Percival Greymount

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~ 6 Blooming Moon, 1448 AL
~ 29 Years Old

The eldest child of Elise and Ronan Greymount, Percival was always destined to leave a legacy burning brightly in his wake. At first, he thought that destiny would be the throne and a kingdom to rule, but his father stripped that away from him.

Or rather, he tried to.

It sparked embers of anger in Percival. That anger festered, grew rapidly until it could no longer be contained. When the young prince finally set that anger free, it helped him to claim what he believed to be rightfully his, but ten long years has made it clear to Percival that somehow his father is still standing in the way of a true victory.

“Percival… what are you doing?” Ronan asks. His face is a mask of shock, slowly contorting into rage.

Percival huffs, eyes still narrowed, still watching his father. You should have seen this coming father. Perhaps you're more a fool than I thought.

“What does it look like? I'm taking what belongs to me,” Percival shouts back through bared teeth.

Steel clinks as weapons are drawn. Swords and axes, spears and bows. Everyone in the throne room is armed and ready, no longer under any false pretense about what Percival is attempting in the chaos drawn by invading Valissan soldiers.

Everyone, except his father.

“This throne does not belong to you, boy. Stand down. Call off these Valissan dogs you have convinced to follow, and we shall discuss this matter as royals do.”

Percival snarls. Magic flares to life above his hand, an orb of dark green and black fire. “No.”

Physical Description

Although Percival favours his magical prowess and cunning mind over physical action, he is by no means scrawny. After all, part of being a royal is knowing how to defend yourself, and his father had always insisted that Percival practiced fighting with various weapons, even if he wasn't enthused by the idea.

At 6’2”, Percival towers over the rest of the family. A trait he no doubt inherited from his mother's side of the family. Another trait he inherited is the unfortunate side effect of his deathtrance magic; where his father and sister are fair skinned, both he and his mother have a more ashen, grey tone.

When he was younger, his facial features were soft, much like those of his mother’s face. Now though, Percival has grown into sharper features - a sharp jawline, high cheekbones, squared jaw. The only feature not perfectly chiseled is his nose, left permanently crooked after he fell face first off a horse when he was 14.

Personal History

Born to Ronan and Elise Greymount, Percival was much loved by his parents. For the first four years of his life the young prince was an only child, constantly being spoiled by his parents, especially his mother. That changed when Alexandra came into the picture.

Unable to see his mother for eight long months, but not understanding why, the young prince was handed off instead to the servants of Castle Tirav. So he would lash out in misguided attempts to get his mother to return to his side. Ronan soon grew tired of Percival’s antics, confining him to smaller and smaller parts of the castle each time he lashed out, but that only served to fuel Percival’s irritation.

It was during this time that Percival would discover his innate ability to use deathtrance magic. Five months into Elise’s isolation, Percival accidentally reanimated the corpses of a few rats that the kitchen staff had poisoned. These rats escaped the young prince, who at the time was unable to control his powers, and terrorised the castle’s occupants. When word reached his father about the situation, Ronan realised that he could no longer avoid his son and so he made sure to take time out of his day to entertain Percival.

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Class

Deathtrance Arcanist

Ethnicity

Yondarish

Honorary & Occupational Titles

Prince of Yondar (Formerly), King of Yondar (Currently)

Birthplace

Tiraven

Gender

Male

Eyes

Green

Hair

Reddish brown (more red in colour towards the ends), cut short, fringe brushed to the right

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Ashen, with a splattering of freckles across his cheeks and nose

Height

6'2"

Family

Ronan Greymount - Father
Elise Greymount - Mother
Alexandra Greymount - Younger Sister

In the few months following Alexandra’s, Percival naturally projected his ire onto the newborn baby. After all, in his eyes Alex had been the one to ‘steal his mother away’. His stance quickly changed though. He began to enjoy spending more and more time with Alex and his mother, even going as far as offering to look after baby Alex so that his mother could have some time to relax. The offer wasn’t taken up (what with Percival only being four years old at the time), but his parents made sure to cash in on the offer when Percival was finally old enough.

