Virginia Delacroix

Virginia Delacroix

Full Name: Virginia Eléonore Delacroix

Physical Description

Gender: Female

Species: Human

Race: Cibolan

Hair Color and Style: Dark Brown

Eye Color: Green

Skin Color: White

Biographical Information

Father: Alphonse Donatien Delacroix

Mother: Justine Thérèse de Bertole

Date of Birth: 22.I.1616

Place of Birth: Musica

Date of Death:

Place of Death:

Current Residence(s): Suite 1047, Palace of the Magisters, Northshire, Shirekeep

Nationality at Birth: Shirerithian (Musican)

Current Allegiance(s): Imperial Government (OBF)

Occupation: Chief Clerk of the Office of Bounties and Factorage

Senior Imperial Servant at the Office of Bounties and Factorage. Notable for reform of Imperial textile factories and for the introduction of stonewear fabrics for garments issued to loyal subjects and community servants.

Early life

Virginia's ancestors had long lived in the shadow of northern Cibola's Mount Accad before her father Alphonse, prompted by unfortunate domestic circumstances especially and particularly by the need to escape an abusive relationship with his own father, made the unusual decision to run away to sea and joined the Saint Andre Trading Company in the year 1609. After six years indifferent service on a livestock transport making the Taroof to Musica run, Alphonse was obliged to jump ship after being discovered in a compromising position with the boat's cabin boy, who was customarily considered off-limits to deckhands. Having put ashore under dubious circumstances, Alphonese - as an unregistered migrant - settled for working on a fishing boat plying the coastal waters between Musica and Kelbia. A foreigner in a very foreign land, Alphonse soon gravitated to the taverns and bistros frequented by Musica's small Alexandrian community, where he first met the daughter of Monsieur de Bertole.

Distracted from his usual proclivities by the demure charms of the jeune fille Justine Thérèse, Alphonse was obliged to give up the life of a confirmed bachelor when he discovered that he had swiftly and unexpectedly succeded in siring a whelp upon the young girl. The obligations of a Cibolan Nazarene marriage were hurriedly solemnised in time for Virginia's birth in the first month of 1616. This birth was followed two years later by that of a sister, Lulu.

On 17.X.1618 the Diregency of Musica, hitherto a part of the Duchy of Yardistan, was invaded and occupied by the revenant forces of the Lich-Queens. Although the constitutions of the human communities and comital governments were ostensibly maintained, the dominion of the undead over the living soon became absolute.

Not long after his wife's 20th birthday, when Virginia was seven years old, Alphonse perished unexpectedly in the city's annual fire. The scant records of the era, human governance having fallen by the wayside as the power of Lichdom expanded inexorably over what was once Brookshire, suggest that there were allegations that the young girl's father had become wayward in his habits - frequenting less reputable drinking establishments and pursuing lewd and unseemly pastimes. In any event, Justine, a strong-willed woman by all accounts, was soon remarried and Virginia's education became the responsibility of her step-father Roimar Gullen, a Lunatic-Aryezi half-caste burdened with the affliction of being an accountant by profession.

In 1626, when Virginia was ten years old, Mr Gullen, along with wife and daughter, relocated to Shirekeep, to take up a position in the Imperial Court maintained at Raynor's Keep by the safir Kaiser Daniel III, who had an urgent need for auditors as he sought to trace a significant quantity of state gold which had disappeared - purportedly to fund off the book operations conducted by S.W.O.R.D. but quite possibly purloined to serve as the foundation of the quite fantastical wealth enjoyed by the Verion family. The money was never recovered but Mr Gullen continued in his sinecure, and Virginia benefited from the superior education afforded to children on the periphery of the Imperial Household.

Virginia, benefiting from court connections, secured a place on the Bachelor of Accountancy course at Metzler University commencing in 1634. In the following year her second term of studies were interrupted by the brief but calamitous River War, when the Imperialist faction at court precipitously and unsuccessfully made their first attempt to oust the Vanic monarchy from Eliria. The attempt rebounded spectacularly and Shirekeep found itself under siege by Elwynnese forces. It was in the final weeks of the siege, with studies more or less halted, that Virginia found herself more or less conscripted into the Imperial Volunteer Forces vain attempt to hold the outer suburbs against the Union Defence Force and Longships Guard. Issued with a bundle of stick grenades and instructed to jam them into the tread of the first Elwynnese armoured vehicle to pass her dugout, Virginia took the path of discretion and surrendered to a reconnaissance patrol of the Vanic Temple Guard at the earliest opportunity. She subsequently discovered, to her discomfort, that the Froyalanish volunteers of the Skjaldmærēored were very enthusiastic about debriefing their prettier captives. She endured a fortnight of their attentions before being reunited with her step-father after the entrance of the victorious Storjarl Hallbjörn into Shirekeep on 20.X.1635.

Permitted by the provisions of a general amnesty to resume her studies, Virginia - whilst enjoying the full measure of undergraduate life - successfully applied herself to her studies, and, benefiting from her step-father's generous stipends, employed four lower class researchers and essay writers as part of a comprehensive campaign to polish off her course modules and attain all necessary accreditations at a steady and plausible rate.

Imperial Service career

Imperial Service, employment in the various branches of the Imperial Government, was notorious for the venality, corruption, and patronage which served as its organising principles. Nonetheless, by the late 1630's the Imperial Republic was beginning to show the first tentative signs of recovery from the loss of Kildare and the aggressive federalisation of the state. Rearmament for the Sxiro-Jingdaoese Confrontation drove expenditure, and expenditure drove the pursuit of revenues through taxation and borrowing, which in turn drove an exponential growth in the administrative bureaucracy.

Nonetheless, while graft and patronage could never be permitted to disappear from the emergent neofeudal state, for individuals of ambition, ability, and connections, the Imperial Service offered opportunities for advancement and experience throughout eastern and central Benacia.

Career timeline

1. BA Accountancy and Business Studies, Metzler University (1634–1638)
   1. Grenadier, Shirekeep Garrison, Imperial Volunteer Forces (1635)
   2. Skjaldmær companion, Vanic Temple Guard (1635)
2. Imperial Service "fast-track" placement scheme (13.VI.1638–12.VI.1642)
   1. Accounts Officer, Office of Information (13.VI.1638–12.VI.1639)
   2. Audits & Compliance Officer, Assize of Angularis (13.VI.1639–12.VI.1640)
   3. Capital Controls Team-Coordinator, Department for Exiting-SCUE (13.VI.1640–12.VI.1641)
   4. Expenses Claims Evaluator, Landsraad, (13.VI.1641–12.VI.1642)
3. Appointed Magistra of the linen vesture, overseeing the implementation of regulations in the state textiles industry. (10.III.1643)
4. Appointed Chief Clerk, chief adviser to the comes sacrarum largitionum. (08.XI.1657)