Galahad Du Lac de Valentione

Name: Galahad DuLac
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Demiromantic, Asexual
Race: Half-Elezen Half-Midlander Hyur
Relationship Status: Single, Not Looking
Social status: Peerage, Ward of Valentione
Current residence: Manor in Coerthas owned by Valentione

Physical Appearance
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 180 lbs
Eye color: Gold
Hair color: White
Completion: Fair and freckled
Tattoos/body Modification/scars: One long scar from his nose across his right cheek
Typical clothing style: Regency noble

History
Birth place: Ishgard
Childhood home: Coerthas Manor w/ Father
Places of past residence: None, yet
History of family (brief): Bastard of the Dragoon Launcelot. Adopted as a ward of Valentione when his father died.

Combat
Peaceful/violent: Peaceful first, always
Weapon of choice: Longsword
Style of combat/combatant roles: Frontline melee
Occupation: Squire

Important People In His Life
As a young hyur knight, he was called Launcelot of the Joyous Joust for even when he couldn't win, his jousts were something to behold. Before he was a dragoon, he was a defender of the weak that was elevated to knight errant and later temple knight for his protection of noble women from cutpurses and heretics alike. He was recognized and made a dragoon after holding a position by himself, slaying a dozen lesser dragons in a blood-soaked rampage to maintain the line before his superiors could reach him and draw him back. As a dragoon, he was known for battling atop his chocobo in a style reminscent of the dragon-riding dragoons of old, allowing him to force high-flying dragons to the ground. He participated in years of these types of raids until a dragon devoured his bird from under him and shredded his legs. It was a miracle he survived his crash landing. After his retirement he went to a temple to pray for better fortunes, only to be found by Elaine and saddled with a son. He spent the next decade doing his best to raise the son himself despite being lame and nigh crippled, but the nerve damage and weakened immune system eventually killed him. He did his best to do right by Galahad and train him, but he could demonstrate very little.
Lady Elaine of House Valentione was once one of many who longed for Launcelot's affections. He was known as a heartbreaker who had courted numerous times and found each one wanting (in truth, Launcelot was an airhead who'd simply forget he's courting, and the women left him). Elaine was undetered and eventually he ascquised, their courting rather sparse thanks to Launcelot's busy life. She found that it was easiest to find him in the evenings as he left the Forgotten Knight, and one day found him not only terribly drunk but beaten and battered. She brought him to his home and once inside found it hard to leave, and their mistakes led to the conception of Galahad. Launcelot, unable to face her, dropped their courting and moved on unaware of her pregnancy, and Elaine herself didn't learn until she was several months pregnant. He ended up not being told until after he had been crippled in battle.
Elaine is a rather ordinary woman. She is several times removed from the main branch of Valentione and isn't expected to be a ruthless politican like her closer related cousins. Launcelot was to be her way into a better life, unaware of what politics are really like, and when rumors began to swirl of her and Launcelot being improper she was glad to not be involved with him anymore. Then Galahad happened, and she was glad to be rid of him as well. Having to ward him was unexpected, but better than having to tell the truth to him and deal with the fallout. Galahad does know she's his mother, but their relationship is chilly as Elaine refuses to risk his parentage being revealed and she struggles with how much like Launcelot he's become. Elaine vehemently opposes his becoming of a House Knight.
The broad elezen Arthuriox has been Launcelot's steadfast friend his entire life. They fought side-by-side as comrades in the endless Dragonsong war and when Launcelot became a temple knight he was swift to employ Arthuraux to keep the scar-covered man off the battlefield. As major domo, Arthur has his own abode on the Du Lac property attached to the manor where many a sweaty tryst has happened between him and Launcelot entirely unknown to anyone but them. Galahad has never questioned why Arthuraux treats him like a son or why Arthuraux and Launcelot act so touchy-feely. Surely it is just the closest of bonds, surely. In the wake of Launcelot's death, Arthuraux still tends to the manor hoping Galahad will marry and move back in sooner rather than later.
Pelles and Pellam are Galahad's retainers. Twin highlander boys who lost their father in the war while toddlers, they are both very different people despite being mostly identical twins. Pellam is good with domestic work and numbers, while Pelles has the brash heart of a young warrior forced to play errand boy. Galahad protected them from bullies in prayer school. When the calamity hit and took their mother from them too Galahad convinced his father to take them in, where they became Arthuraux's apprentices and legally his sons. Without them, Arthuraux may have never let Galahad become a knight at all.
Perceval and Bors are Galahad's purebred Ishgardian chocobos. Bors is a draught chocobo and once one of his father's birds, bred to carry a cart or multiple people quickly. Bors is a bit of a grumpy bird, quick to anger, always hungry, and always feeling entitled to your meal. Perceval is Galahad's personal chocobo, a cheerful 'bo who can fight fiercely in combat alongside him. Percy is from the lineage of Llamrei, said to be one of the first chocobo Ishgard ever bred for battle due to their fierce demeanor. Bors is from the lineage of Gringolet, one of the chocobo brought as a packbird when elezen first settled these lands.

