Profile
Alphonse
HP 75%Basics
Alphonse Aurebon Grimbald
Since the Vampiric War years ago, he swore to his beloved King that foreigners will no longer threaten his home, even if its citizens had sent him off after his transformation. Regardless, his loyalty to the throne will never be fragile and has never changed that for centuries.
Duke Grimbald is a man who is tolerable towards foreigners, but intolerable to threats. With centuries of experience among the border, he often spares an exchange of words to many people who seek to pass Cathal's wall, and likely he judges their words as to what their real intents are. Even if Cathal and Belvar do not hold grudges and their overall peace kept at a high level, security must be kept inside and out of both cities. Alphonse's position is takes most of the worries away from many in regards to security outside of both homes. He is officially the Gatekeeper of foreign affairs and oversees security directly.
- Reading
- Lace outfits
- Gold jewelry
- Being a vampire and having to admit it
- Doing vampire things
- Silver tableware
Character
Strengths
Sharing the leadership of Belvar as one of their Dukes, alongside serving Cathal's Royal bloodline as their Leader of Foreign Affairs grants him political power inside and out.
He doesn't consider himself a politician but having to oversee a city and foreigners going inside and outside of Cathal... he is no stranger to politics and likely would have no choice but to deal with it on a regular basis.
A human turned vampire grants them abilities they never had when they were mortals. Disregarding the longer lifespan, they are quicker, stronger, a keen eyesight and hearing. Fighting him alone is already a losing battle.
Like almost all mages in Cathal, Grimbald obtained magical capabilities at birth. Since he started to learn how to walk, he would be taught to use his magic abilities on a regular basis. Spending several generations on learning magic, he is one of the most powerful mages in the Circle Kingdom.
Flaws
All vampires, or at least the ones that he knows of, are weaker during the day because of the sun. Fortunately, the sun does not kill him.
He completely loathes the cravings of blood. He becomes irritated and hard to talk whenever his cravings occur.
He does not tolerate mistakes. Even if the mistake is harmless and lighthearted, he will likely waste your time with a lecture.
Skills & Abilities
Vampirism
As mentioned before, being a vampire has its perks. They're swift, guile, and especially stronger than the normal human. Physical fighting is not his strongest suit but just being a vampire already gives him the advantage over mere mortals that refuses his will.
But consuming human blood affects his abilities as a mage and his spells are more potent as before. However, he rarely consumes blood and would ask to feed off of a human for emergency purposes.
Shadowmage
A seasoned mage and grown up with it at birth. Grimbald being a vampire has him practicing the more darker themes of magic. Shadows envelop his body around his clothing tightly (hence why it appears very black all the time) and uses these same shadows to swiftly disappear and reappear at will. Shadow magic hinders his opponents' eyesight, but it also allows him to traverse the darkness much faster than what he could normally do.
Not only himself, he can inflict these teleportation abilities on others. But he cannot control where they will end up unless he envelops himself in the same shadow with them.
Bloodmage
Blood magic is one of the most dangerous forms of magic - using one's or other people's blood to cast the most horrific (but beyond powerful) spells. Unless one's careful with it, it's prone to corruption and difficult to control. Yet Alphonse uses blood magic at a regular basis to fight the most dangerous people.
Despite he hates consuming blood, he finds little problems using blood (whether it be his or someone else's) as a way to control the combat to his favor.
Trivia
- Even as the "Gatekeeper" there are still soldiers that secure the borders to fend off any foreign threats. However, if there was any complications, these types of situations goes straight to Grimbald, who judges whether or not they can pass into the Kingdom.
- Alphonse used to be the only Duke of Belvar until the events after exiling Count Alabaster from Belvar. He now shares leadership of the city with the Zane twins after the "supposed Duke, by law" (Lucien) officially has given them the title willingly.
> He also is one of the first settlers of Belvar when it was first created to become a populous city.
> Many of the nobles do not try to go against Alphonse as he has Cathal's full support. One wrong move that perhaps threaten the whole city or even against Cathal themselves will suffer by the hands of Grimbald. - Grimbald is very much aware that Belvar's citizens have created itself an "Underworld" while he was absent for a time being due to Cathal's political problem.
