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Decisions

Alistriona had gotten to them too, a fact he’d known since he opened his cousin’s missive. Their talk had only confirmed it.

It was easy for them to do. Enroll in school, pay for grades and cut the classes so that the time could be spent in other, better endeavors. They were the second and third sons of a Kul Tiran noble house, not the Heir Apparent of the Marquis Sutherland. Their immediate family members had few eyes and ears within the Capital; His father had contacts with nearly every noble name and every merchant guild in the city. His did.

In retrospect, there was likely some truth to his father’s words. There was no place in war for a boy like him, regardless of his skills or abilities, because he, himself, was irreplaceable. It was cruel to think of his cousins in terms of heirs, spares, and spares’ spares, but it was the truth. 

It wasn’t that he disagreed with what they were going to do. Their intentions were noble, their plan... well, it might work, but he’d never call it sound. He’d support them where he could, protect them where he couldn’t, and keep their secret quiet. But, he couldn’t join them, no. This plan wasn’t for him. 

He’d find a different way, a different approach, or he would stay home.

@aidrian-laurentis @kethair @alistriona

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Aidrian,

I have an idea of what this is about. Meet at the spot we spoke last, a few hours after sunfall. I’ll have a drink waiting for you, and water for Keth.

Signed,

Nathaen

@aidrian-laurentis @kethair

Change of Pace

The following letter was sealed with the de Laurentis crest.

Nathaen,

I had an interesting conversation with a mutual friend of ours. It had me thinking about a lot about where to go from here.

Needless to say, it will end with me needing to have a fun chit chat with Uncle Darran but I’d like to have a chat with you first. Make sure we’re on the same page and all that. I’ll bring Kethair along as well. He just doesn’t know it yet.

Get back to me when you can, I’ll keep an eye out for the return missive. Schedule is open.

Signed,

Aidrian

@nathaen @kethair

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She was both a vexation and a comfort to him, and always had been. 

As the daughter of his father’s closest companion, the Earl of Westfield, Alistriona Hargrave had been a part of his life for as long as he could remember. She had been the harpy whose actions he had been blamed for as a child. She was the siren that lured him into so many of his ‘firsts’. She was the consort that begged for him and then denied him not two days after their betrothal. She was the friend that held him as he processed the gravity of his first kill. And now, seated against his headboard, she was the savior that offered freedom.

It was dark when he returned to Windforge, though the torchlight ever-flickered within the halls of the keep. The familiarity had already seeped into his bones before he ascended the first steps, leaving a stableman and his steed in his wake. Delicate, sparse snowflakes drifted down in silence, and Nathaen breathed in a crispness that the warmer areas of the kingdom would never know. The hallways were barren this late, his parents long retired for the evening. He would see them in the morning. Even the servants had found their respite, with only a few attending the fires and torches left awake.

And yet, she was there, seated upon his bed, clothed in a nightrobe and little else. He cursed her beneath his breath and swallowed the bitterness that she was seated upon a bed that she had outright rejected not six months before. But then, this is how it had always been; Never love, only lust and something more that left him feeling raw and used in the morning. But, as always, the cards were in her favor and she was in control, and he knew that feeling was all that would remain of her in the morning.

Only, this time, it wasn’t. He’d awoken to her pressed to his side, seeking body heat to replace the fire that had grown cold in the locked room. He brought her out of her slumber by pushing back the strawberry-blonde strands that had littered her face. She’d responded by lightly cursing him, rolling, and pulling the blankets clear off him. 

They’d made it down in time for breakfast. The guards and servants that met them in the hallway showed little concern with his company; Though their checkered affair had been a source of court gossip for years, not one of his father’s men would dare utter a single word outside the walls of the keep. His parents were there waiting and doted on him appropriately, though he knew his father was merely ramping up to expound his displeasure all at once. 

And so it had been. He’d been forbidden from returning to the field, not even to Dalaran. Word had already been sent ahead. He was verbally flayed for overstepping boundaries he hadn’t known existed and cast out of the study surrounded by a cloud of disappointment and guilt. It wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last.

“So simply re-enroll. I don’t understand why you have to make this difficult,” she said. 

“Because it’s not that simple,” he replied testily.

Alistriona reclined back on the lounging chair, breath visible as she huffed out into the noon-time air. She remained in silence, though Nathaen knew that it wouldn’t last long. He leveled his gaze on the view that the ramparts offered. It was beautiful in the summer, undoubtedly Alistriona’s favorite spot to sun herself. In the winter, Nathaen thought it was immaculate; It was his favorite retreat.

