In another place, in another world, had circumstances been different, Liese would've chosen to be born as a boy and not this freak of a body that couldn't seem to decide which side of the gender spectrum it should grow into. Strictly going by what's between his legs alone, Liese is undoubtedly a girl, possessing all the necessary parts to determine that he’s indeed female, the other half of humanity capable of producing heirs. Yet, the high noble never sees himself as a woman and one only needs to focus elsewhere to see where he's coming from.

Standing at 163cm (5'4"), a sharp jawline and firm cheekbones, brows sculpted to enable a natural stern gaze, golden locks framing stoic sapphires, only the blind will not see that he's handsome. Far too many maidens have been charmed by his visage alone, a perfect fit for the role of a knight in shining armor, a fearless crusader that would vanquish the Dark Lord to free the captive princess. Said imagination isn't for show either as Liese does possess the athletic build necessary to properly use a knight's full suit, strong limbs and toned abs coupled with a lack of endowment mean there's no need for bindings or a custom-fitted chest plate. His hips are a bit wider than he'd like, but just like what's between them, it's something that he can't change with training alone, but fortunately, all but the most form-fitting of garments mask it quite well.

Burning with ambition to take back what he thinks has been stolen for him due to this preposterous notion of societal expectations based on his body alone, Liese carries himself like a Marquis' First Son and heir, and he makes sure everyone knows of his status and the prestige such a position deserves. In all occasions, whether formal, informal, or something in between, Liese wears clothes usually reserved for noblemen, one will never find him clad in a dress. Fortunately - or unfortunately depending on one's perspective - he genuinely wears them well, even more so than some other noble boys.

The only child from the union of Marquis Childebert Ercwulf Brendorn, one of the four Lord Councilors, and Lady Hilda Engelberga Brendorn, the latter who tragically passed away during childbirth; their bond was so strong that the Marquis fell into grief for years upon years, refusing to touch another woman for his heart still belonged to his departed wife, leaving their only daughter, Liese, to grow up without the love of a mother and a grieving father.

Yet, perhaps precisely due to this, or perhaps because of fate, or a combination of the two, Liese grew up to be a self-reliant child; a confident, precocious infant, he wasn't like most young girls, preferring to take up activities usually reserved for boys such as fencing, archery, horseriding, and athletics in general, going as far as to shun corsets and dresses as those clothes restricted his movements too much. His penchant for utterly upending societal norms and traditions raised concerns from the more conservative members of the noble household, but given that he was the Marquis' sole offspring - and thus the primary heir by default - no one dared to do anything outside of inconsequential gossiping.

The ambition to be something more than just a lady-in-waiting to be married off to some nobleman and bear his children raged strong within him, he refused to be locked into a select path, and his magical talents seemed to reflect this as Liese is one of the rare individuals in the world capable of wielding all four major elements with equal proficiency, an Absolute. Between his myriad of talents, sanguine personality, and gift of Absolutism, rumor began to spread that he's the "Successor of Alexander", but... Alexander was a man and he was not, so it couldn't be him, right?

For the first decade of his life, Liese was the only child of her father and late mother, meaning he was the sole heir to the House of Brendorn, and honestly, that was how he prefers it. Twas' until Marquis Brendorn moved on from his grief and decided to marry another woman, a beautiful young lady of noble birth, one who possessed the gift of fertility as she gave him children after children, most of them sons. It was a blessing for the House, a boon for all... except for Liese. For the moment he realized that the agnatic primogeniture preference meant that her little brothers supplanted her position as the primary heir, and secondary, and tertiary; with each new son birthed from his stepmother's womb, he fell further and further into irrelevancy...

...and all for the singular reason that he wasn't born a boy.

Liese decided that enough was enough, he began plotting, scheming, devoting all of his efforts into the ultimate goal of becoming the one and true heir of House Brendorn. He went all-in, he had never liked being treated as a woman, but now, the event pushed him to completely shun that part of him. He was a man, First Son of Marquis Brendorn and the one true heir of House Brendorn, damn what everyone else says. After weighing his options, he decided that joining the Academy of Sentinel Knights was his best bet of realizing his destiny.

