Claude Élisabeth of Savoy
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Princess Claude Élisabeth (13th of Horen’s Calling, 1818 - Present) is a member of the Council of State of the Holy Orenian Empire under Emperor Philip III as the incumbent Director of Civil Affairs.
She was known as the second of the trio of Orenian Socialites that made up the ‘Madames de Savoie’, Savoyard Princesses as daughters of Prince Olivier I, restorer of Savoy in Almaris. They were raised in Orenian society within the Augustine Palace, boarded there in their youth during the reign of John VIII because of the rat infestation of their birthplace in Luciensburg. A multitude of issues caused a rift between the Madames and their father only somewhat amended by their father's hand in the Aster Revolution that helped Emperor Philip III onto the imperial throne. Claude currently serves beside her father in the Council of State although the two are rarely seen in close proximity if ever.
She was also Viscountess of Provins from 1838-1844 by proxy of marriage to Lord Philip Pruvia. After her husband's ordainment as a priest, she acted as an advisor to her young daughter and went by 'Lady Provins' or 'Lady Pruvia' unofficially.
Contents
Early life & adolescence
Claude was born on the the 13th of Horen’s Calling, 1818, as the second child of Olivier Renault de Savoie and Adeline Lorena Helvets during Olivier's tenure as Consul of Luciensburg. She was delivered in the Arx Rubra Palace near 2 years before it became infested with an army of hostile rat men that forced her father to process her, age 4, and her elder sister Laurène to the court of Oren, where they were placed under the care of the Countess Renzfeld. Their procession was attended by the Future Governess of the Augustine, Lady Mary Casimira, whom Claude grasped onto, calling her 'Madame Marie'. Mary would become of the two prominent women who'd be a mother figure to the de Savoie girls for the rest of their lives, the other being Maisie Adelheid d'Arkent.
As a foreigner, Claude possessed a thick auvergnat accent which fearsome courtiers ridiculed. Claude, being intensely timid in her youth, was therefore frightened by the court and buried herself within the comforts of her apartment, reading the books that littered their bookshelves to entertain herself and priming her for a love of literature. However, Laurène would notice this behaviour and forcibly wrench the girl into parties and events, where she befriended Matyas Jahan Basrid (later Count of Susa), Princess Amelia Novellen, and her greatest friend, Anastasia Ruthern (later Duchess of Furnestock). Via parties, she'd exchange her shyness for energy and charisma. This newfound confidence allowed her and her sisters to openly adorn the fashions of their homeland, inspiring the transition of the Augustine court into the Nouveau-Savoie fashions [1](1820-present) for which the 'Madames de Savoie' are now known.
A few years after their immigration, Luciensburg crumbled to finality and the rest of the de Savoies joined Claude and Laurène in Oren. The appearance of sister Eugénie completed the trio of madames. Due to their return, Claude was made to double down on canonical values as per her Savoyard paternity, and constant prayer for the cleansing of her mother's illness heavily reinforced them. Lady Mary wrote of the young girl as holding 'frightening zealotry and strong vindictions about the state of humanity, but a strange reverence for her own gender'. Lady Maisie stated that she was "in loving concordance with her returned family, seeing them as the light of her life and GOD the progenitor of it, natural for a child of her age."
Petite Potins & The Rosemoor Convention
As the Social Season of 1827 rolled nearer, Claude befriended another girl, Alina Basrid, contemporarily known as the Baroness of Carrington as wife to Baron Wilhelm. The two girls were equally avid readers, who in their joint efforts encountered the writings of Princess Elizabeth Anne Novellen, and were enamored by the fervor of her recount of events. Taking it upon themselves to emulate Elizabeth in becoming the writers of a new gossip column manifest entirely by the children of Oren, they created the instantly famous Petite Potins Column [2], it becoming a controversial yet eagerly awaited part of the social season for years to come. In her later teen years, Claude abandoned her love for the Potins after growing out of love with the fanaticism of the season, calling it a 'display of pomp frivolously exuded by those who have lost the humility of the Canon'.
The first Potins paper had an additional effect on Oren within its second article: Princess Elizabeth Anne approached the youths inviting them to publish a section about her 'Rosemoor Bill', a historical bill proposing the enfranchisement of women across the empire, allowing female nobles to inherit on the same grounds as males. Claude boldly stated to the princess that "I'll do you one better," thus beginning the Rosemoor Convention as a movement towards equal succession in the Empire, Claude's blue flower bracelet becoming the symbol of the movement as a whole. The movement was met with severe scrutiny across all fronts, but the women protested with equal severity and intense devotion, Claude writing her own piece in support as one of her first writings independent of the Potins: [3]. However, things took a turn when Princess Elizabeth brought the bill to the House of Lords and was censured by the other grandees on the grounds of unapproved publicizing of a Diet bill, one such grandee being her brother, Philip, the heir to the Empire. So stricken with grief was Elizabeth Anne that she died the year of, leaving the ladies enraged and frustrated. They answered to the censure with an accusatory letter against Philip [4], which would prompt him to pass the Elizabethan Rosemoor Bill in 1836, a few years following his ascension [5].
