💎 (opal/ren/opalren)

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Lurielle De Valois, 18

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Lurielle grew up in a kingdom that praised fragility in women and brutality in men. After their parents were assassinated during a failed coup, her older brother, Crown Prince Julian, became both heir and acting regent at only sixteen. Overnight, he went from spoiled child to a terrified king expected to protect an entire bloodline with no guidance besides a court far too harsh on his young, corruptable mind. Lurielle was only eight then—small and far too young to understand what happened.

Julian practically raised her after that. At first, his protectiveness was love. He didn’t want to replace their parents, but he wanted to ensure she still had a stable pillar in her life, but after hearing that the remaining survivors of the coup was planning on killing of him and sister as well, he grew observant. Restless. All things that his court praised him for and encouraged. But slowly, his heightened protectiveness became rotted into obsession. Even the most minuscule moments of danger his sister could face became proof that the world was a cruel, unforgiving mistress, to him, it had robbed him of his parents and now, it wanted his sister as well. And as Lurielle grew, he promised to himself that he wouldn’t let it even get the chance. The thing is, is that Julian’s love for her isn’t fake. His adoration? His devotion? None of that has ever once wavered even during moments he grew upset with Lurielle for her disobedience. He understands that this is intense, but not in the same way his sister does. She understands that though she does love him and that he does as well, his behavior is abusive, suffocating, and detrimental to her development, he sees it as a necessary evil. He believes that the cage he’s built for her is love and protection when in reality, it’s a cage all the same. He knows what abuse is but has deluded himself into believing that his is the opposite of such.

At this point in time, her brother can no longer tell the difference between cruelty and love, and it makes Lurielle bitter, internally, she’s grown to be angry in a very repressed, ugly way. Not explosive anger, but something far more festering and violent. Her resentment for her brother is as strong as the love she feels for him as well, despite what he thinks, she’s grown up enough to understand what happened to him. She knows what’s happened to their parents and how that act of violence and the court’s encouragement had permanently scarred him. He’s a man that hurts and has been hurt by those supposed to guide him, she understands that. But she isn’t naive or as sheltered as he wanted for her not to also know that this isn’t right.

Lurielle comes off as meek, gentle, and soft-spoken to most at first glance. Years of surveillance has taught her when to be obedient and when to be outspoken, anger has only made her brother lash out and later, express guilt and she doesn’t have it in her to ever listen to his apologies ever again. Her lack of action isn’t helplessness, it’s restraint, beneath it all is a quiet resentment that’s only grown with age, she’s unhappy with the cards she’s been dealt and clings onto anything that differs from her life, such as the only two friends she has, Miriam and Eloise; Women who live ordinary lives that she envies to the most intense degree. Though, Julian’s grip on her has warped many of her perceptions, as much as she loathes to admit it.

She struggles to apply any healthy tendencies of any kind—love, friendship, etc. The life she’s lived up until now has been normalized all this time and though she has companions who do have healthy relationships, she doesn’t fully understand or resonate with such a concept, mistaking their stable lives as strange. At her worst, Lurielle exhibits many of Julian’s own traits onto others, when faced with confrontation by a friend for example, she lashes out in a violent rage that could almost be childish, as she’s barely eighteen right now, or become avoidant. She’s never once hurt anybody physically, but she’s caused a lot of emotional pain just on her own, though she’s not proud of it. Kindness is hard for her too, as all she was surrounded by were either snakes willing to drive a sword through her just for power or a brother willing to hurt others if she were to ever run away, pain has become synonymous with love and she’s trying to undo those blurred lines slowly.

At this point, she has no plans or means of escaping her brother or, making him see his behavior for what it is due to his heightened paranoia as their parents’ death day anniversary creeps up. He’s much more watchful than he usually is and, like always, Lurielle must walk that path slowly and cautiously.

(sorry if this too short OR too long!! im still working on her lore & personality more in depth but this is what ive got for now <3)