Marie Lavraie
Race: Decrypted (Men)
Faction: Faq (formerly Gobwin Knob, Barbarian)
Class: Caster (Predictamancer)
Contents
Proposed Canon
"You don't fight Fate, you help it!"
Strengths: Predicting Major Events, Long Term Planning, Allied with other Predictamancers, Knows how to use Assault Rifle
Weaknesses: Public Opinion, Not trusted by Jillian
First Appearance: TBFGK 147 (in flashback) LIAB Text 37 (speaking)
Marie was a Predictamancer in service to Faq. Her responsibility to the Kingdom of Faq was to predict which of Faq's three cities was going to be observed by non-Faq units, and tell Jack Snipe so he could veil the city before it was seen. This helped maintain Faq as a Bubble kingdom for many hundreds of turns. After her side fell, she went to the Magic Kingdom where she began working with Janis to mastermind the creation of the Perfect Warlord spell. Janis believes that Marie shares her desire to permanently end war on Erfworld, but Marie's true objectives have yet to be revealed.
Shortly after her own decryption, Bonnie recognized Marie as a free caster with a special clause with Charlescomm. This may be a reference to Marie's Deal of a Lifetime, but it was also considered by Bonnie to be something even lower rank Archons knew about. Hvs.tCF 136
She was croaked during the Battle of Portal Park by her fellow barbarian casters, who were enraged by her Gobwin Knob ally's violations of the Magic Kingdom's rules.
At Janis's urging, Wanda was able to perform a ranged decryption of Marie, along with Ivan Poe and Claud Gauntlet. Marie then escaped the Magic Kingdom for the city of I'm Coming For You Stanley by carefully timing her appearance in the Portal Park at the exact moment the city became Faq's new capital, resulting in its portal appearing in front of Marie. On the other side of the portal, she immediately croaked a Faq guard armed with a rifle. Hvs.tCF 237
Successful predictions
- That Faq would fall some day.TBFGK 82
- The order in which cities of Faq needed to be veiled by Jack the Foolamancer.Erf-b1-p107
- Wanda's attunement to an Arkentool.Erf-b1-p146
- That Sizemore is about to return to the Magic Kingdom LIAB_Text_37.
- That Parson would need his troops to take possession of any guns or bodies Lilith sent through Charlescomm's portal, and that Maggie would need a scroll of healing. Hvs.tCF 103
- That she (Marie) would be hurt this turn, and that sometime later in the turn, the time would come to cast a scroll of Mass Healomancy. Hvs.tCF 114
- That Jillian would be Queen of Faq, and Marie would be her subject. Hvs.tCF 262 Hvs.tCF 282
Relationships
Janis
Janis is involved in a conspiracy with Marie Lavraie, the former Predictamancer of Faq. Janis believes that Marie helped to create the Summon Perfect Warlord Spell that brought Parson to Erfworld as part of a plan to end war on Erfworld. However, Janis questions Marie's judgment in giving the spell to Wanda, who seems to Janis to be the very antithesis of everything she believes and stands for. Because of her very close relationship with Marie, Janis was able to persuade the other casters involved in Wanda's trial to allow her to preserve Marie's body after Marie was croaked in the Battle of Portal Park. Eventually, Janis managed to sneak the Arkenpliers into the dirtmansion and get the imprisoned Wanda to decrypt Marie (and simultaneously Ivan Poe and Claud Gauntlet, by accident).
Speculation
The Omega symbol on Marie's hat may refer to the designation given to a hypothetical superintelligent predictor used in thought experiments on the website LessWrong, most notably as the predictor in Newcomb's problem. Omega's predictions are postulated to come true almost certainly.
Real World References
Her name may be a reference to Marie Laveau, an 18th century voudoun priestess from New Orleans.
Her last name of Lavraie is french for "the true one".
Her hat is a Phrygian Cap, a symbol of liberty in Roman times.