Lord of Oaksleigh Arthur Roderick Swiftwind (a.k.a. Art, Artie)
Arthur Swiftwind is the firstborn child and eldest son of the famed hunter, explorer, and investor, Lord Victor Swiftwind of Oaksleigh. Arthur was raised to adhere to the finest standards of etiquette, education, and athletic skill, and when he came of age and began receiving a stipend of his family's fortune he decided to become an adventurer. Arthur then spent the next twenty years traveling the entire civilized world as well as some of Valeryn's wilds, earning a colorful reputation as an explorer. However, during the last five years of his adventuring career, Arthur went missing. All efforts to discover Arthur's location failed, and everyone who loved him believed that he must have died on the road...everyone except Victor Swiftwind.
One day, Arthur returned. He walked up to his father's house, having sent ahead no word of either his survival or arrival. Arthur now bore a deep scar over his right brow, eye, and cheekbone, and refused to speak of where he disappeared to or what happened to him. This dramatic reappearance shocked his family and local acquaintances, but Arthur himself was in for a greater shock; his esteemed father had suddenly died, leaving Arthur in control of the enormous Swiftwind estate despite the fact that he may well have been dead. Arthur bore great responsibility as his family's eldest son, and while his father had always favored him, Victor's love for his sons had tended toward stoic and severe, and Arthur had never had an opportunity to have an honest conversation with his father about their relationship. Grief-stricken, Arthur officially retired to his family's ancestral home,
Lannora Ivy, to arrange his father's funeral and take his place as the head of his household. The young and beautiful
Tomasina Morgenstern attended the funeral in the company of her father, oil and steel magnate
Theodore Morgenstern, and Arthur was charmed by the woman immediately. Six months after Victor's funeral the couple was betrothed, and Tomasina has been living at Lannora Ivy ever since. As Arthur's depression over his father's death began to lift, he had an idea- according to some of his long-time staff, yet another wild, risky, undignified idea in a lifetime of such ideas- and this idea inspired him to gather a small fortune from the family coffers and summon several of the most capable adventurers he met during his many travels. When these old acquaintances arrive at Lannora Ivy, Arthur plans to make them at home, serve them a fabulous meal, and then make them the proposal of a lifetime. Arthur wants to hire his friends to retrace the route of his adventures, all the while sending telegrams, writing letters, and making telephone calls back to Arthur so that he can compile the more exciting tales of their journey into a book, which he plans to title
The Swiftwind Chronicles.
Physical Description
Arthur is tall and athletic and has stayed in good shape through his lifetime of adventuring; his arms and legs are covered in lean muscle, and his torso bears very little extra fat despite his virtually unrestricted access to delicious food. He has medium-length chestnut hair that has begun to go grey, bright hazel eyes, a warm smile, and a fairly large and deep scar that runs vertically from just over his right eye to his right cheek.
The following Pinterest board contains early reference images for Arthur and his sense of style:
https://pin.it/2rYvVIy
Arthur has bright hazel eyes that seem to glow playfully when he is full of mischief, which is rather often. At 41 years old, Arthur's once-smooth chestnut hair has become rougher in texture and a bit gray around the temples. He lets his hair grow out a bit these days, loose strands of it falling over his brow, his ears, his collar- this drives
Mildred Honeydew batty, probably because she was often responsible for administering Arthur's haircut's when he was a boy. A deep scar covers Arthur's right eye, brow, and cheekbone, and the staff has been heard whispering that it was not there before their master last left to go exploring. Arthur does not talk about the scar. Sometimes, on very cold or wet nights, Arthur has been known to walk with the help of a cane and sip laudanum before bedtime.
Arthur's cheekbones are high and broad, his chin strong, the angle of his jaw sharp. His eyes are gentle and wise, and sometimes seem to glow like the embers of a dying fire when light strikes them. When Arthur is worried or angry, it shows through creases above the arches of his brows; when he is amused or contented, his wide, easy smile seems to reassure others around him. He wears his facial hair in a stylish and delicately trimmed moustache and goatee, which he maintains with care even when on the road or allowing the hair on his head to grow out. At 41, Arthur's facial hair grows in with a significant amount of gray.
