Eliane Dufresne

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Ishgard.jpg Eliane Dufresne
ElliePortrait4.jpg
'Fate, my dear, is merely a suggestion.'
Gender Female
Race Elezen
Clan Wildwood
Citizenship Ishgard
Server Balmung
Age 27
Height 6’5”
Time Zone Eastern (GMT-9 Standard)

Basic Info

Eliane Dufresne (pronounced Eh-yan Du-frain) is the elder of a pair of twins born to Baron Emmereaux Dufresne and his wife, the Baroness Olivie, both lesser nobles of Ishgard. Although initially schooled at the Athenaeum Astrologicum, Eliane has since become the sole heir to the Dufresne fortune in the wake of her brother Juleaux's disowning. She currently runs the Dufresne Bellworks following her father’s recent retirement, but while the family business consumes much of her life, she still takes time to continue her passionate study of the stars.

Because the Dufresnes are “new money” where Ishgardian nobility is concerned, Eliane is armed with rampant idealism and is determined to use her power and the family fortune to do good in the world. Philanthropy is hardly profitable, however, and now that Ishgard has opened to trade – and competition – she is beginning to rapidly learn the hard way that it’s the sharks who survive in the business world.


Likes
Hot drinks, most notably black tea, hot cocoa, and coffee loaded with cream
A good vintage wine
Rambling (in the Victorian Romantic sense)
Tinkering and toys
Theatre, especially opera
Tourneys, jousts, and tests of skill
Quick wits and wordplay
Dislikes
Poor manners, deliberate foulness or rudeness, potty humor
Machisimo, strutting, or overly violent behavior
Bugs, any and all
Humidity
Did we mention bugs?
Favorites
Favourite Food: Confit de Canard, or anything with duck
Favourite Drink: Red wine
Favourite Place: Ruins of the Quickspill Delta, Dravanian Hinterlands
Favourite Color: White
Favourite Animal: Owls

Hobbies and Talents

Eliane is a middling healer and weak with starfire, but has proven uncannily adept with gravity -- and thus time -- manipulation.
Like any Astrologian, Eliane is skilled at tarot reading and will give anyone a reading if they ask.
She is actually a decent actress, and is not half bad at her own dramatic performances. More commonly, however, she uses this ability socially and politically, and has proven an adept player of "Pillars games".
She is a voracious reader if ever she has a spare moment, and consumes any fantasies and fictions she can find, having an insatiable weakness for escapism.
She's fairly accomplished with her hands, and is capable of assembling all sorts of simple clockwork gadgets. She loves to study automata as a whole, though rarely has the time to make it anything more than a hobby.

Appearance

Eliane is on the shorter end of the Elezen spectrum, sharing a height with most Highlander women. Although sporting more curvature than the average female of her race, she nevertheless cuts an elegant figure and moves with dignity and grace. Her features might be best described as ‘fey’, her long, wavy hair helping to frame rather pert facial features. Her eyes are a pale green and framed by thick lashes; they stand in pleasing contrast to her crimson hair and creamy skin. Always a stickler for appearance, Ellie typically wears light makeup and has a fondness for dresses. There is rarely, if ever, a speck of dust on her or a hair out of place. Ironically, everything else of hers – from her workspace to her room – is always a disastrous mess.

Personality

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Vivacious, gregarious, and relentlessly optimistic, Ellie will come across as pleasant to some and saccharine or even eccentric to others. She is well-mannered and polite, and will always treat others with respect and kindness until they prove to her that they deserve otherwise. Far from being a simple socialite, however, Eliane enjoys educated conversation: anything from arcane theorycrafting to politics and philosophy can have her talking and debating for hours. She’ll even talk shop with mechanics on rare occasions.

A life of nobility has given Ellie something of a vain streak. She can be overconfident and wanting for humility at times, and she will get salty fast if either her competence comes into doubt or her physical appearance is threatened. She enjoys gossip and material items a bit too much, and can easily come across as just another shallow blue-blood to those who do not know her. She has a tendency to take everything literally, and often overdoes anything requested or suggested of her, sometimes to comedic effect. Confinement to Ishgard and environs her entire life has left her somewhat naïve about the rest of Eorzea, and she doesn’t know quite as much as she’d like to think she does; her 'street smarts' begins and ends at the Pillars.

Nevertheless, Ellie does her best to improve when she is criticized and will be the first one to extend a helping hand. She will never ask anything of anyone that she is unwilling to do herself.

