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2006
Property:Background
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| Baldwin Fidante + | A cousin to the current Duke, Baldwin was from the start a deeply spiritual individual. It was this spirituality of his, this faith, that tempers the occasional impulses for which he was known in his childhood. After all, what little Baldwin loved more than to hear the stories of warfare and House Fidante's many glories was to brawl his relatives, or play-pretend with wooden swords a little too aggressively. As he grew, a certain contemplative nature also came about, and he would often be found in the various temples, meditating and praying when he wasn't compulsively training for what he believed was his true calling. He was fostered with a Southerner Knight Templar, then, both to complete his training and to assist the man in his fight against the Abandoned menace. Many years were spent as the young man flourished into a martially-inclined, highly competent adult, thanks to the spartan upbringing that ensued. Once he was knighted, following a particularly harrowing attack by the Abandoned at a westward holy site the newly-made knight decided to ride back south, after hearing of unrest in Tor. Once there, he joined forces with the Duke against the pretender Count. His training paid off; riding at the vanguard, his mettle was proven again and again in the field of combat, although some whisper of carefully measured brutality visited upon the foe, concealed beneath the veneer of valor at arms. Once Duke Leo was reinstated, he pledged his sword to him, willing to serve House Fidante against enemies without and within, as his liege requires. + |
| Baltus Darkwater + | Baltus Darkwater was born to the life of the sea, like many of the Saffron Isles. Being a man of the sea goes is in his blood for it goes back generations. His love of the waters might be aided by the fact he was born on the Isles, more specifically Cielos Encantadores. There he was raised, mostly by his mother, along with his siblings. He was taught a mix of being a proper nobleman and sailor, making him both regal and crude, yet charismatic as a leader. When he was old enough he started travelling with his father on the seas, learning the way of a future captain of a ship. He spent his times in port in the arms of a woman he could seduce with his confidence and charm, though, because he was on the more serious side his choices were limited despite his looks. When his mother died at the birth of his youngest sibling Baltus and his father agreed that Baltus would spend a little more time on shore attending to his siblings to assure they were properly raised. He still spent time on the sea but less until his younger siblings were old enough to take care of themselves. During one of his times at port in Arx, a very brief port, Baltus met his wife to be. A Whisper and the epitome of beauty, at least to him. During his time in Arx he spent every available moment with her, trying to woo her. He managed to woo her enough to get her to agree to keep in contact via letters and to meet each time he managed to get to Arx. Baltus took every trade he could to get to Arx and spent his time there with the Whisper, Carita, and with her he built a grand romance. He had to fight to make Carita his wife, for she was common - even though she was a Whisper. Carita was his grand love. With her he has, thus far, had one child. And yet things took a dark turn soon enough, and they went from a grand romance, to estranged, to divorced. Still she remained a Darkwater, something very difficult for Baltus to understand - particularly when she was made a Voice over him. But all of that seemed less important after Darrow died defending Darkwater against the Fleet. Though Carita had ordered the place evacuated, still this was his home, and now he has determined to spend his efforts showing what a true-born noble can do - rebuild his home, strengthen his people, and lead well into the future. + |
| Barbrey Blackwood + | Nearing her seventh decade, Barbrey has lived a long life of courageous feats. Born near sixty years ago as the younger child of the Chief of the Blackwood Tribe in an age remembered by few in the realm. A proper woman of the north, she took to the sword and spear as soon as she was six: and with such skill and valour she did. Inspiring awe in her clan from her adolescent years, all were sure that she would be the one to lead her brother's armies to battle, and defend the Blackwoods with courage and passion once he inherited. And so they were right -- a barbarian strength, sheer willpower and devotion to the spirits led her as an advisor first to her lord brother, and then after his passing, to his son Geraint. She never married, nor had children, but nonetheless remained a valiant figure in her house. Blackwood's bending of the knee to the Crovane duchy, however, is a recent move that Barbrey is somewhat divided over. While she respects the spirits and knows there must be practicality in these hard times-- she is a traditionalist at heart and finds a pride in her millennia-old lineage, who never bent the knee to the Compact or anyone else. Still, she tries to devote herself to her house and family as much as she can. + |
| Barik Reed + | Barik's life begun in the Western oathlands that belonged to the Kingdom. His family was one of proper means- his father an auspicious, and beloved bard who went from home to home leaving little crumps of happiness, and sometimes more than that. His mother wouldn't complain, he always came home with coin, and for a woman who had spend her whole life in poverty it was sufficient for her. The inherently independent Barik took to hunting rather than singing; he took to trekking through the wilderness and adventuring to far-gone townships rather than inherit the legacy set by his lascivious father. Since his departure from family grounds, Barik has been on a quest of acquiring meaning- meaning that hasn't been manifested, yet hopes to find in the very Capital of the continent. + |
| Barric Grayson + | To be born royalty is a dream for most, with all the pampering and easy life that entails, but it never suited Prince Barric Grayson. Barric was a driven young man, who from his earliest memories badly wanted to rise to the equal of the greatest knights and heroes of the Compact. He remembered the mutters of the men-at-arms and commoner soldiers as some of his relatives (including the crown prince, Prince Alaric IV) would ignore practice and embrace idolent passtimes and worthless pursuits, while the true warriors would drill for future battles with the shavs. He remembers the other soldiers holding their peace but clearly regarding their future king as a faineant, while Barric and his cousin Dawn would drill relentlessly with Duke Bisland or Lord Commander Dayne Valardin. Moreover, Barric saw first hand the inspiring mettle of the forces of the Faith, the templars and the knights of solace, working alongside the forces of House Grayson to drive back brutal shav forces from the Gray Forest and noted how it seemed like so few of the commanders came fro the highest of noble blood. It was crushingly depressing to Barric to see how many vassals of House Grayson clearly idolized Duke Gabriel Bisland or servants of the crown, or had great veneration for the old king Alaric III, but or had tremendous respect for the old king's illegitimate daughter Dawn, but no true born Grayson of the newest generation was inspiring that same loyalty. It drove Prince Barric with a grim determination to be the equal of the great knights that had come before, and he took shameless advantage of being distant enough from the line of succession as a mere second-cousin to the king to be bold on the field of battle. A campaign against the shavs of the Gray Forest was enough to win Prince Barric the renown and respect from Grayson soldiers, and personally slaying a shav warchief in single combat earned him a truly embarrassing amount of praise and recognition from his distant cousin, King Alaric IV. Barric didn't particularly want fame and didn't desire anything more than to become a great knight, but Alaric IV almost capriciously named him the Sword of Bastion, making him the ceremonial champion of House Grayson. In many ways, it was everything Barric ever wanted, but in other ways it almost infuriated him. He's now wielding the same sword as Queen Alarice the Great and he felt all he had to do it was to kill one drunken Abandoned chief in a duel. He took the sword, but having that high an honor bestowed upon him just so Alaric IV could win more applause from the people of Arx still grates upon him, feeling like he could hear the whispers of the common soldiers how he got the honor too young and too fast just because his last name was Grayson, and maddening to Barric knowing that it was partly true. But he took the sword, and now he'll show that he is worthy of it. + |
| Bashira Ru-Taul + | Bashira was a Thrall, much like her brother, Caspian. As were her mother and father. Her parents died and they inherited their debt. To say that their life was not easy was an understatement. But there was a light in the form of Princess Donella Thrax releasing them from their Thralldom. Bashira was sixteen and Caspian was nineteen. Going from life as a Thrall was not hard for her, that was until Caspian said that he was going to leave for Arx and become a mercenary. This did not upset her. Her brother needed to walk his own path and he had taken care of her. She was a bit upset with him when she found out that he'd changed his last name, but, she let it go. She stayed in the Mourning Isles, determined to find out more about their Tribe. Wanting to find some remnant of their family. But that turned out to be far more difficult. So she started to learn a trade, working on merchant ships as a sailor. When she wasnt working, she was doing her best to absorb every bit of knowledge she could about the Island Shav culture and things related to it. Caspian wrote her diligently. Through these she learned more of what he was doing, but she knew something was amiss. Call it sibling intuition. She continued to work hard though, finally going back to learning new skills. She was surprised recently by a letter from her brother, asking if she can meet him when he visits the Mourning Isles on the Champions Tour. + |
| Basilio Cabral + | Basilio or "Basi", as his crewmates call him for shorter name convenience, is not one with much to be recorded in the annals of history. Hailing from the Saffron Chain, grown up around Darkwater docks, he had neither memory nor keepsake of either of his biological parents as he was thrust into this world of salt, sea, and scoundrels. He was taken in and raised by a crusty old cook who lived in the company of the tropics' Lower natives and worked on a Thraxian ship. While occasionally a pilferer when the need or urge arises, Basilio thrives more when able to jump from one odd job to the next. As such, he has garnered a bit of a reputation back home as "that boy who can probably do the thing". His foster father managed to squirrel him into some more stable employ on the same sailing vessel as a rigger. The ship has recently docked in Arx but, unfortunately, some political issues surrounding their current Captain and Quartermaster have left the crew in shambles and Basilio without a job (because good cooks are always in demand). + |
| Bastien + | Bastien came to Arx as a young man in his early twenties with far more pride and attitude than the silver in his pockets warranted and with ambition of great artistry. Surprisingly -- to Bastien, at least -- these ambitions were not /immediately/ fulfilled by wild success and acclaim. He's been toiling away, mostly in the underbelly of the city, but eventually towards more of the mediocre middle once he found enough steady work over the past decade. The focus of his work is in playwrighting, and he became known -- at least within a small community of arts lovers -- for having a particular affection for plays of political and cultural commentary with a taste for the avant garde. Of course, sometimes he just needs to write a comedy where everyone gets married in the end, if for no other reason than to pay the bills. But he doesn't do it /gladly/. + |
| Bastien Crown + | Bastien came to Arx as a young man in his early twenties with far more pride and attitude than the silver in his pockets warranted and with ambition of great artistry. Surprisingly -- to Bastien, at least -- these ambitions were not /immediately/ fulfilled by wild success and acclaim. He's been toiling away, mostly in the underbelly of the city, but eventually towards more of the mediocre middle once he found enough steady work over the past decade. The focus of his work is in playwrighting, and he became known -- at least within a small community of arts lovers -- for having a particular affection for plays of political and cultural commentary with a taste for the avant garde. Of course, sometimes he just needs to write a comedy where everyone gets married in the end, if for no other reason than to pay the bills. But he doesn't do it /gladly/. + |
| Baz Thornburn + | Baz is a Thornburn, and she couldn't have been born into a better family. Full of artists already, it's how the woman's writing was nurtured, and so one can't say lack of nurturing is why Baz turned into an acerbic recluse, obssessed with finding the perfect muse, with writing plays that shape the Dream itself. She's had critical acclaim, she's tasted the dizzying, drugging heights of seeing her work spread across the land. But the mercurial playwright has also sampled the bitter dregs of bad reviews, has fallen into black despair at the smallest criticism, hiding herself away in her family home back in Arx, chainsmoking and writing drivel for months until the cycle repeats. + |
| Beatrice Malespero + | Beatrice's parents ran a shipping business out of Caith. The family did well enough, though at any given moment their entire fortune was wrapped up in some expedition or another, or it was drained to repair a ship, or something else meant constant scrimping and saving. As she grew, she watched her parents celebrate new deals and weep when a ship was lost. She saw how the pair went to bed every night exhausted. She watched as years and years of grueling, painful work netted them almost nothing. Beatrice decided that was not the life for her. The woman was allowed out of the warehouses and away from the ledgers when she turned seventeen. It wasn't that she wasn't an excellent bookkeeper, she just wanted to see more. She was soon first mate aboard one of her mother's ships. At twenty-one, after a most unfortunate accident during a storm, Beatrice's ship was out a captain, and she was quick to take the job. By twenty-three, Beatrice was soon raking in piles of silver, all off the books and without her parents' knowledge. Beatrice had learned quickly the fine art of smuggling. She had fallen in with the Argento family, who ruled Nilanza back then. After financially supporting a failed attempt to overthrow the Pravus family, Argento was hurting for funds. They turned to illegal goods, and Beatrice became their primary mover. It was good, easy, fun work. In the next couple of years, Beatrice left her family's company to work exclusively for Argento and oversee their ports and smuggling operations. Things were going well, until it seemed the Pravus family had figured out everything. Fearing Beatrice might flip on Argento, the family ennobled her. If she was an Argento herself, they reasoned, she'd be seen as guilty. She would be unable to turn against the family without getting herself imprisoned or worse. And they were right. Beatrice fed information to the Pravus family. She saw the coming wave. She knew this would only end one way. And when the soldiers came to collect her, as they came to collect every Argento, she went into her cell with chin held high. A year later, Beatrice has emerged from the dark of her imprisonment. In that time she not only convinced Marquessa Lianne that she was the one who had turned against her oath-breaking family, but that she was also ready to serve once more... not to mention too useful to have locked away. Beatrice was declared innocent of treason, and the time she served plenty to cover her other misdeeds. She surely wouldn't pick back up her old illegal ties, not after being granted her freedom! No, surely not. Now, she is still a noble, sworn wholly to House Malespero, and eager to get Nilanza back in proper order. + |
| Beatrix Corsetina + | Beatrix and her twin sister Margaux were born in the beautiful city of Tor to a branch of the Corsetina family. Unfortunately for them, their youth was during the troubled time of the Tor-Southport War, when Count Lucien Malvici had usurped the rule of the Fidante family, and their early years was spent evading the horrors of war, the cruelty of the well born, and dreaming of one day having the peace and luxury of the nobility for themselves. As women the two sisters rose notoriety. Beatrix was a well-known muse to many artists in the city, her dalliances with upper crust commoners and even some nobles sparking many rivalries and a lot of drama, her ambition and boldness unafraid to make the occasional enemy. Margaux's fame was darker, the shadowy woman having become a criminal of ill-repute who avoided capture time and again, ahead of those who set themselves to catch her every time. Their paths diverging, the elite called Beatrix their White Thorn, bright and perfect, and in time a noblewoman of the Fidante vassal of House Floris was so taken by Beatrix, the noble asked her in marriage, giving up rank and title (if not wealth) to join in marriage. The tragedy that followed quickly became the talk of some of some of the Lycene city-states, and the common consensus was the following drama occured: Feeling like she had been left behind by her sister, the violent Margaux murdered Beatrix's wife a day after their wedding. The White Thorn woke up that morning by her dead spouse's side, the former noble's chest carved open by with a single, bloody white rose stuck into the exposed heart. The noblewoman-turned-commoner's former House couldn't accuse Beatrix of the deed as she would be the one to lose any benefits gained from tying herself, even if haphazzardly, to nobility. The answer was obviously Margaux, and the hunt began immediately. Beatrix, alone and afraid, worried that once the Floris were done hunting down Margaux they could come for her. She was just a commoner, after all, why would they stay their vengeance and stop at one Corsetina? With the heat too much for to handle in Tor Beatrix left for Arx where she has since found and sought refugee with the rest of her family, hoping she can rebuild her life away from Tor and her sister. But Beatrix is already recovering. Bloodied and hunted she might be, she's still the ambitious young woman that was unafraid of obstacles in her path. She'll have her wealth and safety again, and woe be to those who stand in her way. + |
| Beaumont Valardin + | It is all but expected for a prince of House Valardin to become a knight, an exemplar of chivalry and paragon of virtue. At a very early age, Beaumont developed a far more cynical view of that particular path, getting to see an entirely too upclose look at some of the hypocrisy of celebrated knights. He remembers feeling the crushing disappointment when his uncle, Lord Commander Dayne Valardin, was forced to admit to Beaumont that 'not all knights are worthy of their title'. If the greatest knight in all the realm was willing to admit something that obvious, what was the point of becoming a knight at all? Beaumont saw another clear path towards glory and fame- a curvy and slightly disreputable path to be sure, but one far more honest about its dishonety which was immensely preferrable to the young man. Better to be a roguish scoundrel than a bright and shining hypocrite, as far as he was concerned. So with that in mind, he became an extremely high born champion. Beaumont didn't mind at all joining the assorted ranks of sellswords and other rogues for hire popular among western noblewomen looking for champions to duel for their honor (and any assorted slights). As far as Beaumont sees it, just the simple fact he is a prince lends a proposterous air of legitimacy that he is happy to exploit shamelessly, and it gives him a special sense of glee that it is a source of some embarrassment to his stalwart cousins in Sanctum. Not that non-lethal dueling for sport is entirely a scathing social commentary by him on the shortcomings of chivalry- he quite enjoys the adoration of the masses when he draws a show against another champion and uses his impressive talents for another victory. It's not quite the fortune that good Valardin princes are raised to pursue, but he never claimed to be a -good- Valardin prince. For the last couple years, he's been spending far more time at court in Arx than other Valardin high nobles. Being closer to the heart of politics gives a well-born champion many opportunities to grab glory in front of adoring crowds, but truthfully Beaumont is there to also lend aid to his sister, Isabeau. Beaumont might be something of a black sheep for becoming a champion with negotiable loyalty rather than a knight in shining armor, but he'll still be there when they need a skilled duelist to settle the questions of the day with a sword, rather than words. And look very, very good doing it. + |
| Becka Honor + | %TBecka spent the first ten years of her life growing up in the march of Fair Harbour. Her parents were merchants and took the best care they could of the girl. She had a good childhood, but that all changed once her parents left to Arx for a new opportunity and different life. On the trip over they all became ill, and Becka barely survived the death of her parents. Orphaned and left alone, the girl found her new home on the streets, where she remains today. The only difference now is that she is the one helping the misfortunate children. + |
| Bedivere Whitehawk + | Bedivere Tyndall is a retired general known for commanding the 8th Lancer Unit of the Bisland army during many skirmishes against hostile shav'arani tribes in the Crownlands. A son of Sir Harry "the Hotspur" Tyndall, Bedivere was groomed for command at an early age and distinguished himself apart from his peers once he joined the ranks of the Bisland military, at the ripe age of eighteen. He made friends and quickly ascended the ranks, culminating in him becoming one of the youngest generals to ever be appointed. He developed a reputation as an expert horseman and set an equestrian high-jump record that stood for almost 15 years. Ahead of him seemed to be a promising military future -- one likely to be longer than that of his notoriously hot-headed father. That is, until he suffered his first true loss on the battlefield and was captured by a particularly vindictive chieftain. For having slaughtered his sons, the chieftain refused to execute Bedivere outright, and instead severed his right hand, killed his men in front of him, and proceeded to torture him for weeks on end. He was saved by another unit, and he recovered physically, but the mental scars were permanent. In anguish, Bedivere retired from the military at the age of thirty and returned to his home in Old Oak, where he married his childhood sweetheart and began a family. He attempted to become a farmer to acquire the income to support his family, but his injury made him heavily reliant on paid help, and the fickleness of the harvest made their financial fortunes precarious at best. In early 1006 AR, his wife Lynette fell ill and unexpectedly passed away, leaving him to raise his two children alone. As fortune would have it, his nephew would be ennobled later the same year, and offered him a position as Marshal of Hawkhold -- and with it ennoblement and enough silver to comfortably provide for his family. Bedivere accepted, his mind still sharp as ever, though his reflexes notably less so. Upon visiting the city for the first time in many years, Bedivere accepted a position within the Knights of Solace, seeking a position to re-train his rusty skills and lend his assistance to a worthy cause when his duties at Hawkhold do not overwhelm him. + |
| Behtuk Sanna + | %TAs a child of a Child of the Sun and Moon, Behtuk and his father were nomadic travelers. About wenty years ago, when Behtuk was only a child, their tribe came across an abandoned vessel on the ice. In the course of looting this vessel, they came across a dying man. Behtuk and his father stayed behind to nurse the man back to health as thanks for bringing them the bounty of the vessel. %TThe stranger learned their tongue, and taught them his. He taught Behtuk the trick to forging steel, for in his homeland he was a smith of renown. When the stranger recovered from his wounds, he took his leave of Behtuk and his father, claiming that it was too dangerous for him to stay as he was a hunted man. He was only too right. %TWithin a single moon of the strangers' departure the hunter came. Behtuk's father said: 'This is a demon, run! Don't look back.' And Behtuk obeyed. He returned a day later to find his father dead, and all their supplies stolen. Behtuk was unprepared to care for himself in the unforgiving North and he did not know how to rejoin his nomadic tribe. %TSo Behtuk left the North, travelling to the land the Stranger was from, someplace where he would be able to hide his crimes. When he entered Redrain he found it welcoming. He already spoke the language, and he was able to apprentice as a smith with the knowledge the Stranger had given him. For the past twenty years he has served as an apprentice or journeyman. It was slow going, but he has just completed his masterwork and come to Arx to support his House and ply his trade. If he still holds onto the knife the Stranger gave him and secretly hopes to meet him again in Arx. He is uncertain though whether he owes the Stranger a debt, or if the Stranger owes him one for his father's death. + |
| Bell Cleck + | Bell Cleck (not his original name) is one of the many Eurusi refugees settled in the wake of the "freeing folk in the Saffron Chain" matter, and one who chose to go Crownsworn rather than settle on holdings as a serf. He says little about his old life. He's about looking forward. While he dabbles, generally, with selling and reselling, his key focus is on his apothecary business. As he will say with a gently sardonic smile, "Any slave worth his salves learns how to cover up the scent of blood." + |
| Belladonna Pravus + | The Lyceum has a reputation as a den of machiavellian scheming at best of times, but Belladonna is well aware that in her home city-state of Setarco it is more deserved than most. Her family House Pravus, has ruled Setarco, the city famous for its influence over the silk trade, since the time of the Reckoning nearly a thousand years ago. And yet it seemed that in the past generation that nearly everything they have held dear was lost. Belladonna's famous uncle Duke Niccolo was the one groomed to rule and lead House Pravus to glory once more, but passed on the burden of rulership so he might follow his heart and marry his future liege, the Duchess Carlotta Velenosa. This very unfortunately forced the mantle of Duke of Setarco onto Piero, Niccolo's younger brother and Belladonna's father. Belladonna's father was a kind, generous man, soft-hearted and wishing more than anything simply to be loved. Belladonna now knows that few personalities are as ill-suited to rule the snakepit of competiting Lyceum families as one such as he father's. She watched as her father tolerated much and more, small slights as other lesser vassals tested her lord father to see precisely how much they could get away with, outright ignoring orders and making House Pravus a laughingstock. What's worse, her father never saw the danger in this. Instead of winning their love, it emboldened the most ambitious and won only scorn and contempt for her father's weakness. And as her father's eldest daughter, she was caught right in the middle of the plots of the vassals who had lost all respect for her lord father. She tried at first to be good, she really did. She warned her father, she tried reason to make it clear how much his good heart was costing House Pravus, how none of these men were in any way his friends and that trying to win their love was only destroying her family. He just wouldn't listen, it was simply too easy to turn a blind eye to the men and women walking all over the Duke of Setarco. But as her lord father ignored slight after slight, and she watched arrogant vassals 'jest' they would marry her and take Setarco away from House Pravus for good and all to make things right again, she knew she could wait no longer. She quickly discovered that most of the arrogant men trying to undermine her father were not half as clever as they thought they were, and the proper word into the perfect ear, the right amount of charm to the right person, and a bit of sly manipulation could be wielded to a more devastating effect than all the soldiers under her father's control. Her enemies never quite guessed how much guile lurked behind the eyes of the very young noblewoman, as she used grace, beauty and charm to set her enemies against one another. Her one regret was she waited so late to act, since she had no idea that one of her father's most powerful vassals had already decided it was time to lead an uprising and replace him. She discovered the plot in time to crush the rebellion in its infancy, House Pravus soldiers catching the ringleaders in a meeting that resulted in more than a few executions for treason... but she did not know about the plot to assassinate her father, and returned home to Setarco to find the city in mourning and her as the newest Duchess of Setarco and head of House Pravus. The lovely young woman has been hardened by events, and possesses a wisdom far exceeding her years in the ruthless politics of the Lyceum. With wit, charm and ruthless determination she fully intends to restore House Pravus to its glory and will harbor few regrets about using any means necessary to accomplish her goals. + |
| Bellamy Redrain + | Bellamy Redrain is the-later-in-life-child of a Laurent Lady turned Redrain Princess. As an infant they were concerned that she would not survive. For the first months of her life she struggled to draw enough air to breathe, but somehow she made it into her first year and then beyond. Her mother would remark that has a baby she was utterly determined to live... She should have grown into a woman with a steel spine. She should have grown up with the same sort of dogged determination as her older sister. She didn't. Nor did she grown into a person with the sense of adventure and wonderment that her older brother did. No, instead, a cossetted, pampered, and perhaps just too sheltered, childhood lead to a soft, sensitive woman. In childhood while many Redrain princesses might have trained with the sword, or shield and spear, or perhaps an axe... She was not. She took an interest in it once, and it took quite the argument and persuasion with her mother to allow her to even begin her lessons. And as soon as she got the fainted of scratch (and started crying over it) she was forbidden to try again, and the tutor given a stern lecture. And this was how it was for every thing that Bellamy might have pursued. As soon as it became a touch difficult she was either forbidden by her mother to continue or was allowed to stop because her mother couldn't bear her tears. And so, the only thing she became good at were non-dangerous things or things she had a natural aptitude to for; such as research (strictly in the archives, of course), and social interactions with others. Indeed, if she weren't so kind hearted she might make a skilled diplomat. However, even The Softest Princess can ignore the call of adventure and the excitement of Arx for so long... and after a year of fighting with her mother she was allowed to travel south and join her older siblings in the great city. + |
| Bellona Deucalion + | Nearly a child when her small clan of Ravashari, House Deucalion, was caught in the fires of the Tyde Rebellion, Bellona learned at an early age the ways of the world, the suffering of coin and the bitter wine of the campaign. Her family, a troupe of carefree entertainers, were at Tyde Hall when the warships of House Thrax arrived and watched as the friendly noble house that had once tolerated them was ruthless purged. Bellona witnessed much of her family become slain or put in chains. She speaks little of those difficult years as a thrall, and not at all about the circumstances of how she became a free woman living in the slums of the Lower Boroughs of Arx, but she has only admitted to her name since House Tyde was restored- and very old allies have been reborn once more. + |
| Benedetto Velenosa + | As a boy, Benedetto often skated on the very edge of trouble. Refinement was far from his reach, particularly at the beginning. But with a father who was frequently at sea, he and his identical twin brother, Baldessare, were reared largely by the house staff of the Lenosia estate, children bearing witness to the development and elevation of cousins with blood closer to the main line - and wards of no particular good blood at all. Benedetto cut his teeth on legends of cunning and cleverness and lagged behind his brother's academic achievements. He got into trouble constantly for being too forthright, too open in anger or in contempt or in confidence. He masked little, and had to be trained better - "What kind of Fox even are you, boy?" was a common refrain around the schoolroom. The older he grew, the more his energy came to be channeled into performative behavior, mugging and imitating his betters in ways that would have been more insulting if he didn't have such a knack for heart-melting puppydog eyes. His father took both boys to sea in their early teens to teach them how to behave, and assigned their squirage as cabin boys on several voyages that were designed to look more adventurous and exciting than they were. Benedetto was quickly a favorite of the men for his willingness to scale rigging like a monkey and do just about any jig or dance they came up with in exchange for nothing more than a kind word. He also learned that grog will knock you on your ass, especially when you're fifteen. As an adult, his generally biddable (if lazy) and flashy entertaining nature proved useful to the family primarily in social situations. As his sister's social star climbed in Arx, he and Baldessare were dispatched to Arx. Benedetto suspects that there may be marital plans in his future, but maybe he'll prove as talented at deflecting those as he has at everything else permanent. You never know! + |
| Benedict Ferro + | Benedict is known to be the son of a blacksmith, in a very long line of blacksmiths. Though years after swearing fealty to House Fidante, and serving in the ranks as a soldier in their Army, he attained the rank of Sergeant. Not long after which, amazing deeds and acts of bravery and fighting skill earned him a battlefield promotion to Lieutenant, and soon after, Knighthood within house Fidante. + |
| Benjamin Carver + | My father was a butcher, a man who sang merry diddies while he cleaved the heads from fowl on the tempo, a man of simple mind and unwaveringly iron spine. My mother was a cook in a noble house, a woman whose shoulders were perpetually slumped for the weight of the world on them, a woman with a whip-smart mind and nearly no spine at all. Was. My father butchered my mother, an act discovered when the people of the lower boroughs woke to find her parts hanging from the meathooks in the bloody front window. His name was lost to history and he became only the Butcher of Crow's Lane. The Inquisition took him first, and who among us can blame them? The scene was so heinous. When they were through, the public had their spectacle of him. He sang his cheeriest song while he was drawn and quartered and spilled his vitals to the street. For their substantial flaws, I learned a great deal from the both of them. I learned to loathe the status quo. I learned of anatomy and how to create a consomme to satisfy the most refined palate from little more than a soup bone and onions. I learned that a person with no vision for the future, no grand dreams, will die in their soul long before they do in the flesh. It would have been quite easy to follow the lead of my departed parents. I could have given my life to food and a simple, quiet existence, but I had also learned that I had no desire to lead such a boring life as them. As a boy of fourteen with very little to my name even after the shop was sold, I traveled the world by one of the most famously popular means available to the poor; I signed on with a merchant ship. I was assigned to help a cook who could burn water with infuriating ease. But wait! How does being a cook's assistant take you away from the culinary course you ask? There was more than a cook aboard that ship, of course, and it was there that I met Osric, an old and saltwater weathered barber surgeon with one eye who had lost most of his teeth to scurvy. I had never before, and never since, seen hands so steady. He could sew a man's wounds in perfect crosses and knot it with the tidiest bow, all while the ship was tossed around by storms. He is the one who saw my potential and my time on the ship put towards applying what I had learned in my early years to this new vocation. After some years, when I tired of the sailing and had amassed some funds for myself, I began to travel alone. I had seen most port cities already, so I began to roam the interior of Arvum. There was always something new to see, some new custom to inquire about, some new cuisine I had never tasted. Life has no shortage of fascinating experiences and opportunities if only one is willing to step beyond their front door and seek them. It was while traveling in the west that I first provided my services to the Champion's Guild, and eventually found myself in their employ. And now I find myself in Arx again at the behest of the guild, though I admit I was happy with the request; drawn by nostalgia, perhaps, or the niggling sense of home that even I have not been able to leave entirely behind. Much has changed, and yet, nothing. It is good to see you again, old friend. + |
| Benvolio Corvini + | One of the later scions of the ruling family, Benvolio was squired and eventually became a trained knight. Prior to the legitimization of House Corvini, Benvolio led a gang of street thugs in Iasu that served as the family's enforcers. Known for drinking, womanizing, and dueling in the streets, Benvolio has been since forced to tone down his activities to avoid negative attention to a family barely regarded as civilized. Officially Benvolio now serves as the commander of the unit of household soldiers accompanying Ilinca to Arx to negotiate the terms of the family's new position in the Covenant. + |
| Berenice Velenosa + | Berenice grew up afforded all of the privilege and benefits one might expect for a Velenosan princess: she has never wanted for much, and what she did want for, she often wheedled her way into getting. She had a knack for the social web of Lenosia that her family identified and cultivated early, and she did well having some direction rather than letting her whims take her wherever she wished. As a rather indirect cousin to the main branch of the family, she had to make a bit of noise to get noticed, but she was nothing if not willful. Unfortunately, she was also not /entirely/ tamable to her family's will: when a potential match with an upstanding Valardin prince began to be arranged, and she found herself violently, VEHEMENTLY against the idea of being shipped off to the OATHLANDS, she /may/ have misbehaved herself /just/ enough during a visit to muddle the whole affair before it got too far. Instead of the Oathlands, she ended up shipped to Arx, where it was determined she would make herself useful if she was going to make a mess elsewhere. + |
| Berto Tiazza + | There he was, sitting at the edge of the pier, looking at a long life of being a fisherman and he said to himself, "Self, let's not and say we didn't." There was a bit of a pause there, as he realized... "So what are you going to do?" And that was when he went to work in the dockside taverns. At first, he ended up being a bruiser in some of the nastier parts of the Ostrian docks. But then he got a bright idea! Let's add apples to this beer to make it not taste like total crap. From there, he had a certain low sort of trade as an "improver" of bad ale and occasional distiller. It was a good life. Well, not too bad anyways, but see, there was a little issue with the tavern he was working for, well, engaging in the Dust trade. So, when the place was raided (on the picayune grounds of engaging in illegal trade with unsavoury sorts) and individuals sentenced to some pretty hard labor, he said, "Let's make some new friends." Sure, the first of them was the young Ostrian magistrate by the name of Giulio Mazetti, who was involved in the sentencing, but, hey, friends are friends, right? And what are a few little favors between friends? Yep. History in the making! And... whoa! New term: 'gustatory diplomacy.' Ain't life grand? Oh, and yeah. He figured out how to make Southern Thunder. + |
| Bethany Mercier + | Bethany is the youngest child and only daughter of Adlai Mercier, a Grayson wine merchant of increasing wealth and repute. While most in the Borough scrape by, Bethany and her siblings enjoyed a childhood within the comfort of a large mansion in the Upper Borough. A great part of her early education came from her mother, who consulted Archscholar Aldwin Aurum for advice and hired a skilled Scholar of Vellichor to regularly tutor her children. In these studies she excelled: by the age of nine, Bethany could read and write three languages. Though he was often away from home, Master Adlai doted on his daughter and frequently boasted about her intellect to his social betters. Through her close relationship with her knightly brother, Bethany has even acquired knowledge of the basics of swordplay, though she lacks the physical strength needed to wield blades larger than a rapier. As a teenager, Bethany attended a noble wedding and impressed Lady Alarys Grayson with a performance on the piano. Upon being informed of Bethany's many talents and her father's desire to see her in high places in society, Alarys secured a position for Bethany within the royal household, if only as a servant. She was initially lukewarm towards the idea - though serving the Graysons was an honor, it hardly seemed to make use of her talents - until she met the young king in the Palace, and his Majesty Alaric Grayson IV seemed so shockingly indifferent to matters of economic policy that he actually asked the brand new young servant's opinion out of the blue on a matter of finance for the entire court. She quickly learned that most important matters were handled by his ministers and particularly the Voice of House Grayson, Lady Dawn, and that provided all the motivation she needed to know that even as a minor servant, her voice and talent could be meaningful at court. + |
| Bhandn Yvar + | The second son to mercantile (peddler) parents, Bhandn stood to inherit very little from the family trade, a trade that evoked his talents in unexpected ways. He learned of traveling abroad almost from infancy, but he also slowly began to develop an appreciation for the men and women who took it as their sworn duty to provide safe travel. As he grew older, and bigger, he began to spend an increasing amount of time learning of the more physical arts done in Gild's name. At the age of twenty two, he swore his vows. For over twenty-five years, he served in relative silence, keeping to himself more than mingling with others, with one very notable exception, the woman who some said melted the rigid stone mask that was his face with only a touch. His on-again, off-again relationship with the Mercy of Lagoma Valena Eseri was a matter of some gossip, even if the two were rarely seen together over the course of fifteen years. One could always see his smile whenever his eyes found hers as part of the pilgrimage she would frequently make. Receiving word of her passing was the most difficult moment of his life, one that caused him to go into seclusion for a period of months... until now. + |
| Bianca Wyrmguard + | Daughter of Daniel Wyrmguard, the almost unknown youngest brother of Marquis Denis Wyrmguard, Bianca maintained much of the same peripheral status to the Wyrmguard family that her father once had. Unlike his brothers, Daniel was a man of knowledge and chose to spend his life in pursuit of it. Unfortunately, that quest was cut very short as Daniel did not live past the age of twenty-four, survived only by his toddler daughter as Bianca's mother had passed presumably during the child's birth. Thankfully for Bianca, her father was able to deliver his daughter to the Oathlands and from there left specific instructions for her education and general future prior to the end of his life soon after. Upon reaching the age of twelve, Bianca would be sent to study with the Mercies of Lagoma and choose her own path of study be it as a priestess or following in the footsteps of her deceased father. After a few years, the blossoming beauty made her decision and proceeded to depart from the priesthood and instead follow the pursuit of knowledge. While she adored her theological and medicinal studies, there was just so much more to the world. So much more that she couldn't wait to see and experience. And so at the age of eighteen, Bianca was granted a single guard/escort by House Wyrmguard to begin her travels outside of the safety of Blancbier and extend her knowledge and understanding of the greater world. Intermittently Bianca would return home to Blancbier to visit throughout her youth. It was at the behest of her cousin, Lord Damon Wyrmguard, that she come to join some of the family centralized in Arx and no great secret that her desire to explore the Great Archive was her primary reason for her arrival in the city. Within a matter of weeks Bianca had gained the permission of Dominus Fawkhul to pursue further investigation into the lost art of Exorcism and from there she joined the discipleship of Vellichor in a more official capacity, first as a simple Scholar and following a Prelate. It was with Fawkhul's great betrayal and the elevation of Dominus Aldwin that her career within the Faith continued forward. After much internal searching and seeking the guidance of many of the Godsworn, Bianca stepped down from her role as Voice of House Wyrmguard and took her oaths to join the priesthood. Within her annointing ceremony and to the surprise of many, Bianca was named Aldwin's successor as Arschscholar of the Scholars of Vellichor. Since then, Bianca continues her work as an icon of the Faith and representative of the discipleship she leads. + |
| Bjorn Grimhall + | Being born a Lord of Grimhall was to be born to privilege he never wanted, and obligations he never asked for. From a young age, he was fascinated by the court of Arx, with its fashions and grandeur, but that wasn't what was expected of a Grimhall lord. He was to be a solider, to set aside any frivolity, and to marry a wife in a political match eventually. His sister Jadzia was set to marry someone far off in the Lyceum by the time they were 18. It wasn't what she wanted, but she was more resigned to her familial sense of duty than Bjorn. He still hoped he could avoid it, spending time with a handsome courtier named Thomas who acted as a tutor, and filled the young man's head with tales of the capital city of Arx Still, despite wishing to do little more than spend time with the young man who had won his heart, Bjorn was to be a soldier. While Bjorn was far from weak as a young man, he had always been built for speed and agility compared to his hulking and brawny older brothers, who mercilessly abused him in training and mocked him ruthlessly as he learned. His father, without consulting the young man, informed Bjorn was due to marry in the Oathlands, and would be marrying out of the family. He'd likely not see home, and Thomas, again for years. Rather than face that, Bjorn did the near unthinkable for a noble, and renounced his title, traveling to Arx to live with his sympathetic Aunt Mahin in the Ward of House Thrax. That put him in contact with the Crimson Blades who had been hired by Aunt Mahin to protect her very small estate. He began to spar with them and soon caught the attention of their Lieutenant. It wasn't long till he was signing papers with his aunt's blessing, and despite the heartache at leaving home and those he cared about behind, he felt happy. Briefly happy. He received word of his aunt's brutal murder during his Crimson Blade training. Apparently, he had not been gone a day before someone killed her. Sliced her flesh into ribbons. House Thrax's guardsmen even permitted the Inquisition to look into the matter, but the guilty were never found. Her last wish was he be happy and do well in the Blades, to follow his heart. And so he has. Throwing himself into the Blades that welcomed him, despite his name, like family. And it became real a few years later when Thomas joined the Blades as an adjunct healer for a contract. They fell in love and got married. Everything was going so well. Then came the Silent War. At the end of it he survived, but according to records his husband's position was overrun. He never even saw the body. Other men would have fallen to drink or worse, he fell to killing and focusing on his work. Taking the pain and making it useful. + |
