Characters / Desire & Decorum

Below are the major and minor characters for the Visual Novel/Desire & Decorum. Warning, spoilers ahead!

Main Characters

Clara Mills

The protagonist of the story

• All of the Other Reindeer: Clara is looked down upon, for her illegitimate birth. Clara admits, while in Grovershire (where she was raised, by her mother) people were cruel and unwelcoming towards her and nobility call her a bastard.
• Bastard Angst: Clara spends much of the first book trying to prove herself worthy of Edgewater despite being an illegitimate child. A Hope Spot appears when she realizes her parents were married, but their marriage was annulled before she was born.
• Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: When Clara first meets her father, she curtsies and addresses him as ‘my lord’ (while avoiding eye contact with him. As she was terrified, that he would take one look at her and send her back to Grovershire).
• Rags to Riches: She goes from a village girl, to a Lady of Edgewater. Then in Book 2, she becomes a Countess.

Ernest Sinclaire

Owner of Ledford Park

• Developers' Desired Date: He is the main love interest in the story, not only because he saves and protects Clara from Richards (who he has a personal grudge against), but also because he is the kind of suitor Regency society would approve for the player character (male, white, British, high society), even though all the other love interests have significant amounts of free screen time and relevance to the story. Even after Richards' defeat, the events of Book 3 mainly revolve around Ernest, Richards and the people connected to them.
• Hidden Heart of Gold: Ernest secretly delivers food and supplies to “fallen women” at night.

Annabelle Parsons

• The Smurfette Principle: The only female love interest for Clara.

Edgewater Family

Vincent Foredale

The Earl of Edgewater and Clara's father

• Good Parents: Vincent immediately shows his love for Clara upon meeting her.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Mary, who was a lower-class opera singer, which led to the annulment of their brief marriage by Vincent's father.

Dominique Foredale

The dowager countess of Edgewater, Vincent's mother and Clara's grandmother.

• Big Good: Counter to Henrietta, Big Bad
• Outliving One's Offspring: Her son Vincent died before her.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Due to not knowing the kind of man Duke Richards is, she gets him and her granddaughter Clara engaged against her will.
• Unwitting Pawn: The reason she got Clara engaged to Duke Richards is that the Duke tricked her into it as part of his plot to depose the monarchy.

Countess Henrietta

Clara's stepmother

• Arranged Marriage: Earl Vincent's father forced him to annul his marriage to Mary and marry Henrietta because she is a noble while Mary is a commoner.
• Big Bad: Of Book 1, as she tries to prevent Clara from inheriting Edgewater in favor of her son.
• Hate Sink: Henrietta shows no sliver of redeeming qualities at all throughout her appearance. Aside from being a Wicked Stepmother, she acts domineering towards her son Edmund Marlcaster, attempts to break his engagement with Theresa Sutton because the latter has no social standing, never shows any love for Earl Vincent, keeps Annabelle Parsons in her sewing circle just for being Harry’s fiancée, and treats servants like dirt.
• Wicked Stepmother: Countess Henrietta constantly makes insulting remarks towards Clara and tries to have Vincent’s will changed so Clara won’t inherit Edgewater.

Edmund Marlcaster

Henrietta's son from her first marriage and Clara's stepbrother

• Developers' Desired Date: For Briar Daly, not only because Henrietta opposes their relationship due to her being Clara's servant, but also because even if she is single at the end of the series, she will still end up bearing his child.

Rupert Foredale

The former Earl of Edgewater, Vincent's father and Clara's grandfather.

• Greater-Scope Villain: He was the one who forced the marriage between his son Vincent and Henrietta after annulling the former's previous marriage to Mary and Duke Richards was his protege, thus originating all the problems Clara has to face.
• Posthumous Character: He's dead before the events of the series.
• Villainous Legacy: He's a cruel dictator who made his granddaughter Clara's life hell by annulling her parents' marriage and forcing her father to marry Henrietta, who wants to seize Edgewater for herself, which is why Dominique pushed Clara towards his protege Duke Richards, who keeps making unwanted advances towards her and even tries to rape her, making Rupert one of the biggest Hate Sinks in the story.

Antagonists

Tristan Richards

The Duke of Karlington

• Abhorrent Admirer: To Clara. Unfortunately for Clara, he doesn't take no for an answer.
• Big Bad: Of Book 2. He not only sexually harasses Clara constantly and even tries to rape her, not to mention he tricked her grandmother into having them engaged against her will, in Book 2 Clara and co discover that he plans to overthrow the Prince Regent and seize the throne.
• Dirty Old Man: He makes numerous unwanted advances towards Clara, culminating in him attacking her as she was on the way to Edgewater.
• Expy: In Book 1, he starts being like Gaston, then in Book 2, he's more like Jafar.^note He has a golden statuette of a person with a snake's head.
• Hate Sink: He is established as this as soon as he was introduced thanks to his arrogance and ego. He gets worse and worse when he continues making unwanted advances toward Clara and refusing to take no for an answer.
• Knight of Cerebus: Unlike most examples, the darker tone he establishes in the series is a gradual buildup since he is first introduced as an arrogant prick who has eyes on Clara, followed by unwelcome gestures towards her and culminated with an attack on her. The Darkest Hour comes in Book 2 Chapter 15, not only because Clara is forced to marry him (thanks to her grandmother having them engaged against her will), but also because Clara and co will probably lose the chance to stop Richards from seizing the throne.
• Politically Incorrect Villain: It's highly implied that Duke Richards is racist towards anyone who isn't white, as evidenced by his disparaging remarks towards Prince Hamid and a non-white Clara.
  Duke Richards (to a non-white Clara): A woman of your status and... complexion ought to be thanking whatever god she prays to that a man like me wishes to wed her.

Unwitting Pawn: A premium option in Book 2 Chapter 12 reveals that the co-conspirators are using him as a figurehead so they could control him from behind the throne should he become king.

Gideon Payne

Duke Richards' friend

• Big Bad: Takes up the mantle in Book 3 after Richards is imprisoned.
• Dragon Ascendant: He was Richards' Dragon in Book 2.
• The Man Behind the Man: Deposing the monarchy is his goal all along, and unbeknownst to Richards, Gideon has been using him in Book 2.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Starting in Book 3 Chapter 12, he drops his fake French accent when threatening Viscount Harry into overthrowing the monarchy.

Minor Characters

Mary

Clara's late mother

• Alliterative Name: If you keep Clara's default surname, her name will be Mary Mills.
• Deathbed Confession: She admitted that she lied, about Clara's father had died before she was born.
• Good Parents: Mary raised Clara with love and care.
• Multiple-Choice Past: Her origins depend on her ethnicity. If white, she was found singing in a meadow on the continent (Mainland Europe) when employees of Opera St. James noticed her singing and hired her. If Chinese, she had been performing in her native China since three and was taken to England by a captain. If Indian, a captain discovered her singing for coins and took her to England. If black, she was shipped to England from the Caribbean when a first mate heard her singing.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: With Vincent. The reason Vincent's father annulled their brief marriage is because he wants Vincent to marry for money, while Mary is just a lower-class opera singer.