Lucretia Del'Amore
(Player Character)
Alignment	<TBD>
Race/Species	Half-Elf (Variant Lineage)
Class	Artificer (Armorer)
Gender	Female
Born	Vanam 10, 962 AF
Age	34
Homeland	Greensgate
Diety	<TBD>

Lucretia Del'Amore was born into the Del'Amore family to a young Valerie Del'Amore and (presumably) Caladin Tar-vaniell, her first husband. Valerie's secret, whirlwind romance with Caladin was a rollercoaster of events, shrouded in mystery and clouded by a veil of gossip and half-truths. But the hard facts are this: Valerie and Caladin eloped together after their brief courting. Fifteen months later, Valerie returned, Lucretia in arm. With Caladin nowhere to be seen, and Valerie either unwilling or unable to speak, the head of House Del'Amore, Griswold Del'Amore, declared Valerie's marriage annulled and her inheritance forfeit. Lucretia herself was spared the fate of a bastard, but only because it suited the shrewd political machinations of Esmerelda, the family's matriarch. With time and effort, assisted substantially by Valerie's retirement from the political scene, Esmerelda was able to smooth over the worst of the gossip mongering, and maintain the Del'Amore family's carefully cultivated air of dour respectability.

Meanwhile, Lucretia was growing. And while she and her mother were kept carefully out of the limelight, it was quickly becoming obvious, even to casual observers that Lucretia was not just a prodigy, but a rare, once-in-a-century genius. At 2 years of age, she set her nursery on fire. With magic. Deliberately. In a fit of rage after being denied a favorite pastry, she sent a bolt of fire across the room, igniting a wardrobe. The curtains followed next, before finally the nanny was threatened directly. Rather than coming to an all too commonly tragic ending, the situation was resolved when Lucretia doused the fires as quickly as she had set them – once her demands were fulfilled, of course – and then returned to playing as though nothing had happened at all. The nanny never returned after that day, but in her place came an endless stream of brilliant tutors, strict mentors, and even the occasional playmate or suitor. Each intended to cultivate Lucretia's intellect, appease her wild tempers, or simply to garner favor with her or her family. And although the latter never went especially well for anyone who made the attempt, there were always more fools willing to try.

Lucretia's aptitude for the mechanical sciences started similarly early. At age 3, after nearly a year of intense tutelage, she devised a trebuchet both powerful and accurate enough to deliver a small payload (approximately the size of a grapefruit) within several feet of her target, at a range of approximately a quarter mile. This was purpose built and used exclusively for one occasion, to deliver a pointed refusal to a prospective playmate's invitation by way of a short letter and a homemade “Stink Capsule.” The intended outcome was to interrupt the evening meal at third course, as the soup was being served, by landing the projectile in the bowl of her target, a young Jophin Cidrin. After bouncing twice and crashing through a window, the projectile had deviated enough to land two place settings down the table in the bowl of the boy's aunt. No one was injured by the projectile or the broken glass, but the meal was successfully ruined and the dining hall was considered unusable for weeks until the stench finally dissipated. All of Lucretia's tutors at the time were immediately dismissed.

While at first glance this feat sounds ridiculous, certain factors contributed to Lucretia's success, not least of which was the tutelage of a young Johan Kalashov, who later distinguished himself as an expert in the field of siege engineering. Johan and Lucretia worked together closely on the trebuchet, and while the overall design and function of the device is largely attributed to Lucretia herself, it is doubtless that the construction and quality control fell to Johan, who is known to be meticulous in his craftsmanship. Regardless, the trebuchet was ultimately a mere prototype. It's proportions and capabilities would have been unsuitable for actual combat, and it was only capable of firing a single payload before requiring extensive repairs. Nevertheless, for a child of 3, such a feat still invites incredulity.

Though these anecdotes are merely highlights of Lucretia's prodigious intellect, they also exhibit the petulance, arrogance, and callousness that Lucretia's upbringing was cultivating. Her education came at great expense. An expense that her grandmother Esmerelda considered an investment that would one day provide equally exorbitant dividends. When Esmerelda passed away suddenly in early 965 AF, followed shortly by her husband and then-family head Griswold late that year, Lucretia's uncle Rhodan became head of the family. Rhodan did not share his mother-in-law's perspective on Lucretia's education. While he acknowledged Lucretia's intellect and the necessity of cultivating it, Rhodan believed that the prior approach lacked discipline, and was encouraging Lucretia to become a spoiled monster rather than a disciplined academic. Although he still hired tutors for Lucretia, Rhodan preferred teachers who were strict and rigid in their approach and whose lessons did not have collateral political fallout. He devised clever ways of punishing Lucretia when her pet projects got out of hand and seemed to take grim satisfaction in her dismay. Lucretia clearly resented the man, which in time may have grown into bitterness and anger, but the two of them did not have long to hate each other. Tragedy was about to uproot the entire Del'Amore clan.

