View source for Claire Lavigne

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<seo title="Claire Lavigne" metak="ravenloft,claire lavinge,barovia,neverwinter nights,nwn,game,rpg,persistent world,pw,d&d,dungeons & dragons" metad="Toret Claire Lavigne, keeper of the Rest of Tears Chapel in Renika, in Time of Unparalleled Darkness - a NWN1 persistent world set in the Ravenloft Campaign Setting" />{{toud-canon}}{{charbox
|name=Claire Lavigne
|picture=clairelavigne.png
|age=117<ref name="may_20250207"></ref>
|race=Elf (commoner Dementlieuse)<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>
|gender=Female<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>
|parents=[[Jean Lavigne]], unnammed elf mother<ref name="may_20250207">'''Server Canon:''' written by Maiyannah, 2025-02-07.</ref>
|nationality=[[Dementlieu|Dementlieuse]]<ref name="may_20250204">'''Server Canon''': Written by Maiyannah 2025-02-04.</ref>
|citizenship=[[Dementlieu]]<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>
|birthplace=[[Edrigan]], [[Dementlieu]]<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>
|title=Toret of the Rest of Tears Chapel<ref name="may_20250204"></ref> }}
'''Toret Claire Lavigne''' is, among her original sect, an oddity: the Third is not often given to missionary work, but she found herself taken with it.  She travelled the core for some years as an elven youth, before discovering in [[Renika]], [[Barovia]] a buried, ancient ruin where an endless fount of blessed, holy water sprung, and a great statue of a figure very like early Dementlieuse period depictions of Ezra was found.  After finding some support among her peers, and petitioning the home church, she was granted funds and support to construct a chapel above this sunken ruin, to study the find and give worship to Our Guardian in the Mists.  This lead to the creation of the [[Rest of Tears Chapel]], a lavish but small place of worship, which then uses the undercroft as its quarters and stores, with the relatively-inexperienced Claire as it's Toret.<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>

== Physical Description ==
A beautiful woman by conventional standards, at least for those that abide a ginger, Claire has a striking porcelain skin, covered by freckles especially about shoulders, and the backs of her arms and legs, contrasted by her bright orange-red hair and emerald eyes.  She keeps herself in immaculate cleanliness and orderliness when she can help it, with well-tended hair, carefully-trimmed nails, and the like.  Usually, Claire wears the same habit as an anchorite, insisting on not placing herself above the other anchorites in her congregation.  However, at her side is almost always an ancient scabbard of applewood, gifted to her by [[Emmanuelle Skyshard]] that she keeps close both for sentimental and practical value, bearing within an expensive, enchanted blade of especially unique make for an Ezra: a vistani moonsteel, gilded in orichalcum.<ref name="may_20250207"></ref>

== Personality ==
As a leader in Renika, Claire is often seen as an eccentric but well-meaning woman, and while most are not terribly close or friendly to her, very few turn her away.  She is very elven in that she is known for great moments of passion that are nonetheless fleeting.  A pious woman, she is given to theological debate with those whom might given them.  Unlike many elves, she is a very structured woman, and believes that strict adherence to the tenets and virtues of her faith provide for her salvation.  In conversation, she is generally quiet and withdrawn, speaking only if she truly feels she has something to add, but is warm when she does speak.<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>
Generally, Claire keeps out of the day-to-day affairs of Renika, as she is quite aware - and self-conscious - about Barovian prejudices of elvenkind.  To those locals whom like her, she tends to be "the one good one."<ref name="may_20250207">'''Server Canon''': written by Maiyannah, 2025-02-07.</ref>

== Background ==
Claire was actually a misfortunate child: born of an elf mother and human father, she took most of the blood of her mother, whom abandoned both her and her father, leaving him to raise her. Although he had a job as a playwright that paid well when the plays were going, this was an infrequent income and often left him performing on the street to make ends meet for him and his daughter.  This lead to him falling in the clutches of predatory debt, and, eventually, death, when he missed too many payments to a loan shark, and thus essentially left Claire orphaned.<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>

While she was well into her seventies at this point, for an elf this is still only reaching the teenage years, and so she lived on the streets for a considerable number of years - for she was too old for an orphanage.  It was an act of kindness that saw this reversed: when the Toret of Edrigan heard of her plight, and that she was born into the faith and baptised, he felt compelled to take her in.  She then lived at the church, essentially, making a meagre but comfortable living cleaning it, learning to research with the anchorites, and teaching local gentry's children their letters and numbers.<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>

Her life led Claire to want to pay forward the charity that turned her life around, and when she came of age, she undertook and passed the Trial of the Mists, becoming a wandering anchorite.  She traveled for some time and became known as a competent healer and magnanimous woman, but it was when she traveled through Barovia she would find her place in the Grand Scheme: adventuring with some locals in investigation of undead stirring, they found a sunken temple, pristine and well-kept, in its center a seemingly everlasting fountain of holy water.  A vile necromancer had taken up the place as their hideout, but was foiled by its nature: the two fountains, and the stature between them, drove away the Legion with their holy nature.  In studying the statue, she had a religious experience, and became convinced the statue was dedicated to Ezra.  Indeed, whether the religious experience confirmed it or not, the statue curiously matched many early Dementlieuse depictions of Ezra, from the times of the Cathedrale Sainte Meres-des-Larmes.<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>

Claire became obsessed with studying the ruins, empty except for this fixtures.  It was as if everyone simply got up and left, taking everything with them - but why?  Slowly she "moved in" to the ruins, and then accumulated a bookcase of books in her research, and then another.  Then the aid of other anchorites.  It dawned on her she should create a church to support the endeavour, and petitioned the [[Great Cathedral of Levkarest]] for funds and support to do so.  It would grant her request after some deliberation, and thus a 5 year construction project was undertaken, relocating the statue into a chapel above the sunken temple, and creating a proper if small place of worship around it.  The local craftsmen hired for the endeavour became of the faith themselves to see the miracles of healing Claire began to perform for Renika using the blessed waters, and a small congregation formed.<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>

In the years following, but prior to the Time of Unparalleled Darkness, Claire's inexperience in leadership became a struggle, but one she mostly saw through by means of a certain charisma, and a diplomatic mindset.  She came into standing above her position as a mere Toret, for the prestige and importance given to the sunken temple that now formed the undercroft of the Rest of Tears Chapel, and also as she was the leader of the only congregation of the Third Sect not in Dementlieu or one of its colonies or territories.<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>

The coming of said Time was a controversial one for Claire's position in the church, for she followed her cousin [[Emmanuelle Skyshard]] to the Fifth Sect when it was founded through the Rite of Revelation - indeed, she was one of the anchorites whom learned of this teach before it was ratified, and followed it and Emma to perform the Rite.  This left a sour note with the Third Sect, who felt they were robbed of some degree of standing from it.  In truth to this day the controversy was never quite resolved - it merely lost momentum and interest over time.<ref name="may_20250204"></ref>

== Holdings ==
* Toret of the [[Refuge of Tears Chapel]], [[Renika]], [[Barovia]].<ref name="may_20250201">'''Server canon''': written by Maiyannah, 2025-02-01.</ref>

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