Arthur bears a deep, rather noticeable scar that appears to have come from something large and sharp slashing down over his right cheekbone. Those that take a closer look at Arthur may notice layers of smaller scars crisscrossing over his knuckles. Only Arthur is aware of the deep scars that mar his back, waist, and shoulders.
Arthur always wears quality and spares no expense to replace or repair worn or outdated equipment. While at leisure, he tends toward hair slicked back with cedarwood pomade, snappy waistcoats, striking jackets, and pinstriped trousers; while adventuring, Arthur is usually found wearing a comfortable tunic tucked into a pair of jeans held up by suspenders, his boots strapped on tight and his adventuring gear fastened across his torso and hips with the help of a custom leather harness.
Mental characteristics
College-educated and self-taught in a number of subjects for many years.
Self-employed entrepreneur; former scholar-adventurer-explorer, now a writer as well as the founder and owner of the SwiftwindMercenaryCompany, funded by his own personal wealth as well as his family's vast fortune.
Arthur's achievements are nearly innumerable and range from competitive athleticism to intellectual debate to heroic glory. Arthur's exploits began while he was attending university in Ardia at the age of 17 and continued for the next 24 years until he unofficially retired from adventuring on the same night that he proposed marriage to
Tomasina Morgenstern. Arthur has seen and done nearly all he could find to see and do, and it is not unheard of to encounter an occasional commoner on the street who has heard of at least one of Arthur Swiftwind's adventures.
When Arthur was 14, his father took him fox hunting for the first time. Arthur, wildly excited at being included in an honorable sport in the company of his father and his father's adult friends, drove his horse over a dense thicket against his father's commands to hold back, convinced that he could cut across the brush to a clear view of his prey. When the animal's hooves hit the ground on the other side, one of its legs drove deep into a gopher burrow, snapping the horse's leg badly. VictorSwiftwind caught up to his son and found him crying beside his mount, which was as good as done for. The fox was gone now, and the hunting party moved on without the Swiftwinds as VictorSwiftwind forced young Arthur to shoot the injured horse and ride behind him back to the stables.
Arthur has some trauma surrounding the somewhat strained relationship between himself and his father, a trait that is shared to some degree by all of his siblings. One particularly painful incident for Arthur involves his father having forced him to euthanize his horse when it broke its leg. Despite such dark memories, Arthur loved and respected his father for his accomplishments and his status, and wanted to live up to the old man's expectations. Arthur's ultimate hope had been that, someday, his father would accept the glory Arthur had accumulated through adventuring as legitimate accomplishments worthy of praise. The pain of losing
VictorSwiftwind before the two of them could repair their relationship compounded with Arthur's old, more deeply rooted pain of losing his mother,
Edna Swiftwind, many years ago during the birth of his younger sister,
Elspeth Swiftwind. On top of these traumas, Arthur spent several years toward the end of his time adventuring out of contact with everyone in his life, which drove his family and many of his friends to believe that he may have been killed while exploring. When Arthur reappeared again, he carried a new side to his personality with him, and it hung like a weight around his neck. Arthur also reappeared with the large scar that mars his face, but he has always refused to speak of where he was during his disappearance or where the scar came from, and those that know him well have learned not to bring the mark up in conversation.
Arthur is highly intelligent and began attending university abroad in Ardia when he was only 17. After graduating and returning home, Arthur continued his own independent studies in multiple subjects which interest him. Once he came of age, Arthur continued to document and study as he adventured across multiple countries. Arthur enjoys lounging by the fireplace with a volume of adventure stories just like he did when he was a boy, but as an adult, the tome found in his hands is just as likely to contain atlases of faraway lands or accounts of contact with long-lost tribes. As technology advances in the streets of Essenmark cities, Arthur has also become fascinated with inventions such as the electric light, the telephone, and the gas-powered motorcar, and has made sure to purchase each of the aforementioned items in order to experience them on a daily basis while he studies the sciences used to create them.
