Roland Gallant

Roland Gallant is one of the protagonists of Points and Pages, serving as the Witch in the story's Eight Chosen. Roland is vagabond who travels with Lynette Alderbrook to save the world from total war by taking control of the Grand Union.

## Background

Roland Gallant's true identity is Sky Crimson, younger brother of Wolf Crimson. Their father, Jack Vermilion, was an ex-bandit who wished to become a nobleman. His ex-partner, Umbrea Alderbrook, took pity on him and arranged a marriage with Rain Crimson, a woman from the Rainbow Plateau with a strong Pagebound bloodline, in exchange for Jack's cooperation to control House Crimson. Rain traveled to the Grand Union and lived with Jack under Umbrea's sponsorship for a year. During this time, Rain bore a Pagebound son, Wolf Crimson. Jack approached House Crimson with Wolf, claiming his Pagebound son was destined to restore House Crimson to its former glory. Wanting to preserve their own positions of privilege, the nobles of House Crimson demanded that Jack abandon his wife and marry a current member of House Crimson. Without informing Umbrea, Jack abandoned Rain and married Sela Crimson, officially registering Wolf as her son and having a daughter with her named Moon Crimson. Jack hired thugs to kidnap Rain and send her back to the Plateau, hoping it would make his problems would go away.

Unbeknownst to Jack, Rain was pregnant with a second child. She gave birth to another Pagebound boy back home, who she named Sky Crimson. Due to the changing political landscape of the Rainbow Plateau, Rain begrudgingly married into the powerful Indigo tribe. Her new husband, Storm Indigo, had close ties to al-Earin and believed the tribes of the Plateau should disassociate with the Grand Union. Fearing she would lose her chance of ever returning to the Grand Union, she reached out to Umbrea for help. Furious Jack would do such a thing to Rain, Umbrea devised a plan to bring Sky to the Grand Union and force Jack to take responsibility for raising him. Rain stayed behind to hinder the Indigo Tribe's efforts to join al-Earin, while Sky and Wolf received military training to reach the highest military rank they could. To avoiding suspicion that Rain was a Grand Union conspirator, Sky would need to run away on his own volition. In the meantime, Umbrea would try to find a casus belli to invade and occupy the Rainbow Plateau, having Wolf or Sky rescue their mother in the process. Before Sky left, Rain made him promise to do everything possible to find a peaceful way to bring her to the Union.

During his time at House Crimson, Sky was largely neglected by other members of House Crimson, including Jack. Trying to be noticed, Sky was fiercely competitive with his older brother Wolf, even aiming to take the position of General-Commander that Wolf was destined to become. Ironically, Wolf was the one most supportive of Sky, promising he would one day let him become the General-Commander. Despite that promise and Sky's best efforts, Wolf was eventually forced to become the General-Commander by internal pressure. In protest, Sky stole the house heirlooms, Miri and Piri, and ran away. He was beaten up and mugged shortly after, leaving him with nothing. The loss of the family heirlooms caused a huge source of shame for House Crimson, who disowned Sky and quietly erased him from their records to make it appear as if he never existed.

Disgraced and made poor, Sky spent the next several years as a lowlife, spending time as a thief, a mercenary, a rebel, and even a bandit. He took on an alias, Roland Gallant, and traveled often to escape notice and sell stolen goods. Roland made for a poor lowlife due to certain ideals he learned as a Page, but he always managed to escape dangerous situations unscathed. Roland credits this to a lucky pair of kitchen shears he keeps with him, which he dubbed the "Broken Promise". The shears turned out to be a Goddess Relic, planted by the Goddess Sitara, which allows Roland to cut away undesirable outcomes in exchange for losing an memory valuable to him. The more valuable the memory lost, the more unlikely a future he could ensure.

Initially, Roland obsessed over unseating his brother from the position of General-Commander, joining various rebel groups and even a bandit gang. Eventually, Roland realized most of the groups he joined never planned to oppose the World Army, instead just abusing their small amount of local power. With nobody to follow and nobody who would follow him, Roland wandered the Grand Union aimlessly, only stopping to interfere with the World Army whenever possible. He ends up forgetting much of his past during this time, including his grudge for Wolf and the promise to his mother.

Roland's antics finally end when he is poisoned by a Manticore bartender while wandering the Southern region, leading to events of Points & Pages.

## Abilities

Roland was classically trained as a Page until he abandoned his family. Throughout the years, alongside his liberal usage of Broken Promise, Roland forgot most of his weapons training. However, he was able to retain a few important skills that helped him in the streets, specifically one-handed blades, throwing weapons, horse riding, footwork, parrying, and knowledge of human weak points. Roland also picked up a few tricks from his lowlife days, such as lock-picking and dirty fighting.

Roland is also adept at picking up new skills very quickly from other people, both in skill and magic. However, he seems equally quick in forgetting what he learned.

## Attributes

Roland is a tall and athletically fit human, clothed in patched scraps of fur and leather armor. He has blue eyes and wears a greenish-blue headband. He appears to be carefree and lax about most things in life, claiming he only wants to live his best life. However, Roland acts impulsively on things he believes he could do better as a result of his forgotten unresolved feelings about challenging his brother. This often puts him in bad situations when he underestimates others, forcing the use of Broken Promise to get him out of trouble.