Characters / Before Plantagenet

Player Characters

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Foulques

Foulques

Foulques d'Anjou

• Age-Gap Romance: His wife is much older than him and almost all of his subsequent wives and lovers are significantly younger.

• Amicable Exes: Is eventually this with Allerade but it takes a lot of time and pain to get to that point, and he never entirely gives up trying to win her back.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Often wonders what his mother, Ermengarde d'Anjou, would think of his actions, especially deposing his brother.

• Lecherous Stepparent: Has an affair with his stepdaughter Ness and impregnates her twice.
• Marital Rape License: Uses this on Haldora while she is pregnant.
• Panicky Expectant Father: Rushes back from a siege to witness the brith of his first child. He busts down a door and demands to know if his wife Beatritz and the child are ok. This does nothing but cause panic, but it's the thought that counts, and one of Foulques's most human moments.
• Red Baron: The Iron Duke of the Franks
• Ruling Couple: Forms this with Beatritz. He is never able to have that kind of relationship with any of his other wives.
• Underestimating Badassery: Like his son, he frequently underestimates the women in his life, in particular Beatritz and Allarade.

Geoffrey the First

• Brother–Sister Incest: Lusts after three of his sisters and actually beds Agnes.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Betrays almost all of his allies and some of his siblings and cousins as well as his King to achieve his ambition of founding the Kingdom of Aquitaine.
• Cultured Badass: Doesn't like war, yet expands his territory rapidly via military force. And oh boy is he cultured.
• Fan Boy: Of Ancient Rome, and Augustus in particular.
• The Good King: Tries to play this role in Aquitaine. Despite his, many, personal failings, he is the most successful monarch in the series to date, expanding his realm, and ensuring it's prosperity and internal cohesion.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Because he wants Agnes all to himself
• Nice Guy: Has the kind trait and tries in his younger years to be a good person. But his father's influence and his wife's adultery with his best friend lead him down a dark path.
• Underestimating Badassery: Frequently underestimates the women in his life this allows his sister Bella to trick him into revealing his incest with Agnes
• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Grew up wanting to be different from his father, to be a kind lord who followed the church's teachings.
• Wicked Cultured: Geoffrey fancies himself a medieval Augustus and is in love with Aquitaine's culture. He is also highly morally ambiguous.

Geoffrey the Second

• Buxom Beauty Standard: Enjoys his wife's sizable bust.

• King Incognito: To see the true character of his future wife. She keeps it up to see his true character, and finds it wanting.
• Likes Older Women: As a boy, he is obsessed with Princess Anne and Essa of Toulouse.
• Papa Wolf: Does not take threats to his son's life lying down.
• Real Men Love Jesus: Is a pious King, in spite of having cheated on his wife numerous times.

The House d'Anjou (and bastards)

They call them "The Devil's Brood" for a Reason.

General Tropes

• Badass Family: Have produced many strong warriors, cunning schemers, brave men and strong women. They may be morally reprehensible, but by god they are badass

Agnes

• Because You Were Niceto Me: Why she is so loyal to her father. He did not punish her for getting pregnant by Duke Giles, so she is willing to do almost anything to further his interests.
• Best Friend: Her best friend is Etiennette Karling.
• Cool Big Sis: Was close to all her sisters at one point or another.
• Comfortthe Dying: Did this for her oldest daughter Beatritz.

• Outliving One's Offspring: Looses her oldest daughter Beatrice. She does not take it well.
• Politically-Active Princess: Was politically active from a young age. She became this once her brother crowned himself King of Aquitaine.
• Showing Up Chauvinists: Often does this. Especially when she leads an army to rescue her father, the King, and the Royal Family, when they are besieged by Philippe of Champaign in Melun.

Ermengarde (mother of Foulques)

• Parent with New Paramour: Remarries to Duke Robert of Burgundy.

Aines d'Anjou

The daughter of Geoffrey and Marguerite .

• Used to Be a Sweet Kid: Was her parent's ray of sunshine then she tried to murder her nephew Guilhielm

Bella

• Bastard Bastard: The oldest of Foulques's acknowledged bastards.
• Big Beautiful Woman: In spite of her weight men still find her attractive. The Duke of Orleans even sexually harasses her, earning a beating from King Henri. Her own brother is even willing to sleep with her.
• Big Eater: Her mother often scolded her on her eating habits and by her thirties she has grown fat.
• Black Sheep: Because her brother Geoffrey rebelled against her father in law King Hughes and her husband Prince Henri
• Brutal Honesty: Has the honest trait and is blunt to her brother Geoffrey when they converse.
• Doomed Moral Victor: Views herself and Henri as this. They may have lost almost everything, but they are still god's children and haven't fallen into sin like adultery and incest.
• Formerly Fat: By age 41, her portrait shows her slim and she has lost the fat trait.
• God Save Us from the Queen!!: Has this reputation. How much of it is earned and how much of it is due to prejudice as a result of her bastard birth is left up to the reader.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Believes her brother is a sinner for allowing "sodomites" at his court.
• One-Scene Wonder: While she has been in multiple scenes, she only plays a significant role in one when she discovers Geoffrey's incest with his sister Agnes.
• Out of Focus: Compared to her mother. Even during the rebellion, Geoffrey most conversed with her husband, to the point that her most significant political and personal moments during that period happen off-screen, only being mentioned by Agnes in an interlude decades later.
• Put on a Bus: Married to the heir to France, and then the King of Denmark. All of these take her out of the court, and thus the spotlight for the series. And Geoffrey's wars against her husband do not help things.

