(no subject)

[gautiheir]

APPLICATION

Player Name/Handle: Sam
Plurk Handle: atkascha
Player Status:
Other characters: -
Invited by: i was at your wedding last game denise korel

Character Name: Sylvain Jose Gautier
Fandom: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Character Journal: gautiheir
Canon, AU, CRAU, or OC? canon
Canon point: Chapter 21 of the Azure Moon route, just before the attack on Enbarr.
PB: nah

SETTING BACKGROUND
Three Houses is a medieval fantasy canon set on a continent called Fódlan (mostly; the secret evil instigators are technologically advanced dubstepping mole people) that follows a class of students entering the military academy at the neutral ground of Garreg Mach Monastery out of their education together and into a war that pits their homelands against each other. Fódlan has its fair share of societal problems, many of which stem from Crests (a mark sometimes found in the blood of those descended from the heroes of old) and the class system that has formed around them. Everyone agrees that Fódlan needs reform - but nobody has the same idea about what's to be done and how to do it, and the secrets kept buried by the Church and the mysterious group stirring up chaos around the edges only make matters worse.

HISTORY
♞ Sylvain is the second son of House Gautier, one of the major noble houses in the Kingdom of Faerghus. Because of its position on the northern border, House Gautier is traditionally charged with defending the kingdom against incursions by the Sreng tribes - and because their holy relic, the Lance of Ruin, has always played a big role in their defense, House Gautier absolutely requires that its heir possess the Crest that will allow them to use the lance.
♞ Crest phenotypes are hilariously unpredictable and the rules of inheritance are unclear (read: what the plot demands). As such, Sylvain's older brother Miklan doesn't have the Crest, and as soon as Sylvain is born and found to have one, Miklan is swept to the side and the inheritance is ceded to Sylvain. Miklan, being kind of a volatile little shithead, makes multiple attempts to kill his brother throughout their childhoods, eventually leading to him being disowned completely.
♞ Sylvain, despite the murder attempts, grows up okay and eventually is sent to Garreg Mach to attend the military academy, in the same year as several childhood friends from other noble families of Faerghus - Felix, Ingrid, and Prince Dimitri.
♞ Students are given monthly missions, and one month, the Blue Lion house is sent after Miklan - who has turned to banditry, and managed to steal the Lance of Ruin from his father. During the fight that ensues, Miklan uses the lance despite his lack of a Crest - and as a result, its power corrupts him and turns him into a hideous monster. Sylvain is A Bit Shaken.
♞ At a later point in the year, Margrave Gautier requests that Sylvain come home and sweep up the stragglers from Miklan's bandit group - actually a veiled opportunity for Sylvain to prove to his father that he's worthy of inheriting their relic.
♞ Strange incidents happen throughout the year, with mysterious figures driving them that never quite manage to be caught. Eventually, a group of soldiers from the Adrestian Empire make a raid on the Holy Tomb in the bowels of the monastery, led by the Flame Emperor, one of the shadowy instigators from before - and is revealed to be none other than Edelgard, their fellow student and the Adrestian princess. Dimitri, having reached the conclusion that the Flame Emperor is involved in the massacre that killed his parents, and also being deeply fond of Edelgard, cracks.
♞ The Empire declares war on the Church of Seiros and sends an army out to take the monastery. Despite a valiant effort, the Church's defense fails, and the Blue Lions' teacher (the player avatar) goes missing.
♞ Timeskip five years! Half of Faerghus has been overrun by the Empire. House Gautier is one of the remaining holdouts. The Empire claims Dimitri has been executed, but never produces a body; his old friends hold out hope and keep fighting, until five years after their academy days, when they had previously promised to meet up again. The reunion is both good and bad: their teacher reappears! Dimitri is alive! However, Dimitri has pretty much gone feral after the death of his close retainer Dedue and is suicidal and fixated only on killing Edelgard.
♞ Despite this, his friends pull together with him and try to get the resistance against the Empire to come together in earnest. Dedue is eventually found to have survived, and that, in combination with an unfortunate incident culminating in the death of Felix's father, is enough to snap Dimitri out of his feral state and get him on the track to sorting his shit out again. He agrees to stop pursuing Edelgard and start by taking back their capital, Fhirdiad.
♞ And then everybody hits the road to press into the Empire, and end the war at its source.
♞ And then Sylvain never gets to Enbarr because Jorgmund ruins everything. Goddammit.

PERSONALITY
Sylvain gives the impression of a caring, if carefree, big brother type. He's supportive of his friends, which largely takes the form of him lightly prodding them to lighten up, since they're all rather serious, and he can be quite helpful when asked - despite the fact that he puts little effort into his studies and training, and puts entirely too much effort into his rather complicated love life. He has a reputation among the students at Garreg Mach as being that guy who'll flirt with absolutely anyone, but won't call any of them back the next day.

