Baroness (Sir) Gisela Quinn
Lucy Lawless
Lucy Lawless as Gisela Quinn
CHARACTER BRIEF
Full Name: Gisela Quinn
Byname: None
Age: 43
Kingdom: Galenthia
House: Quinn
Title/Profession: Baroness
Position: Baroness, General
Place of Birth: Watchspur Castle, Ghost Hills
Sheet Information: {$sheet}
FAMILY
Father: Rainald Quinn (d. 1856)
Mother: Auvadia Quinn (extant)
Siblings: Vivona (b. 1821, d. 1847), Aricia (b. 1826)
Spouse: None; and she has divorce papers to prove it.
Children: Thadeus (b. 1849), Vivona (b. 1850), Rainald (b.1857)

Background

The head of one of House Arkanin's wealthiest, most military-minded banner houses, Gisela Quinn is a seasoned and charismatic leader, a competent and far-thinking steward, a fine horsewoman, a patroness of the arts (after her own special fashion), and a woman not to be trifled with either on the battlefield or in her own domestic circle.

On the Grid

Gisela_02.jpg

Relationships

NPC Lord Thadeus Quinn : There's nobody alive Gisela loves more than her firstborn son Thadeus. She expresses this sentiment by means of good-natured ragging on the subject of his equestrian failings (he's not the horseman she was at his age, so clearly he deserves this), and by slapping him on the back occasionally. It's all right, though, he understands: he is by now old enough and intelligent enough to be quietly proud of having a mother so good at what she does, and so distinct from other people's mothers. They still haven't had The Talk about his father, but they both know it's coming — probably during the course of a day's fishing.
NPC Lady Vivona Quinn : When Gisela was her daughter's age, she was squire to a knight at war; the differences between them are so profound as to render the girl incomprehensible to her mother and a strain upon not just her patience but her credulity. For her part Vivona the younger considers her mother the most embarrassing parent who ever drew breath. She blames her, furthermore, for depriving her of the beloved father who has become ever more golden in her memory — and the friction in their relationship was hardly smoothed over on the day when another lady in the Quinn household decided to rein in fifteen-year-old Vivona's pining over a certain beautiful young lutenist by sitting her down and explaining what everyone else already knew: that he as good as had "Property of Baroness Quinn" stamped on his forehead. (It's so unfair. It's all so unfair. Also, disgusting.)
NPC Lord Rainald Quinn : Though Rainald never knew his father he bears his own legacy from the man's treachery: in consequence of his premature birth he has always been small for his age, the sickliest of Gisela's children. As he's notoriously clever and fond of reading and other indoor pursuits, she decided long ago that his destiny would be the church, though in view of his delicate health she kept him at home under the instruction of the local priest for an extra year before escorting him personally to Rikton when he was nine years old rather than eight. Privately, she's already missing that tendency of his to utter profound remarks out of nowhere, and to shed surprising light on the most ordinary daily matters. He's promised to write to her often and she trusts that he will. He's a dutiful boy.
NPC Lady Auvadia Quinn : The other Baroness Quinn: Gisela's elderly mother, whom she admires and honours (and sometimes disappoints) as a true lady. Feminine but not frivolous, forgiving but not foolish, endlessly forbearing, loving, and loyal. There are a great many things they never, ever discuss; but Gisela places the highest value upon her advice in matters relating to their family and its lands, and when she's away from home lets it be understood that her mother has the right if she should see fit to countermand Renata Parr. She doesn't, of course, but it's a useful balance of power.
NPC Lady Aricia Brexos : Gisela's younger sister, barely toddling when she went to Southmarch as a page, married away by the time she came home permanently as a wife herself. They don't know one another well, beyond a rather formal correspondence relating the news of their two families, but the children of hers who have come to Gisela's household as pages and squires have done her credit. Lord Brexos's failure in recent days to raise his banner in support of House Arkanin, and his wife's variously mendacious attempts to excuse this, have put a strain upon the epistolary relationship between the sisters.
Felicia Lady Felicia Selby : The trueborn daughter of Gaufrid Quinn, Gisela's father's younger brother. Though she's hardly the only noblewoman in the Duchy of Wayston to disapprove of Gisela's way of life and style of dress, she's the one actually in Gisela's foxhole — for the duration, her knightly husband having been felled by a surfeit of mussels, and her infallible techniques for getting a man having mysteriously failed to succeed a second time in her own case — constantly issuing advice and reproofs which cannot be taken seriously, only brushed away with one hand as one would a small, buzzing insect.
Gervais Sir Gervais Quinn : The trueborn son of Gaufrid Quinn. The only adult male Quinn in the present day, he cannot in his heart of hearts believe that he isn't Baron Quinn. The succession, Rainald's wishes, it all seems a colossal joke at his personal expense. Given that Gisela had a healthy young son before her father breathed his last, he never had a chance — if she weren't Baroness in her own right she might well have held the barony in trust for Thadeus — but just try telling him that, especially after a few drinks. He's another man whom Gisela treats with public respect and camaraderie yet knows better than to turn her back upon.
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