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Noble
Player Information
Name/Handle: Professor Dumbledore
OoC Account: Lyrebon
Contact Information: My page-boy; I got him this afternoon.
Character Information
Name: Garren Valoren
Type: Noble
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Place of Origin: Belinsk, Farmost Dominance
Occupation: Business
Relationship Status: Married (to Eleanna Valoren)
Appearance: He is 5ft 10” tall, weighs ~82kg, brown eyes and dark brown hair.
A charming man in every way; an appreciable demeanour affixed to his perfect crescent smile and youthful look despite his five decades. Slight graying in the flanks of his hair – which is kept short and neatly trimmed - but maintains its natural strong dark brown colour. His sideburns have been allowed to grow down his cheeks, almost to the jawline where they angle out towards his mouth slightly.
He always wears stately clothing, even when not attending formal events and balls and carries a sturdy ebony cane framed with a silver engraved ball on top, that he appears to faintly lean on.
Special Skills: Observation; Hand-to-hand / Cane; Medical knowledge; Unwavering ability to remain calm under extreme pressure and physical pain.
Strengths: Charming, Garren is the poster of a gentleman. Regarding others' feelings with delicacy he shows great mercantile skill and an awareness for those around him. Despite this, Garren is far from a push-over and easily detects when he is being manipulated.
Due to his formative years spent in tyrannical abuse at the hands of his father, Garren has a remarkable fortitude under stressful situations; he is able to withstand all but the worst of torture and can contain his surprise when events happen outside of his estimations or plans – acting as if it was expected or he'd arranged it all along.
Weaknesses: Ironically, his affable nature made him subject to scrutiny and suspicion amongst the nobility. While not overly concerning personally it was deleterious to his business. Due, in part, to this, Garren was paranoid at the smallest of things. He hid it well but it sometimes impeded his ability to think straight.
And Garren's determination to see House Valoren as a respectable name in Luthadel put much strain on his fathering skills. Desiring to stray from his father's image and uphold his ancestors' values he was very firm with Kaled – something that seemed to distance their relationship and often strain it. He hasn't yet realised this is similar to how his father treat Garren, minus the beatings.
Personality: Garren is a charmer; offering compliments and wooing ladies to his affable nature. While others may see this as politicking, Garren is a genuinely caring and compassionate person who wishes to be on good terms with most people. Indeed, it helps with trade negotiations but it serves to bolster against his insecurities; he strongly believes the world is against him, paranoid at every little thing.
His compassion, however, has gotten him into trouble before. Garren developed this external awareness when he was beaten forcibly by his father for not Snapping. His father was cruel, teaching Garren, through his abuse, the horror of treating someone with the same regard. In doing so, Garren became a better man than his father, never wanting to emulate those feelings in others.
He admired traits in other people, however seemingly insignificant, hating his father's indifference and arrogance to others. By opening himself to others he found a whole blend of colourful people in the world. Although it also made him demanding of Kaled to become fit as heir, since Garren reveres the Valoren name from when his grandfather made it so successful in the past.
Garren never wavers in conversation. He is as sturdy as oak or ebony – Lord Falgina commissioned a cane in ebony for Garren when he was younger, citing the wood was a symbol of his resolution. Even when something goes unspeakably wrong, he remains unflinching and takes it in his stride, as if everything was meant to happen that way. For this, he has a formidable presence and is able to work through the toughest situations.
He is also a gentleman; polite and well composed, but will also readily accept a duel if it's the only way to settle matters. Though he insists on it being a fine show of decorum and refrain from more barbaric tactics. Fights, he says, should be honourable and with grace like dance.
History: Lord Marius Valoren had only one child to inherit the title: his son, Lucien Valoren, born to a harlot and the last marriageable option Marius declared to the public. However, political standing demanded that Marius take up another wife and some attraction for Lucien started when he was a young man. Through his courtship of one pretty lady of influential standing, they had a son, Garren, and a daughter, Raleane.
Garren's life was hard. His father was often cruel without reason and often brutal. So his reaction to Garren not Snapping came as no surprise. By the age of 12, Garren still had not Snapped, after two years of torture it only continued as his father's disappointment grew more unrestrained. Lucien's wife left him shortly after Garren's 13th birthday.
