| This article pertains to Xenogears: the sub-database of Xenosaga Wiki. |
Racquel Black (née Bennetnashe), originally known as Racquel Blanche, was Jessie's wife and Billy and Primera's mother.
Biography[]
Racquel was a young Solarian woman who was a candidate for the Jugend Military Academy. Her specialty was helping people who had become dependent on the drug Drive, a skill that nearly gained her an official position in Drive addiction and helping people who had failed Gear fusion. When Sigurd Harcourt lived in the Blanche household for a while, Racquel used her knowledge to try to heal him of his dependence to Drive.
She was also the object of affection for two Jugend recruits, Jessie Black and Isaac Stone. Jesiah won her heart, which enraged Stein to no end.
In 9983, Racquel married Jesiah and had her first child, Billy. She gave him the middle name of 'Lee', deriving it from 'Ashley', the name she had chosen when she thought her first child was to be a girl. This middle name remained her pet name for Billy, especially as he got older.[1]
As Raquel's husband began to realize the discrimination in the Solarian class system, she told him that he 'should feel the truth of the world's discrimination.' This influenced Jesiah to rebel against Solaris, leading to the family abandoning Solaris completely in 9990.[2]
Racquel and Jesiah, now going by Jessie, moved down to the surface to raise Billy, settling in the Aquvy region on an island close to the Ethos HQ. Two years later, she gave birth to her second child, named Primera.
Around the time Primera was born, Jesiah had come into contact with Gasper, and joins his guerilla fighting Corps, in order to help defend Shevat against Solaris and Gebler. Fearing a counterattack on his family, Jesiah prearranged his disappearance with Racquel, in order to ensure their children could not be interrogated due to his involvement.[3]
Two years later, Stein, who had become a Bishop in the Ethos church under the assumed name of Stone, eventually tracked them down and sent a group of Wels to the Black home. Racquel hid her two children behind a grandfather clock, intent on driving the Wels back with her firearm. Unfortunately, Racquel was unable to stop them, and was killed in the attack.
Stone's rationale for causing Racquel's death was that Jessie had irrevocably 'tainted' her, and she needed to be killed for her own good.
Their mother's brutal death effected the Black children in profound ways. Billy joined the Ethos, and developed a hatred of his father who was not there to protect his mother. The event also caused Primera, who was around three years old, to stop speaking completely.
Trivia[]
- As an artist, she was interested in a number of art forms, such as body painting.[2]
- Her maiden name, Bennetnashe, could be a reference to Benetnash / Benetnasch, a name for the star "Eta Ursae Majoris".
- The changing of her surname from Blanche to Black could symbolizes "white to black", as "blanc" means white in French.