Name: Baron Stephen de Monfort (Stephen the bloody)

Gender: Male

Age: 31

Appearance:
  
Stephen stands at around 5'9" and is of a fairly lithe build, though he has surprisingly large shoulder muscles and biceps which allow him to swing short hacking weapons with deadly speed. His hands are similarly strong and callused, showing a life of either hard work of handing weapons. His physical position is peak, unlike many other knights who ride on horseback Stephen is accustomed to fighting on foot for battles. 

The most noticeable feature is a line white scar that runs from the base of the temple to the bottom of the chin, unlike the rest of his face, no hair grows on it. Making the scar stand out against the dark blonde stubble, his hair is a similar colour, dark blonde streaked with brown yet stained darker either by sweat or blood. His eyes are typically northern European blue as is his fair complexion. There is nothing particularly unpleasant about his face, yet it is not instantly attractive, nondescript would be the best way to think of it. His garb in the desert is always the same, the armour and the white mantle with a red cross that all Templars wore.

Equipment/inventory:
-Steel Chainmail Hauberk with Coif (leather cuirass underneath)
-Leather Gauntlets
-Steel toe capped armoured boots
-Steel Greaves and Vambraces on legs and arms
-Small crucifix 
-Gold Reliquary containing a finger bone of Saint Jude.

Weapons: 
-A knight's long sword, a family heirloom forged in the 10th century.
-A shorter brutal sword, a Falchion with one cutting side and a machete like blade.
-A light single handed axe, with a cutting blade, an end spike, and an armour piercing pick.

Background: Stephen was born into nobility in the southern France province of Aquitaine. Here he was raised under the eye of a stern father and a mother who bowed to the will of her husband. Despite whatever vice's Stephen's father had, Robert was devout to the word of God. His hand may have been heavy and his temper quick, but when he heard an utterance of heresy from his own eldest son, he made sure the boy would never again doubt God. He beat Stephen within an inch of his life before sending him off to a monastery in Normandy for two years to learn respect for God. It was here that he met Raymond of Cyprus, a Knight Templar.

While at the monastery the knight had been visiting before he went out to the holy land. He had fascinated the boy with tales of the crusades and how God rewarded all who went upon it, this more simulation for Christianity than any monk could provide. When Raymond left and Stephen was returned to his father he set about becoming a knight worthy of the holy land. But in his abscense it was apparent is mother had died of the flu, grieved but not changed, he also decided to pray for her soul when in Jerusalem.

He trained hard and achieved this, his father died when he was 17 and he inherited what was his. Nothing could now stop him on his voyage to Jerusalem. It took two years to sail to Tyre and then across the desert to Jerusalem, when there he prayed and met a familiar face. Raymond was still in the holy land, older but still a Knight Templar of high standing. He joined the Templars shortly afterwards and served with them in the two years of peace between then and the start of Saladin's war on Palestine. When the truce broke again in 1186, he was in fact part of those who caused this, he raided a caravan with Raynald de Chatillion, which had Saladin's sister in it.

He had continued to fight with Raynald until the battle of Hattin, where he was moved back to Tyre in case the Muslim army headed north. After Hattin Saladin took Jerusalem and Arce, but Tyre still stood. This is what prompted the Third Crusade, to take back Jerusalem, and the holy war was back on again. He battled down with other Templars to Acre, they took the Muslim garrison but were themselves besieged. When the demands of King Richard I were not met, he was one of the executors of the 2,700 hostages. After this he still pushed south, hands stained with the blood of thousands of Muslims from over thirteen years of bloodshed. At Arsuf he killed hundreds more, and onto the city of Jaffa, even more dead. By this point peace talks had begun and a treaty was signed to prevent more killing on both sides. Jerusalem was lost and the Knights were ending the violent campaign for now.

He decided to return home for the first time, sick of death for once. On Cyprus he met with the son of Raymond who took him in for a short while. Here in their family chapel, did he see what his life had led him to.