Furious and needing to vent his anger, Lucien began locking Garren in closets, hanging him on flag poles and burning his palms on hot coals.
Garren refused to be broken by the abuse from his father, allowing an inborn hatred for Lucien to consume the fear of the man. Even as a child he was surprisingly resilient.
Lord Marius Valoren, Garren's grandfather, provided Garren with a touch of respite. Although he was a businessman, Marius still made the effort to provide Garren with a sense of stability, his sagacity often the root of many revelations to Garren's educational pursuits.
Garren was educated in business as a child, and also in philosophy, literacy, and various vocational skills. Despite not being an Allomancer, his father still insisted he learn fighting techniques which tested not only his physical endurance but that of his mental; his instructor was employed to be exceptionally unforgiving in his training.
In these lessons, Garren learnt that pain could be dealt with in several ways, pushing himself to achieve better and triumph over what he regarded as challenges.
At 14, Garren formed strong relationships with the nobility in Belinsk, not wanting to be at home he often found himself at social events, balls and talking with nobles out in the streets. He established contracts, mostly of his own volition. He figured the best way to do this would be to pit himself in situations that required a keen mind and wit, often impressing those he verbally duelled with.
Despite his age, he was often the strongest source of influence in House Valoren that Lord Marius appropriated Garren as an official liaison. In Belinsk, Lucien Valoren was regarded as somewhat of a bigot and unhinged that they preferred dealing with a young boy. They thought to exploit his inexperience but quickly realised that Garren had a knack for discerning people and their motives. Some quickly avoided mind games and subversion out of a respect for Garren's alacrity of mind and insight.
House Valoren had a powerful forging enterprise and many Houses relied on Valoren's work. With his reputation growing, Garren found it easier to negotiate with noble lord's who'd stopped taking him for a child and had instead saw a reputable business-man or worthy adversary.
But his biggest failing was his compassion; his simple desire to interact with others drove him to be amiable and accepting of everyone... even skaa – a source of constant discomfort amongst the elders of the family.
With Lord Marius' impressive command over affairs and Garren's own acumen dwarfing his own father's repugnant nature, House Valoren shot to a position of wealth that they were almost ready to break into Luthadel and contend for a Great House spot. Unfortunately, Lord Marius' health had the better of him at 81 years of age, leaving his notoriously unstable father to inherit when Garren was 16.
Valoren suffered under Lucien's control. Five long years of decline as nobody wanted to do business with him. Garren continued to work with those contracts gravitating around himself, but Lucien being jealous and ever vindictive, set about hurting Garren as much as possible.
He tried having Garren beat the skaa servants but Garren refused. Instead, Lucien beat his own son so badly he was bed ridden for several weeks. To add insult, Lucien cancelled Garren's contracts, earning a great sum of debt that he placed all on Garren's head.
When again he could walk he required the assistance of a cane – commissioned from House Falgina it was carved from ebony, topped with a talon holding an egg in a light-weight silvery metal.
Ironically, the beating had the opposite effect on Garren his father wanted. To spite him further, Garren pretended to be amiable with the servants, enraging his father even more. He still earned his share of beatings, but some dwindled in conviction, as though Lucien had realised there were better things to be doing. Though Garren soon found out why when he found his sister in tears.
He was 20 at the time he found out she had been sexually abused from a young age.
Garren, in a murderous rage, beat to within an inch of his life his father. Never before had he cause to retaliate. Harm to his own body had seemed a trial, a challenge to grow stronger. But his sister...
Suffering from head trauma, Lucien incurred several psychological disorders inhibiting his ability to co-ordinate House matters. With his mental deterioration, House Valoren almost collapsed and in a matter of months, House Valoren went from one of High House standing to one no better than a vassal House.
Keeping them afloat were extended family plantations his sister went to oversee. It took Garren awhile to regain stability but eventually, Lucien was usurped by his son at the young age of 21; a move Garren considered crucial to rebuilding his grandfather's legacy, of whom he had much respect for.
In the proceeding years, Garren exhibited greater than usual business acumen in re-establishing contracts, offering reparations and demand a little back from those that used Lucien's mental health as a reason to break their contract.
