Antoine's outermost performance is a haughty, cultured nobleman. He projects competence, level-headedness, and grace. However, it doesn't take much to break past that surface. He loves to besmirch his father's name, and aside from that, he has quite the temper. He's got a little bit of a tough guy complex, owing to his rough upbringing of poverty and social rejection. He tends to think poorly of those who grew up in better circumstances- although this is typically a projection of jealousy. On the flip side, he feels protective towards others with similar backgrounds. He grew up lonely and scorned, and he wants to support others that grew up in similar ways.

Underneath all of that, though, he's deeply insecure and has a far poorer grasp on his emotions than he'd like to admit. He never learned how to deal with things in a healthy way. Instead, he tends to let his emotions run wild. He believes he's a very rational, logical person prone to brief bouts of emotion, but far more of his behavior is driven by unaddressed feelings than he thinks. He thinks he represses all of these emotions and acts on some objective best interest... but that's not the case at all.

Still, even beyond all his facades and unaddressed emotional issues, he's quite smart and determined (even downright stubborn). Once he's set on something, he sees it through to the end. At best, this means he'll try impossible challenges: giving himself an entire aristocratic education with no teacher and barely any literacy, for instance. At worst, he has an awful vengeful streak that often leads him into self-destruction... and a very thorough, planned-out vengeful streak that'll take several people down with him.

Artist Notes

• He often uses a cane. Being revived gave him some form of dysautonomia, and he often suffers from dizziness when standing too long. It's more of a problem when he's gone a while without blood.
• In combat, he transforms his cane into a rapier.
• The pages of his book are black with white writing.
• His eyes have an empty, dead look to them. They glow orange, but are still lifeless.
• He was bitten by a werewolf after already contracting vampirism. While he's not exactly a full lycanthrope, he has wolfish eyes, pointed ears, and plenty of body hair.

Trivia

• His father's family crest is a phoenix. While he despises the man, Antoine took his last name and uses the family crest out of spite. Many of his outfits are inspired by the phoenix crest.
• He can take his hands off and put them back on. Silvery blood pours out and dissipates on contact with the ground when he does this.
• His magic emanates from his book, not his body. When he casts, infernal lettering spreads across his arms. His actual magic is usually black, gold, and red, with more infernal lettering mingled with it.
• He plays lutes, and is especially fond of theorbo. He also plays harpsichord, piano, pipe organ, and the hurdy gurdy.
• His legal name is Anton Kaczmarek. He uses his father's surname, "Leroux", out of spite, but isn't officially part of the family. "Antoine" started off as an alternate version of his name that he used at work and around his father's wealthy acquaintances, and he used "Anton" in his hometown. However, he introduced himself as Antoine to his traveling companion, Aphros, expecting that they wouldn't be companions for long. They stuck around together longer-term, though, and gained more party members... and he feels like it's too awkward to bring up now.