Nickname: "Corny". "Captain Spades", "Mount Varus", "Moody".
Age: 42
Appearance:
Skin tone: mixed
Height: 1.71 meters (5.6 feet)
Build: scared and battered from repeated injury, heavy sun burn, developed muscles; especially the arms.
Other aspects of your appearance: highly scared and a number of teeth are missing from his mouth. The back of his left ear is slightly cut and his nose clearly shows evidence of being broken at some point and being partially mended.
Land of birth: Mando, Clan Varus
Likes: ale, fighting, fortifications, wild boar (for eating), the desert, well built shields, republicanism, his farm, wife and kids, the army, fighting on foot, hunting, Spartan living style when on duty (basic and simple with no unneeded luxuries) long boats and doing a little pirating on the side when he can, eagle, his culture.
Dislikes: nobility, lords, kings (generally dislikes higher authority), laws that annoy him and those who enforce those laws, tax collectors, poorly built shields, the code of chivalry, fighting in a forest, horses (and riding them) , god and his church, the rabble he currently commands, people who do not do what he tells them to do, commanders who were appointed due to their names, when the nobility take all the credit for a victory, undeserved luxuries, bureaucracy, poets.
Fears: forests, swamps, fog, exposed flanks, poison in his food and drinks, official letters.
Skills/Talents: superb and highly experienced soldier, skilled in many weapons, pushing men beyond their limits, leadership by inspiring fear, confidence and battle lust, siege warfare (both defensive and offensive but mostly defensive) defensive tactics, imagination, originality and unpredictability, ship to ship close quarters fighting (not actually very keen on ship to ship fighting by cannon but skilled in boarding and repelling borders) marching long distances, overcoming thrust, hunger and injury, using fire weapons, skilled in convincing local populace of both enemy (if his own culture) and friendly backgrounds to aid him, finding water, desert warfare.
Weaknesses: finds obeying orders difficult, low tolerance for anything he doesn’t like, stubborn, paranoid, overly cruel to weak and insubordinate soldiers, bad swings of temper at slight provocation that can easily end in blood, overly critical, suspicious and negative, a sometimes barley controlled hatred to nobility or a clearly visible contempt, a preference for fighting dirty, only keeps his word to peasantry and generally people of low classes and little hope for self advancement, a sadistic pleasure at killing knights and nobles dishonorably and keeping them alive long enough for them to realize it, doesn’t take prisoners and shows no mercy to enemy troops, only helps those he thinks are worth his time.
Personality: Cornelius in a complicated character; he is of an ever changing mood and mind and likes to ether move about or sit still. He is unpredictably eccentric and sometimes a bit mad but it's exactly those things that make him such a good soldier and leader. He views the peasantry and those classes who work as his people but highly dislikes the nobility and the rich. Cornelius's personality is normally consistent with his likes and dislikes but it changes with his mood, his location, the climate and events in his life. Only his wife understands him at all which is why he married her. Cornelius pursues what he sees as justice and attempts to solve the problems of the lower classes at the expense of the nobility if he can arrange it (normally he doesn’t need to)
History: Cornelius was born in one of Avalon's desert colonies, his culture "the Mando" was once a mighty empire of warriors but fell a thousand years before Avalon was even created. Since the reintroduction of his people to civilization after the conquest and colonization of the lands of his people by Avalon the ranks of Avalon's military especially the colonial army's have been filled by Mando men and many of which become capable officers who in recognition by king Edward were given small amounts of land inside Avalon due to the fall of their homeland but their continued loyal service.
Cornelius was one such man and was born during the occupation After a failed rebellion by the Mando clans in which nearly all Mando men were killed due to their refusal to surrender the governor general of the newly formed colony both impressed and afraid from the Mando display decided to conscript all Mando male children and train them to be soldiers for Avalon in a number of military camps and forts. Cornelius was one such child; he was older then most so he knew a lot about his culture which even strict Avalon training and conditioning could not take away from him. After years of training the Mando troops where scattered among Avalon's colonial armies as front line troops who would take the punishment so that more Avalon men returned home alive. The Mando soldiers took part in many of Avalon's colonial and later home front wars for the next 20 years and made a name for themselves as the desert warriors. Eventually Avalon made its foreign legions which consisted of many conquered peoples but relied heavily on the Mando warriors on which Avalon's generals felt they could depend to lead them. In the disastrous defeats against a coalition of nations attempting to overthrow Avalon's power in the region with help from Luxor the now called Mando legions held the line and with the arrival of reinforcements from Avalon drove the invaders back however the Mando homeland was destroyed and lost to the invaders in the war and most of the Mando soldiers died fighting. Those few who survived the war were drafted into different Avalon armies since they no longer had the numbers to fight independently. Eventually Cornelius was posted to Avalon as captain; he became unpopular with his commanders and was eventually sent to Avalon because his commanders wanted to get rid of him but didn't want to kill him because of the effect it could have on the other Mando soldiers.
Cornelius's own personal history is the history of his people, he was in every war his people where in and led the land for time defense against the overwhelming Luxorian supported invasion, his bravery and defensive strategy saved Avalon's desert colony capital and maybe all the colony but he did not receive the credit for the victory after nobles who ether ran or arrived with the reinforcements took all the credit and began to tax the colonies heavily to recover from the war. Cornelius grew to hate the nobility because he saw no reason why they should be given so many privileges when they did nothing of value to society. His love for the peasants and lower classes was due to their continued aid during the war while local nobles switched sides and his memories of the farm he grew on, these made him embrace the republican ideals but he doesn’t share them because he likes his life as a soldier more then politics. Cornelius was demoted and sent to Avalon's main land due to the displeasure of his commanders, he eventually married a woman from Avalon's Sadow islands who also boasted a long warrior heritage but both chose to live in the Avalon main land. As he was drafted into many different roles Cornelius's wife who was pregnant with their first son grew tired with the repeated moving and both decided to settle in the western reach on the land given to Cornelius as part of his payment since his own homeland was no longer in Avalon's hands.
Since then three healthy boys have been born to Cornelius and his wife along with the first one and even with the distant relationship both love each other deeply. Cornelius nearing the end of his service was posted to ghosts pass as captain of the guard and has served as captain there for the past two years. Cornelius still has one more year of service left but the looming civil war may change that.
Religion: Pagan; Cornelius worships the gods of his culture secretly but pretends to be part of the strict church.
Loyalty: (To the people, to Avalon and doesn’t like ether the king or the duke but he prefers the king due to his popularity with the people)
Relationship status: wife and four boys[/left]