Louis-Philippe de St. Cyr

One of the series main protagonists, appears in all seasons since première. Louis Philippe is the second son of the Duke of Aquitaine, fleeing from responsibility into a life of luxury. As the series unfolds, we see him emerge as leader of a noble company and slowly coming to terms with the call of responsibility.

## Early Life & Education

Louis Philippe was born as the second son to the Duke of Aquitaine, the Marshal of France. While being of such noble rank has clear advantages, it holds quite a few restrictions as well. The St. Cyr family is notoriously purist when it comes to blood sorcery and consequently very demanding on their children. Being taught to fight from an early age on, Louis Philippe was soon taught the ancient ways of Rome. At this time in history, however, due to his father's ongoing war against the Spanish revolutionaries, the court of Aquitaine also hosted quite a few Culebre nobles who had escaped the guillotines and had vowed bitter revenge. They brought their heavy, laden and deeply religious style with them, and it would not be long before young Louis Philippe would develop a severe distate for all things Spanish. Where he wanted to enjoy life, they always made things serious and depressing. They restricted him from running in his own hallways or from yelling in his own house. His father ordered him to 'appease their guests' , but this is something young Louis Philippe never fully took to heart, and it was even cause for the young man to defy his father's wishes on more than one occassion.

In fact, defying his father's expectation became something of a running theme in Louis Philippe's early life as he wanted to live noble life to the fullest, and enjoy the beautiful and fun things in the world, not march through the mud day and night and listen to depressing Spanish Angelic chants. It is about this time that Louis Philippe encountered his most persistant companion, an arrogant black cat known as Pantagruel. Pantagruel too hated the boring and depressing Spanish mode and, like Louis Philippe, longed to engage into 'proper' noble life. Louis Philippe's first chance of escape appeared in the form of mandatory Angelite education at the prestigious College de... in Reims. Tales are told to this day of how this difficult young Behemoth noble with his insufferable cat soon gathered a throng of young troublemaker-nobles around him and made life ceaslessly difficult for the Abbé's in charge. Time and again, they would elude curfews and skip duties, escaping to nearby Reims to enjoy life in whatever way available to them.

Academically speaking, Louis Philippe didn't exactly put in his best efforts (he had other things to do). Only in Latin class he did well, not by being studious, but through the simple fact that scions of the St. Cyr are raised to in the Roman version of Latin even before picking up French. Through this and through scoring consistenly high on Social graces and courtly courses, he managed to maintain his scores at an acceptable level, just enough for him to continue his merry lifestyle. The only field at school he truly excelled at was practical spell-combat and most particularly the group competitions. Louis Philippe and his group of friends dominated this competition for the duration of their stay, cementing their high status and popularity among their peers. Through their spectular finale in the Senior year competition, he even earned the college's 'Optimus' award on military strategy. It is however quite telling about this period in his life that he managed to lose it a mere two weeks later, right before graduation, as a punishment for breaking into the neighbouring Lycée. It need not be noted this did not please his father much.

Following his graduation from the College, Louis Philippe moved on to university life in Paris, and this went about as well as the reader can imagine by now. Attaining excellent scores in practical spellcrafting, and being well liked in university circles even awarded him the opportunity to become an academic assistant... until it turned out that he hadn't been writing his theoretical papers himself but rather 'delegated' this to an already graduated arcanist of his acquaintance. Being kindly asked to abandon academia after this debacle, Louis Philippe had no choice but to end his stay in Paris. It need not be noted this did not please his father much.

