Alric Caelegart

Player Information
Name: Paul
Age: 36
Contact: exacerangutan or email
Characters already in Medietas: None
Reserve: No

Character Basics
Name: Alric of House Caelegart
Age: 23
Icon:
Journal: knighterrantofthedragon

Original Character Information
Appearance: Alric is moderately tall with a medium build and black hair worn well past his shoulders (in the style of the Kaithenian nobility). His most distinctive feature is the bright golden amber color of his eyes.
Setting: Eyuin is an original, high-magic fantasy setting with a number of Folks (inspired by classic fantasy setting concepts and real-world folk lore). In Alric's time, the Kaithenian Empire is still the most powerful nation by a significant margin, although its power has waned over the prior century. The sciences are actually well-developed, but public education remains lacking; guilds and academic societies prefer to keep sophisticated knowledge sequestered, both for their own interests, and as a safety measure. Magic is not universally accessible, and not even legal in every country, and generally takes the form either of sorcery (which alters the physical world according its own set of laws), or the beneficence of spirits or deities.

History: Alric grew up son of a (rather reluctant) Duke, who himself had grown up merely the son of a country gentleman--Alric's grandfather Marius--who later revealed himself to be Emperor Claudius II's elder brother (who had fled the capital to pursue his passion for perfecting his fencing). When he was a young teenager, it was discovered that his cousin, the newly-minted Emperor Marcus IV, had actually arranged for the death of his father Claudius II, and he was deposed with Marius standing as Regent, suddenly hurling Alric's family into the center of attention at the capital. Because of Alric's mother's history as a commoner and an outlaw, he was despised by many of the nobility, and together with his fiery temper, was drawn into many "friendly" duels that became increasingly violent as he grew older; given his anger issues and his abilities, this led to more than one serious injury among his opponents, until his grandfather (in one of his last acts as Regent) banned Alric from accepting further challenges without his father's permission. Humiliated, Alric sulked for awhile at the family estate, becoming an instructor at his grandfather's fencing school. Eventually, he pursued a knighthood, and undertook a quest to visit each sovereign nation of Eyuin and return with a token of their goodwill--not a small feat, given the poor state of Kaitheny's foreign relations, especially following the inept Emperor Marcus IV. He would just be on his way home from his quest when he arrives.

CR AU Addenda: Alric was among the second group of people to arrive in Medietas, and he came to be a friend to the Stark family, the Adairs, and Thorfinn, among others, fighting alongside others to end monster attacks, discussing with them the implications and causes of their presence in Medietas, and helping other new arrivals to adapt. He also became very close to Inara Serra, although it has taken them several months to begin clarifying exactly what the nature and future of their relationship is to be--but just about then, he disappeared from Medietas. In the course of forming relationships in Medietas, he has developed a committed interest in learning whatever can be learned about the islands and the forces bringing people to them, in particular hoping to learn whether arrangements can be made for those who would otherwise be returned to their deaths, or separated from one another.

Personality: Alric is in many ways a Prince's Prince. Raised by a father who had been a commoner (albeit a relatively wealthy one), an adventurer, and a nobleman, and by two mothers--one coarse but forthright, liberal, and exceptionally vivacious, and the other poised and conservative, but tender and comforting--he grew up quite well-rounded emotionally and intellectually, with an impulse to look for the good in everyone. However, his experiences in quarreling with the nobility have led him to acquire a fierce hatred of bigotry. At the same time, he has his mother's impulsive, ardent nature, and when confronted with a problem, his instinct is to leap in and solve it at once; leaving a problem sitting grates on his nerves (and he has serious trouble with down time), although his fear of overreacting or getting carried away with his own passions leads him sometimes to hesitate when he feels personally invested. Although he looks always for the good in people and diplomatic solutions to problems, his patience is well-practiced rather than innate, and he will resort to force with fierce resolve to protect the innocent. He takes his sword training extremely seriously, and struggles constantly to keep up his polite, poised, courteous presentation and keep his intensely emotional, hyperactive nature in check, relying on training, music, and other coping mechanisms to continually refine and practice his self-control. He has a soft spot for outcasts and those who have difficulty controlling their talents (like his mother), but also a deep admiration for his step-mother's poise, calm, and kindness. Like his father, he isn't completely comfortable with titles, and may "forget" to mention his own. However, he takes matters of honor very seriously, and while he may be evasive on some subjects, he avoids actually lying.