The later years of his childhood and his early teens brought with them activities and lessons typical of a prince to undertake. Kingdom politics, etiquette, fighting and defensive techniques were something that King Ronan took upon himself to teach Percival. Although he was happy enough with his politics and etiquette lessons, Percival would only ever tolerate his fighting lessons, much preferring to rely on his magic.

Alongside those lessons, his mother would teach him how to control his deathtrance magic.

When Percival was 17, he found out in a council meeting that he was no longer the Crown Prince. His father had overlooked him in favour of naming Alexandra the Crown Princess instead.

Furious, Percival fled the Council Hall, followed only by his sworn Shields and Captain Avarice, who tried desperately to calm him down. Though he dismissed his Shields, he could not give the same order to the Captain. She sat with him for hours to try and console him. It forged a fondness in Percival, directed at the Captain. Where previously she had been overlooked he now saw a confidante. Of course, she was his father’s sworn Shield, and so Percival did not elect to tell her everything about his life over the next two years, but it was enough that he tried to avoid fighting her during the coup at Castle Tirav.

The question is this: what drove Prince Percival to overthrow his father? Those in the castle, in the know, refuse to speak out. Those outside of the castle through all was well.

Evidently, we have missed a vital piece of evidence in this mysterious puzzle. Perhaps things at home were not as great as the royal family made it seem. Perhaps the young prince was angry and bitter. Or, and I know that the public may not wish to hear this, perhaps King Ronan was a threat to Yondar and Percival sought to protect us?

Eyvan Briar,
Scholar of the Moonglow Archivists

That act of consolidation led to another surprising development for him; Captain Avarice pushed for her daughter to be Percival’s sworn Shield, rather than Alexandra’s. Unfortunately, Ronan was unrelenting and refused to authorise the request - another strike against him in Percival’s eyes.

By the time of the Sunfire Festival in 1467 AL, Percival had laid the groundwork for his coup. In contact with Valissa’s Empress in Waiting, he now had access to an army that wouldn’t be forced to obey his father’s commands, as well as a way to sneak them into the castle. As the evening drew dark, he struck. His allies attacked and Percival himself charged straight for his father.

Though Ronan, Elise and Alexandra managed to escape, Percival got what he desired most. The throne of Yondar. His successful coup also meant that he had gained an ally in Yondar’s greatest enemy; a feat achieved by no other king or queen before him.

Social

Family Ties

Family wise, Percival has always felt the most connected to his mother. People will constantly mention how alike they are, both in looks and personality, and their shared ability to perform deathtrance magic has forged a bond that even his sister can’t help but be jealous of.

Percival’s relationship with his father is another story entirely. It is very fickle, going from very good to terrible in an instant, and back again. This particular dance stems from Percival’s childhood where, more often than not his father was distant and cold, but would always act compassionately on the rare occasions that he was around.

Despite what the people may think, Percival has, for the most part, had a good relationship with his sister. There have been a couple of downs, the most noticeable being his misplaced anger when Alex was born and his fury in the months leading up to the coup. He has since calmed, his anger now directed completely at his father. So much so that he is willing to try and mend those broken bonds between him and his sister should Alexandra wish to do the same.

Percival's Family Tree

Lineage of Yondar's Royal Family by SunlanceXIII

Religious Views

As a part of Yondar’s royal family, Percival was taught all about the Church of Van-Hael. He is a steadfast believer in Van-Hael and his views align with those of the Church, though his recent alliance with the Valissan Empire has caused quite a stir; both in his own opinions and in his standing with the Church. They see the alliance as heretical and refuse to oversee any Rites of Aegis whilst he is still in league with worshippers of Valis and Sar. His own views have broadened. Now, he sees the reality that forbidding the worship of the other gods was wrong. There are more gods than just Van-Hael, after all, Ma’rune is the deity of creation and gifted Van-Hael with divinity, so it stands to reason that the other gods exist to balance Van-Hael’s actions.