Now without an academic excuse, Louis Philippe found himself utterly unable to avoid being pressed into military academy, yet another one of those 'family traditions'. His St Cyr background however, and all his childhood training offered him more than adequate advantage to move through the ranks without having to expend all that much effort. Though some of his military ideas were quite unorthodox (like implementing 'dutch' reforms , or reviving the elf 'Chasseur' units, now deemed completely lost) , he did manage to remain of good standing and proved an efficient enough officer. Consequently, he soon found ways to engage with the local social life, as a swaggering young officer. The military, however, comes with responsibilities and Capt. Louis Philippe soon found himself forced into a real battle (something he most certainly did not volunteer for). Fortune seemed to smile on him however, as through a bit of military insight and an underserved dose of luck, he managed to break several units on the Dutch flank, allowing his commander to seize the moment and drive the enemy from the field. The general was lauded and Louis Philippe promoted to colonel. Louis was swiftly moving up in the military, so it seems...until it turned out that 'Colonel Louis Philippe' was 'seeing' the general's daughter behind his back. Unwilling to directly sack the Marshal's son in a storm of gossip and drama, the general instead forced Louis Philippe to honorably resign, leave the army and stay at least a full province away of the general's daughter. Louis Philippe accepted and packed up his military uniform. It need not be noted this did not please his father much.

## Grand Tour Guide

Now if you think Louis Philippe would be finished aggrevating his father by now , you'd be mistaken, as the very next thing he did after losing his military position, was to merrily decide to go on a '*Grand Tour*' and venture into the life of the culinary critic. What's even worse, is that he actually managed to become a succesful one, and even developed quite some fame in this regard. (*"In all the honorful profession he fails, but at this he suceeds..."*) Reviewing with great élan everything from hotel, opera's, playrooms, restaurants and even brothels, his tales could not have been further from the solemn halls of Aquitaine, where seriousness reigned. Now free to do his own thing, he set off with a small entourage of a mere 5 servants, headed by his trusted valet Eugène Beaucourt, and luggin along his indolent '*jack*' Grignol, a spiteful gift of honor from the Spaniards he so loathes.

Louis Philippe made many temporary friends along the way, but only a few who stuck around. It is here that Louis Philippe started his strange friendship with the elf Nin'Galendir, a lost elven soldier, far away from home. No less strange is the friendship he developed with a drunk German brute by the name of Schultz, a lumbering colossus having hit rock bottom, with nothing to lose. Add to this a schizophrenic bard with persistent paranoia, and you start to get a picture of the 'exotic nature' of the fellowship. After a while, they encounter a strange Egyptian man by the name of Nefer, whose travails would launch them into an Egyptian adventure that would have life altering consequences.

While Louis Philippe may have been relatively low on funds when he journeyed to Northern Africa, he assuredly wouldn't be once he left again. Whereas young Nefer's intention may have been purely philantropic , the party soon amended these laudable goals with some fine Noble Archeological Adventuring of their own. The fellowship, not deterred in any way by their own lack of archeological expertise, undertakes a daring 'archeological' adventure where they rob ancient tombs blind, and manage to piss off one of Francia's leading academics by not only snatching away the prize of his expedition, preceeded by 10 year lasting academic preparatory studies, but also by beating the shit out of him and his mercenaries, outclassing all of them like it was the College team-dueling final all over again.

Leaving a bitter and grumbling academic in their wake, Louis Philippe and his friends swagger into Caïro, take all the credit, make a diplomatic trade deal with the local Goverment, and emerge rich as hell after a lucrative auction or two. They immediately expand upon their power by claiming a palace , hustling some local dignataries out of a property or two (which they turned into an elite hotel, managed by LP's discarded ex-concubines) , and setting up a succesful trade line that persists to this day. It is here that Louis Philippe makes some final additions to his fellowship by striking up a friendship with a few Russian nobles, far from home. As such, professor Alexander Khilkov and Dandric Rovinav, duelist extraordinaire, join the party and A party stands strong as ever. All the while " LP's Guide" keeps rising in popularity, and becomes an international aristocratic hit, spreading its pages even to the Collège and the Lycée, something neither the abbés, nor his father much approve of.

