Irene Adler

1858- (?)

Performer/Demimondaine/Adventuress Charisma [Great] • Comeliness [Exceptional] • Education [Great] • Perception [Great] • Performance [Exceptional] • Social Graces [Good] Irene Adler, referred to by Sherlock Holmes as The Woman, is a figure to be respected and feared; she is described by the King of Bohemia as having "the face of the most beautiful of women, and the mind of the most resolute of men." Holmes describes her as "the daintiest thing under a bonnet on this planet." But she's more than just beautiful; she is a talented actress and singer, is skilled at disguise, but most of all has an excellent mind. She's clever, insightful, and quick on her feet.

Born into a Jewish family in New Jersey in 1858, Irene Adler had a fine contralto voice and became the prima donna at the Imperial Opera of Warsaw. While there, in 1883, she became involved with the 'King of Bohemia'¹, who treated her badly ("cruelly wronged," in her own words). Sometime after their relationship ended she moved to London; it might be surmised that in the five years between the ending of her relationship with the King of Bohemia and her move to London she was involved in some notorious activities, for she is in Holmes' files² and is referred to by His Highness Wilhelm von Ormstein as "the well-known adventuress." In 1888, Sherlock Holmes was retained to retrieve some incriminating evidence in her possession; at that time her address was Briony Lodge, Serpentine Avenue, St. John's Wood, London. "A Scandal in Bohemia" is a case that Holmes still remembers with a wry smile, the only time he has ever been bested by a woman.
Subsequently she married the Freemason Godfrey Norton, a lawyer and member of the Inner Temple.

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