Guinand Ludel Hallé
“A steady shot beats a hasty swing.”
Full name: Guinand Ludel Hallé
Titles: ‘Ladle-maid’
Rank: Soldier
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Appearance: Guinand has a somewhat elongated face. The crown of his head has begun balding for his early age, though he usually covers it with a hood. His nose is long and slightly hooked downwards. His eyes are relaxed and peaceful. Laugh lines have begun to manifest on his face, disguising a small scar running from the corner of the right nostril towards the right corner of his mouth. Guinand has a messy, unkempt beard, sable in color. Like his beard, Guinand’s hair is too sable. His bushy eyebrows seem to create an overhang for his eyes to take refuge underneath.
Personality: Naive, and always partially distracted, Guinand rarely creates attachment to the current situation he finds himself in. He tends to shrug off most insults aimed at him, which tends to be often. Guinand is tends to warm up to people he has grown to know closely, which are not many. The solitary conditions of his life had led him to respond in general with an aloof demeanor. He struggles to create attachment to anything in particular, but once he does he will fight fervently for that which he values.
History: Guinand was born to a hunter and a nun. Guinand came about to the world due to his father’s lack of good judgement. Richard, as that was his father’s name, fell in love with with a woman named Guinevere. Likewise Guinevere had fallen for Richard, but alas she was a nun. Though their meeting was strictly something to be condemned, nevertheless they found ways to meet. Richard, who likewise was a hunter, used to deliver a portion of the meat collected to the convent(as the local lord had instructed, for the lord’s wife had taken a liking to the local convent). It was Guinevere who used to meet him to collect the gift. As their forbidden love began to grow, so too did it raise more and more eyebrows. It was by luck that they were not found out. Yet though men did not snuff them out, Guinevere felt more and more guilty as she broke the oaths she had taken more and more openly. Yet Richard reassured her their love was more real than archaic rules.
Then one night Richard stole her away. She had been afraid to do something so rash, but Richard, ever smiling, reassured her. He told her that her life at the convent would never do. That she would forever sit behind walls, reminiscing about him. So she caved. Both fled into the forest under the cover of a starless night. Richard knew that someone would piece together the clues, after all, it wouldn’t be too hard to do so. Likewise Richard gave in to banditry and unsavory behavior. Nothing overt, but simply stealing from farmers and hunting on the lord’s land at unusual hours as to avoid detection. Corruption had overtaken both lovers. Soon enough Guinevere was with child. On the night she gave birth, she felt all her shame, all her guilt come over her. She was an oathbreaker. She was in a relationship with a man whom she was not married to. Her family had disowned her, and she was left living as a wild animal. In all her sudden thoughts her heart broke, and then did Guinevere die during childbirth.
Richard, could do nothing but watch. Watch as the life slipped out of his love’s body. All Richard had now was this child, but his heart could not bear to carry on. For even though he was not dismissive of a life of less than pius in attribute, he still had passion in his heart. In the wake of that night, Richard whisked the away and left him in front of the monastery. For in his heart he thought that his child could perhaps redeem both of them in the eyes of their God. That by his servanthood, loyalty, and honor he could purchase a pardon for Guinevere. It was early that morning that a monk was praying fervently and walking the courtyard. As he came close the the front gates he heard the cry of a young babe. When he saw the infant he had pity on him. So the man took the babe and raised him as his own. Despite the initial backlash for raising a child belonging to God knows who, the monk appealed that any great saint can come from the lowliest of beginnings. His peers reluctantly approved upon one condition: that he must raise the child himself.
So was Guinand raised. His adoptive father never mentioned his name to Guinand, who only referred to him as ‘father’. Though his adoptive father did bestow upon him two things: patience and a name. Patience was an attribute important to Guinand in all his life: when he was meditating, or when he was hunting. The latter gave him a proper place, and a sense of belonging. But eventually, as it always is in life, the winds of change were blowing over Guinand’s life. So at the age of 16 he set out to ‘discover his calling’. His father, who was saddened greatly by this, saw that he could no longer hold onto this child he now knew as his own. So his father blessed him, and sent him out. Guinand was by then an able cook by the teaching of his father. But Guinand had no means by which to gain the meat to cook. By this need he bought himself a bow, and a quiver carrying arrows of respectable quality. The blood of Richard was great in Guinand. He learned how to use his bow effectively, but more importantly: he learned to trust it with his life. Living out in the world taught Guinand how to survey the land. How to note when the grass has been stamped by wildlife and when it has been walked on by humans. What caves were inhabited, how to build shelter, and how to skin an animal. Guinand, like Richard, learned what it meant to be self-sufficient. But unlike his father Guinand learned prudence and patience. But not all came without its price. Unlike Richard, Guinand was not so carefree. Indeed, monks do not make as great friends for a child as perhaps other children. So Guinand was always distant in his dealing with people. So he grew, daydreaming. He dreamed of a life that perhaps could change him towards his ideals. The years passed quickly to him, summer melted into winter, and back again. So when he heard of the Iron Company he decided that this life could perhaps offer him the chance to change himself, to shake off the past and become a new man.
Skills: Deadly shot, Exceptional tracker, Unusually patient,
Dreams and fears: Guinand dreams of perhaps rejoining society, of being what he idealizes as a normal and good man. He feels like an outcast, and he fears dying without completing his purpose, to die a life unfinished.
Favored equipment: A longbow which he carries on his back, along with a quiver that he carries on the left side of his waist. He wears a deerskin hood and cape over a cotton-white tunic(as it was the cheapest thing he could buy at the time). He also carries a small hunting knife that he uses for skinning on the right side of his belt. On his back he has a small pack to carry his essential needs: a waterskin, a tinderbox, a hatchet, and a few nondescript small items.
Extra: Guinand is left-handed. Earned his nickname for having once cooked a soup of exquisite taste (which was quite accidental, as Guinand was drunk.) to a group of hungry travellers.