Jan. 29th, 2021

bottomless_bowl: (Default)
« PLAYER INFORMATION »

    Name: Sierra
    Are you over 18?: Yes
    Contact:
    Other characters, if any: N/A

« CHARACTER INFORMATION »

    Character: Claude von Riegan
    Canon: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
    Canon point: Post-canon
    OU or AU?: OU
    Age: 23
    Species: Human


« RECORD »

    Disposition:
    Claude is renowned for his schemes, even as early as their academy days he has a reputation for being crafty, adaptable, and unconventional. Whether it's just for mischief or clever solutions to traditional warfare he always has some sort of trick up his sleeve. Claude is a thinker and an over thinker. It consistently gives him a leg up in most situations, it ensures he's always prepared for any eventuality, it... means he can never get a moment's rest.

    "Playing the long game" is an understatement where Claude is concerned. His ability to plan and prepare also means that he has laid out extensive networking and slow building seeds for at least a dozen different ways to achieve one single end goal. Even after only a year in Fodlan he has grand plans for how he will begin to sow the seeds of change. These plans and ideas will take decades to become useful and most of them never will. But he still takes the time to build contingencies for his contingencies so that any situation that comes he will have an answer for.

    This makes it all too easy for him to get caught up in his own head, a habit he does his best to combat with daily meditation. It also means that sometimes in simpler, usually personal, conflicts he may not always see the most straightforward answer as viable... or sometimes at all. Occasionally this has also led to him getting so hyperfocused on his goals and what needs to be done that he doesn't stop to take people's feelings into consideration.

    In his determination to see his dreams (and schemes) come to fruition there are very few things that Claude is not willing to do. The entirety of his character as seen in canon is a lie. A carefully crafted facade that allows him to execute his plans from within what is, to him, enemy territory. Early on this means that he's carefree and playful, teasing others and outwardly seeming to take nothing seriously. Partially to ensure people underestimate him but also because he does not expect to have any real consequences to anything he does.

    So long as he holds his secrets close there's no reason for anything to matter once he returns home. Except then there's a war and suddenly what was meant to be a couple of years becomes 6 more years of leading a country that is not his own. It gives him a much more direct hand in the developments he'd only meant to inspire initially but it also means that the web of lies he has constructed to keep his true ancestry a secret becomes more complex and fragile with each passing day.

    He cares for others, he's not immune to making friends, but he keeps everyone at arm's length, only ever showing the cultivated persona of a carefree young man burdened with too much responsibility but too noble not to take up those duties. All of which is true, certainly, but also edited and tweaked until what everyone sees is as much a lie as it is a truth. The most convincing lies have a kernel of truth after all. It's why he took on a Fodlish name that was similar enough that he would not struggle to recall it or respond to it. The same reason he merely swapped the order of names when he offered a name to GemSci. Something he will still answer to without a thought even if it's not quite right.

    Claude von Riegan is similar to living the life most people only show on instagram. But it's not just posts it's every moment, every second he might be observed, every interaction he has with another person. All carefully displayed to portray a person that doesn't really exist.

    He's been doing this since he was at least 15 and he is exhausted. None of it was supposed to go on so long and more importantly now that he's had a small taste of the freedoms of only hiding his motivations and not literally everything about him it is going to be much, much more difficult for him to maintain those carefully constructed walls.

    Because of this persona, his history with numerous attempts on his life, and the nature of the changes he wishes to make (specifically talking about equality while trying to hide the fact that he's not Fodlish among an entire country of incredibly racist people) Claude has developed a... healthy sense of paranoia. He is cautious about everything he does which only leads to more over planning, always considering that someone, somewhere wants him dead or to destroy his ideals. In fact it's usually safer, in his experience, to assume everyone wants him dead for one reason or another. Though it is clear in some of his interactions towards the end of canon that he wants to. He doesn't want to lie to his friends any more, he's so tired of being something he's not... but his own paranoia refuses to let him be honest with anyone.

    Under pressure:
    Claude has been under pressure his entire life. Whether it's his brothers trying to kill him or spending years in an enemy country that would no doubt have him executed if his true identity were revealed. He's always in a low level state of fight or flight and he handles it by, as mentioned above, planning. Planning and over planning and over thinking everything he possibly can, devouring information that might give him an advantage, trying to see everything from different angles, different perspectives. His instinctive response to any kind of social or political pressure is to lie. Spin a story with just enough truth that he can maintain the lie easily.

    He is paranoid and distrustful, very good at reading people and learning their motivations, even using his charming persona and lies to give him the advantage over anyone. To manipulate people into doing what he needs them to do to achieve his own ends.


    Condition upon arrival:
    Probably the most relaxed he's ever been... thanks for that. Claude had been home in Almyra for a few weeks at the point I'm pulling him from. Long enough that the war in Fodlan is thoroughly settled but he has not been in Almyra long enough to make his claim to the throne.

    Abilities:
    Master Tactitian
    This is a title that is tossed around a lot where Claude is concerned. He does not consider himself a master tactician but there is no denying that he is incredibly skilled at military tactics and warfare. He relies more on speed, precision, and planning than the more traditional methods of brute force that Fodlan is familiar with. Many of his methods simply come along with having an outside perspective.


    Crest of Riegan
    Sometimes restores HP equal to 30% of damage dealt when using combat arts. Practically this translates to an innate low level healing magic that can trigger when he pulls off a particularly powerful attack.


    Leicester Lineage
    Multiplies experience earned by 1.2.
    Allows unit to pass through spaces occupied by foes

    Both of these abilities are mechanical representations of traits Claude exhibits. He is very cleverand adaptable. Learning comes easily to him and he is often able to pick things up on the fly, thus the faster experience gain. Claude is also characterized by a lot of acrobatic stunts and being one of the fastest most dextrous units in the game. It makes sense, then, that he would be able to dart and dodge around enemy units that others would be unable to get past.


    Combat Arts
    Claude's primary focus in training has always been with bows and most of the Arts he has access to are related to just that. While he is most comfortable with his bow on a wyvern, a fighting style that is implied to be distinctly Almyran, he is also skilled with a sword as well. Not only is the Sword of Begalta boosted by his crest he is also shown in some of the animated scenes to use a sword, regardless of if the player has trained him in it.


    Poison Master
    Even in his teens Claude demonstrated knowledge in formulating his own poisons. With the real world region Almyra is modeled after venomous creatures would be a daily occurence that he was familiar with. This may also be an indication that while Fodlan relies heavily on magic Almyra has developed more scientifc means to handle the same situations, indicating a familiarity with chemistry that others in canon are not shown to have.


    Inventory:
    A set of Almyran clothing, a jambiya, two tiny vials of poison (one debilitating, one fatal), another small Fodlish style dagger, and the Sword of Begalta.

    Gembond: Amethyst
    Gem Location: Lower abdomen

« MISCELLANEOUS »