Innate Powers (magic): Alric, like his mother (who was altered by sorcery for use as a living weapon), is possessed of strength dozens of times a normal human's, as well as toughness enough to shrug off most blunt instruments in normal human hands (largely just from the strength of his bones and muscles) and exceptional endurance and agility. He heals much faster than a normal human (although nowhere near a Wolverine/Deadpool-like rate), and generally doesn't scar, at least in the long term. He also has the ability to propel himself in the air at up to about 100mph (although going faster than 30ish without some kind of wind shield isn't recommended), and to generate and condense an intense, fiery aura (for which his mother was called "The Ember"). This aura can be formed into simple shapes and compressed until it can either cut through most normal materials (in the manner of any other sort of plasma cutter) or be suddenly released, where it explodes with a burst of heat and force like a grenade.

Kaithenian Ancestral Magic:
As a Kaithenian knight, Alric can call on the support of Kaithenian heroes and ancestors (roughly in the manner of a paladin) for healing, protective barriers, and divination, but this only works when holding a proper focus (such as his sword Starlight) and if he is actually able to make contact with his ancestors; these powers were unavailable when Alric first arrived, but he gained access to them following a canon update.
Guardian Aura: The knight can generate a protective barrier, which can deflect anything from wind and rain to arrows and boulders or magical attacks. The more force the barrier resists, the greater the strain on the knight sustaining it, so they are generally used sparingly, to cover only one person or a few huddled together.
Healing Aura: A knight can dramatically accelerate another living thing's natural healing. This requires continuous concentration, making it ill-suited to the middle of a battle, but feasible for stabilizing serious injuries. "Old" injuries (those which have already healed as much as the body is able) cannot be healed with this ability. Alric is not sufficiently skilled with this ability to cure diseases, although he can sometimes ease the symptoms or slow the disease's progress, depending on its nature.
Purifying Aura: A knight can generate an aura of purifying energy which inflicts severe damage to Abominations (essentially the demons of Alric's world), and similarly fundamentally evil, destructive beings. This aura can envelope the knight himself, or his weapon, if it is an ancestral artifact or focus.
Soul Seeking: A knight can sense the presence of living things nearby, and detect some unusual conditions such as curses, demonic possession, and so on; masters can sense others' state of mind and intentions, and predict their actions, although this is beyond Alric's level. A knight can also find the direction of someone whose soul he has sensed with this ability before.

Skills and Talents:
Beyond this, Alric is a talented musician, an exceptionally gifted sword fighter trained by a master fencer, and educated by the best tutors available in a range of academic subjects including rhetoric, science and engineering (although limited to a technological range from 12th to 18th century European equivalent but including his world's type of magic), military tactics, and diplomacy.

What do you think your character could bring to the island? Alric is both a fighter and a diplomat, sworn to serve as a protector wherever he can. So long as there's anyone who needs someone to fight for them, to help soothe ruffled feathers, or both, he would be both able and eager to help.
What four items from home would you like your character to have on the island for the duration of their stay? 1) his heirloom sword Fairkalshi ("Starlight"), enchanted to be far stronger and sharper than any nonmagical material, able to deflect and rebound magic, and able to dissipate specific types of dark magic (this will be detailed in a permissions post in case it would be relevant); 2) a medallion bearing his coat of arms; 3) his signet ring, usually worn on a chain; 4) Alric's flute which he learned to play as a memento of his younger brother, while traveling.

Samples:
Samples: here and here.

Finally, pick one word from these four options: Sun.

