[Center][B]Name: Ascario Cosca, Captain of the Bright Banners, a Free Company
Age: 42
Appearance:[/B] 
[img]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ElY9q-RtNso/TFWPc715vEI/AAAAAAAAAVc/4RS73Kqv5y4/s1600/alatriste.jpg[/img]

“You can never have too many knives.”[/Center]

[B]Personality:[/B]
Literally a whoreson, Ascario is a capable warrior and, like most sellswords, is fickle, faithless and brutal. His greed is so much of a fault that it almost turns into a quality. You can always trust Cosca… trust him to side with the highest bidder. As a soldier of fortune, he tries to enjoy life as much as possible, for tomorrow you might find your heart pierced by an arrow, or your spleen ruptured by a spear.

In a fight, Ascario Cosca is vicious, swift and incredibly agile as befits a bravo and mercenary. He is utterly pragmatic and ruthless, caring little for the fates of his men (though he is careful to conceal it of course lest the fools lynch him), always pressing them. The job needs to be done, as long as he is paid. He might look like just a joker, but he is far more cunning than he seems.

Incredibly vain and witty, he considers himself the epitome of manly attraction, in spite of having some feminine quirks. He likes to display his qualities, and is blind to his own faults. Lacking scruples and morals, Cosca has committed terrible and heinous crimes in his life, from murder and all sorts of abuse to wholesale torture and merciless slaughter.

Ascario has several great loves in his life that all compete but are never mutually exclusive. Though not exclusively attracted to women, Cosca is a great womanizer and sees all women as conquests. Other than carnal pleasures, he is fond of the bottle, dice, fists and of course the thing that makes it all possible: coin.

[B]Biography:[/B]
Cosca was born to a Tyroshi concubine and so there is quite some doubt about his parentage. His mother always told him it was a Braavosi ship captain, but it could just as well been a lowly Myrish sailor. Nevertheless, Ascario was forced to look out after himself, helping out in the brothel occasionally, or working the streets as a purse-cut. He was little more than a gutter-rat. As he grew up, it became apparent he had a talent for violence and manipulating, joining one of the local gangs.

At the age of fourteen he left the city, using his flamboyance and genial ways to join up with the Bright Banners. He served first as a mere kitchen boy and farrier, until one of the crossbowmen took him as his shield boy. After carrying a large pavise for a few years, Ascario enlisted as a regular soldier of fortune.

Fighting in the Disputed Lands saw him wounded several times, even when he climbed the ladder of the company. It also introduced him with exploiting the company’s strengths when negotiating contracts. Aside from commanding the pike-men of the Bright Banners, Ascario functioned as a notary who drafted contracts. Aware of the military power monopoly in the Free Cities, Cosca became notorious for his capriciousness, and after rising to captain-general soon dictated terms to his ostensible employers.

Ascario Cosca preferred fighting indirectly, not directly— thus, only reluctantly endangering himself and the enlisted men, avoiding battle when possible, also avoiding hard work and winter campaigns, as these all reduced the total number of trained soldiers available, and was detrimental to the company’s political and economic interest. The Bright Banners set a trend. They fought by outmanoeuvring the opponent and fighting his ability to wage war, rather than risk uncertain fortune —defeat, capture, death— in battlefield combat.

[Center][b]The Company:[/b]
[img]http://www.hispano-irish.es/noticias/413irlandesesenejercitoespanol.jpg[/img]
[i]You'll See Us Coming[/i]
[/Center]

Though not with the best reputation, the company is well-known and infamous throughout Essos. A motley crew of disparate and displaced soldiers, the Bright Banner has become the home of many a desperate man who knows how to fight. There are axemen from Qohor and Norvos, bravos from Braavos, Lyseni sellswords, Tyroshi pikemen and all other sorts of mercenaries from both sides of the Narrow Sea that serve with the Dun Banner. The units of bowmen are mostly made up of Dornish, and some Summer Islanders with their deadly bows, while occasionally contingents of Myrish crossbowmen march along. In total, the Bright Banners number 2,000 regulars, of which two-hundred are mounted fighting men, and the majority are pikemen.

[Hider=OOC notes]If anyone's read the First Law series, you'll know who this fella sort of is.[/hider]