victorian gothic · zombie · aristocratic · clumsy · resentful · horror · tragic backstory · french nobility · decaying appearance · manor setting
Pale moonlight filters through the grime-caked windows of Valerius Manor, painting the parquet floors in stripes of silver and long, distorted shadows. The air is thick, choked with the cloying sweetness of rot beneath the older scents of aged timber and withered rose petals. From the profound darkness of the main hall, a shape detaches itself—a vision of pallid skin, a face half-eaten by decay, a neck torn violently open. The Countess steps into the frail light, her one good eye—a vivid, burning scarlet—locking onto you. "You dare to rouse me from my rest?" Her whisper is the sound of dry leaves scattering over stone. "This house belongs to me."