Ghyll:Madam Calvian
Madame Bavariana Aliya Calvian is perhaps best known as younger sister to the Lady Bavarian Magdelene Creame, but also for many other noteworthy topics as we shall soon see. The Madame was born Bavariana Aliya Wallinger in Folktown on -54/7/11 EC to parents Latvi Reginal Cronin Wallinger and Jelena Brandi Dossleham-Lenhork; the young lady was toasted as the "Prettiest Babe in Folktown" for a whole two seasons. Her rearing, prior to her First Molting, is quite unextraordinary and without note. When only nine years of age in -45 EC, Madame Bavariana was present for the nuptial festivities of her sister Bavarian to the Baron Smallwood. She was also there for her sister when that marriage fell apart in -33 EC.
Between these two formational events took place the young Bavariana’s education. Taught at the exclusive Mandeville Girls School in nearby Sejfeld during her late adolescence, she followed this training with a stint as a disciple of Aminfarances at the local Institute situated in Cranee. Her taste for technomancy notwithstanding, she did not remain long in this field (in a very rare interview purportedly written by a "friend", she is reported to have said that it was the "dreaded bakesale" that drove her away). Regardless, after only one trimester she followed a more common course for ladies, entering the Sivitatuhum Academy for Ladies in Folktown.
While in training as a young Lady she came to know Ser Mek Thoedore Harling. Though not yet ready for any serious suiting in the eyes of her parents, the young Bavariana and Mek were known to have had a number of romantic moonlit dinners. Though love and household union may have been theoretically possible in the future, this was not to be but for the forces in Bavariana’s elder sister’s life.
In -35 EC, even as her sister became the Mayoress of Folktown, Bavariana graduated from the Sivitatuhum. She also graduated into a full blown family crisis. Where Lady Bavarian is known from those days as Mayor Hew Loan’s left-hand woman and widely touted as "responsible for preventing the destruction of museums, jobs and even preventing several wars," Madame Bavariana is known as the woman who kept the family laundry from blowing in the wind. This became painfully important during her sister’s public separation from her spouse and especially during the divorce proceedings, when headlines grabbed as many patrons of bars, pubs, and carapace sanding-salons as was mathematically possible. Bavariana kept her chin up, her ear open, and her mouth shut unless she was refuting the ugly rumors with her polished spit (as the saying goes). She is said to have been her sister’s emotional foundation during that time. Once the final divorce agreement was signed, Bavariana took to rearing her three nephews and nieces as any good auntie is wont to do. As to Bavarian, "always the skillful politician, she gained even more support and praise as a result of the separation and continued to be adored in her public office."
Though Bavariana was quite content when Bavarian inherited their father’s title and became the Lady Smallwood she is also known to have said that it was not her happiest day to see that title be taken away from the Wallinger House and given to the man we all know as the Baron Claude Lloyd Albert Smallwood (for a special note on the "Smallwood Title", please see below).
Her views regarding Bavarian's -31 EC marriage to Sir Bartholemew Sinch, Esquire, are unknown but the rumor remains to this day that she was not present at the private ceremony (and what few illicit lumograms exist show not a flake nor hide of the younger sister).
It was after this, however, that Bavarian became yet again pregnant and took to rearing herself her own broodlings. This freed Bavariana to seek out her own personal goals apart from those of her sister. Though oft compared to her more famous sibling, Madame Bavariana is most unlike her driven sister. Her physique is quite soft-shelled and her demeanor is equally mild, pleasant, and calming. This attracted to her a goodly number of suitors, but it was Ser York Timperton-Axis who won her heart. In -29 EC, after a dazzling courtship, the two were wed; the happiness was short-lived for on -28/1/4 EC, York was killed in a bizarre gardening accident involving clippers, a prized spitmound and a feral chicken. The funeral was attended by members of the many-tiered Wallinger, Timperton-Axis and Sinch families as well as a majority of the Amphitheatre Aristocracy. Bavariana retreated from society for a good year afterward.