> Has gone to investigate the Underworld and will try to find some way to disperse it. However, he never found the opportunity to do so. - It doesn't matter whether you're human or not, if one threatens the safety of his kingdom, Alphonse is relentless and ferocious when it comes to protecting his home.
- Grimbald was once a human then turned vampire. Even with his troublesome history against a city filled with vampires prior to his transformation, he has no discrimination towards both vampire and human.
- There has been years where Alphonse could not worry about any threats among the borders of Cathal, therefore he simply spends his time keeping up with fashion and updating his wardrobes.
- Lace and decorative coats are his aesthetic.
- Since Grimbald is a vampire, he has no choice but to live off of blood as a way of sustenance. Yet, Alphonse is a man of his word, refusing to suck the blood off of any human unless he is given consent. He can be able to live off without any nourishment for a long period of time. If he was truly craving, then he'd consume the blood of his enemies or visit the a clinic to consume the blood of people who are already dying.
> He won't deny that the blood would be the sweetest from someone who is alive and healthy.
> Yet, he refuses to prey on such people unless they allow him to. Even if he was given consent, he only consumes a little before feeling ashamed of himself. - When he spends time around Cathal, he always tries to find an opportunity to visit the Library.
> Quite close with the Librarian, often finds the time to gather and send books his way.
> During his leisure time, he amuses himself with the Librarian. If he isn't available, then he'll simply follow him around out of pure curiosity. - Literally refuses to touch anything that resembles or looks like silver. Even if it's fake.
> Traditionally the tableware in both Belvar and Cathal would be made out of silver. However due to his fear of anything that looks like silver, he has many of the utensils and almost anything involving metal would be made out of gold.
Summary
Grimbald was born into an impoverished aristocracy and lived a vast majority of his teens and young adult years in servitude. However, because of his aristocratic history and talent in magic he was thankful with the opportunity working as a butler as well as becoming a student in the prestigious College of Magi.
One of the biggest turning points in his life was meeting the young prince Victor of Cathal, who was old enough to be able to venture beyond the castle walls. Grimbald was experienced serving in the castle and was around the same age as the Prince thus the current King at this age had ordered the young butler to accompany him practically everywhere. Since their first encounter, Alphonse was kindly acquainted with this man. For years he and Alphonse grew up together, and the servant had grown fond of his master for years. Their healthy relationship lasted a few more years in peace until their current King Charles had passed.
Victor, as the only son and heir to the Kingdom, he takes his father's place and marries a selected princess (from a neighboring kingdom) provided by his mother. Although heartbroken, Alphonse continues to serve him with upmost loyalty - the newly crowned king even appoints him as his Royal Advisor and Right-hand man throughout his years of ruling.
Even before Victor ruled Cathal as his own, there was a situational problem in regards to the borders between the Kingdom of Cathal and the lands bordering this territory. Their neighboring kingdom eventually becomes infested with vampires, which threatens many other cities and kingdoms around them. During Victor's reign, the Kingdom is united and have officially decreed war against these creatures.
The victory against their immortal enemies was a success, however the risk was large and many of Cathal's citizens had become vampires themselves. Therefore, King Victor has decided that it was best that they would be exiled or executed for the sake of safety.
Unfortunately, along the way Alphonse becomes a fallen victim of many of these vampires' retaliation - dying in Victor's arms. Deeply affected by Alphonse's near death, he was willing to make the last minute decision to have him consume a vampire's blood in order to keep him alive.
Grimbald is alive and well, who continues to serve his kingdom within the city as a vampire. Shortly after the war, many of Cathal's citizens were at a disagreement with the King, demanding that Alphonse should be killed or leave the Kingdom due to fear of vampirism spreading once more. Even if Alphonse is willing to exile himself, King Victor becomes discouraged - not necessarily allowing his former lover, and closest friend to leave his own Kingdom during his rule. Victor makes one last plan, and giving Alphonse one last task before he heads outside his Kingdom's walls.
Ever since their success, their neighboring kingdom (the former vampiric territory) transforms into a bustling city with a strong economy that benefited the Cathal kingdom years after. However, with a brand new city, called Belvar, owned by the King but no one capable of overseeing this populous area - Victor takes this into consideration and allowing his closest adviser to help keep things under control. Alphonse simply says his last goodbyes and leaves to live in Belvar as their Viscount.
