Doria Black

Doria Black, eternal of the Crüxworld, appears on the co-op board Monochrome. In the Victorian era London, she was also widely known as "Black Widow", a name which, while correct, was hardly uttered in a flattering tone. And yes - the name is a shameless wordplay on Dorian Gray, as by Oscar Wilde. I adore that book.

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Date of Birth: xx.xx.1803
Marital status: five-fold widow (at the time of Monochrome)

Though born Emily Ballard in the England of the early 19th century, a member of the lower class, this young woman did not stay confined in her predetermined social status. She never had her sights set high - not until shortly after she turned twenty-one years old, and was ascended to something more than a life of poverty.

He called himself Benedict. Emily - Doria, as she began calling herself - thought her mad from the first moment she saw him, walking in his fine clothing straight down to the slums. If he had other reason for picking her than a simple count of eenie-meenie-minie-mo, Doria never found out. He gave no reasoning beyond "the high-and-fancy needing new sweet blood." [add stuff here]

Doria remained a young, beautiful lady for years and years. Indeed, a young, respectable lady, as marriage - or five - proved. Death, it seemed, had grown fond of her and took her husbands one by one. Lord Medley suffered from severe anemia and was found dead in his bed only two years into the marriage [note to self, check info on anemia]. Lord Goodwin, who after much courting received the hand of the still young widow, survived as her husband for seven years - cause of death, an unfortunate accident in stairs.

Heartbroken, lady Doria needed a change of scenery. Her third husband - who, incidentally, thought himself the first husband of a 20-year-old lady - was purported to be furious with his wife's inability to bear children. Lord Utteridge was found brutally murdered near a brothel not two years after the wedding. By the time this happened, the year was already 1851. Doria married again only in 1859, in another city - again thought a young lady, and nothing else. Several years afterwards, she was again widowed by the unfortunate disappearance of Lord Hubert. He was never found.

In time, she came to London. In the 1870s, she married a fifth time - one Lord Rupert Black, a figure of high standing in the high society, an also an elder man in need of a beautiful trophy wife. Doria seemed to serve this purpose well. Of course, it was most unfortunate that Lord Black passed away after a six-year marriage. Apparently, it was an accident - whoever claimed shady circumstances and shoddy work by the police, well... they were met with the same dangerous silence as claims of severe disagreement and fights between the married couple.

The late lady Black took no notice of rumors. She dressed in mourning and lived up to the name "Widow Black." A true product of the darker side of Victorian Age, she survived to times to come. (You'll hear more. I promise.)