Quenelles is a city of extremes.
Its nobility are acknowledged to be among the purest-blooded of all Bretonnia. The Beaumont district where they live is a model of the Bretonnian ideal:
breathtakingly beautiful mansions, their interiors lavishly dressed in the fine woodwork, glasswork and tapestries for which the city is famed, and populated by exquisitely made-up aristocrats in the latest Oisillon fashions. Beyond its (beautiful) wrought iron gates, however, in the city proper, it is a different story. There is almost no middle-class, and those there are are almost all part of the government of the city, keeping the poor at bay. The urban poor are kept in their place with an iron fist. Public brandings, whippings, and executions are a common event. A surprisingly high proportion of the population bear the marks of these punishments, meted out for even the most trivial crimes. Supposed witches, agitators, and cultists of Ranald are hunted down and killed. Even more disturbing, however, are the rumours of wanton cruelty, sadism, and decadence that occur behind the closed doors of the mansions of the nobility. Whether these rumours are true or not, the nobles of Quenelles have a cruel streak, and a disregard for the lives of the poor that is notorious even by Bretonnian standards.