Jacqueline Renier, Protector of Love?

[Drinnik Shoehorn]

In Scholar of Decay Jacqueline tells Aurek that if he had just told her the reason he was looking for magical artefacts then she would have helped him. It makes me wonder, does Jacqueline hold true love in high regard?

Would Jacqueline offer her blessing to couples she feels are truly in love (maybe in extreme cases, having weapons of protection (VRA) made for the couple). Her blessing would carry a lot of weight in Richmulot in general, Pont-a-Museau in particular. The flip side of the coin is if Jacqueline finds that one of the couple has been unfaithful, she brings her wrath down on both (the cheater for straying, the partner for not trying harder in the relationship). It doesn't matter if one person is innocent and tried to save the relationship, in Jacqueline's paranoia and guilt over her own curse, she feels that a broken relationship is both party's fault.

Flip this with Louise, who is incredibly sexually active and doesn't care for relationships, she could entertain herself by trying to break up relationships that have Jacqueline's blessing. This is a safe way to annoy Jacqueline because Louise is only proving Jacqueline right (if someone refuses her advances) or wrong (if she breaks the couple up), plus as she's part of the Family, and is her twin sister, Louise has some protections that others in her position don't. This could lead to a "Indecent Proposal" type situation with a couple Jacqueline has blessed; Louise offers them something, money, protection, medicine, but only if one of them sleeps with her. The couple should be in a situation where refusing Louise leaves them at a major disadvantage, but accepting Louise means they suffer Jacqueline's wrath.

Put your party between the couple and Louise and you could spin a good adventure out of it.

What do people think?

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I believe that her evil nature (Chaotic Evil) and nature makes her unable to have empathy for other people.The reason she falls in love, as her curse dictates, is more again I believe the romantic kind of love and not the unconditional (of parents and dogs) or the normal kind of a healthy intimate relationship. For instance her goal with DuBois is to inflict him with lycanthropy and share their life together. Her inability to love is evident also in her problematic relationship with her son Jaques, who since he was a child had manipulative/ psychopathic tendencies. The love she feels is more in my opinion the unattainable kind and that is her actual curse, to love someone but be unable to have him, her inability to control her lover. So my point is that Jacqueline would never feel for someone being in love or help any enamoured couple cause the only feeling she would have would be jealousy. Also I believe that Jacqueline's characteristics are similar to Louise's and they were as much as identical twins as they could be before their grandfathers death and they still are except from the times Jacqueline is in love and that missing piece from Louise's ear.

[Mistmaster]

I actually feel that a positive quality makes for more interesting characters.

[Mephisto of the FoS]

I actually feel that a positive quality makes for more interesting characters.

She already has somepositive qualities...

positive qualities: kind (no), gentle (no), strong (, resilient, caring (no), assertive (yes), hard-working (maybe), reliable (she is reliable that she is going to mess you up), honest (definitely not), practical (yes), responsible (maybe), loyal (to herself), mature (no), creative (yes in an evil way), consistent (no), appreciative ( big no), capable (yes), quick (yes), sensitive (no unless if sensitive to her own feelings counts), perceptive (yes) , patient(yes), thoughtful(no), fit (yes), trustworthy(no), shows initiative (yes), motivated yes), versatile (yes)

[Mistmaster]

I will add sensible to love too.

[The Lesser Evil]

In Scholar of Decay Jacqueline tells Aurek that if he had just told her the reason he was looking for magical artefacts then she would have helped him. It makes me wonder, does Jacqueline hold true love in high regard?

Would Jacqueline offer her blessing to couples she feels are truly in love (maybe in extreme cases, having weapons of protection (VRA) made for the couple). Her blessing would carry a lot of weight in Richmulot in general, Pont-a-Museau in particular. The flip side of the coin is if Jacqueline finds that one of the couple has been unfaithful, she brings her wrath down on both (the cheater for straying, the partner for not trying harder in the relationship). It doesn't matter if one person is innocent and tried to save the relationship, in Jacqueline's paranoia and guilt over her own curse, she feels that a broken relationship is both party's fault.

