All rightey, I'll post my CS for Option A here, then post an OOC link in the IC.
Some Notes
• After reading about Meilin's esteem for aristocracy, I made sure to give my char an obnoxious name and accordingly insufferable title
• He'll be all touchy about how his Shire has a ludicrous name and no one's ever heard of it, or cares to hear of it
• Palfile is pronounced
Pal-fee-lay; Elyaevin is pronounced
Ee-lee-ay-vin; Ely is just pronounced Eli
• "Duke-Scion" means that he's the heir to the duchy
• If you read the CS, you might think he's gay. Not to be homophobic, but this char's straight. Just clearing that up.
• Yeah, OK, the PrinceofPersia thing is pretty lame, but no, I don't usually use Hollywood hunks as pics, it just suited the char. The blue eyes should be brown though.
Also I added a
stats section, with the standard 5 stat 1-10 potency range and distribution total of 25 (meaning that for 5 stats, 25 stat points may be distributed in a range from 1-10, 1 being mediocre and 10 being expert). This is just to get a vague idea of Ely's overall skills.
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Name: Elyaevin Palfile, Duke-Scion to Hoblingtonshire (Ely)
Gender: Thoroughly, inescapably, insufferably and unfortunately Male.
Age: He won't tell you, but his birth certificate indicates somewhere in his late 20s. He takes great pains to look younger.
Position: Princess's bodyguard & cousin; heir to the duchy of Hoblington and
PROUD of it
Appearance
Ely has fashionably short-cropped black hair that he obsesses about, keeps glossy and clean, and tends to besottedly via a small, delicate ivory comb he keeps in a special and easily accessible pouch on his belt. His sable eyes are unexpectedly warm, but usually this effect is a trick of the light, as his large eyes and diminutive eyebrow ridges serve to make the irises a little luminescent with light absorption at times and the pupils dilated innocuously. This detail being rarely consciously registered by those around him, including Ely himself, he will often at first glance make the impression of a merry, generous and slightly helpless-looking nice guy. Anger, though, can dramatically darken his eyes, as he tends to squint and twist his face into a knot of snarls and grimaces, the wrinkles of which quickly block the available light. Ely is tall and very strong, having trained for this expedition and hunted and had tutoring in physical exercise since toddlerhood, basically. Still, being a nobleman, he was allowed to dismiss tutors and terminate any activities whenever the whim befell him, so his endurance is pretty lacking and his speed needs work. Ely hates running or hurrying, and never once in his life showed up to any track lessons his parents assigned him to.
Personality
A life of luxury and preparation for the position of duchy has imbued Ely with uncanny wisdom for a ribald wealthy man his age, and he is literate and well-versed in history, science and the arts, though politics interest him most. At home in Hoblington, Ely was known among his often liscentiously-minded fellow nobles, friends, drinking mates and hunting companions as "Silvertongue" for his ability to talk himself out of pretty much
anything – "and", as he loves to recount it, to "talk myself
into pretty much anything as well" [insert insolent laughter]. Considering the trappings of aristocracy and the freedom that comes with owning everything within several miles of your home, Ely does suffer from an uncouth nature and an intolerable arrogance. Still, his mother, who has been an enormous and appreciated (but largely unmentioned) influence on him (since she basically runs the Hoblington estate until the current Duke Hoblington dies and Ely can take over), has emphatically ensured that none of her plentiful progeny will be sexist pigs like most of their male predecessors. This is the stronger of Ely's few virtues. He can be witty and charming, but an amiable mood is passing and often a result of the copious ingestion of strong liquor (though, since his father always ends up drinking it all, Ely's never really had the chance to become an alcoholic like many of his friends). Most of the time he's conceited, rash, adventurous, sarcastic and highly inquisitive, always charging forward with little consideration for those around him. This is why his mother decided to give him the duty of bodyguard for a couple years.
STATS (
1-10)
Strength– 8
Speed– 3
Endurance– 3
Intelligence– 4
Charisma– 7
History
Ely is the oldest son (and thus the heir of) the Duke to Hoblingtonshire, Oliandar Palfile. A chauvinist of his nation, race and gender, Ely's alcoholic father was never loved as a ruler, and it soon became clear that he was about as competent at dukeship as a flea is at sculpture. The former Duke, Oliandar's father Ephbanon, was a famous knight who amassed the vast fortune and significant title in the first place. Dismayed with his son's ineptitude, Ephbanon had actually placed Oliandar's younger brother first in succession before agreeing to step down from his position as Duke. Unfortunately, the young new Duke died two months later from tuberculosis. Now, Ephbanon hastily arranged a marriage between his oldest son Oliandar and a respectable, well-educated noblewoman who had been recently widowed, by the name of Fraecilla.
Fraecilla bore Oliandar five healthy sons and one daughter in nine years and as soon as her first child, Elyaevin, was born, she took over control of the Hoblington duchy, leaving Ephbanon to die in peace, assured that his property was in safe and competent hands. Fraecilla worked very hard and sacrificed most personal pleasures to run the estate while rearing six good-hearted, intelligent and responsible children. She made an indelible impression of Ely through her determination and resourcefulness. He would never doubt the power and potential of a woman because of her gender. As Fraecilla became the dominant figure, Oliandar drew back to drink all night and sleep all day, virtually fading out of his family's lives and becoming reclusive and depressed. Having been a disappointment to everyone, including himself, he was more sad and pathetic than cruel or abusive, and as Ely is coming of age, everyone is pretty much just waiting for him to either fall into an eternal alcohol-induced slumber, or to just kick the bucket and end it all himself.
Anticipating a nearing end to her reign, Fraecilla sent Ely on this mission not only to protect the princess, but to give him a job as a bodyguard to help complete his worldly education and make him a mature man capable of taking over the duchy and leading it towards justice, fame and prosperity. Ely already misses his rowdy friends and, coming from an obscure country estate, finds civilization to be unpleasantly … well …
civil, and, in his words, "stagnant". The women, too, aren't what he's used to – at home, he may have been Silvertongue, but partly because he knew which trees to bark up. Most women he seduced knew full well this would never lead anywhere, they just enjoyed lovemaking as much as any nobleman and probably realized they might not have the opportunity to engage in it with such an attractive, wealthy man anytime soon. The ones who didn't want to – well, they'd let you know, with a slap and a lot of derogatory shouts and profanity. Those farmer girls, they knew what they were about.
But in the cities, the women are in his opinion either hardened, vicious serpents or timid, groveling slaves whose mindless obedience is a major disincentive for intimacy. Ely is always hailed at home for being the spitting image of his prestigious grandfather Ephbanon, but here in the cities people seem to have largely forgotten about him, and when they do remember, all they can recall from word of mouth or paintings is his "piercing blue eyes" – the one trait that Ely has not inherited, and is a little self-conscious about. Now this small peeve is becoming an upsettingly recurrent blow to his ego. He still believes his mother's parting words – that she hated to see him go, but she knew deep in her heart that the only man for a mission as important as protecting the princess was her talented, gorgeous big boy.
Clearly Meilin Trival has no idea what she's in for. As Elyaevin proudly boasted in a letter to his best friend Jedoce: "The ladies of the municipalities will wish they never knew what hit 'em!"