Antoine Dupuis

Antoine Dupuis is the curator of the Museum in Sherbourg and a renowned botanist. He earned his doctorate at the Royal University in Arcaneaux in 1653, then joined the faculty at the recently established University of Sherbourg in the colony of Aradie. Antoine greatly desired to study the new plants of Everique, and he has spent the past three decades identifying and categorizing its flora. He is considered the foremost authority on New World botany, and it was his testimony to King Raimond IV that convinced the the Royal Court of Saronne to allow cultivation of the potato -- a New World plant that was considered poisonous because of its close relationship to nightshade (it is still banned to this day in Morante).

Antoine was appointed curator in 1672 after Governor General Jean-Henri de Carailles gifted the university a sizable grant for the construction of a museum. The philosopher has spent the past six years building the collections of the museum and is fiercely protective of them. Thoroughly committed to his work, Antoine never married. He lives in the professors; hall in the dormitory of the university in Templetown.

Thérèse de Varennes

Thérèse de Varennes is the Oracle of Giavere in Sherbourg and the Starkindler's voice in city affairs. She is one of the most powerful individuals in the colony, with only the Governor General nominally outranking her. As with all Oracles, she answers to the High Oracle in Arcaneaux. Thérèse is a middle-aged woman who has gone blind, as is commonplace with seers who have served Giavere for decades. She has taken vows of chastity and celibacy to ensure her visions from the Unicorn Maiden are unclouded. She dwells in the Oracle's Manse in Templetown near the crest of Cape Adamant.

Thérèse was born to a noble family in Saronnne and entered the seminary at a young age. She embraced the ecclesiastic life and rapidly rose through the ranks of the seers. She requested the position of Oracle of Sherbourg after receiving visions from the great spirit during one of the vigil services of the full moon. The High Oracle confirmed the visions, and Thérèse arrived in Sherbourg in 1681. Thérèse has been silent on why Giavere wished her to come to Aradie, but she has pushed for construction of a citadel to protect Sherbourg and to continue the Daughters of the King program. Her relationship with widowed Jean-Henri de Carailles is uncommonly good for an Oracle and Governor General, whose offices are historic rivals.