| Blacktongue Artiglio + | Blacktongue the Harlequin, the jester of House Velenosa, wouldn't have said that being a fool was his first career choice. He's never felt there was much job security in being a fool professionally when so many other people are willing to do it unwittingly for free. That said, he enjoys making others laugh, and Blacktongue vastly prefers his current method of making others laugh (telling jokes, for example) than his old one as the long time cupbearer and poison-taster for Archduchess Carlotta Velenosa, the Grand Duchess of the Lyceum. Given the choice, he's pretty sure anyone would rather tell a joke than produce scattered giggles by choking loudly and twitching on the ground, but he supposes there might be individuals of strange cares who would lean towards the latter. That being said, he enjoyed his time as the poison-taster for the most popular assassination target in the Lyceum, and leaving the post to become instead her fool wasn't really his choice and not really his fault. He simply become so tolerant of poisons that not only was he hardly harmed by some of the more popular toxic agents, some he could no longer detect at all- it only took one near miss with his beloved Archduchess for him to step down and no longer be the honorable Donato Artiglio, trusted hand of Archduchess Carlotta, and become instead her jester- Blacktongue the Harlequin. All things considered, it could be worse. By all rights, Blacktongue should have been dead a hundred times over; his tongue being coal black is a not-so-subtle reminder of that. But since he possessed the special providence that the gods always seemed to reserve for fools, and he had completely mastered the 'fall down and twitch' routine after trying most drinks sent to Carlotta by her innumerable enemies, it was a pretty natural progression. The way he figures, every single day he's granted is some questionable gift by the gods, and if he's making -them- laugh, then the rest of humanity should be no problem at all. + |
| Blair Elricks + | Blair was born to one of the lesser families. She grew to the age of ten before her apparent abilities for the spirits came to light. She was pulled up by one of the elders of the family, taught in many of the traditions of the ways of the Shamans. During this time as well, she was trained to fight. She worked to master her combat and her shamanism. This is how she came to her position as a warrior, or as many might say, a knight. At the end of her tutelage, she was told to go out and experience the world, for her experiences would temper her soul and grant her wisdom beyond her years. Blair wandered for a few years until meeting up with the Crimson Blades. She was invited to join the mercenary band, as one of the newer Privates. + |
| Bliss Whisper + | The Lyceum city stats are famous for many things: dangerous women, dangerous men, wine, silk, sun, and passion in politics and swordplay, both. Bliss, nee Celia, might as well be made of all these things in equal measure. She was a quarrelsome, charming child, the only daughter of the Master at Arms serving Duke Leo Fidante('s holdings) in Tor. Her father loved his daughter, and taught her everything he knew. Everything he knew was about fighting, drinking, and wooing women. She got so good at these things that it's no surprise she ran off when her first lover (a local official) tried to find her a husband. Out drinking her frustrations away, she met a handsome swordsman on the run for killing his opponent during a duel, said forget this place, and then did. Their torrid affair lasted right up until the time she realized he couldn't teach her any more about fencing. She dumped his ass and found herself in the borders of the Oathlands across the Lycene Split, making her way by parking herself outside the rare tavern and challenging the knights and sellswords coming out with mocking singsongs and extravagant boasting. . .all backed up by her shockingly quick swordplay and her utter lack of hesitation. Bliss, she called herself, part of some joke or rhyme that just stuck. She talked herself into a fancy party one night, flirting and flustering her way through the room to a tipsy meeting with the glowing blonde angel who seemed to be the belle of the ball. She was the best looking girl there, can you really blame a woman for stealing that kiss? That kiss on the dance floor. In front of the lovely angel's intended. Honest mistake. You can't win all the time. After taking a serious wound to her shoulder, she had to slink away and nurse it in friendlier climes. Not able to reliably fight her way out of all the trouble she talked herself into, she had to reconsider her actions for the first unfun time in ever. So she said forget this, and came to Arx to join the Whispers. She could still sing, and she could put on quite the show against opponents who are also playing it up (and less intently thirsty for your blood). Why not get famous? That could be fun. + |
| Blossom Corsetina + | The only child of a Setarco courtier named Rose, Blossom grew up accustomed to a comfortable life for a commoner, but a life her mother knew wouldn't be right for her. Blossom had the beauty and the grace to work as a courtier, but she lacked everything else, especially the attentiveness to learn it all. More importantly, perhaps, was that she lacked the political savvy needed to survive and excel in Lycene society. She wanted to paint, more than anything. She was actually pretty okay at it, with the sort of talent and vision that buys commissions, but won't be celebrated in hundreds of years. A mother's love is what led Rose to contact the estranged family whose name she bears - Corsetina, to save money for a place on a ship to Arx, and to send her daughter north, far from the warm sun and the treachery of Lycene politics. Arx - so far from home, but maybe a better place for her. + |
| Blush Prismatics + | Little is known about this man's origins. When did he arrive in Arx? How did he come to have pink hair? How can one man look so good in so many colors? He's much more interested in talking about the lives of others than his own, but pieces and scraps from rumors and whispers suggest he's the hero of some small village somewhere in Arvum for reasons uncertain. What is certain is that he holds a special love for the freedom of choice, liberation, and Skald. + |
| Bonibel Barleycorn + | Bonibel Barleycorn was born in the North to a small farming family. The second eldest of thirteen, she helped raise her cadre of brothers and sisters who al lent hands around the farm. Hard work and practicality were passed through the family, like hand me downs. Her mother had taken on the role of the healer and herbalist (and brewer) of the village and took Bonibel under her wing when she began to show signs of interest in tending sick animals and more than one occasion was found 'experimenting' in her mothers still. When Bonibel turned twenty she was swept off her feet by a foreigner visiting from the Crownlands. A roguish sort that took a liking to her both for her talent at brewing and her untamed wit and passion. The two married in a whirlwind romance and after a year with her family the whisked her off to a port city where he said he had found work for both of them. Her Husband's work was aboard a ship in Arx and while he was out to sea half of the year - his time away cause for the lack of children - and the young Apothecary was left in their small home in the Lowers to make extra silver. Three years later her husband's ship was said to have been lost at sea, taken by pirates or perhaps just lost in a squall no one could tell Bonibel for certain. Now a widow Bonibel works in the lowers brewing up scents, liquors and various tinctures to help aid the locals while keeping her larder full. She's kept to herself until recently but even a grieving heart can mend and the world can become new and exciting again.. + |
| Bonnie Shepherd + | Bonnie was a child of two very different worlds. Sir Bentley Shepherd, her father, was the sort of stiffly honorable man that seemed to believe that one couldn't even crack a smile or make a joke without somehow undermining the seriousness of one's duties. Even if those duties weren't particularly serious. But time and again, she was grilled on obligation, duty, responsibility, honor, and a dozen other roughly equivalent synonyms that made for life's most tedious thesaurus and childhood. Her slightly older brother, Malcolm, even caught more of it as the first born, but Bonnie decided from an early age that a knight's life was not even remotely for her. Yes, it was incredibly fascinating how a few hundred years ago they were part of a ducal line that was dishonored and cast out, and there still was a line of Shepherds that ruled a duchy, but it had absolutely nothing to do with her. On the other hand, unlike her brother, Bonnie took to the sword fighting practice with her father with as one of her first passions, though it was maddening to her father when Bonnie veered away from his knightly style and leaned immediately into the flamboyant, flashy Lycene duelist style that her mother Andromeda had mastered as a retired member of the Champions Guild. It was her father's loud condemnation of it that was the start of several fights that led to his divorce, and Andromeda running off to be a pirate. For Bonnie, this was a reminder that you can't please everyone, and set her on a fiercely independent path. After a few more years of trying to make it work with her father, the provincial and tedious life and constant lecturing about disciplined living just proved too much, and she set off to find her mother. Turns out, having an incredible natural talent with a blade, a scoundrel's flexible take on morality, some natural charisma, ambition and a very capable teacher really makes for a winning combination in being an exceedingly successful Naval Acquisitions Specialist. Her start at privateering startedly with (mostly) legal exploits such as fights with Abandoned raiders, acting as a sellsail, and convoy guarding, but she's fairly confident there's at least a half dozen smaller domains with grudges it would be unwise to visit. After her mother's comfortable retirement (the beaches in Setarco -are- very nice, she writes), Bonnie acquired quite a few names for herself (Black Bonnie? Bonnie the Red? Bonnie the Fashionable? Why are the memorable ones not repeatable in polite company?). She also acquired one of her best friends, Simon, an author and adventurer she rescued from Grazagh the Incoherent, an Abandoned Chieftain of the Deeptides clan. A few letters back home from an increasingly despondent brother convinced Bonnie that it was time for a change, and she and Simon went home, rescued poor Malcolm, and founded the adventuring (and sellsword) company named the Valiant Effort. The name was definitely her idea, and don't believe anyone claiming otherwise. She fully expected to do questionable deeds for adventure and profit as a former pirate for the rest of her days, and definitely never expected to hear from her father again. And she especially didn't expect to hear that the old, stuffy warhorse had apparently reconciled with the noble line of the family, become the house sword, died in glory, and been posthumously ennobled and had Malcolm declared heir. With her also ennobled with him. The idea was preposterous to her. But all right. She'll see this through. What's the worst that could happen? + |
| Bors Keaton + | Growing up the third son of Guy Keaton was not a particularly easy thing. His mother Leona, formerly of Kennex, was a demure woman, content, or seemingly so, with the transition from a sea-based life to one as the wife of a minor branch of the Keaton family, living in a small hold near the village of Stone's Throw. Together, Guy and Leona had three children, all boys. The firstborn and heir, Campbell, took after his father in all things, receiving the lion's share of attention from Guy and all the man's scarcity of affection. The second son, Willem, was born two years after Campbell and three years after that, Bors arrived. Some of the servants whispered that what little affection and love Guy possessed was spent entirely on his first born, scraps left over for Willem, so by the time Bors arrived, there was nothing left. While Campbell was doted upon and was rarely away from his father's side, Willem and Bors were far more familiar with the back side of Guy's hand than they were with a kind word or a smile from their father. Leona tried to shield the boys as much as she could, but the woman had always been frail and sickly and she could do little to combat the severity with which her younger sons were reared. While Campbell received the best tutors that money could provide, Willem and Bors were sent on various training missions with the local guards, sent into situations with little concern for their safety. And yet both of the boys strove for the approval of their father. Willem was wounded on one of these missions into the shav-infested forests, his injuries halting any further missions. Bors assumed the mantle for both of them, determined to prove himself, if not to his impossible-to-please father, then to the gods themselves. He threw himself into lessons, both scholarly and martial, earning a reputation as a serious and upright young lord. No matter his accomplishments, that elusive approval from his father continued to elude him. As the years passed his mother retreated from the public, sequestered in her rooms, and yet she never stopped writing her younger sons, a solitary figure of affection in their lives. During the attack from the Pirate King, Bors went south with most of the Keaton forces, returning with a Knighthood for service to his lieges. Even in this, there was no word of pride from his father. Enough is enough, and Bors, Knight of the West, disciple of Gloria and lord of Keaton is heading to Arx. + |
| Bosco Caputo + | Bosco had a good upbringing with a family on the very fringe of nobility in a minor house sworn to Velanosa. An able warrior, he was always quick to the blade and to the fight and learned martialry from his father, and crafting from his mother. He dreamed of being a knight and earning this through valliant effort. And he did. Everyone was proud; young, capable and destined for greatness. It didn't quite work out that way though. Fortunes come and fortunes go, and after an early swing to favour there followed an equally potent downward spiral. A mix of bad decisions, inpugned honour, and a haze additiction culminated (in a long, drawn out episode) in being disowned. There followed a trying period, kicked out of house and home and left to wander. The money dried up, and the addiction couldn't be fueled and hard choices had to be made. The swinging of the pendulum of fortunte led to an apprenticeship with an old master northlander smith in Ischia; the man was childless, and took pity on Bosco, guiding him out of the deep hole he'd fallen into. They developed a mutually beneficial arrangement and Bosco plied a trade as muscle and arms while mastering his trade in the small and soon to be terminated Caputo family. Good times come to an end though, and with the passing of the old man after extended illness, Bosco was left with skills but no venue or patron. He has ultimately travelled to Arx to seek fortune or favour - without the social skills to pursue a business venture of his own, and having a most unfortunate past, he's left to hope that fortune is ready for an upwards swing. + |
| Brace Din + | A recent arrival to the glittering city of Arx, Brace is but a pebble lost in a quarry filled with gems. Minute details are known of the woman and her origination, the ocher tan of her skin giving clue to a life that began in the desert, unrelenting inked imagery along her body revealing time upon the sea. + |
| Braden Laurent + | Growing up in Artshall and being so close to the boarder of the Lyceum, Braden took to the sword early. Not being in line for any kind of leadership rolls allowed him to concentrate more on his martial training than anything else. When he was younger, his sword teacher was called to take care of an issue outside of the walls of Artshall. That teacher did not make it back alive, and this was a man that the young Lord greatly respected. It was at that point in time Braden decided to make it his duty to keep everyone he could alive. Having decided that he had learned all he could from the people in Artshall, Braden left and made his way to Arx, where he figured either he will get better, or he is good enough and will continue his goal in keeping people safe. Only time will tell. + |
| Brady Grayhope + | As one of several sons of Kelda Grayhope, Brady grew up a curious, acquisitive youngster. He rarely wanted for anything, especially pies to stick his fingers into. He learned the ins and outs of the Boroughs, back alleys a specialty, and served while still very young as a salty, scrappy little shit aboard the decks of smuggling ships. He frequently stole from the rich to give to the poor, which would have been more Robin Hood and less little shit if only he'd had any need to do so instead of doing it for the adrenaline rush. Speaking of the adrenaline rush . . . Brady's brother turned traitor a few years ago, and it turned his life upside-down. While Corrigan ratted out the business interests, lit the launderers on figurative fire, and turned over their /mother/, Brady scrambled to course correct. He was broke for basically the first time in his life, and found that his skills at getting into and out of trouble were all he had to fall back on ... so of course he fell back on them as hard as he could. Luckily, the Grayhope family connections to business legitimate and otherwise are not few, and he was able to set himself up as a handyman: that is, a man handy for all kinds of jobs, just generally a good guy to have in your corner in the crunch. Especially if you need him to be quick with a dagger -- which is how he ended up moonlighting with the Valorous Few (he'll tell you for sure, he looks great in hats). Or, you know, a little bullshit artistry. He's good at that, too. On demand. + |
| Braelynn Deepwood + | Braelynn Deepwood comes from a long ling of people comfortable with the woods and the forest. Though most of her family chooses to remain homebound, Braelynn found at an early age that she enjoyed walks through the forest and learning about the various trees and other plants that grew there. She would often reference them as her "Serenity Walks" and indeed would come back refreshed and relaxed after. Over time that interest in the forests and plants in general only deepened and now she finds herself the go-to expert for all things horticultural among her family and extended family. She was close to her cousin Joxur, and as he moved to the city she enjoyed receiving letters from him. She was particularly proud when he was named Sword of Deepwood, and wrote him a glowing letter of congratulations. But gradually her walks in the forest for serenity proved to not give her the calm she wrapped around her like a cloak, and she grew more and more restless. Until at last she decided the only solution was to go visit her extended family and explore new horizons and new forests - and so she came to Arx. + |
| Braith Mazetti + | Close cousin to the march and his Voice, Braith was a tagalong as a child. She wanted to get into everything, learn everything, and put most things in her mouth. As she grew older, these urges didn't really change with the possible exception of that last one. She was a constant troublemaker and essentially ended up pawned off on a steady shaman tutor for something to /do/ with her, and it was under this tutelage -- with the occasional rising influence of her grandmother -- that her early aptitudes for music were discovered. She loved to sing, she loved to perform, and she had a keen sense of rhythm for the hand drum and bells. Other instruments were more of a challenge but she learned several of them anyway, inhaling the knowledge like she sopped up story and song. She began to make up stories of imaginary exploits for her friends and family, putting some to music and chanting them like the ballads of heroes of old, and sometimes just telling them like stories, especially for the younger children of Giant's Reach. It was in this way that her life's path was set as a maker of music and teller of tales: it was the shining passion of her heart, so why not pursue it. + |
| Braith Sanna + | Close cousin to the march and his Voice, Braith was a tagalong as a child. She wanted to get into everything, learn everything, and put most things in her mouth. As she grew older, these urges didn't really change with the possible exception of that last one. She was a constant troublemaker and essentially ended up pawned off on a steady shaman tutor for something to /do/ with her, and it was under this tutelage -- with the occasional rising influence of her grandmother -- that her early aptitudes for music were discovered. She loved to sing, she loved to perform, and she had a keen sense of rhythm for the hand drum and bells. Other instruments were more of a challenge but she learned several of them anyway, inhaling the knowledge like she sopped up story and song. She began to make up stories of imaginary exploits for her friends and family, putting some to music and chanting them like the ballads of heroes of old, and sometimes just telling them like stories, especially for the younger children of Giant's Reach. It was in this way that her life's path was set as a maker of music and teller of tales: it was the shining passion of her heart, so why not pursue it. + |
| Bran Ravenseye + | Bran became the chieftain of his tribe at a young age, and married young as well, having fallen head over heels for one of the tribe's young shaman's and talented weather eye. A beautiful redhead, Gudrun; charming, and bright. For a few years everything seemed great for them, their raids on the Northlanders and Thrax successful, with few casualties and a decent amount of plunder returned with them. They weren't immune from other tribes and clans raiding them, however. It was not long after the birth of their first child, a daughter, Aella, that his wife was taken. He spent a few years trying to find her, not ready to give up. All the while Sorcha, Gudrun's younger sister was helping to raise Aella. Eventually, he was convinced that she was lost, likely dead. And he remarried, taking Sorcha as his new wife. With Sorcha, he had other children, though most didn't have Aella's fiery temperament. Still, he loved them all. Roguish Cadern, inquisitive Rosalind, and collected Triton. He led his tribe as best he could, settling disputes with his neighbors with trade and diplomacy as often as the sword, or at least he tried. When Crovane and Blackwood bent the knee to Redrain however, he sensed the change in the times and knelt with them, before abdicating in favor of his eldest, Aella. It was time for the younger generation to take charge, though he would shepherd them along. + |
| Branan Dominici + | The Dominici family of Lenosia has never excelled at anything in its existence. It has always been a line of consistent mediocrity. Although gentry and wealthy enough for being gentry, the family has never so wealthy as to advance its station significantly, but also never too poor to slide down the rungs of society. They have never been beloved In politics or reputation, but again neither terribly disliked. As gentry, the Dominici have always been a family of courtiers that never gain royal notice, yet even without it, they continue to receive invitations to the balls and events of court. Such a family gives scant space for greatness to arise. Instead, you get men like Branan. Capable with a quill, educated but not being courted out of school by powerful trading houses, royal families or the church. The most remarkable thing that Branan has ever done in his life, is refuse to join his father and brothers in the family cloth reselling business, and choose to try to make a career of his poetry. This single act of rebellion, of choosing a dangerous new path, cost him his families good will and his very modest students stipend. Cut off and with dwindling cash reserves, Branan set out on a traders ship for Arx, intent on finding a patron who will be pleased with his skills and services. Someone who will be pleased to have a capable scribe and assistant who occasionally writes poetry of some quality. + |
| Branimir Eswynd + | Branimir has outlived his father, the first War Chief he served, and then his older brother, and now he serves his nephew. All these lords change like the tides but Branimir is the rock that has seen it all and survived it all. Alongside his male kin he's survived 2 wives and a handful of children, though as many still remain and he's content with that. In younger years Branimir was a creature of great violence, he desired blood, victory, and most of all GLORY, until in the same raid that took his brother, he took an axe to the face, lost an eye and nearly died. Something changed while he lay bleeding on the ground trampled by friend and foe both. His blood lust finally quenched while he soaked in his own. After that, he saw the world differently, and where many reavers are consumed by gloom after such grave injuries, Branimir was filled with a new vigor. He also awoke with a belief in the Spirits, leading many of his kin to worry that so nearly dying had cracked Branimir's mind as well as cutting out an eye. He still fights when he must, but rather than being the one to advocate for the sword first, he became the one to call for it last, and there are few whose calls are louder than Branimir One Eye! + |
| Brannen Harthall + | Born along with his twin, Bree, Brannen Harthall had his life set out since he was born. He never questioned the life put out for him. Never for a moment. Early in his years it was decided when Brannen was of age he would lead the forces of Harthall. He would train in the martial arts and become a respected commander. And he sure did. Brannen is very much an Oathlander. Conservative, stern, driven, bound by honor, and a tad humorless. Ever since he was a boy Brannen understood the importance of his duty and what he would need to take on over the years. While Bree took to fighting, Brannen took to command. He was still an excellent warrior, but it did not take long for him to earn the respect of the Harthall soldiers. Bree often would complain to him how she wanted to be out on the road, serving Gild, being a Knight of Solace. Brannen kept them grounded. To duty. But one day, tragedy struck. The heir to their house was killed in a horse race while both Bree and Brannen were present. Brannen informed the Harthalls that Odhran mismanaged his saddle and as a result died of it. Brannen Harthall in a moment of misery over his fallen cousin left with Bree Harthall. The twins became Godsworn and dedicated themselves to the Knights of Solace. Brannen has arranged himself in the Knights of Solace, aiming to be a martial force as well as a keen commander of the Knights. + |
| Branwen Stormfeather + | Branwen has no memory at all of her formative early years, knowing only what she's been told from those of House Ravenseye. Nearly all of their clan in one night was wiped out, decimated by another tribe of crazed Abandoned. That they obviously weren't sane was probably the only reason she and a very few others survived the massacre. Each of them were hidden underneath the bodies of others, or fallen debris. And made neither a sound, or moved, out of fright and shock. It was a group of scouts from the Stormheart that found them, surveying the damage as they swept through the next day hot on the trail of the perpetrators. Instead of chasing after them though, they stopped to rescue the survivors and brought them back; and now, the Ravenseye are her family. Her quiet, perceptive nature, and her love of solitude brought her under the wings of the Shaman in the group. She took to it quickly, learning both to tend to spiritual ills and those of the body. And when the calling of the Tribe was to come to Arx as ennobled Prodigals, she too bent the knee so she could follow her adopted family and tend to them there. Where she is sure that she will be busy given rumors of things that have happened in and around the city. + |
| Brass Not anymore + | You don't know! + |
| Braxas Songweaver + | Born in Arx twenty years ago, Braxas came into the world with no surname. His parents whoever they were did not want him so he was left at an orphanage in the worst part of town. Braxas was a dark child, handsome but frightening to the other children because of his dark moods and anger at the world. He started singing when he was five, just letting his emotions out via song. Some of the other boys tried to bully him over the singing but Braxas would not back down. When he was thirteen he ran away from the orphanage to join a troupe of traveling bards. Before he left Tomas his childhood tormentor gave him the scar that remains on his face today. He got away and has since learned how to dodge and defend himself a bit. He stayed with the troupe of bards as they traveled across the land. GOing from city to city Braxas learned how to survive and entertain on the streets. Seven years passed and after Braxas turned twenty he decided to try his luck back home in Arx once again. + |
| Breccan Malere + | Born to a family of successful farmers, Breccan grew up understanding and learning the land like all people of Acorn Hill. But what developed was a deeper understanding of nature itself and more often than not the impressionable youth found his time idling out into the woods where he was oftentimes scolded for being so careless by his father who compared him often to his older brother, Everett, as the eldest took to the agriculture life and found it suitable. It was after a fight that resulted in blows, the brashness of youth calling his old man out, that he ran off to the woods and wasn't heard from in weeks. What happened exactly was unknown but Breccan came back changed, throwing himself headlong into the family affairs but from a different angle. Instead, his charm and good nature was put forward to help bring prosperity and trade, having made several connections throughout Arvum- houses ranging from Setarco to Clearlake. It was after the death of his father, that Breccan told his brother the truth of where he had been for those many weeks ( as it had always been a mystery ) and it is with the passing of their father that he now must devote his life to another path for something is coming that will test their family and all of Acorn Hill. That something did come, however, it came with the arrival of shavs who destroyed all of Acorn Hill. It was luck that had Breccan away, devoting his life to helping build Lodges of Petrichor in other areas that he deemed would need the protection.With a brother and nephew still alive, he aims to devote his life to Pretrichor and seeing the land of forest and homestead safe from any that would defile it. + |
| Bree Harthall + | Bree and Brannen Harthall were born twins and from the moment they were born their lives were planned out. From early formative years, Bree took to the Valrdin way of life. Chivalry! Duty! However Bree always had a very bright twist on the Valardin way. She was strange, as many Valardins are more reserved and conservative Bree never was. From her childhood she was the most outgoing, the most exuberant, the most enthusiastic. Because there are dragons out there to slay/befriend depending on the particular situation/dragon. Bree loved stories and when playing as a child often got in trouble for being so violent. Her excuse generally was that she needed to see how hard she had to hit in case it wasn't her brother she was fighting but a skeleton risen out of the earth. And so her training began early. Bree took to fighting like a fish to water. While her brother became more tactical, more keen, Bree spent her days training and fighting, interspersed with flower picking, running on the beach or watching the sunset. Though she was driven she never had an issue with the work life balance. Bree has always known how to live, even in her most prepatory years. She also became closely attuned with Gild. She would often talk to the goddess at night, worried about those worse off than her, promising Gild she would help them in the morning. It was Bree's dream to become a Knight of Solace, to protect the weary and downtrodden, but she was destined to become a knight for her house and to serve as a champion of Harthall. Brannen constantly reminded her of her duty, to house first. Unfortunately tragedy struck. In a horse race with the heir of the House, their cousin Odhran, Bree and Brannen witnessed their cousin die in an accident. Stricken by this great tragedy, Brannen finally relented and the two have recently taken their oaths as Godsworn. Foreswearing marriage, titles, children, and have instead recently been inducted as Knights Of Solace. Eager to protect the weary in the City of Arx! + |
| Breidaia Ferchyn + | The Northlands are a harsh place for a commoner. Breidaia knew the hardships of a hungry belly, an empty quiver, and lips turning blue. Her father died before she was five, memories of him gone dim with the years. The tiny village she dimly recalls was overrun by Abandoned or plague, alternating disasters that signalled a need to move on. So her mother did, uprooting them in a straggling band of starvelings harried by the closing season. The small family nearly perished before they reached Giant's Reach, or close enough to eke out some modest existence. They were never prosperous after any fashion. Some days it was merely enough to life. Hunger motivates as well as necessity. Breidaia had no future on the outskirts of Giant's Reach, being without desire to work in mines or muster some small craft. She had a far-roaming nature and a quest to see the sea. It took her nearly six years to make it to the shores of Sanctum on the Eventide Vast, working the river bit by bit, but she had enough competency on the ropes and the sails of inland waters by then to buy her way onto a ship. It was a terrible position and she thoroughly hated it. The next posting was better, less given to abuses. The crew tolerated her quirks more. She grew into her skin. The lure of the water wasn't really what it was about. The excitement, the colour, the wonder all found on a ship boiled down to the heady experience she loved. Sailing gave her choice. She went far west with a trading coster funded by the Redrains, and through the distant patronage of their economic interests, would criss-cross the ocean. She became the second mate on a respective ship, got a name for honest dealing and good leadership. None of that mattered for piss during a brutal storm somewhere northwest of the Saffron Isles, when they were cutting for the far storm-wracked coast of the Compact. Men died. Her lover, the captain, died with a spar to the chest that no one could heal. The first mate was riddled by rage and sickness, forcing Breidaia to take up the role. And she was good at it. Very good. By the time they made landfall, half their cargo lost, a third of the crew down, it looked like a disaster. She got a second chance, with a second ship, and that was that. She's been sailing for the Redrains ever since. + |
| Brianna Halfshav + | A true child of the north, Brianna has always wanted more. She's proud of everything about her heritage, taking particular pride in her family House Halfshav winning glory for House Redrain and laying low the worst elements of the Abandoned in the North. Despite that pride, she yearns to see more, and she grew up of tales among northern nobility about the wild customs and fashions of the south and the pageantry of the court of Arx. When she was finally old enough to accompany her father south to court, it seemed to be all she had ever dreamed, delighting in all she found and even meeting the king, becoming King Alaric IV's frequent companion. Shortly after the king's marriage, she was forced to return to the north, but has since returned after the tragedy of the King's Rest. Still bright and vivacious, she also has a newfound determination and intensity about her, the tragedy of recent events with the coma of the king and deaths of so many others weighing heavily upon her mind. + |
| Briar Marjawn + | Born into a Halfshav village, Briar was the third youngest son of a full family of woodcrafters. A mother, a father, and three brothers, and a sister, Violet, the family did well living off the land and selling to the leatherworkers. He got to spend his days following his older sister around the woods, her eternal shadow. That would occasionally wander where the dappled sunlight or shadows seemed to guide him. A true child of the forest he could approach a deer with surprising ease. There would be the occasional skirmish with the Abandoned, but for most of his young life it wasn't a real threat. Eventually though, it wasn't enough. A warband from the village had gotten tired of the constant warfare, and attacked the small village outright. Only Violet dragging him out of bed before dawn and into the surrounding forests allowed them to survive the massacre of their family and most everything and everyone they had known.. By the time the Halfshav army arrived it was too late to do anything but help the survivors. Briar and Violet didn't leave with the others, however, and stayed to take out the warband once and for all. The Halfshav army had hired a nearby company of Crimson Blades to assist them in the eradication of this particular Abandoned problem. When the dust settled the survivors of the village were scattered and Violet and he had no home or family to go too. Yet his sister's talent with a bow had caught the Colonel of the Blade company's attention. Soon they were off to Arx with the Blades and a new life. Briar, who had always had a calling for shamanism finally had the ability to do something with it. Being a woodcrafter was all well and good, but he felt his passion lay with the spirits. So with his sisters blessing and support, he joined the Spirit Walkers. It was been a few years now and he has grown well into his vocation, his fierce energy doing him well in some areas and less in others. + |
| Bridget Pravus + | Bridget is from a minor noble family, House Mescino of the Lycene barony of Pastrazza. She is a young widow to Elonso of house Pravus. Her marriage had nothing to do with love. It was a formally arranged marriage with the goal of bringing two houses together. It was a marriage that abruptly ended with her husband's death. Upon the return of their widowed daughter, her family broke into chaos. The entire point of the marriage was to settle the dispute of a land claim. It was a minor land claim, but to her house could mean the difference between riches and ruin! The whole thing would have been easier if she had given her husband a sun before he went off and had himself executed. The only logical step to take from here was to send her back to house Pravus as a ward. It was cruel considering they were the ones to execute her late husband, but they didn't have time or resources to deal with a widowed daughter, and there were simply no other logical courses of action to take. What did Bridget think about all of this? Oh who really cares... just send her off! + |
| Brier Crovane + | Brier was born in the north in the middle of June as one of the first cousins of the Crovane family. Her mother was Ingrid and married into the Crovanes, while her father was Kheit Crovane. She was quick to become known for being one of the biggest handfuls out of the Crovane family's children, one who was quick to barrel into trouble just for the fun of it or to otherwise make sure that no one doubted her just because she was a 'young lady'. Her family, knowing that she would need an outlet to contain her energy and distract her, encouraged her to spend some time with the blacksmith of the village. There she tended to some apprentice-like duties and found that she loved the craft. Enthralled by working in the forge, Brier soon became less of a problem and grew into a fine young woman. There was a time that her family encouraged her to marry a young man of a neighboring territory, and so she and Yldimer were married in the winter months near her twentieth birthday. They spent ten years living happily together, but were unable to bear any new heirs due to him being secretly barren. Unfortunately, he fell three years ago in defending the north. For years she was stricken by grief, until her mother and father encouraged her to try a change of scenery and so she moved to Arx with hopes of being able to leave behind her past. + |
| Brigid Inverno + | Raised at Acorn Hill, Brigid grew up steady and strong like the many mighty trees that surrounded her home. The forest pathways became so familiar she could traverse them blind, chuckling rivers guided her ears, and she learned to appreciate the land in which she resided. The land that her family cultivated was perfect for grazing and housed a large stable where visiting households were known to stall their mounts given the skilled reputation for quality care. With a father who was versed in the various use of weaponry and a mother who was born to the saddle, it left an impression on their only child. Molding both their teachings, Brigid grew into an accomplished equestrian and swordswoman training herself up to both protect the ruling house and assist the nearby military outpost where her cousin, Rane Keaton commanded a stalwart militia. It was what granted her the title of House Sword for her ruling Moore cousin of Acorn Hill and it was one she had planned on devoting her life to - that was until tragedy had struck her home. While having been granted leave to deliver mounts to the nearby Keaton outpost, a rider delivered the news that everything and one she had sworn to protect had been decimated by an outside force with not a soul left alive. With direction having gone askew, Brigid remains to help see her home set to rights and to redeem herself in the eyes of the family she had failed. + |
| Brigid Moore + | Raised at Acorn Hill, Brigid grew up steady and strong like the many mighty trees that surrounded her home. The forest pathways became so familiar she could traverse them blind, chuckling rivers guided her ears, and she learned to appreciate the land in which she resided. The land that her family cultivated was perfect for grazing and housed a large stable where visiting households were known to stall their mounts given the skilled reputation for quality care. With a father who was versed in the various use of weaponry and a mother who was born to the saddle, it left an impression on their only child. Molding both their teachings, Brigid grew into an accomplished equestrian and swordswoman training herself up to both protect the ruling house and assist the nearby military outpost where her cousin, Rane Keaton commanded a stalwart militia. It was what granted her the title of House Sword for her ruling Moore cousin of Acorn Hill and it was one she had planned on devoting her life to - that was until tragedy had struck her home. While having been granted leave to deliver mounts to the nearby Keaton outpost, a rider delivered the news that everything and one she had sworn to protect had been decimated by an outside force with not a soul left alive. With direction having gone askew, Brigid remains to help see her home set to rights and to redeem herself in the eyes of the family she had failed. + |
| Brigida Fidante + | Brigida has lived through it all. When she was a girl, she was as fine a hunter, dancer, and player of music as any lady of the Lyceum. She was not the most beautiful of her sisters but she was clearly the most accomplished. At sixteen, she was the Golden Rose of Tor, and she had lovers on her string at twenty ranging from all over the Compact. But all idylls end. Brigida joined the Faith relatively late -- at 24 -- in part to avoid a disastrous marriage she did not want that would have sent her to the Laurents. She had no desire to join the workhorse duchy of the Valardins. Instead, she cast aside the silks of her wild life as the Golden Rose of Tor, and threw herself into a new life as a priestess. She had a solid background of Lyceum politics to bring with her to the priesthood along with genuine faith for the gods and a healthy respect for the power structures here that she could potentially grow into. She had already survived at least three poisonings before she donned her first robe. She learned quickly that the machinations of the priests were different in form from those of Lycene politics but not in kind. Ambitious people jockey for position everywhere, and the Faith is no exception. By the time she was 40, she was such a mainstay of the priests of Petrichor that there were few other names that could even be considered for his Archlector. Yet at this pinnacle she chose to stay, leading the godsworn and championing the guardian of the land rather than attempting to politic any higher. + |
| Briseis Morgan + | The last of seven children, Briseis had to make quite a bit of noise to stand out. A few of her older siblings were already headed in a direction of martial service, but Briseis's talents were more mental. She was preternaturally curious from a young age, devouring books, become an enthusiastic visitor to Sanctum's local Archive. One might say she harassed the Scholars there, but enthusiasm and talent for exploiting her own cuteness meant that she actually managed to endear quite a few of them. It's only right to encourage the will of Vellichor where one finds it, after all. So she grew a joyful child. An /enthusiastic/ child. Not quite as wild and free as her brother Aleksei, who ran from Sanctum without looking back when he was sixteen and she was only eight, but if her effusiveness was sometimes a little unseemly, it was tempered by the fact that her areas of fascination were entirely appropriate: theology, history, law. (It also helped that she was a good deal better at charming her way into what she wanted from her father than certain other rebellious siblings.) And where many Orthodox Oathlanders were raised with faith as a serious, sober weight, she celebrated the beauty of it with a joyful conviction, and she gave up hours of her free time to become a disciple of the Faith among the ranks of the Scholars as soon as they let her in. However, she found that the spread and preservation of knowledge, while fulfilling, didn't quite fulfill the itch of her passions. It was in the Sentinel that she found her calling. Curiosity was her drive, but being able to use that information to help make the world a more just one -- that became her purpose. She would FIND INJUSTICE. And she would STOP IT. (And people would TAKE HER SERIOUSLY.) She longed for the days when the Inquisition was itself a discipleship of the Sentinel, but who said she needed to let a little rift between major Compact organizations stop her? She could revere the tenets of the Sentinel both as a Disciple in the Faith as well as in the secular world as an Inquisitor! That's what she's come to Arx to do, in any case. And when Briseis dedicates herself to something, there's not a lot that can stand in her way. + |
| Brogan Nightgold + | Born to be a duke's younger brother, Brogan expected his lot in life from an early age, and threw himself into it with a will. Marriage for politics, maybe -- he was a dutiful son, and he expected that even when he was a young teenager -- but that was nothing to put a damper on his lust for life. Marriage did nothing to stop him from running amok amongst the common folk, or among the other similarly ranked nobles, for that matter. He drank, hunted, punched and gambled his way through every keep in the North and brought with him wild volume, laughter, and just an inordinate supply of delightful bullshit. His wife was another count's daughter, from the Oathlands, and she died giving him his firstborn daughter, who died a few years later. It was the kind of tragedy that could have brought a lesser man down. For Brogan, it made him live harder, live wilder. He disappeared into the snows and got in touch with the mountain's icy roots, bringing himself to the shaman's path and hunting for blood, life and happiness in his own way. When he returned, it was as an uncle to the new Duchess Nadia, as a frequent inebriate and a roaring soldier who drank as much as he punched. Bare fist fighting was his specialty (and remains so) and while in coming to Arx as part of the Nightgold retinue has made him miss the snows, he came ready to throw himself into the uproarious life of a lesser nobleman in the capital. + |
| Bron Aisling + | Born in one of the smaller mountain villages in the North, he was scooped up by an army recruiter shortly after reaching adulthood, his knowledge of the area along with his hunting and trail skills making him a useful skirmisher. A few small wars later, Sergeant at Arms Aisling left his Lord's service with a pension, some spoils and a desire to spend some time on his own for once. Going back to his village didn't seem quite right, not after all he had seen so after shipping home a totally non-blood-spattered care-package he vanished into the woods. Bored with his own company and perhaps missing the camaraderie of his unit, he has headed to the big city to see what that's like instead. + |
