Arcturus de Chevalier

"I beg your mercy and forgiveness, good Saint, for I have made servant of a cruel and wicked master, and though my blackened pact has permitted me many good works, I feel each day the shadow which moves to envelop my heart and cloud my soul..."
== Biography ==
=== Ghost Minor ===
The first Marquis de Chevalier, Arcturus de Chevalier was born a commoner and a street orphan in the capital of the now defunct Terevenant region of Prance. As a foal, he was taken by a piper from an alley, and the young Arcturus found himself pressed into service as an excavator in The Ghost Mines. He would spend the next several years of his life underground, watching those around him starve and freeze and sink into seemingly inevitable madness.
While working alone in a lower shaft, Arcturus swung into a rock and struck a substance which disintegrated his pick. Brushing away the dust, he discovered an outcropping of obsidian. This small moment would change the course of his fate and that of the world. From his first contact with the obsidian, Arcturus was bonded with the Astral Wrath.
With Wrath's unseen aid, Arcturus not only survived the Ghost Mines, but successfully lead a revolt against the ponies who had kept them prisoner for so many years. Arcturus killed the mine foreman himself, impaling him on his horn.
=== Free Stallion ===
Finally free of his shackles, Arcturus found himself a free stallion for the first time since he was a foal. He traveled south and discovered the town of Chevalier, and there he settled down to start a new life. He struggled to find work, having developed few applicable skills during his time as an indentured servant, but had acquired enough gold from raiding the slave masters' coffers that he could at least afford to stay at the local inn. It's said that Arcturus reflected in his later days that he chose Chevalier as his home because it was the first place in which he ever slept in a bed.
Arcturus' peaceful life was to be interrupted fairly quickly, as his reemergence into the world had coincided with a renewed push from the rogue state of Germaneigh to claim Fansie territory. Germane forces arrived in Chevalier, and Arcturus once again found himself under the rule of armed guards. Driven by his anger, Arcturus traveled up into the mountain near Chevalier and discovered a crevice in the rocks which led to an underground cavern and lake, the source of the Stygian River which cut through most of Blackmist forest. In the center of the lake sat a massive slab of obsidian. Upon touching the slab, Arcturus felt more powerful and more capable, and using this power he helped the ponies of Chevalier oust the Germane invaders. Driven by his fury at the audacity of these invaders, Arcturus led the ponies of Chevalier to charge the nearby towns also controlled by Germane forces. One by one, the countryside was liberated, and when the Fansie military arrived from Southscar they found Blackmist fully in control. 
After hearing of his success, the King of Prance established the new territory of Blackmist March, and named Arcturus its first Marquis. Not having a surname of his own, Arcturus named himself for the town he'd come to call home. It became his capital and his manor was built in the mountain beside the town over the crevice where Arcturus had discovered the obsidian slab, which he named the Keystone.
=== Marquis de Chevalier ===
After being named a lord by the King, Arcturus immediately set to work improving the lands in his care. A local militia was established to help police the region, and the abuses of power which had run so rampant through the old regions were reigned in and criminals like the piper who had kidnapped the Arcturus as a foal were stamped out.
Even with his new found power it became quickly apparent that Arcturus wouldn't be able to control his sizable territory without help. As a street child himself, Arcturus had a strong sympathy and affinity for the orphans and waifs which were so common on the streets of Blackmist's cities. These children, often themselves victims of the same foul forces which Arcturus sought to destroy, were eager to tie themselves to the Marquis' cause, and Arcturus would travel from town to town gathering young foals to recruit to a new order of knights. 
The first knights of Maison Fer Dorè were all trained and recruited by Arcturus himself and each would serve Maison Chevalier loyally until their dying breath. 
To most in Blackmist, Maison Fer Dorè was only ever a name, but unbeknownst to the smallfolk and at the behest of Marquis Arcturus de Chevalier himself, the Iron Knights built a fortress manor deep in Blackmist Forest over a massive vault. The majority of the Iron Knights garrison within the halls of Maison Fer Dorè, and the vault at its core remains one of the most secure locations in the world.