In -27 EC, she re-emerged a new woman. At age 27, she was still a charming figure of a woman and, in the social season of that year, she wowed the society elite with her decorum, her resilience, her beauty, and her strength. She had already begun aiding her sister’s endeavors in charitable works and proved herself a true asset to Ghyllian culture. She became a patroness to artists and sculpters, especially those who showed a bent towards the deep mysteries.
Again she opened herself to courtship and this time was won over by the man Kardiff Calvian. He was not born in Folktown, but came in from the west, from Iganefta-on-the-Sea, born of simple parents. Though not rich he was not poor, though not an elite he was not common, though not university educated he was far from ignorant. He showed himself a man of some mystery and of deep thoughts and movements. The courtship was gradual due to Bavariana’s previous experience. They wed on -25/8/12 EC in Marsh Gibbon at Undivaggen. Thus began Bavariana’s wedded bliss and her new family life. The couple moved into a home in Folktown and she bore her first hatchling in -23 EC (Kardiff Aeleks) and then another in -21 EC (Latvi Bouk) and then twins in -18 EC (Brandi Soo and Nigala Jasna). Even as she raised her own family, she continued to care for her nephews and nieces.
As is well known, her niece, Niala Wallinger, dated Daniel Mboya, but the relationship was broken off when, in -8 EC, Niala’s mother accepted a marriage proposal from Daniel’s uncle, Windsor Creame. Though there is some speculation that the break-up somehow involved the hapless Vemish, it is widely believed that she broke up with Daniel because she couldn’t cope with this intimate interconnecting of family lines. It is also said that Niala fled to the heartstrings of her auntie Bavariana. Since that time Niala and Bavarian have had a poor relationship, made worse with the recent death of Daniel at the alleged hands of his uncle Windsor. It is rumored that Bavarian and Niala have not seen each other face to face for quite some time and that Bavarian speaks to her daughter through the intercession of Bavariana. And as to any relationship between Niala and Vemish, Bavariana has publicly stated that Niala’s friendship of Vemish was purely through the accident of his being a friend of Daniel.
As to her social life, Bavariana was a long-time member of the Folktown Amphitheatre Aristocracy but, in -5 EC, she startled Folktown sensibilities by resigning from membership. Not only was her resignation astounding, but her written statement made the whole affair even more so: "Why be when one isn’t? If one isn’t than what is? All is charade, and the Foreigners are coming, and they shall sweep clean the streets." This macabre line of thoughts lit up the pubs, the bars, and the carapace wax-salons for weeks on end. The questions became lines for poets’ waxations and for The Uninformed to speak of ignorantly and the Conspiracists to whisper of lightly. Bavariana has never explained these odd words and she has never spoken more of Foreigners or of street-cleaners, though not a few have tried to gain some insight as to what she may have been referring.
When family members have been asked regarding this matter only the Lady Siam Sinch-Foye, her niece, has responded and this with not much elucidation: "The glitterthought was ruined on the day of my Auntie’s departure. Indeed, she departed, passed on, as it were, on that fateful day. I teared terribly, wells of sadness welling up from within my deepest recesses. Why must the men come from afar only to take away the flower of one’s soul? She is a goodly woman, my Auntie, and though the glitter must continue, as the glitter pervades all, the glitter is lessened for the coming and the leaving." When asked about what coming and leaving she was speaking of, and to what men, she simply sobbed and danced away. This writer, dear Readers, is none too fearful to say that the Wallinger and Sinch women are an odd bunch.
Prior, in -11 EC, the year most resoundly remembered for the doggerel plague, Bavariana was on retreat in her ancestral home of Undivaggen in the village of Marsh Gibbon north-west of Folktown. It is reported that she was involved in an inner excavation of the home and had, indeed, found "something" of "importance" but what this is has never been disclosed. Rumors persist... some say she was not excavating at all but rather involved in dance rituals of a Karcist nature; others say she was indeed digging and that something came up from Down There, and still more say that whatever she was doing, it wasn’t proper for a woman and that she may have been responsible for the plague itself. Ah, rumors. Not quite as detailed as wives’ tales but twice as creative.
