Nightmoor: The Lady de’Kay

Lady de’Kay is a combination of the old lady (Miss Havisham) in “Great Expectations” and the Lady de’Winter of “The Three Musketeers”. She’s a crafty old lady who looked beautiful at one time, but time has taken her toll.

The Lady is a widow. Her husband was the first Mayor of Night-Moor. She lives alone in a big old Victorian house, except for her one servant. The grounds and the house are unkept, and she lives a very reclusive lifestyle. She still shows up to big political events, but for the most part she avoids people. Everything she does is in the memory of her husband.

Most contact with the Lady is through her lawyer (name still to be decided). He carries out the Lady’s wishes in the world of people & creatures. In some respects, she has her own political agenda, that she uses her vast wealth to carry out.

Towards the end of Lord de’Kay’s career, he was surrounded by political scandal — so much that he took his own life shortly after he stepped down from office (to this day, the Lady strongly doesn’t believe the “rumors” surrounding her husband, but holds firmly to the belief that he was a saint & saviour of Night-Moor). He was a drunkard & did beat her, but she’s willing to forget about such things in light of his death (or some twisted, illogical love/hate she has for him). Overall, he really wasn’t a good man, but she tolerated/loved/respected/hated/despised/etc. him.

She has the classic victim mentality. She to be both pitied & feared, sympathize for, yet repulsed by. She’s a classic tragedy figure. …probably the most complex character in Night-Moor.

In the early days, the Lady was a social climber — she married for wealth & prestige. She has a lot of ‘old money’ & all psychological make-up that ‘old money’ implies — snobbishness, servants, dreams of the good-old-days, life-was-simplier-back-then, she was the head of many social events, she founded many of the social activities & the arts in Night-Moor, one of the leading pioneers of Night-Moor, she knew her place as a lady & didn’t question it, brought up in (& surrounded by) tradition, etc.