes she deserves her position and the praise and respect that should be accorded it. In turn, she respects those who acknowledge her superiority over them. Genevieve is cunning and patient, and plays the long game; willing to take a few defeats to learn about her opponents and predicaments, before moving in for the kill. Even when she is defeated by another, she endeavours to bite down her anger and handle the situation with grace, learn from the experience, and beginning planning the next battle.

Whilst it is obvious that Genevieve puts herself ahead of everyone and everything, including her own clan - although she will state that what is good for her, as Primogen, is also good for the clan - and has a reputation for deception and ruthlessness, she has proven that she is capable of being a staunch long-term ally; at least as long as the alliance is beneficial to her, and has only been known to break alliances at mutual agreement, or when the long-term benefits of breaking the agreement outweighs the immediate circumstances. As the owner and CEO of possibly the most powerful corporate group in Kern County, Genevieve has proven to be as proficient with corporate intrigue as she is with social and political intrigue.

As can be expected from a Toreador with aristocratic background, Genevieve loves the finer things in life and is a renown hedonist. She always wears the most expensive designer clothing and accessories, lives in an opulent mansion, and has a veritable legion of retainers that serve to please her. She is renown for being vainglorious, and only surrounds herself with beautiful people, which she favours.

Despite her sometimes-undeserved reputation for vanity and callousness, when Genevieve is at Elysium, or if it is in her benefit to do so, when Genevieve puts on the charm she is so effortlessly charismatic and endearing that people turn to putty in her hands; and even the most obstinate hater has trouble trying to tell if she's faking politeness or genuinely pleasant. Even when insulting others, Genevieve is eloquent, charming and usually witty. It is only when she is angered, or dealing with those who are unattractive that she can slip and become rude or hostile. It is rumoured that Genevieve has earned the enmity of the Nosferatu clan with her dismissive and insulting attitude and remarks about them.

Other Notes

In addition to all the direct power that Genevieve has via her business empire, which owns and controls large amounts of Ashford real estate, the water supply and most of the most successful and/or prestigious cultural and entertainment centres, Genevieve has many allies, contacts, ties and influence within the media, the judiciary and the political landscape of not just Ashford, but throughout the entire state of California, and beyond.

Combat Style

Genevieve abhors combat. She thinks it is beneath her, and combat is one of the few things that can end her reign. Therefore, she avoids it when possible, although if pressed usually keeps a Walther PPK pistol in her handbag. This said, there is rarely a need for her to draw it, as Genevieve almost never travels anywhere without her ghoul bodyguard, and in addition has a small, well-armed, defence team in charge of her personal security - in addition to the standard security all her holdings have. All members of this team are ex-military, most of them having served in both national forces and then undertaken mercenary work before being employed by Genevieve. There are rumours that this team of highly-efficient and quite ruthless security have undertaken illegal and dirty actions on Genevieve's behalf. But as there are rarely any bodies, or at least nothing traceable, left behind in their wake, this is pure conjecture and anyone who makes these claims out loud can expect to be visited by Genevieve's legal team.

If, somehow, Genevieve is removed from her security, she relies on her Walther PPK and Celerity to avoid damage, whilst attempting to bring her mind-and-emotion-controlling Disciplines to bear to her advantage.

Social Style

50%

Genevieve can be relied on in two ways:

1. She always looks out for her self-interests first, before that of even her clan or anyone else. Even when things seem altruistic, and benefit others (her clan or a charity, for example) more than her, she still gains SOMETHING. She plays the long game, and sometimes minor benefits may be worthwhile if the end gains may be worth it.
2. Her beauty is matched only by her vanity. Those who flatter and show humility and respect before her, especially if they are beautiful, will naturally curry favour with her. Genevieve is smart enough to understand her own favouritism, and is exceptionally good at telling when other people are just pretending respect, to play her, but the instinct is there nonetheless.

As such the best way to approach Genevieve is to be extremely humble and flattering to her, praising her and demeaning oneself before her; and offering her something that she can benefit from. Approaching her with a request for aid is likely to get laughed at, but a petition for aid with a promise of service, recompense, or prestation debt, given properly, may win out.

Those who are rude or dismissive to her (or anything less than impeccably polite) quickly earn her emnity. That is never a good thing to do unless you actually want to commit social and career suicide. Only the most powerful or untouchable kindred dare to risk her emnity; or Gangrels, who live in a world that Genevieve has no influence over.

Signature Equipment

• Ridiculously expensive outfit
• Walther PPK
• Bentley Mulsanne Extended Wheelbase (chauffer-driven)

Signature Quotes

• "I accept that perhaps saying that it was a shame the Nosferatu couldn't be gassed away like the cockroaches they are may have been a tad inappropriate... but you must understand dear that I was upset over a kine having the temerity to spill his blood on my dress when I fed! It was Haute couture! Besides, their drama-queen over-reactions were seriously out of proportion!"
• "Yes yes I get your point, this little project of yours will help many homeless. But what do I get out of it if? They have no money, can't afford to buy any of my houses, or even visit my clubs? I am sure even their blood would taste foul!"

Gallery

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