She also has a notorious weakness for girly things.

Business Ellie

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Combat

Eliane is quite an adept magic

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user and is skilled in the Sharlayan school of Astromancy. For the most part her talents lie in gravity manipulation and in reading the future, but if cornered she will begin to fight back, most commonly with a blade. This is by far her last-ditch defense, however.

Eliane is agile, but completely lacking in stamina. She rather wants for physical fitness and is actually a bit clumsy when required to exert herself. If forced into physical contact the fight would be over pretty quickly.

History (Minor Spoilers)

The Founding of House Dufresne

Emmereaux Dufresne was the son of an accomplished Ishgardian goldsmith. His father’s trade instilled in him a knowledge of various ores, as well as a penchant for the then-budding world of clockworks and tinkering, both of which endlessly fascinated him. As he got older, he began to travel often to the Sharlayan city-state in an effort to increase his knowledge, and there met his wife, a skilled Astrologian by the name of Olivie. The two married at a young age and inherited the Dufresne business as a wedding present. The couple, unsatisfied with a simple goldsmith shop, decided to marry Sharlayan arcanima with Ishgardian ingenuity, and thus the Dufresne Bellworks was born.

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By this time Emmereaux had already grown into a cunning businessman in his own right but, backed by his wife’s readings, he became all the stronger. He made a series of fortuitous investments and secured mining contracts in lands outside of Coerthas in order to ensure he had no rivals for ore. As Isghgard began to move towards industrialization in an effort to better combat the Dravanian Horde, Emmereaux was quick to invest in such projects, including what would eventually become the Skysteel Manufactory. The investments paid off, and the couple’s fortunes steadily increased.

Common rumor has it that the Dufresnes made enough money through their business ventures to finally be able to afford land and eventually just bought their noble titles. A less common rumor suggests that Emmereaux was awarded a lordship for saving a vital Durendaire holding from annihilation by using his strange clockwork inventions. Either way, the newly-minted House Dufresne now proudly stands as one of House Durendaire’s loyal bannermen, and adopted the Great House’s bell sigil in part to show its gratitude.


The Bellworks and Bellworks Manufacturing Co.

The Dufresne Bellworks is one of Ishgard's more active foundries. Able to work with a wide variety of metals, the Bellworks is specially equipped to cast larger objects: anything from drawbridge chains to church bells to the myriad of parts used in dragonkillers and airships. Most parts are then sent off the the Skysteel Manufactory for assembly, though depending on the order, some things can be assembled in-house. At times, the foundry will shift to the production of smaller items, such as bolts and nails, to help aid in reconstruction projects.

The Dufresnes are keen on acquiring their own ore to keep costs low, and most of the land they own is not farming land, but mines. With native Coerthan supplies drying up after a thousand years of war, the house is ever-vigilant for new sources, even those located well outside Ishgard proper.

Nearly all Bellworks workers are commoners, and by all reports they are treated fairly. A few younger sons and daughters from allied lower houses assist primarily in more administrative matters, though there's one or two who, like Juleaux, prefer a more hands-on approach instead. Curiously enough, many workers volunteer to undergo training in firearms, and help account for Dufresne's small cadre of men-at-arms. While Dufresne knights are sent wherever House Durendaire needs them, these machinists tend to stay close to home and help to man the walls in the Foundations instead.

Eliane spearheaded the expansion of the Bellworks outside of Ishgard's walls, creating an Ul'dahn subsidiary as well. However, this second manufactory grew so quickly that the Dufresnes were unable to manage both, and the Ul'dahn subsidiary was sold and placed under the direction of a skilled engineer named Brave Horizon instead. The subsidiary has since been renamed as the Bellworks Manufacturing Co and enjoys more or less complete autonomy, although the Dufresnes remain the primary shareholders.

Growing Up

Eliane Celestine Radelle de Dufresne and her brother, Juleaux, were born on the 22nd sun of the First Umbral Moon, 1552, a late New Year’s gift for a couple who had been trying unsuccessfully for years to conceive. From then on the twins were raised with strict oversight: they were given the best that money could buy, but they were also required to work for it, as Emmereaux and Olivie were ever-wary of the family’s humble roots being forgotten in the thrall of noble luxury. This proved equal parts advantageous and stifling. The twins quickly developed and matured, but they were railroaded into the plans their parents had for them. As they looked more or less identical in their youth, they often traded clothes and identities in order to assert some form of autonomy, each subbing in for something the other would rather not do. At other times, the two would swap identities simply for the sake of mischief and confusion.

