Name: Nicomede (Nico), formerly Nicomede Durante
Age: 26
Gender: Male
Race: Human
Appearance:
Personality: A serious man of noble bearing, though the edges have been worn away by long years on the road. The ceremony of his birth is long gone but Nicomede still acts in a way consistent with the respect he intends to show, even if commensurate respect has long been absent in reply. Highborn manners are taught young, and impossible to shake. With those manners comes an unshakable sense of duty followed even at great cost. A task taken is a task completed, and a life under his care is a life preserved. Whether an innocent or a man under his command, it makes little difference. Those who would spite their responsibility are Nicomede’s greatest foe, and Nicomede’s own record a fast route to his anger.
None of this is to say that Nicomede is a humorless man. He has an easy, affable disposition well-suited to making friends. So long outside of the nobility has given him a friendly understanding of the common man, and despite the grace with which he can navigate higher society’s mores he’s grown more comfortable with the rank and file than with those of his own birth. But he doesn’t truly belong in either world, and in his heart he craves nothing more than the respect he was robbed of. The right to remain in one place and hold his head high again. No longer the disowned and unwanted.
True friendship is hard won, best forged in fire and in blood, but Nicomede is unafraid of sharing the wisdom he has garnered with those younger or less experienced. If his friendship is hard won his loyalty is a Herculean task but once earned it will never waver unto even the brink of death.
Brief Backstory: The family Durante originated in Velt many generations ago but it was in Thaln that they reached new heights. The current Lord Durante, Nicomede’s father, controls an influential fief in the northeast of Thaln. A key stop in trade between the two kingdoms, bountiful land and no shortage of heirs. Nicomede the eldest of the Lord Durante’s sons was expected to inherit the lands and the title, raised his whole life for that very purpose. Though he learned to lead, of course, young Nicomede felt perhaps too strongly about the responsibility of a noble to his people than the other way around. After all the Church of Mayon teaches, perhaps above most else, the protection of the innocent. But nevertheless he acted as he should, behaved with the appropriate grace, took to his studies like a fish to water. And as with most boys his age more than anything he took to the sword. The Durante family’s preferred swordsmanship had been handed down with its Mayonite faith for generations, long before their emigration to Thaln. And Nicomede excelled. He trained, and trained, he helped train his younger brothers, and he competed at the first chance given. Possessing the capacity for magic he was, of course, trained in that field as well but his interest was more limited. His pursuits ended, with few exceptions, where the craft ceased to be a boon in combat. He studied policy, he studied tactics, he worked to mold himself into the model nobleman that was expected.
When war broke out against the traitorous Phoran Cal’s forces Nicomede took command of his father’s forces, as was his right. These duties he shared with his father, as well as his younger brother. His forces engaged in a few small skirmishes, conflicts in which they summarily routed their enemies, but Durante’s holdings bordered on traitorous lord’s. The probing, back and forth, of each’s defenses went on for the better part of the conflict without decisive action. The war was progressing firmly in the rightful ruler’s favor, but one of their allies had suffered grievous losses a previous battle. With all quiet along the border of Durante’s own lands Nicomede’s younger brother had been instructed to join his force with that of their allies, and push onwards. But days passed and those reinforcements had been nowhere to be found. Knowing that failing to capitalize on the enemy’s losses would be a grave mistake, Nicomede split off part of his own command to provide reinforcements instead.
Leaving him grossly outnumbered when their traitorous neighbor pushed his advantage. The Durante heir’s command was forced to defend a township without any fortifications, natural or otherwise, with half their intended strength. To win would have been glorious, and it was possible… But it was to be a bloody affair.
Instead Nicomede chose not to fight. His forces retreated from the township before the enemy arrived, and ordered the township to surrender when the enemy arrived. The only surrender in the course of the war, the only land forfeited without even a fight. Nicomede rendezvoused with his younger brother, a day’s ride away, and retook the town without the losses it would have cost to hold it. The traitor was routed and chose to surrender only a few months later when the war had been all but decided.
Not that any of that mattered to the Lord Durante. The embarrassment of such a surrender, the shame that his heir had ordered it, was insurmountable. Face had to be saved, and there was a clear choice.
