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Created on 2011-12-21 05:09:46 (#1150307), last updated 2012-02-15 (702 weeks ago)

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Open About
Name:Gavin
Birthdate:Jul 25
Open Mini Bio
.basics.

name; Gavin
age; 28
country; Korin
class; Warrior
Weapons; Swords, crossbows, quarterstaves, maces; swords preferred
birthday; July 25 [Leo]
blood type; B
family; Father [Darcy], mother [Amelia], brothers [Edric, deceased; Bryson, 32; Randall, deceased]
languages; Trade [fluent], Korin [average]

.history.

The fourth son of a Korin house is nearly always given free reign over what he chooses to do with his life. That far down the line, marriages become hard to arrange, and there will be no inheritance for any child so far down in succession. Had Gavin been born to a Dentorian house, he might have been married off to a merchant's daughter young and left on a manse on the family land. Had he been born in Megam, he might have been given to the priesthood.

But he was born in Korin, and so it was his own will to give his life over to be raised more by the soldiers of his house than by his own family.

Fryda was always a fairly insignificant house in Korin history -- though it was old blood and could trace its lines farther than many houses surrounding it, the only thing it was ever noticeable for were clashes with another small house no one cared about, Minae. The clashes were never large, mostly just spats over boundaries and taxes. Gavin, having spent most of his life in the company of soldiers, regarding them as his friends and near-brothers, picked up on the wry tolerance of the feud they all had. To the nobles, the feud was a vital issue that kept their hearts beating. To the soldiers, it was just work, especially when the feud had gone so long without a real eruption between the two houses. Gavin heard the soldiers liken it to two children fighting over toys that were, more or less, the exact same, and mostly agreed with the assessment -- though he would never say as much to his brothers, or to his father.

Gavin spent his time mocking the feud with the soldiers, asking loudly when his brothers or the rival house would finally grow some balls and make a strike against the enemy. Still, the years passed, and Gavin grew older, and his siblings lined up to fill their roles, and nothing happened but a lost patrol here or there. Gavin never had any cause to leave Fryda and grew more and more bored with the idyllic life, even as he trained himself intensely alongside the soldiers.

They had always been his friends, but some grew closer than others -- a fresher recruit named Dyre, who was a few years younger than Gavin, was the closest friend he had. Dyre was Gavin's partner in crime, his sparring partner, his bitching buddy, his support when he was annoyed by the ridicularity of the rest of his family. Gavin looked out for Dyre, and Dyre kept a listening ear ready for Gavin. And for a long time -- for most of his life, Gavin was bored but happy, bemused by his family's feud but content to tolerate it.

And then, in early 629, everything fell apart very swiftly.

The first strike was Randall, Gavin's just-older brother, who had been scouting Fryda borders with small contingent of troops. A strip of border that had always been peaceful in the past, even though it was shared with Minae. Randall managed to fly back home, clinging to his dying dragon with all his strength, and died of bloodloss nearly on Fryda's doorstep. His ashes were laid to rest in the family lichyard, and things began to change quickly.

There had been no survivors of the attack. By the time Randall reached Fryda proper, he couldn't walk, much less speak. There was only one logical answer to who it had been -- but there was no declaration from Minae, no smirking announcement that their hand had been the one behind Randall's death.

So they waited, and a second strike came.

No one made it back alive this time. Edric, Gavin's eldest brother and the Fryda heir, had been out with his men along another stretch of the Minae border. Another peaceful stretch. Another stretch where there had never been problems in Gavin's entire life. Edric's wife was quietly holed away when they brought the ravaged, wolf-eaten remains of his body back from the ruined camp where his corpse had been found.

Again, there was only one answer for what had happened. But there were no Minae banners, no men wearing Minae colors left dead in the camp. There were too many questions, not enough answers, and still only silence from Minae itself. And again, they waited. The lord of Fryda tucked Edric's wife away in the towers of Fryda where she could mourn in peace, and began to quietly look for a wife to marry Bryson and, hopefully, secure the heir to the Fryda line that Edric had never had. And they waited.

