Lucian Napier
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| Portrayed by Luke Thompson | |
| Full Name | Lucian Gabriel Edward Napier |
|---|---|
| Title | Earl of Stormont |
| Associated Noble House(s) | Marquessate of Hamilton |
| Date of Birth | 13th December 1778 |
| Father | William Napier |
| Father's Rank | Marquess |
| Mother | Elaine Napier, deceased |
| Mother's Rank | Marchioness |
| Town Residence | |
| Income | |
| School | Eton |
| University | Oxford |
| Year Attained Title | 1807 |
| Year of Marriage | 1805 |
| Spouse | Danielle Napier née Marston |
| Spouse's Rank | None |
| Issue | Christopher Napier, Viscount Kingston (adopted, biological nephew). |
Lucian Napier, is the current Earl of Stormont and heir to the Marquessate of Hamilton. He is the second son of the current Marquess, William Napier and his deceased wife Elaine Napier, but acceded to his title after his elder brother Chase died after falling from a horse. He is estranged from his father and disliked by most of the ton, having a reputation as a gambler, drinker and general rake and troublemaker. This reputation was solidified by his scandalous marriage to the daughter of a tradesman after apparently seducing her and getting her pregnant - though in fact the truth of the matter is that the child is Chase's, and Lucian claimed him because his brother couldn't.
Lucian is played by Sarah.
Family
- William Philip Napier, 6th Marquess of Hamilton (b.1743) - father
- Elaine Napier, Marchioness of Hamilton (b.1750, d.1808) - mother
- Charles “Chase” George Richard Napier, Earl of Stormont (b.1774, d.1807) - brother
- Danielle Belinda Napier, née Marston (b.1786, d.1806) - wife
- Christopher “Kester” Daniel Napier, Viscount Kingston (b.1806) - adopted son, biological nephew
Through his paternal great-grandmother he descended from Ralph Mongtomery, making him a second cousin twice removed from the current Marquess of Eastborough.
Background
It’s been said both to Lucian’s face and behind his back that his parents should have known from the start that he would be nothing but trouble, born as he was on a Friday 13th in the middle of winter.
For the first years of his life, however, there was no reason to suspect that Lucian would be anything of the sort. Growing up on his family’s estate in the north of Scotland, he was a bright, charming child, whose gravest sins were ripping holes in his new clothes by climbing a tree or trying to make a pet out of a fox on the estate. Once he got to Eton, and later Oxford, however, his parents started receiving letters informing them of his constant troublemaking - petty pranks and rule breaking when he was young, but which became smoking, drinking, and gambling as he grew older. They could not understand the reason for the change, though if they had known they would only have been further disturbed, because the reason was their elder son and the heir to the Marquessate.
Since he could walk, Lucian had been devoted to his older brother. He followed Chase everywhere, begged him to play with him or take him riding and would do absolutely anything his brother asked. Including occasionally covering for him when he broke the rules, so that their father - who demanded nothing short of perfection from his heir and was ruthless when Chase failed to deliver - would not punish him. So when, during his first year at Eton, his brother asked him to take the blame for a harmless prank so his tutor would not write home, of course he said yes. But once became twice, and twice became three times, and soon enough it was a habit for Lucian to claim all of Chase’s misdeeds as his own and for Chase to rely on his little brother doing so.
Even Lucian’s loyalty was tested, though, when Chase came to him in 1806 and admitted that he had seduced the daughter of a tradesman - and that the girl was with child. They argued, almost coming to blows, but there was no question that their father would ever allow a marriage between his heir and someone with such low connexions. Even Chase hadn’t fallen quite so low as to want to abandon her or his child, however, which meant there was only one choice. Lucian would have to marry her, and claim the child as his own.
