Lord Jackie (Novel: Lord Will)

Edit of the real Sean McLoughlin as Lord Jackie

Lord Jackie (Novel: Lord Will) is one of the five Noble Lords of Duilintinn.

He is the Lord of House Jackie (Novel: House Will).

## Appearance

He’s a direct descendant of the dark-haired, olive skinned Feadhainn peoples. His brown eyes glow greenish-hazel in the sunlight, but darken when he’s upset.

Jackie has a lot of scars, including a few on his face that are normally covered by the mask.

These were accumulated over the course of Jackie’s many escapades since he started vigilante work at the age of 13. These include, but aren’t limited to:

* Dozens of small scars from burns and cuts on his hands from pushing sharp or burning debris out of the way when rushing into a dangerous situation to save someone.
* A nasty scar along his side that radiates outward like a lightning strike from when he got hit by a angry mage.
* Two thin scars on his face: one across his right cheekbone and one just over his right eye.

Jackie is also known for having a very muscular frame.

## Weaponry

Lord Jackie is a sword and shield kind of guy, no question. If you somehow cross him badly enough, he’ll charge in without a second

thought and let you know exactly what he thinks of you.

## Attire

Lord Jackie wears a red gambeson, aka a heavily padded jacket that could function as padding under layers of armor or the poor man’s suit of armor on its own. These things could stop arrows. They might have been a bit stuffy, but they were no joke. The only thing they didn’t protect was your head.

When Lord Jackie was a vigilante hero prior to joining King Sean’s quest to found the kingdom, he only wore his red gambeson. However, upon becoming a lord, Lord Jackie also donned a mail shirt and cowl when riding into battle. Gambesons were commonly worn under mail armor in order to protect the wearer from chafing, so the red would still feature heavily in this version of his outfit.
Lord Jackie wore a hooded executioner's mask to cover his face during his vigilante days. Imagine a vigilante riding through an untamed land where chaos was the law, doling out justice while wearing an executioner’s mask. Pretty thematic imagery right? After he became a lord, Lord Jackie put away the mask for official nobility business, but rumor has it that he donned the mask again in the Year of the Hero Lord…

## Feadhainn Heritage

He is a direct descendant of the pseudo-Gaelic civilization of Feadhainn that predated Duilintinn, endowing him with the impressive strength of his ancestors.

To this day, Lord Jackie is the only known man in Duilintinn with such ancestral strength. Few direct descendants of the ancient culture remain, and less still are lucky enough to inherit the strength of their forefathers.

Lord Jackie learned a bit about his family heritage before he was orphaned. According to his father, he had a grandfather (or great-grandfather, he’s not quite sure) who would earn money competing in battle arenas and was known as “The Gaelic Gladiator” before settling down.

In addition, Lord Jackie’s accent is very heavy, especially when he’s upset. It’s a speech pattern he retained from his parents and refuses to part with. To him, the accent is as much a part of his heritage as his strength is.

Jackie grew up in a small town called Orlatum, but was told stories about Mulladún and how his family used to live there. Mulladún was one of the great cities of the pseudo-Gaelic kingdom of Feadhainn, and it still stands to this day. However, when Jackie was a child, the city was overrun with brigands and other foul types. Even so, Jackie dreamed of one day seeing the city for himself and learning more about the legacy of his ancestors. Years later, one of the first major successes in the quest to found Duilintinn would be the establishment of a stable government in Mulladún, setting the stage for Duilintinn’s future government and first noble house.

## Early Life

Lord Jackie doesn’t have a last name because he’s an orphan and doesn’t remember it.

Lord Jackie’s family was fairly poor, and he never got a proper education. When he was orphaned, he was so concerned with first his journey to knighthood and later his vigilante calling that he never learned to read.

After his parents’ deaths, young Jackie decided to use his strength to ensure that no one hurt anyone like they hurt his parents ever again. He was picked up by the Guard Coalition in 1556, where he earned a living as a squire, hoping that he would be able to fulfill this calling when he rose to the rank of knight.

## Vigilante Years

However, he soon realized that being a knight meant answering to someone else, so instead, he began enacting vigilante justice on his own, known only as “The Red Knight.”

When Jackie began his life as a vigilante, he took up residence in Fort Conchúr, which was nothing but a ruin at the time. It would become a sort of HQ for the young hero, later expanding to welcome all members of Sean’s questing party and eventually offered up for the use of The Watch. These various owners have repaired the structure over the years (mostly the floors) to the state you see it in today.

