Sir Errant ap Gerin, called the Curious (Pendragon 5.x)

As always thanks to my patrons Jaina Bee, Darius, Casey, Dave, and especially Ferny, who provided the seed from which this character grew in my Pendragon game!  If you'd like to support my RPG writing and streaming, please donate however much you are able to and want to at my Patreon

Glory: 1166 (Average)
Age: 21 in 480 (b. 459)
Physique: Slumped and spindly
Personality: Fascinated by the world, obsessed, loyal to Count Roderick, conflicted about his family
Style: Retiring, monastic(ish), curious
Coat of Arms:  Azure, an ash-tree eradicated Or, seven flowers argent in chief and a bull dormant of the second in base

SIZ 12 (122 lb.) DEX 14 STR 12 CON 12 APP 11
Family Characteristic Good with words (+15 Compose) Wealth Ordinary
Culture: French Homeland Salisbury, Logres Religion Frankish Pagan

Chaste 7/13 Lustful* ⚔Modest 11/9 Proud*
⚔Energetic 14/6 Lazy    Pious 4/16 Worldly*
Forgiving 8/12 Vengeful* Prudent 0/20 Reckless*
⚔Generous 14/6 Selfish Temperate 11/9 Indulgent*
Honest 14/6 Deceitful Trusting 9/11 Suspicious
⚔Just 11/9 Arbitrary ⚔Valorous* 12/8 Cowardly
⚔Merciful 6/14 Cruel

Directed Trait: Élan +5
Élan is the ability to perform some behavior with a flourish and burst of French pride.  In game terms, Élan is a Trait Modifier with a starting value of +5. It may be added to any of the astericized Traits (Indulgent, Lustful, Vengeful, Proud, Worldly, Reckless, and Valorous) before it is rolled. (It does not affect the opposite Trait, and may not be used on any Trait if it is being rolled due to failure of a Trait on the left side.) However, when Élan is used, the user always gets an automatic check to Proud. Also, a Complete Failure or Partial Success results in immediate Melancholy.  This Melancholy lifts after a night of good sleep.  Élan is the cultural Specialty for the French. 

Chivalry 68/80 (not yet relevant) Religious Bonus:  needs +7 Indulgent and Proud, +2 Generous

Loyalty (Lord) 15 Love (Family) 9 Hate (Saxons) 13 Honor 9 Hospitality 13

Awareness 4 Falconry 6 Hunting 8 Religion (Frankish pagan) 10
Boating 0 First Aid 7 Intrigue 9 Romance 3
Compose 15 Flirting 10 Orate 2    Singing 3
Courtesy 5 Folklore 3 Play (lyre) 2 Stewardship 3
Dancing 3 Gaming 2 Read (Latin) 1 Swimming 2
Faerie Lore 10 Heraldry 6 Recognize 2 Tourney 7

Battle 10 Sword 10 Dagger 1
Siege 2 Lance 5
Horsemanship 10 Spear 15

By the base meaning of it, Sir Errant deserves his name.  With a temperament more generally suited to the life of a Christian monk rather than a pagan knight and ways that awkwardly blend those of his knightly British father and the Frankish concubine who bore and raised him, his Glory has been a quiet Glory.  Gifted with a certain skill for turning a phrase like all the men of his line, Errant’s singing voice and strumming fingers could not keep up with the verses in his head, so he wrote beautifully lyrical songs throughout his squirage for his knight to sing at feasts and tourneys.  Though station and the circumstance of presentation won Errant’s knight fame for these songs, enough people noticed that the songs, always centering around old stories of the fey from both the Cymri and the Franks, had been written by Errant that many continue to ask him to write for them.

But by the reason for his naming, Sir Errant in no way deserves his name.  Gerin worships Christ in the British fashion, and carries some shame thereby about committing adultery with Errant’s mother Clotild.  It was a condition of his claiming of Errant and keeping of Clotild that she name him thus, marking him always as a reminder to Gerin that the path must be strictly kept.

Grey eyes calmly survey the world behind Sir Errant’s lanky red locks.  Tall and thin (one could even say, prompted by his spidery long fingers, that he is spindly,) he holds himself as if he was quite a bit shorter.  The retiring young man hunched over books whenever he could slip it into his knightly training, so his back has developed something of a habitual slump.  This hasn’t stopped him from having the odd fling or two with the squires and handmaidens around him; he has developed a rather minimalistic style of flirting, choosing his moments, his words, and every detail of his actions very carefully to minimize the need for them to be many.  None of the flings ever became anything more, for reasons both of youth and his tendency to ignore all else as soon as someone mentions the word “sidhe”.  Visitors to Baverstock from as far away as Cornwall have said that they have heard rumors of this young knight’s disregard for all else, should a possibility to learn a new scrap of knowledge about Faërie; some have even indicated that these rumors have reached even the ear of King Aurelius Ambrosius himself!

Perhaps in a desire to establish the validity of his knighting or to attract the positive regard of a father who named him for his bastard birth, the one bit of his training that could tear him away from the constant books and tale-tellers was his training with the spear.  That old Celtic weapon of honor is one he has taken as his own and trained hard with.  By the time Count Roderick of Salisbury laid the blade across his shoulders and named him a knight, few if any could face him spear-to-spear, or even sword-to-spear!  Despite this attempt to impress Sir Gerin, Errant has eschewed the faith of his father and its focus on some other world after life, and is well-reputed for his love of beauty and well-cooked meals and all the finer things in life.