“You know, it really is simple though. You just re-enroll and make a show of it. No one will expect a thing. I’ll front you the coin if you can’t pull it out of your funds without him noticing.”

“First, perhaps you’ve forgotten but people in Stormwind know who I am. My classmates and instructors would know who I am. What’s going to happen if my father checks in with virtually anyone he might know at the Acad-”

“Explain to him that you’re going to enroll under an alias so that you’re left alone to focus on your studies.”

“Okay, and if he writes up the instructors or requests grades?” He lofted a brow.

“Gold. Pay the instructors to say what you want, and give you the grades that you need.”

“I don’t think you understand how difficult learning medicine is.”

“So don’t learn it. That’s the entire point here. You sign up for the classes and don’t attend, and pay gold to the instructors to maintain decent grades,” she said, frustration brewing in her voice.

“They don’t graduate people from the Medical Academy unless they know what they’re doing, Ali.”

“You want to tell me that with all the pull you have, you can’t find someone to write you a damn certificate?”

Nathaen sat up and stared at her. “You’re insane. And corrupt. No. I can’t do this, Ali. No.”

He got to his feet and she reached up to loosely grip his arm. Removing the sunglasses that she insisted protected her from snow-glare, she gave him a melting, doe-eyed look. “Nathaen, just think about it. You want your freedom, you want to serve. I know that. I’m just trying to help you find a way that you can. Think about it. Seriously.”

Nathaen tugged free from her grasp and trod off, heavy cloak sweeping the dusting of snow on the worn stone.

Like I’d be able to think of anything else, he thought.

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Part 7: Personal Interactions

Current Residence:

March of Windforge, Kingdom of Stormwind

Family:

His parents, aunt and his cousins all still live. He has no siblings, and all of his grandparents have passed on.

Friends:

Nathaen has many acquaintances, but few friends. This is largely by virtue of his station and upbringing; As gregarious as his family presents themselves, there is still a marked separation between them and the non-aristocracy.

He is well-liked among his noble peers in his age range, but is cautious to form friendships among them due to potential complications. After all, friendships are often a cultivated tool and not a simple relationship to craft when politics are concerned. He believes that when he becomes Marquis, he’ll be able to easily form genuine friendships with several of these men.

His closest companions are the men that serve his father, particularly the officers of the guard. He is also exceptionally close to his de Laurentis cousins, Aidrian, Kethair and Adoth.

There was also this girl...

Enemies:

There are those that don’t like him, but they are consistently beneath his notice. As for true enemies (beyond petty remarks and snipes), he has them but doesn’t know it just yet.

There was also the above mentioned girl...

Bosses:

Captain Correl Landon

‘His father’s man’. This man has long been mentor of Nathaen’s, and is his direct superior during the operations on Argus.

Lord Darran Sutherland, Marquis of Windforge

His father, liege, and overlord. Nathaen is bound by oath of service to his father. Technically.

Pets/Familiars:

N/A

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Part 6: Emotions

Mood:

Nathaen was raised as a politician, and any politician worth his salt knows better than to wear his emotions on his sleeve. Though he feels things, and feels them strongly, Nathaen gives off the appearance of being easy-going and hard to shake on an emotional level.

Attitude:

Nathaen is a realist with a hopeful streak. He doesn’t perpetually believe that things will be daisies and sunshine, but he’s of the opinion that it would be great if they were.

Stability:

Nathaen has a temper, but is a relatively stable individual.

Expressiveness:

He expresses what emotions he believes would be most beneficial in any given situation, with few exceptions, even if he doesn’t actually feel that way.

When Happy:

When genuinely happy, he will smile with his eyes as well as his mouth. His eyes tend to crinkle at the corners when he does.

When Depressed:

Depression is a mental illness, not an emotion, and Nathaen doesn’t suffer from it. When he is sad, if he has the opportunity to do so,  he will withdraw until he gets his emotions in check.

When Angry:

When pushed, Nathaen will lose his temper. This is perhaps the easiest emotion to get him to show in a genuine manner, and it’s anyone’s guess what the limits of that temper will be. It can present as a full range of rage, from barbed, sniping comments to shows of violence. He is not above striking someone if pushed to such a degree.