Alphonse decides that he wouldn't even live within the cities of Belvar, but simply living in a manor that's located around the main road connected between his city and the Kingdom. He acts as some sort of gatekeeper, fending off many threatening foreigners that could become potential enemies. Grimbald, now satisfied with this newfound life, continues to serve his kingdom for generations and generations.
Even after his beloved King Victor passed, his children and then future generation of the royal blood continues to welcome Grimbald and allows him to travel within the Kingdom's walls. They continue to congratulate him for guarding and protecting his city outside of their borders, giving him the title "The Gatekeeper" and a promising seat into the Magic College Council..
The Heroes of Belvar
Grimbald had to spend days within the walls of the Circle Kingdom, and thus had no choice but to bring his troops along with him for the emergency. Thus without the Guardsman overlooking Belvar, many of the Nobles that resides there have taken the opportunity to try and take full control of their city and a civil war has broken out between the few of the high class noble with militaristic power. Yet with the help of the "Heroes of Belvar" the city had settled down and prevented a complete wreckage of the city while the Vampire was away.
However the creation of the Underworld was proven suspicious to Alphonse when he came back. And yet he constantly seeks to find their Under Ruler so that this organization will disperse.
The great Litarian adventure
Alphonse has been getting used to the alliance between Cathal and Litari but after the first Prince Allegretto's assassination, he's been getting busier and busier on his end with uproar amongst the borders.
He doesn't know what has happened to the Queen's youngest child En since he was exiled from Litari. But after the reports of his whereabouts appearing in Belvar because he was on his way to Cathal for help... he immediately made his way there and found the city's Underruler (Azrael) by his side. Grimbald, out of safety and has little empathy towards his enemy, he immediately attacks the group just to take En home safetly but was apprehended by the group.
Since then, when he woken up from getting embarrassingly defeated by Azrael and his group, he leaves them be and continues his work per usual.
Relationships
Caliban [WIP]
[ More than a Friend ]
Alphonse has been going to the Grand Librarium regularly for years but he didn't know that their current Librarian was a former Belvarian as first. Of course, he didn't mind it but he often tries to ask him as to why he doesn't go back to his former home.
He meets Caliban quite often because of the amount of books he takes in and out. Especially because Alphonse's manor is located outside of Cathal, the vampire has to ask for special permission to allow him to take his readings to his home.
But after discovering Caliban's guilty pleasure that he's kept for a secret for years, he comes by more often to delve deeper into the Librarian's character.
Azrael
[ Rival ]
Despite he was one of the five gentleman that saved Belvar from burning, he doesn't like the fact that he's gone and taken this infamousy to create an elusive and secret community called the Underworld. The Underworld would have eventually pose a threat in regards to the control of the whole city and Alphonse figured that he'd come after Azrael as soon as he could to prevent such things happening.
Lucien
[ Friend ]
Alphonse rarely grows fond of anyone at the first meeting but he cannot help but see Lucien as a complete reflection of himself from when he was a human. He's only met him from when he was there to see the proof that Bastion was the heir to the original ruler of Belvar hence granting Lucien complete rights and control of the whole city. But perhaps growing fond and satisfied with his life as a butler and complete dedication to his master, he's politely handed the title of Duke to Alphonse and his former two masters (Caelan and Culus).
Soon enough the butler has Grimbald's utmost respect. He hopes that they'll spent a few hours together talking about their personal life as a friends for when Alphonse comes to Belvar.
Count Veilleux
[ Ally ]
A vampire like him, he is loyal to Belvar though the ambitions he once had are slowly withering away and simply continues to do what the Duke wants without complaint. The Veilleux house takes control of the Guardsmen whenever Alphonse is away but every once in a while Grimbald will come by and visit Henri for a day - mostly about politics and the situation with the guardsmen.
Algernon
[ Ally ]
Algernon is a talented jeweler. He's so notably talented that even the royal family from Cathal has recognized his work. Aside from that, Alphonse is one of Algernon more important clients and every piece of work he's done.... his work never disappoints.
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