| Bruce Valardin + | Honor. Honor above all. Born on May 26th, 985 AR to Prince Robert Valardin and Lady Helene Telmar, Bruce was the firstborn but grew up knowing he'd never inherit title or land. Instead, he was prepared for a life of chivalry, nursed by tales of Oathlands heroism and knighthood. He was riding by the age of five and learning how to wield a longsword by eight. At ten, he became the squire of Lord Gregor Steelhart the Chillhearted, a renowned knight and swordsman. It was a busy childhood of martial training, studying warfare, extensive conditioning and prayer. Though even now, he holds those hazy memories close of warm summers spent at the river with friends and family outside of the Capital, and along the coast outside of High Hill. His peaceful childhood was not to last. Knighted at sixteen, Bruce took up the sword for his family and began his career in earnest. It was only a year later when the Tragedy in Sanctum occured. His mother and father lay dead, along with Prince Radley Valardin and most of his immediate kin. The newly knighted Oathlander had been away in the Gray, partaking in Compact operations against hostile abandoned. When the news reached him, it changed the young man forever. 1006 AR. Bruce was a mounted knight in the Silent War, twenty one years old. He fought in countless skirmishes in the Northlands, the Gray, and finally in the Crownlands, culminating in the Siege of Arx. Months of his life had been spent waging war against Tolamar Brand and his forces. Yet there was never any respite. The following years were spent in small campaigns among Valardin forces, the Compact and Templars, fighting hostile Abandoned and cultists throughout central and western Avrum. A week before his birthday, in May 1008 AR, Bruce served under High Lord Edain Valardin in the Gyre War. Though the city burned and the losses were extraordinary, the battle-hardened knight survived and rode down the Gyre's fleeing troops alongside his comrades. In less than three years, he had participated in two grand wars that shaped the future of the Compact. And he lived. Bruce had earned a name for himself with his exploits among knightly circles and Valardin forces; a veteran of wars, countless campaigns and dozens if not hundreds of skirmishes with abandoned and brigand alike. He gave the Pantheon praise, Oathlands Orthodox through and through, living without a fear of death after experiencing so much in his young life. It took the Battle of High Hill Crossing to humble him. He was twenty six years old, a small unit commander among the united forces of Valardin and Telmar. He had recently learned of High Hill's fall to shav forces, and the massacre of House Steelhart; so many friends, comrades, good men, dead. He yearned for revenge. In his anger, he forgot the Faith's teachings. And he payed. Nearly a thousand allied troops died in that ambush, among them Prince Caius Valardin and Duke Arn Telmar, both kin to Bruce. His leg was shattered in battle by a mighty blow, a serious injury that would fully heal, but that left him bedridden for the better part of a year. His countenance grew more serious, stern. He lost that youthful charm and cocky posture. Prayer was his solace. He thought of all the brothers and sisters in arms that he had lost throughout the years. Slain family members, allies, friends, fellow knights and Oathlanders. It's during this time in which he realized that for him, war would never be over. In the years since, Bruce returned to combat and his knightly pursuits, training and assisting in the Compact's campaigns against abandoned and foreign foes whenever able. And now, he has traveled to Arx in order to get more directly involved in the coming wars. Foes surround Avrum, the Compact, Valardin. From within and without. Bruce wants to play his part; for the sake of honor, virtue, justice. He will lead his people to victory. + |
| Bryndis Nightgold + | Bryndis is the youngest of five, and has always been a curious child. She would often go out of her way to explore the world around her, from outside the home to the darkest of corners within the home. She would watch the animals, study the bugs, draw the flowers and trees that she saw in her world. There was not much that did not interest her, both in the animate things around her, or the inanimate as well. Just because a flower was often more beautiful than a rock doesn't mean that the rock itself didn't hold its own very special place in her world. By the time she was ten she had books and books of drawings, each year they got better, more apt to actually resemble what it was that she was exploring and studying. She would watch and listen to others that were more knowledgeable about art, flora and fauna, and take in everything they offered. As she grew older she knew that it was very clear to her what she was going to do with her life. Some thought she'd become a healer or midwife. But she didn't want to do anything like that, she was very interested in the properties of the plants, of course, but even alchemy and apothecary studies weren't number one on her list outside of just curiosity. No, it was actually learning just about the world around her. How things fit together, why you'd find one particular animal and plant in one location, but find just the animal, or the plant, in another. It was when she was almost nineteen that she grew ill, ill to the point that everyone was sure that she'd die. But something changed, one night she was on her death bed, and the next morning she was up and moving around as though nothing was ever wrong. She's never really had any explanation for that, but her entire outlook on life seems to have changed after that night. She was more direct, less interested in books, more forgetful than she once was. + |
| Brynja Blackwood + | Brynja was born in the wild lands, beyond the bounds of what most consider civilization, the eldest child of Sigurd Blackwood. Her mother passed away when she was young, dying under mysterious circumstances, and leaving her father heartbroken. As a way of honoring her memory and helping himself recover from his grief, Sigurd taught Brynja the ways of the warrior as soon as she could stand, and she has been on that path ever since. Her father would eventually find love again and remarry. As she blossomed into a young woman, word of her deeds spread among the tribes, and she gained notoriety for her unrelenting ferocity in battle. Many great men made many great excuses when she bested them in combat, but Brynja had hardly a care -- you don't get very far with excuses. When Tolamar Brand came to assault their lands and enslave their people, Brynja was on the front lines, commanding the Blackwood infantry. She performed well, even if she received another scar or two. She was less thrilled at the notion of becoming a silk when her family decided to bend the knee to House Crovane. She will just have to make do. + |
C | |
| Cabrera Godsworn + | Cabrera was a beautiful boy, the pride of his parents. He was born large and strapping, and grew quickly. But he grew in the backdrop of chaos and war, and his parents were cut down in their prime. His mother was a knight-captain who laid down her life for Fidante in the Tor-Southport war, and his father was brutally crippled in the aftermath of the fighting; though young, he simply was in no state to care for himself, let alone his son. There was no family left who could take care of this young boy whose parents had had such high hopes for his brilliant future, so the Seraph of Tor brought him to the Faith, that he might be raised with the children who knew no other family. A child who ran and scampered among the servants of the Rectory, fitting into strange places and exploring weird corners was young Cabrera's raison d'etre. He was too young to squire when he first came to the Church-- a child, five years of age -- but somehow he managed to get places and make himself useful. His bright eyes and raffish smile were weapons of war he waged upon the Faith. He was everyone's gopher and no one's; a disciple of the Church when he was far too young to be so. He wasn't the only child of the Faith, but he was certainly one of the most vibrant. As a teen, he came to understand how he lost his family, and he was reactive about it, fierce and hotheaded and miserable. He tried to get into duels about it, but the Lycenes he challenged knew better than to duel a boy of his years, and he was given a hiding and sent back to the Rectory. He screamed his outrage at anybody who would listen, and one of the priests -- the same Seraph who had brought him from Tor -- took him back to the Lyceum to visit the grave of the cripple who had been his father. When he returned again to Arx and the service of the Church, he was a quieter, more thoughtful version of himself. While the mischief and warmth returned to him, and he would never lose the laughter or the quickness of his wits, the Cabrera who recognized the indelible part that loss had played in his development was a more sober, serious one, with a fierce understanding of what it was to be loyal to a cause, and a deep-seated recognition of the horrors of war. He squired with the templars as a youth, and as a man, he took his oaths in service to the Faith, and enlivened their quarters with lively cheer, an upbeat attitude, and a sense of humor that danced between classic soldierly raunchiness and more obscure absurdism. Resourceful and clever, Cabrera lived by his tongue and his wits, and in more than one campaign, served the Faith with sword and shield, putting his life on the line gladly in service of something greater than himself. + |
| Cade none + | Born in a small village, Cade's mother died a few days after his birth. He was left to be raised by his stern and unaffectionate father who was a former mercenary. Even as a boy, Cade's father instilled into him the hard work and discipline that he had learned from his travels. Having not known any gentle touch and constantly receiving his father's ire, Cade grew to resent his father. When his father died of sickness, Cade packed whatever belongings he could carry and left the village, knowing that there was nothing left for him there. He traveled from one village to the next, doing some odd jobs when he could. From then on he wandered aimlessly, only doing what he deemed necessary to get him through the day. + |
| Cadenza Fidante + | Cadenza Velenosa, eldest of a lesser line of Velenosa princes and princesses, was not a very good Lycene. As a child, she did not take to her political lessons. She was frank, forthright to the point of tactlessness, and had a knack for taking exactly the wrong point from her teachers and running away with it out of sheer stubbornness. Iron will in a nine year old can be difficult to deal with, particularly an active nine year old with a seemingly endless ability to get into things. Her father was a Zaffria, and while on a trip to visit relatives at Crowned Hill, their party was attacked by an Abandoned raiding party, and Cadenza learned a lesson about heroic recklessness: that is, that if you're going to hero recklessly, you have to pick your moment, and preferably, be older than eleven. She came away from the fight half an orphan; her mother died fighting in defense of her father, and her father brutally injured defending Cadenza, and it was a lesson she never forgot. As an adult, she remembered what she'd learned about timing, but she never let it hold her back. She sailed forth with her cousin Antonio and learned the ropes, and then set forth all the further, sailing through the Mourning Isles. Allegedly she was seeking a potential alliance with House Thrax, a potential match for one of the young princes, but she slipped loose the leash and sailed still further, disappearing off the map for awhile. She turned up again far afield in Arvum on a wild adventure where she either rescued or was rescued by Lou Grayson, or maybe it was mutual. It was neither the first nor the last time that Cadenza mysteriously made herself vanish only to reappear again later with tales of dramatic nonsense and half-truths. When Lady Aislin launched her Society of Explorers, Cadenza was only not an early adopter because she was spending a month trapped in the basement of a ruined temple to Gild in the hinterlands of the Oathlands, living on an unfortunate diet of roast rat and buried roots while she tried to work out a series of absurdly confusing puzzles that would have made a lot more sense if you could remember all Thirteen gods. During the Silent War, Cadenza would have fought for the Lyceum gladly, but instead, she had accidentally gotten herself temporarily sold as a prisoner of one piratical group of Abandoned to another, following the loss of her ship to a raid. She only escaped by dumb luck and someone else's stray arrow fortuitously striking the gut of the guy who held her chain. So it was that, in trying to make her way back to Arx, speaking a mangled polyglot of several Abandoned languages badly, she has only turned up again on the shore of Southport honestly confused about how she'd arrived, with a fresh scar on her neck from someone trying to kill her for no reason she could explain, and the worst part is she had no good story to show for it. + |
| Cadenza Velenosa + | Cadenza Velenosa, eldest of a lesser line of Velenosa princes and princesses, was not a very good Lycene. As a child, she did not take to her political lessons. She was frank, forthright to the point of tactlessness, and had a knack for taking exactly the wrong point from her teachers and running away with it out of sheer stubbornness. Iron will in a nine year old can be difficult to deal with, particularly an active nine year old with a seemingly endless ability to get into things. Her father was a Zaffria, and while on a trip to visit relatives at Crowned Hill, their party was attacked by an Abandoned raiding party, and Cadenza learned a lesson about heroic recklessness: that is, that if you're going to hero recklessly, you have to pick your moment, and preferably, be older than eleven. She came away from the fight half an orphan; her mother died fighting in defense of her father, and her father brutally injured defending Cadenza, and it was a lesson she never forgot. As an adult, she remembered what she'd learned about timing, but she never let it hold her back. She sailed forth with her cousin Antonio and learned the ropes, and then set forth all the further, sailing through the Mourning Isles. Allegedly she was seeking a potential alliance with House Thrax, a potential match for one of the young princes, but she slipped loose the leash and sailed still further, disappearing off the map for awhile. She turned up again far afield in Arvum on a wild adventure where she either rescued or was rescued by Lou Grayson, or maybe it was mutual. It was neither the first nor the last time that Cadenza mysteriously made herself vanish only to reappear again later with tales of dramatic nonsense and half-truths. When Lady Aislin launched her Society of Explorers, Cadenza was only not an early adopter because she was spending a month trapped in the basement of a ruined temple to Gild in the hinterlands of the Oathlands, living on an unfortunate diet of roast rat and buried roots while she tried to work out a series of absurdly confusing puzzles that would have made a lot more sense if you could remember all Thirteen gods. During the Silent War, Cadenza would have fought for the Lyceum gladly, but instead, she had accidentally gotten herself temporarily sold as a prisoner of one piratical group of Abandoned to another, following the loss of her ship to a raid. She only escaped by dumb luck and someone else's stray arrow fortuitously striking the gut of the guy who held her chain. So it was that, in trying to make her way back to Arx, speaking a mangled polyglot of several Abandoned languages badly, she has only turned up again on the shore of Southport honestly confused about how she'd arrived, with a fresh scar on her neck from someone trying to kill her for no reason she could explain, and the worst part is she had no good story to show for it. + |
| Cadern Blackwood + | Cadern was a rapscallion. A scavenger of attention. A thirsty little sneak who made it his business to get into things. He cherished freedom, the freedom to run amok, and clashed frequently with his older sister, with whom he had a seriously healthy sibling rivalry, especially when both were too young to temper themselves particularly. The shamans of the Ravenseyes knew what to do with a boy who wanted to get into trouble, though, and found ways to occupy him, to turn his impish mischief to good account, and to train him so that his garrulousness and wit could one day be used to the advantage of their family. He chafed at being second to Aella, especially when the House first bent the knee to the Compact. He had hoped that swearing fealty to Redrain would mean casting aside old traditions and leaping whole-heartedly into a new life, a new culture, with the people of Farhaven whose arms would surely open wide to welcome them now that they were oath brethren. He had a few rude awakenings early on before settling into his new role, and still twitches restlessly for chances to prove himself. Which sometimes means, to this day, that he has to talk himself out of a tight spot. Luckily, he always did have a glib tongue. + |
| Cadern Ravenseye + | Cadern was a rapscallion. A scavenger of attention. A thirsty little sneak who made it his business to get into things. He cherished freedom, the freedom to run amok, and clashed frequently with his older sister, with whom he had a seriously healthy sibling rivalry, especially when both were too young to temper themselves particularly. The shamans of the Ravenseyes knew what to do with a boy who wanted to get into trouble, though, and found ways to occupy him, to turn his impish mischief to good account, and to train him so that his garrulousness and wit could one day be used to the advantage of their family. He chafed at being second to Aella, especially when the House first bent the knee to the Compact. He had hoped that swearing fealty to Redrain would mean casting aside old traditions and leaping whole-heartedly into a new life, a new culture, with the people of Farhaven whose arms would surely open wide to welcome them now that they were oath brethren. He had a few rude awakenings early on before settling into his new role, and still twitches restlessly for chances to prove himself. Which sometimes means, to this day, that he has to talk himself out of a tight spot. Luckily, he always did have a glib tongue. + |
| Caelis Malvici + | Caelis is a cousin to the main branch of House Malvici. A student of herbalism, she took great joy in learning each plant and it's uses in the gardens of Southport. When herbalism wasn't enough she learned the craft of a soldier and sailor. Spending most of her late teens and young adult years on a ship, she's risen recently to Maritime Captain and uses her travels to collect and find rare herbs from port to port as well as stories of the old days. Recent trouble has recalled her to Arx to support the family and bolster alliances. + |
| Caelis Valardin + | Caelis is a cousin to the main branch of House Malvici. A student of herbalism, she took great joy in learning each plant and it's uses in the gardens of Southport. When herbalism wasn't enough she learned the craft of a soldier and sailor. Spending most of her late teens and young adult years on a ship, she's risen recently to Maritime Captain and uses her travels to collect and find rare herbs from port to port as well as stories of the old days. Recent trouble has recalled her to Arx to support the family and bolster alliances. + |
| Caera Tortorici + | Born and raised in a small Shav'arvani town controlled by the Totorcini, Caera was raised by her father who was a farmer of an orchard of trees. At a young age, she went to live with her aunt who taught her herbalist ways and the way of poisons, should the family ever be threatened. As she grew older, she went to apprentice with a local apothicary, leaning to make items to heal as well. As he retired, she took up moving to the city, honing her skills with a group of thieves. They showed her the ropes in trade for her helping with healing or...poison, as need would have it. Now she has spent the last year learning how to attend to ladies of stature and is applying to attend to Celeste + |
| Caerdroc Woodbine + | When Caerdroc was young, he expected the life of a woodsman, and there are ways he never left that behind, even now. He and his family were taken by a pillaging raid of the Shavs when he was still quite young, an untried boy. It was Uriel Bisland who saved him, and it was to the Bislands that his loyalty was given forever, his and his father's. His father was risen to a knighthood, and he became his father's squire; when he turned 18, his father enfeoffed him to a knighthood in his own turn, and they served the Bislands loyally as father and son. Caerdroc fell madly in love as only an 18-year-old can, with a prodigal, his elder by two years with midnight hair to her waist, which was really pretty awkward, all things considered. The drama rocked the household and he risked honor and loyalty and everything to wed this woman. That's part of why it hurt him so badly and made him question everything about his faith and his life when she died giving him their daughter. His daughter he named Cedara -- imaginatively -- and for a long time when she was still young he continued to keep his knightly vigil as much to the woods as he could, scouting for the Bislands and helping rain down arrow volleys of death around his former wife's former people. But now that Cedara is grown to be herself 12, Caedroc has come to apply himself in Duke Gabriel's service and to bring himself and his daughter back to civilization so that he can, you know, better remember how that being a human being in society thing works. As opposed to running around in the woods all the time. + |
| Cahal Blackram + | One of several Blackrams born off a vibrantly healthy branch of the family tree, Cahal is a middle child in a brood of half a dozen. It made him what he is. Where a smaller family might have allowed him to be quiet and reserved his rambunctious kin forced him into a rough and tumble world where being quiet saw you getting overlooked. He's glad for it. When he tries to imagine what it would be like to grow up without being smothered in brotherly fights, family hugs and so much love you were like to drown it makes him feel kind of sad. He was groomed to take part in the endless fights up on the Cloudspine, much like his siblings, but whilst he's got a good enough arm with a sword its never been where he truly shone. Soon he was being sent to scout with small groups, or even alone, instead of joining the fighting units but as he grew in experience the nobles around him realised something important. Whilst he wasn't a bad tracker where he truly excelled was in places where people were a major part of the puzzle. If there was a suspicious death in one of the villages - Cahal could usually wrangle out the story. Who better than a man that shone with people to support the family in the big city? Once his talents were noticed they were nurtured but there isnt much that can be taught in this field without experience. And so, on his twentieth birthday, it was decided that he should go ahead and start his path. + |
| Cahal Lyonesse + | One of several Blackrams born off a vibrantly healthy branch of the family tree, Cahal is a middle child in a brood of half a dozen. It made him what he is. Where a smaller family might have allowed him to be quiet and reserved his rambunctious kin forced him into a rough and tumble world where being quiet saw you getting overlooked. He's glad for it. When he tries to imagine what it would be like to grow up without being smothered in brotherly fights, family hugs and so much love you were like to drown it makes him feel kind of sad. He was groomed to take part in the endless fights up on the Cloudspine, much like his siblings, but whilst he's got a good enough arm with a sword it’s never been where he truly shone. Soon he was being sent to scout with small groups, or even alone, instead of serving the army but as he grew in experience it became increasingly obvious that his true talents lied in people, not scouting. He started to use his skills on deeper mysteries than the whereabouts of Shav forces. If there was a suspicious death in one of the villages - Cahal could usually wrangle out the story. Who better than a man that shone with people to support the family in the big city? He was close to thirty when he came to Arx in the belief that he could serve his family best in the Capital. The greatest diplomatic minds were here and he took great joy in learning everything he could from and whilst he loves his Blackram cousins dearly, none of them were capable of working socially as well as he could. In Arx he deveoped an interest in the strange, and it's rumored that he met Marquessa Demura of Lyonesse in the pursuit of further knowledge, a relationship that quickly blossomed into love. Fortune smiled when his family agreed that it was a good match and whilst the Cloudburners will always blaze in Cahal’s heart he has turned much of his attention to Lyonesse. As long as he remains the Marquis Lyonesse, he won’t allow them to fade away. + |
| Cai Falken + | Cai follows a long line of hunters, rangers, warrior and other woodsy-type from his family. It's what his family was good at, so he followed suit, and found his life richer for it. Didn't seem like it was even an question when he was a boy, and now that the years have passed, when he looks back to what could've been, he's since decided that he couldn't think of anything else he'd rather do. He can remember back to a time when they had no association with the Compact. While he might've been happier to have nothing to do with them, it's not like he held any kind of negative feelings toward them either. Things change, it's a constant in nature. Just as the world changes through seasons, so do people, mentalities, and all those other kind of things that he only cares to a certain degree about. He always respected the leadership in place before the Compact, so he followed suit along with the rest of them. For the the majority, it hasn't had a great impact on his life. Still in the woods, still hunts, still does what he's always done. Until he had to relocate to Arx with the rest of the Greenmarch brood. Not the biggest fan of the city life, but it could be worse. Thing changes, and nature seems to abhor things staying the same for too long. + |
| Cailean Grimes + | Cailean Grimes grew up in the Lower Burroughs, the slums. He was the only living child of widower and a thief, Donnal Grimes. He was never expected to be much more than his father was but Cailean had natural talent and ambition. He was known for his pretty face and even prettier singing voice. His father took note and began to steal instruments which the bright Cailean taught himself to play. Eventually, a noble took notice while visiting his lover and took the boy under his wing. Soon, life became a whirlwind as he began to attend schools of Courtesans. As usual, Cailean was a natural and took to the life like a duck to water. + |
| Cain Crown + | The first memories Cain has are of the streets of Arx. His mother was most likely a whore, or as Cain puts it, if he's lucky a courtesan. His father, who knows. In reality, he doesn't even known as he was abandoned by his parents when he was very little. He survived by appealing to the charity of others and by making connections with the right people, or some would say, the wrong people. It was during his childhood that he befriended a young girl named Acacia, whom he often would try and bail out of whatever scrapes she managed to get herself in. The two of them became close friends, only for her to suddenly disappear on him when she left the city. While he knew enough to defend himself if he needed to, his silver tongue remained his weapon of choice. He put that weapon to use in the cons he conjured in order to cheat others and ensure his survival. It was that silver tongue that brought him to the attention of a man rumored by half of the Lower Boroughs to be a seer of some kind. Of course, the other half claimed him to be a fraud. Davalos was his name, and he was successful enough to be able to take Cain under his wing and teach him a thing or too. Like all people do, eventually Davalos passed away. Now on his own, Cain's made a name of himself among the people of the Lower Boroughs. Half of them claim him to have the gift, and are quick to buy his trinkets, and pay him to divine their fortunes, the other half, of course claim him to be fraud. Once a child of the streets, now he's a man of them and he intends to make the most out of that for as long as he's able to. + |
| Caith Thrax + | Princess Caith Thrax, the first daughter of her mother Alyona's second marriage, followed by two other younger sisters -- ack, sisters everywhere, even an older half-sister from her mother's previous marriage, though she and Cassima were too many years apart to be truly close -- until her mother finally gave up and admitted that there just weren't going to be any sons. According to the marriage contract between Thrax and Leary, the daughters of the marriage would be fostered at the Leaholdt, due to some ideas both Caith's father Edouan Leary and his family had about what happens to women in the Mourning Isles. It's strange to think that your summers by in the woods were paid for essentially by a great many lumber concessions made in a trade negotiation before you were born, but Caith loved her time with her Leary uncles and aunts, and she loved, especially, her time on the ships sailing back and forth from the spar at Brighthold to the south of the Leaholdt to her real family's home at Maelstrom. She would stand at the prow of the ship, letting the sea spray splash on her face, and pretend that they were sailing -- not the simple route with which she was familiar -- but to wild, faraway, or just straight up fantastically made up places. For Caith's whole life, there were two things she loved best: being outdoors where her imagination could run away with her and escape, and being indoors, surrounded by paper and ink, breathing in the words written on the page so that ... her imagination could run away with her and escape. There was a vivacious, infectious energy about her that enabled her to share her wild flights of fancy with the other children, sometimes even those serious children who would ordinarily be more interested in other things. A born storyteller and a winsome speaker, Caith learned to spin her tales for others and learned to listen well; it became a skill as she grew older that also became excellent for derailing burgeoning conflict, a master distraction artist that would make her namesake proud. + |
| Caius Valardin + | As a prince of Valardin his youth was a series of predetermined benchmarks. Fostered to an ally of the family at the appropriate age, squired when he'd proven himself worthy and skilled enough to not get himself killed or worse make an ass of himself and shame the knight to whom he was squired. Knighted when he came of age with other squires of the same year and skill set, Caius spent his twenties on one campaign or another, doing his share of fighting the good fight. Taprooms and taverns filled the spaces between fights, a near decade of ultimately wasted years until he'd matured enough to long for something more. He eventually matured enough to think first - then think deeper - before reaching for his sword. He'd finally steadied in his late twenties, become less of a wild eyed fighter and begun to explore the years of diplomatic training that had been long buried in his education. It was in this transition that he would find himself on the business end of a mail-clad fist in one of his last regular visits to a tavern. Unintentional as it was, he was left with a broken nose and two black-eyes as a result. Caius would face endless weeks of laughter when his comrades and fellows learned that the knight who'd smashed his nose was the Lady Brennan. For him, however, it was the catalyst for his determination to win the heart of the Lady Knight. Two years of effort and persistence followed before they were betrothed properly then wed. One thing that Caius would often preface any statement about his wife were the words, 'My Brenn, she does have a temper' often said with a contented smile and no small amount of affection. Not every marriage is built on a great romance, in fact, most marriages are built on common ground and the need to establish or cement networking and ties that bind. Caius and Brennan were a fly in the mix, genuinely fond of each other, genuinely well-suited for one another and, by all rights, happy with each other. Thus, in the usual passing of time their first child was born, and five years later, a second. Only months after their second child was born Brennan was visiting family when the worst of all nightmares came to a head, culminating at the Tragedy of Sanctum. His wife was one of many that died that day, but Caius was deeply affected by her loss. He retreated from the world, taking only the household staff that would keep everything running smoothly and focusing himself on his children and the management of the family estate and assets. Eventually, he was called upon by his family to engage once more, to take up the duties of a child of Valardin. Reluctant but duty-bound, Caius returned to the vanguard of house affairs. + |
| Calandra Culler + | It's not easy growing up poor in the Lower Boroughs, not even for a Culler, one of the most feared families at the bottom of Arx society. Calandra was never going to starve, as her family always seemed to be doing just a little bit better than they should be. Calandra was even as closed to spoiled as a girl could probably get inside the crime ridden neighborhoods, but even that came with a price. While still a teenager, her father was hanged for banditry and her mother was murdered not long after some of the 'Culler family business' went terribly awry. While she's a Lower Boroughs girl at heart and will probably never leave, the deaths of her parents might have set her on a somewhat different path to one that would see her finding a noose or a dagger in the back eventually. While she's always been proud of her singing voice, she didn't have any expectations when she auditioned with the Black Rose Mummers as one of their entertainers. She was shocked when the Black Rose Mummers almost immediately signed her, singing for the company in plays and other performances, with her brilliant, almost impossible-to-forget singing voice resulting in more than one noble wondering how something so pure and delightful could come from a place so tragic and common. So no, she might never leave the Lower Boroughs forever, but she has no intention of dying there. + |
| Calarian Grayson + | Calarian was born yet another Grayson cousin amidst the usual gaggle of princes and princesses. He grew up a bright and curious child, and his knack for ingratiating himself with others was both a blessing and somewhat of a trouble; no one likes a six-year-old with a talent for negotiation. But as he grew, his family was able to direct him quite firmly to a role within the house that always needs filling: diplomacy. His life as an adult became filled with travel -- both to the houses of the Compact within Arvum and the Abandoned houses outside his family's rule. When the Bringer threat became imminent, he was tasked with dragging every single Abandoned fighter he could manage to wrangle to join in the fight. The Gold Feathers to the north of Grayson's claimed lands offered a sizable fighting force that he knew the Compact desperately needed, and so when the Chieftan declared his requirement that his daughter wed into the Grayson family, there wasn't exactly time to take back the offer and shuffle through prospective husbands for her. And so when Calarian returned with Abandoned reinforcements for the Compact army, it was also with a brand new wife. You work with what you have, after all. + |
| Calarian Wyrmguard + | Calarian was born yet another Grayson cousin amidst the usual gaggle of princes and princesses. He grew up a bright and curious child, and his knack for ingratiating himself with others was both a blessing and somewhat of a trouble; no one likes a six-year-old with a talent for negotiation. But as he grew, his family was able to direct him quite firmly to a role within the house that always needs filling: diplomacy. His life as an adult became filled with travel -- both to the houses of the Compact within Arvum and the Abandoned houses outside his family's rule. When the Bringer threat became imminent, he was tasked with dragging every single Abandoned fighter he could manage to wrangle to join in the fight. The Gold Feathers to the north of Grayson's claimed lands offered a sizable fighting force that he knew the Compact desperately needed, and so when the Chieftan declared his requirement that his daughter wed into the Grayson family, there wasn't exactly time to take back the offer and shuffle through prospective husbands for her. And so when Calarian returned with Abandoned reinforcements for the Compact army, it was also with a brand new wife. You work with what you have, after all. But Calarian did not have his wife for long. The Gold Feathers fought and died alongside the Compact's army, and Peregrine ranked among the fallen when the Bringers were finally repelled. He worked stabilize the Compact afterward, helping secure a treaty with the Nox'alfar to prevent future threats, and continued to serve both Grayson and the Crown by throwing himself into his work as a Voice and a diplomat. However, after a quiet courtship he married Marquessa Dominique Wyrmguard, setting aside his Grayson bonds to join one of the Oathlands' oldest houses in a marked departure from his former path. + |
| Calathane Drumenach + | Calathane is a son of an old Baron in the fiefdom of Redrain, Hargthon Drumenach. Having decided his son needed new expereinces and to increase his knowledge of the other houses, he has sent him off to Arx. The boy grew up near the mountain ranges closer to shore and bay there known for it's ability to recieve imports and for the ability to send foeces down the coast or up futher into the northern wastelands of ice and snow. Known for his stoic resolve and love for the Queen of Games that he has been playing since he was young and has had some contact with others playing in the courts of his father. + |
| Calaudrin Estardes + | Calaudrin was born in Setarco, the son of a silk merchant and her husband, whose profession was probably something but by the time Calaudrin was old enough to understand adults, he was under the general impression that that profession was /layabout/. His mother frequently traveled, and he went with her, seeing the world with early cynicism, particularly when at the age of 12 he noticed that his mother was regularly cheating her clients and the noble family she worked for and pretty much everyone else. She was eventually caught, as criminals frequently are, and Calaudrin escaped the resultant potential chaos mainly by voting with his feet as only a commoner can: he lied about his age and voted with his feet, reporting to the Arx guards as though he was 18 instead of 16, as a particularly tall and cynical youth; nobody looked too closely at this until years later when he was already well-situated as a fixture of the guardhouse. See, because Calaudrin was good at it. Many young people believe themselves to be cynical, but Calaudrin found from early on that the most depressing thing about his cynicism is that it kept being outstripped by real life. He learned to read people and, generally, to find which things about people he was better off not knowing, even in the pursuit of an investigation. There are a lot of dark and nasty secrets in an old city full of such high levels of wealth, and Calaudrin learned to balance when to latch onto a problem like a terrier and dig and dig and dig, and when policework was best a synonym for 'having a smoke in a quiet corner out of the wet'. Having reached a sturdy Lieutenant's rank, Calaudrin has become a capable administrator, a master of the dire weapons of sarcasm and applied rudeness -- different from unapplied rudeness in that it is selective -- and a very, very good detective ... when he chooses to exert himself. + |
| Calevaro Stars + | Calevaro was born as the son of a wealthy merchant, his mother having died at his birth. Due to his father's profession, he had to travel a lot, leaving Calevaro in the hands of capable servants. As the boy grew older, he started to develope an interest for combat, atempting to learn how to use every kind of weapon, not just the sword. When he became an adult, at the age of 18, Calevaro decided it was time for him to finally make something with his life, eagerly joining the Valardin military. His trainers and fellow soldiers would describe him as a compassionate man, who wasn't willing to ask of someone what he wouldn't do himself. It was at the military that Calevaro found his calling: He loved to serve and to fight for a cause. His dedication eventually rewarded him with the rank of officer, a very public and personal triunf for the young man. + |
| Caliban Assacu + | Caliban is an unrepentant prodigal, something which hasn't earned him any particular goodwill, though he blends enough with the rest of the common rabble that it can be quite easily overlooked. Just where he actually came from is a question without an answer. For the most part, this is because people don't particularly care to ask, even those whose jobs often involve doing the asking. In quiet contrast to his easygoing nature, there's a certain, clinging sense about the man that speaks clear: don't bother this one. He's truly not worth the trouble. + |
| Calista Fidante + | Despite a tragic past, Calista is not a bitter woman. Not that she wouldn't possess considerably justification to be bitter, in her humble opinion. When your stepfather murders your mother after your birth to attempt a coup by declaring himself regent over you, and your elder brother leads a revolt that kills the man even before you learn how to walk, it's not the most auspicious beginnings to a bright and shining happy childhood. But she's not the only noblewoman to be raised nearly entirely by tutors instead of family, due to her lord brother the Duke barely ever having time for his only surviving sibling. So no, Calista is not bitter, but she also has no intention of letting her life be dictated to her by an older sibling, no matter how well intentioned. Who to see, how to speak, how to act due to how she might be perceived, what to wear, what hobbies to pursue, and on and on and on to 'live up to the standards of the Fidante family', when House Fidante is mostly well known for how her stepfather murdered her mother and started a war. She damned well will decide exactly what it means to be a Fidante, and to her that means having fun how she wants, when she wants, anyway she wants it despite the opinions of anyone else. Political power and scheming and intrigue is fine for some people (especially old boring ones), and it's hilarious to have the movers and shakers of society try to guess devious cunning plans behind the random things she does, but she doesn't really set out to cause trouble. Well, mostly. Some people deserve trouble. But she really isn't trying to give her brother the Duke of Tyr a heart attack, she just refuses to be reined in and bow to the public perceptions of the oppressively boring and old that cluck their tongues in disapproval at daring behavior or gasp in horror that someone used the wrong spoon at a royal feast. For those people, she is only too happy (gleeful, really) to be considered 'a problem' or 'trouble' and if she can make their lives more difficult without getting into real trouble for it, she will gladly take it. Maybe she'll settle down and get serious about playing the games of power and politics that older nobles enjoy, maybe she'll even make her ideas of fun benefit her in that regard, but for now, she mostly is just about a good time. + |
| Calla Vaevici + | Little known in the Compact, the remote region of the Caldera in the southwest of the Saffron Chain is a war-torn country where entire generations have come and gone without ever knowing peace in their constant wars with other Abandoned. Although conflict intensity has fluctuated over the centuries with scarce recognition by the Compact, most regional Abandoned historians tier their rise to the dominance of House Vaevici, the rulers of the city-state of Sangris, a remote city that Lycene experts on the Saffron Chain thought to be myth. Firm adherents to their Code, an indexed series of principles and stratagems that rule their lives, the so-called Warmongers are more than simple warriors: to them the battlefield is a temple and victory is the only prayer. True victory in life can only be achieved in battle against one's fellow mortals, and for almost a thousand years this attitude kept them feared in the Caldera, but now their power has waned, and their ancient enemies prepare to destroy them, unless a young and unlikely ruler can stop it. Calla Vaevici is the third child of Novos Vaevici, behind Argos and Valla Vaevici, which precluded her from inheriting anything of any significance. The girl never complained about such an arrangement, however, eager for a life without as many responsibilities as her siblings. Instead of being stuck with tutors at all time, Calla was often out and about in Sangris, meeting her extended family, commoners and foreigners with avid fascination. At home she showed amazing potential for the little she studied, but Calla was set on enjoying a carefree life, much to her father's chagrin. Calla's nature would make her a savvy diplomat over the years, opening up peaceful solutions to conflict with other Abandoned that her father promptly shut down. Although those decisions would provoke constant arguments between the two, it was Calla, not either of her siblings, who would be called to accompany Novos when he was granted an audience with the last living augurs during the great festival of Carnala. To be in the same room as an augur was the journey of a lifetime, and so she accepted the proposal, embarking on a trip that would end in the death of Novos, his heart giving up on the ride back. The subject matter of their meeting would be Calla's secret to keep. Not long after Argos took the reins of the Vaevici he would start a war with the neighboring city-state of Serrano. Always hateful towards their neighbors, Argos was also predictable, and he would not survive four months before his brashness got him ambushed and murdered. Valla would fare better, but not by much: her demise would take place in the battlefield, leading the Vaevici forces against the Serrano in the war she did not start, but was in no position to end. She took the day, and vengeance on House Serrano's oldest son, but perished nonetheless. After her death, the Caldera was engulfed in war. Under these circumstances Calla Vaevici became Magistrix, a position she never wanted, her House crippled in debt and disarray. In Sangris, only Calla's noble allies kept the mobs from rioting against the most recent war, and outside their crimson walls enemies howled, ready to excise the Warmongers from the Caldera forever. The only way out, for Calla, was to take a path her predecessors would have not: kneeling to the Great House of Pravus, the stunning new arrivals to the Saffron and the first sign of the Compact many of her people had ever known, and kneel to their might that of the warriors who had just bested the Eurusi of Skal'daja. Her political situation is still frail, many of the nobles of Sangris despise Calla while her enemies now pause and strategize on how to deal with Sangris' new allies and take their victory, but she has changed the landscape and silence the cries for blood. Whatever she does now, the Chain will be watching with baited breath, witnessing what might be the last days of the Vaevici. + |
| Calliope Grimhall + | Calliope is the only child to Eugine Grimhall. Her father was known to be cruel and difficult, so her childhood was not easy. Calliope's natural talents lean towards the scholarly, leading her to be educated in the ways of investigation and researching information. She has been known to use her skills for profit, if a puzzle is brought to her, she will do her utmost to find any information helpful. There are rumours that she dabbles in the crafts as well, but it wasn't permitted in her family. Before her death, Eugine had made it known that she would entertain offers of marriage for her daughter, whether Calliope was interested or not. + |
