Glimmer

Glimmer: Slender, elegant, and graceful; her stage name was given for a reason. Glimmer is a smooth talking woman who is capable of getting everything she wants with nothing more than a smile; and she wouldn't have it any other way. She was born to a merchant family hailing from outside of Barovia, moving here ten years before the rebellion against Strahd. Due to her families ties to the profitable trading businesses she was able to live in the lap of luxury, but even that was not enough for her. A woman of greed and desire she wanted more from her life, and began to make a name for herself in the arts of the Bards.
Although she would not be successful in the industry, it did give her many valuable lessons and connections, most notably Madame Genevieve Leclair, who she became very close friends with. With the threat of a civil war and The Scourge consuming the countryside, Glimmer yearned for a more desirable life. And she found that in performing with Genevieve on the stage. She was a natural and excelled in the spotlight, becoming addicted to being front and center. Her stage years would earn her the infamous moniker of "Glimmer." This all but replaced her real name, something she enthusiastically leaned into.
After her quick rise to fame and fortune she eventually fell into a new obsession; collecting magic items. While amassing her collection she came across a huge market for magic items, something exasperated by the recent declaration of the burgomaster of Vallaki; the outlawing of owning and selling magical items. Declared unsafe contraband, this made the demand for magical items skyrocket in the private courts of the nobles. Glimmer saw an opportunity and she pounced on it.
The rest is history. Her and her crew created the "Glimmers Boutique" and staged it as a appraisal and auction house for anything antique. Fragile vases, rare art pieces, relics of the past; all of this and more quickly fell into the hands of Glimmer. With a front established, Glimmer would start to earn ridiculous amounts of gold for her antiques, some of them going well beyond hundreds of thousands of gold for single, unappealing objects. Her secret? The only way to know is to get a booklet from her, which is only given the most esteemed potential buyers with secret codes in the description that explain the real items up for auction; magical items.

Assets

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Boutique

Glimmers Boutique hosts bi-weekly auctions. Anyone is allowed to come to the action, but the prices can get quite steep. Adventures looking to sell rare finds know to go to Glimmer's to have their items appraised and, hopefully, bought. Once the list of items have been finalized, the auction booklet goes out and the nobles go crazy over what's for sale at Glimmers. Glimmer's auction house also works as an appraisers. For a fee, Glimmer will send one of her experts to appraise items, or you can go to the auction house for the same service for a much cheaper experience.

While Glimmer does sell antiques, the real draw of the house is that Glimmer will put up magical items for sale, for a cut of the sold amount. Her smile and bribes allows her to get around the town guards, who are more than happy to look the other way.

Guilds

Glimmer has many contacts in the seedy underbelly thanks to her connections to both the Danesti family, and Rajiv; gaining her access to the thieves guild for essentially free. She also has complete control over what remains of the merchants guild. This has given her quite the position of power within Vallaki. Merchants and thieves alike know to leave any crate marked with Glimmers symbol untouched, however the thieves guild freely robs any other goods going in or out of the city. Merchants who want to keep their goods safe pay monthly "dues" for her protection. Those who opt-out or try to get around it are severely punished.

Ebon Embrace

Owned by her closest friend, Glimmers ties to the The Ebon Embrace still stand strong. She is the biggest supported of the movement, often sponsoring and donating to her dear friend Madame Genevieve Leclair and her performers. She is, in all but in name, a shareholder of the franchise.

Defining Value

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"Rules are nothing but someone else trying to keep you from shining"

Theme

Family

Brillare

Pronouns

She/Her

Sex

Female

Gender

Woman

Presentation

Feminine