Alan "Atticus" Hound

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Character Name: Alan Hound; "Atticus" amongst DeLauncey's
Character Age: 27
Gender: Male
Birthday: December 5, 213
Current Location: The Hollows, capital of The Vandermark
House: Bastard child of House Fitzwulf; mostly in service to House DeLauncey.
Banner Appearance:

 

Player Base: Ryan Gosling
Appearance:

His constant travels have left him with a wardrobe that is varied. He wears whatever pleases him, preferring better cuts but understanding the need for what others would consider lesser cloth.

Personality: Atticus is an ESTP.

Atticus is gregarious and charming – a natural in social situations. There are few who find him unlikeable. He has a talent for reading other people – not by any intuition, but instead by their body language and facial expression -- all the tiny little cues that make up a person’s physical manifestation of emotion. He is a smooth-talker with a knack for flattery, and has woven his way out of trouble numerous times by the deft employment of words. It would be all too easy for him to attract a flock of shallow admirers in this way; however, Atticus prefers genuine friendships and doesn’t typically indulge in the gross manipulation he is capable of, except when it’s in the interest of saving his own sorry behind – or that of a friend. He prefers to be straightforward if possible; however, to him there is a difference between deceptive manipulation and smoothing things over with a smile and a compliment, and he sees no harm in the latter. He has a tendency to get what he wants in many situations, whether because of charm, skill, or sheer determination, and he likes it that way.

He actually sincerely likes other people, and will be amiable and courteous to anyone unless they cross him or someone he cares for. He is more than willing to enjoy a laugh and a good time with just about anyone. However, he is emotionally distant from all but his closest friends; even then, he discloses very little about his deepest and truest feelings, mostly because he often doesn’t understand them himself – not being one given to frequent or intense introspection. He prefers to maintain his upbeat, affectionate, adventurous persona among those he loves, and be a support to them rather than being supported. Among his friends, he is much more likely to be blunt, even brutally honest, if he feels it for their good.

He regards the world as a place of infinite exploration, and has a keen interest both in people and culture. However, instead of driving him to the nearest bookshelf, it has driven him into travel and adventure so that he can experience everything for himself. He is spontaneous and easily bored; on a smaller scale, this has resulted in a constant desire to learn new things, and an inability to sit still for long periods of time. On a larger scale, he is given to restlessness and wanderlust, and has been known to pick up and leave his home without warning, and end up traveling to foreign lands on a whim. He is a reckless risk-taker who sees himself, untitled and unmarried, as having very little to lose – so he intends to live life to the fullest. He has seen many strange and fantastic things on his journeys, and come close to death more than once.

Atticus prefers to live in the present, thinks quickly on his feet, and makes decisions primarily based on logic rather than emotion. That said, though he is difficult to provoke to anger, his temper can flare abruptly -- but fades just as quickly. He as something of a disregard for convention and rules, but sticks to his own set of convictions - primarily centred around loyalty to proven friends (rather than blood) and protection of the defenseless - namely women and children.

As someone who grew up torn between two families, and two lands, but truly belonging to neither, Atticus has his own set of baggage that can weigh him down from time to time. He would be a brilliant leader if given the opportunity, but as the bastard child of William Fitzwulf, he has no titles to inherit. Though it comes much more easily to him to feel welcome among the DeLaunceys, he does on occasion feel a distinct sense of being out of place among them – not undesirable, but not quite belonging. Though he strives against it by openly esteeming the honour of tested loyalty over mere relation, the culture of blood-bond runs deep everywhere in Forsilvra, including the Vandermark. Though he resents it, he cannot deny its power, and secretly he wishes to partake of it. That said, he is also very much intent on making himself his own man, and striking out on his own so often has been part of that process.