## Venice : Warden of the North

By now our friends have moved up to the absolute top of society, this time not only by rank, but also by money and fortune. After hosting what may have been the most luxurious and extravagant transport from Africa to Venice hitherto (where they met baron Hochslich and where Dandric got in quite a bit of romantic trouble) , they slam down in Venice, where they soon become a political entity to be reckoned with. After coming into the good graces of the Doge of Venice, and solving more than one crime problem for his eminence (more by brutality than by good honest police work, to be fair, but still...) the party becomes a well-established part of Venetian society and it doesn't take too long for this to translate into rank. Louis Philippe gets elected as 'Warden of the North' , assumes his position in a luxurious castle in the North of Venice, and A party pretty much rules Venice's social scene.

Using their new political clout, the friends don't hesitate to expand their own institutional and mercantile power by founding a trade house or two and even elevating a particularily talented Jacobite brewer family -the Boweries- into wealth, by branding their excellent brew 'Schultzenbrau' and launching them onto the international market. And while Louis Philippe's grip on Norhern Venice increased, Dandric became playboy extraordinaire, Fausius learned the compository arts of Vivaldi's Venetian style, Schultz became a master critic of alehouses and Nin'Galendir almost lost his elven ways. Galendir and Louis Philippe, it should be noted, share this strange back-and-forth dynamic between murderous rampage and aristocratic delight, that so typifies the nature of the A party. In this period, however, perhaps through a lack of conflict and violence, the Nin found himself quite removed from the Wyld, lost in a world of Dragonborn. Perhaps this was through their comfortable position of dominance in their region. A party's control, both social and political, was absolute in the scene and we find them at the pinnacle of their comfort. In fact, there was nothing to oppose them, save aristocratic gossip, certainly now the household had expanded to include over 50 servants, and even offered tutelage to 'adopted talenten teenagers'. To safeguard them from nasty rumours, Louis Philippe felt himself forced to attract a member of the clergy to his fellowship, as to stand witness to the 'virtuousness' of the household. Utterly unwilling to have a Collège abbé staring in disappointment at his every move, he considered the alternatives and managed to engage an old acquaintance from highschool, Soeur Innocence (formerly Valérie Trusseau, one of LP's highschool-clique-popular-girls from the Lycée, now turned Nun). The fact that the good sisters order was one with a silent reputation of dubiousness did not seem to deter him at all and Sister Innocence was swiftly offered a seperate wing of the palace if she would grace the household to tend to the court chapel, and "ensure the noble virtuousness of the household". (*and please to ignore Dandric while doing so, he is a Michaelite after all*)

And yet, while comfort and power seemed to be secure, a wicked problem of the past was about to present itself and utterly ruin all prospects of comfort for ages to come. Louis Philippe was soon contacted by a fellowship of investigators, composed of educated investigators and suave nobles alike, to speak to him about a grave threat to mankind. They alluded to the return of 'the Black' and made allusions to an artifact extracted from Egypt that would hold dire power. The past, it seemed, would not rest and though Louis Philippe was well aware that they had retrieved an artefact which held such mysterious power that he himself could not understand it, and consequently could not estimate its value. Prudence inspired him to hold onto it, despite lucrative offers of third parties, he had always distrusted the thing. With good reason it seems. Analysis proved what worst he feared : This orb is nothing less than one of the seals of the Apocalypse. *If it and all its brothers be broken, all things will end and Judgement Day cometh.*

This could only mean one thing for A party : if this thing breaks, we're all going down, and life as we know it (and enjoy it) irrevocably ends. No one is getting this orb. Noone. If we hold on to it, the seals cannot all be broken, and we can keep doing what we're doing.

Louis Philippe's company, however, would not be Louis Philippe's company if some ill-begotten and scandal-laden incident wouldn't almost ruin everything. This time, to his credit, it was not Louis Philippe himself, but the Chevalier Rovinav who would blunder into near-misery. Being besotten with a female guest on the cruise to venice, who turned out to be a vile succubus, Danric soon found himself under mindcontrol and unable to stop himself rushing to a maiden's (well, succubus') rescue. As misfortune would have it, of course, she was being held by the very same order of 'black-hunters' that had recently contacted Louis Philippe. As such, the intrusion had to be anonymous and in a desperate operation (involving a blinded professor Khilkov, the wanton murder of quite a few devout priests and musketeers, the binding of a demon and the unfortunate banishment of a gunslinging butler to Vermont) the fellowship managed to escape disaster by the skin of their teeth.