Player's Name: Paul
Are you over 16? Yes
Characters Played Here: The Doctor (Eleventh)

Character: Alric of House Caelegart of Kaitheny

World Description: Alric comes from Eyuin. Magic remains a potent force, although greatly weakened in the wake of a cataclysmic struggle known as the Sundering War (years are described as ASW, or After the Sundering War), in which the natives of Eyuin fought against invading entities called Outsiders, which consume and erode Essence, the substance of which reality is formed and which powers sorcery. One form in which magic remains in the world is the abilities of Constructs, beings artificially created through alchemical and sorcerous analogues to genetic engineering. Some possess potent innate magic capabilities easily the match of talented sorcerers, although since those abilities are hardwired in, new ones cannot be learned--at best, those innate abilities can be refined. In principle, a Construct could also learn magic in the manner of a sorcerer, but this is quite rare. The most dangerous after-effect of the Sundering War is that the Outsiders still have some influence in Eyuin, particularly through Abominations, creatures and spirits twisted by the reality-corroding Taint, the Outsiders antithetical equivalent to Essence. Abominations include a variety of generally malicious beings such as Trolls, Vampires, Demons, Famine Wolves, and so on. Otherwise, the world is generally late-medieval/early-renaissance, for the most part, in terms of culture and technology, although sorcerous societies possess advanced, restricted scientific knowledge. In Alric's time, Kaithenian Empire is the largest and most powerful nation of Eyuin, having arisen sometime around 1000 ASW from the chaos of the collapsed Great Arktorian Empire, although its influence is declining after decades of arrogant leadership and several years under Mad King Mark, but Alric's family have been attempting to reverse that trend.

History: Alric was born in 1802 ASW, son of Dieter of House Caelegart and his first with, Artha. Dieter had been raised as a well-to-do commoner. His father Marius had actually been Marius of House Caelestor, heir apparent, but lacking his younger half-brother's taste and aptitude for politics (and being far less popular at Court) and preferring to focus on mastery of the sword, he took on a knightly mission as an excuse to disappear into the Southern Reaches, far from the capital. There he settled down, took up the name Caelegart, and had a son whom he raised with princely ideals but as a mere country gentleman. Marius's son Dieter was one of many young men who took up arms when the Crown offered a title to whoever could put an end to the threat of Artha the Ember, a magic-wielding outlaw who had been cutting (or at least burning) a swath across the Southern Reaches; however, where dozens simply tried to kill her and were destroyed, Dieter approached Artha more humanely and patiently, and across a number of confrontations, convinced her to turn against her mother, the witch who had created her as a construct in an attempt to harness the power of the Old Arktorian Gods.

Dieter and Artha became very close through their confrontations, but Artha remained an outlaw in the view of the Crown, and Dieter's protestations that he had ended her reign of terror as requested did not produce much traction when the authorities sought to arrest and execute her. Grudgingly, for the sake of his son, who insisted he would protect Artha at any cost--and marry her, if she would have him--Marius revealed his identity as the elder half-brother of Emperor Claudius II, which quite abruptly changed everything. However, Claudius was absolutely unwilling to permit the marriage of even a somewhat removed member of the royal family to an outlaw without some political compensation. First, he required that Marius would accept at least a duchy and stop living like a "peasant"; and second, that Dieter would marry also a proper noblewoman of a respected family. Dieter was somewhat mortified at that ultimatum, and Artha was somewhat furious (and frustrated that Dieter wouldn't just run off to be an outlaw with her), but they reluctantly acquiesced to the Emperor's demands, and Marius arranged a match with Ada Ness, daughter of a senior courtier and an old friend of his. To Dieter's still greater discomfort, he got along fantastically well with the contemplative, poised Ada, and although the rivalry between her and Artha was only enhanced by their radically different personalities, Dieter's talent as a peacemaker and his appealing air of nobility won out in the end.