--Section by Mango

History:

William Fitzwulf had his bastards purposefully; they were spare heirs, and it couldn’t have pleased him more that all four of them were hardy sons. Alan was the oldest, and the only child born alive to Mary Belberry, the youngest daughter of a minor vassal lord. She miscarried William’s next child, and he moved on to another woman, who bore him three more sons. These half-brothers were Alan’s makeshift family as he grew up, but they always shared a closer bond as full-blooded brothers that Alan could not help but feel excluded from. Their mothers despised each other. Both women were well provided for; they dwelt in Westerland, where William could keep a steady but distant eye on his sons’ behaviour. He was certainly present in Alan’s life as a father, but never a warm one; he was a teacher, a disciplinarian, and an authority figure above all else. Alan grew up desiring desperately to please him.

Alan was only a few months younger than Henry Fitzwulf, his half-brother and William’s legitimate heir, but they scarcely knew each other. In fact, all of the Hound boys were intentionally kept apart from their legitimate half-siblings. Alan has had very limited interaction with Jon, and he has only met Matilda once, when he returned to Arbrecht for a brief time after their father died. That he feels any connection to these two at all is something about himself he doesn’t quite understand. He rather yearns to belong, in some way, to their family – perhaps out of a residual longing for his father’s approval - but feels it quite impossible.

His connection to the DeLaunceys began with his friendship with the family’s second son, Cassius. In the year they both turned fifteen, Cassius came to Westerland to ward. At this time, Atticus was a squire, learning the brutal and highly physical methods of combat that makes men of the north known as savage but effective warriors. One day, Alan saw a poor lad from the Vandermark struggling – or rather, being completely embarrassed – on the training grounds, and after he’d poked his own fun at him, he offered his help. They quickly became friends; over time, they became nigh inseparable. Cassius told many tales of his homeland, and it awoke Alan’s curiosity; three years later, when Cassius returned to the Vandermark, Alan jumped at the chance to accompany him. William allowed Alan to ward at the Hollows in return for a loan from Marcus DeLauncey to aid his war efforts against Fyrsbruck and Heldenbrecht; Alan couldn’t decide if he felt used or useful, but mostly felt excitement at an opportunity for adventure.

Alan quickly became an honourary member of the DeLauncey family - even then he was charming and full of good humour, and he fit in among the playful children of Marcus DeLauncey. They nicknamed him "Atticus" after a famed ancestor who ran with wolves, and he has mostly abandoned the use of the name Alan in favour of his new mantle. He felt freer in the Hollows than he had under the watchful eye of his father in Arbrecht, and he and Cassius got up to much adventure and mischief. After the plague passed for the first time, Alan - now Atticus - began to feel restless. He accompanied many messengers and family servants on travels outside of the country, but even this only began to sate his desire to see the world. He took to leaving the castle on a whim to journey to other towns, and when he found that Marcus didn't seem to mind, he went steadily farther and for longer amounts of time. He would leave without warning, leaving only a note. Often, fits of restlessness struck when he felt particularly out of place. His most notable flight from The Hollows occurred just after the death of Marcus DeLauncey -- overwhelmed by the grief of the family, Atticus travelled to Ahestere for a time, until he heard the news that Cassius was to become province lord, at which point he returned with haste to be by his friend's side. Since then he has been in and out of the Vandermark, picking up and leaving on a whim and returning just as suddenly, as if he'd never left. In that time, Atticus has spent time working on a sea galley, competed in multiple small-scale tourneys, spent a season in the employ of a farmer, and raced camels, among other adventures too numerous to detail.

His father died in the year 240, just after paying off his family's war debts. Jon sent Atticus the coin that paid off these debts, including the loan for which he had been effectively traded to the DeLauncey family. Atticus was now officially a free man, though he had felt as such for a long time. He was rather in shock over his father's death, and is still processing it to this day. The same coin Jon sent him was on a chain that, reportedly, strangled William to death in a horrible accident; Atticus isn't sure whether to accept this as part of the irony of the universe or to entertain suspicions that all is not as it seems. Mostly, he isn't sure what to do with the Fitzwulf family when his closest blood tie is dead. He visited Westerland briefly to pay his respects to his father and the new king, but hasn't been in much contact with them since.