The truth is that Sylvain's outlook on life has been drastically shaped by the fact that he has a Crest, which is extremely desirable in his society. He's the heir who will inherit House Gautier, because of his Crest. Marrying him is a fast way for a woman who would otherwise have no notable prospects to climb the social ladder, because he has a Crest. Having seen his older brother pushed into complete irrelevance due to lacking a Crest, Sylvain has thus internalized the idea that the only thing anybody really wants from him is his bloodline, and he seems determined to prove the world right by showing people no other reason to want his company. He tells Annette in one scene that he hates people having high expectations and thinking they know what he's capable of, so instead he prefers to coast through life and let people think he's worthless. He doesn't say as much outright, but the implication seems to be that when people still try to get close to him, even with his behavior, then he doesn't have to worry (or hope) that they're honestly interested in him - he already knows the only possible reason they could have for trying, and he can easily write them off.

He's a lot more bitter about everything than he shows, really. There are only a few scenes where his mask cracks; he's very good at keeping his composure and seeming like the cheerful joker who isn't bothered by anything, but in his support conversations with Mercedes, he shows an angry streak about the women who try to get close to him, and he tells Byleth at one point that he hates women - except he's self-aware enough to realize that he probably really doesn't, and that's just an easy answer. As much as he hates the system, Sylvain isn't ignorant of the fact that it's playing all of them, not just him, and he doesn't condemn his brother for having tried to kill him on multiple occasions - he mostly just pities him.

If you get past the fronts he's put him to cope with his place in a system he hates, there's a sincere, smart young man underneath. Sylvain values his friends highly, and ultimately wants to do the right thing by everyone - in his supports with Ashe, where Ashe is trying so very hard to be the ideal knight, Sylvain waves off all of Ashe's struggles and tells him: you just have to help people, regardless of who they are. That's all he really needs to worry about. Ashe observes that Sylvain would be a really amazing person, if he could just stop with all the scandal and skirt-chasing. Sylvain shows an impressive intellect in supports with Annette, but also tells her that he knows guys like him who can coast by on their wits eventually hit a wall, and he really admires people like her who have a great work ethic and push themselves for everything they achieve. He doesn't take it personally when his friends criticize his habits (because he knows that honestly, they're right) and as he tells Felix at one point, when has he ever let Felix's constant verbal abuse get in the way of their friendship? He's there when people need him, regardless of what anyone says about him.

His endings show him growing past his issues; the endings that mention his family make it clear that he's a devoted husband and a good father, who places no importance on whether his children have Crests. When he takes over Gautier territory, he focuses his life on negotiating peace with Sreng, breaking the cycle of border disputes and the importance of Crests and martial skill for the lords of his territory. Sylvain's a great lord and a devoted friend underneath it all; he just needs to be put in a position where he has no choice but to show his true colors, and then he'll step up to the plate.

CANON POWERS
Magic! Magic is not really explained in Three Houses; it's just there, and people use it, so there. Everyone is capable of learning it, although some fare much better than others.

Sylvain, being a decent all-arounder, has a middle of the road spell list; better than you'd expect for a physically oriented character, not as good as the dedicated casters. He gets all three levels of fire magic (Fire, Bolganone, Ragnarok), as well as Sagittae, a spell that hits with arrows of light and has a bit better chance for critical hits. For his white magic, he gets the basic Heal and Nosferatu (a weak draining spell that heals the caster for half the damage it inflicts), a ranged heal in Physic, and an attack spell called Seraphim that does extra damage to monsters and demons.

POWER SELECTION
Canon superpowers. My intention is to keep Sylvain's spell list fairly close to how it looks in canon - mostly fire magic, a funky light arrow spell, and the holy light that smites monsters.

His healing spells are the weaker ones (close and ranged), and if he can keep those too that's cool, but if it's better for balance that he lose them and just stick to the offensive magic, I'm fine with that.

ABILITIES
♞ Sylvain is one of those balanced characters who can perform whatever role he's needed for competently, but will never be the best in the party at anything. I like to run him as a Dark Knight, since it lets him take advantage of both physical and magical damage - so he's a cavalry unit who can use both magic and lances.
♞ Three Houses lets every character train in anything, but uses bonuses and penalties in certain areas to suggest what they're suited for. Sylvain's only weakness is in bows. His strengths are in lances, axes, and riding; he also has a budding talent for black magic - if trained in it, it becomes a strength and he gains a unique skill that boosts his evasion when using it.
♞ He's characterized as being quick to learn and easily able to grasp things in general; his support with Annette (who could be described as a perkier Hermione Granger) shows him taking a glance at the magical formulas she's studying and having no trouble understanding, and pointing out to her what the text isn't explaining well.
♞ His endings show him to be one of the best statesmen in the game; after he inherits his father's position as Margrave Gautier, he negotiates peace with the Sreng to put an end to the border disputes, and in doing so is able to break his house's vicious cycle of reliance on its Crest.

