Post by whitesin on Sept 19, 2009 12:27:47 GMT -5
Canon Character Application
My name is whitesin and I am 21 years old. I want to join this site because I like RPing and I want to try out a new character, not to mention I have a weakness for fantasy. I have been roleplaying for probably… nine years or so and I normally post between the hm… anywhere from 100 words to 300 words mark, though I never really count. Here is my application:
Character name: Antonio Fernandez Carriedo
Age: 1000 years, give or take (his history is pretty confusing), but physically in his very early 20s, late teens
Appearance: He’s a slightly gangly young man who can be considered handsome in a certain light. His face has an interesting mix of features; of the people in Europe, he is most likely to look like a “mutt,” owing to a varied parentage/influence/occupation over the years, which includes a Roman nose (aquiline) and rounded cheeks (Moorish) and a sharp chin (Celts). His best feature would probably be his gray-green eyes, which always have a slightly good-natured, if languid expression. He keeps his slightly curly dark hair in a style that always looks like the short side of in need of a hair cut.
Antonio likes being comfortable and yet he manages to have a sense of style about it, in an absent-minded sort of way. At the same time, when he bothers to make an impression, he goes all out, definitely having a slight leaning towards ostentation. He bears numerous scars all across his body, from sword cuts to burns (conquest and the Inquisition), some of the most recent on his upper arms that look suspiciously self-inflicted (Spanish Civil War). He’s most self-conscious about those as well as a rather large burn upon his lower back (Guernica).
Personality: Antonio is obscenely cheerful to the point of seeming stupid. He likes being out in the fields and raising tomatoes (actually, he likes gardening on the whole). Blithe and never one to get stressed easily, he is very much a proponent of an easy-going way of life. Unfortunately, while he’s pretty good about obtaining money, he’s not very good at keeping it. Very much Catholic, he does have his serious moments when he’s in church, though he privately wrestles with his faith.
He’s rather passive-aggressive, hiding deadly insults with a smiling duplicity. However, he also has a darker side under the smiles, a violent zealot who kills without remorse and an all around greedy bastard. Antonio is a lot more fragile than he looks and has difficulties in adapting to change, particularly when he isn’t the one initiating said change.
Occupation: Antonio is a Paladin, leaning in towards Conquistador from time to time. He utilizes the peaceful part of a Paladin fairly often, in doing charitable works, but he is very much a “defender of the faith” when he is called upon it. A deadly fencer, he is also a superb rider. He also knows basic first aid and a number of other survival skills, well as can be called on to perform the priestly aspects, including baptisms, marriages, and funerals. The Conquistador lends him a certain craftiness in negotiations and sheer ruthless pragmatism.
Strengths: He is very hot-blooded, when he is riled enough or bothers to stir himself. His faith is to be reckoned with, which also lends him strength in his role. On the other hand, his relaxed view on life sometimes makes him a pillar of calm that forces others to pause, at least for a little bit. While he’s not exactly a rhetorical genius, he’s very good at insinuating himself into situations and becoming practically like family within a few minutes. He’s also very good with animals, particularly horses and oddly enough, turtles.
Weaknesses: He’s rather thoughtless at times, sometimes barging into situations that he hasn’t assessed properly, which gets him into trouble. In a sense, he either can’t really read people or bothers not to read them, leading to him inadvertently insulting and/or hurting others verbally. He also has a rather bad temper, when it’s roused enough. Also, he’s very, very distasteful of change, especially if it’s pushed upon him.
Backstory: Spain has a very confused parentage. He was officially a ward of the Roman Empire, along with his brother Portugal. Sometimes he remembers moments of being fragmented, of “double memories” of different events at the same time, and realizes that perhaps there was more of “him.” Upon the death of Rome, he was left to his own and was constantly conquered or ruled by numerous peoples, including the Visigoths and several Germanic tribes, before he was placed officially under the rule of the Moors. This constant influx of foreign influence led him to have the mixed physical features.
He eventually solidified as a country and as his own self in the late 1400s, with the marriage of Isabelle of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon. That ushered in a bright but very dark age for him indeed. The cost of unification and establishment was ruthless expelling of the Jews and the Moors and then he turned his gaze westwards. His development into a Paladin and Conquistador was during this time, when he went to the New World and plundered it. He walked on mountains of bodies and oceans of blood to rise, bringing in hundreds of ships of priceless treasures.
It was not to say that before the 1400s that he was powerless, because he did have a strong influence in Italy, to the point of having South Italy as his ward.
For a few hundred years, he was the wealthiest nation in Europe, though he was not good at keeping his money or his empire. He was routinely harassed by England’s pirate ships and then the devastating defeat of his Armada humiliated him. Spain watched his country fall almost as quickly as it had ascended, as his royal family constantly inbred, only to die out, leading to the War of Spanish Succession, in which he fought rather bitterly with France, who sought to add Spain. He helped America in his revolution if only to piss off England, though his contribution would be muted and considered less important than France’s.
The Napoleonic Wars were not kind to Spain and the 1800s became a time of utter turmoil and civil unrest. His government kept on crumbling and rebuilding, as the people tried to shake off the last vestiges of the feudal system. He limped along until the beginning of the 1900s, when his population was decimated by the Spanish influenza (named, not because it started in him, but because his newspapers were the only ones who really reported it) and later, he was wrapped up in the Spanish Civil War, a bloody conflict that lasted about three years and killed thousands. It was during this time that Spain suffered the burn scar that he still bears, from the German bombing of the town of Guernica.
Like many of the nations in Europe, Spain was badly damaged by WWII, though he was technically a neutral (though sympathetic to the Axis). He pulled himself together, however, and has started to recover, especially upon the reestablishment of a royal family, though his is a constitutional monarchy and parliamentary democracy. Antonio maintains his general easy-going approach to life, diverting some of his bloodthirstiness towards soccer (one of the only things he will take very, very seriously without being pushed). He doesn’t bring out the conquistador very much and he regards that period of his life with a certain wistfulness but also a certain distaste.
Sample Post: Antonio always felt a little awkward in Cataluña. This was part of himself, yes, he told himself. However, this was a part that also was far too influenced by France… For all that he maintained cheerful relations with the other country, he always felt a twinge of misgivings about foreign influence.
Catalan was a hybrid tongue; you could understand it if you spoke Spanish or French. He smiled at a pretty girl, purchasing a newly picked pomegranate and tossing it up in the air. Going through his pocket, he pulled out a small knife and split open the fruit, baring the glittering crimson seeds. He chewed on the arils reflectively.
His fingertips grew red as he plucked out the seeds. They were perfect. Tart and sweet and a touch- salty. He licked his fingers and yet, they remained red. Very, very red.