-- by Mango

He has been missing from the DeLauncey halls for a little while, and no one has heard from him. He arrived back recently, having spent time traveling amongst the more rural parts of the countryside. He came back with a beard and quite dirty, but all together more aware then before; he seems clear headed, and focused; he has decided to fully cast himself in with the DeLauncey's, and forget his Fitzwulf heritage. He returned in time to leave with the DeLauncey's for the gathering in memorial of the plague, and the tournament and parties that came with it.

Writing Sample:

The rock crumbled in his hand and he felt time slow around him. His heart beat could be felt in his throat, threatening to choke him on its intensity. He watched his hand move in slow motion, flailing at the dirty that just crumbled, his body slowly beginning to fall backwards, the sheer sense of nothingness behind him already causing his stomach to curdle in fear.

And then he slipped, and his attention snapped back to reality as his hand gripped around a small sapling in the side of the rock. He latched on firmly and pulled himself back from the brink, and hugged the wall, chest heaving with strained breaths. Then, as if to taunt him, the dirt beneath his toes gave way and he immediately plummeted down.

He snapped awake, throwing himself upwards in bed, the sheets flying off in a heap at the foot of his bed. His chest was thumping like the piston of an engine, heart hammering in his ear with a bass drums force. Sweat covered his face and his eyes frantically searched the room while his right hand reached for a branch that didn't exist.

He was back home, in the DeLauncey castle, in his old room, the room he's occupied for years. He had returned the day before, covered and caked in dirt and mud, a cheshire grin on his lips. Immediately the family swarmed him, welcoming him back, his family, the family who had brought him in.

But what about Father?

Well, what about him?

The question had struck him hard during this most recent journey, a journey he took solely to discover what he thought on this topic. He had decided, and it had taken him a long bout of thinking, that he was a DeLauncey in all but name, and that was whom he loved more. The Fitzwulf's did not deserve his attention nor his fealty. They deserved nothing.

Nothing.



Time Line Events

YEAR 213: Alan Hound born.
YEAR 228: Cassius DeLauncey wards at Westerland and becomes friends with Alan.
YEAR 231: Alan begins warding at the Vandermark; he gains the nickname "Atticus".
YEARS 233-238: Atticus makes several excursions to Lacharn, Ahestere, and Caelain, some on DeLauncey business and some independently.
YEAR 238: Shortly after Marcus DeLauncey's death, Atticus leaves the Vandermark again to travel. A few months later, the DeLauncey heir dies and Cassius takes his place as province lord. Atticus returns to support him.
YEAR 240: William Fitzwulf dies; Jon Fitzwulf takes the crown at Arbrecht.

-- Section by Mango

Family Genealogy:
  -Robert Fitzwulf -- Augustine DeLauncey
    - William Fitzwulf -- Cecilia Kellerman
      - Henry Fitzwulf
      - Jon Fitzwulf -- Alaine Blanchard
       &nbsp ;- Unborn Child
      -Elanor Fitzwulf
    - Odo Fitzwulf -- Alainna Strum
      - Lorelei Fitzwulf Linnet
    - Isabella Fitzwulf Fontenot
    - Thomas Fitzwulf -- Edme Montrose
      - Ryan Fitzwulf
    - Elisabeth Fitzwulf Blanchard Alysworth
  - Edward Fitzwulf -- Lenore Fleurant
    - Jean Fitzwulf -- Wife Fitzwulf
      - Leofric Fitzwulf
      - Elizabeth Fitzwulf
    - Robert Fitzwulf -- Wife Fitzwulf
      - Edward Fitzwulf
      - Robert Fitzwulf The Younger
      - Harold Fitzwulf
    - Alice Fitzwulf Prothero
  - Eleanore Fitzwulf Hallvador


    - William Fitzwulf -/- Mary Belberry
      - Alan "Atticus" Hound

    - William Fitzwulf -/- Henrietta Aetheling
      - Bolton Hound
      - Cedric Hound
      - Edgar Hound

[Friday]

perfect. you know i love ittttttttt

renna is next!

[Melari Forthwind]

it's fine with me!

[Jenn]

Approved <3