And the third strike, of course, hit Bryson.

He had never been a great fighter, but he had insisted on surveying the camp where Edric had been found dead and the borders around it. He had always believed in encouraging the men of Fryda through the lord's presence, and ultimately, that was probably what led to his demise.

Minae -- it had to be Minae, banners or no, whatever oddities and questions there were, there was no other answer -- struck again, smashing the troops he'd taken with him, scattering them and chasing them down to eliminate them one by one.

Dyre had been among those troops vanishing into the snows and likely dead. Gavin never saw him return, and quietly mourned the loss of his best friend where no one -- not even the other soldiers -- would see.

But it was Bryson that was the true target. To his credit, he managed to flee all the way back to Fryda, bitterly injured and clinging to his horse, running it so hard that it nearly collapsed of exhaustion by the time he reached home at last days later. Bryson clung bitterly to life, but the healers tutted and tsked and said quietly to the lord and lady of Fryda that the wounds were too grave, and it was not likely to be long, and it would be kinder to put the poor boy out of his misery.

And, just like that, Gavin went from being a fourth son, a nobody left to have his fun and play soldier because there was nothing else for him, to being the presumptive heir and future lord of Fryda. His parents began to look for a marriage for him instead of his slowly-dying brother, ushering him into political lessons, language lessons, all the things they'd neglected his entire life because he had been the fourth son, the unlikely heir, the one who wished he'd been born a soldier.

Everything had fallen apart. Gavin's life had turned completely around from what he had always expected, and the worst part was that he still couldn't be absolutely sure that Minae was to blame.

.personality.

Gavin is, despite his age, still fairly immature, a trait which can likely be blamed on being surrounded by soldiers who didn't always take their orders very seriously. He tends toward sarcasm and rudeness with people he doesn't know, and bluntness with people he does know. His life with the soldiers, living practically as one of them, have made him into more than somewhat of a bully, a trait his parents are desperately trying to breed out of him.

He tends to take insults and criticism very personality, and has the inability to take what he dishes out -- though he dishes out quite a good deal. He's good at carrying grudges, but only when he really believes in and agrees with them -- something he's never really been able to do with Minae. The situation as it is has, instead of making him more sure that Minae is worthy of his hatred, only made him less and less sure that they have anything to do with it. There are still too many questions, and he doesn't like questions he doesn't have an answer to. Gavin is the sort of man who needs neat, sorted answers to everything in his life, and the lack thereof with what's happened to his brothers unsettles him.

He is very bitter toward his poor turns in life and often tends to feel horribly sorry for himself. He never asked to be the heir and when faced with all the knowledge of what's expected of him in that role, he knows that it's not a life he ever would have chosen for himself. Marrying, having children, ruling a house, dealing with paperwork, he can't stand any of it.

He doesn't much believe in the Dragons, but he's still been saying prayers for the last few months that Bryson makes a miraculous recovery so he can go back to just leading the troops and playing soldier again, the way things used to be.

.appearance.

Gavin is wiry and long-limbed, muscular despite his thin build as a result of years upon years of training. His face and body are a map of the training he's received over the years, lined with long scars, some shallow and some deep. The two most prominent are one across his face that seems to split his face in two, and a cross-shaped mark on one cheek.

He has messy green hair that he never pays much attention to; it tends to fall in a shaggy mess over his face. He often goes days without doing much more than running a comb through it. He has bright green eyes and an overall narrow face that contrasts with his more muscular build. He has large hands and long fingers, and has worked to make his long limbs an asset to his fighting rather than a liability.

.misc.

pb; Thatz; Dragon Knights
player; Dots [[info]dots]
for;[info]himitsu_sensou

[Dots does not claim to own Thatz; he is the property of Mineko Ohkami, who drew/wrote Dragon Knights.]