Personal History
Galahad could have been called a lonely child. Immediately foisted upon his crippled father from nearly the moment of his birth, he grew up alone with Launcelot all his childhood despite the difficulty the man had. Were it not for Launcelot's cousin Lionel and his major domo Arthuriox, Galahad would've surely died in that manor as the calamity ripped through both their farmland and the ecosystem as a whole. Too many times the boy had to see his father snowed into the house as supplies grew thin or had to tend to the bed-bound man each time he grew ill (which was every winter and many autumns) for Arthuraux could not do the work of a household alone. Tending to his own parent gave Galahad a strong sense of responsibility, though it also meant his childhood was not a particularly happy one. Much of his days were spent training with Launcelot's guidance, though the man couldn't demonstrate much. While Galahad was meant to be Launcelot's page, it was Lionel and Arthuraux who taught Galahad much of what he knows. Prayer school taught the rest, where Galahad immediately gained a reputation for protecting the weak, even the poor, to the distaste of many a noble.

It was a brisk autumn day when Launcelot, howling in agony from his damaged nerve endings, finally closed his eyes for the last time. Galahad, realizing what had happened, ran as far as his legs would take him until he had reached the home of Ser Lionel to help him. Grief consumed him, but as a minor, he legally required a parent. As much as Arthuraux would've liked to be his legal parent, such an act would've cost him his nobility. The matter of what to do with Galahad went on for some time, for all of Launcelot's living relatives had many children already and no room for Galahad. Lionel and his wife, Heliabel de Valentione, took in the boy despite their three young children and made him a ward of Valentione. Were it not for the fussing of Elaine, perhaps Galahad would've lived with Lionel in his manor or stayed in his own estate with Arthuraux. Instead, Elaine forced Heliabel to have the boy squired immediately and as far away from anything Valentione as possible.

Elaine, despite her meddling, did not have her way as she expected. Galahad was squired under House Fortemps under one of it's house knights, Medraut. As Valentione is allied to Fortemps, they ended up seeing quite a bit of each other as the teenager turned into a man. Medraut in turn recommended Galahad as a house knight under Valentione to spite the woman, while Edmund de Fortemps is keen to see the bright young Galahad put back with his family where his skills are best used.

First Impression
Galahad is not what one thinks of when picturing a knight of Ishgard. They're slender, short amongst their elezen and hyur peers both, soft where one would expect chiseled features, and soft-spoken as well. Their armor, confidence, and ever-present smile is what carries the snowy-haired man's reputation as a knight... As well as a reputation for every sort of charity or alms-giving you might imagine. If only he wasn't a half-blood...

Reputation
The son of a dragoon and yet a half-blooded bastard. Opinions are mixed about Galahad much of the time despite his constant charity work and status as minor nobility. His dedication to Halone borders on fanatical and more than once have the priests had to chase him off from praying an entire day or force him to accept a meal after too long fasting. Galahad is nearly a shining example of every positive Ishgardian stereotype, yet it is his lack of acceptance that made him that way.

Personality
A soft soul, kind and generous without ever thinking of himself. Yet that inability to think of himself leaves him without anything at all only to be praised as a beloved martyr. Many people have used and abused his kindness and called it weakness, but Galahad knows no other way to be but ever trusting and ever giving. The happiness of others is his responsibility in his opinion and he takes this duty he's given himself with the utmost seriousness. He is always early to social functions, always carries a few gil for the beggars, always has a snack and a drink for the weary, and doesn't know how to say no. Battle may make him seem fierce, but in truth it is only because it is in the defense of others. When it comes to politics, he is naive and misguided, only having opinions that the Church needs a reformation towards Halone's kinder aspects. He knows how to manipulate people if he must (and when it comes to his own House, he certainly has) but avoids it out of distaste. Galahad is often too honorable and too believing for his own good. He thinks there is goodness in everyone, and yet being proven wrong again and again has not broken him yet.

Hobbies
Harp & Lyre player (fine at best)
Fishing (rod, spear, or otherwise)
A spot of flower arrangement or care now and again
Hunting (keeps him sharp with his bow)

Skills
Sword and Shield
Longsword
Spear
Lance
Shortbow
Longbow
All of the above, but astride a chocobo

Affiliations