The Gerard family was by no means a prestigious noble house. The patriarch, Lord Gerard, a provincial administrative official, barely managed to squeeze into the lower ranks of the imperial court. In the distant provinces, he would have been considered a powerful figure, but in the capital, where purple robes and royal lineages were as common as cobblestones, his Fourth-Rank title held little weight.
It was even less impressive when compared to Lord Richard Valerian, a man who held the "black files" of nearly every official in the empire. However, the Gerard name wasn't entirely obscure, primarily because Richard had a daughter described in the original text as "exquisitely talented in music and poetry, elegant beyond compare, and possessing a beauty that could topple empires."
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