toujoursdroit | Native Application

NATIVE APPLICATION

PLAYER

Name: Ammmy
Age: 30
Contact:

prettiestwhistles/DM character journal
Other Characters: Cosima Niehaus
Interests: I’ve really loved Fade Rift so far, but a rifter experience is going to be very different than a native’s by default. Now that I have a better handle on the setting, I’m eager to try someone with a different skillset and different priorities where the Inquisition is concerned. This time around, I’ll be looking for more intrigue and politicking, as well as the potential for a very different set of CR.

CHARACTER

Name: Romain Charnier, Duke of Coucy
Canon/OC: Native OC
Journal:

toujoursdroit
Race: human
Nationality: Orlesian
Occupation: nobility
Mage or Non-Mage: non-mage
Age: 70

History

Romain is the head of the house of Coucy, and splits his time between Val Royeaux and his family’s countryside estate. His father died in a duel when Romain was in his teens, so he inherited relatively young.

Romain was among those Emperor Florian sent to support Meghren's rule in the late days of the Fereldan Rebellion. He acquitted himself well, though without flashiness, during the campaign.

As a young man, he conducted a passionate but tempestuous affair with Allega Dufort, who he assumed would marry him in due course. However, in a turn of events that shocked many (including Romain himself), Allegra broke off with him to marry substantially beneath her station. Edme Vauquelin was not in line to inherit any title at all; Edme and Allegra’s son, Comte Emeric Vauquelin, inherited his title through his mother.

In time, Romain married Calanthe de L’Orme, the ambitious only daughter of a comte whose intelligence, beauty, and talent for the Game made her a practical match. They were never much of a romance, but they came to work well as a team, and eventually became friends, as well as the parents of three children.

Romain and Calanthe’s youngest, Aurèle, is the heir to the Coucy title. Obedient, good-natured, but not as clever as Romain might have hoped, Aurèle’s only true success (in his Romain’s view) was fathering a pair of sons, either of whom may actually prove a credit to the title one day. Thomas is 12, Raoul is 9.

Aurèle’s two older sisters are both deceased. Cecile was a mage apprentice and failed her harrowing; she is no longer discussed in the Coucy household in any capacity. Annegret, Romain’s eldest child, married Comte Emeric Vauquelin; she (at least as far as Romain knows) provided her husband with a solitary daughter, before dying relatively young from complications of her lifelong illness. Romain is as fond of Gwenaëlle as he is unimpressed with her father.

Calanthe died a little less than a year ago of an illness Romain is reasonably sure was not poisoning by one of her enemies or his.

Personality

Romain has always been fundamentally self-contained, and has been even moreso since his wife’s death. While his family matters intensely to him, he and his son are not close; while he has many allies and even a few people he would consider friends, he has no one in whom he readily and totally confides. Part of this is a generally low opinion of other people, part of it is self-defense, and part of it is a strategic choice in his approach to the Game.

Though his solitary nature does leave him isolated, he is also generally indifferent to the opinions of all but a very few people. Romain is convinced of his own value, and needs little in the way of external validation as long as he feels his position is secure. People's opinions of him matter because they either help or hinder his goals, seldom for their own sake.

Under the layers of studied coolness, Romain does have a temper. When angered, he tends to revenge rather than to outbursts, but can be pushed hard enough to forget that he’s meant to be above baiting. (His son-in-law excels at this, when he chooses to.) He knows his temper is a weak point, however, and he typically takes pains to keep a rein on it.

Romain has not reached age 70 and a relatively respected position in Orlais by being bad at the Game. As such, he is observant, intelligent, and an excellent liar on the rare occasion he deems it necessary. Above all, he is a practical man; he is a man who always begins with the end in mind, and generally has a variety of means to hand, including a plan B -- and C. And D. That said, he does genuinely believe that Orlais is a superior civilization and so believes in its preservation, both as a nation and a culture. In that, at least, he is not a thorough cynic.

Much like a cat, he is never embarrassed, because everything he does is entirely deliberate.

Opinions & Affiliations

Due to his temperament and his semi-reclusive habits (at least by Orlesian standards), Romain maintained an effectively neutral stance during the War of the Lions. While nominally loyal to Emperess Celene, he neither actively fought for her (he was a man of 70 mourning his wife, obviously), nor cut all ties with Gaspard’s supporters (he was deep in grief and not keeping track of Gaspard's machinations). Ultimately, he is loyal to Orlais; he feels both Celene and Gaspard had obvious flaws, but neither is so flawed as to be unacceptable. (The fact that he used his wife's death this way led a few people to speculate he poisoned her. He didn't, but finds it useful to have people that unobservant slightly afraid of him.)

