Faustus rem Scaevola

< the first chariot >

unsheathe the sword not to kill.unsheathe the sword to rend
those clouds above the ground.

i.

at a glance

pureblood garlean • former IVth • tracker

aliases (if applicable)birth yearagegendersexualitycanon jobresonant

Faust154540MaleStraightGunbreaker[ YES / NO ]

biodata

hair
Light blonde, darkening at the roots, shoulder length and very light. His left eye is partially covered by his fringe while the right side is neatly tucked behind a lock of hair, and its parting isn't centred.eyes
Amber, naturalheight
6 fulms 5 ilmsdisabilities
Blind in left eye. Still recovering from severe concussion, gets exhausted easily from physical exertion and suffers migraines.common accessories
A dark red pocket leatherbound notebook with an equally small pen. Dog tag with officer position noted; he calls it a signaculum.

distinguishing features
Wide slanted scar starting from his forehead, narrowly missing his third eye, running between his eyebrows and ending after the bridge of his nose. Two additional light scars across his right cheekbone. Defined nose. Distinct nasolabial folds. Thinly cropped beard starting from sideburns along a strong jaw and ending at his chin. Pearly white third eye set into an indent in the centre of his forehead, prominently shown. Drooping left eyelid.build
Lean, more sinew than muscle, lanky but clearly strong. Has some body fat as a result of age and lack of activity.voice
Gaius in Tales of Xillia 2. Has a Dalmascan accent (closest possible would be an Icelandic lilt like Erenville's).singing voice
Chase Noseworthy in Blood Upon the Snow (cover) (the first singer)

personals

birthplace
Arvum Aureum, Garlemaldlanguage proficiencies
Garlean (Native), Eorzean Common (Fluent), Dalmascan (Fluent)profession
tracker, guide, anti-guerilla specialist, tactician/strategist

weapon
Standard-issue Garlean gunbladecombat skills
Trained in swordsmanship and general firearm usage. Can engage in hand-to-hand combat. Highly skilled in sabotage, manipulation and diplomacy

hobbies
Listening to music, singing, playing strategy and card gamesfears
That everything he's believed in meant nothing at all
Being alone
Losing the one remaining family member he has left

Shrewd, calculative, pragmatic and the sheer ability to simply not die qualified him to be a commanding officer. Faust is no stranger to being a leader and is genuinely altruistic. However he has been misled by his own convictions and doesn't necessarily think things through entirely, leading to him making hard decisions readily and then regretting them later.He has a tendency to place value in intangible moral values that he has to eventually discard to survive, causing him great conflict as he tries to uphold what he believes in opposition to the harshness of reality and a cruel world. This oft tears him apart and he spends more time than he should philosophising.He's frequently reluctant to admit that his weaknesses get the better of him and acts like nothing affects him. He puts on a facade where he appears relatively relaxed and friendly, even hospitable, and when he's being authoritative with his former soldier qualities coming to the surface he still seems easy to get along with.There's nothing to hide here, he is quite friendly. He just isn't in a stable mental position at the moment.

ii.

history

this section is pretty long and entirely optional to read.

"Was it really all for naught?"

LOST SOLDIER

The second-born son of Quintus mal Scaevola and Tatiana mal Scaevola, renown for being two of the many architects behind the capital city of Garlemald, Faust faced the normal expectation that his parents had of him - that he would be an engineer or architectus, helming projects for the city and continuing to build the nation.From a young age, however, Faust had never concerned himself with things. He was more than curious about the people around him - their cultures, their traditions, their backgrounds. Despite his parents' warnings that he would never be seen as an equal within non-pureblood circles, he tried to make as many friends as he could - and to some degree he succeeded, having a natural sort of charisma that people found easy to look up to and follow. But what he found in number he lacked in loyalty.Loyalty perplexed Faust. He was brought up on his parents' Royalist beliefs and never once questioned them as he outwardly preached and revered the doctrine. He did believe in bringing peace and unity to all by way of any means necessary. He did truly believe that outsiders would come around eventually to Garlemald's generosity and change loyalties.He really did.The moment he graduated from the Imperial Magitek Academy, Faust enrolled in the XIIth Legion to find that one virtuous leader he could follow along and serve.Then joined the XIVth......then back to the XIIth......and then finally for the IVth.

"No legatus has kept their word."