Marius, however, had no taste for administration or politics whatsoever and preferring to focus on his fencing school (which had gained quite a lot of attention after the revelation of his identity, since his fame as a swordmaster had never been eclipsed in Kaitheny). Within a few years, he passed the title of Duke of Thanneswane to Dieter; despite his youth, Dieter proved to be quite an able leader through common sense, politeness, and kindness, garnering broad respect across the Southern Reaches.

By this time, Alric, Dieter's first son, was a toddler, and already began learning (or at least playing at) swordsmanship with his grandfather. He also began to exhibit some of his mother's abilities, (particularly flight, enhanced strength and durability, and the generation and control of a fire-elemental incandescent aura which earned her nickname "the Ember") in whose use she attempted to guide him. However, Artha had no healthy maternal relationship to draw on as a model and had difficulty lowering her emotional defenses even around her son; for his part, Alric had inherited as much of her fiery spirit and stubbornness as he did of his father's idealism and nobility, and the two would almost always wind up in fierce arguments if left to their own devices. Despite the rivalry between Artha and Ada, the latter stepped in where Artha's less-than-maternal nature faltered, and Alric grew up to think of both of them as "mother," each in her own way. The whole family did what they could to help, since a child prone to starting fires when angry and with the strength to overwhelm most adults required all hands on deck.

At about the same time, Alric's younger half-brother Benedict was born. Where Alric from infancy had the heart of a lion and was only emboldened with the growth of the powers inherited from his mother, Benedict was a quite, intense, and sensitive child, and as the baby of the family, was somewhat coddled. Although the two were close in their own way, they also inherited some portion of their mothers' rivalry; in addition, Benedict grew to feel acutely the existential quandary of the Second-in-Line, comforting himself by cultivating a sense of the "purity" of his own lineage relative to that of his rambunctious, liberal older brother.

When Alric was a young teenager, a great political upset shook the Empire, as Emperor Marcus IV (son of the long ill and recently deceased Emperor Claudius II and Dieter's cousin) was overthrown by the nobility and tried for treason on evidence that he had been at least partly responsible for his father's crippling illness and subsequent death. Although Marius was too old and had too few political ties to make a credible successor, despite his claim, he put his son Dieter forward, and stepped up as a reluctant Regent until Dieter's affairs in Thanneswane could be put in order and a coronation arranged.

Suddenly Alric was propelled from provincial nobleman to future Crown Prince, and he felt the scrutiny of the Court acutely. More than a few of the more traditionalist noble houses had strenuous objections to the notion of the son of an outlaw (no matter how many years since pardoned) taking the throne. With no legal grounds on which to enforce their displeasure, they sought to simply discourage House Caelegart from naming Alric as Dieter's heir through shows of hostility both subtle and gross. Many encouraged their sons to issue challenges as soon as Alric was old enough to accept--or spur him on to issue challenges, himself, knowing his volatile temper--meaning to shame him out of the public eye. This had mixed results, and mostly backfired for everyone: the fiery young Alric accepted every challenge put to him, and he acquitted himself well as a swordsman, particularly given his increasingly superlative physical abilities. However, as the challenges wore on, both Alric and his opponents became more ferocious as their shared frustration and enmity mutually reinforced. When one of these matches ended with a promising young nobleman's near death, Marius, as the final act of his Regency, forbade Alric to accept or initiate a dual without the Emperor's express consent.

Deeply humiliated by this edict (and inwardly ashamed of his own lack of control and the blood on his hands due to his quarrel with the nobility) and dismayed at the growing distance between himself and his brother (who was considerable more popular with those Houses who bore various grudges against Alric), he became a much more serious young man, and for a time even rather dour. He returned for a few years to the family estate at Thanneswane and explored the countryside, reconnecting with childhood friends. He aided his grandfather at his fencing school as an assistant instructor, worked hard to master his self-control, and earned admission to the knightly Order of the Dragon. Although still wary of his own intensity, Alric calmed somewhat, and rather than repeating his grandfather's flight into self-imposed exile, he decided instead that he would strive to become the best future ruler that he could, and return to Kaitheny as much as he could of its faded glory and tarnished honor.