| Calypso Malvici + | Her mother Adona had a reputation as an excellent judge of character. As Calypso grew up, she realized how well-suited she was for the military path the Duchess laid out before her. In the aftermath of the Tor-Southport War, she embraced the martial life that defined House Malvici and the city of Southport. She had always stood apart; her younger brother's enjoyment of politics saved her from a role she never wanted. Calypso was in field training by the age of twelve and commanding patrols by fifteen. She lived and breathed strategy, logistics, tactics, and leadership, but it was the time among soldiers in the field that she appreciated most. She grew to love them as much as she did her brothers. The inevitable deaths and losses among her troops led her to work them and herself harder. She was a highly-demanding commander, never settling for less than the best and scant with praise. Her success at bearing the same burdens as the common troops as her training prolonged their lives won her fierce loyalty from Southport's soldiers. When her mother abdicated in favor of her younger brother Hadrian, his first act was to make her the commanding general of House Malvici's armies. She wasn't yet twenty-five years old, but some said the promotion was overdue. With the tension in Arx, Calypso finds herself needed for her counsel and good judgment as much as commanding soldiers. Though she gratefully passed the responsibility of rule off to her young brother so she could follow her passion for martial mastery, she is still determined to help. She intends to make the most of her first diplomatic excursion outside the Lyceum, aiming to learn as much as she can about potential enemies, seek out allies among those who respect the pragmatic use of force, and set her tactical experience to work in the ballrooms and audience halls. After all, she reasons, diplomacy is war by other means. + |
| Cambria Mazetti + | Cambria was born an only child, much to the disappointment of her parents, who wished for a large family. To make matters worse, Cambria was a sickly youth, so there were plenty of concerns and two or three scares during her early years. Not too long after her tenth birthday, Cambria's father died during a hunting accident. Her mother refused to remarry, and remained a widower. Some said it was for love, while others claimed it was to consolidate her power and make sure her daughter was in a position to assume the mantle of rulership after her, even if it wasn't what was best for the House. Life passed, uneventfully enough, and Cambria grew into a young woman. Though no longer prone to bouts of illness, it could not be said she was very robust. Thus, while other young nobles were making their journey to Arx due to necessity or to expand their education, Cambria's mother was too fearful, and kept her close to home. It was quite likely that Cambria never would have left Ostria, except that fate had other designs. At twenty-three, Cambria's mother fell ill and died suddenly, leaving her daughter free to spread her wings and choose the course of her own life. She promptly left for Arx, one of the first Mazetti to do so in many generations. Once within the capital, Cambria immediately set about maneuvering herself in such a way as to further an audacious goal. Making use of all the political tools and resources available to her, the then Marquessa secured a favorable marriage and wasted little time in promoting a series of progressive reforms for the city-state of Ostria. In the span of a few short years, House Mazetti was formally recognized as a Ducal House before the Assembly of Peers held in the spring of 1012 AR. This is only the start of her story... + |
| Camilla Pravus + | Camilla was born a bastard, the fruit of a one-night affair between a Lady Madeline Pravus and a foreign noble. As a child Camilla was taught how to read and write by her mother, and was well on her way to learn other languages when Madeline's rapidly-deteriorating mental health took her agency and wits. Before the young girl was ten, the Pravosi noble was a shell of her former self, a husk mumbling in bed about the man who had taken her heart away. In the night when Lady Madeline finally lost her ability to communicate, withdrawing further and further within herself, Camilla was desolated. Along with the servants she stared as her noble mother was tended to by the local physicians, and seared in her mind were the sights of one of House Pravus' best reduced to nothing. Camilla could not reconcile with the fact there was nothing she could do, but before her anguish was turned to action the girl was approached by an envoy of the House of Silken Sighs of Setarco. The woman sat with Camilla and they talked throughout the night. Come the dawn, the courtier offered Camilla tutelage in the House free of charge, pleased with the conversation. None would know the nature of this conversation for years to come. The Pravosi bastard's time at the House of Silken Sighs is not publicly known, but it was, supposedly, shock full of its own trials, failures and successes. Whatever her exploits, Camilla left the place an educated courtier and the woman she is today, hailed far and wide as the best alumni of the school in decades. To those who have seen her talents, Camilla is a soulful fury with uncompromising artist vision, a desireable artiste who, once, was just a bastard, and now saw her contract acquired by the Duchess of Pravus herself. No more a simple bastard, the woman is now a highly-sought courtier whose's fame is not insubstantial. She is finally ready to meet her family, and join the Sins in Arx. + |
| Canaan Savantis + | Born in the lower boroughs, that is what Canaan spent a majority of his life. His father passed due to illness at an age he was too young to really recall, raised by his mother in majority. Too trusting at a young age he had an incident that left him somewhat untrusting despite his mother's insistence that people, as a whole, were good. It was a nice sentiment but not exactly easy to believe. His inquisitive nature brought him into brushing with the unsavory side of law led to some unfortunate outcomes and the wagging finger of his mother. In adulthood he married for a number of years before divorce came about and left him a bit weary (and quite late in the game) of further romantic pursuits, It was not long after he lost his mother to natural causes. Still.his curious nature often lead him down figurative rabbit-holes simply because not knowing the answer could become a persistent itch in the back of his head until at least attempting to look into those things with due caution toward things one generally shouldn't pry into. This natural desire to know and the irritation of lingering unknowns has lent his naturally developed skills toward helping out others when the price is right, even if it's as simple as finding proof of infidelity. + |
| Candace Corvo + | Candice Corvo was the middle child in her family, right between two older brothers and two younger brothers, and went on every adventure they did. She was a tomboy terror growing up, stealing sheep (temporarily), getting into fights (often), and carrying wares from the market to her parents inn (heavy). When her brothers game of age, they enlisted in the watch. When Candice came of age, she took her sword and went straight to one of the caravans and sold herself as a guard. She's ridden riverboats laden with goods to Bastion, frozen on the edges of the Everwinter, and chased thieves through the southern city states of the Lyceum. And for ten years, the adventure and the pay were enough. Then she met Sam and everything changed. They were instantly inseparable--which caused a lot of problems because Sam was an exceptionally good thief and the Velenosians had already made a less than stellar impression on the trading caravan. They needn't have worried; she gave Sam an ally, and they tempered her tendency to violence with cunning. They married and traveled together with the caravan on their way to Arx. This is the part everyone knows, and nobody talks about: shav brigands attacked the convoy, setting the tents and wagons on fire in the middle of the night. There were screams and violence and blood, and in the end the regimented caravan was reduced to a handful of grimfaced survivors. Sam wasn't among them. There's a small band of survivors who get together and share a drink every year, and every year Candice drinks with them. + |
| Candido Orata + | Candido was born the middle of three children in a more-stable-than-not commoner family in the city-state of Lenosia. His mother, a city guard, was the primary backbone of the household (and the person who first taught him to fight). His father was a bard in a struggling mummer's troupe that toured the Lyceum and Crownlands and was largely absent, if well-meaning when he was around. His parents never married, but it was a decent collection of relations and Candido never went hungry or felt unloved. The turning point in his life came when the Pirate King called the Gyre descended on Setarco. Candido wasn't old enough to go to war himself (and may not have anyhow, his life had limited direction), but his older sister Eugenia had joined Velenosa's army and was sent to fight. Though the Compact ultimately carried the day, Eugenia was among the slain. This was the biggest tragedy in his life up to that point and, when the dust settled, Candido felt the urge to throw himself into something vaguely meaningful. To give his mother one less thing to worry about if nothing else. He started volunteering with the Faith's rebuilding efforts, which led to him becoming a disciple of Gild, which led to him taking his vows as a godsworn brother when he was 19. Growing up he'd been an inattentive adherent (at best) to the Pantheon, but the work crystallized his view of the Faith as a way to both do something that mattered externally and get right with himself internally. And a way to make his own path in the world. The Faith as a social force offered opportunities to a common boy with both martial and interpersonal skills that few other vocations could. He squired to a Knight of Solace not long after taking his vows and acquitted himself well enough to earn a knighthood a couple years later. His personal convictions are heavily Lycene Liberal, though he's learned how to go along to get along with the Orthodox that make up so much of the Faith Militant, and he's served with general competence for the last several years. His latest assignment has taken him to Arx. What he'll make of it remains to be seen. + |
| Cantus Crown + | Cantus is the type of person to get into trouble for all the right reasons. The wrong reasons? In any case, it's almost because he saw someone that decided they needed help, whether or not they agreed. But it's okay! Sometimes they actually do need helping. He had been taking a walk, as Cantus was wont to do, and stumbled upon a brigand harassing a poor old man. After that, a couple that needed a wagon wheel replaced. Depending on how he's feeling at the telling, either he felt the spirit of wandering the world, helping folks, ooooor far more likely Cantus found himself lost, shrugged, and decided to embrace this new adventure. + |
| Capri De Lire + | The Lower Burroughs of Arx are a rough place to grow up, but someone has to grow up there. Capri was one of those, though he doesn't often talk about it. While many of those in the Lower Burroughs tend to end up striving to be good people in the face of adversity, or criminals, Capri ended up neither of these. Instead, the dangers of life spoke to him, and through countless fights he eventually developed a reputation as a duelist to be watched, and feared, leaving countless wounded or dead in the alleys of the Burroughs behind him. It isn't certain how he ended up joining the Valorous Few, but it's apparent that it likely has to do with the family business. + |
| Caprice Artiglio + | Caprice often receives praise as being one of the most promising talents in tailoring from the Lyceum, but she has never felt quite comfortable with the assessment. She is, foremost, simply an artist who demonstrates her talents by weaving fabrics into stunning fashions as her chosen medium of expression. From a very early age, she felt called to be one of the chosen of Jayus, feeling a spark of inspiration from the Prince of Stories. Even as a child she would idle by shrines of Jayus and toy with dyes and clothes, working ever more elaborate colorations and blends of fabric. As a young woman, her talent was quickly recognized, and at a very young age she has been given the immense honor of being appointed the tailor of House Velenosa. Caprice is fully aware that her position might well be one of the most coveted of any tailor in all of Arvum. The Lyceum are the height of fashion for the entire Compact, after all, and House Velenosa is the height of fashion for the Lyceum. But the knowledge does not trouble her unduly She is, in her opinion and without any feelings of conceit, divinely inspired. + |
| Cara Ashford + | Cara was born a daughter of House Rubino, blessed by fortune with good teeth and a steady mind. A quick study, her interest in things intellectual blossomed as she recovered from an unfortunate accident -- a fire, which left her with burn scars on her legs and a lengthy healing period. Quiet -- but not especially shy -- the young lady showed promise in the arts of diplomacy and the study of history, eventually growing into a maiden well-suited to gracing a parlor or fine dining hall and engaging in polite conversation. She married a cousin of House Ashford and left the Lyceum for greener climes, adjusting with relative grace to the very different life, and seemingly through luck finding true happiness with her husband -- until he was tragically discovered among the slain of the king's retinue. How she will adapt to this change in her life, and her position among her new house and her old, remains to be seen. + |
| Cara Grayson + | Cara was born a daughter of House Rubino, blessed by fortune with good teeth and a steady mind. A quick study, her interest in things intellectual blossomed as she recovered from an unfortunate accident -- a fire, which left her with burn scars on her legs and a lengthy healing period. Quiet -- but not especially shy -- the young lady showed promise in the arts of diplomacy and the study of history, eventually growing into a maiden well-suited to gracing a parlor or fine dining hall and engaging in polite conversation. She married a cousin of House Ashford and left the Lyceum for greener climes, adjusting with relative grace to the very different life, and seemingly through luck finding true happiness with her husband -- until he was tragically discovered among the slain of the king's retinue. How she will adapt to this change in her life, and her position among her new house and her old, remains to be seen. + |
| Caras Wyrmguard + | Caras Wyrmguard was born in the fortress city of House Wyrmguard, Blancbier. On the northern marches of the Oathlands, Blanbier is an important bastion protecting Sanctum from the heathen shavs of the north. As a young man, Caras showed great proficiency in martial training. This is not unusual for the sons and daughters of the Oathlands but Caras took to his training with great passion and vigor. Not simply a soldier or knight, but a student of the blade, his first campaign came at a relatively young age. While he played little part as a mere boy, he knew at the time that his life would be a constant battle - and he loved it. A careless and dismissive young man, he was selfish and self-centered. Haughty and superior. Few friends, little love of or for the people of the Wyrmguard lands or his family's retainers, he sought only glory for himself. A life of battle and death and harship. This was not the life he was destined to lead, however. A small unit commanded by the young lord was ambushed on patrol, nearer the road than they had expected. Not wanting to die for their selfish lord, the other men retreated and left Caras to his own fate. Though he fought well and bravely, he was cut down and left for dead on the road, alone in the cold. It was hours before anyone came along and he thought it a specter. A vision of a goddess offering succor and kindness, healing and protection. It was no entity but a Priestess of Gild. She gave him shelter and nursed him back to health. When he returned to Blancbier he found the men who had abandoned him had concocted a story that was not true. Caras forgave them, said nothing, and renounced his title and fealty to join the order of Gild. Caras traveled to Arx for his training, learning about the plight of those in need, the lives of the common folk, the way one can change a life through kindness, compassion, and charity. Once becoming godsworn, Caras began to travel. Walking the roads of the Compact with nothing but his generosity and charity, he brought the message of Gild far and wide through all the lands of the kingdom. His return to Arx several years ago came after deep contemplation and prayer. It would be a sacrifice considering his love of the road and the far-flung people that need the blessing of Gild, but it is a sacrifice he is willing to make and one that has paid dividends as he becomes the Archlector of Gild and increases his opportunities to praise the goddess. + |
| Carilova Nowak + | She rarely spoke of her origins and never claimed 'home' as any one place. Carilova seemed to know the customs of nearly all the more notable houses of the Compact and whether that came from study or firsthand experience had been the talk among the peerage after her departures. Noblemen and women had been eager to call and summon on her as a counselor, friend, advisor and notable guest. + |
| Carissa Malespero + | After being sent off to become a scholar on a far-flung island as an extra lady who was too rebellious for the Argento family, Carissa heard what happened to the nobles of Arx and returned in a panic a few years too late, after the Gyre had been defeated. Her family mostly dead, and her March given to Lianne, she yearned for something to do to gain back some measure of trust for herself and the name Argento. However, after learning some hard truths about that name, Carissa is humbled, thankful, and even grateful to Lianne for welcoming her home with open arms and kindness. She is working hard to regain herself, after so many years of anger. She's always been rebellious, it's true, but now she's trying to live up to the new family name she proudly wears. + |
| Carita Darkwater + | Once Upon a Time? (No, this is how I want my story to start.) Once Upon a Time there was a girl that grew up hungry, dirty, and poor in the Lower Burroughs as the youngest of seven other children. Her mother, Darya, was a former Thrall that managed to pay off her debt to live free - and her father was never spoken of. Life was difficult and unpleasant for the girl as she fought to make herself noticed among the rest of her siblings. It was a battle that she constantly lost, but she fought on. She was determined to better herself and her situation. It was expected that this girl would apprentice to some trade, to marry, or find work to support her constantly growing family - as many of her older siblings were already having children of their own. She worked as a barmaid in the Murder for quite some time (rest in pieces, Chanse, you bastard) before she caught the attentions of a courtier of the Whisper House and the two established an unlikely friendship. The courtier had also grown up in the Lower Burroughs, but had impressed the Radiant enough to train them and offer them a position among the Whispers. It was through this friendship that the girl realized that this could be her future, her chance to make it all better for herself. This was her calling, her passion. Constantly surrounded by interesting people, endless opportunities for socializing, and always having the finest things that her new life could afford her. Life as a Whisper suited her far much better than being a barmaid. When she received payment from her wealthy patrons, she always made sure to send a portion of it to her aging parents, but she always kept more for herself. As a girl that had grown up wanting, the woman that she became would never want for anything ever again. The woman would have been most content to remain a pampered Whisper for the rest of her days, but her heart (fiery and quick like her temper) led her to fall in love with a pirate. Well, he was a Darkwater. (It's more or less the same.) She had many misgivings of him and his intentions, considering that he was a Thrax - but Lord Baltus Darkwater proved to be a truthful man that honored his promises, and acted upon every lovely word that he had spoken to her. The woman would have been pleased to remain his lover indefinitely. When the Darkwater Lord proposed to her with the desire to make the woman his wife, she was surprised that she accepted it so easily. The wedding was a subdued affair (the dress was not) and the newly wedded pair went off together. Away from Arx, across a deep blue sea to a gem of an island called Cielos Encantadores. After a couple of years in this paradise, they finally had a child - a girl named Nerissa. And they lived Happily Ever? Oh, wait a moment. When Baltus was sent a summons by their liege, the Darkwater Count Maximilian, he answered and returned to the city of Arx. It was days after that Carita decided to follow her hushand with their daughter (and a nanny) so that they might be together again. Eager to starting a new adventure in the city that she was more than pleased to leave behind. ... Hopefully, they live Happily Ever After. (They didn't. Irreconcilable differences.) + |
| Carmen Harol + | Carmen grew up in the Lower Burroughs. Her mother was a laundress for the Mercies and her father a carpenter. They did okay as families went. As an only child she often followed at her mother's heels around the House of Solace. She proved an able helped and natural caretaker as a young child. It was when her mother insisted on her getting some schooling that her sweet demeanor faded. Carmen had a very keen mind and the stupidity she saw in the classes had her speaking out. It also had her targeted by those who didn't appreciate being made a fool of. Carmen came home angry and determined to give as good as she got. Until she hit her majority Carmen's youth was full of fighting and learning. The mercies had seen her natural gift and offered to train her, which she was happy to do. Yet she had made friends during her schooling and like most kids formed her own Burroughs gang. There were times her skills came in very handy. Her parents did not approve of her gang activities. So they brought her uncle, a Blade, to talk to her. He convinced her to give the Crimson Blades a try, where she could fight -and- use her medic skills -and- get paid for it. Seemed perfect to her. The fact that the Crimson Blades were elite helped a lot. The utter stupidity of people she couldn't help but comment on was not nearly as evident. And all her trainers actually had brains so she managed to not get in too much trouble for her smart mouth. Now six years in and through several wars she has come out a veteran combat medic. Preffering to use a small bows for protection on the field, she has become known among the blades as the Bloody Mercy. She wears the nickname with pride. + |
| Carrick Squallborn + | Carrick was born to a family of sailors and raiders. His father having been a sailor that fought off raiders and his grandfather on his mother's side being a raider that attacked ships. As a boy he grew up hearing the stories of the open sea as well as the honor of different warriors. It was his dream to go explore the sea as a sailor and he did. This was his life on the open sea fighting pirates while he explored. When he came home from his adventures he would fight with others in the village to show them how to fight raiders or any others that might come to attack. This lead to him quickly showing him to be the best warrior in the village. As he traveled out when he came back home would find a new challenger appeared to challenge him due to word of his skill of arms. This lead his name to grow even while sailing as a fearsome combatant as well as talented teacher for he would show those that he faced how to improve themselves as well as teach any who wished to know how to defend themselves. Finally after years of adventuring traveling and dueling. He was called to the Ravenseye house, they had heard of his skill and asked him to be sword of the house. Seeing it as a new adventure as well as wanting to settle down a bit to start a family Carrick agreed. His new title suited him more than he thought and now on his way to the city of Arx with the Countess seeing it as a new adventure to travel. + |
| Casiar Cross + | Born to Silvia and Daren Cross, Casiar grew up as an only child. His primary interests were academic, where all of the other kids his age he knew were more focused in the pursuits of physical prowess. Though most would speak to him, and he wouldn't ignore them or shun his peers, he did have some trouble in his mid-late teens with a few of the boys he grew up around. One in particular, a young man by the name of Rowen, had apparently decided that it was his place to "toughen him up", and his way of doing this was to knock Casiar around at every possible opportunity. many of Casiar's books, though worn and old already, fell to the destructive tendencies of Rowen and his ilk, as they pushed him around, tripped him, and even went as far as to break his nose more than once. Other than these encounters, Casiar's childhood was unremarkable in almost every way. Having become a scholar at the age of twenty-two, Casiar was forced to take a few months away from his studies only half a year later when he received word that his father had passed away unexpectedly. During his time back at home with his mother, while putting what little his family had in order, She too grew ill. After only two weeks from her diagnosis she too passed, while Casiar sat on her bed cradling her head in his lap. It was evident to all of his friends and fellow scholars that this experience took a heavy toll on him. While never outright dismissive or disrespectful of his fellows, Casiar was, prior to the loss of his parents, always more focused on his studies than on anything else, though after his return from his temporary leave, and the subsequent loss of both of his parents, Casiar spoke little. The easy smiles he always had for his friends were gone, his eyes were rarely focused unless the subject was a book or tome he was reading. He became introverted and quiet, obsessed with work and solitude. Those who called him a friend prior to his time away slipped from his notice, even a young woman he had grown close to could not get him to speak or take time away from his books. It has been over a decade since his tragic loss, and while Casiar has begun to come away from his studies more often than any time in the past ten years, he is still mostly quiet and heavily introverted. He has started to try to make new friends, as all those he once had have moved on to other appointments, married and moved away, retired or passed on themselves. At the age of thirty-four, with no prospects for marriage, and no sign that this is particularly bothersome to him, and with a head full of all the writing he devoured throughout the years, Casiar has started to venture out and interact with people more and more. Though still fairly shy and soft spoken, he hopes to put his knowledge to use for the benefit of The Crown. + |
| Casimir Acheron + | From a young age, Casimir was marked to seal a political alliance by marrying out of the family. You see, he never liked the family dogs. He never liked the wilds that much, either. He learned to endure both -- to ride, and to hunt, and to do everything that was expected of a Keaton lord -- but his true passion was found in books: histories and stories captured his imagination as the forests never could. He was still young when his eldest sister took her own life. He watched as Margerie took on the burden of rule with the incomprehension of the young, while his rather idle studies took on sharp new focus as he moved up the line of succession. His relief when he was bumped back down was matched only by Margerie's when Kael was found. The young promise of a political alliance was sealed through a marriage to house Acheron, and off Casimir went to Arx to meet his new wife. He has mixed feelings about setting aside the sigil of a dog's pawprint to take on that of a monstrous wolf-bear. + |
| Caspian Artiglio + | Caspian was a thrall because his father was a thrall and his mother was also a thrall, and his father's war debt was a lot to pay. Yet the Thrax fealty has spent the last few years struggling towards what the rest of the Compact would call progress, and in an early push towards some of that progress, Donella Thrax freed some thralls who were thralls only by virtue of their parents' debts rather than their own. Caspian was freed at 19, with scattered memories of his tribe's honestly piratical raiding traditions mostly subverted by the day in and day out of long hours of hard labor with tenant farmers and ropemakers and sailors. He found in his newfound freedom that what he was mainly good at was a.) hard labor and b.) knives! He took the surname 'Wild' because his parents didn't give him a better one, and became a mercenary and sword for hire, until he eventually tagged into being a duellist for the Champion's Guild in Arx on account of besting a few in combat and developing a reputation for being a real /showy/ sword for hire. Though he began as a kind of desperately hungry merc with an axe to grind, he blossomed into a delighted fighter at the opportunity to pitch his skills in the dueling ring to wealthy nobles. It was exactly the life for him. Money was suddenly easier to come by, and with money, delicious attention, heartwarming acclaim, and the love and affection of adoring crowds, at least as long as he was making a show of it. Turning to away from grim guts and leaping whole-heartedly into laughter and life, he shines with the brilliance of the bon vivant, and it's clear he's here to make a killing. + |
| Caspian Ru'Taul + | Caspian was a thrall because his father was a thrall and his mother was also a thrall, and his father's war debt was a lot to pay. Yet the Thrax fealty has spent the last few years struggling towards what the rest of the Compact would call progress, and in an early push towards some of that progress, Donella Thrax freed some thralls who were thralls only by virtue of their parents' debts rather than their own. Caspian was freed at 19, with scattered memories of his tribe's honestly piratical raiding traditions mostly subverted by the day in and day out of long hours of hard labor with tenant farmers and ropemakers and sailors. He found in his newfound freedom that what he was mainly good at was a.) hard labor and b.) knives! He took the surname 'Wild' because his parents didn't give him a better one, and became a mercenary and sword for hire, until he eventually tagged into being a duellist for the Champion's Guild in Arx on account of besting a few in combat and developing a reputation for being a real /showy/ sword for hire. Though he began as a kind of desperately hungry merc with an axe to grind, he blossomed into a delighted fighter at the opportunity to pitch his skills in the dueling ring to wealthy nobles. It was exactly the life for him. Money was suddenly easier to come by, and with money, delicious attention, heartwarming acclaim, and the love and affection of adoring crowds, at least as long as he was making a show of it. Turning to away from grim guts and leaping whole-heartedly into laughter and life, he shines with the brilliance of the bon vivant, and it's clear he's here to make a killing. + |
| Caspian Wild + | Caspian was a thrall because his father was a thrall and his mother was also a thrall, and his father's war debt was a lot to pay. Yet the Thrax fealty has spent the last few years struggling towards what the rest of the Compact would call progress, and in an early push towards some of that progress, Donella Thrax freed some thralls who were thralls only by virtue of their parents' debts rather than their own. Caspian was freed at 19, with scattered memories of his tribe's honestly piratical raiding traditions mostly subverted by the day in and day out of long hours of hard labor with tenant farmers and ropemakers and sailors. He found in his newfound freedom that what he was mainly good at was a.) hard labor and b.) knives! He took the surname 'Wild' because his parents didn't give him a better one, and became a mercenary and sword for hire, until he eventually tagged into being a duellist for the Champion's Guild in Arx on account of besting a few in combat and developing a reputation for being a real /showy/ sword for hire. Though he began as a kind of desperately hungry merc with an axe to grind, he blossomed into a delighted fighter at the opportunity to pitch his skills in the dueling ring to wealthy nobles. It was exactly the life for him. Money was suddenly easier to come by, and with money, delicious attention, heartwarming acclaim, and the love and affection of adoring crowds, at least as long as he was making a show of it. Turning to away from grim guts and leaping whole-heartedly into laughter and life, he shines with the brilliance of the bon vivant, and it's clear he's here to make a killing. + |
| Cassandra Laurent + | Cassandra Laurent was born to lead and she never doubted that. She never doubted her duty. She knew that she would be the Duchess of House Laurent, and that she would serve her family, and that she would serve House Valardin. But life, and the gods, had other plans for her. She was drawn early to the faith. At first she was merely a lay sister, dedicated to Gloria, to whom she felt called. But at the age of 20, while riding hard for her father's men in pursuit of a group of Shavs who had killed a priest and desecrated a shrine in one of their raids on a surrounding village, she was knocked from her horse and fell in battle. She fought her way clear of the Abandoned, but fell unconscious in the valley, separated from the others. Before she was recovered, she had a dream she attributed to Gloria, and when she woke, she knew that she could not remain the heir to her father's ducal seat. But she did something that she would never again do in her life: afraid of the reactions of her family, of her father and brother, she temporized. She hesitated. She kept finding excuses, putting off her passions for another day. When her father was in the midst of brokering a potential marriage alliance for her, however, she could no longer bear the silence. The lay dedicacy was not enough; she would serve the Faith, called to another duty than the one she had first been born to. Cassandra threw herself into the priesthood with her whole heart. She studied and worked and threw every ounce of her will behind serving the faith. It is possible that her connections to a Valardin ducal house -- godsworn though she was -- helped her in her climb through the ranks, but Cassandra liked to believe it was her passion and dedication that eventually made her the Archlector of Gloria. The pinnacle of her ambition is to be the Sword of the Faith -- and her eye lifts ever to that horizon. + |
| Cassia Mercier + | Cassia Mercier grew up with a comfortable life for a commoner. A scion of a merchant family, but she wasn't particularly close with her cousins. Her mother having "married" in, while her father was the Mercier-- who died when Cassia was barely five years old. The Merciers made sure she was cared for but she wasn't particularly close with them, and her mother wasn't very interested in pushing for a family connection. Cassia has always had a strong sense of smell and as a young girl would often be bothered by strong scents. Which was unfortunate since her mother was a fisherwoman. Cassia simply cannot stand the smell of fish and so refused to follow in her footsteps. Leaving under the same roof as a fisherman drove her to learn how to create other scents. She fell in love with the act of creating perfumes, of distilling oils, and creating things that smelt _good_. ...and that's what she's been doing ever since. + |
| Cassian Crovane + | Cassian was the second son of a Ravenseye family, and from the start seemed destined for adventure. Constantly exploring from the time he could crawl, climbing from the time he could walk, there was virtually nothing that could bar Cassian from a place. By the time he was of age, the sea beckoned to him and his parents could do nothing to dissuade him. His good nature and quick mind let him learn nearly every job aboard the ship, and it didn't take long for him to rise to the rank of Captain, with a crew that would follow him into storm or fire. His skill at sailing earned him renown, and the eye of a lovely woman from the House Crovane, though the latter would perish before their life together could truly blossom. + |
| Cassim Sanna + | Cassim is the second son of cousins to the Sanna, having grown up pretty much in the Giant's Reach his entire life. As a second son, he wasn't going to inherit anything anytime soon so he was expected to pick up the slack by being pressured into educational and artistic pursuits. This tempered him for a long life of reading books, and trying to make something out of nothing, but it was not what he wanted. He'd find himself constantly getting into trouble just to avoid it, which lead to him lashing out at his peers, family, and even important visitors. When he was eight, he ran away into the wilderness where he was lost for three days. In those three days, he was attacked by beasts, avoided detection by two thuggish looking men, and was discovered nearly dead by a Shaman who nursed him back to health. When he was strong enough to explain what happened, the Shaman scolded him, and returned him home. However, as a reward for his show of endurance and resourcefulness, he was offered an apprenticeship, to start upon his tenth birthday. He had two years to study all he could about herbalism, medicine, and the Spirits. His parents weren't thrilled, but they accepted it as a means of boosting his social rank to make him more viable for mates. What they hadn't expected, was the Shaman to return, and take their son into the woods never to be seen again for months at a time. Each time, Cassim came home a little more different. First, he was no longer the angry little boy he'd used to be, he was more relaxed, and laid back. Second, he'd begun to establish a certain distance between him and the rest of the family, and described it as a 'comfortable distance'. The third and final change, though, was when he never came home at all. He was eighteen when his mentor passed from this life into the next. That was when his real training began. His mentor, had left him a number of clues and notes to prepare him for the next phase of his journey. His vision quest. For two long years, he was to live in the wilderness, survive, and by the end commune with the Spirits, while coming to an understanding of the differences between his Free Soul, and his Mundane Soul, and why each can't exist while the other is active. He has only just returned, from this grueling ordeal. A changed man? Only time can tell. + |
| Cassima Thrax + | The eldest daughter of a lesser line of the principal house of Thrax, Cassima never expected to be in line for anything. Her father was about as foreign to the ways of the Mourning Isles as it was possible for a man to be: the younger son of a Northern march, inclined to study, whose hobby was mathematics and logical proofs. Yet he brought with him wealth for the House and the knowledge of what to do with that wealth, and was embraced by the family as an odd, but useful, addition to the line. Still, he had no sons, and that was an unending frustration for Cassima's mother, who wanted nothing more than a prince to push into the line of fire, that is, the line of duty that are the internecine politics of a major house. Cassima loved her father more than anything in the world, and so she grew up at his knee. Books and learning were their special time together, when she was free of the nursery and could sit with him in his study, and while there were not insignificant tensions between he and his wife Alyona Thrax, with his daughter he could sit and think and talk -- frequently well over her head, but in deepest earnest. So it was that she grew up a daddy's girl with a most untraditional father in a traditional house, and there's nothing that breeds true like nerdery. Cassima focused on learning everything that she could about literally everything, but especially the running and management of a house, the running and management of an army, the logistics and the inglorious; it's easy to pay attention to maths when they're maths based on people's lives, the food and clothing and gear and everything that is desperately needed in a world where it might be more fun to pay heed to the more glorious questions of war. Cassima's father died when she was still young, but his death only served to fire her determination to embrace all that he was and had been. There has always been a strong tradition of Thrax economists, lawyers, and managers, so Cassima found that although she felt the pangs of outsiderhood because she learned these things at her father's knee rather than her mother's, she was not an iconoclast, and found herself uniquely situated among her sister women -- vehemently traditional in her interests, vehemently nontraditional in her outlook, she fit in with neither the old guard of grandmothers with their finely manicured fingers twisted around the purse strings nor the new guard of young women reaching for the progressive outreach that she saw growing in many of the vassal houses to Thrax. Alone in a crowd, an outsider among insiders, she developed her self-sufficiency along with her personal brilliance, and learned to obscure and shroud her basic, fundamental loneliness in a traditionally nerdy way: humor. As an adult, she finds Thrax on a precipice of change and arrives in the capital with a certainty that her fundamentals are those that her family will desperately need. She has reached out to join the scholars and economists and thinkers of Arx to drive herself into new connections and new friendships that might help her build anew and learn and grow. + |
| Cassimir Inverno + | Cassimir is the only child of Artemis and Theda Argento. From his birth, his mother exercised control over the minutiae of his life, while his father was emotionally and physically distant. Without a firm hand to tame her overpowering will, Theda's oppression would contribute to the bulk of his underdeveloped social skills and a period of adolescent malcontent. When Cassimir came of age, he decidedly channeled every ounce of his free time to knowledgable pursuits that he hoped would one day be the basis for his escape from the prison his estate exemplified. At every turn, he shunned his mother's wiles. Such overt acts of rebellion greatly displeased Theda, who, agitated by an increasing awareness that the family's reputation and favor in Arx was steeply declining, sought above all else to secure a good match for her son and, through him, herald in a new age of prosperity and power. On the morn of Cassimir's twentieth birthday, Theda stirred to find his chambers empty, with nary a trace left behind to inform her of where he had gone. She searched and she waited, but it became quite clear that he had abdicated his wealth and titles, and ultimately rejected the Argento family for good and all. In the very same year, Theda's most potent fears would become stark reality: House Argento was summarily eradicated, and his parents with it. Cassimir is keenly aware of the events that transpired, and the unfortunate reputation that his surname espouses. A cautious inclination to emerge from hiding has budded over time, so sightings of the scholarly scion have become more frequent in the capital city. With the rise of Lianne Pravus claiming the title of Marquessa of Nilanza after the destruction of his house, and the formation of House Malespero from the remains, it was with readiness and great relief that Cassimir cast off his ruined name to join them, and start anew. + |
| Cassiopeia Leporidae + | Cassiopeia of Tremorus, said to be the most beautiful woman in the far Southern city-state hidden away in the Saffron Chain. A woman who has inspired bards to sing of her allure and whom great artists of her time beg to portray her with their craft, as she is frequently spoken of as the personification of ideal human beauty. Paintings of her sell for quite a lot of money and motifs are jealously guarded but in truth, the woman who has sparked the myth is no more attractive than her sister Andromeda nor her cousins. She possesses a special quality, a presence, that many have a difficult time reconciling with gravitas and while their father enjoys the reputation his eldest daughter has begotten, Cassiopeia finds it somewhat exhausting. Ever since she was a young girl it was as if her only lot in life was to be something sought after and obtained but never appreciated for who she truly is - an indelible truth she couldn't shake no matter how hard she tried. This led to years in which she would constantly find herself going from one adventure to another in order to escape the reality of feeling put upon a pedestal and gawked at. Oftentimes this was counter productive for when she was discovered to be /the/ Cassiopeia the ship's crew or some random sellword accompanying her at the time would become fixated to the point of obsessed and she'd need to abandon ship, quite literally, and find some new bout of adventure aboard another vessel. While she traveled the Saffron Chains she learned many useful skills and her experiences tempered her into a very capable woman but no matter how far she ran, Cassiopeia simply could not escape her woes. Since she could not escape her reality she chose instead to do the next best thing and sequester herself away from it all -- retreating into solitude and privacy within the walls of the Sky Palace. Year after year her 'Pa-Pa' would receive countless offers of marriage from a myriad of places and while most of them were trash, some were immense opportunities in his eyes. Even though his daughter would sometimes give him the vapors somehow she was, politically, worth a great deal. He never forced her to marry however and so she did not. After some months squirreled away in the city-state she began to grow restless. Hearing that her siblings had gone to the capital of the Compact, she decided it was time to follow. If not to get away from all the clingers on, then at least to explore this new city. With the reclusive young Lady's recent reemergence into the forefront of politics and goings on in Tremorus there is a bustle of excitement and hushed whispers about why she has -really- chosen to rejoin society proper after being gone for almost a decade. + |
| Cassiopeia Proscipi + | Cassiopeia of Tremorus, said to be the most beautiful woman in the far Southern city-state hidden away in the Saffron Chain. A woman who has inspired bards to sing of her allure and whom great artists of her time beg to portray her with their craft, as she is frequently spoken of as the personification of ideal human beauty. Paintings of her sell for quite a lot of money and motifs are jealously guarded but in truth, the woman who has sparked the myth is no more attractive than her sister Andromeda nor her cousins. She possesses a special quality, a presence, that many have a difficult time reconciling with gravitas and while their father enjoys the reputation his eldest daughter has begotten, Cassiopeia finds it somewhat exhausting. Ever since she was a young girl it was as if her only lot in life was to be something sought after and obtained but never appreciated for who she truly is - an indelible truth she couldn't shake no matter how hard she tried. This led to years in which she would constantly find herself going from one adventure to another in order to escape the reality of feeling put upon a pedestal and gawked at. Oftentimes this was counter productive for when she was discovered to be /the/ Cassiopeia the ship's crew or some random sellword accompanying her at the time would become fixated to the point of obsessed and she'd need to abandon ship, quite literally, and find some new bout of adventure aboard another vessel. While she traveled the Saffron Chains she learned many useful skills and her experiences tempered her into a very capable woman but no matter how far she ran, Cassiopeia simply could not escape her woes. Since she could not escape her reality she chose instead to do the next best thing and sequester herself away from it all -- retreating into solitude and privacy within the walls of the Sky Palace. Year after year her 'Pa-Pa' would receive countless offers of marriage from a myriad of places and while most of them were trash, some were immense opportunities in his eyes. Even though his daughter would sometimes give him the vapors somehow she was, politically, worth a great deal. He never forced her to marry however and so she did not. After some months squirreled away in the city-state she began to grow restless. Hearing that her siblings had gone to the capital of the Compact, she decided it was time to follow. If not to get away from all the clingers on, then at least to explore this new city. With the reclusive young Lady's recent reemergence into the forefront of politics and goings on in Tremorus there is a bustle of excitement and hushed whispers about why she has -really- chosen to rejoin society proper after being gone for almost a decade. She didn't really expect as much to change as it did, however. Following the destruction of the palace in Tremorus, the deaths of much of her extended family, the fall of her liege, and the ennoblement of Giorgio and naming him as Ezmeralda's successor, Cassiopeia wasn't seen for weeks afterwards. When she finally was, it was announced she had formally joined very distant family in the city-state of Sangris, House Vaevici, and would not be returning to Tremorus- not now, and possibly not ever, which has caused a great deal of gossip among the peerage as to her reasons. + |
