Envie: A Town of Legacy, Deals, and Decay

johatfieldsoa
May 4, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Dec 30, 2025

A Legacy Too Stubborn to Die

Nestled in the forgotten folds of Tristesse, the town of Envie doesn’t elect its leaders. It inherits them.

For generations, one family has held control—not as officially recognized nobility, but as self-declared seigneurs. Though the Suzerain never confirmed the title, no one in Envie has dared to question it. Power here is tradition, and tradition is law.

The Cost of Rule

Gervais, the current seigneur, rose to power in blood and suspicion. When the neighboring town of Jalousie lost its barrier after failing to pay the service for a new Solenoid, its survivors fled to Envie seeking mercy. Gervais—then a young man on the cusp of replacing his father—had them all executed.

His reason? Fear of the dampened—a condition said to strip away emotion after contact with a Phase. His judgment was swift. His cruelty, legendary.

A Marriage to save Nostalgie

Now, Gervais plays a subtler game. To help Nostalgie obtain a much-needed Solenoid—and reclaim his family's relevance—he has arranged a political engagement between his son, Cyril, and Gavril, daughter of Fleurette and the long-vanished Résonateur known as Goel.

The goal of the union isn’t love. It’s lineage. Gervais hopes the union will produce Résonateur children, rare individuals who can weaponize emotion itself—valuable enough to trade with the Suzerain in exchange for power and protection.

Cyril, heir to Envie's withering prestige, expects Gavril to be dutiful, obedient, and above all, grateful.

Charmant’s Dream

His sister, Charmant, has her own ambitions. Pretty and poised, she dreams not of Solenoids or governance, but of luxury. She fantasizes about life in Éthéré Coeur, home of the Paramount elite, where handsome Résonateurs lounge in ivory towers.

Until then, she smirks behind Gavril’s back with her brother, mocking Nostalgie’s poverty and her future sister-in-law’s “pitiful” origins.

The Loyal Maid

Margaux, Gervais’ ever-loyal maid, is more fixture than servant in the old manor, her presence as constant as the mildew on its peeling walls. Once a scrappy waif from the outer edge of Envie, she lived with her ailing father in a sagging barn that had long since lost the right to be called a home.

After his death, she took to the alleys, scavenging what she could until Gervais himself glimpsed her and declared her far too pretty a thing to be left in the gutter. He brought her into the mansion and made her his maid—though it’s whispered her duties stretch beyond dusting mantels and boiling stews. Margaux is smitten, hopelessly so, and serves him with a devotion that borders on worship, blind to the bitter rot that curls beneath his polished exterior.

The Woman They Don't Talk About

And then there’s Fleurette—the name that makes Envie’s walls whisper. Once engaged to Gervais, she defied him, leaving for love, scandal, and a Résonateur named Goel. Seventeen years have passed since Goel left to pay the service. Gervais remains—and he makes sure everyone remembers it.

To most in Envie, Fleurette is “the whore who ran off,” but to Gervais, she’s a wound that never closed, a fire he cannot douse. They do not speak of their past, but it smolders just beneath the surface of every look and every slight.

A Town on the Brink

Envie clings to its rituals. Its reputation. Its lineage. But even stone cracks.

Its people whisper.

Envie remembers. It remembers Jalousie’s smoke. It remembers Fleurette’s betrayal. And soon, it may come to remember Gavril’s name—not as a bride, but as something else entirely.