Eliane, for her part, was shipped off to the Atheneum Astrologicum as soon as she was old enough to learn, and in her younger days followed closely in her mother’s footsteps. There, she learned reading,

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writing, history, arithmetic, and, of course, the path of the Astrologian. It soon became apparent that she shared her mother’s gift for divining the future, if not surpassed it, and might have been at the top of her class had she the motivation for it. As it was, Eliane proved lazy and scatterbrained, and lived out her school days as a perpetual underachiever.

Hours not spent in study were spent with a governess instead. Etiquette lessons were met with fierce resistance (she would have rather been out fencing with her brother), until her first dinner party; afterwards Eliane became enchanted with the courtly world, and fancied herself a princess for the rest of her childhood. She voraciously consumed fairytales and fashion, and grew to love performing in all its various forms.

As Eliane began to move beyond her elementary years, her father began to bring her to the office and the foundry in order to groom her as his heir. He taught her intermediate metallurgy and engineering, and she discovered she had a love for all things clockwork, much as he did. Eliane’s world instead became one of numbers and politics, as her father showed her all the ins and outs of running a business and a noble house. By the time she was sixteen, she was even running some daily operations on her own.

Around this time, Emmereaux arranged for Eliane’s betrothal to Etinaud of House Toussaint. Though still a lesser house, House Toussaint was nevertheless larger than House Dufresne and, more importantly, held land that included a mythril mine. Eliane never made good on the promise, and the betrothal was called off as the Dragonsong War came to a head, reportedly due to House Dufresne's support of Lord Commander Aymeric.

Inheritance

Each time life began to grow routine for the Dufresnes, a Dravanian attack on Ishgard’s walls would inevitably shake it up. The attacks eventually rose enough in frequency that Ishgard isolated itself, and thus the city state found herself in need of every man and woman she could muster. Juleaux and the Bellworks workers began to man the walls more and more, while Eliane and her mother spent more time in observatories attempting to help divine the Horde’s movements. For the first time ever, Eliane began to see friends and coworkers die.

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Like many, Eliane turned to faith for comfort, and began to spend a sliver of time each night at the cathedral praying for her loved ones’ protection. Her sojourns eventually brought her into the acquaintance of an inquisitor named Alvere Renaud, who became a fast – if not unconventional and dangerous – friend. Like Eliane, Alvere needed someone to confide his troubles to discreetly, and to this day the two remain each other’s personal confidants. Whether or not that’s the extent of her relationship with him remains a mystery, and as it is they’re rarely seen together in public.

As things came to a head in 1572, several Bellworks workers whom Eliane knew personally left Ishgard under the pretense of surveying Mor Dhona and instead voluntarily joined the Eorzean Alliance for the Battle of Carteneau. The Calamity left them all either dead or missing in action, and thereafter Coerthas found itself plunged into the depression of perpetual winter.

The months following the flash-freeze saw a spike of desperation and heresy, during which Olivie attempted a forbidden spell to read the memories of a captured heretic leader; the spell backfired and dealt a telling blow to her own mind, and she has slowly been unraveling into dementia ever since. Not two years later, a steam explosion in the Bellworks foundry caused an equipment collapse that left Emmereaux paralyzed from the waist down. Now confined to a wheelchair (which he is determined to somehow automate), Emmereaux decided his close brush with death was a sign to retire and at last handed over the family business in full to his children.

Present

Eliane is now full owner of the Dufresne fortune, her brother having departed Eorzea for Sharlayan. The house has distinguished itself for its service during the Dragonsong War, although it was tremendously hesitant to commit any forces to the reclamation of Ala Mhigo, and until Ghimlyt Dark provided only artillery in place of men. While Emmereaux currently sits on the House of Lords, he's been having his daughter occupy his seat more and more very recently, citing complications with his back.


Past Events (ARR-Stormblood)

When the gates of Ishgard were at last opened to outsiders, Eliane spent several moons traveling the breadth of Eorzea alongside her brother, exploring the land as much as she sought new business opportunities. This brought her into contact with a wealth of new peoples and personalities, and for the first time ever she made several lasting friendships.