Blood sports & equestrianism
Olivier and a majority of the de Savoie family left Oren for Sutica around the same time as the Rosemoor Bill was gaining leeway, but the Madames de Savoie stayed in the courts, protesting that it was the only home they'd ever known. However, the dramatics of an active court become too much for the irritable adolescent Claude, who began to fiercely judge everyone around her as lacking the morality and piety that she herself exhibited. On the advice of her best friend Anastasia, an equally pious girl, she decided to leave the capital for 2 years to search for religious clarity in the forests of Dobrov. Living a life of reclusivity within a pine shack, she was taught by a religious hermit to hunt for sustenance and furs, becoming especially fond of fur collection and organic craftsmanship. Her writings of the time detailed her belief that her experience tied her to the natural way of life, the one that GOD always intended for society, and the one that she'd promote in her tenure as regent of Provins, promoting naturism as one of the tenets of Provinois culture. Thus, she became fond of all activities tied to hunting and nature, developing an obsession with weapons collecting and tracking that persisted for the remainder of her life, augmenting her distate for the Augustine Palace despite an admiration for the women that ran it.
Marriage
Betrothal
To keep up with Orenian activities in Dobrov, Claude read the Providence post regularly, which fostered her interest for journalism. She also began to exchange letters with Philip Pruvia- an older boy who had contracted her to tutor him in french, mostly as a jest of chilhood -as she felt more comfortable in her common writing skills. They formed an untenable bond in her absence. When her godfather, Simon, noticed this, he arranged a betrothal between her and Philip with her father. News of this implored her to move back to Providence, where her sisters and herself purchased their own home by each acquiring jobs, which the nobility judged fiercely, creating distance between them and the palace courtiers. This was the final straw for her, and Claude decided to leave the court for good.
Debut and Wedding during the Social Season of 1835
Sometime around the start of the Social Season, Claude's father was elevated as the ‘Duke of Corazon’ under Johanna I, Queen of Sutica. Because of their estrangement, the girls did not attempt to be diplomatic with him.
Claude’s acquired moral prerogatives developed a hatred towards the Social season and its associated social activities, including gossip like her writings in the Petite Potins. She would declare her sentiments audibly for the next several seasons, urging the children that now led the Potins to "seek GOD’s truth." She also also lamented having to participate in the season beside her sisters. On the signup of the Season, her name was written in Laurène's handwriting. In protest, she entered the season’s first debut lesson adorned in leaves and blood residual of a hunt she’d just partaken of, leading Mary Casimira, now the Governor of the Palace, to dissent her. For the debut itself, she appeared in a white debut dress layered with black over it, in what she described was an allegory for the social season: "the death of godly womanhood, darkened by the stain of ‘romantic affection’ as opposed to seeking amicable life partnerships via betrothal".
Claude chose her wedding date to be the first event of the season, so that she would not have to be privy to flirtation and dances with men who were not her future husband. She invited her father to Oren for her wedding, the first time she’d seen him in various years. As Duke of Corazon, he brought his entourage to attend his daughter's wedding. Here, it is revealed that he had conceived 2 other children in Sutica: Leufroy and Athenais. Claude was outraged at her father’s neglect to reveal that she had other siblings, and her sister, Eugenie, shared the same emotion but in the form of verbal hostilities, causing her to retire to their city apartment early, Olivier in tow. With hindsight, it is now known that Olivier sent 2-3 men of Corazon to murder his daughter in cold blood, something he would admit to later. Eugenie was traumatized by the event, and Claude lost any and all affection held for her father or for any of the siblings that would remain at his side after the ordeal, ceasing all communication with them for a significant number of years. When their eldest brother came to attend Eugenie’s wedding following their father’s coronation as Prince of Savoy, Claude berated him for flashing his Savoyard armor in her face and threatened to draw her crossbow upon him if he did not remove it. Her family's unity would come to a grinding halt in light of these events.
Viscountess of Provins; 1838-1844
UNFINISHED: Explain how they came to inherit: Anne exposes Simon as Azdrazi, Simon is denounced, Philip inherits, Claude and Philip burn down the estate to cleanse it of the heretical Azdrazi air.
Government of Oren; 1836-Present
claude joined civ affairs as providence post writer, later became deputy.
The Aster Revolution
elevated to director.joins philip iii and anastasia in their conquest of the throne when they return.
The Urguani-Orenian War
Issue
| Name | Birth | Death | Marriage | |
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| Amadie Marléne Élisabeth | 14th of Godfrey’s Triumph, 1836 | Alive | Unmarried | Firstborn child of Philip and Claude. 4th Viscountess Provins. |
| Anastasie Thérèse Caroline | 11th of Horen's Calling 1838 | Alive | Unmarried | Secondborn child of Philip and Claude. |
| Sophie Clémentine Isidore | 5th of Horen's Calling, 1841 | Alive | Unmarried | Thirdborn child of Philip and Claude. |
| Guillaume Philippe Michel | 12th of Owyn's Flame, 1843 | Alive | Unmarried | Fourthbornborn child of Philip and Claude. |
| Valentin Eudes Théodore | 2nd of Sun's Smile, 1845 | Alive | Unmarried | Fifthborn child of Philip and Claude.
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