Appearance

Physical Description

Though willowy in stature and build, Mont'larin exudes an aura of confidence. His thin frame is well defined, emblematic of his wiry strength.

Facial Features

He regards the world through eyes that look like molten gold in pools of amber. Thin eyebrows arch over each eye, lending his eyes a cold, appraising stare.

Physical quirks

A lifetime of privilege has imbued Mont'larin with a natural gait, a sort of arrogant swagger that marks him as a noble even at his most humble. Likewise, even as he grows older and develops an affinity for life in the expedition, a detached gaze and a safely neutral expression is his norm. When he does smile, it's often seen as a smirk, more arrogant than friendly.

Apparel & Accessories

While Mont'larin's clothes are built for life in the wilds, they still exhibit a level of quality and artistry that belies his former position. Beneath his armor and hide-tabbard he wears a finely woven shirt dyed blue with an embroidered pattern of crawling ivy adorning its edge over a pair of rugged but densely woven pants of soft cotton cloth.

Specialized Equipment

Mont'larin wears a tabard and breeches made of fire-resistant reptile leather, as do many of the Aces of the Expedition.

Mentality

Personal history

Mont'larin is actually 19th in line for the throne of his home kingdom, which, in truth, doesn't mean nearly as much as he'd hope it would. As the son a mid-level noble, he had wealth and privilege, but also the responsibility to carry on the traditions and responsibilities of the family.
 
In short, Mont'larin had been told he would be a night from the moment he could understand the words. There's was a noble house of service, and duty. Everything they had, they earned in service to country and ruler.
 
So, then, imagine Mont'larin's surprise when his father fell to scandal and exiled himself and his human mistress to the hinterlands of the kingdom. The disgrace was a blow to the young Mont'larin from which he would never truly recover. He saw his father as a paragon, and wrapped his own sense of self and worth in the idea that he would inherit that grace and glory when he was old enough to take on the mantle as Knight Paladin of the realm. But Mont'larin was far too young to do so when, as he saw it, the time came. He saw that as a failing in himself, and a seed of doubt took root that would color his perception of the world from then forward.
 
He learned of his brother as a piece of court gossip, and his shame deepened. He came to resent the very fact that his brother existed. In his mind, that he had a brother at all in those circumstances was a sign that his own family, the supposedly proud house of Larin, wasn't good enough for his father.
 
He would never vocalize the thought aloud, not once in the decades that followed, but before he could even lift a sword he vowed to prove his father wrong. And so Mont'larin threw himself into his destined role, for all the wrong reasons.

Education

Mont'larin often seems more metropolitan than he really is. Never the smartest member of his family, and single-mindedly focused as he was on become what he imagined a paragon to be, he rarely left the family compound except as his training or social status required.
 
As such, he was mostly trained and educated by his household staff and the tutors his mother would hire to teach him that which the staff could not.
 
As far as his education goes, it is thorough, if not precise. Mont'larin was never much of a reader as a younger elf and so most of his instruction was oral, in the form of long conversations with his tutors. In addition to the skills and knowledge necessary to operate as a noble of the kingdom, this process has imparted on him an oddly introspective (though naive) thought process.

Employment

Mont'larin's position as a member of the Expedition is the first paying job he has ever had. Service is the obligation of his position as a noble in his kingdom.

Accomplishments & Achievements

Though Mont'larin had never held a paying job until joining the Expedition, he had served as first a page and later a squire to the order of knights given the duty of protecting the kingdom from monstrous threats, the Knights of the Green, the Knight-Paladins of Fregrethanlar, Guardians of the Throne of Yew.
 
Despite this, Mont'larin is not officially a knight. He has taken it upon himself to carry on the traditions and duty of such knighthood, but until he returns to his kingdom, he does not officially the title. This makes him, no doubt, the oldest first squire technically attached to the order.
 