However, late into the summer, one such friend disappeared under mysterious and frightening circumstances in the Pillars, an event suspicious enough to catch the Inquisition's eye. Eliane began to use her political prowess and several favors owed in order to help with the investigation and move past the church's red tape, without any trails leading back to her or her companions. At last, the efforts unveiled a lead, and the group discovered a gruesome laboratory where terrifying heretical experiments had no doubt been conducted. The group escaped with their lives, but days later, Eliane was captured and spirited away by the laboratory's owner.

Eliane languished in captivity for nearly a moon before at last she found a way to escape. Her friends came to her rescue, and she was brought home at last. Hurt by her experience, however, Eliane found herself too weak and scared to leave Ishgard, or even her home. She hired Arcian Martell on as a personal bodyguard, while Ser Martiallais Heuloix joined her house as a retainer to similarly protect her.

However, just because her experiences had hurt her did not mean she was about to give in. Eliane spent the next several moons training hard with Martiallais and Arcian, learning several modes of self-defense.


Recent Events

Eliane mysteriously vanished shortly after the Eorzean Alliance pushed into Gyr Abania, although her father was adamant that she was well and in contact with him. It was not a total lie: Eliane was indeed at home and in his care. Unfortunately, that was where the story began and ended.

In reality, Eliane had come across a forbidden Sharlayan tome in the Kugane markets, one full of advanced -- though not fully understood -- astromancy techniques. Seeing this as a potential way to cure her mother, Eliane attempted a spell from the tome and instead became trapped in Olivie's mind. Eliane struggled to free herself of the dream-world her mother's dementia had created for the next two years, all the while never giving up on the hope of saving her. The two lay comatose while servants kept them alive, and Emmereaux nearly destroyed himself with worry and drink. At last, however, Eliane escaped and returned to herself -- though having failed in her mission. Her mother, newly-awoken as well, had seen no change.

To make matters worse, Eliane awoke to the news that her best friend had departed and her lover had fled, leaving her without her two greatest pillars of support. Her mood remained black as she spent the next several moons recovering, and while she's at last back on her feet and active in the world again, there's a palpable change in the once-vibrant woman. Failure and lonliness has blunted her idealism, and now her ruthless side is beginning to show itself more and more. Whether this remains a permanent change in her or not remains to be seen.


Relationships

Family

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Positive Relationships

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Acquaintances

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Neutral Relationships

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Negative Relationships

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Miscellaneous

Out on a survey!
  • It’s decently well-known that Eliane is nearsighted, and yet she’s almost never seen wearing glasses.
  • A prank Juleaux pulled on her when they were still young has resulted in her being hard of hearing in her right ear.
  • She has a room set aside at home that is filled to the brim with various clockwork gadgets, which she collects obsessively.
  • She is known to suffer from migraines, especially if she’s been in study for too long.
  • Although she wears earcuffs, they are not for fashion -- close inspection, in fact, will reveal them to be studded with over a dozen different linkpearls. Eliane is constantly wired and in continuous communication, and often lingering near her in a quiet enough place will yield faint snippets of conversation that she's apparently become quite adept at tuning out.

In Her Satchel

Unless she knows she’s going on vacation, Eliane usually travels light. At most times she only has a few items on her person:

Olivie’s Pendant: A family heirloom passed down to Eliane from her mother, and to Olivie from her mother. It’s more of a little crystal pendulum on the end of a golden chain – both of obvious Sharlayan

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make. Eliane usually keeps it carefully tucked away on her person somewhere, but can occasionally be seen using it in her Astrology.

Lab Assistant's Dagger: Eliane now travels armed everywhere she goes, and there's usually more than one knife hidden in the folds of her dresses. She seems to prefer the use of a strange blade, however, oddly bland and sterile in comparison to the usual attire she caries with her. Those with magical ability who see it may be able to detect it's been enchanted somehow.

Wire-rimmed glasses: She always has them on her person, carefully hidden. But she almost never actually wears them.

Medicine: A small bottle of dried, compressed herbs to help with occasional headaches.

Deck of cards: The deck will vary depending on where Ellie is at the time, and sometimes she’ll even carry more than one. She has a tarot deck for reading, a general-purpose Astrologian’s deck, and a custom set of rune-inscribed spell cards for travel. They’re all made of thick, custom hand-pressed cardstock, and are elegantly inked and painted by a clearly skilled artist.

Lipstick: – She is never not wearing lipstick, and in the instance it gets smudged, she’s quick to renew it.

Frequent Locales

Predictably, Eliane is most often found in Ishgard. Her work takes her all over the city and there is no part of it she does not visit. She frequently visits the fortresses in the Central and Western Highlands in order to help see to their defenses as well.