Main Article: War of Three Houses

Lumina 17, 967 AF Shortly after Lucretia's 5th birthday, The Forest suddenly bloomed in the Del'Amore Valley, sparking a chain of events that would ultimately lead to war. Rhodan was lost in the sudden and chaotic flight from Ravenwatch, after which his wife Lorith assumed her role as head of the family. This was Lucretia's first experience of real loss, and of tragic events that were truly out of her control. Though she was not especially close to her uncle, his loss, along with the sudden loss of their ancestral home, shook her to her core. She remained inconsolable for weeks, even after the Ravenwatch refugees reached the Greensgate plains. Even into the early months of the war, Lucretia was not willing to leave her tent, or to speak with anyone except her mother. While they worried about her mood, Lucretia's family and their retainers had larger issues to concern themselves with. The fact that a nominally willful and independent Lucretia was content with cloistering herself in a relatively safe place made it easy to keep her contained and out from under foot. There was, after all, never an intent to involve the Del'Amore children in the war.

Her bleak mood continued unabated until Aru 20th, 968, the day her cousin Dorian was born, and the day her aunt Lorith died to complications of childbirth. Valerie, Lorith's elder sister, might have become the head of House Del'Amore then, despite losing her inheritance previously, but she possessed neither the will nor constitution for leadership. She instead allowed the mantle to fall to Lorith's eldest daughter, Moria. Although present for the proceedings, Lucretia, by now growing accustomed to death and politics, was enraptured by her infant cousin. From that moment onward, a pronounced shift in thinking began to take hold of Lucretia, and her bleak mood gradually began to dissapate. Though still very much a child, she began to take a keen interest in the proceedings of war, the weapons and tactics involved, the movement of troops, and the defense of encampments. Moria was annoyed more than once at being interrupted by her young cousin during war councils, but Lucretia's insights into enemy movements quickly proved valuable enough that a tall stool was begrudgingly kept near the map table for Lucretia's use. She picked up the basics of medical magic, and assisted in the infirmary to care for the wounded.

Lucretia's inventions of this time were slanted sharply into two categories. The first being implements of war, particularly things which would be useful in the defense and organization of a war camp, or in the care of wounded soldiers. The second category, almost as broad, were devices intended to entertain baby Dorian, who she spent much of her time with. So much so, in fact, that she essentially turned his nursery into her own personal workshop, much to the chagrin of his nanny.

There were, however, some notable exceptions to those categories, as was demonstrated on Seren 14th, 968. A secret convoy moving Lucretia and Dorian to a new encampment ahead of the main force was suddenly ambushed by a small platoon of House Varis mercenaries, who intended to capture the Del'Amore children. Overwhelmingly outmatched and outgunned, the Del'Amore defenders seemingly had no chance of victory. That is, until a furious Lucretia began blasting the House Varis troops apart with spells and deadly contraptions alike from within the relative safety of a reinforced cart.¹⁾ Slaughtered almost to a man, only the platoon's captain and a few others managed to flee in terror from Lucretia's onslaught. Their reports earned her a nickname, the Demon of Del'Amore. As her involvement increasingly escalated throughout the war, enemy forces consistently showed a marked increase in force commitment when they expected Lucretia to be on the field. A fact that did not go unnoticed by Moria or Lucretia as they planned their battle strategies.

