Post by Léandre de Guivre on Dec 7, 2009 21:37:03 GMT -5
Name: Léandre de Guivre
Age: 38
Race (Lineage Origin): D’Angeline/Siovalese
Gender: Male
Height: 6’, 2”
Home Province/Country: Siovale/Terre D’Ange
Description (Appearance and Personality) :
Léandre’s good looks are somewhat offset by the permanent scowl on his face. His eyes are arresting shade of green which hide a coldness that makes many who encounter him feel uneasy. His brown hair normally falls to his shoulders, but he will sometimes put it up for fetes and the like, if he even bothers to go. He is always impeccably dressed, so much so that most people assume that he presses his clothes at least three times a day. He prefers to dress in dark shades, especially black, but will sometimes settle for black with gold trim if he is feeling particularly adventurous.
Léandre does not believe in the gods of Terre D’Ange (or any gods, for that matter) believing such stories to be merely tales used to justify D’Angeline arrogance. He believes that rulers should rule because they are good at what they do, not because they claim descent from a god-child and a bevy of winged creatures from the sky. If the gods do exist, he maintains, they have not seen fit to inform him of their existence. He privately scoffs at any sort of religious ritual, avoiding the temples like the plague unless he requires the services of a good chiurgeon and his own is away on sick leave. More publicly, he has written a few books (under a pseudonym) in which he has expressed these views. These more controversial books are currently banned in Terre d’Ange, even though he knows of several copies that reside in private collections. He writes less controversial treatises under his own name, mostly regarding foreign nations, which he sees as being less self-absorbed. He is careful to conceal the fact that he is the author of such heretical tracts, thoroughly destroying the original manuscripts after the books have been sent away to be copied.
History:
Léandre comes from a long line of scholars. His father was a scholar, his grandfather was a scholar, even the family history states that the first de Guivre was the product of a female scholar whom Shemhazai himself bedded. (Léandre scoffs at this explanation for his family’s origins.) His mother, on the other hand, was a priestess of Shemhazai in Siovale, who did not have quite an illustrious bloodline. From an early age, Léandre was surrounded by books. In the years before he learned to read, he would content himself with examining the illustrations. Once he had learned his letters, he eagerly devoured every book in his parents’ library. While other boys his age were being sent away for fostering, Léandre spent most of his time reading every book he could get his hands on.
Unfortunately, that left little time for social interaction, and when he reached adolescence his parents soon began to worry that their son had shown no interest in the opposite sex, or in fact, no interest in anyone at all as a potential lover. Deciding that he needed to experience what life was like beyond their estate, his parents sent him to study with a fellow scholar in the City of Elua. He arrived in the City of Elua on the cusp of gaining his age of majority.
Surprisingly, it did not take long for Léandre to adjust to the change in scenery, and under his scholarly patron’s direction he began to frequent academic circles. He sought out teachers who could teach him Caerdicci and Hellene. He even made a few friends his own age (although, “friend” might not have been the best term to use to describe the relationship). He continued to read everything that was put into his hands, including several books which he had to acquire using rather “unorthodox” methods.
If someone were to ask him to pinpoint the exact moment where he began a downward spiral into cynicism, he would have to recount what happened the day he gained his majority. He knew of the custom whereby members of the peerage were abducted by their friends and taken to the Night Court, but he had never expected that his friends would indulge in such foolishness! In fact, though he was loathe to admit it, the prospect of intercourse frightened him. The night ended with one of his friends nursing a broken nose and Léandre with his virginity intact, sternly warning his friends that he would partake of such things when he chose to do so, and no sooner.
He returned to his studies and, by the time he had reached his early twenties, had concluded that the gods were nothing more than flights of fancy that catered to D’Angeline arrogance. He wrote his first book: “On Elua and His Companions” under a pseudonym in which he attacked the national myth as a deliberate distortion of history to suit the needs of the peerage--and was more than a little surprised when it was banned and its author was declared a heretic. Undaunted by the ban, he wrote a second book under another pseudonym, but this book was also declared to be the work of a heretic. Deciding that it would be better to cease writing altogether until the noise surrounding his heretical tracts died down, he returned to the scholarly circles he had frequented before he had decided to sequester himself away from human contact, debating with men and women twice his age. Now in his late thirties, he is currently in the process of writing a book about how foreign peers adjust to life in the City of Elua.