Description

Personality

General Personality: Raban is as different from his elder brother as night from day. Where Lionel is brash, blunt and overpowering, Raban is quiet, watchful and reserved. He has a strong sense of duty and obedience, and always tries to do the right thing. Although the royal air of arrogance and cunning has been instilled in him from birth, he retains more of his natural sense of kindness and innocence than the older members of his House. A curious and imaginative lad, he used to spend much of his time exploring castles and godswoods, playing with animals and imagining that he was a great knight fighting the Others and slaying evildoers. Now that he is older, his father has forced him to turn his precocious intelligence to learning the arts of statecraft and politics. He loves his family and looks up to his brother and sister in particular, although he is also scared of Lionel because the older knight often treats him cruelly and disrespectfully.

Likes: Learning, playing, exploring, swordplay, stories, getting attention from his older siblings, making friends


Dislikes: Boring lessons, noble manners, being clean and tidy, politics, being teased and bullied (especially by Lionel), arguments within his family, fighting with the other noble Houses

Fears: Being hated by and bringing shame to his family, evil knights, wars, the Winslers, the Others, undead corpses who feast on human flesh

Skills/Talents: Highly intelligent and curious, mature and wise for his age, learned in all the arts and lessons a young nobleman should receive, basic swordplay, music, politics, history, geography, poetry, etc.

Weaknesses: Younger and weaker than the other members of his House, less authority, less autonomy, more dependent on others for help.

History

Raban was the third child born to the King and Queen, Lord and Lady Damian. As his parents focused their attention on his elder siblings, he was given slightly more freedom and released from some of the pressures and duties of the nobility. During his younger days he spent much of his time exploring the castle and surrounding woodlands, looking for adventure. As he grew older he was forced to conform to the obligations of a noble son of House Damian. Unlike his siblings, he didn't take as naturally to the cut-throat world of royal politics as a Damian should, a fact that his lord father noted with strong disapproval. It was decided that Raban should serve his brother Lionel as a page in order to learn from his elder brother's example.

Raban had often dreamed of being a gallant knight, but his role as Lionel's page was bittersweet at best. The older Damian viewed his younger brother as something of an annoyance and took every opportunity to push him around. Raban protested about this treatment to his parents, but they declared that it was for his own to good to experience some hardship, with the eventual aim of toughening him up. The only one to have sympathy for Raban and to treat him with kindness was his sister Adelaide, whom he is very grateful to and regards with love and respect. Raban was eventually promoted to the rank of squire, which would be unusual in one so young, except that he is the son of a noble House. His relationship with his brother Lionel is mixed; he admires Lionel's skill as a knight, looks up to him and tries his hardest to serve him, but at the same time he resents his brother's unkindness, cruelty and callous nature.

King Damian observed that Raban was more patient and gifted in the intellectual arts of study and learning than Lionel was, and ordered the young squire to be tutored in all the affairs of statecraft. It is expected that when Lionel inherits the throne, Raban will become a lord and councillor to his brother, advising him in affairs of the State.