Galahad Dulac de Valentione

Name: Galahad DuLac
Age: 18
Gender: Male
Sexuality: Demiromantic, Asexual
Race: Half-Elezen Half-Midlander Hyur
Relationship Status: Single, Not Looking
Social status: Peerage, Ward of Valentione
Current residence: Manor in Coerthas owned by Valentione

Physical Appearance
Height: 5'10"
Weight: 180 lbs
Eye color: Golden-green
Hair color: White
Completion: Fair
Tattoos/body Modification/scars: None, yet
Typical clothing style: Regency noble

History
Birth place: Ishgard
Childhood home: Coerthas Manor w/ Father
Places of past residence: None, yet
History of family (brief): Bastard of the Dragoon Launcelot. Adopted as a ward of Valentione when his father died.

Combat
Peaceful/violent: Peaceful first, always
Weapon of choice: Spear
Style of combat/combatant roles: Frontline melee
Occupation: Squire

Family Lore
As a young hyur knight, he was called Launcelot of the Joyous Joust for even when he couldn't win, his jousts were something to behold. He was recognized and made a dragoon after holding a position by himself, slaying a dozen lesser dragons in a blood-soaked rampage to maintain the line before his superiors could reach him and draw him back. As a dragoon, he was known for battling atop his chocobo in a style reminscent of the dragon-riding dragoons of old, allowing him to force high-flying dragons to the ground. He participated in years of these types of raids until a dragon devoured his bird from under him and shredded his legs. It was a miracle he survived his crash landing. After his retirement he went to a temple to pray for better fortunes, only to be found by Elaine and saddled with a son. He spent the next decade doing his best to raise the son himself despite being wheelchair-bound, but the nerve damage and weakened immune system eventually killed him. He did his best to do right by Galahad and train him, but he could demonstrate very little.
Lady Elaine of House Valentione was once one of many who longed for Launcelot's affections. He was known as a heartbreaker who had courted numerous times and found each one wanting (in truth, Launcelot was an airhead who'd simply forget he's courting, and the women left *him*). Elaine was undetered and eventually he ascquised, their courting rather sparse thanks to Launcelot's busy life. She found that it was easiest to find him in the evenings as he left the Forgotten Knight, and one day found him not only terribly drunk but beaten and battered. She brought him to his home and once inside found it hard to leave, and their mistakes led to the conception of Galahad. Launcelot, unable to face her, dropped their courting and moved on unaware of her pregnancy, and Elaine herself didn't learn until she was several months pregnant. He ended up not being told until after he had been crippled in battle.
Elaine is a rather ordinary woman. She is several times removed from the main branch of Valentione and isn't expected to be a ruthless politican like her closer related cousins. Launcelot was to be her way into a better life, unaware of what politics are really like, and when rumors began to swirl of her and Launcelot being improper she was glad to not be involved with him anymore. Then Galahad happened, and she was glad to be rid of him as well. Having to ward him was unexpected, but better than having to tell the truth to him and deal with the fallout. Galahad does know she's his mother, but their relationship is chilly as Elaine refuses to risk his parentage being revealed and she struggles with how much like Launcelot he's become. Elaine vehemently opposes his becoming of a House Knight.

Personal History
Galahad could have been called a lonely child. Immediately foisted upon his crippled father from nearly the moment of his birth, he grew up alone with Launcelot all his childhood despite the difficulty the wheelchair-bound man had. Were it not for Launcelot's friends Lionel and Bors, Galahad would've surely died in that manor with it's poor lands for growing much of anything. Too many times the boy had to see his father snowed into the house as supplies grew thin or had to tend to the bed-bound man each timehe grew ill (which was every winter and many autumns). Tending to his own parent gave Galahad a strong sense of responsibility, though it also meant his childhood was not a particularly happy one. Much of his days were spent training with Launcelot's guidance, though the man couldn't demonstrate much. While Galahad was meant to be Launcelot's page, it was Lionel and Bors who taught Galahad much of what he knows.

It was a brisk autumn day when Launcelot, howling in agony from his damaged nerve endings, finally closed his eyes for he last time. Galahad, realizing what had happened, ran as far as his legs would take him until he had reached the home of Ser Lionel to help him. The matter of what to do with Galahad went on for some time, for all of Launcelot's living relatives had many children already and no room for Galahad. Lionel and his wife, Heliabel de Valentiones, took in the boy despite their three young children and made him a ward of Valentiones. Were it not for the fussing of Elaine, perhaps Galahad would've lived in Lionel's manor or had a steward to assist him in maintaining his own family estate. Instead, Elaine forced Heliabel to have the boy squired immediately and as far away from anything Valentione as possible.

First Impression
Galahad is not what one thinks of when picturing a knight of Ishgard. They're slender, short amongst their elezen peers, soft where one would expect chiseled features, and soft-spoken as well. Their armor, confidence, and ever-present smile is what carries the snowy-haired man's reputation as a knight... As well as a reputation for every sort of charity or alms-giving you might imagine. If only he wasn't a half-blood...

Reputation
The son of a dragoon and yet a half-blooded bastard. Opinions are *mixed* about Galahad much of the time despite his constant charity work and alms-giving. His dedication to Halone borders on fanatical and more than once have the priests had to chase him off from praying an entire day or force him to accept a meal after too long fasting. Galahad is nearly a shining example of positive Ishgardian stereotypes, and yet he's never going to be fully accepted. Being a bastard simply precludes him from it despite being taken in by house Valentione.

Personality
A soft soul, kind and generous without ever thinking of himself. Yet that inability to think of himself leaves him without anything at all only to be praised as a beloved martyr. Many people have used and abused his kindness and called it weakness, but Galahad knows no other way to be but ever trusting and ever giving. The happiness of others is his responsibility in his opinion, and he takes this duty he's given himself with the utmost seriousness. He is always early to social functions, always carries a few gil for the beggars, always has a snack and a drink for the weary, and doesn't know how to say no. Battle may make him seem fierce, but in truth it is only because it is in the defense of others. When it comes to politics, he is naive and misguided, only having opinions that the Church needs a reformation towards Halone's kinder aspects. He knows how to manipulate people if he must (and when it comes to his own House, he certainly has) but avoids it out of distaste. Galahad is often too honorable for his own good.

Hobbies
Harp & Lyre player
Falconry

Affiliations