Marquis Lucien de Brumenoir
See Lucien Brumenoir Timeline.
| Alias(es): | Épée de Roi (Sword of the King)
Hand of Michael/Manus Michaelis Angelus Vindex (Avenging/Protecting Angel- whispered only) Le Marquis Éternel L'Épée (The Sword) |
| Nickname(s): | — |
| Residence(s): | — |
| Status: | Non mortuus probatus (Death unverified) from 1788 until 2025; Alive. |
| Species: | "Human" |
| Nationality: | French |
| Gender: | Male |
| Orientation: | Debated. Flirted with women openly but never seriously pursued them; contemporary evidence suggests bisexuality. |
| Loyalty/Loyalties: | France, Marquisat de Brumenoir. |
| Partner(s): | Rumored (unsupported in contemporary records): Charlemagne (772–814) Dame Jeanne d’Arc (1429–1431) Queen Anne de Bretagne, Duchesse de Bretagne (1495–1510) Rumored (unverified but plausible): Comte Roland de Bretagne (778–782) Philip IV (1290–1307) Queen Catherine de’ Medici (1559–1574) King Henri III (r. 1574–1589) Jacques de Lévis, Comte de Caylus (1577–1589) King Louis XIII (r. 1610–1643) Henri Coiffier de Ruzé, Marquis de Cinq-Mars (1639–1642) Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans, Régent de France (1715–1723) |
| Birthplace: | Unknown. "Francia" debated. |
| Birthdate: | Unknown. Baptized near Tours in 766 AD; first recorded in Carolingian muster rolls of 768 AD as a "mounted man in his prime", enlisted beneath Karolus’s banner. |
| Era / Age: | — |
| Title: | Sa Seigneurie Lucien, le Marquis de Brumenoir, l’Épée de Charlemagne, la Main de Michel |
| Role: | Immortal protector of France. |
| Combat Class: | — |
| Specialty: | — |
| Magic School: | — |
| Affinity/Affinities: | — |
| Notable Feat(s): | — |
| Education & Training | |
| Formal Prep: | — |
| Formal Scholastic: | — |
| Formal Martial: | — |
| Formal Arcane: | — |
| Formal Religious: | — |
| Informal Training: | — |
| Languages | |
| Fluent In: | — |
| Semi-Fluent In: | — |
Lucien de Brumenoir is a legendary figure whose presence spans more than twelve centuries of French and ecclesiastical history. Known as the Épée de Charlemagne, he appears in Vatican archives, battlefield chronicles, and royal decrees with identical features, handwriting, and scars. Artwork of the Marquis depicts the same man through centuries.
No letters of succession were ever issued; no heirs were recorded. Yet the same name and seal persisted through reign after reign, always written as if referring to the same living man — and, somehow, this was accepted until the Enlightenment, when the very idea of immortality fell into disrepute.
Royal clerks and heralds treated the marquisate as an office rather than a lineage, a sacred post held by one man whose tenure had simply never ended. By the fifteenth century, Brumenoir was spoken of not as a family name, but as a permanent function of the realm, like “the Crown” or “the Church.”
“There has always been a Sword at Brumenoir,” the records read, “and it is the same hand that bears it still.”
The Unchanging Marquisate
During the Capetian period, a royal edict allegedly forbade any elevation of the Marquisate:
“So long as France has enemies, Brumenoir shall stand between.”
It was convenient propaganda — making Lucien’s fixed rank appear a sacred duty rather than bureaucratic oversight. Courtiers admired it as poetic restraint; clerics praised it as divine symmetry.
In truth, Lucien refused promotion deliberately.
A ducal patent or peerage would have bound him too tightly to a single monarch, demanding oaths that might one day conflict with his greater charge: to defend France itself, not the transient kings who ruled her.
Remaining a Marquis gave him autonomy — fewer ceremonial obligations, and freedom to move between royal courts, even foreign ones.
For Lucien, the unchanging title was the point.
“The sword does not grow sharper for being gilded.”
The rank of Marquis — keeper of the marches — perfectly embodied his eternal duty: to stand between danger and the heart of France. Elevation would have broken the symbol; constancy preserved it. In printed almanacs and heraldic registers, his unchanging title was explained with studied simplicity:
Le marquisat de Brumenoir n’est point héréditaire, mais perpétuel par serment. (The marquisate of Brumenoir is not hereditary, but perpetual by oath.)
It satisfied everyone who needed an answer — and quietly warned anyone who asked for more.
Chronology of Attestation
1731 — Memorandum of the Vatican Archives
Archivum Secretum Vaticanum, Congregatio pro Doctrina Fidei
“Of the one styled Épée de Charlemagne, no death is attested, nor successor named. The handwriting remains constant; the seal unaltered; the style, though archaic, shows no sign of age.”
The memorandum concludes:
“Whether miracle, imposture, or angelic appointment, the office endures. Until the Crown itself is stilled, this Sword will not rest.”
Attributed to Fr. Dominicus Alberti, scribe to the Inquisition.
1798 — Bureau des Archives Nationales An inquiry during the Revolution sought to disprove the existence of a continuous Marquisate. The committee declared “successive impostors,” yet conceded:
"No evidence of transfer, inheritance, or forgery has been discovered. The same scars, the same likeness, reappear in every portrait, though centuries divide them.”
A later annotation by Bonaparte reads:
“If the man still lives, let him serve France. Such legends are best kept under the Tricolor.”
The Marquisate was not revoked; the dossier was sealed in 1804 and never reopened.
1981 — Sorbonne, Faculty of History Symposium Dr. Émile Courbet, “Le Mythe du Marquis Éternel: Continuité et Souveraineté dans la Légende de Brumenoir.”
“The Church canonized him as miracle, the Crown sanctified him as duty, the Republic dismissed him as allegory — yet none dared erase him. Across twelve centuries, Brumenoir remains not a man, but a grammatical necessity: France requires him to exist.”
Courbet concluded:
“Whether immortal, invented, or inherited through silence, the figure endures because France endures. The Sword is the nation’s reflection in mythic steel.”
Legacy
Lucien’s estates and titles remain untouched, his name revered but never canonized. The Church watches. The Republic maintains. The people still leave lilies at his gate.
Church Classification
- Status: Servanda 411-B
- Designation: Observationes Miraculorum – Class I/II hybrid
- Restrictions: No canonization, no public cultus, no relic replication
- Custodia: Ecclesiastical Liaison, Montis Albi
