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History

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Few are the Kindred who do not fear Adelais Seyrès’ attentions in Elysium. Pearl Chastain’s youngest childe has a reputation as the most cold-hearted and razor-tongued of the city’s harpies—no mean feat in a city that considers itself to have some of the most exquisite Kindred culture outside Europe.

In her mortal life, Adelais was born to Royalist French parents who fled the Revolution of 1848 to New Orleans (a still-common destination for French immigrants) and grew up to become a scathing art critic and manager of her father’s gallery. She drew her sire’s attention at the Twelfth Night Revelers’ second Feast of Epiphany ball when she was crowned La Reine de la feve (“Queen of the Ball”) despite efforts by the city’s then-mayor, Benjamin Flanders, to rig the game and place its golden bean in his niece’s slice of king cake. Adelais was Pearl Chastain’s last attempt to connect with the post-Antebellum world and some considered it an ill omen that she entered torpor so soon after her last childe’s Embrace.

After her uncle-in-blood Bruno Courtet was destroyed by the hunter Nathaniel Bordruff during the 1920s, Adelais replaced him as the local Invictus’ notary, or officiator of sworn oaths. She also took the Ventrue schemer Pierpont McGinn as her lover and was elevated to the Prima Invicta alongside him in 2005. His fortunes had risen significantly after Hurricane Katrina, for he had also gained regency over Uptown and a seat upon his clan’s Gerousia. When he asked for Adelais’ hand in blood marriage (a once-obscure custom that Victoria Ash and other luminaries have revived in the 21st century), clearly in an effort to further tie his fortunes to the local Invictus’ most prominent bloodline, she deemed it just as practical to answer yes.

Most Kindred consider the two paramours a match made in hell. McGinn’s brutal, smiling cruelty simultaneously complements and contrasts Adelais’ icy disdain, and the two’s parties are rarely anything but the talk of the city. While credit for the Big Easy’s most exorbitant revels must go to Antoine Savoy, few Kindred gatherings can eclipse Adelais’ and McGinn’s in sheer sadism. More than one Kindred has compared the couple with “two spiders eating the wings off the same fly.”

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Influence

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Domain

Adelais holds a slice of territory along Magazine Street in the Lower Garden District. She also has free reign to hunt in her lover McGinn’s domain of Uptown. (Domain •••)

Mask

Adelais poses as Cordelia Seyrès-McGinn, her own many-times great-niece who’s married to McGinn’s mortal identity, and his alleged many-times grandson, Cedric B. McGinn. Legal marriage makes it rather convenient for the two to manage their assets together. Cordelia herself is the owner of Gallery Seyrès and every bit as razor-tongued as Adelais is in Elysium.

Pawns

Adelais has a great deal of sway over New Orleans’ art world; Gallery Seyrès has long been considered one of the city’s most prestigious private galleries. She can make or break the career of an aspiring artist with a word. She often uses the gallery as a venue for social functions like political fundraisers.

Status

Adelais is a prominent figure among her clan, covenant, and the local Camarilla. Her pedigree is one of the most esteemed in the city with Pearl for her sire and Accou for her elder brother. She’s held a seat upon the Prima Invicta, the Invictus’ governing council, since Hurricane Katrina. Some Anarchs grouse that she doesn’t actually do very much, unless you count critiquing art and throwing parties with McGinn. None would dare say so in Elysium, though. (Camarilla Status •••, Invictus Status •••, Toreador Status •••)

Adelais is best known for her position among the harpies. She’s widely considered the coldest, cruelest, and most wasp-tongued of them all—no mean feat with Kindred like Veronica Alsten-Pirrie and Harlequin for her contemporaries. (Harpy Status •••)

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Genealogy

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• 5. Unknown sire
　• 6. Pearl Chastain (e. centuries ago)
　　• 7. Accou Poincaré (e. mid 18th century)
　　　• 8+. The Santiago brood (e. varies)
　　　• 8. Avoyelles Desormeaux (e. mid 19th century)
　　　　• 9+. The Lafayette brood (e. varies)
　　　• 8. Marguerite Defallier (e. late 19th century)
　　　　• 9. Abraham “Bram” Garcia (e. mid 20th century)
　　　　　• 10. Maxzille “Max” “Zilly” “Zillah” Babineaux (e. mid 20th century)
　　　　　　• 11. Anne Sommers (e. late 20th century, d. 2005)
　　　　　　　• 12. David Hansen (e. early 21st century)
　　　　• 9. Aniyah Bailey (e. early 21st century)
　　　• 8. Veronica Alsten-Pirrie (e. early 20th century)
　　　　• 9. Jade Kalani (e. early 21st century)
　　　　• 9. Amaryllis DeCuir (e. early 21st century, d. 2016)
　　• 7. Bruno Courtet (e. late 18th century, d. early 20th century)
　　　• 8. Katherine Beaumont (e. early 20th century)
　　　　• 9. Pablo Gallegro (e. early 20th century, d. late 20th century)
　　　　• 9. Rayisa Kostenko (e. late 20th century, d. 2005)
　　• 7. Barthélemy Lafon (e. early 19th century, d. 2005)
　　　• 8. Valentine St. James (e. early 19th century, d. 2005)
　　　　• 9. Lisette Toussaint (e. mid 19th century)
　　　• 8. Pietro Silvestri (e. early 20th century)
　　• 7. Adelais Seyrès (e. late 19th century)

Lineage

Adelais is childe to Pearl Chastain, the matriarch and senior primogen for Clan Toreador in New Orleans, the regent of the Lower Garden District, and the eldest member of the Prima Invicta, the Invictus’ governing council. Pearl Chastain has not publicly spoken of her sire, but is believed to be of the sixth generation and a great-grandchilde of Arikel.

Broodmates

Accou Poincaré is Adelais’ eldest brother-in-blood, the former prince of Santiago, the regent of the Lower Garden District during their sire’s torpor, the junior of their clan’s two primogen (though an elder in his own right), and the third-eldest of the Prima Invicta. Her next eldest brother-in-blood was Bruno Courtet, a poseur of limited artistic talents. He served as myrmidon (a titled position for bodyguard) to their sire and elder broodmate before being destroyed by the vampire hunter Nathaniel Bordruff in the 1920s. Her third brother-in-blood Barthélemy Lafon was a semi-famous Creole architect and associate of Jean Lafitte’s’ who designed much of the Garden District. He was destroyed during Hurricane Katrina.

Childer

None known. Adelais has never expressed any desire to Embrace.