Vasque Desmarais

Appearance
Lady Vasque Desmarais is a formidable woman in her forties, with ash brown hair and piercing mahogany eyes. Large, thick silver hoop earrings serve as her only jewelry, and she notably has no wedding band. Handsome, tall, and businesslike, she is accustomed to getting her own way, both in business and in pleasure. She is at once merciless, vindictive, calculating, and beautiful; her manners and comportment are flawless, and her intelligence formidable.

History
Vasque is the daughter of a noble of Lordaeron and the eldest daughter to the MacClure vineyard estate. Laurance Desmarais was very well connected and owned most of the vineyards throughout the Eastern Kingdoms; he did not, however, own the richest grape-growing soil in all of Azeroth. This he found unacceptable, and so he made a decision. He approached the parents of young, shy Elizabeth MacClure, making them an offer they could not refuse, and with that union the crown jewel of his empire was set. Vasque, the only product of that arranged pairing, now controls the entire empire herself, and Desmarais Vintners makes nearly all the wine sold on Azeroth. Her ascent to that position was not without it's own set of difficulties, however.

Laurance Desmarais was a shrewd businessman, very smart, and very calculating. Though nobly born, he realized the charade inherent to his title and married below his caste, seeking to expand his empire rather than the good opinion others may or may not have had about him. Elizabeth MacClure Desmarais, on the other hand, was a pathetic woman with no notion of self worth whatsoever, and little was ever said or done by anyone to correct that notion. Vasque hated her mother for being weak as much as she loved her father for his power, and she worshipped and emulated him, learning everything she could about grapes, harvesting, aging and kegging. Though her knowledge of winemaking was vast, even from a tender age, it was eventually decided that she would train as a mage, not because she had any magical proclivities, but because the connections to Dalaran were invaluable.

While away from the family estate, her father attempted to marry her off to another noble; for though he loved his daughter and respected her greatly, Laurance Desmarais did not think a woman could, or should, run his vineyards. Vasque already knew more about wine and vineyards than most people ever would, male or female, but this did not sway her father, and when Vasque learned of his betrayal she was crushed. She vowed she would never marry, and she scoured the libraries of Dalaran, looking for some loophole in the law that would swing the tide of events in her favor. Her research was rewarded when she found the ancient law of Ius Soli, or 'right of the soil.' It was intended, generations past, to protect the makers of wine from the greed of nobles who tried to take over the growers land for themselves. A long-forgotten law, but a law nonetheless, and it suited Vasque's interests perfectly, as she not only would own the land if her father died, but was also a noble. But she could not marry or else the vast empire would shift to her new husband, and with it the control, the power, and the profit; so Vasque did the only thing she could do. She had her father assassinated, and she took over the Desmarais Vintners as the sole head of the entire operation. From grapes to workers to bottling to shops, she controls it all.

She was twenty years old at the time.

Vasque keeps her own counsel.