About Jean Lamarre"My name is Jean Lamarre. I am a soldier of France under the anointed helm of Joan of Arc. I used to be a different man. I used to be a tool of the devil." STATS:
Init. +0, Senses Perception +0
Oracle Casting:
Spells Known Level 0- DC 14
Level 1 DC 15
Spells Per Day Level 1- 5 (4/Class, 1/CHA) The Story of Jean Lamarre:
Antoine Bayard, son of Pierre Bayard, was born in the commune of Auch, in the Duchy of Gascony, France. He was the seventh son of the seventh son of his grandfather, and seemed to be touched by the Lord from birth. Since he was young he had an enlightened mind, a shrewd countenance, and many spiritual signs followed him. As he grew, he began to speak in strange languages, just as it is told of the day of Pentecost in the Book of Acts, and even in his youth performed some healing deeds. Antoine Bayard was destined for sainthood, and was sent to the Basilique Cathédrale Sainte-Marie d'Auch , where he learned of the deeper things of the Lord and the Catholic Church. In the Cathedral he excelled in his learnings, but as he grew in mastery of the Holy Scriptures, his gifts began to slowly transform into his curse. There were nights where he could not sleep. There were days where the only tongue he could speak in was that of angels. There were weeks, and scores of days, where life became torment. Many of the parsonage thought their blessed pupil oppressed, and many clergy and lay rumored him to be posessed.
He would seek help from his superiors, try to confess his dreams of apocalypse to those in the priory; and they all did deem him mad, and possessed. "Nothing could prevail against God's chosen land" they would scoff; and with every day passing, the haunted youth would strive for truth, and for the grace of Christ and his Saints, and with every day passing, the visions would become stronger, and the Cathedral, more alienated against him. For 2 months he did not leave his chamber; for these 2 months he did naught but fast, lament, pray, and howl for mercy from his prophetic gift. If the Lord did hear these prayers, they were not deemed worthy.
When he emerged, his countenance had less sanity within its composure than Antoine's mind. When the laymen saw him, they denounced him as a demon, and would have nothing to do with his name. When the opinion of the town and the restlessness of the 'possessed deacon' apexed into hostility, they rallied into the front of the Basilica, calling for Antoine to come before them. He did, and when he arrived, he decried the whole host of lay for their sins, their lack of faith, and their mindlessness, proclaiming that the Day of the Lord was nearer now than 'ere before. At his words, damning manifestations of spiritual power flowed from his voice, and the host of lay ran from him, becoming inflamed with the horror which the youth had bore in his breast for many months. The next week, the nobilities and the lay had come to speak with the bishops, and it was unanimous consensus that the boy was given powers from the devil, and he was to be burned at the stake for witchcraft. When the high day did come, his younger sister Claire was the only one in his family to come and mourn for Antoine, to weep for him, to be with him. She told him he should run away, get lost in the north, where the Hundred Year's War raged. She told him he would be safer there. She told him to leave this place, leave his name, and to keep his life. She wept violent tears as he let the wrathful lay take him without word or curse. That day Antoine Bayard was burned at the stake. He was tried, and found guilty of witchcraft, and blaspheming the Lord Jesus Christ and his Holy Mother by treading the halls of the Basilique Cathédrale Sainte-Marie d'Auch. On this day the superstition was first spawned that the seventh son of the seventh son was a savant of Satan, for when the flames consumed him, he suffered, but he did not die. The bonds tying him bound turned to ash, and with his body engulfed in flames, he denounced the people of Auch, and they were filled with terror and dread as before, and the burning Antoine Bayard fled the town for the north. Antoine Bayard is forever known as 'The Burning Warlock of the Cathédrale Sainte-Marie d'Auch'. On that day, Antoine did not die, but he left his name to burn with the life he was tied to. He fled to Paris, where the French warred against King Henry V of England. He was a scarred, scared youth, who had none but the comfort of the Holy Spirit. But in those moments above all moments in his life, the boy once named Antoine Bayard was unsure. He was groomed all his life as heavensent, but was he rather a façade, a tool for the hands of the devil? Which spirit owned his soul? Could he be forgiven of the witchcraft which he was condemned for? Where before his mind was maelstrom, now his soul was naught but storm. He went to rally behind the national hero Joan of Arc with a death wish, hoping that in finding death inside of holy war, that he might be able to atone for his indwelt sins. He adopted the name 'Jean Lamarre', hoping that none from Gascony followed him, or would recognize his face. Within the folds of the French footsoldiers, he learned the art of war, and let the remnant of the life of Antoine Bayard be buried, to never return. Jean Lamarre found himself on the banks of the Rio Liora, spending each day in war, seeing many young men like himself dead, their blood in the currents, wishing he could join their rest. Through the many skirmishes in the siege of Orleans, he would oft try to sacrifice himself for his fellow frenchmen, to gain a strategic foothold in the fray, but at the end of each day he found his life within his chest, with more frustration. At the end of a long bout of this, Jean Lamarre decided that he was cursed to life, and in his resentful fury he received another vision; this time not of terror, but of one such glorious visage; the Lord Jesus Christ! In epiphany, the man who called himself Jean Lamarre was told that he would live, and that his soul was not bound to the shackles of hell, but of service to the great Lord of Hosts. He would live to face that wicked dragon he saw in vision, and would see it conquered for the glory of the Lord. He was given assignment to go to Paris, to find those who would steel themselves to fight the monster of Mercury. When Jean was faced with his savior, his glorious face, his eyes of peace, his blood of grace, he wept, and forsook the foolish field of warring men, and left for the reknowned streets of Paris. He did not even witness his nations' victory over the Britons at Orleans. |