On Lumina 3rd, 969, Lucretia stood at Moria's right hand as her cousin's advisor and General²⁾ during the Greensgate Treaty negotiations. Her insight is credited as being instrumental in developing the technical elegance of the Treaty's terms, which even now leave little room for loose interpretation or loopholes. She is a signatory of the original document, her signature appearing directly under her cousin Moria's. She was also involved in drafting the Greensgate Constitution, although it is a significantly more complicated document which relies on a large amount of legal terminology and precedence. Lucretia's involvement with the Constitution is widely regarded by legal experts to be far more symbolic and advisory as opposed to the Treaty, parts of which are even written in her own terse hand.³⁾

• Lucretia is still loosely involved in early Greensgate politics, but without the threat of war she is far more interested in building things than talking to people.
• Generally speaking, Moria is the political head of the family. Lucretia's political relevance is that of a dormant military asset. An unspoken threat that, should anyone thing to open hostilities with house Del'Amore, they should also be prepared to contend with an angry and dangerous genius.
• Lucretia focuses on building the town of Greensgate instead. She works together with builders from various houses, drawing up plans for what likely would have been a very elegantly designed city. Would have, except that the various carpenters, masons, and other construction folk had no interest in listening to a child on matters of civil engineering, no matter how reasonable and logical her points. Lucretia ends up trying to give orders, but even the builders of her own house consider it tone-deaf, considering that everyone is trying to work together to build the city. Lucretia eventually gives up – a rare betrayal of her stubborn nature, leaving her plans and blueprints for the builders to use or ignore as they see fit.
• Even today, she complains about shoddy workmanship and poor city planning every time she leaves the house. Even more than that, there have been repeated incidents of her assaulting foremen of the construction efforts completely out of the blue. On one such occasion, while walking with Moria to city hall, she noticed something and paused. Then, without warning, she stalked across a busy street crowded with carriages, over cobbles in heels no less, and right on up to a particular foreman who had repeatedly belittled her age and experience during those heated debates. Without room for pause, she simply stated “8th and Dresden”, before slapping the man so hard he fell completely back on his ass, toppling his nearby wife along with him. Then she shouted several unmentionable things about where he could shove his “experience” and stalked back across the street, and continued on her way without another word.
• Having been excluded from the city planning efforts, Lucretia then turned her attention to something that was entirely within her power to control: The construction of a new Del'Amore manse. This she poured considerable effort into. Aided by magic and machinery alike, she even put a considerable amount of effort into its construction herself. Though she only spent a short time working on the project before heading off to The Academy, she still left behind copious blueprints, annotated with notes and detailed instructions on how to best continue her efforts. Even while attending the Academy, she often returned for visits bearing reams of new plans, updates to existing ones, and a number of ideas to run by Moria for the next batch.

• Lucretia goes to study at The Academy⁴⁾ around age 9. Despite being half the age of the other students, grades are merely a formality. She has already read and understood her textbooks before class begins. Her questions are so advanced the professors are often left dumbstruck. She graduates in record time and moves on to her post-graduate studies.
• Somewhere in her school years, Lucretia develops a fascination with the Forest and the unsolvable problem it represents. To say that she comes to see it as her “purpose” would somewhat misrepresent her feelings on the subject of divinity, but certainly she feels it a challenge worthy of her intellect. She begins to take a keen interest in ancient ruins, magic, and technology.

• She begins working on Doctorates in several disciplines: Math, Engineering, History, Materials Science, as well as magical studies such as Divination, Abjuration, and Evocation just to name a few. Though she will not end up completing all of these,
• Among her research projects, one focuses on creating Synthetic Intelligence through the construction of crystometric lattices. This will eventually lead to the development of highly intelligent Homunculi which can mimic the intelligence, if not quite the creativity and independence, of living beings.

When I picture Lucretia, the image in my mind is of a more complex character than I think really gets across on paper. Or maybe more than I can reliably play at the table. What I've written so far has attempted to cover what I think of as her selling points. She is brilliant, yes. A once-in-a-century, Mozart-esque genius even. But even Mozart had brilliant contemporaries. In many ways you could say he was a product of his times, and he had many advantages in his upbringing. His whole family was musically inclined, and he was steeped in the subject matter from a very early age.

Lucretia is quite similar in many respects. She has a keen mind, a relentless curiosity, and is completely, utterly, recklessly fearless. That last point might actually be the crux of my vision for the character, moreso than her intelligence. She wants to know everything, and is not afraid of the consequences. As a child, it's that quality that creates her most defining moments. Lucretia does not behave as a child, because she does not see herself as a child. She does not fear what the adults will do to her if she throws a tantrum when she doesn't get a treat. She does not fear her family's wrath when she commits a political faux pas by lobbing a stink-bomb into a neighbor's home at dinner. Punishment may come, yes. It may even turn out to be quite harsh, but that isn't much of a deterrent. Lucretia doesn't often accept when someone says she cannot do something. If she is determined to do it, she does it.

