Commander Pasquier Toutain

Commander Pasquier Toutain

The top commander of Meloir's Grande Armée.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

Before becoming one of Meloir's greatest military strategists, there was simply Ser Pasquier, a former Templar of the Brotherhood of Addelum. It is this very connection to the brotherhood that leaves him perplexed as to the motivations of the Raven that he chases, and how the organization he was once a member of could so willingly stray from a noble path.
During his training as a young Templar apprentice, a teenaged Pasquier looked at the world through wide, bright eyes and saw opportunities abound to help others. The Arcanaan Empire cast a wide shadow, but within its borders, which had been stretched thin for far too long, there were many counties that lacked order. Commoners in need of protection and constantly harassed by highwaymen and gangs of bandits could be found in every town more than a hundred miles from the major cities. A dukedom's local militias could not be everywhere at once. With constant skirmishes against the Dominion breaking out and Imperator Procto Cius's expeditions across the Dark Divide, there were few good soldiers willing to enforce the law to any effective degree.
Roughly three years after attaining knighthood, Ser Pasquier met a young Duke Andri Duval, who had only just recently assumed his late father's seat as the head of House Duval. The Duke had commissioned the Brotherhood to spare one of their best knights to pass judgment on a gang of bandits recently captured in a county that lacked a chapter of the Ostia Aterni, and thus a proper judge. In such circumstances, Templars, once being an arm of the Astralian Church in the empire, were authorized to stand as judges over trials. Pasquier accepted the commission and accompanied the young duke to the county on the edge of Meloir's territory. There, he heard the pleas of the accused bandits, who all pled guilty to multiple crimes of theft, but asked for leniency as they had no choice but to resort to crime.
Pasquier, instead of passing judgment immediately, questioned the bandits further and pursued his own investigation into why the county had such a high rate of crime. He found, to his dismay, that their lord, Count Guiot Dupuis, had been taking too much food from his citizens and stockpiling it at private estates rather than the granaries meant for the people. He also placed an extremely heavy tax burden that far exceeded the limits set by the dukedom and had not made any worthwhile investments with the lora he took for the benefit of his county, enriching only himself and his family.
Andri Duval was furious upon learning Pasquier's findings and demanded to know why the knight had not already slain Guiot for his villainy. Pasquier replied, "Your Grace, I am merely a judge. Until such a time as I am compelled by Addelum, or that I must defend the life of myself or an innocent, my blade will remain sheathed. Should you order it, I will arrest the Count Dupuis immediately; but I beg you, sir, to allow me to escort him to Melís, so that he may face proper judgment by the Ostia Aterni for his crimes."
The duke heard reason in Pasquier's words and ordered him to make the arrest, dispatching the Templar along with a contingent of the Duval family's finest guards. As a test of both his oath and command skills, Pasquier marched upon Guiot Dupuis' estate, convinced the count's private guards to surrender through parley, and arrested Guiot without bloodshed. After bringing the noble to the dukedom capital, Melís, he passed custody of Guiot to the Church, who tried and found the man guilty of dereliction of duty to his people and embezzlement of taxes.
For his deeds, Andri Duval offered Pasquier a position as one of his advisors on imperial law. Seeing that it was an opportunity to start making a real difference in the dukedom, Pasquier accepted. Afterward, though he resigned from his post with the Brotherhood of Addelum, Pasquier always kept his Templar secret oath.

Morality & Philosophy

As a student of imperial law and follower of Addelum, the Great Astral, Pasquier can be described as a consequentialist—someone that believes the righteousness of an act depends on the circumstances surrounding it. He believes that Addelum will guide his decisions and actions, leading him to always make the right call. Further, as a former Templar of the Brotherhood of Addelum, he believes he has a sworn obligation to resolve conflict and return discord to peace.
Pasquier applies his Templar way of thinking to how he executes the orders of Duke Duval, and to how he approaches a military operation: Will his actions work toward a peaceful resolution? If not, find another way. While noble, this moral blueprint can also hinder his responsiveness to situations unaccounted for. To counter this shortcoming, Pasquier applies himself diligently to studying the art of war from revered generals from the past and present, both of the Empire and the Nasir Dominion. Years of pouring over past battles and the records of commanders have built a framework of strategies that allow Pasquier to suspend his hesitation in the face of moral quandaries and react accordingly to achieve a resolution. Even if his actions are, now, sometimes cold and calculated, if they work toward a peaceful resolution, then he has not strayed from his moral roots.

The top commander of Meloir's Grande Armée and fiercely loyal friend and military advisor to Duke Andri Morin Duval. He carries himself with impeccable bearing and discipline at all times. He has dark hair, a gray-and-white beard, and steel-gray eyes.

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Alignment

Lawful Neutral

Gender

Male

Eyes

Gray

Hair

Black