BASICS
Xerxes Caspian Gaspari
{ AGE }
20
{ MONKIER }
The Exiled Prince
{ CLASS }
Pirate, Exiled Prince
{ SHIP }
Pending
WHAT DO YOU LOOK LIKE?
5"9, 180 lbs
{ APPEARANCE }
Despite years of rough living, Xerxes cannot hide the aristocratic features of his family. Thus, he has chosen to embrace it. When he has a choice, he dresses in practical, but well-made clothes and strives to keep his facial hair well-groomed. Standing at a respectable 5"9, Xerxes greets friend and foe alike with a graceful smile and soulful brown eyes framed by long jet black hair. However, where as a child, his eyes blazed with a curious naivete, his eyes are dimmed by a his experiences and knowledge of the darkness within the world.
Althought he dislikes more ornate clothes, Xerxes is more comfortable than others of his profession wearing fine aristocratic outfits and will do so when the need arises. Nonetheless, he prefers to wear a brown leather jerkin, white shirt, dark trousers, and a pair of black boots more than anything else. Naturally, he has his sword and pistol sheathed and holstered at his side respectively.
WHO ARE YOU?
Heterosexual
{FAMILY }
Last of the House of Gaspari, the Royal Family of Chalcis
{ PERSONALITY }
You can say that Xerxes is remarkably soft-hearted for a pirate. Of course, you would be immediately challenged to a duel of blades or pistols and Xerxes will not take no for an answer, but you can say it and it would not be necessarily untrue. Xerxes did not choose to become a pirate. Rather, he felt that he did not have a choice. As a pirate, Xerxes does not join crews who prey upon the weak and innocent. Rather, he feels honor-bound to to attack the strong and those who he feels deserves it, particularly those who wronged his family or choose to serve them. He despises those in his profession who are nothing but slavers and murderers, though he has come to accept that more pirates tend to fill these roles than the roles pirates fill in storybooks.
At heart, though, Xerxes is driven by duty. Duty to his parents. Duty to his ancestors. Duty to his country. He has never forgotten that he is a prince and will stop at nothing in order to reclaim his birthright without losing himself along the way. Thus, he has proven to be a deadly adversary even as he attempts to balance this out with the values he was raised with. This is easier said than done as his newly-learned pragmatism battles with his idealism and Xerxes knows that if he shows too much mercy, he will be rewarded with a knife in the back. Despite his situation, however, Xerxes does not allow it to dictate how he goes about his everyday life. He enjoys the confusion his polite demeanor elicits and when he's among friends, there is nothing like a bottle of rum after a hard day's work.
WHAT MAKES YOU FEEL WHAT?
- Alcohol
- Women
- Swordsmanship
- Combat}
- Honor
- Books
- Freedom
- Sarcasm
{ DISLIKES }
- Slavery
- Dishonor
- His parents' murderers
- Tyrants
{ FEARS }
Xerxes fears that he will not be able to avenge his parents and retake his family's throne. It seems like a distant dream, but it is one he is honor-bound to pursue.
[font=]{ GOOD HABITS }
- He will not harm the innocent
- He does not tolerate slavery
- He will help those who are too weak to help themselves
- He does not go back on his word.
{ BAD HABITS }
- He can make foolish decisions rather than compromise his ideals.
- He is reckless with his own life
History
Xerxes was born into a life of honor and splendor as the only son of King Cyrus and Queen Nymeria Gaspari in the island Kingdom of Chalcis. His parents were both noble and kind, ruling over their small country with honor and justice, raising young Xerxes by example. From an early age, he learned the art of war and combat from his mother and courtly politics from his mother. He also learned how to rule from both his parents as they ruled the country together. His life was ideal until everything changed on his eleventh birthday.
In the shadows, a faction of the nobility plotted against the Royal Family. Their power had slowly been curbed by a growing class of bourgeois commoners and the abolition of ancient privileges the nobility had long been entitled to. In addition, the king and queen refused to permit slavery either in the kingdom or its few colonies which in their view, stifled the growth of the kingdom and prevented it from becoming a wealthier and subsequently stronger power. In the end, this faction decided that one of their own must sit on the throne in order to save themselves from ruin: Lord Miraz, the King's cousin.
The coup was sudden and violent. As the Royal Family celebrated Prince Xerxes birthday, hired mercenaries infiltrated the castle while the conspirators hid weapons beneath their finery and gracious smiles. When the guards shot cannons over the ocean in celebration, the conspirators acted. All Xerxes remembers after that is a blur of confusion and bloodshed, but one thing stands out in his mind: the lifeless body of his mother and father, the former dead from a gunshot wound and latter impaled on a sword through his stomach with his own cousin smiling benevolently over him.
Xerxes would not have survived had it not been for Sir Pheles, his parents' trusted adviser and sworn knight. The man dragged Xerxes away and snuck him out of the palace. At the time, Xerxes had hoped that they could rally the people and the army in revolt, but it was a childish hope. Within the hour, Lord Miraz had been declared king, but Sir Pheles and Xerxes were long gone by dawn, having brought passages on a merchant's ship headed towards Nassau. There, Sir Pheles revealed that in his past, he had been a privateer in service to the Crown and before that, a pirate.
Over the years, Xerxes learned the trade of piracy, never forgetting his true goal: namely to avenge his parents and reclaim his birthright. Sir Pheles easily found work for them on ships captained by the few friends he had who were still alive. Xerxes eventually made a name for himself as an excellent strategist and fighter, but recently, he has parted ways with Sir Pheles. His immediate goal is to acquire a ship and wealth and with a map he and Sir Pheles recently uncovered, he has just the leverage to achieve that.
OTHER
{ FACE CLAIM }
Luke Pasqualino
{ COLOR }
#0000BF
{ THEME SONGS }
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_BiXp3YXpk