In the IVth he was part of the 10th Cohort and fully, truly believed in the words of Legatus Noah van Gabranth. He genuinely believed that the Empire could be a role model and show outsiders that they could give the life of opportunity and equality that they didn't have outside of the Empire. To that end he served as a Chariot, an anti-guerilla specialist force that worked to capture insurgents rather than kill them, turning them over to the authorities for rehabilitation and re-education. Such was his sincerity in his beliefs.When two-thirds of the IVth departed for Bozja and Zadnor, Faust was given the order to remain behind in Dalmasca to continue keeping an eye on the locals in the absence of the IVth. Faust complied - right up until he received orders to kill insurgents instead of capturing them. Faust, a staunch believer in not being the ruler of a dead land, refused and disobeyed the orders. The price he paid was the desertion of the Second Chariot and significant other Claudia rem Scipiones, and a reassignment to Nalbina Fortress instead of their creature comforts in the Royal City of Rabanastre. For his disobedience his entire unit of Chariots was transferred as well.Though if you ask him, he'll tell you he believes now that they moved them to minimise troop losses when Garlemald carpet-bombed Rabanastre not a few months later.It doesn't need a genius to realise at this point Faust had been doubting his own people for years, at least if the Legion swapping didn't already tell you. Every legatus he'd served before Gabranth he had found wanting, and now Gabranth was in that group. At this point, however, evidence was overwhelming and Faust was, bit by bit, losing his faith.Nalbina was stormed as the last Garlean holdout before Dalmasca could truly be free. During the fighting he was struck on the back of the head, giving him a severe concussion that caused him to go blind in his left eye. He has barely recovered from this injury and thus while he is still a capable fighter, he is no longer at peak physical performance. He tires easily from strenuous activity and gets bouts of painful headaches where he has to rest for a day.

OF THE IVTH

"there's no glory to be found in death."

SON OF GARLEMALD

Whilst Faust remained bedridden as he recovered from his concussion, he understood better than anyone that the odds were stacked against them and the liberation of Dalmasca was imminent. They had no leverage and they were outnumbered. The IVth Legion in Zadnor had been defeated. He wasn't going to argue - in the face of overwhelming odds, Faust didn't see any value at throwing himself at his enemies in a futile effort for glory. There would be none.It was a man with a broken spirit who informed the Chariots as their commanding officer that he would personally surrender to the Dalmascans. He was tired of the fighting, tired of being alone and tired of the lofty ideals that no legatus could keep. The Chariots unanimously voted to surrender alongside their commander, and when Dalmasca reclaimed Nalbina and threw off the yoke of their oppressors they would receive their full willing surrender and stand in court.To their surprise Dalmasca proceeded to repatriate them, which they did so with haste. The unit would move to Kugane for the time being while Faust recovered further as his condition prevented him from travelling long distances. But eventually the call for home got to him and Faust answered it by taking a ship - against his chirurgeon's orders - back to Thavnair and travelling to Garlemald.He didn't expect how bad the destruction was. Gabranth had refused to answer the recall order and Faust could only look upon the Tower of Babil and despair that he had never been there for his nation. That everything he had believed in was the greatest lie and his own home had played him for a fool.He now lives in a state of false hope and optimism as he struggles to accept the new status quo of his fallen homeland and that there was never any true justification for the blood that stained his hands. He now has to adapt to whatever's happened and find a way to reconnect with his brother Aphelius, and show he is truly remorseful for what he's done.

"What I did before was wrong.
I don't know what to do anymore."

▮THE FIRST CHARIOT

The Chariots were a special task force in the 10th Cohort of the IVth Legion comprising 15 soldiers who were ranked between pyr, quo and rem. They were trained to create chokepoints to capture insurgents alive in Rabanastre and other settlements, skilled with close combat in spaces with limited movement. They are so named after the Garlean gunblade 'chariot' technique where a single ceruleum slash of aether can be detonated in a point-blank circle at the behest of the soldier or by a living being stepping into its range, the overload of aether stunning them for a duration and knocking them back. The real names of the Chariots were not necessarily known, but they were ranked by their effectiveness and skill at the technique.This specific task force was founded as an anti-guerilla warfare tactic. Its members specialise in both non-combat and combat approaches, trained to defuse potential conflicts with the locals before situations worsen, and are independently capable of taking on small groups of insurgents as a one-man or two-man operation. While seniority in the Chariots is determined by duration of service, they are usually peers rather than subordinate to one another and are expected to work together regardless of number.During his tenure in the IVth, leadership of the Chariots was thrust upon him when the former First and Second Chariots died during a fierce period of fighting against the Dalmascan Resistance. As the last First Chariot, Faustus led this task force in subduing rebels and insurgents without killing them. As of their surrender to Dalmasca he was the most experienced and had trained many potential soldiers, and is relatively well-known for his subtle but no less ruthless adaptation of the Chariot fighting style into a cat-and-mouse game unique to him.The status of the current Chariots as a task force and the whereabouts of the rest of the Chariots from the Third onwards remain unknown. Asking Faustus will reveal that he last left them in Kugane, at the Garlean Consulate, and as the rest of them are non-pureblood Garleans he isn't sure if they will return to Garlemald.

the present

This story has yet to be told.

