the_library app

[bloodpricked]

Alternate Universe Canon Character (Limited Canon)

Out Of Character
Name: Chloe
Age: 24
Journal: [Bad username or unknown identity: ”swevene”]
Contact: This email/oraclevsreality on AIM/swevene on plurk

In Character
Name: Iriel de Fiscarde
Canon: Kushiel's Legacy
Canon Point: Pre-series, after he meets the Duc de Bonnel and before he decides to marry him.
AU point: Iriel de Fiscarde, the anguissette before Phedre no Delaunay, is a man. (It is never explicitly stated in canon which gender Iriel de Fiscarde is)
Sex/Gender: Male
Actual Age/Apparent Age: 18/18

Belongings: Iriel has a set of fine clothes in grey and sea-green- shirt, tunic, hose, and soft boots- that would suit a noble. He also has a purse with some d'Angeline money as well as a rapier.

Skills and Powers: Iriel can ride, hunt with both hawk and bow, and fight with a sword (and his fists, though he's less trained in that), and he's a good swimmer, having grown up near the ocean. He is quite intelligent and speaks Hellene (Greek) and Caerdicci (Latin), and is acquainted with the academic literature of his time. Other than that, he's a fairly useless noble- he's skilled at flirting, dancing, gambling, and making love. And although I'm not sure it's exactly a power, he has been gifted by a god with the ability to take pleasure in pain- he's basically the ultimate masochist.

Physical Description: It is important to note that Iriel is a d'Angeline and thus, he is supernaturally beautiful. There's a perfection to his features that is impossible to ignore- this comes from the d'Angeline angelic blood. Iriel is slightly taller than average and quite thin, though with some muscles. He has very fair skin and curly brown hair, with grey eyes. His left eye is marked with a spot of bright red on the iris which shows up very well against the grey.

He prefers to wear fine clothing (of any colour other than red) and is usually in the height of fashion. He holds himself almost arrogantly, unafraid to meet anyone's eyes, and moves with the grace of someone athletic and well-trained.

Book Description: Iriel's book is a hardback volume bound in very dark red leather (the colour of blood at midnight, called sangoire, if we want to be d'Angeline about it) with gilt-edged pages and a gilt dart on the cover. His bookmark is a strip of the same-coloured leather with a golden tassel hanging off the end.

Alternate History and Personality: In canon, all we know if Iriel de Fiscarde is that he (using the pronoun for the gender I've chosen, since it's never specified) was the last anguissette before Phedre no Delaunay, and went into a 'marriage of servitude' to the Duc de Bonnel to prevent a war between their noble houses.

In my headcanon, Iriel de Fiscarde was a younger son born into a noble family in the country of Terre d'Ange in the province of Azzalle. The people of Azzalle are known for their pride, and Iriel is no different in that respect. He certainly has plenty of that. However, he was also born with the mark of a god on his eye- Kushiel's Dart, which designates him as an anguissette, a person who will forever mingle pain and pleasure.

The Fiscarde lands were directly on the border with the province of Kusheth, where the nobility is descended from Kushiel and has a tendency towards sadism. This knowledge of Kushiel's lore and gifts allowed the Fiscarde family to know what their son was very early, and Iriel grew up determined to prove that this was not true, that he would never be submissive like they said he would. It gave him a drive to be more than something he saw as shameful. He learned to fight, when no one thought he could without succumbing to his desire for pain, and pursued his education, though his family wasn't certain it would ever prove useful, as nearly everyone expected he would spend his life on his knees to a noble somewhere.

When he was in his teens, tension began to rise between the Fiscardes and the Kusheline Bonnel family. The Bonnels claimed that the Fiscarde estates rightfully belonged to them, and of course the Fiscardes refuted this claim. Iriel largely ignored this- he was busy with the pursuits of a d'Angeline youth, enjoying himself. In spite of his nature, he found he took pleasure in other kinds of love, not only the rough play he refused to admit that he wanted, and made a group of friends who wouldn't push him about the mark in his eye. He gained something of a reputation for being hasty and reckless, usually spoiling for a fight or willing to do the most ridiculous dares to prove that he wasn't afraid of anything. He was desperately trying to prove that he wasn't as submissive or weak as people claimed he was- and on the whole, he managed quite well.

He still refused to give into those desires at all. Perhaps his aggressive, foolhardy behaviour was one of his ways of releasing and satisfying that craving without being forced to submit to another person- certainly he managed to get himself bruised up and injured often enough. Even without his Kushiel-driven desires, he was high-spirited in a way that made people like him, with a natural charm and good humour that showed when he wasn't pushing himself to ignore a craving.