Montlarin's greatest moment of personal pride is probably the moment he decided to stay with the Expedition. It was the moment, as he sees it, that he decided something for himself for the first time. And the moment he decided to take up the oath of the green and become a paladin proper

Failures & Embarrassments

Mont'larin is no stranger to failure or embarrassment but, with one sole exception, he doesn't particularly dwell on them. In his mind, any failure that doesn't end in death or breaking his perceived obligations is mostly immaterial. Though, his time in the Expedition has made him aware that even failures with lower stakes can have impacts on those around him.
 
He often thinks about what was lost when he and his Aces failed to retrieve the artifact Arissa had told them of. As the Expedition makes it way to the heart of the Redshift, such power could have proven pivotal. It still could, only now - in part because of his own actions - the Expedition won't have what they need in hand.

Mental Trauma

For the majority of his life, Mont'larin has been defined by his perceptions of his father and the trauma of his father leaving the family. A strong sense of discipline and a feeling like he would burden others with his problems if he brought them often keeps this fact off his face and out of his speech. He would rather avoid the thought of his family entirely even though his every action is an effort to surpass the tales and larger-than-life memories of his father.
 
In a way, throwing himself fully into the efforts of the Expedition is simply more running away from his problems.

Intellectual Characteristics

Mont'larin isn't poorly educated by any measure, quite the opposite. However, he isn't particularly intelligent. Despite this, his training and an internal coping mechanism that sees him searching the world around him rather than thinking about his personal problems work together to create a very thoughtful and philosophically inclined state of mind.
 
Mont'larin thinks about everything, but he's slow and he doesn't always have it right when he finally shares his thoughts. Still, he gets by and often feels like he's contributed meaningful thoughts when they were needed. (He isn't always right about that, but he tries.)

Morality & Philosophy

Mont'larin doesn't think about things in terms of allowed and disallowed. Though he would consider himself an exemplar of living true to life, he's also happy to break an unjust law. This can be seen as a contradiction, but that's simply a difference on perspective:
 
Mont'larin believes that the gods create life for good. That they wanted life to thrive and feel joy, to be happy and safe and at peace. That is the law that he follows and that he seeks never to break. He finds it hard to abide suffering, even in his enemies, though he also understands it can be unavoidable. He fights for his beliefs, after all, in ways that perhaps a simple soldier never could.

person.sexuality

Mont'larin hasn't really considered his sexuality yet. He finds men and women beautiful, or at least capable of beauty, but that has always felt like an aloof observation to him, not a question of what that might mean for himself.

person.gender_identity

Mont'larin sees himself as male.

Known Languages

Mont'larin can speak Common and Elvish natively, Sylvan fluently, and Dwarvish & Draconic passingly.

Personality

Motivation

Mont'larin is motivated, in a sense, by anxiety. He's afraid he won't measure up, afraid he can't do enough, and afraid his failure will hurt others, so he does everything he can to avoid it. This makes him a little reckless with his own life, but also sees him as the first to volunteer or make a sacrifice when it is needed.
 
He would rather die doing the right thing than live with failing to do so.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Mont'larin is a bit of a cynic about hierarchies and power structures, an attitude earned from a lifetime of court gossip and a network of distant relatives all with their own ideas of what is and isn't acceptable within the scope of their obligations. He understands that the law alone isn't enough to see the right thing done.
 
Unfortunately, he's not a particularly nuanced thinker, either, so he has trouble putting that understanding to good use beyond the occasional quip or awkwardly impassioned stance against a political issue.

Likes & Dislikes

Mont'larin hates fish. He always has. He viscerally hates it.
 
Mont'larin respects competence and dedication. He looks up to people who live by their own code and diligently excel at what they do. But it's pretty obvious that he's mischaracterizing what he's actually attracted to. He seems to mean that he's attracted to people with the courage to lead the lives they want to lead.

Virtues & Personality perks

Mont'larin believes in service and sacrifice as an obligation of the privileged.
 
