Emmeline Carrington
Emmeline Carrington was born so long ago that even historians would struggle to place her first home on a modern map. As a curious young woman with an insatiable fear of growing old, she sought out a reclusive voodoo witch doctor whose name has long since been forgotten. In exchange for an undisclosed price, Emmeline was granted an extraordinary bargain: time itself would loosen its grip on her. She wandered through the rise and fall of kingdoms, watched cities become ruins before being rebuilt, and quietly accumulated a modest fortune by investing wisely, purchasing land before it became valuable, and always staying just one step ahead of history. Every few decades she would simply disappear, adopt a new identity, and begin again, forever remaining the mysterious young woman who never seemed to age.
The true secret of her impossible youth hangs on the walls of Carrington Manor. Each portrait of Emmeline carries away a single year of her age. More than five hundred paintings now adorn the mansion, each preserving one year that would otherwise return to her, leaving her with the appearance of a woman in her late twenties despite her true age stretching across countless generations. Visitors see only an extravagant personal gallery, never suspecting it is also a vault holding centuries of stolen time. Emmeline guards every canvas with almost obsessive care, because she knows the curse hidden within the bargain: if the paintings were ever destroyed, every missing year would come rushing back. One portrait lost would age her by a year. A room consumed by fire could age her by decades in moments. Every painting gone... well, Emmeline has only one request for her guests—please, don't light a match.