When he was eighteen, the situation between the Fiscardes and the Bonnels had heated to the point where there was talk of war- both were refusing to back down or handle it through the law, both claiming that they were the rightful owners. The Bonnels had the backing of most of the rest of the Kusheline nobility, and while the Fiscardes had much of the Azzallese nobility behind them, Iriel was dispatched to the City of Elua (the capital of Terre d'Ange) to both keep him out of trouble and attempt to find more allies. The Bonnel family was more powerful than the Fiscardes, holding a duchy rather than just a county.

Iriel found much to occupy him in the City of Elua- not just more nobles to befriend and more scrapes to get into, but the pleasures of the Court of Night-Blooming Flowers (the greatest pleasure house in Terre d'Ange), as well as someone who he hated almost as much as he wanted them- the heir to the Bonnel duchy, Raoul, one of the prime forces behind the push to take Fiscarde's lands. Raoul de Bonnel was significantly older than him, a widower with two young children. Iriel met him at the Midwinter Masque that year and after a passionate encounter, they began an intricate dance.

Iriel wanted nothing to do with Raoul and did his best to avoid him. Partly it was out of family loyalty, but the other part was his continued denial of his darker desires, which Raoul pricked to a sharp intensity. He wanted nothing more than to fall to his knees around him, and he hated that. Raoul, on the other hand, had no intention of leaving Iriel alone and pursued him as intently as Iriel tried to escape him. Eventually, he came up with a ploy- as a peace treaty, he would persuade his family to give up their claim to the Fiscarde lands, if Iriel came to him in a marriage of servitude.

Iriel wants to serve his family, of course- he loved them greatly- but it is a hard thing to ask. To wed Raoul, he would have to admit to himself the depths of his desires, and be willing to give into them in a way he never has. His family is not about to force him to enter the marriage unwillingly- to do so would be against the precept of 'love as thou wilt' that forms the basis of d'Angeline religion. Still, they've made it clear that they would appreciate not having to go to war.

His duty aligns with his desire- Raoul is the person that he thinks about every night in bed, he dreams about him. His Azzallese pride, however, stands in the way. He's spent so long refusing to admit to the truth of what he is that reversing that, accepting that he wants to be hurt and used, is practically unthinkable. He hasn't let anyone see this conflict, his pride refusing to let him ask for advice or help. He presents much the same face as ever to the world- high-spirited and reckless in his charming fashion.

He's determined and stubborn, arrogant and proud, but at the same time able to charm and befriend those around him. His temper is usually good, though it's prone to brief flares. He rarely holds a grudge unless someone twits him about Kushiel's effect on him- in those cases he can be slow to forgive or trust again. He enjoys the company of others and is rarely happy by himself, since it gives him too much time to think. He prefers to be active, always on the go to some activity or another. It helps him keep his troubles off his mind. He's perfectly happy to immerse himself in all the pleasures he can think of except the one that would satisfy him the most.

Thanks to his reckless carelessness, it's easy for him to get overconfident or bite off more than he can chew- he's never seemed to learn that lesson, no matter how much trouble he gets into. He doesn't like accepting help for his problems, but he'll willingly offer to help a friend, especially if they're doing something exciting. He's intelligent enough to come up with decent plans and strategies- they may not always work out, but that's the case with any plan.

Samples

First Person/Action brackets: [video]

[Iriel is holding his Bookmark out over the edge of a broken railing, aiming the camera down at the abandoned, wrecked shelves below. His voice, coming from behind the camera, is cheerful.]

It seems to me that I hear somewhat down there. Monsters, perhaps- would anyone care to find out? It would be a thrilling expedition, to be certain. Or shall I write you all off as cowards and go myself?

I would hate to impugn the reputations of my noble friends, but I really would have no choice if I come back with trophies and glory and you have nothing.

[He turns the Bookmark around to face him- a little smudged with the dirt and grime of climbing around in the less-used area of the Library, but grinning impishly.]

If no one's come in half an hour, I shall go in by myself. If I am horribly killed by monsters, bury my things in memory of me.

Third Person/Prose:
His body ached. This wasn’t a new experience for Iriel, so he thought nothing of the strange position he’d woken up in- at least until he remembered that he didn’t remember falling asleep at all. His eyes opened immediately and he was up on his feet, one hand on the hilt of his sword as he looked around frantically. There was nothing and no one else in the room, at least until the blue hologram flickered to life.

He didn’t pay attention to anything it was telling him, trying to figure out what it was, where it came from- it must be some sort of trick, but how? Who would plan such an elaborate kidnapping?

It couldn’t have been Raoul. He would have been naked, at the very least, and probably tied up, had that been the case. Not... armed and clothed in the clothes he remembered from before.

He realized the blue thing had stopped making noise- in fact, it was gone altogether. “No! Ah, please come back, I wasn’t listening-”

It didn’t reappear and he sighed, looking around. There was very little else here, besides the book he was holding. He glanced it over, scowling. Sangoire leather and gilt- this had to be some kind of trick. He wasn’t going to take it lightly when he found out who was responsible...

Of course, first he had to find someone, anyone at all.