Gwendolyn Emerson

“We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not, or die of despair... death will sweep through all the worlds; it will be the triumph of despair, forever. The universes will all become nothing more than interlocking machines, blind and empty of thought, feeling, life...”
-Gwendolyn Emerson
== History ==
Gwendolyn Emerson was born in New Arendur. She never knew her father, and her mother, Virginia Emerson, was a socialite who lived beyond her means. Virginia Emerson maintained her lifestyle by entering into affairs with wealthy and powerful men, living on their generosity. She never intended to have children, and treated her daughter Gwendolyn with painful indifference. Deeply in debt, Virginia Emerson neglected her daughter, doing nothing more then to ensure that she was adequately fed, clothed, and educated. A lonely child, Gwendolyn had no friends or relatives. She spent much of her time in the Cathedral of the King, listening rapturously to the organ player, or to all different kinds of sermons. An intelligent girl ill-served by the public education system - for her mother paid no more than she had to - she read and re-read devotional material, memorizing vast sections of it. Her dream was to join the priesthood, but shortly before she reached the age of maturity, her mother passed away from an illness brought on by her alcoholism. Gwendolyn inherited all of her debt, and was unable to pay tuition for the seminary. In need of a job, she became a receptionist and then a secretary for in a low level dicastery. Her future prospects were grim. Though she was intelligent, her poor education meant that there was little room for advancement. In addition, her disreputable background and crippling debt made her a poor marriage prospect. Nonetheless, Gwendolyn Emerson, blessed with an abundance of beauty and charm; able to recite sections of scripture and sermons from heart, rose through the ranks of the dicastery through affairs and dalliances with various Deacons and Priests, living as her mother once had. All the while, she voraciously educated herself, reading whatever she could get her hands on and learning from whoever she could. She eventually became a fully-fledged Deacon, and was transferred to the Council of Dogma. There, she began an affair with the Prefect, Leo Calixte Desjardins, giving her access to the highest levels of power. It was enough that when Flavius Luteus Scaevola needed a loyal Dean for the newly founded the Department of Experimental Theology at St. Franz's College, he would chose Gwendolyn Emerson for that purpose.
== Personality ==
Charming and calm, Gwendolyn Emerson keeps her distance while telling interlocutors just enough to provoke the impression that there is something interesting about her. She has an excellent memory and a wide breadth of cursory knowledge, and can engage specialists in their areas of expertise. Under pressure she becomes brittle and cold, but never loses her composure. A devoted worshiper of the King in Yellow, she is a fiercely ambitious scholar thoroughly consumed by fear and alienation. Category:Church of Transcendental Theosophy
Category:St. Franz's College
Category:Wild Abyss
Category:Dead
Category:Lawful Evil