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[ashenputtel]

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Name: Alex
Are you over 18?: Yes!
Contact: PM to ashenputtel or any of my journals!

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Kyoko Kirigiri | freshprints
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« CHARACTER INFORMATION »

Character: Balthus von Albrecht
Canon: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Canon point: Cindered Shadows, Chapter 6
OU or AU?: OU
Age: 27
Species: Human



« RECORD »


Disposition:


☀ PUNCHGUY — As the self-titled King of Grappling, Balthus is a guy whose default method of problem-solving is to settle things with his fists. He's extremely proud of his own fighting prowess and will boast about that prowess at every opportunity — at one point, he compliments Byleth by calling their skills "equal to a hundred knights — or about one and a half mes". However, this isn't just baseless bluster; Balthus absolutely has the chops to back his swagger up. In fighting tournaments, he is said to come second only to his childhood best friend Holst, their home nation's greatest general. Likewise, in many of his endings, he is described as "dominating" in all-nation brawls or going down in history as an "Avatar of War". In fact, when faced with one of Hapi's monster summons during Cindered Shadows, it becomes apparent that the Ashen Wolves' go-to method of dealing with such issues is literally "just throw Balthus at it", trusting his fighting skill to simply handle defeating the giant beast on his own.

☀ TROUBLE MAGNET — Balthus has led a chaotic and tumultuous life, plagued by difficulties that are frequently of his own making. His stepmother loathes him for his likelihood to inherit control of the family after his father's death, preferring her own son (his younger half-brother) for the role instead. Her ire led him to leave home and strike out on his own, removing himself from the equation before her hatred could turn to Balthus's other loved ones — his father, his birth mother, or even his younger brother himself. Once on the lam, however, Balthus made a series of bad decisions drinking, gambling, and running up debts. As a result, there are numerous bounties out on him and he's been forced to live life on the run, dodging assassins, bounty hunters, and brigands looking to capitalize on the price on his head. Finally, even his Crest — normally a coveted mark of status in Fódlan — has him bound for disaster; he is the only living holder of the Major Crest of Chevalier, which makes him one of four living people whose blood is necessary to conduct a ritual allegedly capable of bringing a body back to life. When his life on the run ultimately leads him to Abyss, the underground city beneath Garreg Mach monastery, he is picked up by the cardinal Aelfric not to benevolently offer him shelter, but for the sake of using him as a component in a blood ritual for his own corrupt ends. ...Awkward.

☀ HONORABLE — For all his roguish demeanor, Balthus lives by a strong code of personal honor. Despite being in debt to the point that numerous people literally want to kill him in order to collect on it, Balthus refuses to involve others in his own problems. When Hilda suggests that he could always ask his best friend (her older brother Holst, who is also the Duke of Goneril and a renowned figure in their homeland) for financial assistance, Balthus immediately and unhesitatingly shoots the idea down as "a hard no" because he "wouldn't dare to trouble [his] best pal like that". This sense of honor also extends to the battlefield; if Balthus is sent to fight Lysithea, whose parents once offered him support while he was on the run, he will resist and instead ask Byleth to recruit her to their cause rather than forcing him to kill her. Likewise, if he is sent to fight Hilda, she will point out that if Balthus kills her, Holst will be furious with him — to which Balthus responds by promising to take her body home to Holst and accept whatever punishment he deems fit for the death of his younger sister. He's also not one for long cons or extended deception, nor is he the type to hold grudges, preferring instead to settle things up front and in a straightforward way; in the aftermath of the Rite of Rising, when Yuri has confessed to manipulating and betraying the Ashen Wolves from the very beginning, Balthus's comeuppance of choice is simply to punch him in the face once, chastise him for not trusting them, and move right past it.

☀ INSIGHTFUL — Despite surface appearances, Balthus isn't just a garden-variety meathead. He possesses a high degree of emotional intelligence and has a budding talent in Reason, and is capable of drawing intuitive conclusions even though he claims thinking too hard gives him a "splitting headache". He is shown to be capable of outmaneuvering both Yuri and Claude — two of the craftiest characters in the game — either by seeing past their various verbal and emotional deflections, or by turning the tables to his own advantage when they try to sidestep his inquiries.