| Cassiopeia Vaevici + | Cassiopeia of Tremorus, said to be the most beautiful woman in the far Southern city-state hidden away in the Saffron Chain. A woman who has inspired bards to sing of her allure and whom great artists of her time beg to portray her with their craft, as she is frequently spoken of as the personification of ideal human beauty. Paintings of her sell for quite a lot of money and motifs are jealously guarded but in truth, the woman who has sparked the myth is no more attractive than her sister Andromeda nor her cousins. She possesses a special quality, a presence, that many have a difficult time reconciling with gravitas and while their father enjoys the reputation his eldest daughter has begotten, Cassiopeia finds it somewhat exhausting. Ever since she was a young girl it was as if her only lot in life was to be something sought after and obtained but never appreciated for who she truly is - an indelible truth she couldn't shake no matter how hard she tried. This led to years in which she would constantly find herself going from one adventure to another in order to escape the reality of feeling put upon a pedestal and gawked at. Oftentimes this was counter productive for when she was discovered to be /the/ Cassiopeia the ship's crew or some random sellword accompanying her at the time would become fixated to the point of obsessed and she'd need to abandon ship, quite literally, and find some new bout of adventure aboard another vessel. While she traveled the Saffron Chains she learned many useful skills and her experiences tempered her into a very capable woman but no matter how far she ran, Cassiopeia simply could not escape her woes. Since she could not escape her reality she chose instead to do the next best thing and sequester herself away from it all -- retreating into solitude and privacy within the walls of the Sky Palace. Year after year her 'Pa-Pa' would receive countless offers of marriage from a myriad of places and while most of them were trash, some were immense opportunities in his eyes. Even though his daughter would sometimes give him the vapors somehow she was, politically, worth a great deal. He never forced her to marry however and so she did not. After some months squirreled away in the city-state she began to grow restless. Hearing that her siblings had gone to the capital of the Compact, she decided it was time to follow. If not to get away from all the clingers on, then at least to explore this new city. With the reclusive young Lady's recent reemergence into the forefront of politics and goings on in Tremorus there is a bustle of excitement and hushed whispers about why she has -really- chosen to rejoin society proper after being gone for almost a decade. She didn't really expect as much to change as it did, however. Following the destruction of the palace in Tremorus, the deaths of much of her extended family, the fall of her liege, and the ennoblement of Giorgio and naming him as Ezmeralda's successor, Cassiopeia wasn't seen for weeks afterwards. When she finally was, it was announced she had formally joined very distant family in the city-state of Sangris, House Vaevici, and would not be returning to Tremorus- not now, and possibly not ever, which has caused a great deal of gossip among the peerage as to her reasons. + |
| Cassius Nightgold + | A second son, Cassius was never destined to rule, so his lessons on leadership were taken less seriously than his training to become a Knight. Long hours were spent with the seraph appointed to Stonedeep, arguing the finer points of the Pantheon versus Shamanism. Torn between an ingrained Northern pride and a calling toward the Faith, Cassius looked for signs of what he was meant to do, and he found one in the Knights of Solace. Spending time with the pilgrims being escorted toward Arx, many of them recent converts from shamanism, Cassius found his calling. With his family's blessing, if not their full understanding, Cassius set out for Arx where he could begin his training in earnest. Slow to master the blade but quick to pick up on the nuances of the Faith, Cassius worked hard to overcome prejudice against his Northern roots, the way paved for him somewhat due to his noble origins. Well-versed in navigating the mountainous region of his birth, Cassius was often sent along with more experienced Knights on treks that involved fetching pilgrims from areas closer to the Everwinter. It was one such trek Cassius was on when his group was set upon by a band of Abandoned. On the defensive due to the unarmed faithful accompanying them, several Knights were slain. Leading those remaining alive and injured toward Stonedeep to rest and resupply, Cassius was greeted with the news that his father had disappeared, and that just days prior, the severed fingers of his brother and other relatives had been delivered to the Stonedeep gates. Furious with his father for leaving and with himself for not being at Stonedeep when he could have been of use, Cassius lost himself for a time to alcohol, abandoning the Knights of Solace and leaving his sisters to maintain order in Stonedeep on their own. Weeks passed like this, with Cassius getting into drunken brawls, having blackouts, and waking up with chunks of time missing. Things came to a head when one night in a fit of rage over a Poker game, Cassius wrapped his hands around a man's throat without any true intent, but without his wits about him all the same. When he came to from this particular blackout, he was in the company of the Knights Solace once more. No one offered any information about the night prior and he didn't ask any questions, instead packing his things and getting back to the trail, redoubling his focus on bringing those who desire the comfort of the true Faith to Arx. + |
| Cassius Pravus + | A second son, Cassius was never destined to rule, so his lessons on leadership were taken less seriously than his training to become a Knight. Long hours were spent with the seraph appointed to Stonedeep, arguing the finer points of the Pantheon versus Shamanism. Torn between an ingrained Northern pride and a calling toward the Faith, Cassius looked for signs of what he was meant to do, and he found one in the Knights of Solace. Spending time with the pilgrims being escorted toward Arx, many of them recent converts from shamanism, Cassius found his calling. With his family's blessing, if not their full understanding, Cassius set out for Arx where he could begin his training in earnest. Slow to master the blade but quick to pick up on the nuances of the Faith, Cassius worked hard to overcome prejudice against his Northern roots, the way paved for him somewhat due to his noble origins. Well-versed in navigating the mountainous region of his birth, Cassius was often sent along with more experienced Knights on treks that involved fetching pilgrims from areas closer to the Everwinter. It was one such trek Cassius was on when his group was set upon by a band of Abandoned. On the defensive due to the unarmed faithful accompanying them, several Knights were slain. Leading those remaining alive and injured toward Stonedeep to rest and resupply, Cassius was greeted with the news that his father had disappeared, and that just days prior, the severed fingers of his brother and other relatives had been delivered to the Stonedeep gates. Furious with his father for leaving and with himself for not being at Stonedeep when he could have been of use, Cassius lost himself for a time to alcohol, abandoning the Knights of Solace and leaving his sisters to maintain order in Stonedeep on their own. Weeks passed like this, with Cassius getting into drunken brawls, having blackouts, and waking up with chunks of time missing. Things came to a head when one night in a fit of rage over a Poker game, Cassius wrapped his hands around a man's throat without any true intent, but without his wits about him all the same. When he came to from this particular blackout, he was in the company of the Knights Solace once more. No one offered any information about the night prior and he didn't ask any questions, instead packing his things and getting back to the trail, redoubling his focus on bringing those who desire the comfort of the true Faith to Arx. + |
| Castiel Thrax + | Castiel was born in the bowels of a ship; it seems that both the claustrophobic darkness and the salty musk of a trading vessel were both things the young Thrax learned to love as much as the mother who brought him into the world. He was a curious child given his kin, possessing both an affinity for books and longing for the furious crucible of war, yet while growing up he never cared to settle his differences - which he had more than his fair share of - in the more conventional manner of fisticuffs; there was always someone bigger, stronger and older willing to though, and that person could be enticed to do so on his behalf. When he became of age Castiel was restless; wanderlust had settled in him, and as soon as he could find a place on a ship he seized the opportunity and sailed with them. It was no heavily manned war galley, only a light merchant caravel and yet he loved the experience and spent the next three years working just about every rank on it until he took control altogether. A naturally patient man even at the time, he discovered he had an affinity for coin and learned how to make more very quickly; traders are shrewd people but he milked every advantage he had until just after his twentieth birthday he already controlled - in everything but name - a small but busy fleet of ships sailing the islands. Since negotiating the waters in the Saffron Chain means dealing with scum, Castiel first became acquainted with negotiating with pirates early on and then as he became more confident in the practice and his connections grew, he saw the benefits of working with them. A naturally untrustworthy and self-serving bunch, they could still be manipulated when it was to their best interest to do so, something which the young Thrax counted as an advantage; knowing what moves a person is leverage. He cultivated such ties very carefully and let them grow, expanding his interests past the islands along as whispers of an oncoming war reached him even in the eastern seas. After years of making a name for himself in the open waters and becoming a veteran captain in his mid-twenties, Castiel finally realized he could no longer neglect his obligations to House Thrax. He is fully aware he is *different* than many of his peers; a self-described progressive traditionalist, he is more concerned with *winning* than he is with just how such a feat can be achieved, and it's something which has caused friction at times during family gatherings. He hopes his return might herald a shift in tactics - achieving dominance built on the back of robust positions, careful planning and employing cunning as much as brute strength. + |
| Castinus Blackshore + | Recently arrived in New Hope flying the heraldry of Blackshore, much of Castinus' history is as much of an enigma as the man himself. From what little that has been let slip, his intentions are to reconnect with lost family members whom he himself as been out of contact with for a great deal of time, to beseech aid or perhaps offer it himself. + |
| Castor Redwind + | In the quiet farming village north of Stonedeep, nestled in the mountains, known as Redhaven. It guards Redhaven's Pass, by far one of the most treacherous was to get to Whitehold and rarely used. The lowly Baron Dominic Redwind, former Lieutenant of the army, retired to married life with Haruka Devonshire, a courtier vassal of the Grayson family. He has come to the city in hopes of proving himself somewhat worthy to be heir. Cas has come to Arx with his mother's assistance to seek knowledge and better himself for the road ahead. He has much self learning to do. + |
| Castruccio Fidante + | From a young age, Castruccio was a brooder. Where other children played pranks and made jokes, he was more likely to explore than partake in games. Though plain to all that as he grew older his ambitions were militant in nature, his father directed him instead to theological studies. It left a bitterness in Castruccio to see his cousins and older brother getting to train all day at the sword, though indeed, he did train in secret as often as possible. It didn't help that he received much mockery for having to study and read during the day when others were training outside. His first scandal, and the first of many scandals attributed to his name, was from the result of a duel with a far-removed cousin that resulted in the lad's death. Though ruled accidental, rumours began to circulate, pointing out that the deceased had been the biggest instigator when it came to harassing Castruccio. s he grew older, his father began to send him on diplomatic meetings, which he actually took to with aplomb. Oft times the biggest detractors of House Fidante would find their minds changed to everyone's surprise, though the occasional accident and rise of someone with more sympathetic views to Castruccio's mission occurred more often than might be easily swallowed as coincidence. Still, it left Castruccio with a reputation as an intellectual, as well, though he still railed against the life chosen for him. Until it all changed. No one was sure what the duel was over, but a fight between Castruccio and his older brother left Castruccio two times a kinslayer, for he won the fight. Then he left. Six years were spent as a soldier of fortune, Castruccio building up name and reputation for himself. Six years of carefully selecting alliances, and sometimes fighting for one enemy only to switch to another when the profit was correct. It's only now that the threat of the Gyre is so impending, that Castruccio has returned to his family to take up as a Knight of the Rose. + |
| Catalana Kennex + | Molded from an early age by the needs of others, Catalana has always been determined to be all things to all people. For her unconventional sister Jan, she took on the softness and the strength of a traditional Isles lady, the vessel into which her parents poured their hopes and dreams... all so that Jan would have room to be different. For her brother Evander, always on the edge of death and shunned by parents who feared the pain of losing him, she became mother and nurse. For Marquis Denholm, she became at first a personal secretary, then an advisor and a skilled diplomat as the old Marquis relied on her more and more during the last years of his life. It was while she was representing the Marquis in negotiations in Bastion that she met Washburn Grayson. She first saw him hanging from a rope as her carriage drove in the main gate, and thought he must be an executed criminal. (In reality, he tried to climb the outer wall of Bastion on a dare, fell, and knocked himself out. Alcohol was involved.) Needless to say, that first glimpse made an impession, and she sought him out. The dramatic and often out of control Grayson prince spun her through a wild affair that lasted for three delightful months. It was with regret that she parted from him once her work in Bastion was done, but she couldn't wallow in self-indulgence forever. There were people back home who needed her. When Washburn was discovered as a stowaway on her ship, Catalana realized that he needed her, too. The sheer depth of that need -- he completely falls apart without her -- would have overwhelmed most people, but it drew her to him. She knew as she watched him plead through tears not to be sent away from her that he would propose to her someday, and she knew when that he did, she would forsake her duty on Stormward, and join him in Bastion as a Grayson princess. What she didn't anticipate was the second part of his proposal -- he wanted to throw away his title and his name and become Wash Kennex. Denholm's death and the gruesome return of Ford hit Catalana hard. She withdrew from public life and focused on being a wife, and later a mother. She didn't tell Wash when she was pregnant with Cirella because she knew he'd worry himself to pieces, and wound up giving birth on the ship that took her to Arx to join him. A son, Rahne, followed a couple of years later in a more conventional birth. With the death of Ford and the rise of House Kennex, Catalana has decided that the time has come for her to step up and be the diplomat that this house full of gruff sailors so desperately needs. + |
| Catalina Rossi + | Catalina was born into service in the Igniseri household, her father a trusted steward who saw to the affairs of the house through Emilisia's various marriages, and her mother a ladies maid who was ever at the Countess' side to offer what support and advice she could. Catalina was born when the countess' children were still young, but from an early age, the girl displayed a remarkably bright mind and malleable nature. She was learning her father's work while still a child, and assisting her mother and learning the ways of the court when her father was too busy for her help. By the time she reached her early teens, it was clear that the girl had talent - and more, potential. She could read people like a book, and was easy enough to overlook as a servant but skilled enough to have access to other reaches of the court. Light of hand and foot, with an easy smile, she had all the grace and wits she might need. And so, in the interests of the house, she was trained in other means of support. The houses of the Lyceum are known for intrigue and deception, and Catalina is but a pawn in that game - albeit a useful one. + |
| Cato Corsetina + | A native of a hamlet outside of Tor, Cato's early life was identical to that of his forefathers for generations: The halcyon existence of a goatherd. A poor but idyllic life was his for some time, until his father perished in a riding accident when he was 16, and his mother died five years later to a pox. With no family and few prospects, Cato sold off the last of the family's assets set off for the city to find work. At 22, he found work as a drover; at 24, he found love, and a wife in the Corsetina family. A few short years later, war found him. The Tor-Southport conflict kicked into high gear, and Cato was among many of the eligible young commoners levied for the troops of the Fidante. The mud on his hands was traded for blood, and Cato found no glory or happiness in combat. Fortunately, he discovered something else: An uncanny knack for gambling and reading eyes at the card table. This skill would stay with him for life; gambling remained a side hustle for him throughout the campaign and after it. At the conclusion of the war, Cato ended his service at the earliest possible opportunity, eager to return home, only to find that his wife had perished in childbirth, along with their unborn child. Widowed, childless, and now out of a job, Cato's fortunes were only improved by profits from war spoils, and his veteran's dispensation. These, he used to return to a life familiar to his old one; at 31, he purchased the beginnings of a goatherd, and worked a spit of land just outside the city. Time and patience brought rewards; for the past two decades, he has tended and expanded his goatherd, and brought up small pools of other livestock as well. The wheels of his progression have been greased considerably, however, by the card table. Huddled over eights and aces, Cato came to rub shoulders with the jacks, queens, and kings of Tor's lower elements, and in place of a second marriage, he became wedded to complex trade networks which shy away from prying eyes, from Arx to Tor and back. It was here that Cato began to shine. After all, when the guards were searching for smugglers, why would they suspect the old guy who sold them their evening mutton? All the better for him; at 53, Cato has already outlived both of his parents, and for all the connections and satisfaction his day and night jobs bring him, he still has no legacy to show for it. Who shall tend to his goats when he passes? Who shall manage his complex finances? To whom shall he teach which guards to bribe and which to blackmail? And most of all, who's gonna look after his dang horse? Cato's made his life by reading eyes at the card table, but the glassy gaze of Arvum is, so far, opaque. And worst of all, the gambler's temptation never fades. There is always more to be won. Perhaps, in his twilight years, it's finally time to double down...? + |
| Catriona Thrax + | The last of four daughters (and Coraline's younger twin), it's perhaps unsurprising that the baby of the family became the favorite. Whereas her mother had always wanted a son and Catriona represented the end of that dream, that same mother beamed with pride as she grew into the perfect little lady. Everything came easy to Catriona. She was intelligent, sociable, and beautiful. She studied the law. She was an accomplished dancer. Strangers could get lost in conversation with her for hours. Her parents could not have been more proud of the proper princess Catriona became, particularly in light of the rebellion of her twin, Coraline. Like all the Thrax-Leary girls, she spent every summer in Leaholdt with her Leary relatives. While Caith was given to reading and got along well with all their intellectual cousins and Coraline spent her time hanging out with those who were more combat oriented, Catriona found love in her middle teen years. A younger son of a younger son of a Velenosian noble, Catriona spent the happiest of summers with the man. It was the only time she ever considered marrying for love rather than position. From him, she learned many of the Velenosian ways, particularly related to information gathering and subterfuge. This was a type of power a proper Thraxian woman could wield, and Catriona was fascinated. Alas, their love was not to be. The boy, doing his duty, returned to his family's home and was married off not long after. Catriona remembered the lesson, and vowed that love would only ever be a pleasant distraction for her. The rest of the time, she would be smiling and scheming her way up the social ladder. + |
| Cecilia Kennex + | The youngest daughter of Marquis Denholm Kennex and his wife Claudia, Cecilia was a golden child, smiling, chubby cheeked, with a mop of glossy, pale curls. As a young child she was doted upon, even spoiled by her father, while her relationship with her mother, who was jealous of the attention her daughter got from her husband, grew increasingly contentious. To keep the peace, Denholm eventually had to send her away; at a very young age, she was sent to Blancbier, where Victoria could keep an eye on her. Her mother died shortly after she left, but Victoria convinced Denholm that Blancbier was a healthier place for young Cecilia to be than Stormward, and so she stayed. She was barely in her teens when word came to her that her father was very ill. Cecilia rushed home, but by the time she got there, it was too late. Her beloved father was dead. She hadn't even gotten the chance to say goodbye. Her sister Renatta was dead, too. Her brother Ford, a near-stranger to her who she'd always looked up to as a heroic figure, was the new Marquis, but there were dark whispers of what he'd done to secure his place. A very drunk Naomi Cutter was the one who finally told her everything: There had been a rebellion against Ford's rule, during which Renatta (and Naomi's own father) had been killed. Ford had broken guest right in the most violent way to put it down. Cecilia didn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. Her brother would never do such a thing, and people should stop spreading vicious lies. When Ford sent her abroad again, this time to Tor to continue her studies, he sent away a confused and angry girl who would, over time, blossom into a confused and angry young woman. She embraced the Lycene lifestyle and values as an act of rebellion against her heritage, and repeatedly resisted (or outright ignored) calls for her to come home. By the time word came to Cecilia that Ford had been murdered, she was no longer the innocent girl she had been, and was finally prepared to accept her brother's flawed character. His death turned out to be the closure that she needed in order to return to her family, especially when she learned that his young son Darion, now the Duke under a regency, was also under threat, with at least one attempt on his life already thwarted. And so, by now more Lycene than Isleswoman, Cecilia has returned to the family, determined to go to any lengths necessary to avoid seeing her nephew follow his father to an early grave. + |
| Cecilli Blackwood + | Cecilli was born in the late winter, a child born to commoners struggling to keep her warm-- of course, come spring, she had survived. Her upbringing was riddled with fables and tales common in the northern shamanistic tradition, all which left behind footprints in her mind. Not just lessons and wisdom, but laws and realities of her world, an assurance that the existence of the incorporeal was just beyond touch, but communicable to her through the signs inherent in the world around her. As she grew, she only became more sure of this. Her world was filled with the supernatural, and it called to her; it was perceptible, but only barely, requiring a trained eye and the favor of the spirits, a favor won by realizing the hardships of nature through a lifetime within it. She left behind her village when she came of age, travelling within the wilderness and beyond it with a long-time friend and protector, a knight from her homeland. + |
| Cedarav Grisni + | Born in the Lycene city state of Tor, Ced's parents were Vesalius, a mason, and Robyn, a noted artist. It is from his mother that he first developed his love of anatomy, as he was often underfoot in the salons and portrait galleries - often, with models in the natural state, given Lycene tastes. He was always sharp as a child, and ever getting into problems, but usually able to think or talk his way out of them, and grew a decent artist in his own right, though he was far better at sketches and outlines than picture perfection. He, an only child, was offered a scholarship to the Tor Academy and excelled in many of his classes. He enrolled in the college of Alchemy, Medicine and Apothecary, though left quite adruptly in his last year of study. There was some question as to why he left so suddenly, but usually it is chalked up to his uncanny ability, that he simply had learned all he could there. He travelled first to Setarco, where he set up his shingle. Performing many operations in a rather short time period, he drew the attention of House Pravus, who offered him patronage and a bigger space than his less-than-desireable bit-rate clinic. Travelling with many of their family over the years, he has both cared for the members and employees of the Pravus household as well as made significant contributions to the field of anatomy, and his texts are starting to make their way into public light, although there are many who scoff at his methods and ideas. + |
| Cedric Primm + | Cedric had a different name when he was a boy, but this one suits him perfectly well. When he was young, he was a child of thralls under the dominion of a lesser family of Thrax fealty, but in the course of being transported through the islands of the Saffron Chain, the ship was wrecked in a storm and half the crew eaten by sharks or other monsters. The boy and his mother survived along with a handful of other men, some of whom tried to swim for it and if they made it, neither Cedric nor his mother ever heard anything about it. However, a ship of explorers bound Southward for an expedition towards the Darkwater Deeps took them aboard when the Ashford party on the deck caught sight of the blaze from their bonfire. The expedition took them on, on the promise that they would get out of the way, and while there were terrors in the deeps the ship braved before it eventually returned to the relative safe harbor of Sanctum. Romance was in the air between Cedric's mother and one of the Ashford retainers' servants on the long overland haul from Sanctum to Ashford Keep. Cedric took his new name from his new father, and began working as a servant in the servants' quarters for the Ashfords. Cedric signed up for military service when he was old enough, but it was aptitude and the servants' family connections that essentially placed him in a position of valet to one of the knight-officers in service to Ashford Keep. He served there for a term of five years until, in his late 20s, his mother died and his stepfather remarried, leaving Cedric the guardian of his little sister. Cedric retired from military service to a more stationary post working as a steward for the Ashfords. His little sister Celia was the light of his life, and became the central figure of Ashford Keep's kitchens, particularly in the bakery. As a house man and fine steward with a history of service as a valet, there is no more sensible servant to bring along as a member of an expedition to ensure that one's boots get the mud and blood off them. Neither is there anyone more surprisingly useful in a pinch. + |
| Celeste Pravus + | Piero Pravus was entirely too gentle on his baby girl, and many over the years have said that this is exactly the reason that Celeste is the way she is. She had the run of Setarco as a girl, a constantly changing array of tutors (changing because she changed her mind on what she wanted to do with her life, or threw a fit and got rid of them), and a number of failed courtships where the betrothal period ended with the other side walking away from the "impossible" Pravus. Which is not to say that there are no redeemable qualities about the younger sister to the Duchess. She is a devout follower of the Pantheon, and took especially to the practices of the Mirrormasks. It's no wonder, really, with her contrary nature, that she should devote much of her time to the practices of the Thirteenth. Her enjoyment in this form of worship has had her as an active member of the Thirteenth's discipleship from an early age. This would prove to be key to understanding the young Celeste, and something her sister would take advantage of later in life. Beyond that, Celeste proved to be /really/ good at strategy. Chess and checkers gave way to military games, and Celeste consistently found herself capable of winning them. Some encouraged her to become a soldier, to join the military, to get disciplined... but that didn't happen. She has no desire to fight personally. None. When Belladonna began to make her moves and consolidate power in Setarco, Celeste was one of her first attempts. She reigned her free-spirited little sister in and began to use that mind to help maneuver enemies. Celeste may not be ambitious, but she's become devoted to her family and steps up to the plate whenever they have need of her, and it all started with Belladonna. With Setarco taking heavy losses in the battle against the Gyre, Celeste no longer has the option of staying quiet in the sidelines. She's been called to Arx to advice the duchy and take her place among the court. + |
| Celine Valardin + | The tale is well-known by those in the Oathlands: Princess Marianne Valardin was an infectiously charismatic daughter of Sanctum, someone different from most her fellow White Dragons. She was unafraid of pushing social boundaries to the very extremes, always mingling with the Commonfolk and defying her family whenever she felt was right. Next to her the Valardin were seen as stuffy, and Princess Marianne as someone who put in full display just how pleasant a White Dragon could be. So wild was the Princess that she clashed against expectations and challenged tradition to marry for love, her husband a Lycene merchant named Marcello, a simple commoner. The crowds erupted in jubilation at wedding and the chaos in the White City that day was legendary, and it was to this legacy that Celine, the second of four children, was born. Celine and Marcello were close, and with him she learned to be a watchful woman, to think before acting and how to engratiate herself to others. She travelled much with her father and met many Oathlanders, displaying talent for making friends whenever she went. Unbeknownst to Celine, the bonds of friendship she forged would feel punishing as the Tragedy befell Sanctum and many of her acquaintances were butchered. People she had dined with, shared dances and whose laughter she would never forget. After the Tragedy, Celine withdrew into her shell more and more, to the point her father, when he decided to ride out to join the othe rValardin in avenging the Tragedy, had to say his farewells through the closed doors of her chambers. A survivor of the Tragedy she might had been but the sickness of grief had taken hold deeply within Celine's young heart. The unfortunate turning point for the young Valardin came weeks later, when her mother's life was claimed in the dead of night by Audrey, her older sister. All at once, Marienne's death seemed to snap Celine into a state of awarenesss that the house servants described as baleful, something none had ever seen in the young Princess. Celine stood by her dead mother laying in a pool of her own blood as her older sister was taken away, and until the Valardin came to take Marienne's corpse, that is where she stood, now responsible for her two younger siblings, Lenard and Stephanie. The years since have seen the life return to Celine Valardin, and although she has never been quite the same, most Oathlanders agree that there is a charm and levity to the White Dragon that is hard to find. Since taking the reins of her family, Celine made sure that Lenard found a proper Oathlander knight to squire to, and Stephanie had everything she needed after regaining her mobility after most physicians had written the girl off as an invalid. Many in the halls of the White City look at Celine as a lesson in rebuilding from the ashes, a symbol of what the Oathlander people made of: the Tragedy broke many, but like her House, Celine refused to go gently into the night. These days Celine, Lenard and Stephanie live in Arx. Many say it is due to the woman's need to be surrounded by people of all sorts, but some posit that walking around the White City, where the commonfolk bemoan the loss of her mother daily, was more torture than the girl could stand. A warm flame at the heart of the Valardin, the young woman nonetheless thrives in Arx, serving the White Dragons of Sanctum. + |
| Cerdensulathara Ferrier + | Born in area called Rivermuth, far south of Pridehall, Cerdensulathara was one among a litter of children. Her father was a butcher and a warrior, her mother a tanner. For five long and tiresome years, they lived a simple existence. The worst of their troubles were occasional raids, and the strife caused by Cerden's peculiar fits. Rumors held her to be plagued by evil spirits, and she was subject to many, many attempts to cure her. When the neighboring tribe invaded fully, her mother managed to escape with her and two of her siblings into the woods. Traveling northeast into the woods, they were able to assimilate into another group, but it wasn't long before they her mother was presented with a choice to leave with the disabled young girl, or the tribe would sell her off. Unwilling to put her other two living children under such stress, she simply abandoned Cerden in the woods. It was a miracle of some kind that she survived to the age of thirteen. And despite the harsh realities of living in the wild, there was a peace to the daily struggle. Her fits lessened, she learned how to hunt, what to eat and what not to, (through great trial and error), and was quite happy in her life. Unfortunately, fighting between two villages drove more people into her neck of the woods, and eventually she was captured by Abandoned warriors. Who knows where should would be now if she had not been saved by the Knights of Solace. It was a short trip to the city of Arx. She swore her allegiance to the Crown, and was placed in the care of an aloof horse trader, a cousin to the very Knight who rescued her, and his wife, a well to do poet and seamstress, both childless and grateful for an opportunity to care for and teach someone less fortunate. She flourished in the Upper Boroughs, and it was a good time for the young woman. She was taught the wonders of reading and numbers, which she excelled at. She was given simple chores, and taught prayers, which she excelled at. She discovered the many different libraries and temples, and spent the majority of her time there when not helping out at home. Before she left to strike out on her own, she made a bit of silver tutoring the younger children of her adopted mother's social circle, possessing a talent for making complicated subjects simpler. Using her modest income, she's rented a small place in the upper boroughs, and few who ever met her would realize she's a Prodigal. She plans on becoming an explorer, writing books on obscure knowledge and history, and becoming a renowned scholar. Perhaps one day she can own a place of her own, with a bookcase of titles she's written herself detailing grand adventurers, treatises on lost lore and profound essays on rare phenomena. + |
| Cerelia Pontelaeus + | Born of the Sea. At least, that is what Cerelia would say of herself when asked of her past. The Pontelaeus family is that of wealthy bankers and traders, often braving the waters of the Saffron Chain, braving trade routes that run the risk of slipping inadvertently into interhouse wars between the various Abandoned Clans. It is on one such ship that Cerelia was born. It was a stormy night and the sea was angry, so many of the sailors who were present that night would say. The waves were rising high and the ship they all sailed upon was being pitched to and fro, in danger of capsizing when a bolt of lightning struck and severed the mast in twain. Her mother, the ship's First Mate, had ignored counsel from the healers in Tremorus that her baby would not wait to the end of the voyage which she had deemed too valuable to postpone. So it was that in the peak of the storm that she would go into labor. The ship was drifting listless upon the raging storm tossed sea, and no help was to be found for miles. Doomed to sink, at least that is what the crew of the ship believed, it was sudden providence when down below Cerelia's mother screamed at the peak of her delivery and a sudden calm fell eerily upon the waters as Cerelia made her way into the world and drew her first breath. The ship ran aground on a deserted island, and there the crew would live in relative ease for two weeks until another Pontelaeus rescue ship would find them. At least, if you believed the legends of the Saffron Chain, that is what you would hear. Cerelia's younger years would drift by with a relative lack of complication. Like any child, she was good in certain studies, and rubbish at others. Like her cousin, Savio, she would show little interest at all in the family business. But where she excelled was upon the waters. From schooner to caravel, Cerelia had a gift at sailing and navigating upon the waves, and as she entered into her late teens the sea is where she would spend the majority of her time. She took the helm of trading vessels when the positions presented themselves to her. When they did not, she would take out other vessels, always as if there was something out on those waters to be found, some mystery to plumb. Sometimes she would even offer her services to Sabriel, soon becoming fast friends and joining the Vice-Admiral upon the seas. When Leporidae bent the knee and joined the Compact she was as skeptical as many of her kin, but when Giorgio sent word back to the family of the wonders to be found in Arx, Cerelia would find herself being sent soon after Savio with orders from the family to join the two Pontelaeus brothers and help where she might in their pursuits in Arx. + |
| Cerys Velenosa + | Born of a union between Blackram and Velenosa, Cerys is a strange marriage of Oathlands honor and martial strength and Lycene sensibility and and morality. Raised in Velenosa through childhood, she was sent to foster at Blackram through her teen years, taking to the martial training with an ease of natural aptitude. By the time she was returned, the training had gotten under her skin and she insisted on continuing with it alongside the more traditional social graces and tutoring of a Velenosan Princess. She took part in each of the major battles over the years, veteran of both the SIlent War and again for the Gyre, the latter earning her a Knighthood in the Lyceum that she is inordinately proud of. After that accomplishment, she started to turn her eye towards explanding her knowledge of 'knightly skills', once more visiting family in the Oathlands to tutor under some of the more well-known knights. It was on the return from one such trip that Cerys was introduced to Dimitri Pravus during an event being held. It was fascination at first sight for the both of them. After a bit of a whirlwind courtship, and with the blessing of both Houses, she married the man she had deemed worthy (and who was able to put up with her intensity). Travelling to Arx with her new husband seems the perfect end to their honeymoon and start to their new life together. + |
| Cesare Whisper + | Even at a very young age, Cesare stood out as an exceptional talent. While most boys his age in the Lyceum were already playing with swords, Cesare had a single passion that consumed him, with every waking thought dedicated to it and it alone: music. Every day he would toy with a new instrument or he would listen to the singers around the shrine of Jayus in his native Setarco, learning the same songs and then improving upon the delivery. The words just always came naturally to him, the music flowed through him and he had a voice that made crowds gather. First he attracted the notice of the disciples of Jayus and priests of the Faith of the Pantheon, who eagerly encouraged a young man with such obvious talent. Then he attracted nobles, who made a point to visit the young man's performances. Before long, he became known as 'the Singer of Setarco' or 'the man with the perfect voice'. The fame meant nothing to him, and he barely noticed it- he was tireless in seeking out new forms of music, in cultivating each and every aspect he could find, in the hope to finally capture something truly sublime in music. He still hopes to find a perfect moment that captures the essence of Jayus for all the world to hear. Unfortunately, he couldn't linger in Setarco. He didn't realize how truly popular he had become until he was forced to flee the city as noblewomen who all seeked to patronize the talented young man became increasingly dangerously jealous over his lack of reciprocation of their affections. He was informed in no uncertain terms that he was likely to wind up dead as a result if he didn't flee, and has since made his way to Arx, more than a bit wiser at how dangerous spurned passion truly is. To that end, he has become a much sought after courtier, currently employed by the Whisper House, entertaining the greatest and most powerful women in the Compact, with the same respect and protections associated with other courtesans. He's still seeking that perfect song, but he's deciding there's sublime beauty in other parts of life as well. + |
| Chanse Grayhope + | As the owner and proprietor of the Murder of Crows Boardinghouse, Chanse Grayhope is not one would call a soft man. He's survived the better part of two decades running the establishment most favored by those needing to disappear for a while by being the kind of man that seems to have very few (living) enemies, but somehow still knows far more than he ought to about anything and everything. He always seems to be given more respect than most would expect from the dangerous sorts living in the Lower Borough, and not just due to a willingness to crack a few skulls from those that get carried away in his establishment. More than a few rough sorts that have crossed the boardinghouse owner have gone missing, and even among some of hard cases of the Lower Boroughs there is a surprising amount of fear for the businessman. For a man living among the lowest of the low of Arx, he seems relatively content exactly where he is and has made little effort to change his station in life. Some of the thugs wonder just how he gets away with it, rarely seeming surprised by anything and showing a shocking amount of lese majeste to some nobles that visit without repercussions. He never asks others their business, and has implied it's extremely wise to do the same to him. + |
| Charis Durant + | In Oakhaven, it's a common jest that Simon and Thais Durant could populate their own crafters' guild with their extended family alone. Theirs is a line known to be called to Jayus' service and they've answered that call, both individually and as parents. Simon, a woodworker, and Thais, a glass-blower, number four children of their own, and countless cousins, nieces and nephews sponsored, fostered and apprenticed through the years. Of these, Charis was third-born of their own brood and most easily distracted in her youth. She was inclined to daydreaming through windows (many of them constructed by her parents) when she should have been minding the lessons of her master tailor aunt, Dorcas. When a motley band of ruin-explorers and relic-hunters rolled through Oakhaven on the way to adventure, the Durants didn't stand a chance of competing. A wink, a crooked grin and a beckoning wave were all it took. Charis abandoned her studies and left home. Being neither scholar nor adventurer, she took up training with the mercenaries who were hired on to watch the backs of the less robust members of the group. She flourished, living, laughing, loving. Fighting. Years passed. And then they ventured into the wrong ruins, sought out the wrong relics. When Charis returned to Oakhaven, she was older and scarred. She did not or could not tell her family what happened but they opened their arms to her all the same. She resumed her apprenticeship with Aunt Dorcas, took up needle and thread again. Years passed, but they were spent in quietly, in study, in renewed devotion to her craft. In time, when her skill with those tools passed what skill she'd once possessed with her swords, she was recognized as a master in her own right, committed to the promotion of Oathlands fashion as rival to even the Lyceum and its artisans. + |
| Charlaine Blanchard + | Life is not easy for a shy, whimsical and scholarly dreamer born to a ruthlessly ambitious nobleman and a strict and controlling mother. It is even worse when she was born to House Blanchard, the noble family famed for their mastery as horsemen when those animals seem to be scared of her, or she is scared of them, or both. That is what happened to Lady Charlaine Blanchard, and that is why she slowly drowned in the world of her imagination in her beloved books and bard songs, where everything seems to be brighter, more colorful and serene. From her earliest memories, Charlaine's desires ran a distant second to the will of her parents. Her father focused single mindedly on the advancement of the family, and to that mind he either wanted a daughter that could distinguish herself at war or that could be a prize to mesmerize potential political matches at Court. Charlaine's scholarly bent and her lack of interest in drab reality in favor of exciting fiction set her immediately at odds to her relentlessly goal-orientated father and her carefully organized and pragmatic mother who hoped to turn their daughter into a stunning beauty to win a favorable marriage match. The more they pushed her to embrace politics and think of marriage matches or soldiering to vicariously achieve their own goals, the further she retreated into scholarly pursuits, songs and stories. However, Mathilde Blanchard noticed her daughters passion for books and offered to Phillipe that they would invest into their daughter's intelligence so that it could earn her a potentially high position at court. That is how she was trusted as a ward to Phillipe's brother Alicio Blanchard. The man was a Scholar of Vellichor and viewed as the most suitable tutor by Phillipe. Charlaine enjoyed her time in the large city, meeting many new people and, especially, having access to such large amounts of different books in the Archives. She grew quite close to her uncle Alicio Blanchard as well as with some other scholars and locals. Charlaine was more often found in the company of commoners than nobles since she admired the freedoms common folk could enjoy and nobles had no luxury for. At the same time she learned of the wonderful feeling which she gain when she take part in charity. The life seemed to be perfect. Though, all nice stories come to an end. She counted her nineteenth summer when it was announced that Charlaine caught an unknown illness. She was sent back home. It was not a surprise since she loved gathering in large crowded places with commoners of low standing while doing charity. The young woman was gone from social life for two long years before Arvum heard about her once more as the new lady-in-waiting to Princess Alarissa Valardin. Alicio Blanchard was asked to help find for Charlaine a lady to whom their daughter could serve. She was described as still a bit fragile after a hard illness followed by depression, but healthy. It was felt time away would be what she needed to fully recover and come back to social life. Alicio agreed to help their family and approached his fellow scholar Prince Aurelian Valardin with the request, Aurelian knew that Princess Alarissa Valardin was looking for a Lady-in-Waiting. After long discussions Charlaine was approved. + |