Ermengarde

• Awful Wedded Life: Duke Arnulf of Flanders is not kind to his wife and she is subject to horrible court gossip and mockery because of her dwarfism.
• Little People Are Surreal: People think of her as a monster and a freak because of her dwarfism.

Foulquesson

• Big Brother Bully: Bullies virtually all his younger brothers at one point or another, with varying degrees of maliciousness. In the case of his full brother Philipe he is genuinely concerned for his future.

• Hot-Blooded: Never one to miss a fight.
• I Banged Your Mom: Is not thrilled when Geoffrey starts sleeping with his mother Haldora.
• Like Father, Like Son: He inherited his father's lust for battle and also ended up in an iron mask.
• Only Known by Their Nickname: Is called Foulquesson to show his Norse roots and to differentiate him from Foulques the Younger and his father.
• Sibling Rivalry: With his half brother Guilhem, who he interprets as acting above his station as a legitimized bastard.

Foulques the Younger

Duke Guilhem

• Bastard Bastard: Something his siblings, especially Foulquesson will never let him forget, even if he is of the legitimized variety.
• Cuckold: his wife sleeps with Geoffrey the Second.
• Sibling Rivalry: With his half-brother Foulquesson. At one point, he tried to have his child assassinated.
• Soldiers at the Rear: Is Marshal, but rarely actively commands troops.

Philippe

• Outliving One's Offspring: His first child dies young. His wife is convinced it was murder, but he is not sure.

Charles

• Age-Gap Romance: He sires a bastard with a woman old enough to be his mother.
• The Smart Guy: Agnes calls him the smartest of her siblings after herself and Geoffrey, though she may have said so to appease her friend, his mother, her friend, Etiennette Karling.

Wives

The women unfortunate enough to marry the head of the House d'Anjou

Beatritz

The first wife of Foulques, and arguably his most irreplaceable asset.

• Behind Every Great Man: Was never the most beautiful of women but she was a skilled steward who ran Anjou throughout her husband's wars. When she died he found it impossible to replace her.
• Big Eater: Has the Gluttonous trait and is quite overweight.
• Iron Lady: Gives off this appearance when she is regent in Anjou for her husband though in actuality she has the craven trait.
• Ruling Couple: Was her husband's right hand in Anjou.

Aines

Foulques's second wife and the mother of Geoffrey's wife Marguerite as well as his lover Ness.

• The Dog Bites Back: After years of putting up with her husband's abuse she finally has him murdered.
• Good Adultery, Bad Adultery: Played with, as her husband is abusive, but she has cheated on him before, though if his abuse started before or after is debatable. She eventually regrets her decision to have him killed.
• Heteronormative Crusader: Forbid Marguerite from seeing Thomas Count of Limousin on account of his homosexuality.
• Mistaken for Pregnant: At first, she thinks the cancer growing within her is a child.
• The Topic of Cancer: This kills her. The end is not pretty.
• Wicked Stepmother: What Foulques's children view her as. Ironically, she harbors no ill will or intent towards any of them.

Haldora

Foulques's third and least loved wife.

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• Domestic Abuse: Is domestically abused by Foulques.
• Fish out of Water: When she first came to Anjou she couldn't speak the language. Throughout her married life she was isolated and out maneuvered for power by her step daughter Agnes, who had the advantage of knowing Anjou.

Marguerite

• Beware the Nice Ones: Does not take her father's murder well.
• Broken Bird: Is forced to wed the son of the man who killed her father. After she cheats on him with his best friend, she is placed under house arrest and starved of human contact. Just when relations with her husband improve her oldest legitimate son is killed in battle. No wonder she has the depressed trait.
• I Have No Son!: Not to any of her sons, all of who she loves and cherishes, but to her daughter Aines after she attempts to murder her grandson.
• Jerkass Woobie: The House D'Anjou have made her life a living hell, yet as the people who harmed her die off she increasingly turns against those who have done her no wrong like her daughter in law.

• Nice Girl: Has the Kind Trait, though her husband rarely sees this side of her.

• Sex for Services: Is implied to have done this with The pope. The service in question being not excommunicating her son.

Princess &A Elig;lfflæd

• Buxom Beauty Standard: Her husband enjoys using her breasts as pillows. She finds it annoying.

• Screaming Birth: The birth of her son Guilhem is not a pleasant experience.

The Court

Allerade

• Because You Were Nice to Me: Why Allerade is so loyal to Agnes. She helped shield her from her mother Beatritz's wrath when she fell pregnant.
• Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Was ordered by Duchess Beatritz to abort her child with Foulques. She refused. This led to her losing much of her influence at court.

