Duchess Anna Henrietta
If this world has ever known a ruler who enjoyed the absolute admiration of her subjects without the need for systematic repression or a particularly cruel hangman, it was, without a doubt, the sovereign of Toussaint, Duchess Anna Henrietta. Called Anarietta by those who knew her well, she was the widow of the late lamented Duke Raymund and one-time lover of a very famed and talented artist who would prefer to remain anonymous. A few years prior, when the Witcher and a band of friends were visiting Toussaint, Anna Henrietta had had the pleasure of meeting Geralt of Rivia. When a mysterious Beast began attacking her courtiers, the Duchess thus knew exactly whom to summon.
Captain Damien De La Tour
One of the Beauclair court was Damien de la Tour, the captain of the Ducal Guard. He was absolutely and unconditionally (to say “unthinkingly” would be unfair, yet not entirely inaccurate) devoted to his position and worshipped the ground the Duchess walked on. Some supposed he was in fact besotted with her. He came across as a typical soldier, i.e., a thickheaded lackey who, seeing Geralt, immediately decided he must prove who had the more massive unmentionables. Geralt treated this challenge with dispassionate superiority, yet accepted it nevertheless and in doing so earned himself another enemy. After he bloodied himself side by side with the Witcher, Damien decided the White Wolf was actually an altogether decent fellow who wished only to help.
Milton De Peyrac-Peyran
Milton de Peyrac-Peyran was a baron from Toussaint and a member of Anna Henrietta’s inner circle of knights. This good-humored nobleman never met an overloaded banquet table he failed to unload of its burdens, yet nor did he ever shirk a fight against heavily-armed bandits or any other enemies of the duchy. Geralt had met Milton years ago, under very peculiar circumstances that deserve to be recounted properly and at length. Their roads crossed again when Milton came to the Witcher as the Duchess’ envoy, to ask our hero to journey with him to Toussaint.
Palmerin De Launfal
Not all knights errant in Toussaint were embodiments of virtue, but if I had to choose one among them who did personify their chivalric creed, it would be Palmerin de Launfal. He is all the more admirable for the fact that, years ago, he was no stranger to the pleasures of eating, drinking and making merry in a variety of fashions. With time, however, he abandoned vice and drew closer to the knightly ideal. Geralt realized this when Palmerin came to him as an envoy from Anna Henrietta. The old-fashioned and somewhat naïve knight immediately made a good impression on him, for while he did take formalities and courtesies a tad too seriously, he was anything but pompous or grandiose.
Guillaume De Launfal
Guillaume de Launfal was the very model of a knight errant, the placard boy for Toussaint, if you will. When Geralt first met the young man, he was valiantly tilting at a windmill…which, to be fair, turned out to be hiding a ferocious giant. Getting himself into trouble clearly counted among Guillaume’s favorite hobbies. After a second saving, a wounded yet grateful Guillaume asked the Witcher to meet with him about a very urgent matter. The matter turned out, as is matters’ wont in Toussaint, to be an affair of the heart. Guillaume was tormented by unrequited love for the Duchess’ lady-in-waiting, Vivienne de Tabris. He suspected her frigidity and distance must be the result of some malicious curse. Geralt, a professional curse-breaker, naturally took the contract. To get a chance at an audience with Lady Vivienne, he had to take the wounded Guillaume’s place in the knights’ tourney.
Syanna
Sylvia Anna…a lovely name, don’t you think? This beauty should come as no surprise, given it’s the name of the daughter of a duke and the sister of a duchess. Yet the fate Syanna (as her intimates called her) met was not as beautiful as might have been suspected for one so well-born—though, as it turns out, she had in truth been born rather inopportunely. She came into this world during an eclipse and thus fell victim to the panic surrounding the Curse of the Black Sun, which was said to affect young girls from ruling families birthed in similar circumstances. Though Geralt had serious doubts whether this curse truly existed, many claimed it caused horrible mutations which filled its victims with cruelty and a desire to kill. Syanna’s parents certainly seemed to be among the believers in the curse, for they deemed her too dangerous to be allowed to remain at court and forced her into exile. Syanna then fled to Nazair and soon, for all intents and purposes, dropped off the face of the planet.