| Charlaine Moore + | Life is not easy for a shy, whimsical and scholarly dreamer born to a ruthlessly ambitious nobleman and a strict and controlling mother. It is even worse when she was born to House Blanchard, the noble family famed for their mastery as horsemen when those animals seem to be scared of her, or she is scared of them, or both. That is what happened to Lady Charlaine Blanchard, and that is why she slowly drowned in the world of her imagination in her beloved books and bard songs, where everything seems to be brighter, more colorful and serene. From her earliest memories, Charlaine's desires ran a distant second to the will of her parents. Her father focused single mindedly on the advancement of the family, and to that mind he either wanted a daughter that could distinguish herself at war or that could be a prize to mesmerize potential political matches at Court. Charlaine's scholarly bent and her lack of interest in drab reality in favor of exciting fiction set her immediately at odds to her relentlessly goal-orientated father and her carefully organized and pragmatic mother who hoped to turn their daughter into a stunning beauty to win a favorable marriage match. The more they pushed her to embrace politics and think of marriage matches or soldiering to vicariously achieve their own goals, the further she retreated into scholarly pursuits, songs and stories. However, Mathilde Blanchard noticed her daughters passion for books and offered to Phillipe that they would invest into their daughter's intelligence so that it could earn her a potentially high position at court. That is how she was trusted as a ward to Phillipe's brother Alicio Blanchard. The man was a Scholar of Vellichor and viewed as the most suitable tutor by Phillipe. Charlaine enjoyed her time in the large city, meeting many new people and, especially, having access to such large amounts of different books in the Archives. She grew quite close to her uncle Alicio Blanchard as well as with some other scholars and locals. Charlaine was more often found in the company of commoners than nobles since she admired the freedoms common folk could enjoy and nobles had no luxury for. At the same time she learned of the wonderful feeling which she gain when she take part in charity. The life seemed to be perfect. Though, all nice stories come to an end. She counted her nineteenth summer when it was announced that Charlaine caught an unknown illness. She was sent back home. It was not a surprise since she loved gathering in large crowded places with commoners of low standing while doing charity. The young woman was gone from social life for two long years before Arvum heard about her once more as the new lady-in-waiting to Princess Alarissa Valardin. Alicio Blanchard was asked to help find for Charlaine a lady to whom their daughter could serve. She was described as still a bit fragile after a hard illness followed by depression, but healthy. It was felt time away would be what she needed to fully recover and come back to social life. Alicio agreed to help their family and approached his fellow scholar Prince Aurelian Valardin with the request, Aurelian knew that Princess Alarissa Valardin was looking for a Lady-in-Waiting. After long discussions Charlaine was approved. + |
| Charlemagne Charon + | Lord Charlemagne, a Silent War widow, first married into House Threerivers by way of House Bellerive, their chief military rival and a direct vassal of House Blackram. The politically motivated pairing was understood as pivotal to a swift and much-needed brokerage of peace, its urgency quite enough to disregard the rumors of infertility stirred up by gossips keeping eye over Charlemagne's previous match. By agreeing to the terms, House Bellerive was setting aside the atrocities of their war with House Threerivers and gaining an important local ally in the new Countess of Highrock. Although symbolically stabilizing, few have been historically successful in managing to reduce Charlemagne to a mere political prop. During the early days of his marriage when his wife's condition became clear, Charlemagne spent an egregious amount of his own personal fortune hiring northern members of the Courtier's Guild. The resulting social campaign epically shifted public sentiment in their region and beyond, forcing Charlemagne's sister-in-law to legitimize Magaen's bastard son if she had any desire to retain the Compact's goodwill. It also had the added benefit of contributing to what would ultimately be Charlemagne's brief stint as Count-Consort. Very brief. See, the Seraph of Last Bridge was furious by the end of the war and rather predictably for a man of his prejudices, treachery seeped into his work. The overzealous priest was heard wishing aloud for the next generation of Bellerive children to rise up and cut out that cancer that is Shamanism in the north, and put all of the northlanders to the sword, and that they should even slaughter them under guest right since they don't respect the Pantheon, anyway! Defrocked for his heretical statements, the noble marriage he negotiated in bad faith was nullified and the pact left unraveled. Awkwardly enough, it's Charlemagne's continued presence in House Charon that seems to be keeping the peace while the families involved remain hands off until all else is settled. No pressure! Why the pair did not immediately remarry under their new circumstances is a question that, well, they have yet to answer. + |
| Charles Valardin + | Charles was born the daughter and only child of a low-ranking noble officer. Without a male child to serve as heir, his position would fall vacant upon retirement; and thus, Charles was obligated from a young age to pursue masculine activities. This upbringing was controversial, lending itself to conflicts within his house. He took poorly to the courtly education of a noble child, never holding still long enough to complete his lessons. As such his reputation among the court is not a respected one. By his teenage years, however, his prowess in battle assuaged many fears of his ability. He has since lived publicly as a man without disguising his birth, and has distinguished himself as a competent warrior and tactician on the front lines. He has sought to prove himself through martial service ever since. + |
| Charlotte Wyrmguard + | Enough was never really enough for Charlotte. Growing up with six siblings in a backwater like Apsfel Falls was just dull. A cadet branch of the illustrious Wyrmguard family should have given her excitement and prestige, but their family was poor. So very poor, and all their wealth went to keeping their patch of land operational. The infrequent trips to Blancbier were the only bright spots of her youth. That and her twin sister Yessica. Together they would dream up the life that they would lead when they were older. Traveling from city to city, rubbing elbows with Princes and Princesses, catching the eye of a dashing Duke... it was going to be amazing. Reality, however, was not as kind. When she was eighteen she was married to Tymer Sanna, now Tymer Wyrmguard. The man was a brute and practically a savage. He had a wandering eye, a coarse manner, he as everything Charlotte did not want. But she married him anyway. Because a Wyrmguard puts family first, and this was a duty to be borne with dignity. And the occasional screaming fits punctuated with flying vases. The marriage was a seven year war of silence. When word came that Tymer would be fighting in Stormwall, there was a part of her that rejoiced at the forced absence. When word came weeks later that Tymer died, there was a small part of Charlotte that felt actual relief at the news. She grieved as was proper, and then promptly sent a letter to Yessica saying that she was going to move to Arx, to get to know the extended Wyrmguard family, and if that didn't work, they had a sister, Reigna, living there too. Charlotte has a chance to capture her childhood dreams, dreams she spent a life preparing herself for. Fancy parties, fancy people, fine wine and ballgowns. She has a wealth of political game (she thinks) that she is eager to put to the test. She is ready to take her life into her own hands. With Yessica at her side, the city of Arx should be put on notice! The Wyrmguard twins are going to take the city by storm! ...Is that too soon? + |
| Cherilo Menada + | Cherilo was born to a lumberjack and homemaker, who raised him with distant but thorough care. They lived in the forests worked by his father, and from a young age, Cherilo spent much time exploring these wilds. As he grew enamored with the animals, plants, sounds and smells of the forest, Cherilo equally grew contemptuous of his father's exploitation of the forest. At 16, having completed his homeschooling, Cherilo left home quietly to camp in the outer woods. He never returned to live at home, slowly building his own homestead sustainably. He's lived in the home he built all his life, and has endeavored to learn as much as possible about his natural environment - both its beauties and its natural laws. It was his enthusiasm for this world that eventually led him into the city. By befriending city folk, making connections, and becoming learned, he's made opportunities to spread the gospel of nature. Among certain crowds, Cherilo's writings, sketches, and poetry have become well-known, and he's encouraged a small movement of preservation and appreciation of the natural world. Cherilo helps support himself by taking nobility on tours of the area surrounding his home - although their manner sometimes rankles him. Some of his city friends have come to be loyal confidants, though perhaps none as much as his pet dog Carrie, the fourth-generation pup of his childhood pet. + |
| Chiara Tavetti + | Born to a family of merchant sailors in Nilanza, Chiara is the middle child of three; her parents, Marcel and Ilena, were much of the opinion that their children should all be involved in the family business with the goal of eventually succeeding them, but perhaps unsurprisingly Chiara begged to differ, having not properly been consulted in the matter prior to her birth. While both her older sister, Denora, and the youngest, Linette, have been more than happy to follow in the footsteps of their parents, Chiara has spent as much as time investigating the destinations of those goods shipped as the shipping process itself, occasionally disappearing mid-trip, much to the exasperation of her family - perhaps all the more so because she is actually quite competent at her trade. Surprising absolutely no one, the restless Chiara ultimately left the confines of what protection her family could give her and has spent the past few years traveling; due to such she has certainly seen her share of good and bad. Thankfully, either through sheer luck or quick thinking, she's managed to extricate herself from the worst of those situations, leaving her with an appreciation for what could have been, but not resulting any obvious dampening effect on her enthusiasm. With the Marquessa having made it known that she is looking for native Nilanzans to help support the growing House Malespero - and perhaps due to a little bit of trouble with the locals in the most recent port she'd been carousing in - Chiara has made her way to Arx to settle there, at least for a short while. + |
| Christine Kennex + | Christine spent most of her early days learning how to read, how to write, how to get more books... The world didn't need to be seen, since you can find it all and more in a good library. But then, one day she did. On her way back home, after visiting her cousin Denholm, she decided to take a detour... And ever since, she's been travelling around... because, why just to read books if you can be part of them? + |
| Chrysanthia Chatreuxe-DeVirre + | The Brindleberry Wood is a place of mystery and wonder. Many people don't even know of it or where in the Lord of the Deep Wood's name it might even be but boy do the stories come a pourin' out of /that/ place. People say a lot of things about the kooky Baroness; she's a reclusive hermit, she's eccentric, she throws exclusive tea parties with thee most interesting guests, she's crazy. The list of things goes on but all of them are usually very nice. People kiiiiind of laugh at the Chatreuxe-DeVirre's because their lands are all primal forests and beautiful glades filled with people who don't like to wear clothes. Or, maybe even worse, people who like to spend more time with plants than people (which is nothing to judge anyone for) and not a single soul in her Court ever comes to the city. The Peerage all think they're mostly a rumor but when Chrysanthia showed up wearing the mauve & green sigil of the Brindleberry Wood, well, it becomes quite clear that it is -not- a joke. Nobody can really say much about who or what the Spring Knight of the Hedge has been up to, but she's really bizarre and seems to have a passion for plants, animals, and people. In that order. + |
| Ciaphas Seraceni + | The politics of Eurus are a difficult thing for many to comprehend, and even harder to truly understand -- this is a thing that Ciaphas shares with the majority of the Compact, despite being born a Prince of the great Dune Kingdoms and raised with the hopes that he might one day take up a diplomatic position within the Dune Emperor's court. They would have to get used to disappointment. He was groomed from an early age by dedicated, dutiful tutors that should have seen him be a rising star in the realm of statecraft, but he found these things terribly dull. His lack of focus would be of terrible frustration for those set to instruct him, and despite their determined efforts, he would never be as they wished him to be. Not the way they wanted, anyway. Instead, his attentions shifted toward the intricate dance of warfare -- a brutal warrior, with the ability to direct in open conflicts as a stalwart commander. Certainly, this was not what his parents had envisioned when they sent him away as a ward of Ahj'on, but the worth of such abilities were not lost to them, nor his watchers. He spent many years in the fields of battle, disappearing from the public eye for sometimes years at a time, with none seeming able to figure out where he had gone, until he would miraculously appear again with nary a story to be told, or an explaination to be given. There he would be, proclaimed victorious in the wake of wanting details, until he would be gone again. Until, of course, he returned one of these times and was told that a political marriage had been arranged, and he was to be wed to some lesser noble of Ischia in order to broker some sort of non-aggression pact that would somehow benefit them. He still does not understand why it was necessary, but he is a man that has been raised to follow orders ... even if he doesn't carry out the tasks set before him in the fashion they might enjoy. To this day, he does not know why he is wed, only that he is. And now? Now he's here, in the Compact, disgruntled and confused, but still doing his duty. + |
| Ciara Wyrmguard + | The youngest child and only daughter born to Etienne and Celestine Wyrmguard, a cadet branch of the Wyrmguard family, Ciara grew up with her three older brothers on their family's patch of land south of Blancbier where mountain and forest meet. Born to one of the oldest and proudest families in the Valardin fealty, not to say all of The Compact, she was brought up on stories of valor, heroes, honor, and chivalry. Stories full of adventure, romance, and knights in shining armor. Stories full of everything her life was not. Stories she would often dream herself away to. That is not to say that she wasn't happy, but there was a part of her that always longed for more even as a young child. She was a willful and lively girl, with her mother's sharp mind and kind heart and her father's effortless charm and playful spirit, always hungry for new experiences and with an almost insatiable curiosity. But her mischievous and adventurous nature was tempered by a desire to please and ideals inspired both by her family and by those stories that she loved so much. Ideals she couldn't always live up to. For all her youthful exuberance, she was a caregiver right from the start. She would always be there to tend to and care for her brothers after a particularly grueling day of training or when they got injured, she would go out of her way to comfort or stand up for one of her friends when they needed it, and she'd be there to cheer up and bring a smile to her parents' lips after a long, frustrating day of business or research. Her father being the former steward of the main line of the Wyrmguards in Blancbier and her mother a socialite scholar known for her research into the more obscure lore and parts of history, it is perhaps not surprising that the young girl showed a natural penchant for numbers, patterns, and organization, as well as a way with people. She was taught a lot about trade, economics and how to run a noble household, and Celeste involved herself personally with her daughter's education after Ciara turned ten, expanding the young girl's knowledge to other scholarly topics and grooming her on how to become a proper young lady. Ciara would, quite frankly, much rather be out playing with her friends, gossip about who the most handsome prince is despite never having seen any of them, or go explore that part of the woods to the west that nobody's supposed to go into, but she excelled at her studies and mostly stayed out of trouble. Mostly. Shortly before her 18th birthday, her parents informed her that an arrangement had been made and that she would be traveling to Arx to act as a Lady-In-Waiting to Marquessa Dominique. Ciara could not be more excited. Arx! So much to explore, so many people to meet, so many new sights and experiences. Princes and Princesses and fancy parties. Not to mention getting to know her extended family and a chance to make a good impression with the Marquessa. It was going to be amazing! A week later, after packing her things and writing her brothers, she kissed her parents goodbye and set off for the capital and the biggest adventure of her young life. + |
| Ciaran Farshaw + | Born a lord of House Farshaw, Ciaran never show any interest in ruling: instead, his mind was fixed on adventure. While Farshaw might not boast much in the way of a war navy, Ciaran always managed to make an impact bigger than the military resources he had available--developing a reputation as an able tactician and intrepid explorer. Be it against barbarian tribes or long-lost settlements of the Abandoned, he showed a knack for moving through the far places of the world. There, he made both friends and enemies. In the Gyre war, he showed particular gallantry. Unfortunately, it was in that conflict, at that moment of triumph, that his life took a turn. Suffering a terrible wound to one of his legs, a wound that seems to have been in some part spiritual as much as physical, Ciaran now must live with a perpetual limp, and never fully regained his martial prowess. For a time, he bounced around the far corners of the map, and perhaps some places beyond its borders. Whatever obscure place he got off to, he has at last settled in Arx, where he intends to represent his family and support the ruling lords. + |
| Cicero Malvici + | Cicero Velenosa grew up in the current ruling house of Lyceum, but several branches of the family tree away from actually inheriting anything of worth. As a middle child he was not destined to be heir to the estate and was little more than fodder for a political marriage... until he put his talents towards the silk trade. He was gifted at it, using his position as a bridge between the merchants and their noble customers, easing the passage of the luxurious material along the economic system while keeping the coffers of his house well filled. Like any one noble of the southern City-States he ran into some trouble now and then that had to be solved at the end of a sword, but he usually realied on his quick wit and sharp tongue to win the day. Now he has come to Arx to ply his trade, to work with the silk merchants of the city for the betterment of all of Lyceum. Kinda. + |
| Cicero Velenosa + | Cicero Velenosa grew up in the current ruling house of Lyceum, but several branches of the family tree away from actually inheriting anything of worth. As a middle child he was not destined to be heir to the estate and was little more than fodder for a political marriage... until he put his talents towards the silk trade. He was gifted at it, using his position as a bridge between the merchants and their noble customers, easing the passage of the luxurious material along the economic system while keeping the coffers of his house well filled. Like any one noble of the southern City-States he ran into some trouble now and then that had to be solved at the end of a sword, but he usually realied on his quick wit and sharp tongue to win the day. Now he has come to Arx to ply his trade, to work with the silk merchants of the city for the betterment of all of Lyceum. Kinda. + |
| Cigano Laroye + | Growing up in a small camp of vagabonds, Cigano learned from an early age that the world was unfair. His mother passed as he came into the world, already making him resented among his people. They treated him as an ill omen, passing him from family to family in the camp, giving him only the barest essentials so he would survive and they believed made good with his poor mother. It wasn't until he had his coming of age rite performed that the tribe would even speak to him as an equal. As he began to work for the family, he proved his worth and was given a chance to live and work as the rest of the tribe. He proved adept as spinning stories with cards that brought him fame among the nobles that the tribe often encountered. He soon became popular enough that the tribe leader began to groom him for his replacement. The leader's son, whom should have been the rightful heir, didn't take kindly to the news. He planned to poison Cigano at his first chance. Cigano sensing the man's anger ensure that nothing that came to him was ever out of his sight. Eventually swapping a cup force upon him by the heir apparent with the leaders. Once the poison was revealed, Cigano used his new acquired status to have the heir exiled for his crimes. The years after Cigano continued to run the camp, doing as much as he can help provide for the family, always watching for the next assassin and the next chance for him to bring more money into the camp. + |
| Cillian Weatherwood + | Raised in a small tribe allied to the Blackwoods, Cillian grew up learning the ways of the wild. For the most part, his adopted family and the tribe survived the squabbles and land struggles between tribes. His village was always under assault by monsters and so from a young age he learned the bow and became a protector. It earned him the nickname among his people as "Guardian of the woods" When the Blackwoods took in the last of the Thunderoaks people and ultimately they all bent knee together to the Crovane his tribe did so as well by then he was in his teens and chose to stay out in the woods protecting it knowing the dangers out in it. But now he has been told the truth and much of what he knew was false so now he goes to Arx to search out that feeling he has always felt, that feeling like a part of you is missing and so now he finds himself in the city and finds himself very guarded. + |
| Cirdan Halfshav + | Born to Riker Halfshav and Triana Tessere a year after his older brother Reve, Cirdan was given much of the same upbringing. While his martial training proved to be lackluster and was soon abandoned once the basics were covered, he proved especially skilled in more social settings, quickly making friends and earning no small amount of popularity among certain circles. It proved to be especially beneficial when he was sent to be fostered within his mother's family, soon at home within a land quite different from the one he had grown up in. He quite enjoyed his time in Iriscal, though he was ever quick to leap at any opportunity to travel to new locales and courts, his curiosity insatiable. He knew to make new friends even in what amounted to short visits and maintained these links through active correspondence, somehow managing to fit those in between lessons and other social adventures. There were certainly times of tension, however, though none so great as when Reve declared, once his fostering was finished, that he would not return to Whitehold. While Cirdan was still a year away from the end of his own fostering, it was deemed preferable to escort Cirdan back home to finish his studies there, lest he get any ideas about following his older brother's example. Cirdan didn't mind, but things didn't quite go as planned. While a day away from Whitehold, his group was ambushed by bandits. The bandits proved to be a shav tribe and they took him prisoner, the intent to ransom him off. What followed is the subject of speculation. He appealed to his guards. He seduced the chief's daughter. The story's varied over time. Nonetheless, somehow, Cirdan escaped and managed to make his way to Whitehold and alert his family. Now with Halfshav's forces, he returned to negotiate the release of those who had been traveling with him. The more romantic storytellers like to add that he also negotiated for the chief's daughter to come with him. Yet if such was the truth, it led to tragedy as the negotiations broke down and violence was the ultimate solution. While peace did not reign that day, the experience shaped and motivated him. He dedicated himself to master both law and diplomacy in service to his House. It is for that purpose that he now travels to Arx, after news of his brother's return have reached him. + |
| Ciriel Whitehawk + | Son of a local blacksmith, he was always frustrated with the kind of work that was done in his father's shop. Working schedule did not permit for anything more than tools, horseshoes and nails. He always had the passion for anything out of the ordinary, anything clever. Be it practical or not. After his father's retirement he took over the shop and took a wife. Soon after there was an accident and all that was left of his previous self, was his passion for novelty trinkets and odd items. Alienated from his previous life an unable to practice his trade, he decided to go on the road and pursue his passion. + |
| Ciro Seraceni + | Ciro grew up in Ischia mostly wish his mother Isabella. His father passed away from infection while at war with the Argento. As a boy, he was drawn both to the luxurious villas of Setarco and the busy docks and diverse peoples of Ischia. Like his sister Appolonia, he acquired a good education from various Lycene tutors, and though he showed some aptitude, he never found much joy in abstract studies though he found a great love of music and performance. He sometimes sneaked down to the docks and watched as the sailors rolled dice and played cards for piles of gleaming coins. As a very young man, Priscila had high hoped that Ciro might prove a diplomat, but the young man had a greater interest in the daughter of the Farshaw Minister of Income than in trade deals he was meant to negotiate. Returning to Ischia without having proved himself, and labeled a wastrel by his family, Ciro continued to drink and game throughout Morisco, and Arx. In this very state, however, Ciro, having lost a great deal of coin in a high stakes wager, was returning through the Lowers in Arx, where he overheard the formation of a scheme to steal a good amount of Pravosi goods from the harbor. Using the last of his coins to pay a cabin boy for the full story, Ciro wrote a missive to Lady Viviana, and saved the House several hundred thousand silver when the plot was foiled. Having proved his loyalty and a capacity for acquiring valuable information, Ciro was encouraged by Dio to put his inclinations in further service to his House by joining the Whisper House. He also joined the Golden Hart, and has often been seen gaming with many of the peers of the Compact. Later, he found his way to Gianna Whisper's Bard's College, where his flair for the dramatic and musical talents infused with the styles of Ischia and Eurus have found him in good company. + |
| Cirroch Sanna + | Cirroch was always going to be the March of Giant's Reach. Actually, he was the March of Giant's Reach by the time he was ten. It's a risky proposition, being a ten-year-old with a regent, but there were a few things going for Cirroch: first, his regent was his uncle Talward, whom no one wanted to cross and who loved his deceased sister more than life itself, and second, he was a pretty clever and aspiring ten-year-old, and put off the fears of his vassals by being aggressively interested in warcraft from when he could first walk. He developed an interest in statecraft as well, although it was admittedly much /later/ in life that he wanted to attend his own meetings and councils. By the time he was 16, there were few who feared his ascendance to the seat he held in name, and when he reached majority at 18, his uncle retired to be feted for a job well done, and Cirroch took the reins fearlessly. It's amazing how long you can stall from a topic that you don't want to address. He very nearly had a treaty negotiated with the Nightgolds for a wife of his rank only to have it fall through on some stipulations about mining rights that he refused to let go. He very nearly had a treaty negotiated, later, that would have had him wed to the sister of a Velenosan count, only to have her cry off for a number of reasons, some related to, frankly, the cold weather of the north and the total absence of seawater anywhere around Giant's Reach. That is until a faithful day that he wasn't thinking of a need to keep a shield up. He was training with his axe when Princess Sasha boldy approached him, anyone in their vincity might have thought that they did indeed watch mountains move that day. Sasha would become the love of his life. The day he meet his first born, heir to what Sanna had to offer, was the day that he understood that life was more than how long one can stall a topic. + |
| Clara Crovane + | Clara was born to the Crovane family only a handful of years ago but she would not start breathing when she was born. It took a little bit of work from the midwives to get Clara to take in her first breath and by that time they had nearly given up hope that she would survive. The result of this experience was that Clara's eyes turned white and everyone expected she was blind. She is young and still learning about the world in a very hands on way. While she doesn't mind being a lady she doesn't specifically want to be a politician and she has made that clear with starting to learn the sword young as well as preferring sitting in cemeteries and stitching wounds to listening to people talk about the various problems in society. She began learning the sword when she was 12 years old, a compromise her parents made with her when she wouldn't sit still long enough to learn about being a leader or try to better understand how to bring in money, through the people, for the house. Learning the sword was a way to help her learn to focus her abundance of youthful energy as well as make her useful to the family. When she was about 15 years old she showed an aptitude for medicine, a love for plant life as a healing source, and a desire to help people. This lead to her start into studying medicine closer and eventually becoming a novice medic. Barely an adult, Clara has been sent to Arx to experience the rich diversity in culture the city has to offer. + |
| Clarisse Charon + | The youngest daughter born to Merrick of Highrock and Kiera ThreeRivers, was Clarisse, a beautiful young child, brought up almost entirely by staff, until the death of her Mother, the trauma of witnessing her Mother killed in front of her caused Clarisse such deep trauma she refused to speak to anyone. Finally as the brother Teague's last resort to help his baby sister, he sent her away to the countryside to help bring her a sense of peace and grieve out of the sight of court. There in their country estate, she was distanced from the politics and manipulations of the court and cared for by her Aya. She was guided in the healing arts, working with herbs, learning all she could absorb, giving her a sense of purpose and a reason to begin to open up again to those around her. She loved the beauty and peacefulness of her home away, but also missed her family deeply. Since Clarisse was so far removed and able to focus on what came to matter most to her, she began to grow in her own faith. Not a faith taught by those around her, but faith she came to embrace through dreams shared with her, waking and sleeping. Some that came to her in the middle of the night that though she does not know the meaning of, have lead her back home. She has learned to keep secrets close to her heart, confidense entrusted in her buried deep, a compassionate heart for those sick and injured, and a steady supply to add in her healing arts within hands reach. Though she is of noble blood, Clarisse has a very humble spirit, kind and loving, and tries her best not to hurt anyone for any reason. It has taken her a long time to get over her mother's death, but it has finally come to terms with her mother's loss, and chosen to return home. + |
| Claude + | A Prodigal from the Mourning Isles, Claude is rather private about much of his history. This much seems to be true: once upon a time, he was a shav carpenter with a family. His tribe's village was one of the many that fell to the Gyre, and whatever family he had was lost. He made it to Arx during the Silent War, but moved on quickly enough to Old Oak after befriending Dame Zhayla, House Deepwood's Sword. It was the tragic death of that same friend that eventually brought him back to Arx, seemingly renewed in his desire to do some good amidst all of the dangers facing the world. At least as much as a quiet, artistically-minded carpenter can do. He'll make a start by joining the Faith's disciple ranks as a Liberator of Skald, serve as a vassal of House Deepwood, and go from there. + |
| Claude Crucible + | A Prodigal from the Mourning Isles, Claude is rather private about much of his history. This much seems to be true: once upon a time, he was a shav carpenter with a family. His tribe's village was one of the many that fell to the Gyre, and whatever family he had was lost. He made it to Arx during the Silent War, but moved on quickly enough to Old Oak after befriending Dame Zhayla, House Deepwood's Sword. It was the tragic death of that same friend that eventually brought him back to Arx, seemingly renewed in his desire to do some good amidst all of the dangers facing the world. At least as much as a quiet, artistically-minded carpenter can do. He'll make a start by joining the Faith's disciple ranks as a Liberator of Skald, serve as a vassal of House Deepwood, and go from there. + |
| Claudia Malespero + | There are rules to the way the world works, or there should be rules to the way the world works. Perhaps those rules, that clearly outlined code of behavior, is sometimes more obscure than at other times. It might just be because of the randomness of things, the way the world as you know it skews hard to the left when you expected it to veer gently right that Claudia has given herself a very strict code of conduct. Honor your deals, be honest in your deals with others, don't take the proverbial dump where you live. There are more, of course, little things that she's been developing since she was a child watching her father run a small shipping empire. Empire being a rather loose term, and more something fueled by the imagination of a child than the reality of being an adult. Claudia was the youngest born to a very minor noble house that over saw some of the trading done around Nilanza, and they made good profits. Many would argue that trading would be something beneath the nobility, and they might be right. As it was, Claudia's family really acted as backers to others, never taking direct part in the trading, technically. From a young age she learned how to run things, not because she was expected to take over the house, but her father was a practical man, and he felt that everyone should learn to contribute. So as soon as she was old enough she was put on the ships and taught to sail, read the wind and sky, navigate by the stars, how to speak to those in other ports, to find the best deal. She built up a reputation of being able to find what people wanted, difficult, rare, expensive goods....none of that mattered. She'd always go the extra mile to make sure that the deal was honored. When House Argento fell, she wasn't home in Nilanza, and in fact, she decided that it might be best to make herself scarce. She knew what happened to her family, and that it all crumbled, that her father died of a broken heart after her mother was killed. But recently she's heard that it might be safe to come home, and take up a place among House Malespero, which is what she's done. + |
| Cleo Frost + | Far to the north of Whitehall in the depths of Everwinter where nights and days can last weeks or even months with the turning of the seasons livesa tribe of Shav'Avani called The Children of the Sun and the Moon. The tribe has over the millennia developed a number of particular standards and rituals that vary greatly from those used of the more Southern Shav'Avani which differe even more from the tribes that have sworn fealty to and become Houses of Redrain. The Children of the Sun and the Moon are mostly nomadic, moving as dictated by the Weather and the Seasons to either follow their prey or return to their ancestral homes for shelter. They have developed a regimented culture where one is either Hunter, Gatherer, Raider (Sun), or Hearthkeeper (Moon). Those who follow the Sun, and the Moon, are generally formed along gender lines but gender is a choice to the Children of the Sun and the Moon and thus both physical sexes are accounted for in both. Born amongst the Children of the Sun there was always more to Cleo's life, odd things happened around her constantly both good and bad. There was hardly a dull moment around her life and she never fit in due to it, kept separate a lot, which suited her just fine. She spoke to the spirits as they would speak back and when it came time for her to pick her focus she chose none, and was sent to the Walkers Inbetween. There she found who she was, which was neither, and both, all the same and she partook of the rituals, sacrifices, and alchemical potions that discovered her true self and stabilized it permanently. Never Sun. Never Moon. Always Sun. Always Moon. She had found her place, and she made friends during her training, but one of the younger Walkers she knew during their apprenticeship ended up leaving the tribe and headed south soon after she succeeded in her tests. Cleo wonders and waited to hear news of the return of Cybele, but when no news came Cleo began to worry. Asking the spirits for guidance Cleo was told that Cybele still lived, far to the south in the land of warmth and green. So too did Cleo tell the Elders that she would go check on Cybele, and see if she was unwilling, or unable to return. The trek was not an easy one but Cleo endured, sneaking south past Whitehall, and into the lands of Redrain where she finally was caught by House Nightgold and very nearly put to the sword but the young shaman was able to get the spirits to speak of her quest and intentions. She was forced to bend the knee of course, and she did so gladly if it would allow her to continue on to find Cybele. After the long walk and through those dangers she finally came to Arx and learned of many wondrous things... it was no wonder why Cybele did not come back, there was to much to learn before she could go home. + |
| Clover Farshaw + | Clover Wyrmguard was born to Annaliese and Damien Wyrmguard, a lesser branch of the family; distant cousins. She's the youngest of her particular branch. One of her older siblings is quite good with a sword, another with a spear. She decided she wanted to take the bow and arrow as a young child... unfortunately she is not blessed with grace. If there is anything that Clover is not is graceful. She's broken more bones in her life than either of her more combatant siblings-- just from falling off of things. Her parents put her into dancing lessons once and she ended up breaking her instructors nose AND her own arm. She does, however, love to be outside. Even if it means she's probably going to cause herself some amount of harm. She's also been the type to be outside; growing up in Blancbier this meant being outside of the cities walls either in the mountains or out in the forest. She's got a deft hand with dealing with the less combat-centric aspects of being outdoors; she knows well what is safe to eat, how to navigate a forest, and how to handle an animal. Growing up in Blancbier also meant that she had some training in medicine which led to her joining the Mercies of Lagoma. Her early twenties saw her married to Duke Ryhalt Farshaw of Westrock Reach. It was considered a positive political move for Wyrmguard and Farshaw, strengthening both houses through their mercantile connections. From there she settled nicely into the role of Duchess-Consort, a bright and positive addition to the duchy. She grew from a haphazard girl to a strong and mature woman, her skill with the bow increased, as did her interest in medicine. Since her joining Westrock she's come to be known for her prowess in the field and her innate understanding of the wilderness of the isles she's now come to oversee and love. + |
| Clover Wyrmguard + | Clover Wyrmguard was born to Annaliese and Damien Wyrmguard, a lesser branch of the family; distant cousins. She's the youngest of her particular branch. One of her older siblings is quite good with a sword, another with a spear. She decided she wanted to take the bow and arrow as a young child... unfortunately she is not blessed with grace. If there is anything that Clover is not is graceful. She's broken more bones in her life than either of her more combatant siblings-- just from falling off of things. Her parents put her into dancing lessons once and she ended up breaking her instructors nose AND her own arm. She does, however, love to be outside. Even if it means she's probably going to cause herself some amount of harm. She's also been the type to be outside; growing up in Blancbier this meant being outside of the cities walls either in the mountains or out in the forest. She's got a deft hand with dealing with the less combat-centric aspects of being outdoors; she knows well what is safe to eat, how to navigate a forest, and how to handle an animal. Growing up in Blancbier also meant that she had some training in medicine though she has never joined the Mercies, she has thought about it off and on. + |
| Cocine Arcuri + | Much like her mother before her, Cocine grew up in the middle of the brood of Arcuri children. Helping in the shop with odd chores, then with simple tasks. When she apprenticed, she chose a tough route, taking on both alchemy and smithing. Many in the Arcuri family seem blessed when it comes to their chosen profession, but for Cocine it was a calling. Experimenting with metals and minerals, mixing compounds with metals to see what she would get. Always with an eye towards which ones work best together. When she reached an age, she opened a shop of her own in Lenosia, the mixtures of minerals and metals creating unique appearances without altering properties. And still she experimented every chance she got. Sometimes going out of her way to learn some obscure formula just to see how it would fare when paired with different metals. She broke even more than she profited, her experiments always taking the bulk of her resources. The last of the Josephine's children still in Lenosia, after her mother's death, Cocine finished what remained of her commissions, then packed her things and headed to Arx to join the rest of the family. + |
| Col Steelhart + | Col was never as good as Lionel in his fathers' eyes. He was never treated poorly or unfairly, that wasn't Frederik's way but it was always there: Lionel was better. Lionel was the first born. Lionel was the warrior and knight. Lionel was the man who's honor could not be tarnished. He could do no wrong. While his older brother was learning to fight and be a knight Col was reading books and learning tactics for war, rather than individual battle. He knew he would never be as physically capable as his older brother but he was driven to prove himself useful to his father and the House. He tried to learn, he truly did, but all the hard work netted him very little. It was not his aptitude. His aptitude was in planning. Plotting. Leading but not from the front. It was like Col and Lionel were the two sides of their father's 'coin'. Lionel got all the physical talents and ability while Col was the statesman, diplomat, and planner. When the two worked together they were unstoppable. Frederik finally noticed Col and they had begun to mend those fences when tragedy struck in the form of his cousin's attempted coup and rebellion. Of all the people to fall it was Lionel and Col was left suddenly the heir of House Steelhart. There was nothing for it, Col was next in line. Frederik finally had to recognize Col's merits on their own standing. That is how it should have went. Instead Frederik buried Lionel and moved on. There is the knowledge that Col will one day inherit the County, but until then there's not a lot he can do to get out of his brother's shadow. At least not in Highhill. + |
| Cole Farago + | Hailing from a tiny village under the control of House Redrain, Cole's mother died in childbirth leaving his father to raise him. A woodcutter by trade, his father emphasized hard work and discipline above all. Though it was not an unpleasant life, money was tight and the repetitive lifestyle grew to wear on him. Hoping to make his fortune in the city, he struck off by signing on as a caravan guard. + |
| Colette Laurent + | Growing up the baby of a ducal line usual has it's advantages, but perhaps the slight disparity of age worked to reverse that for Colette. She always fiercly admired her older siblings, but given she was so little, and seen as frail and delicate, she always managed to be somewhat of an underfoot figure. She always wanted to be apart of her older siblings adventures and shenanigans, but never really found a way to fit in. This caused her to take up the art of sneaking around, just to be close to them, and often led to her just being in the way. All of this led to her more silent and demure demeanor, which she found a way to channel in to her love for sneaking about and spying on her siblings, but given how protective everyone was of her, it usually ended in getting her siblings in trouble. In the long run it might have left her a bit more on the socially awkward side. As her siblings grew up and began departing for Arx and having more and more important roles to fill in the duchy, and having very little responsibilites left for her, she slowly became more and more reserved. Finally as she grew old enough she decided to depart for Arx herself and see what all the fuss was about. + |
| Conall Redrain + | Born into a minor line of the Redrain family, Conall grew up just outside of Farhaven where the importance of preparing for war had been strongly impressed upon him. Eschewing drunken antics for strict discipline and drilling, he came to be known for his odd habits as much as the zeal with which he approached military life. When he was finally allowed to accompany patrols hunting for Shavs Conall was in his true element. The battle of Stormwall left him more detached and realistic towards the approaches one should take towards evil. Heavily injured in that conflict, he spent a long time in recovery before able to help aid in defending the North again. For reasons known only to himself, he recently left for Arx without a word to anyone in Farhaven beforehand. + |
| Conrad Drayton + | He's seen the worst war can offer. A former Grayson soldier from an unremarkable village in the Gray Forest, Conrad and dozens of his friends were conscripted in the war to pacify the Reavers in the Gray Forest during those campaigns. He knew it was coming at least, and enlisted the help of a veteran from previous campaigns to teach him the basics, while his friends simply laughed at him for taking 'shavs' so seriously. In the end, most of those friends only survived the year long campaign because they stuck with him and learned to keep up with proper formation work in the infantry lines after their first real combat. When Conrad went home from there, the village just... wasn't the same. His friends went back to hunting and farming. His family expected him to do the same, but Conrad had gotten a solid taste of the power of a sword, and wanted to earn a much better living doing that, as he'd heard from the soldiers that mercenaries get paid very well if they're good enough. Having heard in passing about the Crimson Blades, Conrad went to Arx to sign up. His time among the Grayson armies had already given him an edge in experience, so when the time for promotions came around, Conrad was an easy pick. He's served as an officer in the Crimson Blades for a while, now. + |
