Raye's Mini-Shrine to Lucrezia Noin

Among all the heroes and villains of Gundam Wing, Lucrezia Noin stands as one of the few characters held in universal respect by enemies, allies and the fans.

So who is she?

The Lady Herself

Her known history begins in her early teens, when she entered the Earth Federation's Training Academy at Lake Victoria. As this is the highest-rated education facility in Gundam Wing's world, she obviously was a very intelligent student, achieving the second-highest marks ever recorded there. In fact, when she graduated, she chose to accept a position there as an instructor.
She proved an excellent instructor, and managed not to think about the fact that she was training her students to fight the wars she herself hated. She was extremely popular with the recruits, although this was more likely due to her personal beauty than her teaching skills!

While Lucrezia was a student at Lake Victoria, she encountered another student, named Zechs Merquise. He was the only student to ever surpass her, and she accepted the role of his subordinate. Over time, this relationship evolved, officially into a deep friendship. However, evidence indicates it went somewhat further. (WARNING: do not follow this link unless you are of age to view mature material.)

She followed Zechs in joining OZ. However, she had no loyalty to OZ or its founder, Treize Khrushenada; Lucrezia followed OZ from a combination of her personal loyalty to Zechs and its promise of an end to war.

After the revolution started, Zechs asked Lucrezia to perform a personal task; to become his sister Relena's bodyguard. Due to her discovery of her true heritage and her own anti-war stance, Relena Darlian had managed to become a target of OZ assassins. Lucrezia agreed, leaving OZ to do so. She had not agreed with many of the recent decisions made by her superiors. She had discovered, after Wufei Chang's attack on Lake Victoria Base, that she had no real wish to fight in any war, and certainly not the dirty conflict the War of the Gundams was shaping up to be.

Lucrezia first encountered Relena in the streets of Moscow, after Relena attempted to assassinate Khrushenada's second-in-command, Lady Une. This was the first and last time Relena attempted to take direct action in the conflict. From this time on, Relena's stance became more and more anti-violence, until finally she reclaimed her rank as the Ruling Princess of the Cinq Kingdom and propounded the principle of Absolute Pacifism. Although her legendary parents undoubtedly influenced the final form of Relena Darlian Peacecraft's politics, we should note that it was while associating with Lucrezia that she first started to develop them.

Lucrezia also first exposed Relena to the Romefeller Foundation, the political organization which spawned and supported OZ. Relena would later use this organization to promote her own agendas.

After the fall of Cinq Kingdom, Relena and Lucrezia parted ways. After Relena was taken by the Romefeller Foundation to be their puppet leader, Lucrezia made contact with Sally Po, whom she had met while serving with OZ. Sally was an ex-doctor who was now a guerilla soldier, fighting for the independence of her homeland, China. While working as a doctor for OZ, she had also contravened the wishes of the OZ higher-ups; in her case, by preventing the total destruction of the Gundams and by insisting on the humane treatment of Heero Yuy while he was a prisoner. Sally and Lucrezia now joined forces. Sally left her battle for China and the two of them became a support team for the five Gundam pilots. They managed to keep the Gundams which remained on Earth from the Romefeller Foundation and to get all the remaining Gundam pilots up into space, following them to continue the battle.

Lucrezia's role as a member of the Peacemillion's support personnel is often overlooked but it can't be overstated. This part of the history is often overshadowed by the fact that this is the time when all five of the pilots first encountered the Zero System and the group suffered the loss of Trowa Barton. As a fellow soldier and a friend, Lucrezia would have been one of the few people they would have felt able to confide in.

Lucrezia herself, at this time, would have been under enormous pressure. Her old friend Zechs, having resumed his birth identity of Milliard Peacecraft, had taken control of a terrorist organization known as 'White Fang'. She and the Gundam pilots were in direct opposition to White Fang's proposed aims, and the two sides often met in battle.

When Zechs/Milliard finally fell and the conflict collapsed, Lucrezia chose not to enjoy a rest. Instead, Lucrezia chose to join her friend Sally and become a part of the organization Lady Anne was creating, called the Preventers. The purpose of the Preventers, as the name suggests, was to prevent any of the small conflicts that would inevitably spring up becoming larger ones and, eventually, war. As the commanders of the force, she, Sally and Anne named themselves after three of the four elements; 'Fire', 'Water' and 'Earth' respectively.

On the first anniversary of the final battle of the War of the Gundams, Preventers Fire and Water were on a routine assignment, investigating the possible stockpiling of weaponry. Ironically, it turned out they were investigating the stockpile of Marimeia Khrushenada's army, and they were just a little too late. Under the direction of her grandfather, Dekim Barton, Marimeia initiated the One-Day War.

Fire and Water immediately returned to Earth, where Fire was assigned to work with a new pilot, named 'Wind'.

Due to their efforts, many lives were saved, before Heero Yuy ended the War.

After this, Lucrezia put her foot down. She demanded a committment from Zechs, and resigned from any and all military services. The two of them joined a terraforming project and left Earth, more-or-less permanently, passing out of history.

Datafile: Lucrezia Noin

Datafile: Zechs Merquise

Well, he is a major part of her life...

Zechs Merquise was born Milliard Peacecraft in the year 175 AC, the crown prince of the Cinq Kingdom. After the collapse of Cinq Kingdom, he was hidden by the Barton Family until he entered the Lake Victoria Academy, and met Lucrezia Noin.

Name: Zechs Merquise
Aliases: Milliard Peacecraft, Lightning Baron, Wind
Rank: Baron, advancing to Count
Age: 20 (in TV series); 21 (in Endless Waltz)
Place of Origin: Cinq Kingdom
Hair: Platinum blond
Eyes: Nail blue
Height: 184 cm
Weight: 76 kg

A couple of nice pics. The one on the left is from a DJ, speculating just what Zechs might dream of.  The one on the right is from a poster featuring Zechs in his White Fang uniform and Lucrezia in her Peacemillion civvies.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

All the pictures on this page (except for the headshot of Lucrezia at the head of the page and the Evidence picture, which I scanned myself) come from Ai Shiteru: A Gundam Wing Archive and Zechs And Noin, while much of the information was found at The Gundam Project.

It took a lot of work to make the information and images available and I have no intention of claiming the credit. They did it. Not me. Go visit them and say thank you. They deserve it.