Mateo Lorenzo Kaides
Age: 19 [29] |
Height:5' 11" |
Voice: Calm, clear, resonant First Life
Mateo is the 1st son of Deividas Kaides's youngest daughter, making him about as far removed from the patriarch as you can get and still be a relative. Being positioned on such a distance branch of the family tree meant there was little to no chance of him inheriting any kind of power, unless the whole kingdom collapsed around them, but given how many woes the children of the main family had, Mateo considered that to be a stroke a luck.
There is a chance that Mateo could have been exceptional. Physically he was fit and strong, tall but not exceptionally so, broad shouldered and athletic. Mentally he was always considered to be quite smart; no genius or prodigy mind you, but intelligent and with a degree of cunning. When it came to skill with a blade, he picked it up easily enough; he was no master with the sword, but he took to the lessons given to him with only a small amount of difficulty and there was no telling how high he would ascend given time and the right tutelage. All in all, Mateo was not a legend in the making, but there was strong hope that he would at least live up to the exacting standards of the Kaides family. Perhaps he would even do more.
Mateo did not want to be exceptional. Bad things happened to exceptional people, as he saw with his cousins; poisoned and shot with arrows and almost killed in "training accidents". The nobility was a pit of vipers all too eager to sink their fangs in you if they saw you as a threat. No, it was better not to be exceptional. It was better not to stand out at all. Better to be average, one of many. Perhaps it would be better to have "potential", so that some would have cause to ensure your safety long enough to see if you become useful; but that could just as easily backfire. No, maybe it was better to be below average; a disappointment. Just enough that people disregarded you entirely, turned away from you in disinterest at what a "waste" you were, but not so much that they got rid of you entirely.
So that was what Mateo did once he entered the collegem. He disappointed. The talent and potential of his youth never bore fruit; his physical talents went untended and were surpassed by a few in the first year and then many more in the years after. His academic performance was better, above average at least; it wouldn't do to be seen as completely useless, or a dullard. The combat lessons were a little harder to manage, since the eagle-eyed instructors of the Collegem would notice immediately should he hold back or fail to give his all; so rather than try to feign weakness or slowness, Mateo instead slowed his reactions and added a hesitancy to his movements. He would flinch before blocking, or wait a beat too long to seize an opening. It was enough to fool the instructors, who marked him as having the strength and skill but lacking in the spirit needed to be a swordsman.
If his goal was to be ignored, then it worked perfectly. He slotted right into the "failed generation" as one of its less remarkable members; a somewhat average individual who did not achieve what was expected of him, of all Kaides, but was not so much of a failure that it bear mentioning him specifically. His classmates were cordial to him and he had a small circle of friends, his instructors hounded him just enough to keep him up to speed with his peers, and if there was ever a chance that someone would want to assassinate a boy from the further branch of the family, they must have decided better of it.
Mateo continued this all the way up to the age of 21 where, upon failing to awaken his aura, he left the Collegem without graduating. He considered his time there to have been rather successfully mundane and with his throat intact and his back free of knives, he turned his mind towards what the rest of his life would look like.
A few years later war was declared and Mateo began to think that there might have been a flaw in his plan.
There was an expectation that even failures like him enlist and put their meagre strength to good use and so Mateo did just that, picking up a blade for the first time since leaving the Collegem and wondering if it was too late to start learning to wield it properly. As it turned out there was plenty of instruction to be found in the middle of battle, though the sparring partners were a little bit too eager. Mateo was a quick study, which saved him from dying immediately, but his tactic of fooling his instructors by feigning hesistance was no longer a feint; it had instead become a deeply ingrained habit of his to hesitate dangerously before every block, ever dodge, every swing. The first time it happened he nearly lost his head, instead losing only part of an ear as the orcs wild swing went wide, but no matter how much he fought against it the years of muscle memory were set deep in his bones.
He accumulated many more scars over the next few years, the bits being chipped away from him piece by piece as his folly came back to bite him over and over again. By the time of his final stand at Port Handrum, he looked grizzled beyond his years and covered in a patchwork of scars and the stiffness in his limbs was as much from muscle damage as it was from hesitation.
There is not much to say about that final battle. He fought and he died. In a shield wall alongside regular soldiers facing down a charging line of demons that greatly out numbered them.
Equipment
- In his past life, Mateo only ever donned the gear of a trainee and a standard soldier; a long sword, a kite shield, chainmail. In this life, who knows? Maybe the same, maybe something more exceptional.
- blank
Abilities
- Physical Strength: 1st Rate
- Aura: 1st Rate
- Magic: 0th Circle
- Skills:
- Skill/Spell Name - Skill/Spell Description
- Sub-Sub-List for Upgrades.