| Constance Redrain + | Constance was born a noble of House Redrain and had a markedly rebellious youth that ended in her voluntarily shedding the family name. In her childhood she defied her tutors and enjoyed spurning their lessons more than taking them to heart. Often, she would go out of her way to learn so that she may foil their plans in the most troublesome way possible. Her teenage years consisted of a shift toward the natural world, and the people in it. Criminals, warriors, and all manner of violent or seedy sorts captivated her imagination, and she followed them throughout the north on their journeys, flouting social norms. By necessity, she learned something of medicine, and this curiosity flourished into a passion that lead her to the Mercies. She looked at her traveling companions with a new eye for their talents and strengths, and in her adulthood, she saw how these people might serve their fellow Arvani. It lead to her renouncing her faith in Shamanism in all but the most informal ways, and her own Redrain surname name in a rather dramatic devotion to the Godsworn. + |
| Constantine Kennex + | The second youngest of the Kennex brood, Constantine found himself in a position of freedom in comparison to his elder siblings. There was very little expectation of him beyond upholding the family dignity and preparing himself for the time when the weight of political responsibility would fall to his shoulders via future marriages and so forth. Without the determined role he would play, it allowed young Connie a more open relationship with both his mother and father spanning from his early years all the way to their tragic deaths. Denholm Kennex to the world was a calculating and brilliant naval commander, but in talks with his youngest son late into the evening Constantine learned there was so much more to his father than the lens of responsibility allowed to be seen. He came to realize each individual faced a myriad of inner struggles that more often than not were bore in silence. Alone. And so Constantine found his calling. He began seeking out others outside of his family, ingratiating himself with nobility and common folk alike via drink and topical discussion until like long ago in the wee hours of the evening his conversational partners began to reveal who they truly were. Not as whatever role they played in the grand scheme of Stormward or Arvum in general, but as people with all their hopes, dreams and fears. He found this made life a far less intimidating thing, especially in the political sphere and while the sea was always a soft siren's call in his ear... Constantine knew he was not meant for its embrace. During the transition and abolition of Thralldom within Stormward, Constantine worked tirelessly in the "trenches" shoulder to shoulder with his people. Up until more recently, Constantine remained home as a steady presence of House Kennex, but now that the dust has settled and Stormward progresses forward again with the Pirate War past he has decided to join his family in Arx at least for the near future. + |
| Cora Ulbran + | Born in the tougher parts of the world, in the Lower Boroughs, the daughter of a thief and her man, she grew up swift fingered and able to defend herself. She was often found tagging along with her partner in crime, Raymesin. Eventually, her parents had their life of crime catch up with them and had to skip town, leaving Cora to depend on her own skills and her friends. + |
| Coraline Thrax + | The third of four daughters, Cora always felt out of place. A tomboy through and through, she did not quite fit in with either side if her family, no matter how much she loved them: she couldn't quite relate to her father's bookish Leary relatives and she most certainly did not conform to the feminine ideals expected of her from her Thrax family on her mother's side. Her parents wanted her to become a proper princess and pursue subjects that were deemed acceptable (diplomacy! law! academics!) but Cora wanted to learn how to fight. She didn't understand why her male cousins were allowed to train and she wasn't -- especially when she was often better than they were. Like all the Thrax-Leary girls, she spent every summer in Leaholdt with her Leary relatives. While her sister, Caith, was given to reading and got along well with all their intellectual cousins, Cora spent her time hanging out with those who were more combat oriented. Increasingly, these summers spent with her more egalitarian relations would result in her returning to Maelstrom in the fall asking: why? Why couldn't she learn to fight? Why couldn't she be a soldier? Why couldn't she be a leader? Why? Why? WHY? The harder her Thrax family tried to shove her, a square peg, into a round hole, the more she resisted. When Donella was named heir (before she married out, that is), she viewed that as a hopeful sign that times were changing. She idolizes Leona, how she saved the King and became the Lord Commander of the King's Own (although Cora wants to be able to achieve that kind of greatness within Thrax). She dreams of rising up through the ranks and becoming the Thrax Warlord someday. However, her mother (while she was still alive) and most of her sisters (ESPECIALLY Cassima) continually tried to push her down more traditional avenues. Caith was the more moderate exception; while she never quite full-on encouraged her aspirations, she would often fill her head with ideas by reading her stories of heroic female knights and adventurers. It was frustrating because Cora really loved -- and felt a connection to -- Thrax but never could find her place in it. Maybe she could marry out, chase her dreams in another house? But she did not want to be in another house. She is a Thrax. She wants to STAY Thrax. If only there was a way... Well. Now Coraline is in Arx. How did she get here? That is an interesting story. See, she just couldn't stand being in a cage any longer and decided to take control of her own destiny. One of the benefits of being far removed from the line of succession is that no one pays too close attention to what you do. One night, she slipped her guards, lopped off her hair, stole some armor and a blade and snuck off to war. For the first time in her life, she felt comfortable. She felt like she fit in. She felt like the person she was meant to be: a warrior who was standing side by side with her fellow Thrax soldiers, fighting off the Gyre's forces. Did anyone realize at the time that the young male soldier was in fact one of their princesses? No, of course not. When it was all over, she returned with the troops: bloody but unbowed. She decided that she was going to be the change she wanted to see and, with that in mind, she returned to the Thrax estate in Arx to face the music ... with her head held high. + |
| Corban Telmar + | Born the second son of Lucas Telmar, Corban grew up the nephew of Duke Arn Telmar in the hostile, unwelcoming Duchy of the Telmarch. From an early age, Corban showed an affinity for martial skills, training alongside his cousins Ansel and Tobias, the two treated more like brothers than like cousins, given the common hardship that the three faced under the stern tutelage of the Duke Arn Telmar. After the passing of Lucas Telmar, Corban's mother decided to return to her family to assume a modest station as a deputy minister, leaving the young Telmar to be raised alongside his cousins by Duke Arn and the rest of the Telmars. As a young leader with the Telmarch army, Corban was already a favored captain of the Telmar armsmen, knowing the lord would always be the first sword rushing into the most dangerous frays. He quickly grew a reputation as one of the Telmarch's most capable military commanders, assuming increasing levels of responsibility within the powerful duchy, leading the forces of the Telmar and their vassals to break the shav hordes crashing against the Telmarch fortress walls. Now older, and with years of experience leading men into battle, Corban has come to the city to lend his sword to his family's assistance. With dark times on the horizon, he knows it may well be needed, and he plans to do fulfill his duty to his house. + |
| Corbit Leary + | Corbit was essentially born curious and had the perfect family to help feed that curiosity. His best childhood memories are debates at the dinner table over some minor point of a random piece of information. Between all these ideas whirling around him and having a mind like a sponge, he couldn't help but become a bit of a jack of all trades when it comes to scholarly persuits. So one day what he's working on might be totally different than what he's working on the next. So what if he may have accidently turned his hair green trying to come up with a cure for baldness? Worth it. Or about that time he burned down a shed trying to make it fireproof, small price to pay in his eyes. He's always been encouraged in these pursuits and has always taken great advantage of that. + |
| Cordelia Grimhall + | Born in the Hall of the Grim, Cordelia understood at an early age two very important things. Firstly, she never subscribed to the strict and punishing patriarchal beliefs pervading most of the Mourning Isles. Secondly, if she was ever going to enjoy life, she would have to find entertainment on her own. Not so much comprehending as reacting to the expressions on her neglectful mother's face after a visit with the Duke, she strove to conduct little rebellions against authority. One day, she might dodge her tutors or ruin her clothes. Another day, she'd soap up the floors and secretly watch her elders trip. More guards were hired for the simple dual purposes of keeping an eye on Cordelia, and patrolling for childish traps. At first, she was just trying to gain attention, but her disobedience evolved into outright unshakable independence. After managing to convince a combat instructor to train her, a brother eventually goaded her into a duel, to once and for all prove the reason and superiority of traditional Thraxian values. Scarred and incensed by the loss, it only drove her further away. At just fifteen, she ran off to join a group of adventurers allegedly seeking fame and fortune. Buoyed by others with a similar perspective, she felt wonderfully liberated. The band of explorers journeyed from one end of the Compact to the other, hoping to find lost articles from before the Reckoning in all sorts of strange and enigmatic places. Ultimately, the Duke's men found her and returned her home, but she responded with the announcement that she would become a Champion. They retorted with a short list of likely betrothals, and so she was sent to the center of the Compact to meet her future husband. + |
| Corinna Kelsey + | Corinna Kelsey has lived her entire life in the Lower Boroughs, and as far as she's concerned, the world outside the city might as well be a myth. Born to spectacularly unlucky lowborn parents, she was orphaned by disease at age of ten, and being taken in by a succession of more-or-less kindly tavern keepers was all that kept her from starving in the street. She spent most of her childhood in one tavern scullery or another, earning her keep through service, and not much has changed as she has aged into womanhood. Her cheerful, ditzy, and uncomplaining demeanor has endeared her to more than one employer, and she is mostly happy with her lot in life, but the vibrant, cosmopolitan life of the other boroughs has her longing to experience more of the world outside of the slums. + |
| Corinne Brooks + | Corinne was born to two loving parents who, despite their best and many efforts with each other and later others, never again managed to conceive another child on either side. They weren't wealthy, but tried to spoil her nonetheless, though it never took. She was cooperative, yes, and dressed in whatever style she was told without seeming to mind overmuch, but as she grew, neither fashion nor boys nor girls ever caught her eye. She was tolerant of others in the same way she tolerated mother fussing over her skirt of the day, or which ribbon to put in her hair. It wasn't a chore, not precisely, but she seemed to rarely if ever care for these things. That's not to say she was a dull, unsociable child. Corinne loved her exploits, and took well to learning her father's alchemical trade with no real prompting. She was friendly and sunny and beloved or at least well-liked by near all, though few save her parents were allowed to catch sight of the dark undercurrents of apathy at her core. As she grew older still, blossoming past adolescence and into adulthood, it became clear to those who knew her she cared little for anything but her brews and concoctions. Still, advancing in her craft required funds, and funds required speaking to people like a human being. To her poor parents' great relief, she embraced necessity, started leaving the house, and spoke verbally with others again. For a few months, it was like the sullen creature living in their attic that only communicated in grunts, monosyllables, and hand gestures was just a bad dream. Soon after, though, she left her home of Southport for Arx with a small sum, seeking to make her fortune in greener pastures. + |
| Cornelius Blackshore + | With other heirs apparent, it was clear when Cornelius was born that he would never inherit Blackshore Isle. However, he was groomed to serve his brother Oswald by the stern, unforgiving hand of his father. Mother was nothing more than a glittering show piece that was valued only by her ability to engage their social peers in the drawing room. He never found any maternal warmth from her. Under the harsh rule of a Thraxian warlord, Cornelius quickly learned to navigate among some of the most ruthless warriors of the Compact. Cornelius met Lady Florence Gilden, his future wife, at a society event. She was nothing like what he was used to. Fragile, vulnerable and so trusting. It was easy to sweep her off her feet, and convince her to marry him. Of course her family had misgivings that he was ten years her senior and only after her dowry, but he managed to convince the idealistic artist that he had only eyes for her. They were married after a quick courtship. It was her dowry that allowed him to launch his career as a naval architect for House Thrax. Serving Donrai was never easy, and his back bears the scars of a few missed gambles but overall he managed to get the High Lord to sponsor his ideas. When his first son, Romulius, was born while his brother had yet to produce an heir, other ambitions caused him to stop more often to visit Oswald. Florence never liked him so he was careful to balance those two when they were together. The next few years passed quickly, his fortunes ebbed and flowed depending on his investments. Dycard and Skye were born. His family thrived on their many travels as he gave his duty to the Compact. While Florence's health seemed to wane as time passed, others would remark that he was the consummate family man. Cornelius will tell you it was a difficult decision to leave his wife with his brother, but her wasting illness got to the point where she needed more medical care. He managed to convince Oswald to take his wife in. Then he placed his daughter there to assist with her care. Of course, he kept his sons by his side to make sure they would learn the business. There were times that he perhaps in reflection were harsh, but he only was trying to raise them to be warriors that would thrive under Donrai's rule. As a staunch traditionalist, he managed to gather popularity among his peers. All the pieces were in place. His daughter had gained favor with Oswald, his oldest son was being groomed to be the heir of Blackshore. Dycard was a bit of a disappointment, being more of a dandy than a warrior, but perhaps in time he would find his place in society. Then it happened, the reavers attacked their ship. Cornelius bravely fought off the pirates, creating an escape route. He yelled at his oldest son to come, but the foolish man wouldn't leave Dycard. The window of opportunity was closing. Suddenly Cornelius had to face a decision to escape or be taken by the pirates with his sons. In a split second, Cornelius chose escape, promising himself that he would return with troops to free Romulius and Dycard. He traveled back to Blackshore Isle to rally his brother, only to find the isle in ruins. Everyone was dead. Without the means himself to rescue his family, Cornelius was forced to lean back on his wits. To lean on others more powerful than himself, slowly rebuilding his connections. + |
| Corrala Leary + | Growing up in a manor Corrala never saw the outside world much as a child. Being taught from an early age about the arts of scholarship and nobility she thought that one day she would be a scholar. This all changed when she had to visit a healing temple one summer afternoon. Her focus in life changed from knowledge gathering to medicine and she learned about all the different medical interventions. When she got sufficient training she decided to join the Mercies of Lagoma where she dispensed healing to all who came to the temple near her home. Finding that she was also able to listen to people's troubles as she worked Corrala soon became the one that everyone went to for advice, and she soon gained a reputation for being knowledgeable especially in matters of leadership and medicine. In her spare time Corrala does some decorative gardening, sewing, and reads as many books as she can find. + |
| Corrigan Grayhope + | As one of several sons of Kelda Grayhope, Corrigan wanted for little as a boy. His mother was ambitious to improve the social and financial affairs of the family and she threw herself into doing that, enhancing the Grayhopes' position in the merchant class by hook or by crook. The emphasis was on the crook; by the time Corrigan was 13, he knew way too much about the borders between the Upper Boroughs and the Lower, and by the time he was 15, he'd already been a drug runner for several smuggling operations. Kelda was firmly ensconced in selling legitimate wares and laundering money for the family business. Corrigan was involved in literally everything. When he was nineteen, he ran afoul of the Inquisition tracking down dirt on Kelda, and a particularly clever and rather surly Inquisitor offered Corrigan a choice, an out: information in exchange for an absence of the less than savory methods the Inquisition might bring to bear. His subornment was mild at first. He turned over information in dribs and drabs, never enough to tip off the family or really enough to do much for the Inquisition. But treachery is a slippery slope, and his ability to burn the candle at both ends ended pretty sharply and sourly a few years into the proposition. Unable to make more traditional charges stick on Kelda when she disavowed all connection to everything even under torture, the Inquisition ultimately took Kelda as a witch for violating Limerance's Fourth Law. Ultimately, Corrigan's internal cover was compromised and he was forced to choose which life would be his: the investigator's life, taking confessions, or the criminal's, avoiding them. It was a complicated decision that he reached, but with a family that would not take him back, Corrigan chose to crusade against his own former life instead. + |
| Corwin Sanna + | A love match, rather than a strictly political marriage, brought a Blackram woman to take the name Sanna and move into the Redrain fealty. On paper, Peyton Blackram secured the use of some minor mountain causeway for trade that would extend Sanna's reach through the winter, but outside of the official story everyone knew that the marriage was going to happen or a bastard was going to a stain. So it was that just a week after the vows had been said, Peyton and Benedikt welcomed their baby boy, Corwin, into the world. They said from the start he could scream loud enough to start an avalanche. When it came to his lessons, things involving reading were not high on Corwin's list. Once he learned how to get out of those lessons, usually by sneaking or just not showing up, he tended to go missing at least four times out of ten. He hated being indoors, and the tutors never wanted to be out of doors. It was, really, just a match asking to fail. When it came to going with Benedikt on a hunt, or working with a weaponsmaster, or learning to stalk a beast, that's when Corwin paid attention. The outdoors, the thrill of tracking something, of catching it, gavae him something that made his blood stir. And on the days when he was really on his game, the wind seemed to always be at his front, keeping his scent away from the prey and making his cloak billow dramatically. As he grew, it became clear that Corwin was not going to be learned, merely adeequate. He was, instead, destined for the life of a ranger. He'd spend his days out of doors, leading hunting parties, skirmishing with shavs, tracking warbands to relay back to the armies. And as long as he was outside, he was perfectly fine. Now he's been summoned to Arx and he's about to find out just host much outdoor camping one can do in a city. + |
| Cosette Nightgold + | Born into a large family, there was never a dull moment for Cosette. She grew up with two older brothers and a slew of cousins in the mountains. Her father kept busy with the other mountain men, and her mother kept busy with the family when she wasn't doing work as an apothecary. Cosette was always interested in plants and minerals, and it was only natural for the girl to grow up learning apothecary skills from her mother. She learned about medicines and poisons, and she also dabbled in making other off-the-wall potions. 'Love' potions? 'Truth' potions? Whether or not they truly work, she always enjoyed creating new mixtures and tinctures for others. Once she became older Cosette decided she wanted to make the trip to Arx to see what it was like. She heard she had several cousins there, and would find a home with her extended family as she tried to make a name for herself as an apothecary. + |
| Cosimo Tessere + | Cosimo is what most noble parents would consider the spare, the next legitimate child behind the groomed heir. He wasn't present for the scandal that followed the birth of his illegitimate sister, Nurie, nor the collapse of his father's House - but these events left an indelible mark on his upbringing. He was neither the favored child nor the favored sibling, and was often left to his own devices in the care of the household servants. It was both a bane and a boon: his parents did not foist high expectations onto him and he largely remained out of their crossfire, but books and tutors did not always make for great socializing. He excelled in his studies as a youth and remained intellectually curious. Medicine, language, the occult, and even musical composition piqued his interest. He was closer to his father when he was around, who was notably more cerebral than his wife. As he grew from a gangly teenager into an independent adult, he gradually realized that complete knowledge requires more than just reading a book. While his sister spent her time at Fortezza di Iriscal learning how to rule alongside their capricious mother and half-sister, Cosimo traversed across the continent in search of answers to some of the mysteries he found within their library, some of which involved the roots of his own family. Peripheral politics on the outskirts of his childhood were largely ignored... until the Countess was murdered. He has accompanied his family to Arx to assist with the investigation, and with whatever else may come their way. + |
| Costas Voducce + | Born Costas Voducce, the young third son of an unexceptional minor house expected only to live a life of relative obscurity tallying casks of wine and bolts of silk in one dusty counting house or another. His parents, notorious misers not much beloved by their liege or peers, spent little time on the twice-redundant son, boarding him at a series of schools only to ensure that he would not become an economic burden on the lineage. It had been three years since he had seen his family when he received word from his sister that the family was relocating their interests to a more favorable location in the Saffron Chain and that his brothers had decided he need not hasten to join them until his studies were complete. She begged him to join her so that their greedy brothers could be prevented from squandering the family fortune. All he need do was secure a ship to meet them mid-voyage along the secret route they had travelled together as youngsters on their family's ships. She had even arranged a ship.% So it was that Costas Voducce brought ruin to his house. The ship he rushed to board, eager to reclaim a place in his family, was a pirate vessel. It did not occur to him to ask why, if his sister had secured the ship, she had not also provided the destination. A helpful Costas was eager to assist. It was not until the flags of his family's company were spotted that the pirates raised their own, and he was tossed in the hold. After the battle, he was tortured for five days before they were satisfied that he had no more information that could be made into a profit. He would have been dumped overboard there, throat slit, save for that the ship's navigator pointed out that he could use a man who knew letters if they were to command a fleet of prize ships. For three years Costas swabbed decks, cooked meals, and copied endless nautical directives for ships in the pirate fleet. Never fully accepted into the crew, he was subject to routine beatings. When after one particularly rough drubbing Costas sustained a fractured arm that put him off his work for weeks, the navigator decided to begin training him in the sword so that he might defend himself. He took to it quickly, finding a talent completely unlooked-for and a sense of confidence he had never known. When three months later their ship was attacked by a rival band of pirates, Costas killed four himself. Though he was not added to the marines despite his skill, owing to his value as a navigator, he would be force to repeat the act many more times over the next four years. While it was not a life full of much happiness Costas had come to accept his place, just as it was upended one more time. On a cold and moonless night, while seeking quarry closer than ever before to the southern ports, a patrol of Malvici pirate hunters caught them in a bad wind and a fierce battle ensued. Faced for the first time with the prospect of having to fight someone that wasn't a pirate, he made the decision to try to flee in a dinghy. Magata had other plans. A storm rose up during the height of the attack and he was quickly capsized as the engaged ships battered against one another in a cacophany of splintering wood. When he next awoke, it was to the prodding spears of Malvici bannermen who found him floating among the wreckage. He would have been put to the death there, had not one of them spotted the seal of a noble house on the simple leather strip he wore around his neck. Though long since dispossessed of its lands and titles, the name of Voducce would have a final grace to extend to its last scion. + |
| Courage Pie + | Stanley 'Courage' Pie was born a farmer, lived a farmer and would probably have died a farmer on Fidante land if it wasn't for the Valorous Few recruiter who came through his village. He was the only one to join up, and his reason had absolutely nothing to do with being sick of being the butt of everyone's jokes and wanting to get away from it all. No sir. + |
| Cristoph Laurent + | 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. + |
| Cufre Harrow + | With ancestors who were Prodigal and growing up in the Lower Boroughs, life was far from easy for Cufre. Despite the hardships that the family faced, her ancestors and older siblings did willingly serve the Crown in the form of the Iron Guard. Her great-grandfather, grandfather, grandmother, all the way down to Felicia older sister Amantha. Service has been something which the family has conducted with stringent adherence to the simple concept: to integrate and find acceptance, one must be willing to serve. And serve the family has, for a number of generations in concurrence. Cufre did not choose to follow in the family tradition of service in the Iron Guard, but instead recently opened a shop in the Lower Burroughs known as the Heart of Glass Glaziers, her 'service' more private in terms of trying to improve the family's fortune. This does not mean she is without aspirations, particularly with Death's rediscovery and admission into the Pantheon, the youngest Harrow sister finds herself increasingly intrigued with the Harlequin's of Death and service to Death in particular. + |
| Cullen Greenmarch + | The only son and eldest child of Alda and Malcolm Greenmarch Cullen was raised to be a proud warrior of the Greenwood Abandoned fighting against the oppressive House Valardin and the Compact. Or at least he was supposed to, but that all changed when his tribe bent the knee and became House Greenmarch of Greenhaven. When he was twenty his family made their first trip to Sanctum. There he was introduced to the Oathlands Knights that he had been raised to war with, and developed a great appreciation for their culture. Chivalry and the Knighthood were of particular interest to Cullen, and he embraced it wholeheartedly. He was even the first Knight his cousin the newly minted Marquis of Greenmarch made, in fact. Still, Cullen honors his families' culture, and he seeks compromise between his love of Oathlands chivalry and his family. He has not abandoned his family or their ways, and instead sees himself as adapting to new ways. + |
| Curran Grayhope + | Curran was a bastard in a noble house in Arx, probably one of the Lycene ones, but he wasn't an important bastard. He was somebody's servant sleeping around trying to get a leg up on her employer for blackmail purposes, but she miscalculated because he didn't care. She was fired and she took her son to the Lower Boroughs, where she worked at the Murder for the Grayhopes, and her son was underfoot all of the time. He helped cook and clean from when he was old enough to hold a rag, but not like he was beaten into it. More like he was interested in sticking his nose where it wasn't wanted. It was not an ideal childhood. A low, scraggly little rat in the Boroughs, he developed a knack for creeping into corners, a light-fingered little punk who found trinkets where he could and shadows wherever he looked for them. Curran got old enough to get into real scraps and that meant he got old enough to get himself into trouble. He punched somebody he shouldn't have, but the Grayhopes liked his mother, so they looked out for him, too, and he wound up 'employed' by the 'organization', learning from spies how to be quiet. There's plenty of fine, fancy family folk, but Curran's who any of the family call when they need something shifty done on the quiet. + |
| Cutlin Moss + | Cutlin Moss has served the Deepwood since his birth, as did his father and his father before him. And, like all of them before him, he served as a scout and ranger. Few know the wild lands like the Moss do, and few are as comfortable in it. Cutlin began serving on long-range scouting missions and hunting at a young age, and he was trained well by his father and his elder sister. Eventually he fell in love with another commoner (A woman by the name of Bianca), and they married. They had a son, and two years later a set of female twins. His wife and eldest son were eventually killed in a skirmish with pirates while they were on a trip to the coast eight years ago, and he has raised his daughters alone since. Now, in the wake of the siege, he has been called to aid the Deepwood closer to Arx, though he already misses the deep wild. + |
| Cybele Frost + | There are places past Whitehold, in the Everwinter, where night starts and then continues for several months before the sun rises again. Where midsummer means the sun stays in the sky until autumn comes. Where the stars wear ribbons to dance at night, shimmering across the sky in celebration of life and creation. The Children of the Sun and Moon are a Shar'avani tribe leading a semi-nomadic style along the tundras far north, following the yearly trails of their pray and returning to their ancestral homes at roughly the same times of the years. The Children divide themselves into those who hunt , gather and raid(Sun) and those who take care of the homesteads (Moon), which led to a ritualised set of roles in their society. Mostly, Sun and Moon arise along gender lines, but overlap is common, and a Child of the Sun is a Child of the Sun by their own declaration, rather than any accident of birth. So it also goes for the Children of the Moon. Cybele was born among the Children, and was a fey child prone to dreamings and wanderings that could land a youngling in trouble. With declarations of fealty to both the Sun and the Moon, it wasn't long before Cybele's parents sent their youngest off to the ones that stood apart. The Walkers Inbetween. Cybele, after all, was approaching an age of maturity, and would need to declare to the day or the night, to the Sun or the Moon. To the hunt, or the hearth. Except... Not. The Walkers Inbetween were the crossers of boundaries, a shamanistic tradition embracing transgression in many things - including gender and gendered expressions. Imbibers of alchemical potions to shift the balance in their bodies, and granted power by their unique position, never belonging but always in place. So when Cybele was asked to choose between Sun and Moon, Cybele choose neither. Taking the third option, and guiding the Children while standing apart, like others had done before. The Apprenticeship was long and full of secrets - there are things in the Everwinter that Arvum - and the Compact - rarely hears about. What came next came as a shock and a disappointment to Cybele's tribe. After the final test, and being declared a Walker, the newly-blooded shaman picked up what meagre belongings had been gifted over the years, and walked south. Cybele was nearly killed by house Halfshav, but eventually they were convinced of the Abandoned's earnestness, and accepted a prodigal oath. Since then, Cybele has continued south. And now, the shaman is in Arx. It will be a grand adventure. + |
| Cydra Corroda + | She was born an only child in the City of Arx to a poor family, her mother being a tavern maid and her father being a dock worker. It was a difficult life growing up, getting her in to a lot of scrapes and trouble with the law - much to the frustration of her parents. She wasn't bad - simply headstrong and willful - but those two traits tended to rub the wrong people the wrong way. She helped her father at the docks loading and unloading heavy crates, far preferring that to the tiring social setting of a tavern, but she didn't have hope of much of a future beyond the simple life her parents have. Wanting much more than to be poor and pregnant, she hopped at the chance to join Arx's military, serving several years as a common man-at-arms. + |
| Cynara + | Background + |
| Cyril Melaeris + | Born as the youngest of three brothers, Cyril grew up in the seat of House Melaeris. He was not content to stay there, having a deep love for the sea and sailing. Many of his early teenage years were spent learning the ins and outs of various types of ships or tagging along on raiding parties. The fighting itself was never a draw but the journey was. That changed, when he reached his early twenties. An accident during a storm left Cyril crippled, with family worried that the Lord might die. While confined to bed, Cyril's mother fretted and fussed over him--she wasn't a Thrax. She didn't buy Tears in our Wake not at Our Wake. So each day she would come to him and leave books, tell him of courtly gossip, and of politics. She'd been a lawyer, a Lycene woman and a Mirrormask. As a child, she'd taught him to question everything--to think before acting. And though at first he resisted, seeing the law and economics as woman's work, she taught Cyril to adore the social arena. His father and brothers quietly disapproved. More traditionalist Thrax openly gossiped. Cyril ignored them, carrying on to become both a lawyer and later a member of various trading organizations. His love for the ocean never quite abated but the Lord has stead-fastly refused to board a ship except in cases of dire need. It was a bit of a shock in fact, when he arrived to Arx in order to support his niece. + |
| Cyrus Laurent + | Much like the modest roots of the House Laurent, Cyrus was not born exceptionally high in his family or siblings. A third sibling, there wasn't much heavy responsibilities already expected of him. Instead he turned his sights towards a classical training of sword and pen so that he might one day become a Knight to aid his family and the people. As he studied and trained, he found a calling for the Goddess Gloria and the teachings of chivalry grow stronger and stronger until he started to add the teachings of the faith to his daily lessons. while he had no issues juggling his studies, it became clear that his passion for his faith was strongest among them. As he grew into a pious man, he had foregone any serious considerations of marriage and instead turned his time and efforts towards protecting the people and the Faith wherever and whenever he was needed. + |
D | |
| Dacian Krosse + | Hailing from a family of level headed merchants, Dacian was afforded the opportunity to travel from an early age. With tutors on board his parents' ships, he was also quite well read from an early age - after all there was hardly ever anything else to do on the ships. Boredom and curiosity made him look forward to the trips ashore with his parents where he learned the family trade first hand from both of his parents. He can boast that by the time he was 18, he had seen every domain on the sea or waterways through the Compact. He's met many beautiful men and women and learned about many cultures and what each domain had to offer, and needed in return. He was expected to make himself a fine life for himself carrying on the family business. Except by the time he was 18 he felt the call of the wilderness and took to hunting. Of course this supplemented the family's business in perfect compliment. He would disappear for a month or two at a time and reappear with only the best pelts for sale. His path took a slight turn when an abandoned island was taken over by the Compact. Intrigued, he visited the island and was one of the most -if not THE most- successful merchant of Elune. He quickly adapted to the needs and desires of the traders there and after only a few short months decided to make it his home and base of operations. He still travels these days of course, but his primary focus is building his empire on Estroch and travels between Elune and Arx now when the financial forecast is just right. + |
| Daemon Dracone + | Daemon Dracone was born into a Knightly retainer family of the Oathlands. From a young age he was made to follow in his own ancestor's footsteps to walk the path of a Knight, swearing to codes of honors and learning the way of sword and horse-riding. Several years were spent with his nose buried in textbooks of etiquette and training with sword and shield all the while. Never a moment of his childhood was spent with play, always in practice and martial training. One might think that such ardous childhood would lead to a rather hard and cynical child, but by some anomaly the opposite became true. Daemon was a bright and happy child even through the demands of his family's desire to hone him into another proud and rigorous member of their ilk. He performed with flying colors without a single complaint. Some still believe he might just be holding it all in for one disastrous meltdown. For some years the rumor of the Dracone's extinction began to build in the circles they frequented. After his father's disappearance, Daemon set off on a voyage away from Arvum and before long the letters stopped coming in. It didn't exactly make a large splash in the history books though, they'd always been minor and unlanded with their most significant feature being their loyalty to Valardin. But then one day, Daemon resurfaced on board a merchant ship that had settled into Arx's harbor. His disappearance having been a quest to find where his family had disappeared to, a quest that he had failed at. It's a burden he freely admits is his deepest regret, the one stain he'd never be able to repeal from his duties. + |
| Dafne Rubino-Zaffria + | Dafne was born to the younger sister, Cerese, of Duke Marco; she is first cousin to Lady Sylvie Zaffria and technically, her heir. Although in general an overlooked member of that powerful family, she has been sent to Arx in hopes she may be of assistance to her cousins. Well. Her parents are also hoping it may help Dafne gain some worldly wisdom and social polish--not to mention cure of her of a certain fascination with the darker side of life. + |
| Dag Frost + | Dag was born a poor farmer's son in one of the most inhospitable lands in Arvum: The Northlands. Though his tiny village is on few maps, they were always loyal to House Redrain and the Compact and enjoyed a relative modicum of safety. For most of his life, Dag expected he would always be a farmer, taking on his father's lands when he eventually passed. What he had not anticipated was that his father, exhausted and disillusioned by years of labor for little reward, arranged for his son to be apprenticed to the local blacksmith in an effort to give him a better life. At first Dag was reluctant, but he soon found himself taking to the craft with a passion he had never before experienced. Though tales of heroic knights in impenetrable armor wielding legendary blades against monstrous enemies had never really gripped Dag the way it had other boys his age, he found himself more and more drawn to the idea of being the man who made one of those mythical suits of armor. Dag was soon so enthralled by this dream, he poured himself completely into his work, laboring night and day at his master's forge until, before he knew it, he was a man grown with a formidable knowledge of smithing. The little village had no need of two blacksmiths so Dag, taking the humble gifts his family and master provided to him, set out to find his own place in the world. His travels took him all over the Northern realms, into mountain strongholds and humble townships similar to his own. Though he traveled a dangerous road, the strength he earned at the anvil proved useful as he learned to wield his hammer not just to create, but to defend himself from bandits and the Abandoned. Along the way he honed his craft, often stopping to lend a hand in forges all over the Northlands to fund his travels. Sometimes he'd spend months at a time out in the wilds, almost always moving forward, seeking secrets of smithing and metalworking anywhere he could find them. Finally, after traversing hundreds of circuitous miles and spending years on the road, he turned his sights towards Arx to finally make a name for himself. + |
| Dagny Stahlben + | Life has not always been easy at the Bonespire, there is constant skirmishes, constant guarding against the dangers that come from the Everwinter. When Dagny was young she would sit at her grandmother's feet, soaking up the frighting tales of things that lurked out beyond the Bonespire, waiting in the icy cold snow of the Everwinter. Stories that gave her nightmares as a young child, and turned her attention towards the more esoteric of things as an adult, always interested in death, the bones, the spirits. Rumor has it that when her grandmother died she refused to say goodbye to her for good, and kept a small piece of her. But that was surely just a rumor about a child that was a little more dark and creepy then some. As she grew older she turned her attention to studying with her father, learning to fight in the defense of her family and allies. After the Silent War and the decimation of her family, she left the Bonespire with a promise that one day she'd come back, and be able to save them. It was the childish assertions of a young woman that had never really lived in the wider world, or understood that there is not ever really any saving that is possible. Not overall, just a method of keeping as many people as possible alive, and defeating as many of the enemy as possible while doing it. About six months before her appearance in Arx she returned to the Bonespire, although most say that while she was there she didn't talk to many people. Kept to herself. But she started hunting for her grandmother's things, looking for something. Evidently she found it, because she left for Arx looking satisfied about something. + |
| Dagon Thrax + | Prince Dagon Thrax, heir to the House Thrax and future Prince of Maelstrom, is not what most Thrax expected and very few wanted. Most in House Thrax are weaned upon tales of hard men in hard times, pragmatic men who brutally do anything necessary for victory. Dagon's father Elton was instead a more gentle sort, much to the consternation and disappointment of Dagon's grandfather, Prince Donrai Thrax, who is every bit as brutal and ruthless as any Thraxian vassal could hope for. But Prince Elton was a quiet dreamer who raised Dagon upon tales of knighthood, chivalry and honor, hoping to not have a brutish reaver as a son, though it is doubtful he ever could have suspected how closely his lessons would have been taken to heart. Dagon grew up a true idealist, one who is determined to change the way that House Thrax is perceived and rule with honor, dignity, compassion and justice... much to the consternation of many of his fellows in House Thrax. After his father's death during the House Tyde rebellion, the very young Dagon dedicated himself to knightly ideals. He -never- lies and is visibly uncomfortable with anything like a half-truth, and takes honesty to a fault. He is unfailingly polite in a true courtly fashion, standing in marked contrast to the crass way his fellows comport themselves in House Thrax, though he never attempts to shame them and conducts himself with the quiet humility that doesn't pass judgment on his fellows. He is dedicated to the defense of the weak and helpless, taking this to the old fashioned and romanticized ideal as a defender of women, and placing great value on chastity and purity. He does, however, take his vows of loyalty and service to his family extremely seriously, and while he might wish to reform the House and address its injustices, he takes a measured and honorable approach that does not ever risk breaking any of his sacred vows. His honor is that of the diligent paragon so rarely seen in House Thrax, and while he might work to further the ends of a House often seen as heartless or cruel, he hopes to eventually win over the doubters. + |
| Dagon Tyde + | Most in House Thrax are weaned upon tales of hard men in hard times, pragmatic men who brutally do anything necessary for victory. Dagon’s father Elton was instead a more gentle sort, much to the consternation and disappointment of Dagon’s grandfather, Prince Donrai Thrax, who is every bit as brutal and ruthless as any Thraxian vassal could hope for. But Prince Elton was a quiet dreamer who raised Dagon upon tales of knighthood, chivalry and honor, hoping to not have a brutish reaver as a son, though it is doubtful he ever could have suspected how closely his lessons would have been taken to heart. Dagon grew up a true idealist, one who is determined to change the way that House Thrax is perceived… much to the consternation of many of his fellows in Maelstrom. After his father’s death during the House Tyde rebellion, the very young Dagon dedicated himself to knightly ideals. He -never- lies and is visibly uncomfortable with anything like a half-truth: he takes honesty to a fault. He is unfailingly polite in a true courtly fashion, standing in marked contrast to the crass way his fellows comport themselves in House Thrax, though he never attempts to shame them conducts himself with the quiet humility that doesn’t pass judgement on his fellows. He is dedicated to the defense of the weak and helpless, taking this to the old fashioned and romanticized ideal as a defender of women, while placing a great value on purity. In the year 1006, Donrai Thrax died under mysterious circumstances, leaving the seat of High Lord of Maelstrom open for the rightful heir, Dagon Thrax, to take. However, it was not to be. Prince Victus Thrax challenged Dagon to a duel to the death for the right to rule. Accepting, as is honorable, Dagon lost that duel -- and with it, his inheritance. Victus spared Dagon his life, and that very night Dagon bent the knee to High Lord Victus Thrax, on the single condition that he would be given Margot Tyde’s hand in marriage. This came as a shock to many in Arvum. After all, the Tyde Rebellion had killed thousands in Maelstrom, including Dagon’s father. To Dagon though, it seemed the best way to make good on the wishes of both Elton Thrax and Titus Tyde, and find peace within Maelstrom under the new regime. Now Duke Tyde, Dagon has renounced his claims to his birthright, and instead serves as Sword, and protector of Maelstrom, while commanding the northern head of the Leviathan as Voice, under his wife Duchess Margot Tyde. + |
