Ida is the mortal matriarch of the Prejean family in Lafayette but this is little consilation to her. One of only three children of Esmond to survive to adulthood, very early it was learned that she was unable to bear children. This led to her being generally ignored by her elders in favor of her sister Emma and, left to her own devices, she spent considerable time with the animals on the plantation, gaining an unhealthy bond with them due to their acceptance. The rest of the family was perfectly content to leave her to her comforts, being no stranger to perversity, but the situation changed when the war between the Brujah and Lasombra in New Orleans reached a head, leading to an assault on the family plantation by Camarilla ghouls that left several members of both revenant families dead and Jean-Michel's childe destroyed. Among the dead were both of her parents and grandparents, a fact which barely concerned Ida, given their neglect.
In the aftermath, it soon became clear that the Tzimisce was looking for someone to replace poor Uncle Edgar and Ida got it into her head that she was the perfect choice. Unable to continue the family legacy, the Embrace would finally provide her a means to fit in. However, Jean-Michel instead chose her sister, deciding that Ida lacked the strength of will to survive the ages and the focus to help rebuild the family. Ida's loneliness transformed into hatred and she dedicated herself to her sister's destruction, vowing to become the head of the family, come what may. The death of Frederic, her great grandfather, in 1982 gave her the chance she needed. Stepping into his position as family head, Aunt Ida soon came to dominate the family's mortal affairs. With Emma's embrace, Ida became her children's foster mother and she worked to manipulate their loyalty to focus on her rather than their birth mother, not especially hard a task given her current state.
Presently, she is engaged in a slowly escalating struggle with Marie-Thérèse for greater control over the affairs of the plantation. However, her plans for her sister are not entirely forgotten. She continues to work to undermine her support and look for ways to come between her and her sire. The efficiency with which she's managed Prejean affairs in Lafayette these last twenty years has impressed Jean-Michel sufficiently that he has allowed, often even encouraged, the fued, interested in who will prevail. Should his earlier decision prove to be a mistake, it is not too late to remedy it.
Ida has grown over the years from a lonely, deprived child to a masterful manipulator. She carefully insinuates herself into the lives of all who live on the plantation and wrings out of them the emotional commitment she craved as a child and is now so capable at providing for herself. Outwardly, she appears to be the beneficient aunt who is only interested in the best for her family and who occasionally puts her foot down when things get out of hand.
Ida's hatred of her sister is still there, though the original jealous motives have since been rationalized away. Ida now believes that her sister's commitment to the family isn't strong enough. The evidence for this varies from year to year, but usually points to her marriage to Raoul Ambre and her dedication to her sire at the expense of her children and the rest of the family.
Her dedication to Jean-Michel is unconditional, despite the slight of favoring her sister over her, mostly because of his omnipresent authority in the household since her birth. She believes that he has merely lost touch with the needs of the family and needs 'reminding' (this usually involving some humiliation of her sister). Of Marie-Thérèse, she is somewhat more fearful, mostly because she covets her position and knows she has no real chance to usurp her. Her fear is even greater in relation to her two childer.
She has become quite close over the years with Father Gossett, one of the few people to pay attention to her during her childhood and the one who taught her to draw on her Brasseaux heritage to speak with her beloved animals. Since she's taken up house intrigue, he has been kind enough to provide select information to help her along, endearing him to her further. He has become something of a father figure to her.
One of her guilty secrets is that she genuinely hates her sister's children, despite her years of playing foster mother to them and endearing them to her. She is just unable to see them as anything more than undeserved fruit of her sister's privilege. As such, when she falls into dark moods, she'll manipulate their emotions for her, torturing them with passive aggressive barbs. This may have been a contributing factor to Sevis turning out the way he has, but she blames that entirely on her sister and uses it as a further justification for her hatred.
Her other guilty secret is her bestiality, which isn't nearly as severe as it was when she was a child and it was the counterpoint of her obsession with reproduction. Mostly, it now constitutes a fetish and one she rarely indulges, lest it damage her facade. However, when she is particularly obvious about her plans against her sister, she and other older family members have been known to drag it out to humiliate her.
She is on very good terms with most of the Brasseaux, as well, due to the shared blood, but one in particular has her devotion. Uncle Rodolphe, with his beast-like manners and appearance, is the only lover who could fulfill her odd fetish and the two have been sexually involved since she was a girl. She has done her best to be discrete, but such things cannot be kept secret for so long in such a close-knit family, and it is a well-known secret.