From Changeling Venue

A child-like Fae who collects children to be her baby doll servants. As the Fae do not understand children, the Princess Marionettiste has the look of a twisted, warped mockery of a child. She is unnaturally thin, with porcelain skin, huge green eyes, a tiny nose and lips bowed into a perpetual pout. The only color on her pale skin is bright circles of pink on her cheeks. Her hair is thick and coarse with the texture of yarn, curled into tight ringlets, and styled into pig-tails. The color shifts as often as her mood, going from blonde to black to red.

She is petulant and spoiled, throwing massive temper tantrums if her slightest whim is denied. She often breaks her "toys," the baby doll servants that labor in her palace. They tend her garden, dance and sing for her, act as protectors or gladiators, decorate her home, and sit as pretty ornaments on high shelves. Her broken servants litter the floor of her "toy room," only repaired and returned to service when the Princess Marionettiste's fickle attention is once again focused on them.

Years of dutiful service wear down the automaton girls, causing them to age and break down. Unable to repair the broken spirit and body of her dolls, the Princess Marionettiste tosses them aside. They sit alone and abandoned, with missing and broken limbs, stacked to the ceiling on shelves in her toy repair room. Their glass eyes stare blankly into the room, never remembering the joys of their past childhood, before they were taken.

While the Princess Marionettiste never seems to notice when one of her broken toys suddenly disappears, if one of her current favorites runs away she will send out an army of baby doll soldiers to track the escapee through the Hedge and drag her back.

The Princess Marionettiste prefers to capture her victims through the manipulation of mortals. She makes deals with nannies, toy makers, and retail employees—anyone who would have access to lure a child into a back room where she can be snatched. The rewards run the gamut from love to riches, but the greed of the mortal is all the same. They would rather make promises to strange little girls than work hard for what they want. Sometimes these deals are only set for one time, but whenever possible the Princess Marionettiste forgoes any mention of time and weaves the contract so that it will last for the rest of the mortal's life.

Beware strange little girls with green eyes who offer you deals, it may end up being more than you bargain for.

The Dollmaker's Deal

There was once a German doll maker who was not very good at his craft. His dolls were unrefined, poorly constructed, and often ridiculed by his fellow craftsmen. However, the man knew no other skill. He had been apprenticed to a doll maker at a young age and, despite his lack of talent, was never apprenticed to another to learn a different skill.

One day, in the winter of 1952, as the doll maker toiled in his shop, a child entered. The little girl was adorable, with porcelain skin and bright green eyes. She wore a dress made of the best satin and lace. She told the doll maker that her mother was outside in their car and that she was allowed to purchase one doll for her very own. The doll maker, embarrassed about his wares, told the little girl he wished he had something beautiful to offer her but he did not have the ability to craft anything so perfect. The girl, with a too-sweet smile, offered the doll maker a deal. She would enable him to make the most beautiful dolls ever seen, dolls that no one would be able to resist the lure of purchasing, but he would have to do something in return for her.

Immediately, he agreed. Greed overran caution and he did not see the look of triumph, quickly hidden, on her face. First, she told him, he must move across the ocean to America. The land was vast and he would be able to peddle his wares there without the shame of his past failures. All he would owe her, she said, was her choice of one female child a year to receive a special doll. The girl said she would look through the eyes of the dolls he created to choose the child she wanted. It was the doll maker's duty to get the child into the store and away from her parents.

The doll maker spoke the promise and sealed the deal by speaking the name of strange little girl, the Princess Marionettiste. Soon after, he began to work. He labored and toiled for days on end, crafting the first of many beautiful dolls to take with him on his trip to America. With his small collection of dolls hidden away for the journey, the doll maker closed up his shop and took a ship across the ocean. Afraid to travel too far lest he damage his precious cargo, the doll maker set up his new shop in New York. Children flocked to his store, entranced by the beautiful dolls. He would hold a raffle each summer, giving out free tickets to all the little girls. The voice of the strange girl, the Princess Marionettiste, would speak into his mind and tell him which girl she wanted. The doll maker would then choose that child's ticket and tempt the child with the promise of the best dolls in the back of the store. When the child would wander to the back, the doll maker would speak with the parents. The child always returned holding one of his dolls and left happily with her parents. What was so special about the doll or the child and why the Princess Marionettiste wanted them the doll maker never asked.

Though no one seemed to ever make the connection, all of these lucky girls who won the doll maker's special raffle would be the victim of some strange illness. Sometimes mere days after winning their doll and sometimes a year or two would pass, but eventually the child would begin to cough and run a fever, become listless, and want to do nothing but lie in bed hugging their favorite doll. None of the doctors would be able to cure the affliction and not long after showing symptoms the little girl would die. The children who did not receive their dolls from the special raffle did not become sick with this strange illness.

Twenty-five years passed and on the doll maker's fiftieth birthday he told the Princess Marionettiste that he wanted to retire. He had gotten married years before and had a wife, three children, and a newly born grandchild that he wanted to spend time with. But the Princess Marionettiste refused. They had never set a timeframe, she said, and so the doll maker would owe her the children for the rest of his life. If he did not continue to lure the children into his shop, she would begin by stealing his grandchild then take any of his female descendants born in the future.

And so the doll maker continued to make his dolls, luring one little girl each year for the debt he owed to the Princess Marionettiste. He is an old man now, bent and wrinkled with age and worry. His hands ache when he works but the fear for his family keeps him creating new dolls and running his annual summer raffle.

Dollmaker's Timeline
If you were taken by the dollmaker, please add your character into the timeline the year she was taken.

1927 – Born
1942 – Apprenticed to a doll maker
1952 – Makes a deal with the Princess Marionettiste
1953 – Moves to America and sets up shop in New York City, the first child is taken that year
1956 – Gets married
1957 – First child born (female)
1958 – Second child born (male)
1960 – Third child born (male)
1976 – First grandchild, Amaline (Raggedy Emily), is born (female)
1977 – Asks to retire and is refused by the Princess Marionettiste
1978 – Adeline Jace (Gwyneira) is taken
1979 – Second grandchild is born (male)
1981 – Third grandchild is born (female)
1984 – Fourth grandchild is born (female)
1988 – Fifth grandchild is born (male)
1988 - Amaline (Raggedy Emily) is taken
1990 – Sixth grandchild is born (male)
1993 – Seventh grandchild is born (female)

Escaped Servants

• Gywneira Blythe - Her duty was to serve and protect the Princess during her violent and cruel games.
• Masked Molly - A pretty little shelf doll, her fractures became noticeable after her escape.
• Paladin - A toymaker bound into the service of the Princess to craft humans into dolls.
• Lily Jewel - The favorite doll of the Princess for a short time, Lily was too soon cast aside after the Princess grew bored of the BJD fad.
• Raggedy Emily

Contact

Please contact me if this Keeper fits your concept.

Contact: Charlyne Lees