Difference between revisions of "Talen Artiglio"

Revision as of 14:03, 27 February 2018

Talen Artiglio
Social Rank	3
Fealty	Velenosa "Velenosa" is not in the list of possible values (Redrain, Valardin, Grayson, Thrax, Pravus, Lyceum, Crown) for this property.
House	Artiglio
Gender	Male
Age	27
Religion	Pantheon
Vocation	Soldier
Height	5'11"
Hair Color	Deep Brown
Eye Color	Pale Grey-blue
Skintone	Bronzed
Family
Parents	Giovanni Artiglio
Uncles/Aunts	Donatello Artiglio, Paola Artiglio, Blacktongue Artiglio, Addio Matessi
Cousins	Esera Velenosa, Gersard Artiglio, Isolde Velenosa, Ferrando Artiglio, Caprice Artiglio, Valencia Velenosa, Luca Grayson, Antonio Velenosa, Ophelia Velenosa, Jarek Velenosa, Serafine Velenosa, Carlos Velenosa, Mira Artiglio, Narciso Artiglio, Ashlyn Velenosa, Donaldo Velenosa
Journals
Authored By / Featured In
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Description

With his smooth bronzed skin and darkest brown hair, Talen's pale grey-blue eyes are a shock when he lifts them to match a gaze. Shaded by thick, angled brows, his regard is both intent and intense. His features are sharp and chiseled, softened by lashes so thick and dark they make girls jealous, and a charmingly crooked smile he rarely shows. He dresses mostly in dark leathers that showcase his rangy build, and his voice is a soft, rumbling bass.

Personality

Talen has a lot to live up to. His father died a hero, the champion and guard of the Grand Duke. Talen has no intention of dying a hero. He's not even terribly interested in living as one. He's the Sword of the Velenosa, named so by Esera upon her ascension, and it's to her his loyalties lie. Let those who called him an upjumped commoner, or a sulking, shy servant think what they want. He's happy to make them eat their words if and when their words besmirch the House and the Archduchess he serves. Serious and not given to smalltalk, his dry humor shown only to those he is most comfortable with, Talen observes. He's always looking for the hidden blade in the shadows, so he can be there to intercaept it. If most people don't know how hard he works, or even what he really does, more the better. Let them think his job is easy. Let them think he's not a danger.

Background

Captain Giovanni Artiglio was a hard man to have as a father. Talen's own memories of him are hazy at best as a young child, but even in his most fuzzy memories the powerfully built, gregarious bearded man was larger than life. A father famed for being the finest duelist in the Lyceum and a heroic captain of the guard that died saving his liege lord is an image that feels impossible to live up to, and that's without the benefit of even hardly having known the man. Talen knows the story all too well from having been told it a thousand times- his honorable paragon of a father, who had never lost a duel in his entire life, drank from a cup meant for Niccolo Velenosa... and immediately began to feel the effects of Kingsbane, that extremely rare and incurable poison from beyond the Black Wastes. Despite the excruciating agony his father was in, he still managed to rise, notice the infuriated assassin stalking closer to Duke Niccolo, and ran the man through in a duel that lasted but seconds. And his father with his dying breath had asked the duke to raise his only son in the duke's household.

Talen isn't quite sure whether to feel grateful for his father for that. Being raised as a commoner child surrounded by princes and princesses was not the easiest of childhoods, as the young ward of the duke fell into a nebulous state of being part servant and part foster child and was never ennobled himself. To Duke Niccolo's credit, he did spend quite nearly as much time with Talen as his own children and is the father he never knew, but like any high born noble most of the rearing was left to servants who were only too happy to treat an 'overfortunate upjumped commoner's son' with all the scorn they could get away with. He spent years as a young man enduring little slights and getting even when he could, but mostly he had learned to live with it while training as a member of the house guard for Velenosa. It was a miserable childhood and adolescence, trying best to live up to his father's memory without complaint, but his loyalty had not gone unnoticed.

It seemed the high lords, like the Archduchess herself, rarely needed to use their full terrifying power to get what they want. Talen has seen men and women executed for petty crimes or even at the whim of high born nobles, but House Velenosa never seemed so capricious or overt. Talen never said a word of complaint about the poor treatment he received at the hands of other servants, but the young Princess Esera noticed... and later he never saw some of those servants again. No one even dared even bring up their names in conversation, it was as if they never existed. For the Velenosa, some problems just seemed to disappear, and Talen found himself approving of that immensely leading to a fast friendship with the young Princess Esera. When she ascended to Archduchess of Lenosia and the Grand Duchess of the Lyceum after the death of her mother, the young house guard never expected it to effect much, but then she shocked him by naming him as the official Sword of the Velenosa. Not just him, as a soldier who had been coveting the title challenged him to a duel. Talen won that fight, fast and dirty. He's not overburdened by the concepts of honor, or sportsmanship. Like his Lady, he values results.