Nicomede was a coward, he proclaimed, that had run to his younger sibling for help and it was only the work of his brother that the township had been saved. His heir had cut and run rather than face an uncertain battle, unable to face the realities of war. Under the circumstances he had no choice but to disown his eldest son, strip him of his name, and ensure that the title would fall to his more worthy sibling. He traveled to the front lines in person to do just that before the war ever ended. The Lord Durante’s men were marshalled to bear witness in the town’s main square, delivered the same decree that had already been sent to every corner of the fief and beyond and watched as the family’s crest was struck from Nicomede’s armor. In the eyes of the Goddesses, the Lord Durante announced, Nicomede had no family name and the Lord had only one son. Henceforth he was banned from setting foot on Durante land.
With no money, no home, and nothing but the gear on his person Nicomede sold his services as a fighter to survive. There was no company that would take in a disgraced noble, by now word of his shameful cowardice in contrast to the kingdom’s grand victory had spread far. Without status or money his reputation was a hindrance more than his arm was a help.
For five years he has roamed alone, fighting to stick to his principles as well as he could. His work paid little, his gear lost its luster, and his face faded further and further from the public consciousness. Not his story, his was a cautionary tale. But within a few years no one could have associated the roaming sellsword with the former heir to Durante.
Certainly the Iron Rose Knight he saved in the course of a job, rescuing the wounded warrior from likely death at bandit hands, couldn’t. If he had he might not have invited Nicomede back to the capital to join the Knights.
Equipment: Nicomede wears what clearly used to be a regal set of gleaming alwhyte plate armor, simple but masterfully crafted with gold trimming as befit his status. Pieces are missing now, lost to battle and too little money to repair them. His torso remains armored, but of the arms and legs only his pauldrons, gauntlets, and greaves remain. The pieces that persist are scuffed and dented, the place his family crest once sat scored away before his exile. The arrangement bears more resemblance to a seat of half plate now, thick and durable traveling clothes supplementing the remaining armor.
The spada da lato belted at his side, on the other hand, is immaculately maintained. There is no doubt that it is a functional blade, no mere badge of office, but its craftsmanship remains untouched by rough living. The blade, more slender than a contemporary longsword, runs down towards an intricate swept hilt that nevertheless incorporates a rigid cruciform guard. Some of this durability can be attributed to enchantment upon its crafting, but the rest is thanks to diligent, regular maintenance. Though not an enchantment in and of itself, the blade was forged with careful attunement to Nicomede’s preferences and synergy with his applied magic. The blade is supplemented by an offhand dagger, belted on the opposite side.
Nicomede’s final possessions are a worn but sturdy leather bag and a durable cloak to combat the elements.
Skills: A gifted duelist, and a talented tactician. Make no mistake there is as much difference between a regulated bout and real combat as there is between wading into a chaotic bloodbath and facing down a single opponent focused on you and no one else. Nicomede has a gift for both, but a true edge when it comes down to his skill and that of an opponent. His training emphasizes thought and flow, seeking or creating the perfect opening rather than battering down a foe’s defenses. His style reflects that, wielding two weapons equally suited to defense and granting the ability to strike effectively at close or medium range. He is familiar with a variety of blades but his sidesword is what he prefers.
Befitting his original inheritance, Nicomede is a deft hand at the game of tactics if not necessarily familiar with the level of strategy. And though not a Paladin himself Nicomede embraced wholeheartedly his Mayonite faith and its affinity for water in the use of his magic. Though possessing nothing but respect for Paladins who see their element differently, Nicomede had never subscribed to the passivity of a Mayonite’s defense versus a Reonite’s fiery offense. Water is strongest of all he believes; what water cannot flow around, water will flow through given enough time. To fight like water is not to be passive, but to flow around and through those who would bring harm. To that end Nicomede has, in addition to more traditional workings of the element, harnessed water’s pressure to punch through enemy armor in a concentrated point in supplement to his spada’s tip.
In addition to his extensive formal education, Nicomede had picked up the skills of surviving on the road with little money. Unfortunately for him, cooking was not one of them.
Nicomede cannot cook better than boiling even if it were to save his own life.
