Thoughts about the Duchess

It just occurred to me that the Duchess is such a crazy cat lady because, well, she’s Egyptian. Has anyone else realized this, or am I late to the party?
Also, since she’s Egyptian, her currently very pale skin tone needs an explanation. I just think it’s faded because she’s so freakin’ old. Any other possibilities?
edited by KestrelGirl on 9/14/2015

It is explained. When you get to the second stage of the University and take on the investigation.

Ah, got it. I’m done with the University storyline and wasn’t as into the lore when I was going through it, so I didn’t read the text walls. I’ll check the wiki to see what’s there.

Update: A few actions basically have the whole story in them, but they’re super-trimmed on the wiki and I can’t just get the text from the source code because it has lots of […] in it. The action names are “Set forth into the cellars” and most/all of the choices from “The note you were half-expecting.”

I don’t have those echoed, but basically, she appears white because she wears lots of makeup.

Ah, got it. But her facial features also look British in all the art of her. Any explanation for that?

Usually googling the parts found in the wiki should give you a link to something that has the full text.

I always thought the Duchess had been a ruler, the cats! egyptian of course! thank you, maybe she’s the one that sold the second city?

there’s a subtle explanation to that in the university storyline as it appears her skin is quite darker privately
edited by Henrique Brito on 9/19/2015

@Henrique, I meant besides her skin. Her general appearance looks very British.

There is a great deal a fine makeup artist may do, my dear.

We don’t really see her general appearance any more - her (very) old art’s been largely switched out with a low-detail silhouette. For what it’s worth, though, it is a lot of makeup.

There’s this image:

Yep, that’s what I mean. Would look like a normal Fallen Londoner to me if I didn’t know her background. Probably the only telltale sign of her race could be her lips, but of course, lipstick must exist in the Neath, and I assume many ladies use it…

Ah, beg pardon, I’d completely forgotten about that one! But, well, that’s not her face. That’s costume makeup to the point of being effectively a very complicated mask.

Yeah, head shapes do change if you apply powders with a shovel and somehow manage to make them stick to your face! I guess that’s one kind of cosmetic surgery.

Also, Krestel, for eference these are the old images of the Duchess.

edited by Estelle Knoht on 9/19/2015

Try viewing on a mobile phone browser. I’m running android and on some of the articles using Firefox lets me view the text, even when on PC (also Firefox) it’s trimmed down to meet a character limit.

In the passages where you find out more about the Duchess and see her without her makeup, she’s not only dark-skinned, but appears to be much younger: “barely thirty.” So whatever the artwork looks like, her appearance underneath is quite different in terms of complexion, age, and quite possibly other details.