To advance in the Order, he undertook a quest--and as it had to be a quest befitting his station, he swore to return with tokens of goodwill from all the great nations of Eyuin, a daunting task considering how hostile many of those relationships had become. For the last two years, he has been traveling the world, presenting himself to sovereigns and working (often struggling) to earn their trust, as not only a Knight Errant but a unique sort of ambassador. He was just on his way back to Kaitheny to formally complete his quest, when fluxed in.

Personality: Alric is in many ways a Prince's Prince. Raised by a father who had been a commoner (albeit a relatively wealthy one), an adventurer, and a nobleman, and by two mothers--one coarse but forthright, liberal, and exceptionally vivacious, and the other poised and conservative, but tender and comforting--he grew up quite well-rounded emotionally and intellectually, with an impulse to look for the good in everyone. However, his experiences in quarreling with the nobility have led him to acquire a fierce hatred of bigotry. At the same time, he has his mother's impulsive, ardent nature, and when confronted with a problem, his isntinct is to leap in and solve it at once; leaving a problem sitting grates on his nerves, although his fear of overreacting or getting carried away with his own passions leads him sometimes to hesitate when he feels personally invested. The result is considerable but clearly limited patience with wrongdoers: while he believes there is something good and deserving of respect in all people (his own mother being the archetypical example of not-always-obvious goodness), he isn't willing to simply overlook cruelty or baseness in the hopes of reforming a dedicated villain. Some people, he feels, can be redeemed, and some simply cannot--or at least, cannot without making innocent people pay too steep a price for the effort.

Following the intensity of his education, especially after moving to the capital leading up to his father's coronation, Alric has difficulty with downtime. He tends to get twitchy if he doesn't have something to keep himself busy, whether it's martial training or building a barn or whatever else might be available. He takes his sword training extremely seriously; as soon as it became clear that his mother Artha was really not prepared to educate him in mastering his abilities, Marius began Alric's sword training as a means of teaching the boy discipline and control, and Alric has always returned to those lessons in times of turmoil and frustration. He also falls back on his other childhood coping mechanisms of music (mostly guitar, for which he has a great fondness despite it being seen as a "peasant instrument"), exercise, and tree-climbing, and he strives to keep up his studies in philosophy, statesmanship, engineering, and so forth.

Alric tends to feel things with extreme passion, although he has learned to distrust those passions and makes a sincere effort to put on a studied facade of courtly good manners and propriety at all times. Even though he can't get through a conversation with his brother without one or both growing frustrated and saying something hurtful, he loves his brother dearly and picked up the flute (an instrument with which his brother is far more skilled) as a memento to when they were younger and closer. His mother frustrates him to no end--largely because they are so similar at heart--but his loev for her informs much of his liberalism and his intense hatred of bigotry, and his desire to eradicate the attitudes of misogyny and elitism he feels are poisoning the heart of Kaitheny.

Because of this ardent nature and his mother's background, Alric feels a great sympathy for outcasts and those who have difficulty mastering their strengths; at the same time, having grown somewhat older and wiser through his turbulent and reckless teenage years, he has a deep respect for the warmth and poise shown by his step-mother, as well as her kindness to him despite her rivalry with his birth mother. He also shares some of his father's discomfort with his titles, although in Alric's case, it stems mostly from the way people tend to behave around a prince as opposed to a nobleman of lower standing or a mere country gentleman. Despite the facade he has learned to put up to protect himself from scorn (and to protect others from his own intensity), he naturally prefers intimate friendships over formal alliances, and when in a strange land, may "forget" to mention his station unless it becomes important for some reason or he finds he can't avoid the subject without lying.

Why do you think your character would work in this setting? There are already a number of other characters of comparable power, so he shouldn't be disruptive, in that regard. He's social an inquisitive, and he stands to both gain and offer a lot from interacting with a number of existing characters whose situations resonate with his own. It'll take him a little while to adjust to the technology, but he tends to be forward-thinking and open-minded.

