Victoria Celestine

Victoria Celestine is a fictional character in the 2008 film Shroud.

Early Childhood
Victoria Celestine was born on Christmas Day 1835 to Isaiah and Cornelia Van Helsing in Amsterdam, The Netherlands (Northern Province: Holland).

Victoria was, for almost fifteen years, an only child. Her father Isaiah was gentleman-adventurer, scientist, naturalist, occultist, and duelist. Effectively raised as a son - unheard of during that time due to rigid waning Gregorian and waxing Victorian expectations upon women -- Isaiah bestowed upon his daughter a lavish and diversified education in literature, the sciences (including astronomy, biology and anatomy) as well as more esoteric studies religion, philosophy and the occult. Victoria was also trained in weaponry including swords, pistols and dueling by M. Thorvald, a “rather eccentric Hessian mercenary” who had been rescued by her father on adventure, and who since served his bodyguard. Additionally, Victoria was trained by an oriental expatriate and tulip trader named Yip Kai Ming in an obscure fighting style only known as “Holy Stone Fist.”

Marriage to Johnathan Celestine
Victoria met Dr. Johnathan Celestine while on a trip with her father to London in the spring of 1856. The meeting was quite accidental, as Victoria was accompanying her father to see the famous Royal Opera House in London on March 5, 1856 when it was learned the Covent Garden had been destroyed by fire.

An English colleague of her father’s, Victoria had never meet Dr. Celestine, and had only heard his name through correspondence. A chance encounter with Dr. Celestine resulted in an impromptu dinner during which Johnathan and Victoria formally met. Johnathan grew up with aspirations of joining the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge, but the publication faded form prominence by 1848.

The attraction between Johnathan and Victoria was “immediate and enthusiastic.”

Marriage, Move to London & Miscarriage
In 1858 Victoria suffered a miscarriage of an expected son. It is revealed in Shroud Victoria had planned to name her son Alexander, after Johnathan’s uncle who raised him.

Death of Isaiah In 1862 Victoria’s father, Isaiah, fell ill with fever and after suffering for little more than a month, slipped into a coma and died. The cause of death was suspected to be lead poisoning from two bullets wounds Isaiah suffered from a controversial and unconfirmed duel in Russia some fifteen years earlier. The bullets were never removed due to surgical limitations of the day.

Thereafter, Victoria sailed to America to search for Johnathan who had disappeared on errand in The Arizona Territories. During the events in "Shroud" Victoria learned of Johnathan's murder by a rogue posse of defectors from the Confederacy in service to a mysterious Mayor Undercroft.

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