Ceres Vaughan

### Family

Lord Vaughan (father), Faye Carteret (mother), Diadra Godfrey, Pierrot Seymour, Reinhold Ridley, Felyse and Patty du Merle, Lesath and Caph Nazari, and Julia Osteler (cousins)

### Birthplace

Tara-Ingerilor

“...Please don't go. I don't know how to be king.”

—Ceres, to Diadra

Ceres Fabian Vaughan is a prince of Tara-Ingerilor and the son of Lord Vaughan and Princess Faye Carteret. He serves as the temporary king of Tara-Ingerilor after The Event in Mikael Godfrey's absence.

## Biography

### Early Childhood

Ceres was born in the same year as his cousins Pierrot Seymour and Felyse du Merle. He lived a fairly uneventful childhood. He spent most of his time with his mother and grandmother, although his father did pay more attention to him than he did his wife. He paid frequent visits to the capital, but was too shy to befriend his cousins. Lesath and Felyse intimidated him, and Pierrot, Patty, Caph, and Diadra were girls. He would've loved to be friends with Diadra, since she was quiet and approachable, but never worked up the nerve.

### The Event

Felyse's mother, father, and grandmother all disappeared during the Event. At first, it seemed that Ceres did too, as there was no trace of him at his home castle. However, some months after the Event, his aunt, Queen Consort Isolde Rowntree of Aljana, found him wandering around the ruins of Tara-Ingerilor's capital. No one's certain how he ended up there, or where he was in the meantime.

### Reign

Some months after he was found, the remaining citizens of Tara-Ingerilor began calling for him as their new king. They were tired of the Aljanitte occupation, and rejected the thought of their former princess (now an Aljanitte queen) being their ruler. King Mikael, Princess Diadra, and the rest of the royal family were nowhere to be found, leaving Ceres as their only option. To hopefully avoid conflict with the people, Isolde crowns Ceres as the new king of Tara-Ingerilor.

## Appearance

“A little ways off to the side of the couch, someone else I don’t recognize stands with his hands clasped politely behind his back. He’s around Felyse and Pierrot’s age, with fairly short dark brown hair and equally dark, almost black eyes. His face is so sharp looking – severe, even, that I get the impression he doesn’t like me.”

—Diadra, describing Ceres

## Personality

Although he's very serious for his age, Ceres is also very shy, which oftentimes makes him come off as standoffish or rude. He's rather naive and has a hard time taking a joke. Despite his poor social skills and lack of close friendships, he loves deeply and self-sacrificingly, and longs for company.

Ceres is also fiercely bound by habit, obsessive-compulsively so.

## Relationships

### Faye Carteret

Ceres is close to his mother, but his tendency of keeping to himself gets between them. She has to prod him before he'll talk to her, although once he gets started, he's more open. Faye's a little bit hurt that Ceres's shyness extends even to her, but she does her best to not take it personally. When it comes to advice, Ceres tends to ask his grandmother, but his mother is his third opinion.

### Lord Vaughan

Ceres doesn't feel anything in particular towards his father. Lord Vaughan pays much more attention to him than he does to his wife, but they still have a very surface-level relationship. Ceres thinks that it's normal for parents to not talk, so he doesn't resent his father at all for his impact on his mother's life.

### Diadra Godfrey

Faye always took her son with her to the capital when she went to visit Marcella, meaning that Ceres and Diadra saw each other the most out of the royal cousins. Unfortunately, they never really hit it off, since both were so reluctant to initiate contact. When their parents did urge them to spend time together, they'd usually curl up on the same couch in the library and read in silence - a contented silence for Diadra's part, and a nervous silence for Ceres's. He always wanted to talk to her and befriend her, but he never worked up the nerve and she wasn't very interested in making friends.

After the Event, neither of them remembered each other, and they were pitted against each other - Ceres as the Aljanitte-sponsored, newly crowned king of Tara-Ingerilor, and Diadra as the figurehead of the citizen's revolution against the Aljanitte occupation. Even so, they didn't harbor any personal grudges against each other. During their few meetings, Diadra was intimidated by his demeanor, and Ceres liked her. He secretly wished she would win, so he wouldn't have to be king. Neither of them wanted to be enemies.

### Felyse and Patty du Merle

Ceres wasn't really the type of person to dislike anyone, but the du Merle siblings definitely rubbed him the wrong way. The outgoing pair initially tried to befriend him, but he was intimidated by their advances and rebuffed them. After that, they left him alone for the most part, although they occasionally teased him.

### Isolde Rowntree

Before the Event, Ceres rarely saw his aunt, due to her residence in Aljana. Afterwards, she took him in and helped him through his amnesia as best she could. Ceres grew to care for her dearly, but he didn't see her like a mother - it was even hard for him to call her "Aunt Isolde" rather than "Queen Isolde." Isolde loves her nephew as well, but it was hard for her to have only him instead of her siblings.

### Lesath Nazari

Before the Event, Ceres was intimidated by Lesath, much like he was with Felyse and Patty. Like most people, Lesath thought that Ceres disliked him, but he still attempted to befriend Ceres without bothering him. After the Event, Ceres warmed up to him, and frequently turned to him for answers about things he forgot. Lesath began to realize that he was shy, not asocial, and adopted a more protective role.

## Quotes

“I... thought I was ready to die, but now... I... wish I could've...”

—Ceres's death quote

## Trivia

* Like his mother, he plays the piano very well.
* Ceres's star sign is Scorpio.
* His tarot card is the Moon, and his moral alignment is lawful neutral.