Once he becomes a full-fledged knight and distinguishes himself as the Champion of Grayle, as the Successor of Alexander, then no one can refuse him to take back what had been stolen from him. He would achieve this or die trying.

❖ Color Code: fb3a81
❖ Theme: Battlefield of Steel
❖ OOC Trivia: By some cosmic coincidence during character conception, Liese and Julian shares nearly identical physical appearance so their resemblance is an OOC coincidence, which can pose an interesting IC situation, just like people who resemble certain celebrities simply due to coincidences in the genetic lottery.

At 5’8” and 128 pounds, Kai’s build is about average for his age. However, for a boy, his long hair and smooth, pale skin don’t exactly seem the most masculine. He’ll probably be one of those knock-out “pretty boys” when he gets older and his muscles fill out more, but for now he seems like a ripe target for bullying by the bigger boys–may the gods help their souls.

For as much time as he spends outside, Kai doesn’t seem to tan very well. He tends to wear cloaks or thicker outer garments with hoods, and even in the summer he’ll often wear something long sleeved to keep from burning his arms. Other than that, though, his clothing is pretty plain and generally of whatever general fashion is popular among boys that age, just slightly above the commoners. His adoptive parent isn’t exactly rich or high ranking, but has been at his duties long enough to have accrued quite the substantial savings, so Kai never wants for much. At the same time, he’s not much of a fashionista–and he will literally give someone the shirt off his back if they ask him, perhaps not even so much out of kindness as just the fact that being seen without clothes doesn’t seem to bother him the way it does other people. Fitting, given his background.

His voice is a pleasant tenor, though it’s starting to break here and there. He doesn’t seem as self conscious about it as most other boys his age, but it does mean that listening to any attempt to sing is usually not met with standing applause.

His resting expression is a somewhat neutral, soft smile, just barely evident at the corners of the mouth. His eyes are bright and wide, frequently darting here and there whenever he sees something interesting–and then he stares for too long. He often walks with a confident stride, head up and chest out, and when standing still often defaults to a confident hands-on-hips stance. If he were taller and broader, it might actually be intimidating, but as he is now it comes off almost as playing pretend.

Sir Kyner Sauvage had already raised two boys and married off a daughter, so what more was there for a Senior Royal Knight to do? Well, damn the hides of all those young bucks telling him to retire–dying alone and decrepit in his armchair would certainly not be his fate. Indeed, if they didn’t want to let him do what he wanted, out on the field where the real action was, then he would do what all those lazy sods didn’t want to do–take Wild duty at the End of the World.

The Curse of Fendal hadn’t been seen in Grandor for a hundred years, but with the Wild right on its doorstep it would be foolish not to remain vigilant against all manner of monster and demon. Down below those magnificent falls, the Knights who walked secret paths and set foot into dark, twisted jungle knew that evil might not be so far away as the commonfolk liked to believe. But Kyner was still stout of heart, and of arm–he hadn’t been a House Champion for nothing, some three decades ago–and so with torch and blade he joined the patrol at the bottom of the misty cliffs.

And one fateful day, not far beyond the treeline, he found not a monster, nor a runaway Dark Mage, nor even some lost knight finally making their way back to civilization. Sir Kyner stumbled upon a sleeping boy, sprawled in the grass without a care in the world–naked as the day he was born, save for the sword clutched in his hand. When the child awakened, Sir Kyner found he had no concept of language–or at least, not the tongue of Grandor–and seemed, for all intents and purposes, completely ignorant of the world. How long had he been surviving out here? Who had abandoned him here, and why?

A knight is sworn to protect women and children, widows and orphans, and thus the obvious thing for Sir Kyner to do was take the boy in. He searched for some time to try and find any scrap of information. But no missing child posters turned up, no family claimed him among the impoverished, the immigrants, or the refugees of war on the borders, and ultimately, no origin could be found. Even once they had bonded, and the boy learned to speak, he wouldn’t–or couldn’t–tell Kyner much about his life before they found one another. So, time passed, and the boy–Kaiser, called “Kai” for short–grew into a youth. And Kyner decided to enroll him as a Knight-in-Training, to give the boy some education at the least, and perhaps a purpose in life.

Kai was all too eager to swear that he would become a great Royal Knight, and save people wherever they needed his help–just like that day when “Gramps” had saved him, years ago.