Garren became a demon in politics. Even under pressure he displayed great mental fortitude he'd inherited from the years of abuse he'd refused to succumb to; still carrying around the weight of it even now. Unfortunately, this lead to developing paranoia on top of the stresses of keeping House Valoren from being liquidated.
He knew who could be trusted in Belinsk, but he also understood that just because they hadn't taken advantage of Valoren's brief decline to make profit for themselves, none were free of his suspicions.
Garren's first love was the daughter of Lord Falgina – the man who had helped Garren get back on his feet after his father's savage attack. He'd visited often, as had Monessa Falgina. They spoke extensively, Monessa often displaying a subtle rage that later turned out to be severe contempt towards Lucien Valoren for treating his son so badly.
They attended balls together and, quite often, one was seen leaving the others' residence late at night. After Garren's assault on Lucien – an act Monessa seemed to accept – he became known as the noble romantic of Belinsk.
Free from his father's tyranny he began rebuilding an empire Lucien had almost ruined. Much to Monessa's chiding when he sometimes placed House concerns over her.
As the new head of the House, Garren Valoren became prominent in Belinsk, opening up shipping routes in the port, buying mines on the outskirts of Farmost and setting up contracts with his shipping business. The master blacksmith, Teryg, often expressed his pleasantries with Garren's attention to detail in the forge after he'd bought new equipment for the smiths to work with. Teryg had no complaints save for being able to hire who he needed to meet contract requirements.
He relayed reports to the rest of the family through his sister, now running the mines on the border – the only person he actually cared to concern over.
Monessa became pregnant not two years into their courtship. Garren was overjoyed; immediately insisting they form a formal bond in marriage. Through this, their daughter, Aurele, was officially born into the Valoren bloodline.
Being a girl was only a slight disappointment; Valoren needed an heir. However, he was devastated when his wife slipped away shortly after giving birth. A moment in peril when Garren almost ended his life too. Being unable to bear the grief, decades of suppressed emotion threatened his life. Garren was saved only by the quieted murmuring of his baby daughter, reminding him for what he'd lived through.
Before he met Monessa he might not have dropped the blade. He'd believed he wasn't strong enough, but his daughter's voice reminded him of all the beating and the abuse endured as a youth. That temperament that had brought a House from the brink to prosperity, that had made a woman like Monessa Falgina fall for him, that had vowed to be a different man than his father. All that exemplified in one baby girl softly bubbling in the corner.
For the daughter he loved, he would be strong. A daughter he was often fiercely defendant of while she grew up, until she was old enough to join the Steel Ministry.
He maintained courtships for appearances sake though he never felt any connection. It gave the nobility the illusion he was legible for marriage again. Though he never chose a bride. Eventually the nobility grew tired of his constant flamboyance.;the romanticist would not die.
In 895, Valoren's contracts suddenly started drying up again. He retained several through his shipping business but received little orders for metalwork. Even his shipping routes were being sabotaged – whole ships sunk.
He half expected his family to be the root of the problem; jealous of his success and out to destroy him to gain control of the House name. He wouldn't be far wrong if it were forces far beyond his reckoning, however.
Around this time he met Eleanna, a nobleman's sister claiming to be the answer to his problems. Having nowhere else to turn he accepted. Within months, Garren's business was booming, leaving him aghast amidst the turmoil of trade requests flooding his mail. What had that woman done? He didn't care for the time, only that the name Valoren wouldn't be washed away with the snow in spring.
Eleanna and Garren often talked of their lives, having taken her on as an advisor, and philosophised a world where things were different; only in secret lest someone hear their heresy. Speaking with Eleanna, he began to understand more about the skaa race than ever before. He was surprised at how knowledgeable she was on the subject, but then, people had all sorts of niche interests.
In the spring of 896, Eleanna fell pregnant. Garren felt horrified. She'd said nothing until it became noticeable at which point Garren realised he'd let it go too far. And he'd found something he actually feared.
Eleanna tried to comfort him, even sending missives to his sister in Luthadel, requesting her advice. Though he eventually came to himself, Garren was reminded of the last time he'd lost control and why he'd not then given in. He found himself laughing at the foolishness of it; he'd overcome his father's dictatorship, had brought himself back after Monessa's death, had brought back a business from the brink and established it firmly across an entire Dominance.
