CISLUNAR DHASANT: THE CITY OF GARGOYLES

Vair entered life in the midst of controversy and scandal and has never quite managed to shake off the onus of his Wintercourt surname since. Even those who don't recognize his face will know his name, and sometimes Vair gets thoroughly sick and tired of seeing eyebrows rise and lips purse every time he introduces himself.
It isn't easy being the son of Marianna Estelmere and Sabin Wintercourt. Their story has been made into at least two songs and a play÷all of which are played outside of Cislunar÷and virtually everyone in Cislunar knows at least part of the story. Sabin met Marianna when he took over the Cislunar branch of the House Masoch and refurnished the old Legerdemain theatre. Sabin played the romantically tragic antihero Dorian Nightshade in Shannon's The Maze of Veils to open the theatre, and Marianna immediately fell in love. For some time Sabin had no idea who was penning him romantic poetry and sending him white roses, but one night while he was at an Estelmere ball as a guest of honor, he saw her descend the grand staircase in a stunning gown with a single white rose pinned to her bodice. That night he whispered a line of poetry to her while they danced, and she finished it for him. It was the start of a wonderful romance, cut short when Lord Estelmere arranged a marriage between Marianne and the duke of Cragsmere. She refused, and in the process, Lord Estelmere discovered that she'd fallen in love with a common actor. Infuriated, he penned a lettre de cachet and had Sabin Wintercourt thrown into prison until the wedding's consummation.
The House Masoch immediately rose to the challenge, pulling strings among all the actors, bards, musicians, and street-corner entertainers in the city. On the night of the wedding, Sabin was escorted out of his cell by four stern-faced actors in Lament's Guard uniforms, who roughly threw him into a carriage, slammed the doors, drove off, and handed him a proper change of clothes. The carriage became jammed in the celebrating crowds around Palais Estelmere, so Sabin commandeered somebody's armored warhorse and pushed his way through, virtually commanding the crowds to part by virtue of his famous voice. Indeed, within minutes he'd gathered a surging crowd of fans who opened a way for him and cheered him through. Alerted, the Estelmere guards tried to stop him, but he rode through their line and up into the mansion itself, thundering through the halls, up the broad staircase, and into the gilded ballroom, followed by cheering supporters. The guests, nobles all, started to draw their swords to halt his progress, but were quickly dissuaded when the entire choir and orchestra in the minstrel's gallery rose with drawn bows pointed down into the chamber. Sabin swept Marianna into his saddle, proposed, and was joyfully accepted. Duke Estelmere furiously disonwed her then and there, and her fiance the Duke of Cragsmere swore to avenge the insult, but the Templar Verdiant calmly married the two right in the middle of the chaos, noting that love, after all, was a virtue among his people.
Of course, there was a terrible scandal, and the Council of Musicians was severely reprimanded and fined for carrying illegal weapons and using them to threaten the aristocracy, but the quiet support of the Templar Illuminate for the couple quelled most dissent. Sabin and Marianna took up the job of running the Legerdemain, undeterred by her loss of name. Duke Cragsmere eventually married somebody else, but the Cragsmeres and the Estelmeres haven't gotten along well since, and both loathe the Wintercourts.
However, Vair is, at least, able to pursue his interests as a playwright in the most conducive of all environments, as heir apparent of the House Masoch mantle of Cislunar. He is also a member of the Council of Musicians and has acquaintances with the owners and actors of other, "rival" theatres. The most serious rival to House Masoch's Legerdemain is the Gloriana Theatre, but Cislunar is so large that the presence of two major theatres is no real strain on either. House Masoch provides Vair with a modest allowance of 50 windmarks a month, enough to live a middle-class lifestyle. Vair has a little extra spending money because he lives with Valere, but on the other hand, keeping up with Valere's lifestyle puts a heavy strain on his pocketbook (he has about 16 windmarks left over each month to spend freely, because he doesn't have to pay rent÷otherwise, he'd have no extra spending money).
As a native of Cislunar, Vair knows a great deal about the city's places and personalities. A few are of particular note. Heir Exalt Baron-Filius Primus Virgil Nantusset Durinbold Primus, the last member of House Durinbold, is an effete, beautiful young man who runs the Marianrose Conservatorium. The Conservatorium is located on The Hill, and is museum, salon, workroom, park, and entertainment emporium for the exquisitely wealthy. Most any bard, duellist, or so on with social aspirations will haunt the Conservatorium's halls, hoping to run into a wealthy patron. Vair has met the Poet Laureate of Cislunar, Brandon Sardonyx, once, and considers himself to have gotten off lucky with nothing more than a quick nod and an, "Ah, yes, the shame of Estelmere" before Sardonyx turned to someone else. Sardonyx has a reputation for cruelty and a scathing tongue, and Vair hopes never to receive a bad review from him. Perhaps the city's leading castrato, opera singer Jericho Falk, sets an example to follow÷Sardonyx publicly refers to him as "the capon" and constantly cuts him to shreds, but Falk simply shrugs the vitriol off with near-inhuman patience. Another individual Vair has had reason to remember is Lord Arden Chatwick Westcott, a partially aseku patron of the arts. He primarily supports the Gloriana Theatre, but can always be found in the opening-night audience of any House Masoch production. The few times Vair has chatted with him, he's found the slender young lord to be a thoughtful, well-educated critic of the theatre.