What will your character do for work?

Perhaps construction, although he's not one to shy from any task from diplomacy to architecture to manual labor, if he has the skills for it.

Inventory: Possibly the most important item in Alric's possession at the time of his flux-in is Fairkalshi, or "Starlight," a family heirloom sword, the weapon traditionally wielded by the Crown Prince since the founding of the Empire. The sword, imbued with significant enhancements, was said to have been given to the royal family as a token of good will by the elusive Ilesthi of the far north. The sword is far keener and stronger than normal steel and radiates an aura of power that erodes the Taint and similar corruptions or inversions of natural magic. The aura also protects the sword to a large degree from other forms of magic, making it resistant to spells targeting the sword itself, and allowing it to parry sorcerous missiles and bypass some magical protections. As an heirloom, in principle, Alric could also use Starlight as a focus for Kaithenian ancestral magic, but not unless he finds a way to establish a connection to his ancestors from across the boundaries between worlds. Perhaps in sixth months when it becomes possible to bridge to his world.
Besides Starlight, Alric has moderately worn but very high-quality clothes suitable for travel, a hard-carved wooden flute, a leather-bound journal, and some jewelry, particularly including a signet ring and a pendant with his coat of arms, both worn on chains about his neck.

Samples: And now for the hard part! If you need a prompt for your samples, refer back to the Applications Page.

Third-Person Sample:
http://boomtownmeme.dreamwidth.org/36683.html?thread=7792203#cmt7792203

First-Person Sample:
[Alric gave a measured, polite smile as the video feed came on.]

Ah, good afternoon. I felt it best that I introduce myself, now I've been informed as to my circumstances. My name is Alric--for what it's worth, of House Caelegart, of Kaitheny, although I gather neither will be familiar, here.

[He pauses briefly and shakes his head, his smile growing a touch more amused and reflective.]

Which is, perhaps, just as well. I have no great love of titles or standing on ceremony, so a little anonymity, I imagine, will be refreshing. I gather, as well, that I'll be needing to find work. I'm certainly not shy of physical labor, but if there would be greater need for something more... rarified, I have no special prejudice for one or the other. Whatever would answer the greatest need, I suppose, and wherever I can hope to achieve the most.

[He glances off, briefly, pensive and perhaps just a bit trouble, before he looks back to he camera with a slightly more contrite smile.]

I do have obligations to which I must return, when I am able. But, until that time, I look forward to becoming acquainted with you all, my neighbors. The pleasure, I'm certain, will be mine.

[OOC]

Backtagging: Sure!
Threadhopping: Sure!
Fourthwalling: Generally, no thanks.
Offensive subjects (elaborate): Nothing outstanding.

[IC]

Hugging this character: Fine, although he'll find it somewhat awkward, barring special circumstances.
Kissing this character: Fine, but he'll probably find it quite awkward and inappropriate.
Flirting with this character: Absolutely. His family environment is full of nonstop teasing, and at Court, it's even slightly rude to not flirt at all.
Fighting with this character: Go for it, although he prefers to avoid violence. Partly because he has such a talent for it.
Injuring this character (include limits and severity): Certainly, although if it's important, talking in advance may help avoid ruffled feathers. He recovers very fast, so even serious injuries aren't character-breaking. I'd especially rather not have him Worfed (i.e. humiliated to make someone/something else look tough) without consent.
Killing this character: I'd like there to at least be a cool reason for it (although I guess it's not all that impactful in Deme). I'm not a great fan of killing characters just to be hip or to make a point.
Using telepathy/mind reading abilities on this character: Totally doable, although I'd like to discuss anything really invasive like mind control in advance, to make sure it doesn't accidentally become character-breaking.

Warnings:
Alric is pretty mild, as far as I'm aware.

Other:
My recent RP background is IRC-based, so I'm used to responding almost in real-time and can be a very rapid tagger (when I'm not busy, at least). I'm fine with backdating and so on, however, and prefer that over leaving gaping plotholes in-character.

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