Kassarock — Roleplayer Guild

"You are too kind, your Highness." The old lord said as he seated himself opposite the Princess and a fresh cup of tea was poured for him upon the table between them. He returned her own watchful gaze as the refreshments were reset. 

Apart from a very brief conversation the night of the Princess's arrival to the city, they had not really spoken to one another before. Manawyndan had been seating on the other side of the King at the feast, and there had been few courtly events or functions in the times since. Perhaps they both had some reason to be wary of each other. It was partly Manawyndan's machinations that had brought the Princess to Morganyth, but he had yet to gauge her character, and now he found other actors potentially trying to use her to their own ends.

"It has been a morning for unexpected visits then. Did you discuss anything of import with Lady Cheldarine?" He took a sip of the tea that had been poured for him, the delicate cup sitting incongruously in his gnarled and callused hands. When he returned the cup to its saucer, the smile that parted his lips was pleasant enough, but his dark bronze eyes did not match it. 

"I will be plain with you, Princess Elise. You have had time to... reconsider... certain decisions you made in regards to your upcoming marriage to the King. My purpose in coming here today is to see if you have come to a more... reasonable... position?"

Elijah 'Eli' Redgrave

Y'know Redgraves have been in Westcliffe almost as long as the DeWinters, but no one gives a shit cos we're poor now.

Name: Elijah 'Eli' Redgrave 

Gender: Male 

Age: 16

Sexual Orientation: He's not really figured that out yet. 

Character Role: Tragic Backstory

Personality: The public persona of Eli Redgrave is that of the mischievous wayward youth. In the single class that makes up the town's school he has reputation as being both a slacker and a joker. When he can be bothered to attend his classes, Eli has a proclivity towards playing practical jokes and readily shows off his wry and sarcastic brand of humour. Despite being something of a class clown, he is by no means stupid, far from it in fact. His teachers think he would have excellent grades if he were only to apply himself. 

His carelessness manifests itself in his appearance too. His dark hair is a messy, unkempt mop that seldom sees a brush or comb. His plaid cotton shirts are often torn and his stonewashed jeans are faded. He often bears scratches on his face and bruises on his arms from spending time messing around in woods out by the old town dump. There's an old rusted out campervan there that Eli has turned into a sort of den. Eli spends a lot of time there, either by himself or with his close knit group of friends. He is generally a sociable person, preferring to hang out with friends than to spend time at home. In fact he tries to spend as little time at home as possible.

But there's a darkness that hangs over Eli. A kind of solitary loneliness that marks him out from many of his peers. He doesn't like to speak of it, he doesn't like to even acknowledge it, but its there. Everyone in the town knows his history, knows what happened to his family. Bad things happen to Redgraves, and no one would be surprised if something bad happened Eli. Least of all himself.

History: The Redgraves are one of the old families of Westcliffe, recently fallen on much harder times. They settled in the area not long after the DeWinters and were originally land owning gentlemen farmers of a sort. Originally the two families were very close to one another, with the two of the intermarrying several times over the course of the 19th century. However, this was not to last. 

The Redgraves and the DeWinters had something of a very public falling out in the 1890s in what would come to be known locally as the Westcliffe Silver Wars. It started when the Redgraves became interested in mineral prospecting around the town. They surreptitiously sought to buy out local landowners with the intent to open a silver mine and turn Westcliffe into a mining rush town like Leadville or Cripple Creek. Many of Westcliffe's residents were violently opposed to the idea, chief amongst them the DeWinters. 

During the development of the mine there was numerous violent classes and even a few murders between the DeWinter and Redgrave clans and their associated supporters. For a while it seemed like the Redgraves won when silver started to come up out of the mine and they had the money to hire guns and guards. They quickly used their newfound wealth to build themselves a large manor house overlooking the town, which was deliberately made to he larger and more grandiose than that of the DeWinters. 

But it was the DeWinters who had the last laugh. A series of mysterious accidents plagued the mineworks, including a tunnel collapse that killed many of the workers. When the damage was repaired and shafts sunk once more at considerable cost to the Redgraves, the seam was found to suddenly and inexplicably end. It ruined the Redgrave family. The cost of the rebuilding the mines and constructing their lavish home had largely be financed through credit and they lost everything to the bank in coming years. The palatial manor overlooking Westcliffe went derelict and was burned to ground by vandals just after the turn of the century.

But the Redgraves stayed in Westcliffe, a few of them can be found living down in the town itself, but Eli's family are what is left of the main branch, living in an old dilapidated colonial farmhouse on a corner of what had once been the vast Redgrave estate. Back when his grandparents were alive, it was still a working farm, but by the time Eli was born most of the remaining land had been sold off other than a few acres of stony scrub pasture and tangled woodland. 

His father had worked as a mechanic, using the old barn as his workshop, his mother a home maker. He and his older brother, Alex, grew up poor, but happy enough. As a child Eli had never noticed the bitterness, the resentment, which still characterised much of his father's family's feelings about Westcliffe and the DeWinters. It went straight over his head. The town was Eli's world, and he had everything he needed there, everything a curious and outdoor loving child could wish for. 

His own feelings towards Westcliffe would become more complicated following the deaths of both his parents.

Eli was around eleven when it happened, on the night of the Halloween festival. His parents had been driving over the mountain, they had gone to see a lawyer in the next town over, and were returning for the festival. There had been something wrong with the breaks on his father's truck and it had gone crashing through a guard rail on one of the switchback turns. The car had plummeted into the ravine below,  and was only by the police next morning when the Redgrave children reported their parents missing. 

They told Eli and Alex it had been quick, they had both died instantly. 

After that their uncle came to live with them, but he was away a lot, so it mostly Alex looking after Eli. Alex was only two years older than him, but Eli came to rely on his older brother a lot  in those first few years after the death of their parents. Later he wondered if he had relied on him too much. It couldn't have been easy on both of them, living in the same house, with all those ghosts. And then there were all the rumours and whispers about the curse. 

The townspeople said it was the curse of the DeWinters, a magical spell punishing their old enemies once again. When their uncle was around and not passed out drunk he told them the same. Sometimes Eli felt it when he went into Westcliffe, everyone looking at him, everyone whispering behind his back: 'Watch out there goes one of those cursed Redgrave boys, don't get too close in case it rubs off on you too.' He wondered now that he was older, what it had been like for Alex? 

Had it been worse somehow?

Alex disappeared when Eli turned fourteen. The police said he was a runaway, their uncle didn't really care what had happened to him. And then Eli learned how to live on his own. It was about this time that he started to act out more, skip school and get in some minor trouble in town. Eli wants to leave Westcliffe now, when he's old enough. He wants to find his brother. He hopes that Alex did leave and he's living a better life somewhere out there, but he's not too sure. 

Why is that?

Alex disappeared on the night of the Halloween Festival.

Extra: Faceclaim credit of Matthew Clavane

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