Name: Pate Yves

Age: 25

Gender: Male

Race: Human

Appearance:
At first glance, Pate seems to be a simple peasant or man at arms. His apparel bears no adornment, and he takes little to no pride in his appearance. He is approximately 6' tall and his lanky frame is all muscle, making him strong for his weight, but not particularly strong on the whole. He has dirty ginger hair which reaches down and across his jawline in a non-uniform beard.

Personality:
Pate tends to be on the loud and rowdy side, not being particularly considerate of more noble company when it comes to crass language. Despite this, he spends most of his time thinking about topics such as politics, philosophy, ethics, and society, despite never being formally taught in these subjects. He's deceptively wise. He tents to avoid small talk, but relishes any chance he can get to talk about something more meaningful. Partly due to this state of constant mental motion, he is quite opinionated and won't hesitate to contest those who he disagrees with.

His personal philosophy is one of stoicism. He places more value on a life than on an object, after all, objects may be replaced. He often says that while certain things add value to a life, they are not worth throwing a life away for. He transfers this thought process over to his role as an Iron Rose Knight by considering his life as an object when compared to the life of the Kingdom. He never hesitates to put himself into danger if others benefit. That being said, he recognises that he can't protect anything if he's dead, and isn't suicidal in his recklessness.

Brief Backstory
Pate was born to the lesser noble house of Yves, who governed a small county in the west of Thaln. He was born a seventh son, effectively preventing him from inheriting. Also due to being a seventh son, he was able to see and talk with spirits, which led everyone to shun him more than they already did. As he grew older he saw what his older siblings were doing to strive for the position they all wanted as heir, and grew to resent the striving for power. Wanting to differentiate himself from his power hungry siblings, he burned all the things he didn't need and officially revoked his place in the line of succession. He took up the study of arms more seriously than his siblings, using his name to acquire books and tutors. He was commonly praised for his natural speed and understanding of the martial arts.

When he was young, about 10 years old, he was approached by a very strange spirit. It was a tall, broad knight, armoured head to toe. In Pate's limited experience, these spirits tended to want to get back into the physical world in exchange for some ridiculous offer, such as eternal life. This one just sat down and began to talk to Pate about fighting, offering advice. If he'd been any older, Pate may have refused to talk, but he didn't quite know the potential dangers at this stage, so he sat down and chatted. He was lucky, Sir Morgan, as it called itself, wasn't a malignant spirit. It sounds cliche, but it just wanted companionship. In life, Sir Morgan was a highly devout warrior who yearned to join the Iron Rose Knights, but he was killed before he could by an unfortunate landslide while he was exploring the mountains. His spirit took his religious beliefs into the afterlife, and this is why he doesn't try to take control.

The passage of time saw him grow in skill. He began to develop a personality when fighting: a strong preference toward efficiency, which complimented his natural speed very nicely. At this stage he turned to larger weapons to attempt to gain reach advantages. Around the time he turned 17 he had almost reached maturity with his system of fighting (with help from Sir Morgan of course), and put in an order with the castle bladesmith. His signature greatsword: a single edged sword, 6 feet in length, with a handle running two thirds of the false edge.

He turned 18 and was told to go make his own way in the world. He traveled for a few years, entering tournaments and earning the prize money. People began to recognise him by his fearsome helmet and his odd sword. Just last year he entered what he considers the most important fight of his life. He was pitted against a Knight of The Iron Rose in the final match. He didn't win, but the Knight was impressed with Pate's skill and speed, and sought his company after the match. After some discussion, he walked Pate onto the tourney field to offer him a place as his peer. Seeing an opportunity to change how others view power for the better, he accepted. He has an internal conflict of resenting taking power for himself and recognising that he must if he wishes to make a change.

Equipment:
Pate possesses his sword, his armour, an eating kit, a very large cloak, and three changes of clothes. Apart from this, he leads an ascetic life, despising attachments to material objects. His armour is a light brigandine style with plate couters, pauldrons, greaves, and gauntlets to protect their respective areas. Under this he wears an arming jacket. Most notable is his helmet, which resembles a crazed man staring upwards and laughing. His weapon of choice is a slim greatsword with a handle running two thirds down the blunt false edge of the blade, the cause for his unique fighting style. The sword is 1.7 m long (1.3m blade), 3kg total weight, and has a balance point about 30cm up from the crossguard. The slim, light construction of this sword means that he can perform the lightning fast maneuvers he desires, and the differential temper of the blade allows it to flex enough to not break while retaining a razor sharp edge.

Skills:

• Unique Fighting Style: Pate fights unlike anybody else. He keeps his distance to use his massive weapon effectively, and combines its mighty reach with his blinding speed, efficiency, and a scary use of counterplay and aggressiveness to eliminate most opponents before they can get close enough to touch him. If they get closer, he chokes up on the secondary handle for some deadly but risk free half-swording.
• Wise: Pate doesn't take the world for granted. Nothing is safe from his scrutiny, although it usually pisses people off if he puts his critical thoughts to voice.
• Call Forth Sir Morgan:

Pate taps into his seventh son intuition and calls for aid from his spirit friend. Sir Morgan was a proud knight with a legendary strength, and has the spiritual strength to provide Pate with three favours a day (he feels a mentor like connection to Pate and asks nothing in return, except good conversation.) These favours can be widely applied, ranging from causing a distraction to lending Pate Aethercull, Sir Morgan's blade.