Bio

An excerpt from Behind The Badge: A Look at the Modern-Day Ministry of Judgement

Elena Marquist was born to a father who worked for the Ministry of Judgement as detective and a mother who gave up a promising future as a tournament duelist in order to maintain a household and raise a family. Elena is the eldest child, and has two younger siblings — a brother named Edward and a sister named Elizabeth.

As a teenager, Elena showed a great deal of promise with a dueling sword. Many expected her to follow in her mother’s footsteps and become a tournament duelist, and while she enjoyed swordplay Elena far preferred the puzzle-solving work of her father. After graduating from Dunwall Academy in the top quarter of her class, she struck out on her own as a private detective.

The work was not what she expected. For years she tolled away, exposing cheating spouses and the like. She groused regularly about how this work was trivial, and craved something more substantial. Then came the Red Rose Killer.

The story of the Red Rose Killer is well-documented elsewhere, and so this volume will not go into great detail on the case. In short, the Red Rose Killer was a serial murderer that stalked the lower quarter of Dunwall nearly a decade before this writing. The Killer’s victims were always beautiful women, and were always found with a red rose tucked behind their ear.

For months the case of the Red Rose Killer went unsolved by the Dunwall City Watch. Marquist, still a private investigator, took it upon herself to solve the case. Over the course of a year she learned everything she could about the victims, including the new ones that appeared. Along with maverick Ministry detective Alexander Worthington (the only Watch detective still willing to work on the case), Marquist traced a string of seemingly-disparate clues and uncovered the identity of the Killer: Garrett Walsh, a high-ranking official for the Ministry of Agriculture.

Marquist and Worthington staged a daring sting operation, with she posing as Walsh’s next victim. Their success earned them both commendations from the Ministry, and Marquist was soon recruited by Minister Kenway as a Justicar. Worthington, meanwhile, was soon transferred to the Ministry of Agriculture, where he was quickly promoted to a Lieutenant’s position.

It should be noted that, although there is no official verification, it is widely rumored that Marquist and Worthington developed a romantic relationship during their work on the Red Rose Killer case and that this is at least part of the reason for Worthington’s transfer. If the allegations are true, then the affair undoubtedly ended on sour terms — Marquist and Worthington are frequently seen arguing with one another on Dunwall Tower grounds, and on more than one occasion the altercations have turned physical.