Occupations with whom association can bring Scandal in itself. Should your affair with such Admirers come out you will doubtless gain Scandal and may even get the poor darling arrested and executed! It’s a risk but a risk that some girls fi nd worth taking.
• Firebrand*: There is a lot of rather unsavoury politics going round these days and it is the fi rebrands that spread it through fair means or foul. If you believe in their cause you may well be amiable to a visit or two. If not then be prepared to be bored. Highway Robber*: One of the most glamorous of Immoral Professions. Highway Robbers got all the Ladies swooning. A Courtesan is more interested in exploiting their loot and fame though!
• Pirate*: Yaaaaaaaaar! Your Admirer be a Pirate, lass! Yet another glamorous criminal: Pirates have typically short lives but the unparalleled freedom they enjoy and their great wealth and fame is a real turn on: Especially the later two to a Courtesan.
• Macaroni: Your Admirer is a homosexual male covering his tracks by having high profi le affairs with women. He will pay well to cover his arse and save his neck! Obviously he needs a day job so this can stack.
• Gentleman Pimp*: Your Admirer is a Pimp of the highest class. He’s more likely to actually treat his “merchandise” with respect but more than likely he’s just as much of a bastard as his common counterparts. • Conjurer: Nothing immoral
about these charming, crafty party tricksters these days but these were highly superstitious times. Though Witchcraft was no longer seriously prosecuted Conjurers were regarded as the spawn of Satan by good Christian folk and even the very rationally minded saw them as devious tricksters. • Abortionist*: Your
Admirer is a “solver of women’s complaints” of the highest class. Might be a handy contact for the inevitable should you wish to take the risk.
• Fence*: Your Admirer is a seller of stolen goods at one of the local “lost property offi ces.” Potentially very lucrative and should you ever be robbed you know who to go to!
• Grifter*: Your Admirer is a professional Grifter or con artist. Watch that you are his sweetheart not his mark! Grifters are usually posing as another Occupation.
• Spy*: Your Admirer is a Spy for one of Britain’s many enemies. You could well fi nd yourself in serious trouble sweetie! This Occupation stacks with another as it is used as a cover.
• Smuggler*: Your Admirer is a Smuggler. He is involved in the lucrative trade of “importing” certain items whilst avoiding Customs to “keep them fresh.” If you get caught and he’s a dead man and you’re in for some Scandal gain.
• Crime Boss*: Your Admirer is a big cheese in the criminal underworld. He pretty much owns most of the lower orders and all the criminal activities in the area. Big spender: don’t get caught sweetie!
Sample Causes
Here’s a list of a few of the controversial causes of the time:
• Catholic Emancipation: A campaign for equal rights under the law for those of the Catholic faith. It had its highs and lows but was eventually successful. • Disestablishtarianism:
Got to love that word! This was the campaign to end the privileged status of the Church of England and put all religions on an equal legal footing. It was successful in Ireland as part of the home rule cause and in Wales as part of early Welsh nationalism but in England itself, though Non Conformists and Catholics have better rights the CofE remains the established church.
• Home Rule: Britain is not one country it is a collection of countries. Each of these mini countries campaigned long and hard for its independence. Ireland is the most famous of these because it actually won (kind of, see below) but there were also campaigns for Welsh, Scottish and even Cornish home rule.
• Unionism: As a reaction to Gladstone’s Home rule proposals radical MPs like Lord Randolph Churchill (father of the more famous Winston) started riling up Ireland’s Protestant minority claiming “home rule means Rome rule.” This was just as incendiary and problematic as Home Rule and with a still divided Ireland we are still suffering the consequences of these shameless opportunists. • Chartism: The Chartists
kept up a campaign for universal male suffrage (a few supported women’s suffrage but they were in the minority) and proper boundaries for constituencies. It had mixed success. Boundaries were fi xed considerably by the two Great Reform Acts but it wouldn’t be until 1918 that universal male suffrage fi nally made law.
• Trade Unionism: It was a long hard battle to get Trade Unions recognised in law and there are some days in London where wish they never bothered. Still the Trade Union movement was defi nitely very undesirable throughout the Demi Monde period. However noble it may have been at this early stage!
• Early Socialism: The fi rst people to adopt what we now recognise as socialist ideas were the religious cult known as the Diggers during the Civil War (some say it was the Wyatt rebellion but they miss the very Royalist tone of said failed campaign.) This was just the beginning though. The ideas evolved through the Chartist movement, drew inspiration from the French Revolution and fi nally adopted the ideas of obscure German exile Karl Marx as their standard. Like Trade Unionism this was in its early idealistic years before it got any real power and became corrupted. • Abolition of Slavery:
A real success story: My ancestor William Wilberforce’s campaign to outlaw the slave trade actually worked by the early 1800s. Despite being set back decades by slave rebellions that revisionist historians erroneously give the credit of the abolition to. • Anarchism: From the
Chartists and Socialists who wanted better government developed a bunch of extremists who wanted no government at all! Fortunately they didn’t get very far.
• Women’s Rights: A cause your Courtesans can get right behind! By the late 1800s there were two distinct brands of women’s rights campaign. The suffragists the peaceful non violent group consisting mainly of the wives and daughters of Liberal MPs and the suffragettes the more militant group who, it is often forgotten, even resorted to outright terrorism at times including an attempted suicide bombing in Dublin! In 1918 it achieved partial success by getting the vote for married women over 30 with a certain amount of property the vote but it wasn’t until the 30s that it achieved universal women’s suffrage on equal terms with men. • Gay Rights: Believe it or
not there were campaigns for the rights of homosexuals even when ‘sodomy’ was a capital crime. Even more surprisingly this was centred in the Church of England and Unitarian and Quaker Churches. Secular campaigners like lesbian landowner Anne Lister also played their part. It wouldn’t be until the 1960s that homosexuality was fi nally decriminalised though.
Example: Bernadette assigns Occupations to Hattie’s Admirers as follows.
Duke Olaf VonGrund Pliability: 5
Archetype: Fop Age: 42
Occupation: Landowner Posing as
a Secular Philanthropist
Deception Note: VonGrund gives
the impression he is a Saviour as he has a taste for Goldenhearts.
Reverend Joseph Hall Pliability: 3
Archetype: Saviour Age: 60
Occupation: Clergy Miss Eliza Drinkwater Pliability: 2
Archetype: Lover Age: 17
Occupation: Grifter posing as a
Missionary
Marquess Luke Swan of Frothington Pliability: 1 Archetype: Student Age: 16 Occupation: Landowner Lady Bawds
The term for a female Gentleman Pimp is Lady Bawd. They may be more motherly but otherwise they are pretty much the
same.
Immoral Ladies
As well as those marked with a star the following three Occupations are unique to female Admirers:
• Common Doxy: Some Doxies save up enough money for ‘private lessons’ with the best. Be a good teacher dear. She’s worked hard for it.
• Molly House Madam: The Admirer is a
manageress of a secret Gentleman’s club for homosexual men or Molly House. If any of her members are charged with sodomy she poses as the gentleman’s fi ancée to allay suspicion.
• Another Courtesan: A Courtesan of a different House is up for a few ‘private lessons.’ This could be very lucrative but at the same time make you enemies in the other House.