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Part 5: Day to Day

Style:

Nathaen is equal parts noble and practical in terms of his dress. His clothing tends to be fairly plain in at a glance, but in reality is made from materials and possessing craftsmanship that the general populace could only dream of. The exception is when he is armored and when he is in formal regalia; His family’s lands are renowned for producing some of the most prestigious armor in the Kingdom, and his own armor is no exception.

Grooming:

Nathaen places high importance on hygiene, largely due to his upbringing and chosen craft of medicine. He is typically very clean physically, with his hair tied back into a low ponytail. The one exception to his neatness would be his facial hair, which seems to be held in a perpetual five o’clock shadow.

Posture:

He is confident and proud, and it shows in his bearing. He stands up straight with his shoulders back and head high. When he sits, unless he is in comfortable company, he sits up straight as well.

Gait:

Nathaen walks with the purposeful, self-assured stride of a nobleman, but it is tempered with the nimbleness and balance of a practiced fighter.

Coordination:

He possesses above average hand-to-eye coordination, though it is a learned skill rather than a natural talent. His reflexes and balance are what would be expected to be given his martial training.

Habits and Mannerisms:

Nathaen likes to stick to a very strict schedule. He is very predictable when left to his own devices, though he likes to think of himself as a daring and adventurous individual. Despite his predisposition to the familiar he is generally very agreeable to changes in plans, it simply never occurs to him to change things up himself.

Scent:

Sea salt and pine permeate his belongings as well as his physical form, especially when he has recently visited his ancestral home. When ‘cleaned up’, he often smells of a peculiar mix of dark musk, pipe tobacco, and teakwood.

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World of Warcraft - Battle for Azeroth Tiragarde Sound

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Kul'Tiras

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OOC Character Crafting Notice

I had previously sought to create a character that had an grey-asexual/demisexual orientation. I did this to protect myself from having to explain why my  character wasn’t interested in another (and deal with the drama that results), or why I didn’t want to write a romantic storyline with someone due to OOC reasons. I’ve realized how silly this is, and I’m not going to compromise the character’s original design because people are crazy sometimes. 

Nathaen is (bi-curious) Heterosexual/Heteroromantic, and I reserve the right to pick my RP partners. Previous posts suggesting otherwise are retconned and will be edited promptly.

[nathaen-blog1]

Part 4: Health

Health:

Nathaen is very healthy. Light-blessed and physically fit, he hasn’t had so much as a sniffle of an illness in years. In addition, his family’s guardsmen have fought alongside him on the rare occasions he has seen combat, keeping him safe from injury.

Energy:

Nathaen is has energy when he needs it, but still favors a good sleep-in and plenty of time to lounge about. It’s not so much a flaw of laziness as a normal human slant towards relaxation.

Memory:

Naethan has a solid memory, on the high side of average.

Senses:

While he boasts good eyesight and hearing, Nathaen is pretty lacking when it comes to taste. This enables him to eat just about anything… and also prevents him from understanding why his compatriots often insists that he doesn’t cook. Ever.

Allergies:

He has no allergies that he is aware of, though he will often tell people that he is allergic to Pandaren spices when asked. In reality, he simply hates that type of cuisine.

Phobias:

Nathaen is afraid of the dark. Not the ‘lights-are-out’ type of dark, but the true sensory deprivation and the blackness that comes with it. His greatest fear is that such is what awaits the living when they die.

Addictions:

He has no addictions.

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Appearance 

Gender: Male

Race: Human (Mother hails from pre-scourge Lordaeron nobility, father is a Stormwind Marquis)

Height: 6’2

Eye Color: Blue

Hair Color: Black

Age: 24

The Facts 

Occupation: Paladin, Heir-Apparent

Sexual identification: Heterosexual/Bi-curious

Romantic identification: Heteromantic (Very Selective)

Alignment: Lawful Neutral, borders on true neutral

Criminal History: None

Relationship Status: Single

Sweet on: None

Favorites 

Treat: Beer-Basted Boar Ribs

Drink: Sulfuron Slammer,  Rhapsody Malt

Artist: N/A

Scent: Leather, Sandalwood

Person: Kethair de Laurentis, Aidrian de Laurentis, Adoth de Laurentis

Deeper Knowledge 

Ten Details:

1 - Nathaen is the son of the Marquis of Windforge, whom is a noble of the Kingdom of Azeroth (Stormwind). His mother is the only surviving member of the Mardenhall family from Lordaeron. He has ties through his paternal aunt to Kul Tiras, and is close with his Kul Tiran cousins.

