Count Max Darkwater
Is this the part where you call me a scoundrel, and I say I think you like me because I'm a scoundrel?
Obituary: The Barony of Blackshore is significant trading hub sitting between Darkwater Watch and Arx, a smaller but still significant island domain that's home to several thousand proud vassals of the Mourning Isles, boasting a thousand year history of fighting on behalf of House Thrax and Darkwater from the Reckoning to today. Or it was. Trading vessels coming to Arx are reporting that the Barony of Blackshore has been utterly destroyed. The entire island was reduced to a blacked ruin, with no hint of survivors at all to be found. The sandy beaches and verdant wood had been completely obliterated, and only black blasted rock remaining for miles around. The significant Blackshore Keep was leveled- it was difficult to even tell where it had once stood.
The isle is now a charred, blackened rock, where not a single person survived- and Count Maximilian Darkwater and his vassal, the Baron of Blackshore, had been dining in that keep the nights before. It is presumed their blackened skeletons are among those littering the island, or perhaps among the human shaped shadows that were left burned in stone.
Description: Maximilian looks so much the sailor he brings the phantom scent of salt in his wake, even moving through throne rooms and cobbled streets. Most often he wears a practiced scowl: strong dark brows drawn low over striking sea-colored eyes, and a mouth tilted towards one chiseled cheekbone or another. Lanky and graceful, he's a rogueishly handsome man, with thick brown curls that beg for a sea breeze to ruffle them.
Personality: Maximilian Darkwater is a pirate at heart. Sure, technically he's not a pirate - he's a ship's captain, despite his young age, having already spent some years on the waves hunting down (and brutally slaughtering) pirates - but he is rakish and opportunistic, brash and just a little mean. It doesn't mean he's an especially bad man, especially by the standards of Thrax, and he does love a good time. He likes to walk the line between fun and danger, though he feels a bit out of his element - citybound and forced to try and represent his family in situations where sabers are not plan A.
Background: Maximilian never expected to rule. From a young age, he was used to being the second, expendable son of the Count of Darkwater, the one who could be as wild and unrelenting as he wished in sailing against the enemies of House Darkwater because, as his loving father put it, 'Who gives a damn if a second son dies?'. Good old dad. Maximilian had some expected burning envy of his elder brother after he inherited the countship and married a beautiful young wife, but he wasn't about to say no to the freedom that many noble heirs never got to enjoy. Serving on ships while a teenager, becoming a captain at the ridiculously young age of 18 (under the heavy supervision of veteran soldiers of the House), and relishing in battle with pirates all throughout the Saffron Chain.
He was thinking he'd make a name for himself, rejoicing in being able to become a scourge of the waves for the House's enemies... and then he received word his stupid older brother had gotten himself killed in battle with some minor pirates Maximilian had thought easy prey. It infuriated the young man, and after seeing all the pirates responsible for it run down and executed, he's was left with the unexpected mixed blessing of running House Darkwater and the countship, as his brother and his brother's wife Countess Nekarris never produced an heir. While he'd almost certainly rather be sailing and making his named feared all throughout the Saffron Chain, he finds himself having to travel to Arx at the bidding of the greatly feared Prince, high lord Donrai Thrax, to make certain that his house is represented... and to make certain Countess Nekarris Darkwater stays in line.
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