Lord Jackie developed a lot of his other skills during his time as a vigilante. While his weapon of choice was a sword and shield, Knight Jackie also had to contend with projectile weapons, assassins, and the law (who didn’t like the whole vigilante thing) and became fairly dexterous as a result. In addition, Lord Jackie had to take a lot of hits during his time as a vigilante, and can definitely stay conscious and fighting after taking more than a “few” hits.

Knight Jackie probably spent all of his waking hours trying to stop the baddies. I like to imagine the young lad in his mid-teens, red gambeson caked in blood and dirt, curling up a few meters off the road under a tattered blanket after a long day. Then, the next morning, he’ll wake up at the crack of dawn and get right back to bringing the hurt to those who hurt others. Bless his heart.

Despite the intensity of his actions as a vigilante, Jackie didn't gain a lot of popularity among local authorities. No one really wanted to listen to the strong, wholesome, but clearly uneducated person that wasn’t really invited in the first place. Knight Jackie was a vigilante champion of the people, but most leaders viewed him as a sort of rabble-rousing fool.

## Quest for Duilintinn

Tales of Knight Jackie’s heroic deeds and incredible strength began to spread, until one day, he met a man on a similar quest for justice.

> "Young Jackie might not have been the only orphan to grow up in a harsh, desperate land, but he was one of the few who rose to face it down. Donning a mask and red gambeson, Jackie grew up to become a vigilante force against injustice, cruelty, and fear. Not only did the young hero fight against the chaos with his sword and shield, but his heart as well. His ability to laugh in the face of darkness and spark hope where none could be found likely had an even greater impact upon the land he protected than the defeat of his foes. When the future King Sean began his quest to unite the lands and create a kingdom of peace, unity, and belonging, Jackie lept to his side. Many battles and years later, King Sean appointed his most passionate ally to be the first lord of his kingdom. From that day onward, the young vigilante in red became known as Lord Jackie."
>
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## Friendships

### King Sean

*(Disclaimer: The following is cut and pasted directly from my unfinished notes, terrible grammar and all.)*

Besties. Best bros for evah. The planning buds. Sean handles people stuff and jackie handles fighting stuff. Jackie is like the co-leader.

### Lord Henrik

Knight Jackie was illiterate until partway through King Sean’s quest to unite the lands, when someone finally noticed that THEIR KNIGHT CAN’T READ. Doctor Schneeplestein ended up teaching him (and later also Master Brody) how to read and write.

Prior to this moment, Henrik respected Jackie for his way of fighting the source of the people’s problems, while Jackie in turn respected Henrik for his way of fixing the effects of the people’s problems after they occurred. They initially had some spats over which method was actually making a difference, but soon learned that their different methods complimented each other fantastically. The knight fought the baddies while the doctor healed the injured victims… and then the injured knight as well.

However, this relationship was more of a businesslike respect than a friendship. It wasn’t until Henrik started spending time with Jackie off of the battlefield teaching him to read that the two really got to know each other and bond. Henrik saw Jackie’s most frustrated moments as the young knight vented about the opportunities he never had and how hard it was to know that he could only help people by hurting others. Jackie saw that Henrik had lost people close to him too, and that the doctor’s nonchalance wasn’t born out of arrogance, but the desire to find a small light in moments of darkness.

Jackie’s lack of education is inadvertently the foundation of his and Henrik’s friendship. Even when Knight Jackie and Doctor Schneeplestein became Lord Jackie and Lord Schneeplestein, the two still kept in close contact. Odds are, wherever the missing lords are now, these two still know where each other are. Unless…

Well, heaven forbid the alternative ever comes to pass.

*(Disclaimer: The following is cut and pasted directly from my unfinished notes, terrible grammar and all.)*

SUPERDRUG YAY. If Jackie and Sean are besties because they are so similar in their drive for justice and idealism (with Jackie’s traumatic past contrasting against Sean’s decently normal one), Jackie and Henrik are besties because they are opposites, with their pasts where they lost their childhoods, tried to save people, and then failed sometimes, bringing them together. If Sean and Jackie are leader questy buddies, Henrik and Jackie are resty down time buddies. Also TEACH TO READ.