This event, and the discovery of the Orb's grim nature, turned out to be some kind of turning point, whether LP wanted it or not. No matter how he turned, noble responsibilty could not escape him. He now found himself forced to properly secure his keep (which contained the orb) and consequently recruit a small private army. The increased expense in turn forced him to take his mercantile interests seriously and to actually have to spend days managing his estate and attending business events, in addition to his duties as Warden of the North, and his diplomatic Francian duties to the Doge of Venice. This left him preciously little time to tend his noble lifestyle (and his disgruntled cat), and even this time was rarely granted. These hours were, almost by definition, swallowed by the misadventures his friends decided to have along the way : he was forced to negotiate a deal involving an unwanted boat-load of mahogany wood, to cover up for Dandric's indescretions , deal with an impostor pretending to be Fausius, set to ruin their reputation, all the while defending Schultz from his well-deserved punishments for breaking the law left and right. In addition, Louis Philippe had to kick his own house-wizard into action time and again and micro-manage his spellweaving (as he much prefered to lounge in salons like a noble when left to his own accord), while of course taking time out of his day to attend the mandatory Sammaelite ceremonies the household was at this point, by reputation, forced to conduct.

A dark suspicion was creeping up on him, and that was the good old careless days may well be ending; and that by fleeing his home and duties he could not avoid his noble burden at the end. His family demands would soon exacerbate this feeling as they would call upon his trusted position close to the Doge of Venice to conduct politics and diplomacy of their own. Not only did Louis Philippe now have a household to run and to protect, he was forced to function as a diplomat for matters Francian and Aquitanian abroad, leaving even less time for the leisurly life.

## Gameplay

Louis Philippe is a full-blooded Noble (sorceror) of the Behemoth line (currently lvl 13).

### Strengths

**Scion of Behemoth** : Basic and straightforward, as a true Behemoth, Louis Philippe wields terrible amounts of arcane force, manifesting itself as scorching green fire. He has learned how to empower these flames even further and even invoke several flamestrikes at once, bringing a disordinate amount of fire damage to the battlefield, if so needed.

**Roma Invicta** : Louis Philippe's true talent, however, lies in coordinating and enhancing others. He is a highly skilled strategist and the majority of his magical abilities are made to enhance and empower troops under his command. Like the romans of yore, Behemoth nobles are most terrible when they command legions.

**Prince Charming** : Louis Philippe is very good at convincing others, and is socially very capable and confident. Though he does not make much use of them, he is capable of wielding potent compulsion magics to alter attitudes or even take mental control.

### Weaknesses

**Scrutinized** : being part of one of the highest families in Francia has severe downsides as well. His name is known, and whatever he does is sure to be gossiped about. In addition, those who are in conflict with his father, the Duke of Aquitaine, will be his natural enemies, regardless of what he does or says. For example, Louis Philippe has a Spanish bounty on his head ever since he was 5 years old.

**Scandal-prone** : Louis Philippe has a history of 'putting his foot in it'. His many escapades have been public gossip for a while and though he is well-known in society, his reputation does not always work to his advantage, certainly not in the more serious circles of church & state.

**Wrathful** : the Behemoth blood runs deep. Louis Philippe is tauntable and though he really tries to keep a clear head, you can only push him so far. This is a trait that can be used against him by shrewd nobles or agents, and in fact has been done so already on several occassions.

**Proud** : Louis Philippe doesn't like backing down or losing face. He'll go through great expense to keep his lifestyle high & noble and will not take kindly to insults or attempts to belittle him. If this persist, the 'wrathful' flaw (above) might well come into play.