Oreille, Josephine

Children: Isabelle Oreille
Grandchildren: Fabien, Damien

Bretagne

​Josephine Oreille is the daughter of Lilithe Oreille, the wife of Celeste Martineau, the primordial mother of Isabelle Oreille and the grandmother of Fabien and Damien Oreille. Born as "Gaëlle" on the 7th of February, 1919, shortly after the end of the First World War, Gäelle is said to be of mermaid ancestry and a direct descendent of the great Néreide Oreille, the mermaid who is said to have constructed the Venetian palatial structure of the College Des Sirènes during the nineteenth century.

Gaëlle was born in Brocéliande, Paimpont Forest, Bretagne, in the north-west of France. She was named after the nearby village of Gaël. She spent much of her time as a child wandering around the forests and lakes around her home. It is these early conversations with nature that are thought to have blessed her with one of the finest voices in the Lorallian. Gaëlle soon learned to sing, and decided that her true calling in life was to tell stories through song.

​Gaëlle studied music at the Junior Conservatoire in Geneva, Switzerland, before going on to study the voice at the Blue Mountains Conservatory. At the time, orchestras in the Lorallian were purely instrumental, and remained segregated from choirs. Gaëlle was frustrated because, in her mind, the ultimate union of music was with the words, and the celestial marriage of the male instruments with the female voices was its ultimate destiny. Gaëlle was highly influenced by Beethoven, and her revered Symphony of Fornication was the first symphony to include voices.

​​Gaëlle inherited the riches of her mother, Lilithe Oreille, and travelled to Vannecy in the French Alps, where she purchased the College Des Sirènes from Valerie Laurent the last in the Laurent family dynasty (right), who had dominated the college for much of the first half of the twentieth century.

Room with a view: College des Sirènes master bedroom overlooking the Vannecy Flood Basin.

Vannecy

​In Vannecy, Gaëlle told many stories through her operas and music dramas, some fictional and others true stories (but most of them fictional). There, she met the aeronaut, Celeste Martineau, at one of her concerts and the couple immediately became attracted to one another. For Celeste, Gaëlle had grown up around the forests and lakes, and was a true mistress of the earth. Celeste, on the other hand, introduced Gaëlle to the wonders of the skies. Together they were a match made in heaven. Celeste took Gaëlle on many moonlight airship flights across the mountains and valleys, discovering new and unknown territories. They married at Flood Control Dam #3 at the end of the Second World War.

The Durance River Province is different from the other lands in the Lorallian, because the maiden naming system is reversed. In the Durance River Province, the spouse and children take the last name of the female and not the male. Celeste was from a very noble family, yet he agreed that their children would be named "Oreille". Gaëlle was henceforth known as Y'Gaëlle. Celeste affectionately added the "Y" apostrophe to the beginning of her name in honour of her storytelling. Ever since, Gaëlle has gone down in history by the name Y'Gaëlle.

In the summer of 1951, Josephine became pregnant, and gave birth to a baby girl nine months later. Josephine decided to have a water birth, and the baby girl was delivered in a clam shell in the middle of the Vannecy Flood Basin. Josephine named her Isabelle, and Isabelle would go on to become the second headmistress in the Oreille family dynasty.

Josephine went on to be headmistress of the College Des Sirènes for over forty years, until her retirement in the early eighties. During her time at the college, Josephine brought about many changes and reforms to the school. She was the first headmistress to controversially combine the College Des Sirènes orchestra and chorus into a singular performance, and introduce theatre, opera and music drama into the college core curriculum.

​Shortly before her retirement in the early eighties and the invasion of Celius and Nordic Implementers Josephine chanced upon the copper chalice of Arielle. Once filled with water, its depths enabled her to see things that have been, things that will be in the future, things that are, things that were, things that could have been, things that would have been and things that might have yet to be... Tempted by dark arts, Josephine was seduced by the power of the cup and sought to possess it, believing that if she took it, instead of a dark lord (Michael), the Lorallian would have a queen (above). However, once offered the cup, Josephine decided to relinquish it, and so she passed the test. She bestowed its ownership to her daughter, Isabelle, and hid the cup deep within the waterworks of the college. Upon her retirement, she diminished, and went out into the west, where she would remain Josephine for the rest of her life.

During the eighties, nineties and noughties, with the College Des Sirènes under the governance of her daughter, Isabelle; Josephine, with her husband Celeste, retreated from public life, becoming almost legendary figures in Lorallian 'lore. Their only known appearance was at the celestial marriage of Hayda Loral to Hayrak Donda at the turn of the century, in Rouenac, France.

Josephine will turn ninety-five next year, making her the longest living person in the Oreille family. Legend has it that the only knowledge that she obtained from the cup was the exact date of her death. From her aquatic ancestry, Josephine inherited from the water nymphs a collection of several hundred dresses, each dress representing a day in her life, thus each dress being worn until the day of her death. The last dress is thought to be the most mysterious and magical, made of silk and satin, and richly embroidered with moonshine, sapphires and pearls.

​Appearance

Josephine, like other members of the Oreille family, has a fair milky complexion, and long, straggly blond hair which grew paler as she advanced through her sixties, seventies and eighties. Now, she has waist length wispy white hair. Her eyes are an aquatic blue white, and her cheekbones are fine and delicate.