• Old Retainer: Served the house d'Anjou in one capacity or another from age 12 until her death at fifty something
• Outliving One's Offspring: Her son with Duke Giles dies as a child. She is devastated.
• Rejected Apology: Appears to have rejected Aines's deathbed apology for forcing her into a relationship with Duke Giles
• Remarried to the Mistress: What she hoped to happen after Beatritz died. Indeed unlike most examples of this troupe her stepchildren would have been thrilled to have her as she was already mentor to Agnes and Geoffrey was infatuated with her.
• Silver Vixen: Has the attractive trait and is still desirable until the day she dies. Foulques believes she is more beautiful at thirty than sixteen and his son Geoffrey admits that he would have slept with her had she been willing and alive when he became duke.
• The Spymaster: Feeds information to Beatritz and Foulques and convinces both she is spying on the other one.

Ness

• Come Back to Bed, Honey: Does this frequently to Foulques. It is left ambiguous if she genuinely enjoys having sex with him or is just doing it to gain favor.

• I Have You Now, My Pretty: She may have made the most of her status but at the end of the day her relationship with Foulques started when she was in her teens and he was well over forty, not to mention the fact that he held her sister in prison and almost absolute power over her.

• Mama Bear: Strives to get the best for her children. It is her most redeemable quality.

• Only Knownby Their Nickname: Has the same name as her mother, but is called Ness by almost everyone.
• Wicked Stepmother: Foulques's legitimate children think of her like this, though she is, in spite of her own delusions, not married to Foulques.

Mascarose De Limoges

• White Sheep: Unlike her sisters, Ness and Marguerite, she is a chaste woman who has never strayed from her husband.

Herve

• Nice Guy: Has the kind trait and is courteous to Agnes where other men mock her for having a child out of wedlock and leading an army. He is also one of the few nobles to care about what war does to common people.
• Secret-Keeper: Was the first to be told of King Geoffrey's leprosy.

Etiennette Karling

• Big Eater: Has the gluttonous trait and is quite overweight.

• Nice Girl: Has the kind trait and has always been a loyal friend to Agnes and a devoted lover to her father.

Anna de Perigord

• Childhood Friend Romance: With King Geoffrey the Second
• Nice Girl: Comforts Geoffrey in his darkest hours and seems to genuinely love him.

Lithuaise de Normandie

• Death by Childbirth: Dies giving birth to Edoard de Anjou, Foulques's secret bastard.

The French Nobility

General Tropes

• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Are more than willing to betray both each other and their King if it means achieving their ambitions.

Countess Sarrazine of Thouars

• The Good King: Well, the good countess. She genuinely cares about the common people under her rule and tries to shield them from harm.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Her first child died before her first birthday. The Countess believes it was murder.
• Spirited Young Lady: Has the guts to chew out Geoffrey about allowing a Breton army to invade her lands. Foulquesson suggests her husband put her on a leash.

King Philippe of France

• Like an Old Married Couple: By the end of his life, both he and Foulques enjoyed a better relationship with each other than they did with their wives.

• Star-Crossed Lovers: With his first wife, a common-born Muslim girl he met while conducting a siege. The church and nobility were not pleased when he wed her.

King Hugh of France

• Real Men Love Jesus: Is a very zealous monarch.

King Henri of France

• Bad Boss: Is said to have nearly beaten to death a servant who got his wife's dress dirty
• The Man Behind the Man: Was believed to be this in his father's last years.
• The Smart Guy: Has the genius trait.

Philipp Duke of Champagne

• All for Nothing: Undermined the Kingdom of France in the hopes of being the puppet master behind a weak king this weakens the realm so much that Geoffrey is able to seize multiple duchies and create the Kingdom of Aquitaine, leaving France a rump state.

Count Allias of Perigord

• Ignored Enamored Underling: Not ignored, but Geoffrey does not return his romantic feelings.

Duchess Essa of Toulouse

• Only Known by Their Nickname: Is named Agnes, like her idol Agnes d'Anjou, but everyone calls her Essa.

Duke Giles of Berry

• Humiliation Conga: Infected with STDs, captured by Geoffrey and paraded through the streets of Bordeaux, and forced to admit to fathering Agnes's daughter Beatritz. He is then thrown into the dungeon where he admits to Agnes that he a Duke of the realm ended up worse than a women he bedded and then abandoned. And to top it all off, after he is forced to pay a hefty ransom, he is captured again.

• Kissing Cousins: Seduced his cousin Agnes and leaves her pregnant.
• "Not So Different" Remark: Points this out to Geoffrey as both have rebelled against the Frankish King, both have sired legions of bastards, and both have slept with Agnes.

The Church

Aubry Karling

• Out of Focus: In spite of all the trouble his birth caused, he gets very little screen time. Mostly because the members of the House d'Anjou prefer to keep him out of the spotlight out of embarrassment.

Pope Martinus

• Lecherous Priest: To the point where he tries to molest the Queen of Aquitaine.