Cadence McCartney

Not much is known about Cadence's early life, although it's believed that she was a Newcrest native. As a young adult, she developed a somewhat naïve interest in stripping and began hanging around a seedy Newcrest strip club. Here, she was drugged and kidnapped by Papa Legba.

Alongside fellow Newcrest resident Jordyn Baker, Cadence became one of Papa Legba's very first victims. Cadence and Jordyn were kept as Cattle in a secret dungeon which had been built beneath the Palace de Legba. Papa Legba used them for their precious plasma, as well as to carry his children in order to carry on the Legba bloodline. Cadence, too weak to fight back against Papa Legba, eventually gave birth to his first daughter, Lulabelle de Legba.

Cadence was a doting mother to Lulabelle, and she loved Jordyn's son Narcissus just as her own. The two young women agreed to raise their children together, sharing responsibilities and eventually growing to fall in love with each other. While Jordyn held onto hopes of escaping the palace and giving their children a better life, Cadence was resigned to meekly following each and every order from Papa Legba. She believed that keeping her head down and remaining on her "best behavior" would give them their best chance at survival. She was not concerned with her own freedom, only with keeping Lulabelle and Narcissus safe.

Jordyn's rebellious nature would lead to her being murdered by Papa Legba as soon as Narcissus was old enough to be weaned from his mother. After Jordyn's death, Cadence more or less gave up on her own humanity. She devoted all of her energy to raising the two children she was left with, and soon she began caring for Papa Legba's other son Ixie as well. Her natural talent for handiness made her a useful Sim to keep around the palace, so she was able to settle comfortably into her new twisted life.

After Prince Ixie ousted Papa Legba from the palace, taking over the legacy for himself, Cadence was made an official member of the family. Although Ixie loved his surrogate mother too much to pass on his curse of vampirism, she was allowed to enjoy all the luxuries of vampire royal life. Narcissus and Lulabelle moved out of the dungeon and began attending regular school, while Cadence continued to faithfully offer her plasma as sustenance for the coven.

When Ixie reached full maturity, he began to receive pressure from other members of the coven to father an heir. Having developed a schoolboy crush on Cadence as a child, Ixie convinced himself she was the only possible mother for his future heir. He approached Cadence about the prospect of conceiving a child with him, but she declined, as she saw the young man as a son. The other nobles of Forgotten Hollow, however, found this to be unacceptable. They arranged for a drug-fueled ritual in which Cadence would be magically and forcibly impregnated by Prince Ixie. She never psychologically recovered from the trauma of this ritual, but she did give birth to a healthy baby girl, Julia.

After the birth of Julia, Ixie was overcome by guilt about what he had done to Cadence. He banished Cadence from the palace, in hopes that the forcible ejection would be her chance at a better life, and he sought out a new nanny to help raise this newest generation of the legacy. After leaving the palace, Cadence did begin to heal, although she suffered with missing memories of her time in the palace for the rest of her life. Despite the lasting psychological effects, Cadence was happy, and she remained close with her now teenage daughter Lulabelle.

Now, Cadence is a bit of a nomad. She has no permanent home, at least not one that she will allow anyone in Forgotten Hollow to know about, but she remains close with both of her children. She's a regular visitor at the palace, and she could not be more proud of the woman Lulabelle is growing into.