Suitability:


A faraway land where nobody's out for his head, his debts are nonexistent, the government will cheerfully provide him with food and housing, and all he has to do is have a ton of sex in exchange? Hell yeah, sign Balthus up!

In slightly more seriousness, Noctium will be a distinct change of pace for Balthus, who has spent the last seven years of his life on the run, living as a wanted man accustomed to accepting poor conditions and trying to make the best of them. He'll assuredly be surprised and caught off-guard by the wide variety of social services that the Noctian officials provide to their residents, to say nothing of the differences in technological level between Fódlan's arms-and-armor society and Sumarlok's high-tech steampunk one. Initially, he'll soon come around to seeing his presence on Noctium as a stroke of unexpected (and debtless) good fortune and coast on the largesse of the government for a while, but will quickly grow more serious about the circumstances once he discovers the perils of monthly Gembond changes. In Fódlan, people transforming into monsters is usually a sign of very powerful magic gone horribly wrong, and the Church casts such occurrences as the wrath of the Goddess or punishment for other heresies.

Fortunately, he'll have plenty of familiar faces around in the form of his cast to help him get up to speed, and to acclimate to the setting as a whole. At this point, his priorities will shift to doing what he can to protect his friends, and participating in whatever endeavors are necessary to help ensure the safety and good health of the people he cares about most.


Condition upon arrival:


Bleeding profusely, but not to the point of being life-threatening! Immediately prior to arriving in Noctium, Balthus will have been through the Rite of Rising, during which his blood was forcibly (and unwillingly) collected as a spell component. Though it's implied that this is magically-inflicted damage rather than physical punctures, he'll be significantly weakened upon arrival as a result of the bloodloss and will definitely require medical attention in order to get back to good health. Of course, he will personally probably disagree with the need for said medical attention, but Balthus has never been one to treat severe injuries with the...uh, severity they probably deserve.


Abilities:


☀ Major Crest of Chevalier — Balthus is the only person alive to possess the Major Crest of Chevalier, which gives him the ability to sometimes restore his own health when he inflicts damage onto others. He has no conscious control or influence over this particular ability; it's something that activates on occasion when he's fighting. Though FE3H gameplay gives actual percentages of HP restoration and etc. that are granted by this Crest, in practice for the purposes of RP, I would simply play it as something akin to a burst of adrenaline that unexpectedly improves Balthus's condition when he's otherwise injured fighting.

His Crest also enables him to be the only person capable of properly using his Heroes' Relic, Vajra-Mushti, which are a pair of gauntlets forged out of dragon bone that have been passed down through Chevalier's lineage. Balthus inherited the gauntlets through his mother's side of the family, from whom he also gained his Crest. If someone without a Crest attempts to use these gauntlets, they will be injured and even run the risk of transforming into a Demonic Beast; only Balthus can utilize them with impunity.

☀ King of Grappling — Balthus's signature in-game ability, King of Grappling increases the user's Strength and Defense when below half health. In practice, as with his Crest, I would play this as Balthus simply having surprising endurance while injured and becoming something of a more dangerous fighter under dire circumstances than he is when he's in optimal ones.

☀ Magic — Balthus has access to a handful of spells in both the black ("Reason") and white ("Faith") magic varieties. His dark magic spells generally consist of weak, moderate, and strong fire-based spells, whereas his white magic spells are somewhat more varied. He can lightly heal another person or remove debilitating conditions from them like poison, paralysis, etc. He can also "leech life" with a spell that improves his own condition in proportion to how badly he damages an enemy, and also has a spell that's uniquely effective against monster-type enemies.


Inventory:


☀ Vajra-Mushti, his Heroes' Relic gauntlets. They glow and unfortunately resemble giant lobster claws.
☀ Steel Gauntlets.
☀ A few bottled curatives.
☀ The Chalice of Beginnings, an ancient church relic that in practice is just a fancy old cup.


Gembond: Ruby
Gem Location: His abdomen, and in the shape of his Crest.


« MISCELLANEOUS »

Sample:
☀ Balthus on the Noctium TDM!

Notes: