Giles de Mauvais

Giles de Mauvais is a scholar from Dementlieu, born sometime during its False History.

Background

Like his brother, Albert de Mauvais, Giles was an inquisitive man who favoured science. Unlike his brother, he preferred to learn through observation, rather than through slicing into specimens. In 709 BC, Giles together with Albert purchased the still-living body of a victim of a Red Widow-attack. Much to Giles' displeasure, Albert monopolized their purchase, locking it in his laboratory and bringing on the hatchlings almost completely alone. Rather than allow Giles a few of the hatchlings for observation, Albert subjected them all to hideous experiments, quite ruining Giles' chances of learning what their natural behaviour might be.

In 714 BC, one of the Red Widows started to display a natural capacity for arcane magic, which it used in an attempt to escape from its enclosure. Giles was appalled when his brother declared his intention to dissect the creature's brain, and thereby learn more about magic. Determined not to lose this golden opportunity for study, Giles hit Albert over the head and absconded from their town house with the precious hatchling. Over the next year, Giles made his way east, both studying and learning to communicate with the Red Widow in order to expand his knowledge of the creature. In time, as the Red Widow learned to control its shapeshifting powers, the two of them started pretending they were a travelling father and daughter in order to deflect awkward questions.

Upon his arachnid charge, Giles bestowed the name Richelle.

In 716 BC, Giles took up a teaching position at the University in Kantora, enrolling Richelle there as a student so he might monitor how she responded to a higher education. Giles used his teaching position to compare Richelle's development with that of normal human children. Remarkably, Richelle complied with Giles' wishes and proved herself a trustworthy, albeit sometimes grotesque companion.

In 719 BC, Giles had started compiling his notes so he could write a book on comparative psychology that he believed would rock the scholarly community of the Core. Unfortunately, he let slip more than he should when speaking to other members of the University's staff. One particular colleague, who was already jealous of Giles, contrived to dose him with chemicals that caused first extreme disorientation and later a heart attack. During the first stage, the jealous colleague half-dragged, half-carried Giles to a brothel in Kantora, then abandoned him there to die.

Current sketch

As none but Giles knew Richelle's true nature, she inherited the sum of his belongings at the time of his death. Unto today, the world at large believes that the Red Widow is his natural-born daughter; a misconception that the creature has actually taken to heart as she continues to hold Giles in high esteem for rescuing her from his brother. In 721 BC, Richelle learned her adoptive father and rescuer's true fate and avenged Giles by slaying his murderer with her own venom.