If not in Ishgard then she's undoubtedly in Ul'dah visiting the Bellworks Manufacturing Co, although the tends to avoid Ul'dah itself if she can help it.


Mounts, Pets, and Companions

Most times, Eliane can be seen caring for Lutin, a tiny owlet that was once her mother’s familiar, but now is often neglected by his former guardian. Lutin often helps her with speed-reading and spellcasting, and like most Sharlayan familiars, is intelligent enough to understand speech.

Brouillard, a chocobo so-named for his gray coloration, has been with her since she was a child and remains her most trusted transportation for when she needs to travel. As strong and sturdy as any Isgardian-bred steed, there are few places he cannot go.

Rumors

Common Rumors

  • "Tsk. Upstart family of dubious breeding. The father got lucky and bought a title, that’s all.” – Ishgardian Noble
  • "The Bellworks twins? I’m not entirely certain they’re different genders. They swap clothes and identities the way I change hats.” – Ishgardian Merchant
  • "Smart girl, but naïve. She’s one of those who insists upon studying the Sharlayn school of astrology. She’ll never serve her country that way.” – Astrologist Instructor
  • "Catty and arrogant. Fancies herself marrying into one of the four great houses.” – Ul’dahn merchant
  • “Might be crooked like her brother. She’s been putting off her marriage for years.” – Ishgardian Noble
  • “She’s a workaholic, Miss Ellie. I see the light burning in her office at all hours. I don’t think she ever sleeps!” – Foundry Worker
  • “Miss Ellie’s going to be a crazy cat lady someday. I just know it.” – Skysteel Manufactory worker


Moderate Rumors

  • “She couldn’t hit the broad side of a castrum with those spells of hers. Absolutely incompetent magician.” – Travelling Thaumaturge
  • "Such a kind girl, and so pious! She goes to the cathedral every evening. Sometimes she’s there for bells.” – Elderly Lady
  • “Her tarot readings and horoscopes are uncomfortably accurate. Never seen her flub a scrying. She can even douse in real time!” – Astrology Student
  • “Heard the family bailed out a Durendaire fortress once. Look what having friends in high places nets you.” – Limsan Trader
  • "Oh no, she's helped me out as well. She's not crazy, that's just sort of how she is." - Brume Resident
  • "She's sleeping with THAT Dragoon..." - Random Temple Knight

Rare Rumors

  • “Seen people wearing the Dufresne sigil taking folk out of the Brume. Mark my words, they’re all going to the mines.” – Forgotten Knight Patron
  • "She’s struck some deal with an inquisitor. Any time a rival gets in her way, she has him cry heresy and he takes them out.” – Ishgardian Noble
  • "Her heathen mother is a raving lunatic. Wonder if it runs in the family." - Ishgardian Noble


Player Character Rumors

((Feel free to add your own!))

  • "Ellie? Clever. Dead clever. Charming as anything, too. Has a bit of a ruthless streak, if I'm honest, but she's a good friend and a good person and I'll not hear otherwise." - Arcian Martell
  • "I have nothing but respect for her. Upon my arrival in Ishgard she was one of the few to not shun or distrust me outright." - Graeham Ridgefield
  • "Lady Eliane? Oh, she's exceedingly clever and very kind. I admit that I was a little...indimidated at first, but she's unlike any noblewoman I've ever encountered, and--well--she's taught me so much about Ishgard...and life." - Reima Awen
  • "Confusin creature, she'd faint iffin ye cut a loud fart, but she'd stand her ground iffin a corpse got up and charged her. Handy in a pinch, jest don't mention tea round her...she never fergets tea." - Kail Gerrad
  • "Lady Dufresne. The company she keeps would be enough to hold her in high regard in mine eyes. But recently I witnessed her generosity to the poor and an unfaltering grace in face of callousness. What surprised me though, is her keen insight. I do not know if it comforts me or unnerves me." - Roen Deneith
  • "Lady Dufresne is a woman of intellect. She recognises when it's the right time to trade knowledge, ideas and goods, and she recognises when someone is wasting her time with empty promises. Luckily for me, I've yet to waste her time." - Hyrtwyda Eyhafrynwyn
  • "Dufresne? Ain't seein' 'ow tha's any o' y'r business. S'a good woman by my figurin' an' y'd be daft if'n y'r thinkin' o' crossin 'er. S'a fire in that one." - Barengar Armsbreaker

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