Armand Caestre

Principality of Cespar

**Armand Caestre** is a Breton priest.

## **Timeline**

**2E 549 — Armand is born on 3rd Sun’s Height.**

* He is the son of Perceval Caestre and Cassandre Sablet.

**2E 563 — Armand matriculates to the University of Wayrest *(aged 14)*.**

* He is sent by his father, remaining with his Wayrestian relations.
* Shortly after his arrival, the Knahaten Flu reaches the city of Wayrest.

**2E 575 — Armand remains in the city of Wayrest following the completion of his studies *(aged 26)*.**

* In Wayrest, he is ordained a priest of Julianos.
* He obtains a position as a master in the university, teaching for a time.

**2E 580 — Armand authors *‘The Ignoble Acts of the Noble’* *(aged 31)*.**

* It is his first widely-read work.

**2E 586 — Armand leaves his post in Wayrest and returns to Cespar *(aged 37)*.**

* He begins clerical work in the capital, in particular working to better the lives of orphans.

**2E 598 — Armand is elected Bishop of Cespar *(aged 49)*.**

* With the death of Bishop Nanterre, Armand becomes the head of the Temple of Julianos.
* He is appointed the Prince’s High Almoner [?].

## **Biography**

Born into a family of priests and professors, Caestre’s stock is almost entirely urban. His father belonging to a line ostensibly claiming to be as old as Corseul’s conquest itself, his mother from a Wayrestian merchant family loosely connected to nobility, the heritage of Armand is one of mild success. Though he was certainly neither raised in poverty nor into obscurity, his family’s wealth and influence could have only been described as meagrely middling.

Armand’s earliest education was to take place in his own home. His father a man studied in theology, who had for all his adult life been employed to tutor the children of wealthier families, taught him to read and write, basic maths, and simple logic and rhetoric. He proved a keen student and a quick learner, and at the age of ten began to attend the temple of Julianos daily for religious instruction.

At the age of fourteen, Armand would - on the direction of his father - travel to the city of Wayrest, where he would live with his uncle, Geoffroy Sablet. There he would join the University of Wayrest and begin his studies in theology, following in the footsteps of many of his forebears. Just weeks after his matriculation, the Knahaten Flu, which so ravaged Tamriel, reached the city. His studies were at first uninterrupted. As time went on, increasing numbers falling ill or fearing illness, he found himself increasingly bound to his uncle’s home. During this time, he would commit to memory a number of texts by rote; an accomplishment and skill he would demand of his own students in future.

Twelve years would pass before Armand’s studies were finally completed. Obtaining a position as a master of theology in the University of Wayrest, he remained in the capital to work as a teacher. Shortly after, he was ordained a priest of Julianos. Developing a reputation as a stern tutor, he demanded respect not only for himself but also for one’s learning. Drunken students, who Caestre described as being *‘of low and monstrous behaviour’*, were punished harshly, and the late were required to memorise essays.

Though his methods were no doubt unpopular, they were largely successful. Another reputation he obtained was that of a man who could take the debauched and transform them into the clean and moral. In the pursuit for this morality, Armand wrote a number of criticisms of those he considered to be hypocrites. In his ‘The Ignoble Acts of the Noble’, he attacked the *‘wine-drinkers of heart’* and the *‘corrupt of spirit’*. Though during this time he would not specify any one individual, the particular target of his writings was commonly a clear thing.

For his seemingly puritanical ways, it was often remarked that Armand was a priest of Zenithar in the guise of a priest of Julianos. A point, though not baseless, perhaps unfair, for where he found his truest mission was in wisdom: the acquiring and sharing of knowledge. By his thirty-fifth year, Armand had begun to study magic, reading the tomes of wizards ancient and recent. Though not a thing he was previously trained in, he discovered within himself the talent present in many Bretons.

In 2E 586, Armand would quit his post in the University of Wayrest to return to Cespar. His father’s health deteriorating, and a growing desire within him to truly begin his clerical work, the move was not a particularly difficult one. Committed to maintaining contact with a number of his peers in Wayrest, he would buy passage on a small trade vessel. His father would die the following year, aged seventy-two, and Armand would himself lead Perceval’s funeral service.

[Unfinished]