Given Cecile’s fate, his private feelings on Circle Mages and Templars are complex. He plays those opinions very close to the vest, however, and is not often called upon to do otherwise. Even so, he has little sympathy for apostates. The world has an order, in his view, and anarchy is not the answer to any flaws in the Circles. He takes elven inferiority as a given, but has no personal animosity towards them and generally treats the servants and merchants with whom he interacts well (at least by the standards of Orlesian nobility). He still does not care for Fereldans at all.

Strengths & Weaknesses

Romain has access to potentially significant resources to offer in the form of money and Orlesian connections, but he will generally be circumspect in tapping either (both OOC for game balance and because he’s not entirely sure what he thinks of the Inquisition yet beyond their offer to try to get the shard out of his granddaughter’s hand). He will, however, be quick to identify where either could do the maximum good with the minimum outlay; he’s been running his estates for decades, and doing it well.

While he is too old to imagine he is a major asset on the battlefield, he has been trained in combat on horseback and hand-to-hand. While he finds those obsessed with their past military careers a bit gauche, he does still have a decent head for tactics and a methodical bent that served him well on campaigns.

Perhaps his greatest weakness is his stubbornness. Romain, while an educated and intelligent man, is one fairly set in his ways. That means he’ll be inclined to undervalue the contributions of elves, Fereldans and non-nobles, and perhaps be slower to change his mind on an issue than he really ought to be. He also tends to caution and is not quick to commit to a course of action in most instances, which can be a definite liability.

Romain has no magical ability.

Inventory

Personal effects

A horse, better suited to travel than battle

Traveling attire, as well as one finer suit of clothes and the accompanying mask

A well-made but not particularly ornate sword

A well-made and fairly ornate dagger

Basic travel supplies

A reasonable amount of ready cash to cover his travel expenses (stays at inns, food, etc.)

In addition, he will make a one-time donation to the Inquisition, meant to cover his stay in Skyhold plus some extra goodwill for his just ... showing up.

Motivation

Romain does practically nothing with only one purpose. His stated intention is to see for himself what the Inquisition is up to after their presence -- in a purely neutral role, of course -- in the recent negotiations at the Winter Palace. (Now that Part II has been moved to Wintermarch, I am willing to either delay his arrival or start things off with him in Orlais first, whatever the mods think makes most sense.) He may find it useful to spend a little time considering the fallout of said negotiations from slightly farther away. And if he should happen to check in on his granddaughter while visiting, well, surely that is only natural.

SAMPLES

Sample One

Romain was not sorry that he was out of Val Royeaux for a few weeks. The gossip there had become tiresomely circular, and there hadn’t even been a decent new play in months. He felt marginally more relaxed, at home -- an impulse he tended to check, lest it make him vulnerable, but still worth indulging for at least a few moments when he first arrived.

Now that he was settled in, however, there was business to attend as well as his own pleasure. Thomas, sitting in one of the two chairs across from Romain’s desk, was doing an admirable job of sitting still for a boy his age and was waiting more patiently for his grandfather to speak than Aurèle had ever managed under similar circumstances. His mask was a good one, and new since Romain had seen his grandson last; dark green to match Thomas’ suit of clothes with a pattern incorporating the serpent of the Coucy heraldry, it hid most of the boy’s expression.

But, in the end, Thomas was only 12, and it was obvious that he was not at ease.

“I understand,” Romain said eventually, “that you and your fencing instructor had a disagreement a few weeks ago.”

He could almost see Thomas deliberately not reacting. He was good, but he would need to be better. “Yes, grandfather.”

“Why don’t you tell me what the dispute concerned?”

Thomas nodded, just slightly. “I asked him to teach me a particular guard stance I had seen used, and he said that it was a method I couldn’t learn unless I was to become a chevalier.”

“I see.” Romain studied the boy. “And do you feel a strong desire to enter the Academie, then?”

Thomas’ tone remained level. “I am not a younger son. It would draw talk and unnecessarily expend social capital. I do not wish to become a chevalier. I simply wished to learn a stance. Sir,” he added.

Romain let himself smile a little. “Well. Then I suppose you will either have to find a new instructor or teach yourself by observation. Or,” he added, “give up.” He wanted to see if the boy could be baited.

They would need a new fencing instructor either way. Romain was not impressed with a grown man who let himself be drawn into an outright argument with a pupil. But there was time for another lesson first. With luck, Thomas would profit from it.

Sample Two

Why anyone should want something done in the Maker-forsaken Hinterlands, Romain is sure he doesn't know.