SETTING/SUITABILITY
➤ How do you expect your character to respond to the setting? Even if they plan to rebel in the long term, will they be able to at least obey enough to not get shocked to death? Sylvain will not be pleased to be here, but he's also good at presenting himself as harmless and flying under the radar. Getting shocked to death won't be an issue for him.

➤ What do you hope to do with your character long-term? Eventually, I'd like him to be part of rebellion efforts. Despite his proclivity to appear "indefensibly worthless," as canon puts it, Sylvain is actually a very reliable, smart guy. His teammates will be able to catch onto that sooner than Jorgmund, I think, but eventually I do want his true colors to become clear.

➤ Does your character currently have skills that would allow them to adapt, survive, and do the heroic things being asked of them? If your character doesn't, do you think they'd have the capacity to learn quickly? He's a trained knight and magic user (primarily offensive, but he has a couple of healing spells under his belt for emergencies). He'll do fine.

➤ If they're not used to cooperating with others, what makes you think they'll be able to adapt to cooperating with the group? He's fine for cooperating! He's very reliable and good at being there for people, even if he tries to present himself differently.

➤ Will your character have long-term plans to rebel against Jorgmund? If so, how? Will they betray the other PCs and cooperate with Jorgmund? If so, how do you plan to handle the negative CR that might arise? Absolutely here for rebellion. He'll be calculating about it, though; he recognizes the value of not making it clear until the right moment arises, and he's likely to try and keep the hotheads among their numbers from blowing their cover too soon, as well.

SAMPLES

Network Sample
[ Cameras, polygraphs, what the Ailell. This is all new, and Sylvain's perplexed expression as the camera turns on is all too clear. The interviewer, off-camera, clears her throat and begins: ]

If you were a kitchen appliance, which kitchen appliance would you be and why?

Is...this a joke? [ There's a very pregnant pause, and Sylvain winces as if he's being glared at. Which he is. ] No, I mean that. I don't know what you mean by an appliance. [ Another pause, as an explanation (or an attempt at one) is made, and he runs a hand through his hair and sighs. ] Kitchen equipment. Okay. A whisk? Because I can get up close and into things that way.

[ Charming smile for the camera. Met with a dead stare from the interviewer. On to the next question. ]

If you could get rid of any one of the US states, which one would you get rid of and why?

That one doesn't make any sense either. Come on, give me something I can work with here.

What is the one thing that you believe to be true that very few others do?

Duscur was framed. Someone else instigated the massacre. [ That answer clearly didn't land, but he just gives the interviewer a shrug and a wink. ] Oh, you don't know what or who Duscur is? Well, I don't know this "US" of yours. Wouldn't you say that makes us about even?

Do you think a leader should be feared or liked?

Thank you. [ He shakes his head. ] Fear is a horrible foundation for leadership. It doesn't inspire any trust or belief in what you're trying to do. If people are only behind you because they're afraid of what you might do if they're not, then you can never relax. The moment there's an opening, people will abandon you. Or rise up against you. It doesn't matter who stands behind you in your strongest moments...what's important is who stays behind you in your weakest ones.

[ Huh. That...was a more serious answer than the interviewer was expecting from this idiot, judging from the murmuring as she makes a few notes. And then, the last question - ]

On a scale from 1 to 10, rate me as an interviewer.

[ Sylvain leans back in his seat with a small laugh. ] Leading off with a lot of things that make no sense? That's a big black mark, for sure...but I can't in good conscience give a zero to a lady as beautiful as you. [ He straightens up and puts on his best smile. ] How about we split the difference and call it a 5?

[ ZAP goes the shock collar. He falls out of his chair with a yelp. ]

Prose Sample
A couple of PSL threads: one and two

ADDITIONAL INFO
I'd like his weapon, the Lance of Ruin, to come along with him. And I would like him to be able to get back his horse at some point, just because, you know. Knight!!

FINAL QUESTIONS
The players won't know what the mods are doing with these questions until sometime later.

➤ Will your character suspect some kind of guiding intelligence has brought them to the game? Or will they think it was random or done by Jorgmund? Sylvain will definitely think it's something more than random, if only because he's got shit to do back home and it would take something bigger than the goddess to mess with everything going down in Fódlan right now. Whether Jorgmund has that kind of power or whether there's some other force at work, I think he's going to have to see more and decide what he thinks from that.

➤ If they think it was something other than Jorgmund, like God or some other force of fate, what character traits do they think of that intelligence as having? Is it cruel or kind? Capriciously punishing them or doing it for good reason? He is skeptical about whether there's a good reason! His homeland's fate and all of the people's futures are at stake, here, he questions where the hell something gets off taking him away from that.