Launfale de Durendaire
Dragoon • Astrologian • Ishgardian Noble
About
Name: Launfale de Durendaire
Sobriquets: Blackwyrm, the Sable Dragoon
Age: 25
Height: 6'10"
Race: Elezen, Wildwood
Gender: Male
Birthday: 1st Sun, 1st Umbral Moon
Launfale is the youngest nephew of Count Charlemend de Durendaire, adopted into the line of succession behind his elder cousin Jannequinard following the disappearance of the Count's son and heir at sea. Chosen by the Church for a prestigious leadership position — owing both to his martial prowess and high birth — he conceals a heretical devotion to both the Horde and the Fury.
History
Launfale was born to a cadet branch of House Durendaire roughly eighteen years before the Calamity, and raised in the proud traditions of Coerthan knighthood. Distant from the Countship for much of his life, he was groomed for warfare rather than politics, spending much of his youth as a page and squire, before earning his spurs as a young adult and being thrust headlong into the Dragonsong War. Initially, the young lord received assignment to Falcon's Nest in Western Coerthas, in order to join the campaign against the odious heretics operating in the region.
Not long after his arrival, the Calamity struck: the Ishgardian forces were thrown into disarray by the combined assault of the Horde, and the catastrophic upheaval wrought on the elements. Though a heavy price was paid in blood by the knights of Ishgard (including the loss of the Dusk Vigil), the Horde was routed in the fields outside Falcon's Nest — due in no small part to Launfale's fierce battling to cover the feigned retreat of his brother knights before their counter-attack. It was in this skirmish that he earned his sobriquet: witnesses maintain that his armor was stained black with soot and by the flames of the dragons he felled.
Bathed as he was in the blood and sinew of the Horde in its fervor, he heard the dread call of Nidhogg on that day, feeling his roar invigorate and inebriate him; though he would lead many missions against the tenacious heretics, he would find himself allured by the feverish insights of their left-behind epistles and the lingering visions of their master's fury. Over time, he began to covet that power for himself, and so he took to the secret practice of the Dravanian heresy — in so doing, he would ascend the heights of his potential and taste abilities other dragoons could only dream of. However, it was not long before the Durendaire heir went missing and was lost at sea, leading the Count to recall Launfale from the thick of the fighting to adopt him into the line of succession (and quell idle speculation about the House's fate).
In a twist of irony, following the downfall of Archbishop Thordan VII, Launfale was selected by the acting leadership of the Ishgardian Orthodox Church to serve as grandmaster of a newly-conceived chivalric order: the Order of Saint Reinette, a free company of knights and men-at-arms sworn to the Holy See's defense. In order to further his ambitions, operate beyond the gaze of inquisitors and Temple officers, and protect the vulnerable settlers in the region, he has sought the relocation of his Order to the Dravanian wilds.
Hooks
Aristocrat: Launfale, like much of Ishgardian high society, is proud, strong-willed, and committed to the ideal of noblesse oblige: the duties owed by the lord to those in his charge. He recognizes the need for Ishgard to change, and seeks the assistance of others to show charity to the less-fortunate within Ishgard's walls. Despite this, his motives are not entirely altruistic: he endeavors to preserve the prestige and honor of the Durendaire name. He is often prone to arrogance given his high station, especially when reacting to perceived disrespect from minor nobility.
Dragoon & Astrologian: One of Launfale's greatest passions is the hunt, and there is no greater calling for a knight to aspire to than dragonslaying. Through almost two epochs of training and battle, he has honed his craft to an art form. He is especially fond of inviting new friends and allies on dragon hunts — an invitation he finds that only a precious few accept. Discouraged from such high-risk quarry by his lord, the Count, he has taken especially to jousting & melee tournaments of late. He learned astromancy from his cousin Jannequinard; the viscount urged his assistance in order to successfully present Sharlayan astromancy to the Vault. Launfale, however, sought a means to track (and hunt) the Horde discreetly, without the assistance of the Observatorium.
Heresy: Educated well on the so-called Dravanian errors as a youth by the clerics responsible for his education, Launfale was a dedicated and orthodox-believing adherent of the Church until his encounter with heretical epistles in the Western Highlands; the writings would stoke a fire within him that he could not explain, having been tainted and rendered susceptible by prolonged, visceral combat with the Horde. He developed a particularly zealous devotion to the slain dragon Ratatoskr, considering her his patroness. Eventually, overcome by bloodlust and a profane curiousity, he would commit the ultimate sacrilege & imbibe the remnants of an accursed chalice left behind by his slain enemies. Fortunately, he did not consume enough to undergo any visible transformation, but it has left him with a nigh-insatiable thirst to imitate the heretics' rites again. Needless to say, the laws and dogmas of Ishgard render this a perilous pursuit, and he has not since had the opportunity to partake of the Horde's blood, save for one occasion. He is ever vigilant for the suspicions of inquisitors, and is perfectly fine with threatening & bribing those who discover his secret into silence — or worse.
OOC
WIP, thanks for reading! I'm mostly available on nights and weekends, CST.
FC carrd to come!