#ill probs add to this bc there's frankly more but yeah these are just sketches to give us a jumping off point re: what to expect re: them

[forgottengodfrey]

House Calainon's Interrelationships

since im now playing not just one but two whole families myself (except edmund s/o to you!), i thought id do some meta things to sort of elaborate on things a bit but esp talk about the internal relationships between various siblings so without further ado...

GODFREY ON AMIRA

there are seven years between amira and godfrey. growing up, he always thought of her in semi-mythical terms: so much older and more sophisticated, she was also (he assumed) destined to be the next witch of calainon, carrying on an ancient tradition. yet, while godfrey found himself shunted off by his grandmother in favor of his sister, these things were never to her the sanctified ideals they were to him, and after his mother died and when godfrey became old enough he began to have to fend largely for himself. while his family still sheltered him, he found soon that the closest link amongst the unit was that between the two women, excluding him and his squalling little brother.

this was a moment that forever cracked something in gofrey and amira's relationship. godfrey knew they worked together, but he would never again trust her to place his or tristan's sakes upon the same echelon of her own -- and he would do the same for her only insofar as it would benefit their house, for he still saw its traditions as sacred and, with the death of their grandmother, it was the three siblings against the world with amira as their high priestess.

while godfrey does not entirely trust his sister, he trusts in her ruthless self-interest. godfrey is a fairly astute judge of character, something which coupled with his cunning, has formed the cornerstone of his survival, and he understands that amira will do whatever it takes to seize and cling to power something she equates with safety -- and something he has in turn chosen to galvanize. he, after all, also longs for power, but his need is a very different thing, wishing not to propel himself to the apex of power, so much, as to wield it like a weapon to purge this world of evil. this is not, however, a plan he has ever entirely shared with his sister, knowing that she would turn against him if she knew his true plans for her son. instead, he has chosen only to share with her a partial truth: that he, too, wishes to see edmund enthroned as emperor.

godfrey views amira as his stoutest ally, and he is aware that she sees him largely as a tool t which she is entitled since it is she who has raised him so high, but in that that is precisely how he is using her in turn, he tries not to let this bother him. he does find her somewhat frustrating as she is not so clear-sighted in her ideals -- those being few and far between -- and he views her goals of wishing to find security in life, as petty and self-serving, while believing his own -- of plunging the world into apocalypse -- to be noble and selfless. but he plans to keep his secrets to the bitter end, allowing her to see him simply as a machinator and a soft-hearted older brother and uncle -- he does not realize quite how aware she is of the fact that he's done his utmost to cut her out of his heart.

im just gonna come out and say this -- their relationship is 100% toxic. when i do her relationships ill talk a bit more abt this, but neither entirely trusts e/o and they're both using e/o, and they both know it. but also they trust e/o more than anyone else bc no one is as ruthless or as singleminded as e/o. in some ways they're mirror images of e/o. they both admire and revile their reflection by turns, but when they have a unified goal, they know no one can get sm done for them as e/o. its when their goals diverge they both know they must tread carefully for the other is absolutely ruthless and likely won't hesitate should their sibling get in their way...they ultimately bring out what is worst in one another.

GODFREY ON TRISTAN

godfrey was five when his youngest sibling was born, losing their mother shortly thereafter. godfrey isn't sure if tristan can truly remember her or not, but he's been determined that one thing tristan would know is hope. while the rest of them mouldering in near-despair, godfrey would sneak the near-starving child some bread and tell him all the lofty tales their mother used to tell. yet, even this relationship is perhaps not so pure as one may hope.

godfrey does truly love his little brother, but he loves him for their mother's sake; he cultivated him for his own. godfrey was well aware by the time their mother died that he and tristan would be more or less on their own, with amira and their grandmother forming an unbreaking bond and trhusting them the boys out into the cold. but godfrey didn't intend to freeze. he didn't mean to let tristan do so either, and he knew that as tristan grew, he'd prove a great asset to him. while his love is certainly genuine, he also feels that tristan owes him, viewing his little brother almost as his leal swordarm, and cultivating in him a wish to please.

it is from godfrey that tristan has inherited his idealistic nature, and it is smth that godfrey has also v specifically cultivated in him. this was not, however, for selfish reasons. godfrey is, in his own way, a zealot willing to do most anything to feed a better world, and he wished to see his little brother as the first citizen of that new world he would forge, a final gift to their mother. he also wanted to prove that he could, indeed, put good into the world, and tristan was -- to borrow a phrase -- the first pancake.

before edmund, you see, i sort of think godfrey saw tristan as the future's hero through whom godfrey would see the world restored to good. edmund, however, presented an even more promising candidate, and i do think that godfrey abandoned tristan a bit when edmund was born. while tristan never knew what godfrey was planning, precisely, he knew that he'd once been the center of his brother's world and had somehow lost his shine, leaving tristan feeling rather adrift. godfrey is only partially aware of this and, while he cares about his little brother, the truth is that he simply cares about the future he's going to create, more. if tristan must be the first casualty, so it must be. godfrey believes that, after all, he is ultimately doing this for everyone's good: tristan's included.

godfrey still feels tristan will have an important role to play, as his strong right arm and swordhand, and as edmund's eventual sworn shield. he does believe there is a good likelihood that tristan will die in pursuit of this cause, and while that will break godfrey's heart, he believes it would be selfish of him to turn away bc he might lose a brother, even if his brother is indeed a good man. the future is simply more important than any one life.

nonetheless, were he to inadvertently facilitate his brother's death, it would be the chiefest of his many sins and, while godfrey doesn't fully appreciate this, it would cause him to spiral. the truth is, godfrey is just as guilty of taking tristan for granted as his mother and sister are guilty of taking godfrey for granted -- a thing for which godfrey has never forgiven them. edmund is his hope, but tristan is ultimately godfrey's guidepost and advisor when it comes to remaining on the straight and narrow, and he would lose his way without him. but the irony of this is that godfrey cannot see it.