And he was getting worked up at something that could be. There was no guarentee Eleanna would perish in child birth and if she should, Garren would live on to provide a future for his children.
With Kaled's birth came an affirmation in Garren; a conviction helping him to overcome his past. Eleanna survived.
House Valoren was again beginning to seek that enviable position in Luthadel's market and again contend for Great House status, as his grandfather had. Their manor house in Luthadel had been sold during Lucien's reign, to pay off debts, but Garren bought a new one with his wealth.
His home in Belinsk partially destroyed during the Rebellion the choice was laid at his feet: request family put him up, or move to the Luthadel manorhouse. The option was unquestionable: Luthadel. Since his sister lived in such small housing she couldn't accommodate the Belinsk household. It was also an opportunity to break away from his family without openly insulting them further.
Setting up in Luthadel for the next three years proved difficult even without the family's ire looming over. But, like a storm, would soon arrive.
Roleplay Sample
The hearth crackled with a pleasant warmth all around the room. Every inch of it explored by the light of the fire. Even the corner which Garren stood welcomed it. He was meant to be at his study, by the hearth, but instead had gotten himself into one of his thoughtful moods no ledger or financial statement could satisfy. Some called him a dreamer. Though, here in Belinsk it wasn't uncommon for men to find seemingly vapid pursuits as Garren did with philosophy. Besides that, nobody doubted what he thought about had no real consequence in reality; he demonstrated enough in public his aptitude to analyse.
There was, however, a letter that irked his interest, left unopened for the moment aside the pile of legal documents. The wax seal stamped with the favour of House Araede, a powerful ally Garren had gained after his father's death. With the household free of that loathsome man Garren was able to flex his contacts; make amends and the like. Araede weren't an easy bunch to convince into in alliance. The entire house consisted of female members, no male in significant places among them. Their business was... complicated. Not unlike a brothel, though, Garren suspected, they'd castrate him if he made that distinction.
The door to his study opened a crack and a sombre looking face peeked in. Aurele hardly knocked, not at the time of night she knew her father would be away from the desk. As usual she found him mooning off out of the window. He turned as she entered.
Garren beamed at the sight of her. Two months had been a long time to be away from home, but she'd had some important business in Luthadel that required her formal presence. She hadn't mentioned what it was even in letters. Confidentiality was one of the privileges of being Steel Ministry; Aurele felt that applied to her family when she wished it to. It was good to see her home, a comfort little enjoyed and one Garren bathed in.
“Father. I have returned from Luthadel and I-” She was cut off by an embrace from her father. Garren gripped her tight as though afraid she'd disappear on him should he let go. His maudlin display was an opportunity for Aurele to roll her eyes. She sighed. Watching skaa being executed she could handle. Her father's over-reactive displays of affection, however...
He broke the embrace with the smile still plastered across his ageing face. Despite his years, Garren was still looking handsome. He'd need that in the future when she'd delivered her news to him.
“Father, you have to listen and I implore you hold your tongue until I finish.” Throughout the Ministry, Aurele was known for her stoic presence, unwavering and unemotional regarding matters of importance. She was still young but despite that could be a tenacious woman when riled. He had suffered greatly in his childhood so that his children were free to see the world in their own eyes. If what Aurele had chosen made her happy it pleased him.
He motioned for her to sit and he did likewise. A nod of satisfaction confirmed to Garren that she would have suggested otherwise. The smile slipped from his face. Something was obviously bothering Aurele and that was hard to accomplish past the prosaic vexations of incompetent Ministry members. If Aurele was concerned, truly worried, Garren should be too.
“It's Eleanna, father. She is not who she seems to be.” She did know how to lay it on hard, that girl. Lord Ruler bless her mother's genes for that. “My research in Luthadel has been discerning several suspicions I've kept. After some rooting there arose discrepancies regarding Eleanna's citizenship.” Pausing for Garren to interject. When he didn't, and when she'd seen the question in his eyes, she continued.
