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Because he was the second child of Duke Edmund Laurent by a number of years, Cristoph was educated as the 'spare' to his sister's heir. He showed considerable aptitude for the soldier's trade, and generally expected that it would be the knightly service of the ducal seat that would be his life's work. Yet his path was not so set when she struck herself from the rolls of House Laurent. His sister was in her early twenties when she left the laity sisterhood of Gloria to be truly godsworn and throw herself into the Faith. That left Cristoph a boy coming to his adulthood in a changing universe. (It also killed a potential marriage alliance with another ducal house, but never mind. There will always be more potential brides, right?) Yet the mantle of heirdom did not sit easily on Cristoph's shoulders. He was accustomed to a soldier's trade, a soldier's goals, and he hungered for the glory of the battlefield. He risked himself early and often, leading from the front and leading the charge ahorse against the Shavs even as a young man. Badly injured to within a few inches of his life in a skirmish a few years ago, his men prevailed upon him to control his more glory-hound impulses; his father had lost one heir to a different kind of duty, and it would be terrible to lose another, particularly with his younger sister so very much younger. In order to accustom Cristoph to responsibility and grow him into his role as the future duke, he was made Voice of Laurent, and threw himself into the work with a will to prove himself, first while he lay recovering in an infirmary bed, and then afterwards when he was wholly recovered. He proved a pragmatic thinker and a capable organizer. So it was that when the duke fell ill and died in the spring of 1005 and he took the reins of the duchy, it was with several years solid experience under his belt, as a leader of men whose vibrancy was newly tempered by patience.

Tailoring -- or armoring -- mostly obscures the most dramatic feature of Cristoph's looks, the latticework of arrow scars that write pale white lines over the broad bulk of his chest and shoulders. One of those fine lines surges past his collarbone to a visible mark left on the skin of his neck. His next most distinguishing feature is the brilliant clarity of his blue eyes, their summery hue as arresting as the intensity behind them. His features are mostly even and pleasant without being drop dead gorgeous, but the expressiveness of his eyes and the dynamic mobility of his mouth lend more charm to his face in motion than it might be entitled in stillness. Tall and sturdy, his stocky frame is lent grace by the length of his limbs, and there is an energy to his carriage that suggests his dynamism.

Vibrant and dynamic, Cristoph is a doer: one of those men who thrives on action, and whose energy seems to flow from some innate wellspring that simply does not fail. In short: the man is nonstop. Pragmatic and intelligent, his chiefest struggle in life is probably how much of himself he can find fault with. It's difficult to tell where exactly Cristoph's need to prove himself comes from, nor to what inner ghost he seeks to prove, but it drives him. Organized as well as active, he yearns to take the field and lead, only to sometimes be held back by practical necessity. He is also the man to whom the Valardins can go to make sure that something gets done. Unburdened by high idealism, it is not that Cristoph lacks the fortitude of a personal code as that he simply finds honor to be a practical construct of integrity and effectiveness rather than an unblemished philosophy. His sense of humor is dry, but warm; his core attitude is realistic, but positive; his basic nature is grounded.