Sockmonsters minions
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Joaquin Eltar
Looks:
Joaquin stands at the high end of average height, a sharp looking man with dark hair and darker eyes, so brown they can often appear almost black. Physically he’s not overly built but looks to keep himself fit. He can often be seen training with a rapier, usually against imaginary foes when he thinks no-one will see him. His face and body combine to make him look more attractive than average but not by much, he has a nice enough manor about him but, whether by aim or nature, tends towards the nice but not especially memorable end of things, leaving people with a nice but non-specific recollection of him.
He climbs regularly, enjoying bouldering and tree climbing, not usually aiming to climb high or far, just keep in regular practice and ensure he keeps himself flexible and fit.
The climbing mentality extends to his combat style too, taking his time to work out an opponent and land a single well placed blow rather than hammering in like some people. This is largely thanks to Joaquin’s father who was a military man, a former soldier in the Kings army who, despite the horrific injuries he received in battle and the worse treatment by the state afterwards was always keen to see Joaquin take a martial position in life. His father was always slightly disappointed to hear that his son was working not in the military but as some clerk. His father took some respite in the fact that as a young man he ensured Joaquin had some martial training, the various minor fencing awards his son brought home were a testament to this.
Joaquin tries to keep himself looking smart at most times, something drummed into him by his work as a clerk in the land and revenue offices of the King.
Attitude:
Thanks to his mothers side of the family Joaquin never really wanted for anything, apart from maybe a father with the right amount of limbs. While he tries (and normally succeeds) to appear pleasant and charming he can behave in a somewhat spoilt manor if things aren’t going his way. He often has a narrow view of the world, twisting situations to his advantage or, as is more often the case, muttering darkly about things afterwards and recalling things very differently to how they transpired citing most people as unjust and evil towards him. In this regard he can be somewhat spiteful, finding malice towards him in innocuous acts and seeking petty revenge for it.
While Joaquin is an intelligent enough person he often fails to think through what he’s doing or saying. This has dropped him in trouble many times when he’s badmouthed people in the wrong company or found himself a key player in a revolution.
He has a deep loathing of city authorities, seeing them as the reason he had to flee a rebellion rather than accepting responsibility for what he did. He still sees himself as a spy, knowing that despite it back firing in the end he had done a good job of diverting land, money and information from one group to another without anyone noticing. Even when it was noticed he was never seen as responsible, at least until he assassinated a city official.
He doesn’t know the outcome of the civil war that made him flee to Jiyyd, only that both sides considered him a prize worthy of a public execution, or at the least a display of his body if he couldn’t be taken alive.
Brief history:
Despite his father’s wishes and teachings Joaquin never joined the Kings army, instead, thanks mostly to the machinations of his mother, he wound up as a clerk working in the Kings Revenue and lands office. He made a name for himself as a bright, hard worker and soon found himself in a position of some responsibility. Soon after his promotion he was approached by some nice enough seeming people who paid him handsomely for information on who owned what. Over time these people began to ask for more, deeds to change name, and monies to move from one place to another.
Although worried by the growing changes in what the shadowy people wanted Joaquin did as they asked, partly because of the fear he’d be unmasked and hung, partly because he had little love for the King or the way he ran the city and country, after all was it not the Kings fault his father was so badly mutilated. Had the King himself not passed the law banning all those with grievous injury from the cities streets so no right thinking subject would have to see things so ugly and inhuman.
The streets themselves were changing, mutters and anti regal sentiment was heard on the streets of the city, where the Kings enemies had seemed to have little purchase before the authorities suddenly found they owned important sections of the city.
The shadowy figures asked Joaquin for more, they helped him train in secret to help them gather more information and to help incapacitate certain people amidst the Kings advisers.
As the trouble on the streets grew the King passed harsher and harsher laws, breaking curfew became an act of treason, the sentence of death seen as the obvious way of deterring anyone from leaving their houses at night. People thought of harbouring any thoughts against the king were rounded up, tortured until they admitted to it and then hung. By night the city cowered in fear, many religions were forced from the city, as the common good and true law became the enemy of the Kings own law. Joaquin had always hidden his part in the deed changes, leaving other clerks names as the transaction handlers on the documents he’d changed, he’d never considered the consequences of this, something he had to live up to when four of his workmates were hung for high treason against the crown.
The shadowy figures asked Joaquin to do one more thing, the removal of a man called Emmit LaTill, one of the kings favoured judges, a fierce and proud man who’d come to public focus by clearing the slums, an act that had resulted in the death of nearly a hundred commoners as a regiment of men was ordered to put to death anyone who spoke out or fought back. Emmit, the shadowy figures said, was to be put to death or seriously weakened.
Joaquins chance came quicker than he would have wished for, while still debating fleeing the city Emmit paid a further fact finding visit to the Deeds and Revenue office, intent on finding more traitors to put at the end of a rope. While they discussed who it may have been in a private office Joaquin slipped some vellum ink into Emmits drink. The ink, highly acidic in nature, caused Emmit to gag and splutter while Joaquin seized the opportunity to stick his knife between the mans ribs.
After he was sure the judge was dead Joaquin smashed a window, and fled back through the office screaming about an assassin, using the chaos that followed this announcement to slip out into the streets and flee home.
Word of the Judges death spread fast through the city, open rebellion erupted onto the streets, by the time Joaquin reached his home half the city was either burning or consumed by fighting. Joaquin found his parents hanging from a tree outside his burning home, hung for his mothers ties to the Kings court and his fathers loyalty to the crown.
He attempted to meet with the shadows figures again, and narrowly avoided assassination. Seen by the Kings forces as a traitor and by the rebellious forces as a loyal servant of the crown he was hunted by both sides, he escaped the city and fled with what little he had, his clothes swapped for those worn by the shadowy figures assassin.