Personality

Harry (Lord Gahaeriés of House Lotté, though he prefers to be styled as Sir, the modesty often helpful to his supposed cause as a bringer of justice) is not exactly the face of House Lotte, but he's the one most likely to smooth edges and make lasting connections. Raised a noble, his skill with a sword is bested only by his skill at a chess table. He is no silver-tongued manipulator, but his apparent frankness and mild temperament help him along when it comes to negotiation, and he's accustomed to coming up with excuses that sound justified. He often looks at the world in the stark terms of a cost-benefit analysis, and tries his best to think ahead.

Of course it doesn't always work out. That's the mess they're in now, isn't it? Harry is great at strategy and making amends, but he's no charismatic leader, and anyway no one could have ever predicted what happened in the Tower. He's an excellent partner and collaborator but he's often conservative and set in his ways, never willing to forsake the bird in his hand for two in the bush. Usually, this does wonders, especially with his twin's tendency to forge ahead. But a steady path doesn't always get you what you want.

In the tower, though, he learned a shameful secret. His regard for his brothers is not quite equal. He does love them each deeply: family comes first, always, but the thought of losing Gawainé sparked a fear in Harry that felt rooted in his bones. A world without his twin is unimaginable for him, and he himself doesn't know the depths he'd reach to avoid that world.

His other brothers? Of course Harry would be devastated to lose them, but it's Gawainé who has truly shared his burdens until now. They are innocents, though, and thus Harry feels his failure to protect them from the dangers of the tower keenly. Make no mistake, though: Gahaeriés' first priority has always been his House, and that includes all of his brothers. He's spent too long plotting for them to turn out well: his loyalty to them will always be paramount.

Ivras may be a new land to him, and its politics confused, but though he knows he's essentially been exiled from his home, he hasn't given up. The Third Order's ideals were something his twin swore by, once upon a time. For Heris, it's been easiest to blame the man sitting at their helm. He hasn't devised a full plan yet, but he knows if the remnants of the Order succeed in their mission, they may at least have a chance...but maybe not before some significant restructuring occurs. Regardless, it's what he and his brothers must do: they have a birthright back home, after all.

He thinks his mustache makes him look refined, and he usually introduces himself, instead, as Heris. The nickname Harry came from his brothers.

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History

Harry was born as one of two: he always followed just behind Gawainé, with caution and careful thought where his twin had passion and blind justice. That had always worked well for them. Harry's even-keeled words tempered the storms Gawaine brought upon them when he forged ahead, and Gawaine had the boldness and the skill to enact real change upon the world. That was what Heris and his father had thought, anyway. For when Gawainé's skill with the sword became apparent, Heris had been taken aside, so that careful counsel could be impressed upon him. House Lotté had a legacy that they would maintain.

Later came further brothers. Gahariet and then Agravaine. Young and precious, doubtless also eventual gems of their house. Someday, they'd each have a role to play in House Lotté's glory. Harry and his twin looked after them, and Harry - always the stuffy, boring one - took the newfound ribbing in stride. It was his due as an elder brother, was it not? That was what they called love.

That was the way it would be for them.

Of course, then they learned about Lautrec. Lautrec...Harry saw both his twin's hesitance and his younger brothers' eager acceptance of someone so competent and also magical, and still yet related to them by blood. Harry himself didn't know how to feel. He had already thought of himself as his twin's shadow in many ways, so he had no issues there with his new brother. And besides: no person has ever had the ability to control the circumstances of his birth. Harry couldn't have begrudged Lautrec this, either. His father, though...

Harry's relationship with his father had been close. Father was strict and stuffy, to everyone else, but it was clear someday that Harry would turn out the same way. They were kindred souls. So it felt like a betrayal of Harry's esteemed mother that Father could do something like this to her. Lautrec might clearly be of Lotté stock, but he clung proudly to his mother's name. She had even raised him, in shame, for much of his life. It was obvious that there'd been a betrayal of trust, and it had come from someone who Heris had held in high esteem.

That more than anything was the source of the tension in the relationship between Harry and Lautrec. Still, he treated his new brother cordially, and tried, where he could, to calm his twin's temper. No matter Lautrec's skill or fantastic abilities, House Lotté would never take him as a real heir. He'd only ever, at most, be a vassal for Gawainé, heartless as that might sound for someone of their blood. Treating him well, and appropriately, might provide a greater yield for the House down the line. Everything was for House Lotté, was it not?

But Lautrec had his own life. The separation gave Heris and his brother room to grow into their own, and develop the philosophy that House Lotté would live by in their later years. Here, Heris really took a backseat to his twin: he'd already become accustomed to thinking of himself second, merely taking in the ideas of the future House Lotté and condensing them into something logically consistent, and not too risky. It was easy that way: Heris had no need to consider what was truly just, merely how to accomplish his brothers' goals most prudently and discreetly.

That eventually, Gawainé expressed interest in the Third Order...well, Harry could hardly object. Knighthood was an honorable undertaking, sure to endear them to their people, and spread their name. The Third Order was newer, for a knightly order, but being among its founding generation meant glory for them, when the Order did well. And...it wasn't arrogance for Heris to think that they would do well. The Third Order's ranks already counted Lautrec among them, and Gawainé and even Heris were skilled among their peers. As knights, they could build honor and prestige that'd serve them well when they later took up their family's birthright.

That resolution boded well for them for several years. The Order's missions went well, and their name was a reliable one. It seemed reasonable for first Gahariet and then Agravaine to join, as well. It wouldn't have hurt, to diversify the brothers' skills, but members of a knightly order would each take on their own roles in battle anyway. Besides, it'd mean honor for the entire family. Dear Agra was only a year younger than Heris and Gawainé had been when they'd sworn their oaths.

The Tower seemed like any other mission. Investigate corruption...that was what their Order had been born to really do. And it was just a school - what could go wrong?

Ha.

Gahaeriés won't speak of what happened there anymore. All he really knows is that something in their family has been broken ever since then. All of a sudden, Agra's words are barbed, her dalliances reckless. Gar is unquestionably changed, his prolonged stint in the tower turning him sullen and quiet. Gawainé's fire is poisoned by a deep guilt: guilt that should really be Harry's to bear. It's easiest for Heris to turn his blame on Arthur's leadership: surely there were better decisions to be made in the Tower. But he isn't quite sure, right now, where else the Order might rebuild its prestige.

And it's clear to him that it's necessary, for the brothers of House Lotté more than anyone else. They had something, where they came from: an inheritance, a family. They must return someday, or what would Heris have labored all these years for? And when they do, they must have the honor that they lost in the Tower. That's the only way they can accept their title.

A small, idealistic part of Heris that he'd thought gone hopes that his family's fraying bonds will be repaired with it, too.

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