Un-associated with this series of rumors, yet curiously parallel, is another: that Bavariana, for quite a number of years, has been involved with occultic feasts fixated on the Alezan pantheon. No part of "that strange and dark land" has fascinated more than the pantheon and no aspect of the pantheon has so fascinated more than the question of their Whereabouts and/or Return. Some consider the pantheon to be ancient stories, others stories of recent manufacture. One group says that the gods of the pantheon are spiritual parasites, while others say that it is we who are the true ringworms. But whatever the truth, almost all folk in the world have "some inborn concept of them, and any reminder of their existence is likely to give anyone the willies. Any more than that is likely to drive them insane." And so the rumors regarding Bavariana... and her sister Bavarian. Even sister "Long Jack" Juffers has an unhealthy attraction to the dark forces as seen in her involvement with the NeoAlezanians Movement (though her use of dark imagery has been less serious than that alleged of her sisters). Though many there are who claim to have encountered these dark gods, Madame Bavariana is not one of them. Indeed she gives no impression she is an inquisitor into forbidden knowledge, nor a murmurer of arcane messages, nor a harbinger of ravenous dread. She is still the calm, peaceful Lady we have all come to know.
As to her work at Undivaggen: before her marriage she had moved back to her ancestral home for a bit of a stay, and it was during this time and with her sister Bavarian that the two, with their third sister Jacky, began its renovation. Though still a Folktown resident, Madame Bavariana refers to her ancient home as "the vagennha" meaning Her Own Richness of Being. Obviously, this dwelling truly is a home to this soft-spoken woman who has sacrificed so much of her life for that of her family. And though she is criticized because a source of the Calvian income comes from the user fees collected from tourists entering the Undivaggen, her publicist's statement has constantly been: "Who would begrudge our Madame of an honest earning?" Who indeed, who indeed?
The Smallwood Title
As to the Smallwood Title, it must be stated here that many members of the lay public are quite confused as to its attributes. First and foremost, the Title Smallwood is not to be confused with the Grant of the Smallwood House, even though the majority of the populace have flummoxed themselves over this quite nicely for decades. The Wallinger and the Smallwood Houses were united and then sundered by the marriage and then divorce of Bavarian Wallinger and Claude Smallwood. Claude Smallwood gained the Title Smallwood by virtue of his divorce contract in -33 EC. In -12 EC, he received the Grant of Smallwood by virtue of the abdication of his uncle Iain Underholm Smallwood. Though unfortunate, the Title of Baron Smallwood and the Grant of Smallwood fell into the hands of the same man, and so has caused confusion since -33 EC. The easiest way to separate the two investitures is to recall that Claude Smallwood was born into the Smallwood family and was heir to the Grant of Baron, that is, the under-royal title of Lord of the Manor, the Manor being Chez Smallwood. Claude inherited this Grant in -12 EC. What he gained previously in -33 EC was the Title of Baron Smallwood, which had been held by Ser Latvi Reginal Wallinger. This Title did not confer with it any landed manor, but rather conferred an estate of riches & monies. As part of the divorce decree of -33 EC, Claude retained the Title Baron Smallwood but without benefit of the estate, of the family fortune. One cause of the uproar of the divorce was this shocking settlement, for from that date all understood that whomever would next receive the Title of Baron Smallwood would be bereft of the fortune which would otherwise be their right. Quite scandalous and embarrassing, some say this is the reason Iain Smallwood delayed in handing over the Grant of Baron to Claude. Since that time, however, it is said that Baron Claude Smallwood’s aim has been to build a personal fortune anew with which to endow the next entitled Baron Smallwood, and he has been doing a smashing job of it.
Citations: Sivitatuhum Academy for Ladies, Uninformed, The, Undivaggen.
--Nikos of Ant 18:05, 14 Aug 2005 (EDT)
