Name: Sir Aldrich Martin

Age: 26

Rank: Noble, Legitimized Bastard (Sort of)

Title: Knight

Features: Aldrich Martin is a tall, well-built man with dark brown hair and olive skin. His facial features are sharp, reminiscent of a hawk’s almost, and his eyes are a deep green. He stands roughly 6’4” tall, and can usually be seen wearing some form of armor. Typically he wears a few pieces of light plate over chainmail or leather, but he also has a set of ceremonial arms bearing the royal crest that he dons for occasions of particular pomp and circumstance.

Strengths:
-Martial Prowess: Aldrich is one of the finest swordsmen in the Crownlands and hones his skill regularly. Direct conflict with him or his charge is therefor incredibly risky.

-Military Experience: Aldrich served for several years in the Viexmeurian Military before his appointment, and during that time he gained an in-depth knowledge of military tactics as well as several friends in various positions he can call upon.

-Crown Confidant: Few, if any, are as familiar with Queen Gisela as Aldrich is. His presence in her youth, as well as their similar circumstances of birth, grant him an uncommonly close relation with the young monarch. Though he may not have bountiful lands, money, or soldiers, what Aldrich does have is the queen’s ear and confidence.

Weaknesses:
-Black Sheep: Aldrich has essentially been disinherited and exiled from his family, prohibiting him from receiving their support in any form except in very specific circumstances, and even then it's unlikely. Furthermore, where Lady Torverra is involved he is all but certain to be forced into disadvantageous positions.

-A Fish out of Water: Aldrich has not set foot in a court of governance since his adolescence, and while he knows enough decorum to not make a fool of himself courtly proceedings make him visibly uncomfortable.

-(Name Pending): While Aldrich is able to easily brush off insults levied at himself, he does not take kindly to insults or sleights against Gisela or his late father, and such remarks will incite him easily.

Bio: Aldrich is the eldest son of the Torverra House of the Crownlands. A highborn family steeped in military tradition, the Torverras are widely regarded as prestigious fighters and leaders, with several of Viexmeur’s finest generals coming from their lineage. However, Aldrich is not the heir to such a legacy. He is a bastard; his father, the Torverra Patriarch, drank a little too much on the march home to his newly betrothed bride and bedded the daughter of the holdfast lord which had taken him as a guest. Several months later, she died in childbirth and Aldrich was brought to Torverra Keep as a babe. His father, a compassionate man who truly regretted the woman’s fate, vowed to raise the child as his own and acted at once. This did not sit well with his lady wife, who in truth was a conniving woman out to see her own bloodline flourish at any expense, and she began trying to conceive ways the little one might be done away with lest his existence inhibit her own offspring. However, the slaughtering of a child proved too vile a thought for even her to stomach, and she allowed his existence to continue for a few short years, at which point the birth of her own son Davin occupied her attention.

Davin and Aldrich grew together, albeit in starkly different standards and preferences, until the day Aldrich turned 13- the age a Torverra customarily began their time of military service. Not wanting to disappoint, he agreed to serve his time, and departed for the barracks. However, he enlisted under the name of Martin, the holdfast to which his mother had belonged, at Lady Torverra’s insistence. As he learned and grew in the military, Aldrich developed strong bonds with his fellow servicemen, perhaps made possible by his lack of apparent connection to the House, and swiftly grew to become one of the finest soldiers in his battalion.

Then the letters came. There were two; the first was from Lady Torverra, giving him news that Lord Torverra had passed away, and that under her orders he was to cease association with the House as anything more than a governing family over him, and that he would be imprisoned for slander should he ever take the name for himself. It was near banishment, as far as sentences go. The second, however, was a nearly burned paper that had all the writing of a will and testament- his father’s, saved from fire by a servant who had seen it delivered. In it, though scarcely legible, was a simple script from the bottom- officially legitimizing Aldrich as his son, and conferring upon him all titles he was owed. It was clear that it would hold no value in any court, but to Aldrich it was a dear sentiment, even if he would never see it come to light.

Years continued to pass as Aldrich made a home for himself in the military, until one day his Captain called him to the command tent for a special discharge of duty to give him a new assignment. It seemed the King himself was in need of a strong and noble knight to personally safeguard a young girl but it did not say why she merited it. Still, it had called for the best man he had, the Captain had told him, and that meant Aldrich was the only choice.

He has stayed by Gisela’s side ever since.

Quote: “I take such threats neither kindly nor lightly. If you continue with these actions, I will draw my sword. And I guarantee that you will find what comes after… quite unpleasant.”