Shemhazai Library
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Houses: Their Histories &
Their Role in Terre d'Ange
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Cereus House
House motto: All Loveliness
Fades
House canon: fragile transience, pale and exquisite, frail
bloom and pallor, pale, swooning, unobtrusive grace, beauty of a most
ephemeral nature, delicacy of conduct, taught to move like a swaying
willow, limbs disposed to grace, heads high with pride, fragile and
beautiful; Joscelin's appearance fits the physical canon [clear blue
eyes (the color of a summer sky) and hair the color of a wheatfield at
harvest (KD 255)], immaculate discretion; "they celebrate the
ephemeral nature of beauty" (NK 200)
Beliefs: beauty is at its most poignant when Death holds poised
to wither it; it is a mark of delicacy to find the stronger passions
immodest; appreciation for the transient nature of life and beauty
Marque: intricate patterns of pale green vines and night-blue
flowers twining up her spine; a last blossom to shape the finial (KD
24); "a vast unfamiliar flower, ivory tinted with the faintest blush
of pink, climbed from the base of her spine to blossom across her
lovely shoulders" (NK 215); the livery of Cereus House is a deep
twilight blue bearing a subtle gold cereus blossom
The House itself: an inner courtyard garden where autumn
flowers of marigod, amaryllis, and chrysanthemum bloomed in profusion
(NK 201)
Adepts: Miriam Bouscevre is the Dowayne when Phedre is born and
adopted/bought
Ellyn, a girl Phedre's age, to become an adept here
Suriah, adept of Phedre's childhood, Winter Queen, Second to Dowayne
Jareth
Jareth Moran, Second to Dowayne Miriam, sits on the cabinet for the
Guild of the Servants of Naamah while Phedre is revolutioning
Jacinthe, a girl whose marque Cereus bought in Phedre's childhood
Donatien, a boy whose marque Cerues bought in Phedre's childhood
Cecilie Laveau-Perrin, adept under Dowayne Miriam, Phedre and Alcuin's
teacher, widow of Antoine Perrin
Jean-Louis, the adept who 'entertains' Phedre at Melisande's fete
Neriel nó Cereus, Dowayne when Moirin visits Cereus House
Jehanne de la Courcel, the Queen of Terre d'Ange as Daniel de la
Courcel's second wife, and Moirin's patron/lover in the D'Angeline
court
Etienne, an adept with whom Jehanne was often paired for Showings
before she married Daniel
Notable moments: Jareth Moran provides the 15 tokens for
Phedre's Boys while he is Dowayne
Other information: founded by Enediel Vintesoir, credited as
founder of the Night Court; first and greatest lesson we learn in
Cereus House is silence; Dowayne has a seat on City Judiciary; has
always been First: from it grew Night Court proper; hosts the
Midwinter Masque; always supplies the Winter Queen and maintains that
theme; they tell a story of Naamah's temptation of Cassiel (KD 512);
Cereus's explanation (NK 394)
All beauty's transient, but I'm not one to ache at its passing - or at
least not to relish the ache (Ti-Philippe). In Ysandre, Phedre sees
"steel beneath a fragile bloom" (KD 211)