He believes that allowing joy to thrive is the same as defeating evil itself.

Vices & Personality flaws

Mont'larin likes games and even a little mischief as long as it's all in good fun and it harms no one.

Personality Quirks

Mont'larin believes that sweetness has no place in the main course of a big meal. "Sweetness has its place, and it's at the end of a meal as loving farewell to the experience."

Hygiene

Mont'larin is meticulous, though he keeps himself relatively simply these days. He can't stand being unclean for too long and washes nightly, if water is available.

Social

Birthplace

The Larin Estate in the Kingdom of Fregrethanlar

Current Residence

The Expedition (Various)

Contacts & Relations

With his half-brother, Bethlarin, deceased, the Expedition itself, and the Aces especially, are the only really relations or contacts he has.

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Mont'larin is a squire of the Knight-Paladins of Fregrethanlar, the Knights of the Green, and is 19th in line for the Throne of Yew, the seat of the king of Fregrethanlar.

Wealth & Financial state

The Larin family is quite wealthy for its relatively middling position in the hierarchy of their kingdom, though Mont'larin rarely handled money himself and, here in the Expedition, often finds himself of meager means. Though, beyond maintaining the quality of his possessions and equipment, he has no real needs beyond what the Expedition supplies, here.
 
In truth, he's finding that he prefers this simple life, focused on a task, without the distractions of gossip and intrigue he often witness in his life at home.

Family Ties

Here in the Expedition, the only true family that Mont'larin may have had would have been his half-brother, Bethlarin. But that connection was severed before Mont'larin arrived and his family, noble connections and obligations included, are all in another plane, essentially inaccessible.
 
Mont'larin's family is the Expeditions, his brothers and sisters the Aces.

Religious Views

Mont'larin holds life sacred, but not simply "life" in some vague and abstract sense, that life has to be worth living. He enshrines joy, and love, and peace, and the freedom to seek all of those, above all else, in accordance with his vow as a paladin. He seems the lack of those qualities as darkness and evil, and believes that failing to drive that darkness back so that live can thrive is a sin of the highest order.
 
He will not abide those who subjugate others beyond the necessity of war. And, while he believes in the great good, he can only perceive it so far, and begins to question the value of the greater good in light of immediate and obvious suffering.

Social Aptitude

While Mont'larin can be awkward when he find his intellect stretched beyond its means, he is by no means socially inept. A lifetime of court etiquette has drilled into him a sort of "social second sense." He has very little trouble seeing people for who or what they are based on their actions, body language, and choice of words when speaking.
 
But, he's used to those he interacts with having that same sense, and in less... august... gatherings finds himself ill-equipped. To him, social interactions have rules, and there is a dance as intricate as any martial art, that those rules are meant to shape and constrain. When he approaches those without such expectations he can seem overbearing, even arrogant, or cruel. He doesn't mean to be. He just doesn't understand why you don't play the game properly. In truth he doesn't understand that most social interactions aren't that sort of game at all.

Mannerisms

Mont'larin can seem a bit aloof, or quiet, at times. He doesn't exactly live in his head (in fact, in many cases it's the opposite: He watches the world around him intently and loses himself in it to avoid dwelling on dark thoughts), but he can certainly seem to.

Hobbies & Pets

Mont'larin learned how to juggle with one hand when he lost the use of his left arm, and he loves to play games of chance. He's not specifically interested in gambling, but many games of chance are attached to gambling, so he's no stranger to it either.

Speech

Mont'larin's speech is softly lilting, not quite melodic - it's a bit too deep for that lilt to sound properly musical, for example - but with an interesting tonal quality. This may have more to do with his patterns of speech, affected by a lifetime as the child of a noble household and a top-tier education, than it does with the tone or pitch of his voice, however.
 
He often uses larger words than he needs to, and in fact he often talks himself into corners where he runs out of the larger words he likes to use and has to walk back what he's saying to simplify it down to fit it in his mouth, so to speak.