Character Name: Captaine Sylvie Isabella โDianeโ de Antillac.
Character Role: Privateer Captain (for the French monarchy).
Age: 24.
Sexual Orientation: Sapphist.
Training/Skills: Commerce raiding, marksman, acting.
Weaponry: Cavalry saber, dual pistol, knife in boot, her fists.
Bio: The seventh child and fourth daughter of the
Marquis de Antillac, Diane was not destined for status or rank within the aristocracy of France, and disdaining the role of โhearth keeperโ for some drunkard
monsieur, was thus forced to find and earn her own fortunes upon other dangerous ventures, which her father approved in lieu of having to pay out a dowry should she ever get married. Her first choice was certainly not the captaincy of a naval vessel in the fledgling French navy but a scandal with the youngest, married, son of the Kingโs War Minister saw her wishes granted for a commission and therefore deployed to the most distant post, seemingly, away from Paris and in her mind, the center of world civilization. Though she deigned the naval posting to not be very lucrative, she does not hate the sea, and indeed grew up in sight and hearing of it at her family estates on the Atlantic coast of the French Kingdom.
The naval arm of the French Kingdom is not a sought out posting for anyone, being outclassed in every regard in such areas by their rivals across the Channel. Diane found herself surrounded by oarsman serving out life sentences, fishermen masquerading as deep sea sailors out of boredom, and other such rejects and exiles from all classes of French society, none of whom appreciated a woman at the helm. On her first day she had to slay two of them for overreaching, or attempting to do so. Born deeply into the philosophy of the
ancien regime, as one of noble birth and the highest upon her vessel, the
La Cygne Foncรฉ, she took it upon himself to organize and drill these misfits into a coherent fighting force once the severity of her ambitions was made real to them. Not to take on the invincible navy of her nationโs foes, but enough to do her required duty; that of interdicting and destroying the merchant shipping of their rivals, coming to and fro the new world to the old. Dealing with such lowclass individuals however has helped to break the intolerable hold of spoiled nobility in her mind and actions, allowing her to see and believe there exists a modicum of such in her fellow man, poor though their circumstances might be.
She is a privateer, and while she believes firmly in the notions of law and order, she believes this assignation, as sanction by the Kingโs war council, to be above such justice. Still, she strives not to kill indeterminately, pirate or innocent, and employs cunning to cover up her tracks, often changing the name of her ship and even flying the flags of rival nations. She is far from home, with little to no oversight, and therefore acts more of a private agent than a dutiful one for his King, as they have no problem throwing her to the proverbial sharks should she ever be captured. Being a woman, the Kingdom has plausible deniability of her working in their service. Currently, she has sunk and captured vessels with a combined tonnage in the low thousands and continues to be a pest for local shipping lanes in the region.
She absolutely refuses to believe herself to be a pirate, despite her actions being to the contrary, and regards her fellow thieves as lawless, honourless scum, only outclassed in such maggotry by the Englishโฆ
Likes: Duty, Efficiency, and the thrill of honorable dueling.
Dislikes: Gratuitous violence, glory-seekers, and the English.
Personality: Diane is much like the sea she traverses, often portraying a calm exterior, but capable of flash-storms in times of emotional trauma when she becomes upset or deeply insulted. She is much quicker to laughter than to anger, however. She knows and understands his limits, not putting much stock in labels like
hero or
coward, and doing only what she believes is within her means to do. Born into high nobility, she believes she has seen everything worth seeing and views the world with a sense of boredom as well, but also believes such boredom is the path to longevity in a way. Has no qualms in โstopping to smell the rosesโ whenever possible.
Points of Interest: What she did to anger the Kingโs War Minister and the scandal surrounding his son. Her failed courtships. Her English grandmother, the secret root cause of her hatred for them despite being one-quarter English.
Ship Information: Captaine Diane de Antillac commands a Sixth-Rate, one of the smallest ship-of-the-lines, currently undermanned in all departments, and lacking in some armaments. However, Diane plays off this lack of weaponry for speed, able to outrun many larger ships and engage in her hit-and-run tactics in interdicting commerce shipping. Though her vessel has an official name in French records, it is not boasted anywhere aboard the ship and has become an
ad hoc superstition among the crew even to speak it, instead utilizing a host of other names stolen from sunken ships that no longer need them. And if one of the former crew of those vessels should happen to hear this French vessel masquerading in their old vesselโs name, wellโฆsomething will have to be done.
Puppet Master: BennyQ.
La Cygne Foncรฉ.