“Suffice to say, I traced her House lineage, played detective for awhile, and uncovered a dreadful secret. Over a hundred years ago, her House is said to have come from the Northern Dominance, yet I spoke to several members of House Deveaux and they hadn't heard of the name I gave. The name printed on every legal document.” This time she didn't allow for her father a word, only looked him in the eye and pressed on. “Their background only starts to correlate the closer you get to Belinsk. Whoever wrote those fake documents obviously didn't expect, or hoped, someone wouldn't go snooping.”
Garren found himself gripping his arm rests with so much tension they might rip off any second. Without a word he stormed for the door. Aurele didn't contest, just sat silently, smiling to herself.
Wrenching open the heavy door, the light of the hearth fire found new avenues to explore, before being forced to retreat as the door was pulled firmly shut.
Blood boiling, carpets red like they were stained with the blood of a betrayal he'd only just discovered. Too late. But it wasn't too late, he'd end it here, now. Cast them out, that infernal liar and her son. Of all the nobles, all the con-men regaling themselves with honor and valor who no more had any than the dogs that roamed the slums, none more fearsome, none more reviled than those that hid behind masks and exploited honest people.
Reaching the door to Kaled's room – Eleanna spent most of her time with her son – light creeping under the crack at the bottom of the door Garren reached out. Sounds were coming from behind it. His hand on the door handle, turn and-
“Your daddy is a brave man. The best. Why he once fought off a group of hungry men with nothing but words!” The voice was flourishing, regaling bard-like. A higher voice giggled and then spoke.
“I'm going to be like father. I could have fought those men too. They'd be no match for me and father.” The child's mother laughed.
“'Father and me,' Kaled. Has Oltin not been teaching you grammar? Also, we'll talk of your courage in the morning, even heroes need to sleep.”
What was he doing? The goals, motives, all that, didn't matter in that infinite moment spent on the precipice between harmony and loss. Balance was never an easy thing on the edge of a knife, he would tilt one way or the other. Did he really have to destroy something they'd both worked so hard to achieve? How easy it was to build something up and have it come crashing down in a single second.
The results of their love lay behind this door. Hearing the two like that, it stirred Garren. He let his hand fall away from the handle and walked away from the door, silently chiding himself for the dilemma he now faced. Without realising it, he'd walked all the way back to his study. He'd expect he'd find his way home drunk too.
Pushing the door and stepping into the familiar warmth of the hearth, Aurele sat as she had before, face illuminated by the fire. She seemed expectant.
“I can't, Aurele. Can't put out that fire, it's too grand.”
“Father, do you understand the implication of what you're saying?” Her voice was tinged slightly with exasperation.
“Yes I do, Aurele, and I will not condemn the woman I love. She will remain here, as she always has.” Sitting behind the sturdy oak desk, taking a decanter from one of the large drawers, Garren poured a small shot of whiskey into a low glass.
“If the Ministry-” Aurele began.
“The Ministry won't know. Will they daughter?” He looked at her pointedly. Staring into her eyes the weight of those words. “I've raised you on the firm principles that you had the freedom of mind to explore all knowledge. You've been with her long enough to know what they say about the intelligence of her kind is complete dust in a bucket.”
“That isn't what worries me. If the Ministry were to find out.” A steely gaze meaning there would be no contestation. Garren bit back a comment. “Decades of what our ancestors have achieved could be gone in one night. I'd hate for the last thought to go through my head to be how my own father failed the Valoren name, right before the axe takes it off.” Definitely blunt. But true, scarily true. What Garren decided next not only sealed Eleanna and Kaled's fate, but the entire Valoren blood.
After only a brief delay, Garren spoke what had been his conviction all along, even before marching off in a storm to find Eleanna. “She is my wife and he, my son. I will not have that change.”
“I hope you know what you're doing, father. I'll get back to the Ministry in the morning, I suspect I'll have some paperwork waiting for me.” She stood, graceful as always. As she reached the door, she looked back. “And pray no-one else finds out she's skaa.”
At that she slipped out of the study to her chambers. Garren sat alone with the hearth to his back. I made the right decision, didn't I? The whiskey, shattered golden light fragments in a glass, was the most appealing thing on his desk right now. The letter from Araede relegated to a comfortable second. Garren picked up the glass and drank the warm liquid down in one.
Garren's Cane
Edited by Lyrebon, 20 January 2012 - 03:44 AM.
