The Veteran
Name: Severaux Vilauclaire (né Greystone)
Alias: Sev, Lieutenant, "Uncle Sev", Ser Vilauclaire.
Age: 49 (Born 15th Sun of 4th Astral Moon)
Gender: Male
Race: Elezen
Clan: Wildwood
Orientation: Panromantic demisexual.
Marital: Happily married
Deities: Halone and Nymeia
Nationality: Gridanian of Ishgardian descent.
Occupation: Retired soldier turned teacher.
Alignment: Neutral tired.
Severaux stands at a little less than six and a half fulms — rather less than many Elezen, but he moves with an irreducible solidity that belies muscle mass slightly over the usual norm for his lanky species.His long ash-blond hair is now entirely silver, and his pale golden eyes are subtly hoary in hue, as though he is eternally touched by the Calamity-borne cold of his ancestral lands.Old injuries have left him with a slight permanent limp, and he uses a cane on bad pain days.Scars & Markings: Severaux has several prominent scars on his face, traces of deeper wounds treated too late by magical means. He bears other scars under his clothing, and has a pair of magical prosthetic fingertips on the index and middle fingers of his right hand. The prosthetics are enchanted to allow for grip, if not complete sensation, and are usually concealed under his gauntlets.A recent injury has left him partially blinded in his left eye — the iris and pupil are now clouded over with opaque white scarring.Voice: Sev's voice is smooth and rich, leavened with the rasp of a soldier who has spent decades barking out orders on the battlefield.Clothing: Severaux was once almost constantly seen in his Lominsan officer's greatcoat, but he has ditched his soldiers' garb on retirement. Now he wears sensible wools and leathers to keep himself warm in the Coerthan chill.He also happens to wear a piratical pair of jeweled earrings, intended less as a protective charm and more as a means to pay his bar tab if he's out of coin.When teaching, he dons formal academic robes and a pair of reading glasses.
Personality: Severaux is a serious-minded, disciplined person who may come across as fatalistic at times. He prefers to think he is being realistic, however, having lost friends and comrades during his long career as a professional soldier.In moments of greater levity he displays a dry, subtle sense of humor and a surprising amount of indulgence towards the old, the young, and the infirm.He's not a celibate temple knight, neither by bearing nor by inclination. He, like many veterans, enjoys a good meal and a good drink when he gets paid. He smokes a pipe from time to time, sighs with relief when he gets to pull his boots off at the end of a watch, and snores when he sleeps, like any other man.Likes: A warm mulled wine, a pipe of fogweed. Sleeping next to his husband Khi'ra in the night.Dislikes: Slovenliness. Shirkers. Petty cruelty.Fears: Dying alone and unfound. Losing those whom he loves. Tentacles.
Severaux descends from a line of chocobo ranchers and breeders, formerly from Ishgard. His grandfather, a man with supreme chocobo sense but absolutely no restraint when it came to gambling debts, spent the family into ruination.Severaux's mother Noémie left Ishgard with a single chocobo, her personal mount, after her father frittered her dowry away. Her betrothed's family spurned her after it became obvious she was growing heavy with child.That child was Severaux. Noémie settled in Bentbranch, working as a wet-nurse and housekeeper in the household of Gaspard Vilauclaire, a local farmer. Gaspard's wife had just given birth to their youngest child and died of a retained afterbirth, and Noémie nursed both her own son and Gaspard's daughter, while also managing the household and rearing his two older children.Eventually, Gaspard proposed marriage to Noémie, who accepted, and he adopted Severaux as his own child.Severaux's childhood in Bentbranch was an idyllic one, for the most part. His meals were sound but monotonous, his lessons taught at the knee of his mother, who also educated his step-siblings. But wanderlust is the ruin of many a young man, and Severaux left Bentbranch eventually after deciding he never wanted to shovel chocobo manure again.Severaux signed on as a groom with a merchant caravan destined for Limsa Lominsa, and on reaching the city, enlisted with a mercenary company in order to find adventure.
Adventure found Severaux — to surfeit. During his decade-and-a-half on the sea, Severaux participated in countless boarding actions, a dozen raids, and a half-dozen petty wars, moving from crew to crew as companies were decimated and reorganized. Severaux eventually enlisted with the Maelstrom when Merlwyb Bloefhiswyn became Admiral of the Thalassocracy.Severaux has worked with the Scions of the Seventh Dawn recently, accompanying the Warrior of Light on their primal-slaying missions. Battles in Ghimlyt and in Garlemald exacted a fearsome toll upon him, however, and he is no longer fit to return to the field as a gunbreaker.Instead, Severaux has turned his hand to mentoring a new generation of adventurers, and will use his knowledge of Nymian scholarship to bolster their strength instead.
The Surleau Academy
In his retirement Severaux has acquired the townhouse owned by his maternal grandfather prior to the family's bankruptcy, and invested all his savings in rebuilding it and turning it into a school for adventurers.He is currently seeking experienced adventurers of all sorts as faculty and staff.
Sev Trivia:
If Sev had a business card, it would read "Severaux Vilauclaire, Professional Escort". The other kind of escort.His personal sigil, used on his stamp for sealing-wax, is that of a chocobo feather crossed with a gunblade.Sev's greatest living friend is his chocobo, a hobby named Marengo. Marengo is a mean drunk.Marengo is the grand-chick of Severaux's grandfather's last champion, Eclair, who was sold when the family holdings were liquidated. Eclair's bloodline lives on in many splendid chocobos bred by Gridanian breeders and sold to the Grand Companies as warbirds.Severaux has recently won a legal case to inherit a piece of property in Ishgard. It is a splendid townhouse belonging formerly to his mother's family before they went insolvent, but its new owners had been killed by the Calamity and it lay blasted and ruined until he acquired the deed and spent his savings rebuilding it.The last time someone asked Severaux to dance, he danced so stiffly and awkwardly in front of an audience that they collectively paid him to stop.