Fiora's new lore still has nothing on Julie d'Aubigny, the fencer Fiora was clearly inspired by.

For those who are unfamiliar, Julie d'Aubiny (She was better known under her stage name Mademoiselle Maupin) was a 17th century French dashing swordswoman and opera singer.

I'm real tempted to go on with a biography, but there is quite a few other resources out there, so I'll just give some highlights -

• Like Fiora, d'Aubigny's father was an accomplished fencer, but unlike Fiora, her father encouraged her to take up fencing, training her in sword fighting (as well as reading and dancing) along the rest of the court pages of his lord, Count Louis de Lorraine-Guise, the most powerful Man in France bar King Louis XIV.

• At 14, D'Aubigny became a mistress of Count Lorraine-Guise, who soon married her off to a lesser noble. Shortly after the marriage, she fled with fencing master named Sérannes who was on the run for killing a man in an illegal duel.

• They made their living with fencing exhibitions and singing. D'Aubigny dressed as man, but didn't hide her gender; at least once when people questioned her gender in regard to her fencing skill, she ripped off her shirt.

• d'Aubigny left the Sérannes for for a young woman The girl's parent's did not approve, and they sent her off to a nunnery to keep d'Aubigny away.

• It didn't work. D'Aubigny followed her into the nunnery, took the body of recently deceased nun (who she didn't kill, I should add) into her room, then burned the place to the ground. Facing a death sentence, they ran off together, but ater a few months d'Aubigny got bored and returned her to her family.

• She got Count Louis de Lorraine-Guise to convince King Louis XIV to pardon her, then joined the Paris Opera, still at the age of 17. She became famous for her voice, witt, and many tempestuous relationships with fellow singers and various nobels of both genders.

• She continued to dress as a man outside of the opera, and jumped at every opportunity to duel. One noble she impaled in the shoulder; he apologized when he learned who she was, and they ended up lovers and life long friends. This was the only long lasting friendship she had.

• At a society ball, she stole the dance with the debutante (basically the prom queen) from her suitors, and kissed her in front of the entire crowd. Three of the suitors challenged her to a duel. They meet outside where she fought all three of them at once, and killed all three. Dueling in Paris was illegal, so she fled once again. (This is historically pretty fuzzy; she killed at least one of the three, however.)

• Through the influence of the King's brother, d'Aubigny got the King to pardon her once again. The king quipped the law specified men, not women, and that anyone foolish enough to duel her with her reputation deserved their fate anyhow.

• Back in Paris, she rejoined the opera to much acclaim. At this point, she was 24 and quite the celebrity, with many new opera's composed specifically around her talents. Her shenanigans outside the opera for around but she managed to stay out off trouble she couldn't buy off.

• At 29, she got in a setteled into a serious relationship with Madame la Marquise de Florensac, widely regardless as the most beautiful women in France, and amoung the richest and most influential. She continued to sing in the opera, but stopped causing too much trouble. Two years into their relationship, de Florensac got quite sick and died of a fever.

• From here the history is really sketchy. She was crushed; she quit opera, and basically disappeared from the world with leaving little historical trace. Historians tend to agree she eventually winded up in a convent and died in 1707 (age 33), but some say she first went to her husband (Yea I forgot about him too) for a little while until he died too, and then went to the convent.

Well that was a few more pointers than I originally intended. There's still quite a bit I missed, mostly regarding her various other lovers, but it should give you a feeling of how awesome Fiora's lore could have been. D'Aubigny was very much a romantic swashbuckler in the vein of Dumas, asides from her being real and female. I doubt the rampant bisexuality is appropriate for league's lore, but I'd absolutely love to see some references a burning nunnery, or at the very least, stabbing someone in the shoulder.