| Dairen Wyrmguard + | Of no remarkable height or strength, coupled with a more introverted mind and love of artistry, it was almost a blessing that he had three other siblings with a more appropriately martial bent. This allowed him to focus more on learning to help run the household and studying markets, much more suited to his more scholarly inclination. He is devoted beyond most to family, and will defend even those he has the most frictious relation to to his dying breath. What started as an interest in armor became a full blown interest in armor making, then swords, then the working of fine metals for ornamentation of more practical pieces, though he still considers himself more steward than smith. + |
| Dalsam recently disowned from a wealthy merchant family + | Dalsam was born to a pair of wealthy merchants under House Grayson. They were the youngest of four siblings, and as the quietest of them, their parents rarely paid Dalsam any mind. He spent much of his childhood reading. As he grew, he left the house more. He was naturally curious, talking with all sorts of new people. He picked up writing around this time, obsessively telling stories about what he'd seen. He began to publish his works, and his parents remained content to leave him to his own devices. However, it was around this time that Dalsam began to get into trouble; they'd developed a disregard for the rules of polite society. After a series of scandals - notably, publishing a vulgar satire about the Crown - their parents took notice. They disowned Dalsam, effectively leaving them an exile. In the time since, they've been homeless, traveling around Arvum without much purpose. + |
| Damaris Arenir + | In less than a generation, Damaris Arenir has gone from her grandfather's farm in the hills of central Arvum to walking the halls of some of the greatest noble families of the land. It's a rise that would be dizzying if she stopped to long to think about it -- but fortunately, she excels at not thinking too much about uncomfortable things. Her mother Alysse was a sheepfarmer's daughter who ran away from home to fight for House Bisland during the campaigns against the Shav incursions. Not the most auspicious start, but she proved to be a good soldier, and, when she had the opportunity, she turned out to be a /great/ soldier. The Duke of Pridehall himself tapped her shoulders with his sword and made her a knight, and, when Alysse perished in his service, he repaid her for her loyalty by making sure her young daughter would be trained as a knight in turn. Damaris has done everything in her power to avoid giving him reason to regret it. She's worked hard at every turn to make herself into something her mother would be proud of. Whatever she's asked to do, she does, and, if she's ever said a word against the Duke, his family, or his lieges in House Grayson, she's done so where no one could hear her. If you didn't know any better, her manners and her fighting skills are polished enough that you might think she was born to knighthood. But she knows better, and she never forgets it. + |
| Damiana Valardin + | Damiana was born in a line of heroes who seldom married outside the Valardin or Wyrmguard families, at least until Prince Sherrod Redrain and Prince Radley Valardin decided to marry her parents in an effort to ease the tensions between the Oathlands and the North. A full year of courtship later and Princess Larra Redrain married Prince Lyonis Valardin. Their story of duty and, some say, even love, saw the birth of three children and ended in the Sanctum decades later with the Tragedy. Growing up there was no girl as lovable than Damiana, someone who could sit a table with her peers and be the heart of their fun, or take a seat with the adults and appeal to people from all directions of the Compact. She had a knack for figuring out people, finding their hearts and worming her way in, and while she trained her swordarm and to ride on horseback, it was clear her path laid outside the battlefield and in the courts. There were even talks of having the young woman join the Whisper House for a life of peacekeeping within the Compact, but with so many marriage proposals flying in Damiana and her mother did not rush to any one decision too fast. Even though she did fight with Emma, who though Damiana was too vapid; and Gwenys, who Damiana thought was too uncivilized, Damiana was in no rush to leave her family to go anywhere, her whole life ahead of her and teeming with potential. That same potential, and her life, came crashing down with the Tragedy. Damiana doesn't talk about the Tragedy, not ever, but what little is known is that she was found crawling among the corpses, bloodied and blind. She had no wounds on her that would account for the loss of her sight but the woman cried copiously, and locked in darkness not many gave Damiana a fighting chance. For weeks she remained in a dark room in isolation until confirmation that her sisters Gwenys and Emma had also survived, but what Damiana herself thought of it all remained a mystery. What is known is that despite many loyal servants and even family members writing the once-adorable Damiana off, believing she did not have it in her to overcome her new condition and all the losses, the Princess rebounded quite well. Maybe too well. In Sanctum none of her peers saw her shed further tears for her parents, and she plunged herself to work, filling the void left behind by other deceased Valardin. Along with stewards and economists she worked tirelessly to bring the House from the brink, and many say that is what has given her purpose since. With the rallying cry of the Dragon banners to fight in Skal'daja and Emma's summons to Arx, Damiana joined the family there, now completely transformed from winsome socialite into a dangerously cunning politician. The Valardin do not have the fame of breeding many of those, and the other Houses think honor is a detriment to diplomacy, but Damiana takes no heed of other Houses' worries. The dragon does not listen to Foxes, Badgers, Bears, Sins, Serpents or anything but itself. The dragon soars alone. + |
| Damik Uhl'daja + | For most people in the Compact, the name 'Skal'daja' means little to nothing, with the Dune Kingdoms of Eurus blending together as a vague awareness of foreign nations far to the east across the Mourning Sea. The Crown Prince of Skal'daja, Prince Damik'uhl'daja would very much hope to change that. Son of current Grand Vizier Rayik'uhl'daja and nephew of former Grand Vizier Rel'Khan, Damik was raised with the expectation that he would one day come to rule the City of Chains. Often at odds with the rest of his family and troubled with the traditions of the city and the war on Eurus, he was nonetheless put in command of the great fleet sent to punish Arvum. Once he met with Arvani shortly before arriving in Sungreet, he shocked even his supporters when he suggested allying with the Arvani instead... and then managed to survive an assassination attempt by forces commanded by his brothers. The Eurusi forces splintered, with Damik leading forces loyal to him to the aid of the Compact, while his brothers continued with their plans to attack Arvum. And now Damik looks to possibly join the Compact, and provide a bridge for their ambitions in Eurus. + |
| Damon Wyrmguard + | Damon has always seemed bound and determined to defy the path laid out for him. He was exactly the kind of son any militant noble family dreams of having. He was strong, ridiculously attractive, talented with a sword, and combined the charisma of a promising young leader with the good natured affability that guaranteed he'd be liked. He was, in other words, the perfect spare second child to marry off for political gain or the beloved spare to the heir that could be reckless enough to win true renown on the field. But despite his talent and how well he acquitted himself while training to be a knight, the young man stunned his father by insisting that he wished to be a Scholar of Vellichor, that his true passion was learning and protecting knowledge, and that he had no desire to be the next great knight. While most houses of the Oathlands, House Wyrmguard included, have great respect for the Scholars of Vellichor, Marquis Denis Wyrmguard did not take the news well. Stopping just short of disowning his son, the trained knight traveled to Arx to study with the Scholars of Vellichor, his previous training allowing him to act as one of the Knights of the Archive, the armed guardians that safeguard the knowledge of the Compact. Since the tragic death of his father during the Tragedy at Sanctum, Damon has ended his semi-estrangement with his family and reunited with his sisters, determined to help aid the family while continuing his studies as a scholar-knight. + |
| Danae Russo + | Danae grew up in a rather poor family in Southport. Because of this she learned the art of making a deal. When you don't have a lot of silver you need to stretch each one as far as possible. She had the reputation of being a tough child, who was never intimidated or backed down from anything. When it came time to serve southport in the military, she was beyond reluctant at first. Her parents agreed to have her start her training at the age of twelve in the hope that she would find a better life than they could offer her. She had to literally be taken, fighting the whole way. This only hardened Damae further. However, eventually she grew to enjoy her time in the military. She had a new family, countless brothers and sister in arms. Better yet she found out she was good at it. So she decided to dedicate her life to military service, a way of thanking the Malvici family for providing her with a good life and purpose. Eventually it became obvious that Danae's equipment was always better than everyone elses around her. Once the higher ups learned about her uncanny ability to make deals and get supplies, she was made one of the supply officers for the whole of the Southport military, a position which she flourished in. Due to all of the recent troubles in the compact, Sgt. Russo was asked to come to Arx to ensure the Malvici forces are ready to go at a moments notice. + |
| Daniella Velenosa + | The youngest daughter of her family for some time, Daniella was naturally rather doted on, and grew to like it perhaps a touch too much. When she started to grow a little less adorable, she compensated by putting on little shows for her family, speeches, plays, sometimes songs or dances although she wasn't a terribly gifted singer or musician. Over the years she convinced her parents to obtain her a string of different tutors, each time declaring that shed found her one true vocation. All of them were entertaining in nature, mummers, acrobatics, storytellers, models and even duelists, but she had significant trouble staying motivated in any one discipline. She eventually decided to just dabble in everything and continued in that vein until witnessing the trial of a traitor while attending court at Lenosia. Quite taken with the skillful elocution of the traitor's lawyer she decided that this might be a valuable use for her talents and to everyones surprise actually stuck with it long enough to become a reasonably capable attorney, although her penchant for arguing cases from the most exciting and dramatic angle possible seemed sure to keep her from ever becoming truly great. + |
| Danielle Valardin + | Her great grandfather was a part of the line of succession in the house, if only just. Technically, Edain is a distant great uncle, but she is closer related to Ectorion, in their respective distance from any sort of inheritance or succession, his mother Lyllindyl being her aunt. Her father died fighting the forces of Tolamar Brand. Her mother died during childbirth. She has half a dozen or so half brothers and sisters from her father's later marriage. She idolized the man, and took to learning a weapon from the time she was old enough to hold one, quick to emulate her childhood hero. Her own training only recently came to any sort of formal conclusion and then only because she was so anxious to be done with learning and get on to the doing! More than any other God, her dedication is to Limerance. Though she does love the idea of love, it is more because of the importance of oaths, the reliability and accountability meaning more than any romantic elements. Of late, with the Compact seemingly teetering on the edge of war, she's come to the Capital, with the hopes to find glory on the front lines of battle, even if it's the last thing she ever does. + |
| Dantaria Ulbran + | Dantaria was born into the Ulbran family, and took in the lessons of criminal life with her mother's milk. As a child she was often sickly, and rather than teach her the rough-and-tumble ways of the Ulbran rank-and-file, her parents had her taught the way of the socialite and the diplomat. A charming veneer over a heart as hard as stone, as adept with the language of flower and fan as she is with the language of the streets, Dantaria is something different, something elegant. And yet, an Ulbran to the core, Dantaria has always wanted more. Unlike many, she's been willing to bide her time to get it. + |
| Dante DiFidante + | Dante grew up alongside his cousin Leo in the city of Tor. Though only a few years younger, theirs was a brotherly bond forged in steel. From the time Dante was old enough to hold a sword, he knew he had found his passion in life and instantly fell in love. His days consisted of eating, training, and sleeping and more training when he could fit the time in. Dante idolized Leo who has always been more like an older brother than a cousin. When Leo was sent off to live, practice and train with the Valardins, Dante begged and pleaded until he too followed in Leo's footsteps. Their welcome home a couple of years later was not so pleasant. Things were changing quickly for Leo's family and Dante watched every bit of horrendous ordeal from the sidelines. The very moment Leo declared war on Lucien and on Southport, Dante was there to defend his cousin, his family, and his city. There was no question as to where his loyalty rested. Now, there were other Fidante's who believed Lucien's claim about Leo being illegitimate. Once Lucien was decimated on the battlefield and succumbed to his wounds, it was time to start rebuilding Tor to it's former glory. There was never a moment where Dante did not give all of himself to the cause. It pained him to watch Leo fight not only the enemy in Southport, but also the enemy at home since Lucien was able to convince other Fidante family members to believe his lies. After many years of battling alongside his cousin, Leo named Dante Sword of Tor. It is an honor Dante takes seriously. + |
| Dante Fidante + | Dante grew up alongside his cousin Leo in the city of Tor. Though only a few years younger, theirs was a brotherly bond forged in steel. From the time Dante was old enough to hold a sword, he knew he had found his passion in life and instantly fell in love. His days consisted of eating, training, and sleeping and more training when he could fit the time in. Dante idolized Leo who has always been more like an older brother than a cousin. When Leo was sent off to live, practice and train with the Valardins, Dante begged and pleaded until he too followed in Leo's footsteps. Their welcome home a couple of years later was not so pleasant. Things were changing quickly for Leo's family and Dante watched every bit of horrendous ordeal from the sidelines. The very moment Leo declared war on Lucien and on Southport, Dante was there to defend his cousin, his family, and his city. There was no question as to where his loyalty rested. Now, there were other Fidante's who believed Lucien's claim about Leo being illegitimate. Once Lucien was decimated on the battlefield and succumbed to his wounds, it was time to start rebuilding Tor to it's former glory. There was never a moment where Dante did not give all of himself to the cause. It pained him to watch Leo fight not only the enemy in Southport, but also the enemy at home since Lucien was able to convince other Fidante family members to believe his lies. After many years of battling alongside his cousin, Leo named Dante Sword of Tor. It is an honor Dante takes seriously. + |
| Danvir Ravenseye + | Born in January 12, to Robert Ravenseye, Danvir Ravenseye leads an enjoyable life that has always mixed the wild life with the life of a noble. Perhaps it is his fiery red hair, but Danvir Ravenseye showed that he could hold his ground with his favorite weapon: an axe. As he grew he started studying the Family trade: sailing. With this he also had to study economics, the art of war and of course how to be a succesful diplomat. But that was not the only thing Danvir was studying. He also started studies in the occult and he firmly believes in Shamanism, so much so that he does tend to pay his respects to the spirts. And perhaps that has aided him in becoming a better man as he aged. When he hit his eighteen years, he told his loving dad that it was time for him to put the Raveseye name on the nautical maps. And with the blessing of the spirits and his father, he took of to the Compact, intent on increasing his knowledge as well as serving the Northern noble houses better. Some are surprised when this fiery red headed young man speaks about his love for the sea, so much that others think he is from Thrax. That could not be further from the truth. He is a Ravenseye, through and through. + |
| Dara Agassi + | The wealthy like to be entertained, and one of those entertainments in Petrioch were the grand carnivals full of animals from all over taught to do tricks. 'More amusing the the slaves,' her master used to say sometimes, thinking himself clever, or that the slaves in earshot could not do anything about it. And maybe they couldn't but seethe. This was the life Dara was born into: the child of two slaves whose job it was to tend to the animals. Her mother a trainer, her father a healer, and her life one of a little of both. As the family traveled with their master, one of the wealthy but not one of the nobility, they would tend to the animals. And since they knew how to tend to the animals they often learned to tend to the people as well. A medic to one, a medic to another. When they would come back for the off season to reside in Petrioch again, Dara would sometimes get a chance to study under someone new. She was at least one that got to read and write, to keep records and learn to think for herself. Of course, learning to think for one's self can just make slavery worse. And learning your craft better? Well that just meant sometimes an abusive guard who found himself needing medical attention didn't always make it through the night. But the nicer ones usually did. It was pure luck Dara, too much trouble her master said, had been sold when they reached Skal'daja. And even better luck that she was placed on Prince Damik's fleet and found her way to Arvum. Left to her, Dara's going to do the only thing she knows to do: follow the rumors that Princesss Fatima is here and join the cause to free Petrioch. + |
| Darby Grayhope + | Poor families perpetuate across Arx and Darby was born to a mother who soon abandoned him with his charming scoundrel of a father. A large babe, then an imposing kid, he was bullying the neighborhood with gusto since he could spit in someone's general direction. Learning was for people who couldn't punch hard enough, and reading and writing fell aside before his other talents, most of which aren't very nice. He spent a life enforcing the wills of others, content to stand in the way of trouble, which has battered and mangled him. Fresh off a sour deal, the last man standing has come to Arx under the verbal impression that he's related to the Grayhopes and that hopefully they will fare better. + |
| Daria Mandragora + | Daria is one of the Mandragora, an Abandoned tribe that has claimed part of the woods along what the Compact recognizes as the Oathlands/Lycene border for generations. That claim and their allegiance shifted when Ruslan Volkov and his people bent the knee. They followed suit, swearing fealty to the Volkov, but little changed other than the family's claim on land being significantly reduced. Thus, Daria has known both lives, shav and prodigal, though for most of her life has known little difference between one and the other. As one of Mandragora's Whitefeather Scouts, she spent most of that life in those ancient woods, ranging north through the Oathlands and south into the Lyceum, paying far more attention to game trails than news from the capitols, either in Lenosia or in Arx. What use are those things to people of the woods? Everything changed in the winter of 1011, when a marauding army rolled through the woods. Her own people scattered before it like leaves in a gale wind. The Volkov weren't so fortunate and, to the last, were exterminated. Things were different afterward. The forest that had been as familiar to Daria as the back of her own hand was changed. Twisted. Scouts ventured into old parts and never returned. When the duchy of Fidante raised its cadet house, di Fidante, over the march the Mandragora were skeptical. Many wanted to return to their old ways, their old lives. Daria was among those who argued in favor of staying, of waiting, and when the new marquis and marquessa began to make progress in undoing what had been done, she urged her uncle to reach out to them and later reminded him of his vows of fealty. She spent most of the next year helping restore the land, freeing the land from the strange hold the woods'd taken upon them, and assisting the di Fidante with a number of their attempts to bring order back to the area. Now that things are getting back to normal, she sets her sights on Arx and the rest of the world. + |
| Darian Malespero + | Some people have rotten luck, and they crumble beneath the weight of all that bad luck. But not Darian. Despite being the youngest son of a now defunct and dead noble family he has never let these facts get him down. When he was young, roughly five or so as near as he can remember, his family as a whole was slaughtered. It was messy, and there was no pretense at hiding the fact they were kiled for a reason instead of it being just casual accidents. Darian could not tell you how it was he managed to survive, and escape, what was the ruins of the rest of his family. Eventually he resurfaced on another island, the ward of another noble family. THe knew he was an orphan, and although he wasn't treated badly he was not given all the nice trappings of the birth children of that family either. He worked for his keep, joining the family militia, training to be a soldier with them, even learning some ways of ship-board war when it was required. Despite all this hardship he remained positive, he new that one day he'd get what he was searching for. THe set sail with many of his brothers-in-arms to fight in Setarco, seeing things there that he would swear were not real if it had been months before. But he saw them, and it has opened his eyes to a great many things, a reality that life was once more changing for him. After the battles, during the clean up efforts he parted ways with the family that had sheltered him since he was a child, setting sail for Nilanza and the rumors that he heard about the remains of what was House Argento's holdings. It was there that he met the Marquessa, and was extended an invitation that seems impossible for him to refuse. Swearing his heart to the family, as well as his sword-arm, he went to work helping to rebuild, eventually sailing for Arx itself. + |
| Dariel Bisland + | Dariel is the progeny of Lady Kimbrielle Bisland -- cousin to the Regent Emeritus and Duke of Pridehall -- and Lord Darius Bisland nee Melaeris. The match was one quietly established as a means of funneling support into the isolated House Melaeris in recognition of their longstanding resistance to the practice of thralldom ...and probably also just another way of getting some jabs in at Donrai. Far removed from the ducal line of succession, Lord Dariel has had the privilege of riding the coattails of Bislands greater than himself ...and it shows. The only sense of duty he's ever felt obligated to fulfill has been that of his beauty regimen, which he (very selfishly) refuses to share with anybody else. If there is a flower blooming in the gardens that are House Bisland... it's Lord Dariel. Dariel's flock of admirers and penchant for catering to an audience came on fast. As such, 'celebrity' has always been the name of the game. Being a big fish in a little pond has been fun and all, but -- bored now, the serial headliner has set out from his childhood home of Pridehall. You're welcome, Arx. + |
| Dario Seraceni + | Marquis Dario Seraceni was taught war from the very moment he could begin to comprehend its meaning. The Seraceni family members are all studious by nature, but the heirs to the House are inundated and primarily driven to learn sea warfare in order to take the lead of the fleet in times of crisis. For the heir, all other education is largely forfeit until strategy, tactics, and leadership are mastered. Often times, other members of the family will be practiced in stewardship and other vital duties to support the fledgling leader. Should an heir not measure up to these standards, House Sareceni has a tradition of promoting another heir more competent in these arts. This is not seen as dishonorable as much as it is a necessity given the long history of primarily driving their economy through plunder, raiding, and sailing. Fortunately for Dario, he blossomed early and became adept in both war and sailing. His father, Marquis Vincenzo Seraceni. was particularly famous in the annals of the family for his martial abilities. Through him, House Seraceni reached new levels of admiration and respect among the Velenoza. This was due, in large part, to his devout and unshakable faith in the Pantheon. It eased the perception of House Seraceni as wild, godless pirates, and allowed the family to make political gains. For this reason, Vincenzo instilled a strong religious tradition in his son from a young age. His mother Marquessa Asuna Seraceni was less pious and more practical. She was a noble of one of the more wealthy minor nobles families of House Velenosa.. Sadly, when Dario was only eighteen, both of his parents were killed in a storm that wiped out a good portion of the Seraceni fleet. They had been on their way to the capital of the Lyceum for an unscheduled (and rather mysterious) appearance before the Court. Elevated at such a young age, Darios inexperience showed and he had a rather rough start in his new position as Marquis he depended on the loyalty of his family and their good favor among the people to grow as a leader. He took their counsel and treated them fairly, generously, and he was not afraid to bring others up that could prove themselves and giving them positions of responsibility. Once settled in his position, Dario became a masterful fleet tactician while relying on his family for matters of economics, trade, and governance of Ischia. He served well when Pravus called its banners against the traitorous Argento family, and received recognition for his service in that war. He rewarded his family with key opportunities and he is eager to see them successful. This leaves the man perhaps a little insensitive to the great picture or greater need of events around him as he has a habit of looking to Ischia first. He has invested a lot into the loyalty of his people and respect for his naval conquests. Still a bachelor Dario, has been pressed to marry as of late but has yet to deem a fitting match to help and assist his House. He continues to pray and keep his faith strong to carry him through these tumultuous times of war. + |
| Darkus Crovane + | Darkus grew up in Stormwall not far from the Crovane. His grand father, father, and mother all worked closely witth crovane as Crafters. He has no talent of his own in crafting but found he is very handy selling things and making money that way. His soul job is to help Crovane with all their market needs... Darkus joined the Crovane fleet when he was barely a man and learned to command a ship by the time he was 20. He has a lot of respect for soldiers and sailors. He is not a super religious man but he praises Mangata on the regular and follows the shamanistic ways of the North. + |
| Darren Redrain + | Darren possesses a bone-deep love for the North and all it represents, rejoicing in the individualism and unrestrained love of freedom that is unmatched through the rest of Arvum. He knows full well that House Redrain of all the great houses has almost certainly the most contentious array of vassals and he wouldn't have it any other way. But ever since he was young, he watched his father very carefully, and learned that the Prince of Farhaven didn't just bully the submission out of each of the powerful houses that serve Redrain and watched how the wise strength of his father backed by strength constantly won the respect and love of his people. Unfortunately, Darren also saw the worst elements of fierce northern behavior when he was very young at his uncle Bjerarg's birthday. A simple drinking contest that led to a drunken exchange of insults that grew steadily more ugly and led to a brawl that left four dead created, by almost any standards, one of the most stupid and wasteful wars Darren can think of. The Alespill War, as it was known, was as brief as it was idiotic. A few hundred dead over quite literally a spilled ale as one thing led to another and a prince of Redrain was killed, then vassals that refused to give up the murderer... idiocy. Darren loves his people dearly, but to this day he knows full well that there is merit to the Southern notions of decorum and courtly manners. The young prince of Redrain can sing drunkenly and revel with the best of them, but his enjoyment of Southern grace is not the least bit feigned. He'd never force it on the North, but his experiences with waste from the proud, drunk and foolish have made him determined to rule with wisdom that will never see needless carnage again. + |
| Darrow Darkwater + | The third son and fourth child of Dameodred Darkwater, the younger brother of the former Count of Darkwater, Darrow has had a life marked by trajedy. Darrows' mother passed in childbirth with a stricken younger sibling, and alternatively watched his father rain harsh blows upon he and his siblings, or spend nights weeping, spilling tears and heavy drink in torrents. During the rebellion of Duke Titus, the keep of the Weeping Isle, Lacrimus, so nicknamed from Dameodred's gloom, was stormed by Tyde reavers. Dameodred was killed with wine, not a weapon in hand, and his men and thralls put to the sword. Three crosses faced the waves and the gulls - his two brothers and sisters lashed in the sea crucifixion which had already become so familiar to the losing rebel side. Darrow, the youngest, was left bound to the rocks at the shore, and was found, thankfully, but the tides had already reached his neck. A third son and now of a gutted family, Darrow was warded amongst the Thrax at Maelstrom. He grew up a sullen child, the focus of numerous fights for his lack of interest in many of the youth's games, but his talent for violence was found and trained. He squired for Sargax Shipbreaker, and was knighted at the turn of his fifteenth year for his defense of Sargax's fallen form at the battle of Hellespont, suffering no fewer than ten wounds. He is known, now, in knighthood for being one of the few postulants of the Sentinel, as the Knight of Sorrow, after his stern disposition and bloodied history. Oddly, though some of more sensitive tastes find him depressing and a bore, many folk of the common ilk have lauded him, at least silently, for his strict protection of their rights, scarce as they may be. He has even been known to champion a few of them in cases of perceived slights, to the shock and scandal of some. + |
| Daturo Tessere + | Daturo is the oldest of his parent's children and was given every advantage growing up. Which is why when he showed an early talent for riding, he was given the best instructors in horsemanship and swordplay and allowed to pursue knighthood. As he grew and neared manhood, it was decided that he would leave to foster with another family, which is how he happened to be away when his family fell. His father, the younger sibling to a countess, was caught embezzling funds, and the family's land and estate were stripped away, the family left in disgrace. From his distant perch and still young, Daturo could do nothing for them. Indeed, he was advised he was safest further away. Always a favorite, he had made friends and allies in his foster family, and they agreed to keep him on and train him as a household knight. So, there he stayed. Mourning when he heard his father had been murdered over his debts. Mourning even more for a mother who seemed callous to the needs of her family, and mourning most for the younger brothers and sisters he was helpless to aid. Daturo found no joy in the knowledge that his position in his new life was secure. He was advised to make a match, and certainly, he had plenty of women to choose from, but securing his own joy while his family still suffered discomforted him. So it was, when he heard Sabine had been named countess, he returned to the home of his youth, seeking both a position in her court and a chance to find what remained of his family and bring them to security with him. + |
| Dawn Grayson + | Illegitimate children of nobility have scandalously existed since time immemorial, though the Grayson Dynasty has mostly avoided embarrassment since the time of Alarice the Great. Lady Dawn Baseborn despises the circumstances of her birth being a rare exception to that, and her stature as the only elder sibling to King Alaric Grayson IV put her firmly in a painful spotlight. Her father King Alaric III refused to ever discuss her commoner mother with anyone, giving Dawn the less than satisfying answer that he would talk to her 'when she was older', a claim he never made good on before his death. The unanswered questions eat at her, in the rare moments she has to dwell upon it. She knows her father would have loved to legitimize her, and make her a formal Grayson, but was afraid to take the risk that her claim would be contested after his death. She had hoped her half-brother when he became king would finally make her a Grayson, but he has repeatedly delayed until he has an heir. Despite this, Dawn is not a bitter woman. Her father raised her at court, taking great pains to instill in Dawn and her brother the responsibilities of leadership, an ironclad sense of duty towards their subjects, and a great sense of integrity and personal honor. Dawn, at least, took the lessons to heart and the young woman represents a far closer ideal to Grayson Monarch virtues than her brother ever has. 'Lady' Dawn is accustomed to the carefully crafted slights and barely masked derision of other nobles, including ones who might dare to refuse to grant her the courtesy title of a lady, for the young woman possesses both the foresight and propriety to know how disasterous responding to those provocations might be. Many in House Grayson at least recognize the young woman's levelheaded judgement and extreme competence, and some even forget her illegitimate status and mistakenly call her Princess Dawn Grayson or 'your highness' without thinking of it. Her brother granted her the authority to act as High Lord of House Grayson in his stead, an unheard of honor for a bastard child, though Dawn knows that it was largely because Alaric the younger simply did not want to deal with the work of high lordship when he could be spending his time with courtesans or attractive young women at court. She took the responsibility of rule fully knowing her brother will take any credit and glory that she wins in the position. She can abide that. She's her father's daughter, after all. + |
| Daya Harrin + | Daya grew up poor and proud in the Lower Boroughs. While she is not a criminal, there may have been a rogue or two in her family, and she is no stranger to the company of the city's least privileged. Her father is a sailor and her mother is a washerwoman, but age is catching up with them and Daya does her best to help stave off starvation for her five younger siblings who still live at home. She works as a barmaid and is seldom found in the city's finer quarters. + |
| Dayton Grace + | Dayton isn't one to discuss his history. He has a penchant for redirecting conversations regarding anything truly personal to a different topic of conversation. What is known of the gentle leatherworker is his youth was spent at sea under Admiral Denholm Kennex's command. His early twenties was spent upon a merchant ship mastering his trade and the minutia of the distribution portion of business and his late twenties have him back in Stormward seeing to his family and acting as a liason and occassional counsel to the young Marquis Kennex. + |
| Deacon Pateris + | Deacon Pateris was born in Setarco during a time of relative peace. His mother and father were both palace servants, so he grew up in and around the palace in Setarco. As he grew, Deacon showed a nack for socializing as well as music. Both of his parents were beloved servants of Piero Pravus, so the then-Duke paid for Deacon's schooling as a courtesan. When school was over, he returned to the service of Pravus as a newly-minted courtesan. The two would later become friends and confidants before the far more wild and free Deacon left Setarco to travel. Deacon's travels were almost always met with some form of calamity. He was first shipwrecked on an island in the Saffron Chain inhabited by an Abandoned tribe. While others on the ship were discouraged, the young Pateris refused to accept defeat and offered his help around the Abandoned community. At first they found him to be soft and weak, but his infectious optimism and his willingness to put his all into everything he did endeared him to them in the end. He wound up staying well past when his other fellows fled back to the mainland. Deacon made his way up along the coast, encountering a variety of people he traveled with for a time before moving on to the next thing that caught his fancy. For years, he lived without a care or a single thread of responsibility. The constant state of leaving started a nagging in the back of his head, but it was the news of Piero's death that guided him back to where he started. + |
| Decius Meridius + | Decius Meridius is a fairly simple man who had dedicated most of his young and current life to the forge and the plane, with what some have whispered as "Gods Touch". Many of his detractors call his work "plain", but in the end they cannot argue with the oft perfection of his vision and his skill with metal, leather, and wood. It is an odd combination, but when Decius is not at the forge, his is in his workshop working on his next piece of furniture or wood carving, using this skill to provide the income to his other passion, the creation of armor. It is not too much a wonder for his there was a great aunt or some other relative of the Thornburn family. His work has a reputation of its own, and like many others has arrived at the City to set up shop, earn a living, but at the same time making certain those who will be in future fights or stuggles will be equiped to face them. + |
| Declan Tyde + | Lord Declan Tyde was one of the male children of House Tyde massacred during the Tyde rebellion, lost when the house was attainted and destroyed by Prince Donrai Thrax, the Highlord of the Mourning Isles. That was what was believed for the entirety of Declan's childhood and young adulthood, as the young man managed to evade death, and hide his identity for years in the Lower Boroughs, living as a commoner under an assumed identity and scraping by, always afraid he'd be discovered and delivered to the highlord of the Mourning Isles. With the death of Prince Donrai Thrax, and the restablishment of House Tyde under control of his cousin, Duchess Margot Tyde, Declan finally felt comfortable enough to send word he survived- and with the heirlooms to prove he was just who he said he was. Now as a young man who saw his family slaughtered and spent years living as a commoner, he's returned to his family, determined more than ever to help Margot restore them to glory. + |
| Deimos + | Deimos was born in the chaos of a storm-tossed sea. The ship groaned against beating waves, the frantic crew above thundered to action, their calls drowned by a torn sky. But from Deimos, not even a whimper. He entered the world in chaos, and rocking upon the waves, found comfort in it. He and his mother had been cast away from Lycene shores, from the privilege he might have known in a just world where men like his father braved the fallout of an illegitimate child. Deimos was instead raised to see the world for what it was, its harsh truths peeled before his eyes. Most memorable of them was the loss of his mother when he was only twelve years old, her life ended for a dispute over unpaid debts that had kept her son from starving. Without one bleeding heart among those responsible, Deimos was dragged from his mother before she'd gone cold and pressed into service on a merchant vessel. He grew into adulthood on that ship, with each crack of the lash and pull of the oar in the name of his masters strengthening resentment and resolve equally. In the shadow of men who thought themselves giants, Deimos' whispers of dissention spread among the thralls. How it is that men in chains overcame their well-armed captors and what transpired thereafter is a secret that rowed away from the sinking wreckage with its lone survivor: Deimos. Unshackled, he made his way to Port Defiance, and there found his calling as a corsair. He learned from the exploits of the merciless pirates that ruled the seas with fear. He found his own name joined among the likes of the most vicious among them. Surrounded by the threat of nations, the rage of the sea and the betrayal of men, Deimos thrived. Despite all of this, the birth of his daughter sparked whispers that the insatiable captain was losing his once-keen edge. Lending support to these whispers was what some perceived as a flight from Port Defiance in the midst of his conflict with an up and coming cutthroat who'd made himself an obstacle to Deimos. A secluded cove used by Caina's illicit enterprises became his port of harbor, where he could frequently visit the Cainite woman who'd captured his heart and given him the one treasure he valued above all others: his daughter. Deimos' crew started to resent him and his attachment to this island. They felt a change in the wind, and in their captain, so they hatched a plan to 'strand' him on Caina, to mutiny and abscond with his ship. One loyal sailor apprised Deimos of this plan, and so he devised a clever scheme to win Caina's favor by 'exposing' the threat of his previous crew and sailing a ship out to crush them. He got his vengeance on the mutineers, and Caina got its 'hero.' And so he has grown in the island's esteem, built a reputation amongst the stubborn citizens of the black cliffs, and turned to more legal work in Caina's navy. With the shifting of the tides, Caina's growth to a March, and the new ruler, he heads to Arx to see what fortune has in store for him there. + |
| Delfina Darkwater + | A middle child among a gang of six siblings, Delfina grew up half-wild, learning stubborn resistance to bullying and bossiness as well as how to charm gifts from adults even before younger, cuter children. The siblings were raised in an environment of benevolent neglect in a small but firmly established noble House in the Lyceum, with a father who attended to the business of the vineyards under the family's control and a mother often abed with a chronic illness. Extended family taught the children as it amused them, some with lessons far too mature for their tender years. Delfina learned discipline only as a teen when an uncle took her under his wing to teach her swordsmanship, finally managing to harness her drive and intensity. She seemed clever enough that he first thought she might make a good military commander, but it was one-on-one where she really came to shine. Under his guidance, she began to learn when to shove and when to smile, when the point of a pen might be more useful than the point of a sword. She came to love puzzles and secrets, in the way information might sometimes be used as a weapon to greater effect than force. She was on the cusp of departing the family villa for a grand adventure, perhaps going to Arx itself, when her great uncle the Count informed her of a political match to be made with a House in the Mourning Isles. No tears or wheedling would change his mind, so it was a stubborn and resentful woman who showed up on the docks of Darkwater Watch, loudly complaining of the damp and the chill. Was she disappointed when she first laid eyes on the lean, tumble-haired antiquarian who was to become her husband? For a few years, they managed to develop what seemed to be a companionable relationship. Delfina spent her free time honing her skill with the sword, becoming a knight sworn to House Darkwater. She took the opportunity to travel on House business, seeking the adventure she had wanted since childhood. Until, that is, the journey she took made her seem to vanish from Arvum entirely. It was years later that she returned to Darkwater Watch, unwilling to speak much about where she had been, but quick to rededicate herself to rebuilding what was destroyed in the Pirate War. + |
| Delia Whisper + | Delia has always loved stories, great and small. Ever since she was a child, one of many in a lowly commoner merchant family in Arx, she remembers talking about about the pagentry and glamor of the court and picking out the stories that excited everyone to hear. What noble was doing what to whom, what a noblewoman said that caused gasps, the ebb and flow caused by developing relationships... it all captivated her. Even the things that were tragic contained an element of drama that was a delight to her, if at one stage removed. She knew from a young age that she absolutely wanted to become one of the elite courtiers of the Whisper House, to move around the highest echelons of nobility and watch first hand the drama as it unfolded. In many ways, the Whisper House is everything she ever dreamed of, but she was privately shocked at how many nobles were... really, really bad at being nobles. Even some otherwise crafty Lycene nobility would occasionally just say something truly unfortunate in a White Journal and then be absolutely shocked when they were suddenly a social pariah, and it stunned Delia to see how many of these paragons of grace and refinement were remarkably ungraceful and truly unrefined when it came to maneuvering around socially. As a courtier, she started reaching out to individuals that were dying socially of impressively massive self-inflicted wounds and was surprised how remarkably easy it was to help individuals come back with the right explanation, with a little bit of deft care in saying the right apologies to the right people, and getting them back on track. Now, she's a highly sought after Whisper by individuals who really, really cannot seem to avoid alienating people they really cannot afford to alienate, which is where she comes in. While dramatic meltdowns in the White Journals might not be the highest example of nobility at its best, it does provide someone with a little more finesse the opportunity to make an excellent living as an apologist. + |
| Delilah Shepherd + | Delilah is the oldest daughter of three born to Jerome Mercier and the older sister of Kenna. She was, arguably, her father's favorite -- and it shows it many of her habits. Her wanderlust was obvious from a young age and her father frequently indulged her by allowing her to accompany him on his business trips up and down the Gray River. She picked up his penchant for thorough record keeping, as well as exceptionally neat writing. When she was sixteen she was allowed to go on her own forays with the small family river boat. She befriended a fellow adventurer, Bridget, during her first 'adventure' to Whitehold. They quickly became thick as thieves and explored much of the northern Crownlands together... until a deadly miscalculation on her part left Bridget dead and herself traumatized. What happened? She hasn't told anyone -- not even Bridget's bereaved family. She returned home and became a recluse, cutting herself off from most of the outside world, to simply digest what had occurred and to grieve. During this period, she distracted herself by working in a minor capacity with the Inquisition, writing at length about what she'd seen in her travels to help with with their investigations at home, and she considered joining as a junior rank as a confessor. She eventually climbed out of her depression with the diligent attention and care of her little sisters, and emerged from her room humbled and wiser from the experience. The wanderlust remained, and she answered the call once again. When she heard her sister Kenna left home to join their ennobled cousin's household, Delilah was flabbergasted, having been unaware of just how much her sibling admired the new baron. When she had some rest afforded to her from her adventuring and studies, she decided to follow as well -- particularly when she heard that the Nox'alfar were given an embassy within Arx. It's not every day you see an elf... or is it, now? + |