BLOOD UPON THE SNOW

"Pain will come with the blade."

"Unsheathe a sword to rend those clouds above the ground."

AMITY

iii.

people

APHELIUS LUX SCAEVOLA

Faust's youngest brother is a competent combat medic who has gone through far too much at the hands of his own people. Despite being related by blood, neither of them had communicated with each other since Faust left Garlemald at 22.Their relationship is extremely rocky, if it even exists between them. Aphelius is extremely angry at Faust for having left home and never returning because he was far too occupied with his career. Faust is remorseful for the choice he made in his younger years, but knows Aphelius will accept nothing less than action from him.Despite this secretly the two of them wish to reconcile. In the wake of Garlemald's destruction and missing family members, the only people they have left of their blood is each other. Neither Faust nor Aphelius wish to lose again after having lost so much and they aren't so stupid to believe that they don't need each other.

CLAUDIA REM SCIPIONES

The daughter of a politician, Claudia is a stubborn, aggressive woman whose recklessness was borne of a desperate desire to prove herself to her family, who were ultimately too busy fawning over her far more talented younger brother. This only fed her insecurities that she would not be enough for them.When they began to work together Claudia expected Faust to take advantage of her as everyone else in her life had done and braced herself - only to find Faust a gentler individual than she had thought, one whose presence reassured her that she didn't have to walk her journey alone, that she had nothing to prove. Once she understood that Faust was someone she could trust, it was only a matter of time before they were an item.Their relationship is one built off respect and mutual understanding, even if they disagreed. Unfortunately her stubbornness and her dismay at Gabranth turning down Garlemald's recall order saw her deserting to return home on her own and thus being the only Chariot who was not repatriated. As such, she is being hunted down by the Rumta-Zaraam post-liberation of Dalmasca.

AISLING TALIER

Of all the people he did not expect to meet, Captain Talier of the Bozjan Resistance, formerly of the Dalmascan Resistance, was the last person he expected to end up working under. When her affiliation was revealed to him, for a long time did he wonder if fate wanted him to die by revenge at her hands. He knew what he'd done and she knew what his people had done to hers.He fully expected her to shiv him in the middle of the night many, many times. Yet somehow he noticed that his brother respected her and was working alongside her rather than under her by the time he met them. It was against all odds, and it was against these odds that Faust decided to work with her. If she wanted to stick a blade into his kidneys in the middle of the night, so be it - it wasn't like he didn't deserve it anyway.The rest of this story remains to be seen.

iv.

ooc

Has realised and understood all of his convictions and actions in carrying out Garlemald's directive were never justified.He believes in atoning, in making up for his sins.He has no idea where to start.
He is of the opinion that he will never be able to pay the blood debt in his lifetime.The only time he's ever been right.

sage

25+ • they/them
GMT +8 • Discord only

  • Faust is a major NPC related to his brother Aphelius and as such I don't prioritise RPing with him over Aphelius. However if I seek RP for Faust rest assured I prioritise the same amount of investment as I do in Aphelius. Aphelius' carrd is linked above.

  • I am a multi-paragraph RPer who enjoys character development and plot-based stories. I enjoy RPing in FFXIV and have been doing it for a while.

  • You must be 21+ for me to consider writing with you. This is without exception.

  • I work within the lore, logic and narrative setting presented in FFXIV and I'm quite lore-adherent. I prefer my RP to be low-power. Any combat encounters will be preplanned in OOC discussion, I do not do dice rolls and prefer that all combat is relevant to the character development.

  • IC =/= OOC. I do not condone nor agree with any of the views Faust has as a pureblood Garlean. I would like to keep it that way.

  • I will not entertain character maiming, character death, excessive gore, excessive violence, or sexual assault.

  • Apart from the usual no-nos, I'm not a fan of organised military RP. Faust may be a former soldier but he's done with being a part of a structured military organisation and given his current development he's about to start questioning orders, not obeying them. I'll be open to discussions about military-lite hooks but not the full monty thank you.

  • I only RP on Discord. Please ensure you are alright with that before contacting me.

  • This should go without saying, but needs some clarity: Do not use my Garleans as a catharsis dump. It is unfair to me and extremely rude of you if your character gets to antagonise Faust for free without any self-reflection or realistic repercussion. Feel free to challenge Faust IC, but if it does not result in character development happening on both sides and only exists to make your character feel better, I will strongly consider ending the RP.