Strictly speaking, Arthur is an atheist and does not entertain either religious or philosophical thinking beyond the context of intellectual exercise. However, his adventurous and occasionally rule-breaking behavior masks a nature that is centered around fairly traditional moral values of loyalty, chivalry, bravery, honor, and love. Rather than believing that these values are important because a god or devil may punish him if he does not uphold them, Arthur believes that men are their own gods and devils and that their values are all the more important because they are upheld by human willpower alone.
Arthur shares standard global taboos (cannibalism, incest, etc.), and is also particularly opposed to the ideas of killing one's family, close friends, or rulers.
Brother (Important)
Towards Lord of Oaksleigh Arthur Swiftwind
History
While Arthur was never a particularly overbearing brother, his younger brother Edward grew up feeling inferior to him and resenting him. The two boys were reasonably close when Edward was still small, but over time Edward viewed Arthur as a perfectionist and a know-it-all, and Arthur viewed Edward as a petulant and quarrelsome brat. Neither brother's estimation of the other was entirely correct or entirely incorrect, but the fact remained that the attention and extremely elusive affection of @VictorSwiftwind tended to focus mostly on Arthur and Margaret Swiftwind and, after young Elspeth Swiftwind was born, on Arthur and Elspeth. Over the years the divide between the brothers deepened, and as adults, Arthur lacks sympathy for the troublesome Edward, and Edward sees Arthur as a pompous ass who should have no control over anyone's inheritance but his own.
Nicknames & Petnames
Edward calls Arthur "Art" or, in moments of genuine affection, "Artie"; Arthur refers to Edward as "Eddie" more often than not.
Shared Acquaintances
Siblings Margaret Swiftwind and Elspeth Swiftwind and parents VictorSwiftwind and Edna Swiftwind. Both brothers are also acquainted with the entire household staff of Lannora Ivy, or Swiftwind Manor.
Sister (Important)
Towards Lord of Oaksleigh Arthur Swiftwind
Brother (Important)
Towards Margaret Swiftwind
History
Arthur is four years' Margaret's senior, and the two siblings are fond of one another, though somewhat distant. Each relates to the other striving to be themselves and pursue their own goals regardless of the judgments of others, and they respect each other for that, despite the fact that they do not agree over the specifics of Arthur's tendencies toward adventurous and risky decision-making. Margaret views Arthur as her reliable yet free-spirited older brother and Arthur views Margaret as his level-headed if slightly too serious sister.
Nicknames & Petnames
Arthur is one of few people close enough with Margaret to call her "Maggie"; Margaret usually calls Arthur by his given name, but in her more sentimental moments calls him "Artie".
Shared Acquaintances
Arthur and Margaret were close enough in age as they reached adulthood that they had several of the same acquaintances in high society. Margaret also developed relationships with many of the same big names in business and industry that Arthur did, and the siblings also both have longstanding and generally positive relationships with the staff of Lannora Ivy, or Swiftwind Manor.
Brother (Important)
Towards Elspeth Swiftwind
Sister (Important)
Towards Lord of Oaksleigh Arthur Swiftwind
History
Elspeth is the youngest of the Swiftwinds and is Arthur's favorite sibling. The feeling is mutual; Elspeth is almost always delighted to spend time with her eldest brother and finds his many tales of exotic locations and daring adventures enthralling. Arthur has always protected and looked after Elspeth and Elspeth has always taken pride in being able to make Arthur smile.
Nicknames & Petnames
Arthur refers to Elspeth as "Elsie" more often than not. Elspeth usually revers to Arthur by his given name but, like their sister Margaret, sometimes refers to him as "Artie".
Shared Acquaintances
Elspeth and Arthur know a few of the same socialites, but their primary shared acquaintances are the staff of Lannora Ivy, or Swiftwind Manor and Arthur's bride-to-be, Tomasina Morgenstern, with whom Elspeth has become quite close.
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