She’s just way out of your league…

Attributes: Also known as The Woman Who’s Out of Your League, this is one of the most subtle and difficult archetypes to personify and as a result it’s almost always channelled subconsciously. Like The Woman That Everyone Can Get But You, La Belle Dame embodies unfulfilled desire, albeit in a slightly different way. When you were at school, she was always the prettiest, smartest and classiest girl in the class, and it was clear that you were never going to amount to much more than an insect compared to the sort of boys that she could effortlessly attract. She was going to be a doctor or a lawyer while you got a job in a supermarket, but you loved her anyway… even if she didn’t pay all that much attention to you. Typically, La Belle Dame is a semi-familiar but conspicuous figure in the everyday life of a man that’s affected by her: she’s someone that he could conceivably get to know and be on reasonable speaking terms, but she’s obviously just a little bit too glamorous to seriously become a part of his life. Either that, or he’s just too dull and ordinary to become a serious part of hers. A lot of men simply shrug and get over this before setting their sights a bit lower; others brave the inevitable rejection and get over that, too. But some men are particularly hard hit by La Belle Dame Sans Merci’s curse. Rather than say anything, they will go to absurd lengths to elevate themselves in her eyes, usually while they stifle their feelings until they become an unhealthy obsession. Depending on the personality of the individual, this obsession can sometimes become dangerous – with tragic consequences.

Taboos: La Belle Dame Sans Merci is absolutely not allowed to initiate or respond to any kind of romantic contact with anyone who might be objectively described as “beneath her.” It doesn’t matter how nice they are, or how much she might like them; if she ever stoops she’s in danger of being seen as widely attainable, and that’s anathema to the archetype. She can act normally around any man who is clearly the leader of the pack, such as that guy who became president of her senior class and is now a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. Whoever he is, he must be the most successful man that she is personally acquainted with, so she’s doomed to a lonely life if she’s ever met David Beckham or George Bush. She’s also in a bit of a bind if she enters a relationship with such a man and then meets someone even more successful – if she’s a devoted follower of the archetype then she must cast aside the former in favour of the latter. In practice, however, if her current partner continues to be successful in his own right and generally worthy of respect, it won’t harm her too much to stay with him. But if she should ever start to get the idea that he is beneath her, she must set her sights higher.

Symbols: Evidence of past accomplishments, such as awards, newspaper articles or artwork, the trappings of a classy lifestyle and a wardrobe straight from the pages of VOGUE are all potential symbols of La Belle Dame Sans Merci.

Suspected Avatars in History: Unsurprisingly, a lot of anguished poems are thought to contain references to avatars of La Belle Dame Sans Merci. Catullus’ Lesbia may have been channelling the archetype, and the ‘Dark Lady’ of Shakespeare’s Sonnets is another likely avatar. Jodie Foster may have been channelling La Belle Dame in 1981, with results that are all too well known.

Channels.
1%-50%: La Belle Dame can turn any Charm-related skill roll into a matched or even a critical success when interacting with a male acquaintance that she isn’t especially attracted to, as long as his lot in life is arguably a bit meaner than her own. This power wouldn’t work, for example, on Brad Pitt or George Clooney. What happens is that whenever La Belle Dame makes a roll using her Charm skill or something similar, roll again for her Avatar: La Belle Dame Sans Merci skill. If that roll is successful, it will turn a failed Charm roll into a weak success, a successful Charm roll into a matched success, and a matched success into a critical success. A match will excite an overwhelmingly strong romantic attraction towards La Belle Dame, and a crit will basically re-write the affected man’s Obsession for a number of days equal to her Avatar skill score. Watch the Self stress challenges pile up as the victim’s new obsession wrestles with his old one, as this can cause some wildly contradictory behaviour.
51%-70%: If she’s survived this far, things start to work a little more in La Belle Dame’s favour. Any man who’s been affected by her first avatar channel will become curiously reluctant to do or say anything that might conceivably harm or offend her, and he must make a rank-6 Self challenge if he tries. In some cases, even fantasising about her will be enough to trigger a monumental anxiety trip.
71%-91%: By this stage, La Belle Dame’s power to inspire unrequited love can affect just about any man, regardless of whether he’s ‘too good’ for her or not.
91%+: Unless something happens to her, La Belle Dame’s ability to affect Obsessions is all but permanent, to the extent that her victims will gladly die for her or do just about anything else that she says. There are, of course, some men out there who are likely to make the simple, terrible decision that if they can’t have her, no one else will. Basically, what happens is that La Belle Dame can use this channel on any man if she makes a successful Avatar skill roll, and then she will become his new Obsession. However, for every month that she isn’t in his life in some way, the affected man can make a roll against his Soul stat to try and break free of her power. It isn’t easy: only a matched success or a crit will end the spell completely and permanently. All an ordinary success will do is cancel its effects for the duration of that month, and he’ll have to roll again as soon as the pangs start coming back. Of course, if he sees La Belle Dame Sans Merci again, he’ll be right back to where he started, and quite, quite helpless to resist.