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[takeroot]

OOC
Player/Contact: Laura jojoveller
Other Characters: Carver bigfinish

IC
Name: Constantin d'Orsay
Canon: Greedfall
Canon Point: mid-game
Age: 25

History/Personality: this canon does not have a wiki with much at all, I'm sorry, here we go

A History in Bullets:

-Constantin is born in the Congregation of Merchants to Prince d'Orsay's second wife; his mother had his older half-brother, Laurent, assassinated when Constantin was very young to make room for "her" heir, a fact that has caused his father to resent Constantin and be overly demanding with him if not outright verbally abusive.

-Constantin grows up both hating his parents and wanting desperately to please them in turn; his closest friend, ally, and confidant is his cousin, the protagonist, known in canon as De Sardet (the first name isn't given, presumably player choice). They are very close, and Constantin makes reference to how De Sardet is always there to bail him out of his many troubles.

-Constantin gets into troubles a lot as a rowdy youth with something to prove. When the game narrative begins, he is missing in action after a night of partying, and found kidnapped by a local gang trying to ransom him. De Sardet breaks him out of imprisonment and they prepare to leave Serene for New Serene, the Congregation's new city on the island of Teer Fradee, of which Constantin has just been appointed governor.

-Before their sea journey, they and their companions encounter a... tree monster, giant humanoid thing. De Sardet kills it and Constantin is very impressed. They start their months-long voyage immediately after. Their mission on Teer Fradee besides governing is to find a cure for the malichor, a disease that has been killing people on the continent.

-Upon arriving to New Serene, Constantin is desperate to squeeze all the adventure he can out of his new city, but is quickly buried in politics and paperwork. He sends De Sardet to the other cities to meet with the other major factions on the island: the Bridge Alliance, focused on science; the Theleme missionaries; and the native islanders.

-While De Sardet is away, Constantin is buried in paperwork, as mentioned. He often complains that he'd like to toss it all out and work on "real projects," and listens eagerly to all of De Sardet's adventure tales. It is also noteworthy that each time De Sardet returns, Constantin seems more and more ill.

-In De Sardet's travels, they discover a myriad of mysteries and corruptions on the island both old and new; those relevant to Constantin include the Coin Guard (the Congregation's guards) attempting a coup, which De Sardet prevents, and the fact that their current attempt at colonizing the island is not the first; merchants from their nation had attempted to settle the island many generations ago. Constantin also learns that De Sardet is not actually his cousin by blood, but professes they will always have a bond anyway.

-Just before the coup attempt Constantin relents and lets a doctor examine him. This is when he and De Sardet learn that Constantin has the malichor. Currently he is just... weak, and looks like shit, like he has a very bad flu but also his blood has turned black. The canon point iiiis here, just after the attempted coup/bad news brigade rolls in.

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A Personality, Abridged:

Charming: While the older and more ornery politician types in Constantin's life, including his parents, consider him a bit of a flighty airhead who's easy to trick, this is... mostly untrue! Constantin is very sociable and friendly by default, stemming from his compulsive need to be liked and accepted, and this can come across as, well, a very charming but not very worldly young man at first glance. He's aware of this and uses it to his advantage in the sense that he doesn't change his behavior for the people who'd judge him at all, choosing to put his friendly energy into the people who'll appreciate him. At times he's been described as "exhausting" with regards to his enthusiasm, but he defaults to acting like he has a full studio audience at all times and it usually works for him. Charming!

Lonely: As mentioned, he has a powerful hunger for acceptance. His father resents him for living while his older half-brother was murdered, his mother uses him as a pawn more than a person, the people at court are vipers at best— growing up in this environment has made Constantin a painfully lonely person. His cousin is his only friend and confidant, to the point that most of the others he's friendly with are his cousin's friends first and polite to him out of professional obligation (because he is a prince/governor). This isn't for lack of trying, but the trust issues he's developed with no parental support and a court of nobles that would poison him without blinking and very much did kill his older brother— well, it's hard. What he wants very badly is to have confidants, to have people he can call his and mean it from the bottom of his heart. It's only the unconditional love from his cousin that has kept his head above water in this regard, or he'd have given up years ago.