2 - Nathaen had an exemplary childhood. He was a happy, high-achieving boy with doting parents.

3 - Nathaen spent a large portion of his youth pursuing a working knowledge of medicine and anatomy (much to his father’s distaste), with the belief that he would only be able to serve in a military capacity as a physician. To a large degree, he was correct.

4 - Nathaen is asexual (his self-identification, in practice a little bit different). However, under the right circumstances, he is still a voracious flirt because he loves the word play, the attention, and the chase that it brings.

5 - Nathaen will instinctively play whatever part he subconsciously believes will be best received by the person he is interacting with. He will enhance or play down elements of his upbringing, mannerisms, or personality without thinking about it.

6 - Nathaen took his vows as a paladin at the age of 16, during a small ceremony attended by his mentor and a handful of other retired paladins from Windforge. He considers this more formative than his Age of Ascension in terms of defining him as a man. He became a paladin of the Order of the Silver Hand at the age of 23.

7 - Nathaen is a skilled combatant. Medicine was his ‘plan b’. He is excellent with a shield, and a gifted swordsman. If he had been born into another life, it would be easy to envision him as the victor of melee tournaments and gladiatorial matches.

8 - Nathaen’s first kill in battle was a cultist outside of the gates of Stormwind, during the elemental invasions that preceded the Shattering. He doesn’t lose sleep over it, or any of the others that have perished by his hand in the context of battle. The few times faces haunt him, they are those that he couldn’t save.

9 - Nathaen is marginally fearful of sailing. He would never admit it to his cousins, whom are proud Kul Tirans, but there’s something about the idea of being out at sea that he finds unsettling. It’s nearly without merit, as he is both a strong swimmer and a competent sailor, and he’s certainly not afraid of the ocean itself. He’s good enough at hiding that fear that he’s pretty sure no one knows.

10 - Much like how ‘I’d ask the genie for 100 wishes!’ is a great cop-out to not being able to come up with a single good wish, Nathaen is a very complex… and it’s far too difficult to select only one detail to fill round this out.

Five Things 

Things Preferred:

Alcoholic drinks served in shot glasses

Aesthetically pleasing, hand-forged armor of the highest quality, regardless of the culture that created it.

Quel’dorei. Not so much in a romantic sense, but as a people. He’s encountered quite a few over the past year in the Order of the Silver Hand, and finds them fascinating. Their tenacity and diligence inspires him.

Windforge. He can’t think of a better place to be than home. While he hasn’t travelled extensively by any stretch of the imagination, he loves his ancestral land.

Solitude. Though one might be tempted to describe Nathaen as extroverted, he prefers his own company or the company of a few close companions.

Things Disliked:

Horde Members, Horde Sympathizers, or Scourge (Or things that resemble scourge/were formerly scourge)

Idealogues

Non-Carbonated Wine (of any color/variety)

Pandaren Food

People who claim to be good fighters, but hide behind ranged weaponry

Habits (Good or Bad):

He’s schedule-bound, and very predictable because of it.

He paces at all given opportunities.

All personal criticisms are lumped in with insults and redirected to the ‘these people aren’t worth my time’ box.

He always sleeps on the right side of the bed. Always.

There must be a clock in every room he sleeps in. Checking the time is the first thing he does in the morning, before he even rolls out of bed. He has a collection of Gilnean pocket watches that accompany him when he is travelling.

Personality Traits Drawn To:

Passionate

Calculating

Ambitious

Confident

Intelligent, Specifically Logical/Tactical

This isn’t a personality trait so much as a skill, but he is drawn to people who know how to play the game. He’s a politician by birthright.

Personality Traits Repelled From:

False Ego

Emotional, Mental, Spiritual or Physical Frailty/Imbalance

Willful Ignorance or Ineptitude

Cowardice

Victim & Martyr Complexes

None of these are irredeemable if they are balanced out by other traits that he is drawn to. The only thing that he is unshakably, irrevocably repulsed by is poorly controlled emotion.

Fears:

Sensory Deprivation

Deep Sea Sailing

OOC Notes 

I prefer to write him in a very uncontrolled way, meaning that I refuse to OOCly dictate the direction his story takes and will instead allow IC to develop in a natural way according the the actions and words of the characters involved. This does mean that I am open to things like character injury and illness if the circumstances are realistic and genuine. I don’t suffer OOC drama well, and will cut off interaction at the first whiff of it.