Flip this with Louise, who is incredibly sexually active and doesn't care for relationships, she could entertain herself by trying to break up relationships that have Jacqueline's blessing. This is a safe way to annoy Jacqueline because Louise is only proving Jacqueline right (if someone refuses her advances) or wrong (if she breaks the couple up), plus as she's part of the Family, and is her twin sister, Louise has some protections that others in her position don't. This could lead to a "Indecent Proposal" type situation with a couple Jacqueline has blessed; Louise offers them something, money, protection, medicine, but only if one of them sleeps with her. The couple should be in a situation where refusing Louise leaves them at a major disadvantage, but accepting Louise means they suffer Jacqueline's wrath.

Put your party between the couple and Louise and you could spin a good adventure out of it.

What do people think?

Interesting. Making Jackie a guardian or preserver of love would be an interesting inversion of temptress darklords like Gabrielle Aderre or Ivana Boritsi. Even by holding love as an utmost ideal, Jacqueline could still be very evil in a number of different ways. She could have a highly unstable yet all-or-nothing/black-and-white view of love somewhat similar to the "splitting" psychological mechanisms of borderline or narcissistic personality disorders. If she viewed her role so seriously she went to any depths to ensure "proper love" could be sustained and/or viewed it as a sense of entitlement. She may on some level view love as an act of willful determination, in that she still seeks Henri Dubois despite the time since his disappearance. It wouldn't be so far a leap for her to expect the same for other people in pursuing their loves. As you suggest, it would make sense for her to severely punish any parties involved in breaking up true love, whether they be betrayer or betrayed.

As for the couples blessing, it could work for Jacqueline on a practical level. She could in some fashion personally view couples asking for her blessing as a submission to her will. It would undoubtedly give her knowledge over them, and she may infect some couples should they be influential or powerful enough to be of use. In addition, making Jacqueline a protector of love could go well with her image as a guardian of the Richemuloise nation/identity, as divorce seems to be something pretty abhorred by Richemuloise tradition (Gaz III p. 91).

I believe that her evil nature (Chaotic Evil) and nature makes her unable to have empathy for other people.The reason she falls in love, as her curse dictates, is more again I believe the romantic kind of love and not the unconditional (of parents and dogs) or the normal kind of a healthy intimate relationship. For instance her goal with DuBois is to inflict him with lycanthropy and share their life together. Her inability to love is evident also in her problematic relationship with her son Jaques, who since he was a child had manipulative/ psychopathic tendencies. The love she feels is more in my opinion the unattainable kind and that is her actual curse, to love someone but be unable to have him, her inability to control her lover. So my point is that Jacqueline would never feel for someone being in love or help any enamoured couple cause the only feeling she would have would be jealousy. Also I believe that Jacqueline's characteristics are similar to Louise's and they were as much as identical twins as they could be before their grandfathers death and they still are except from the times Jacqueline is in love and that missing piece from Louise's ear.

Jacqueline could act as a (self-proclaimed) guardian of love and still mean it (from her perspective) without necessarily having true empathy for other people. That is, if she was viewing love as an abstract ideal (consciously or unconsciously) rather than something that is manifest in other people. Jacqueline could hold love in such a skewed fashion that her judgement could become highly incoherent and chaotic (much like Drigor's writings or Diambel's judgements- both are Chaotic Evil despite seeming to hold a code of laws.)

As for unconditional love, she may have a limited ability to comprehend a facsimile of it. Her write up in Gaz. III talks about unconditional love of a sort. She is prepared to offer an unconditional love to a partner, in that she's willing to accept somebody "warts and all", provided that same unconditional love is given back to her. So we could view this view of quasi/pseudo- unconditional love as pathological/evil in that Jacqueline could use it as a sense of entitlement. "I'm willing to put up with all your problems but yet you reject me!"

[Mephisto of the FoS]

Lesser Evil has a lot of good arguments, I agree with those options that he wrote, but I have to add that it sounds more as a codependent kind of love than true love. A codependent person can accept a lot of bad behaviour and problems in a relationship (which is also about control) but also can be narcissistic and delusional in a way of...

J " I am such a great lover to you Henri nobody will love you as I have love you, I have done everything to please you and have accepted all your faults (being a D. and all) but yet you still reject me! Henri please don't go. If you go where shall I go, what shall I do?".

H "Frankly my dear I don't give a damn..." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra6ShThMnGk

I can agree with all those arguments, about the ideal of love (the fantasy of love), but this is not true love and Jackie still has no understanding of what love means, so it works for me for her character.

Also this codependency goes well with her monophobia.