The Gracious Widow

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"The Widow: half London's contraband bears her mark. Call her the Gracious Widow. She likes that."

The Gracious Widow, as she is commonly called, is one of the most infamous crime lords in London and the mastermind behind an expansive smuggling ring stretching across the Neath.

The Business

"You still can't see her face, but you can hear emotion in her voice. The Gracious Widow isn't known to express emotion. The Gracious Widow isn't known to say "please". The Gracious Widow has hired knives in every neighbourhood, and doesn't enjoy rejection."

The Gracious Widow is known for her ruthlessness and her readiness to enforce her will through violence. She rarely meets with others in person, and when she does, she is often cloaked in shadow or veiled, concealing her face. Her hair is always tied in a tight bun, which has made for an easy way to gesture in allusion to her without saying her name. Though she has access to a brandy that grants youthful immortality, and she is depicted in portraits as eternally youthful, but she appears gaunt and aged. The Widow must still consume her brandy regularly to remain alive, but it may have lost its potency over the centuries.

The Widow operates a smuggling network along the river near Spite, trafficking jewels, tea, Clay Men, and diluted peach brandy in and out of London. She is also the founder of Greyfields Winery, and runs a firework business that undercuts Mr Fires' prices. Her brandy in particular has attracted dangerous attention from seekers of immortality: the Duchess, the Excisemen, the Khanate elite, perhaps the occasional ambitious octogenarian. Though the Widow and the Duchess are longtime rivals, the Widow respects her greatly — despite the Duchess’s frequent attempts to sabotage her vital brandy shipments. Officially, the Khanate denies any connection to the Widow, but unofficially, their dealings with her are extensive.

Immortality has left the Widow lonely. To find companionship, she has taken to adopting urchins, raising them as her own, and integrating them into her vast operations. These children work in her winery, serve as messengers, and even act as enforcers.

The Khan's Daughter

"'The Princess. A Favoured Daughter, a Troubled Soul...'"

The Gracious Widow, once known as Princess Cheren, played a key role in the sale of the Fourth City. She was a favorite of her father, the Great Khan, and was noted for her beauty. Strong-willed and independent from the beginning, Cheren had become an accomplished rider, hunter, and falconer by young adulthood — but to her chagrin, the Khan remained protective of her and perhaps overconcerned for her safety. He presented her to visiting traders at any opportunity, and kept a close eye on her personal life, probably with the goal of securing her an advantageous marriage (as royals do). The Khan's attempts to mollify Cheren with gifts were fruitless, as she accepted them only out of pity. Though the Khan's extended family posed threats of rebellion, it was the Princess's strong personality that caused him more anguish, and they frequently argued over her autonomy. It would seem that neither of them truly understood each other.

Cheren was familiar with metalworking, and was the designer of the famed Silver Tree that now stands in the Forgotten Quarter. She stole from her father's treasury and made covert deals with passing merchants to produce the magnificent sculpture, which she hoped would show her father that the Mongol Empire no longer had to expand (though it had the opposite effect). Cheren also dabbled in brewing, as it was common for Mongol women to brew airag for their families, but she used this as a cover for her pursuit of immortality. Under the tutelage of a wise shaman, she used smuggled fruit from Cathay to grow a guarded secret orchard, and used the Silver Tree as her concealed distillery. Cheren's search for metal and imported fruit for her endeavors marked the beginning of her smuggling empire.

Cheren's loving but fraught relationship with her father came to a head when she fell in love with William of Paris, a sculptor and goldsmith who had been taken as a captive to Karakorum. The Khan disapproved of the affair, would certainly never have allowed them to marry, and might have had William killed if it became public knowledge. Neither Cheren nor William could keep their love a secret very well, however, as everyone around them had suspicions. Cheren later gave the credit for the Silver Tree to William in hopes that the Khan would become more amenable to their relationship, though there were rumors that William was in fact a fraud.

The forbidden relationship between the princess and the sculptor drew the attention of Mr Wines, and when Karakorum was invaded by forces from Cathay, the Great Khan sold his capital to the Echo Bazaar in order to save both the city and Cheren. He died soon after its Fall, most likely because he was gravely injured in the attack. William the Sculptor eventually died as well; after the loss of her lover, Cheren became known as "the Widow."

After the Fall

The Widow's pursuit of immortality was at least a partial success; in addition to her centuries-long lifespan, her beloved sparrowhawk Bayar is still alive thanks to her peach brandy. At some point after the Fall of the Fourth City, the Widow forged a pact with the Leopard Khan to create an even more potent elixir of immortality, in a ploy involving Elder Continent fruit and requiring a very strange "gardener." The process would take centuries to produce results, but once it did, the Widow would receive a share of this brew.

In the Fourth City's final years, the Widow stood against the Rosers, and blames them for its destruction. That said, she was also an ally (or possibly relative) of Yesterday's King, the final ruler of the city, and persuaded him to begin a doomed rebellion against the Masters.

Historical and Cultural Inspirations

Peaches are a Chinese symbol of longevity; birthday desserts are commonly decorated with or designed to look like peaches. In many of the folkloric and religious traditions that comprise Chinese mythology, the xian (humans who have ascended to godly status) consume Peaches of Immortality to extend their lives. The peach trees that bear this fruit are said to only do so every several thousand years (the exact number depends on the source).

The Gracious Widow is inspired by Shirin, the daughter of Möngke Khan — the fourth Great Khan of the Mongol Empire. William of Rubruck recorded that her mother was a wife of the Khan, who was a Christian, led an ordu (settlement/clan/tribe), and died sometime before 1254. Möngke loved this particular wife dearly and thus favored Shirin, who had inherited her mother's ordu. But according to Chinese sources on the Yuan Dynasty, as well as a translated account by a Persian historian of the time, Shirin was the daughter of Oghul-Qaimish, an Oirat noblewoman who was probably not a Christian and was previously a wife of Möngke's father Tolui; the Khan had inherited her as a wife according to Mongol custom. Per these records, Shirin was given the title of Grand Princess of Chang State, and married a man from the Olkhunut tribe who seems to have risen to prominence because his father married a daughter of Genghis Khan. Shirin had a younger sister named Bichige, who was married to Chochimtai Küregen after Shirin's death.

Little is known about the specifics of Shirin’s life, including her personal undertakings and the date of her death, as historical records remain limited. The affair depicted in fiction between Shirin and the French artisan Guillaume Boucher is purely artistic license, as no historical evidence supports such a relationship, and Boucher is known to have had a wife and children in his homeland.