And as an aside, that is another important quality that has allowed her to succeed. She is not just brilliant – brilliant children are born all the time – but she is driven and focused. Sitting idle is anathema to her, she must always be doing something. It also helps that her family has almost always been wealthy enough to support her. Even in their darkest times, Lucretia has always been able to get the materials she needed to keep learning and building things. Maybe not everything she wanted, but enough.

Her fearlessness and focus are the aspects of her personality that have allowed her to accel so rapidly, but they have also hindered her personal relationships. She has been described as aloof, haughty, stubborn, and egotistical. And those are at the nicer end of the range. Some less flattering descriptors liken her to a frakenstinien maniac, a murderer, a witch, a warcriminal, or even an evil monster that steals children to use in vile experiments. She may be respected in scientific circles, but her political enemies – of which there are plenty – see her as a deadly and volatile threat. Lucretia is effectively the nuclear option in the Del'Amore's back pocket, a dangerous element that acts as a deterrant to aggression, while also preventing the Del'Amores from truly building trust with their allies. Everyone is always looking over their shoulder, wondering when the bomb is going to go off.

On that political note, let's talk about marriage for a second. On the one hand, Lucretia may just be completely unmarriable, for all practical purposes. Well, may is not really the word here. She just isn't marriable, period. My feeling on that comes down to two things. Chiefly, she isn't going to let herself be tied down by the baggage of a political marriage. She has no time for or interest in children, or for observing the niceties that come along with a political marriage for that matter. The whole point of a political marriage is generally to produce heirs, so that's a big wrench in the gears right there. Secondly, it would be like handing the proverbial nuclear codes to another House. Excepting a matrilineal marriage agreement, Lucretia would effectively be part of another House. Even with such an agreement, Lucretia would be obligated (at least in part) to work towards that House's interests. What this likely means is that it would dilute the threat that she represents and could embolden House Del'Amore's political enemies to attack from other vectors.

A third problem is that Lucretia, despite not being a bastard officially, is still a Half-Elf. While there may or may not be any kind of discrimination against Half-Elves in general among the Houses, in Lucretia's case it is a constant reminder that she was born under awkward circumstances. Lower houses might not be so picky if they were still effectively marrying up, but in order to counterbalance the first two points, Lucretia herself would effectively have to marry up in order to maintain the same degree of clout. As far as a House higher up the political food chain might be concerned, she might be politely referred to as “not a true Del'Amore.” Despite her upbringing, she would likely be treated as a bastard all the same. A higher House might consider marrying a Del'Amore, but they likely would not marry that low.

So the way I see it, Moria would probably decide one of two things. Either Lucretia can just do whatever she wants, which to be fair was always what Lucretia was going to do anyway, or she might have found a very shrewd political pairing. Meaning that Lucretia could very well be married, on paper at least, to a husband she has perhaps only met once or twice. And also that she continues to do whatever she wants which, to be fair, was always what Lucretia was going to do anyway. This feels to me like something the DM should decide.

Lucretia has several. Ideally, a lot. She's very intelligent, but suffers from many of the same pitfalls as other brilliant people. Here's some of the big ones:

• Perfectionism Nothing is ever quite good enough for Lucretia, especially her own work. Even when a task is done well or done for free, she's always critical of the results, whether her own or someone else's. “We must all strive to be better tomorrow than we were today. In your case, you might strive a little harder.”
• Egotism Lucretia is brilliant and, annoyingly, she knows it. She does not see herself as inferior to anyone, and often believes she knows best even in matters she is ignorant of. If something needs to be done, she's liable to attempt to do it herself, even if others might be better suited to the task. She often believes that she relies on others not because they are more skilled than she is, but because she simply does not have time to do everything, and having others do things leaves her free to pursue more important tasks. As with Dr. Strange, she “always has to be the one holding the knife.”
• Directness It's not that Lucretia lacks in social graces, as the daughter of a noble family, she knows how to engage in polite conversation. She often chooses not to or, if she does, she treats it as something akin to a fencing match rather than a conversation. She is especially difficult to have anything like and emotional heart-to-heart with. Some may consider her honesty and directness somewhat refreshing, coming from a noble, but it more often comes across as cruel, impolite, or crass.

Please see Prototypes

Main article: House Del'Amore

• Valerie Del'Amore – Mother
• Tim Del'Amore – Half-Brother
• Dorian Del'Amore – Cousin
• Moria Del'Amore – Cousin

• Zarn Kuo
• Xander Acciaio