### Lord Brody

*(Disclaimer: The following is cut and pasted directly from my unfinished notes, terrible grammar and all.)*

Chase has big hero worship of jackie at first. Jackie is actually the first to notice Chase tagging along behind them. One day, he asks the kid what he’s doing here, Chase stammers that he wants to be a hero like them, Jamie tells Chase to show him what he can do and says something like “hey, not bad, I bet you’ll make a great hero someday,” and chase is like WOAH. The next day, Jackie comes with a mid-sized crossbow and is like “hey wanna learn this” and so Jackie teaches him and for a while he just has this shadow hanging out behind him. Eventually he begins bringing Chase on missions. Early Jackie-Chase is sorta like Irondad but with the personalities sorta switched.

### Lord Marvin

*(Disclaimer: The following is cut and pasted directly from my unfinished notes, terrible grammar and all.)*

Platonic tsundere, i want to be really bitter and angry but you are nice to me and tbh i kinda respect you. Lesser version of marvin’s interactions with sean. at first marvin is like “fighting only makes it worse” but at the same time he respects jackie for actually doing something so he’s torn. Jackie brings him along on missions and marvin is like “ugh” but goes every time.

### Lord Jamie

*(Disclaimer: The following is cut and pasted directly from my unfinished notes, terrible grammar and all.)*

Honestly, the energy radiating off of these two would probably be at a high enough frequency to break glass. These two should never be put together ever. They are hyperactivity incarnate. They will exhaust the entire group. Jackie has grown pretty wise and serious in the wake of the stuff he’s been through, but he’s still got that spark of silliness and Jamie can drag it right out of him. He’s like a small dog yipping at a big dog until the big dog plays with him. In all seriousness, these two are actually pretty normal around each other. They like swapping stories, Jackie likes telling the ones he knows from his ancestors and Jamie shares the ones he’s heard over the years. Sometimes they even swap songs! Jamie will dig up any and all old Feadhainn legends, songs, and stories that he can find and share them with Jackie. Jackie feels like it’s a slice of home. The first time it happened, Jackie started crying and Jameson stopped and got all confused thinking he had done it wrong or messed it up. Jameson can’t sing, but Jackie can, in a low voice like the dwarves in the hobbit, and they’ll often accompany each other. Sometimes Henrik joins in and shares songs from his homeland and it’s a grand old time.

## Leadership Ability

Knight Jackie’s vigilante reputation automatically draws people’s attention, but his strong accent and endearing, fumbling manner of communication makes him memorable. He’s certainly an interesting character, but while he’s never outright rude to those who don’t deserve it, his unique traits can be a bit off-putting to some. It doesn’t help that Knight Jackie is almost definitely plagued by gremlins, aka the in-universe rationalization for ADHD. He knows what he’s doing and is far wiser than his speech patterns and lack of formal education would imply, but few people of influence actually took him seriously until the future King Sean showed up.

Lord Jackie didn't exactly start out as the responsible, leadership type. After all, he started out as a vigilante, and taking risks and working alone is part of the job description.  However, after a few years of fighting, killing, and watching other people be killed… that will teach you some things. I imagine that Knight Jackie had a lot of that experience weighing heavily on his very, very young shoulders when he joined the future king’s band of adventurers. He’s learned what a dangerous situation feels like. When a mission begins to go south, Jackie can tell very quickly. He’s not a natural wonder of observation and perception, but he is wise enough to learn from his past mistakes. Especially the mistakes that got people hurt or, worse, killed.

## Magic

Lord Jackie has some subconscious, half-unlocked magic.

This subconscious magical ability is the result of the many fights he’s found himself in that involve magic. Like most people in this situation, Jackie usually can’t even tell when he’s using these powers.

Lord Marvin has described the magic he’s observed from Lord Jackie as an instinctive sixth sense, causing the knight to react with abnormal speed and dexterity to sudden dangers. He hypothesizes that, should Lord Jackie ever fully unlock his magic and develop a focus, it would be related to protecting others from harm.

These instincts are most comparable to the common phenomenon where a parent will suddenly sense their child is in danger and swoop in to protect them, often before fully processing the threat’s existence.

As a result, Lord Jackie’s magical instincts are usually written off as a part of his strength and training. However, if you pay very, very close attention, you can see the knight’s eyes glow slightly when this occurs, like a flash of sunlight reflecting from his gaze, even in complete shadow.

Lord Marvin has once offered to help Lord Jackie unlock his magic fully, but the knight declined. Reportedly, Lord Jackie feels that the responsibility of magic, on top of his natural strength and duty to the kingdom, is one responsibility too many. At the time, he was also concerned with becoming too powerful, but that was many, many years ago.