Spiteful: Perhaps unsurprisingly following his upbringing, Constantin has a pointed mean streak. This isn't to say that he's actively malicious, quite the opposite, he tries as hard as he can to champion the downtrodden and please as many people as possible with the power he has, but if he's wronged first... all bets are off. When he's kidnapped-then-rescued he wants his kidnappers killed as retribution; when the hired guards stage a coup he wants the people in charge all but drawn and quartered; when he learns terrible sins his father committed he wants to burn everything down and start over— he leans into the extremes when given the opportunity. He is not, however, impossible to reason with, and in most situations can be talked out of making impulsive spite-motivated decisions pretty easily; but his temper still flares and it's punishment tenfold that he thinks of immediately. Only when he's mad.

Loyal: Following his thirst for companionship, Constantin is fiercely loyal to those he does have, which at this point fresh out of canon is just his cousin. He would do anything for his cousin, and by extension his Loved Ones (broadly), up to and including scorching the earth. For Constantin, the happiness and safety of the people closest to him is paramount, and his dedication is second to none. Once a person has his love it's unconditional and he will make that abundantly clear through words and actions. When his cousin learns that they are not actually cousins at all and their life has been a lie, Constantin's immediate reaction is to declare them family no matter what; he pledges his loyalty without a second thought. He's a little intense about it sometimes, but it's a natural conclusion to just how badly he wants people he can be loyal too: he wants to keep them at any cost.

Adventurous: Although usually to his detriment, Constantin is very, very excited by the prospect of adventure and heroism and bold quests, etc. He's spent his whole life dreaming of being somewhere else, and wants more than anything to be heroic and bold himself— it just turns out that he's fragile and wholly inexperienced with actual danger (he freezes up at the first sign of earnest violence, for example). This doesn't stop him, though; he has a bad habit of getting himself into trouble and needing rescuing, whether that's from trying to climb the ramparts of his father's city and getting stuck or mouthing off at thugs and getting kidnapped. When he believes he's not in danger or knows someone (his cousin) is coming for him, his spirits stay high and he kind of doesn't take the danger seriously, going so far as to gush about what a damsel in distress he is and how exciting that is. He wants adventure, he would be terrible at it, but old habits, you know.

Would you consider your character to be heroic? Why or why not?: Not even a little. Constantin would like to be heroic, sure; he's long harbored big dreams of being a bold and daring adventurer, of being a hero... of government to his citizens, and so on, but has he ever actually done a heroic thing? Nah. His primary motivation to be good to people is to spite/be better than his father, anyway, which gets to the crux of the matter: Constantin is selfish. He's earnestly more like his father than he wants to be, and while he doesn't like that and tries to not be like that, he was born with a bad temper and raised by people who did not want or love him, so! He's got far too many issues to work out about himself to be A Hero.

Still. While he doesn't even rank hero-in-training for how sheltered and largely incompetent with combat and bog standard heroism stuff he is, his intentions... generally fall in a half-decent place? He was worse to other people when he was a kid, genuinely quoted as being a nightmare, but age and a vague coating of sadness have tempered him into someone who, at least usually, doesn't swing first. He's no hero; he's not a villain, either. To make his own way in the world and maybe even meet people who like him is the real goal; heroic acts are just one possible path.

He's Trying.

Powers/Abilities: Nothing at all! He's good at looking sick all the time and presumably governing, that's it.
Inventory: His clothes, a little satchel, a tiny lantern, a hat with a big feather in it.

Coterie: Salamanders, he's too squishy for anything else but he can probably Learn Alchemy. He is also going to Need Medicine for his, you know, magical plague.

Samples: one & two