It was inevitably a scandal, though the fact that it was the second son helped them weather it somewhat - but it only compounded when seven months later Lucian’s new wife haemorrhaged and died in childbirth. He was officially branded a rake, who had ruined a poor young girl’s life and been the cause of her death. Those he had counted as friends no longer called or wished to be seen with him in public, invitations stopped arriving, and even Chase would only associate with him away from prying eyes. Only the wish to prevent an even bigger scandal kept his father from disowning him entirely, but the Marquess made clear that neither Lucian nor the child were welcome at the estate in Scotland any longer.
With the only people now interested in him being those of dissolute and unsavoury character, it was only a matter of time before Lucian started slipping into the habits he had been pretending to have for so many years. He was bitter and resentful over what he had lost but unable to take any of it back, and filled with guilt over his wife’s death. And after all, if everyone believed the worst of him, what was the point of restraining himself? There was no saving his reputation, so he might as well live down to it.
Over the next year, Lucian fell further and further into disrepute. He started attending a different club every night, gambling and drinking his dark thoughts away, and had a string of affairs, and by 1807 seemed to have proved to most of the Society that the younger Napier brother was, indeed, exactly what they thought he was.
Which was naturally when Chase, who had finally started to mend his ways, fell from a horse and broke his neck, making Lucian the new Earl of Stormont.
Personality
The bright, happy child that Lucian once was has been only a memory for a long time. The punishments his teachers at school doled out for “his” misbehaviour were unpleasant, but it was the discipline his father meted out each holiday that really changed him. The many canings he endured for Chase’s sake hardened him, made him withdraw into himself and become cold and detached.
As much as he loved his brother, there were time he felt some resentment that Chase refused to change and expected Lucian to keep covering for him - and as things worsened over the years that resentment has grown, becoming bitterness and anger not just at Chase but at everyone: his teachers, who never realised what was going on; his parents, who believed the worst of him without any difficult but never thought badly of Chase, the apple of their eye; at society and the world for judging him so quickly and harshly; and at himself, for never being able to say no.
It is a bitterness now tangled with the deep grief of losing his brother, and not long after his mother, who never really recovered from her elder son’s death. Nor is it helped by a cold estrangement with his father, who has never forgiven him for involving the family name in scandal and has made clear how much he despises the idea of Lucien inheriting the Marquessate.
Bearing a grudge against the world, Lucian is now out to take whatever he can get from it - but most of his hedonistic behaviour is motivated by intense self-loathing and a deep loneliness. Indulging his vices is a distraction, letting him forget that he could not help his wife, or even really help Chase, and he certainly cannot help himself. He does not expect anyone else to see past the image society has created for him, and which he has done his level best to live up to, or to forgive him for his failures, nor does he want them to.
The one light in Lucian’s darkness is his son, Kester. A sweet, beautiful boy, Lucian has been besotted with him since the moment he was born and has done everything in his power to protect him from the worst of the scandal and rumours surrounding his birth (Though sometimes he cannot help but worry about what will happen when Kester grows old enough to realise that he is the spitting image not of his “father”, but of his late uncle.) The only redemption he will allow himself is that, at the very least, he can give Kester every advantage and eventually pass the title and estate on to him.
Thread Tracking
Saturday 25th May
- A regular whip: While out riding Lucian witnesses Evelyn Harpole lose control of the gig in which he and Mary Harpole are riding and intervenes to help [1]
Monday 3rd June
- I do desire we may be better strangers: Due to an accident on the road, Lucian inadvertently gets stuck in a small alleyway with only the Duchess of Pennington - who was once almost engaged to Chase - for company [2]
Tuesday 4th June
- They just use your mind, and they never give you credit: Lucian visits his bank and finds his account has been assigned to Xavier Abberton [3]]
Wednesday 5th June
- With hey ho, the wind and the rain: A rainstorm traps Lucian in a rotunda in St James' Park with his one-time friend the Duke of Leighton [4]]
Friday 7th June
- Playing nursemaid: Lucian takes Kester to Hyde Park, and meets Peregrine Bexley and his nieces and nephew [5]