Gueniévre Favreau
Profile
Basic Information
Name:
Gueniévre Favreau
Nickname(s):
Guen
Age:
28
Birth Date:
27 Stars, Year of Paths 8267 (Day 23 of the Month of the Cat, Year of the Incandescent Perfume Snake)
Height:
5'7 (170.2CM)
Gender:
F
Race:
Human
Class:
Sniper
Occupation:
Noble/Member of Agate Alliance
Guild(s):
Amedran Ducal Court, Agate Alliance
Enhancement(s):
Humans' Mindspeak
Ochi Simera Mareus
Iridus' Favour
Likes
Drinking | Spiced food | Collecting small trinkets | Money | Disguises | Gossip
Dislikes
Paperwork | Talking about her past | Being told what to do | The Gods/religion
Personality
Charming, playful, social, resourceful, hardworking, ambitious, sensitive, secretive, cunning, distrusting, vain, insecure, survivalist, proud
Tends to keep her past to herself, though much of it is now an open secret thanks to widespread gossip. Doesn't really mind the gossiping and has probably spread a few absurd ones herself for the fun of it just to add to the mix.
In general, she hates sharing anything about her personal life with others and finds it an unnecessary chore to discuss her history with anyone, even "friends". It's part of her strategy, in any manner, to maintain a veil of secrecy around herself. Will weave tales of half-truths if pressed.
Another reason that she remains evasive when it comes to her own personal life is because she considers secrets extremely valuable, believing that they could be used almost like a form of currency in some circles.
Fears betrayal and abandonment, both of which she believes to be inevitable. Remains largely mistrustful of others -especially men - and has only dared to place her faith in a select few. Often wonders if it's a mistake to do so at times when she is in private but finds the thought of being truly alone as terrifying as that of being betrayed.
Loathes the idea of living an impoverished life again and rejects any paths which would lead her back to a life of poverty.
A social climber through and through. Always seeking to be in the company of the rich and the powerful. Appears charming, flirtatious, and humble in the public eye, eager to please and flatter others.
High priority in personal safety and gains!!!! May seem to have a questionable moral compass as a result. Considers manipulating others harmless so long as no one is injured in the process. In her eyes, life is about using others or being used.
Prides herself somewhat on her skills as a self-taught markswoman. Understands that there's always room for improvement but kills her to consider asking for help.
Keen on maintaining the stability of her life (or rather what little there is left of it...)
History
For as long as Guen could remember, her mother always walked on the streets with a haunted look in her eyes but with her head held high, an air of dignity and melancholy about her. At night, some times it would seem that her mother was far faraway from their small apartment, her thoughts always elsewhere even as her fingers fumbled clumsily with the end of Guen's braids. She would murmur quietly to Guen to not trust easily, and guard her heart most carefully. She also taught Guen to be strong, independent, and most of all, a survivor, emphasizing the importance of adapting to the world even as it shifted. "You never know what might happen, my little flower. Make friends where you can, but remember, you can only count on yourself in hours of need." While not a particularly social creature herself, Maria always pushed Guen to play with the other children in the neighborhood and put herself in the good graces of other families, to be well-liked and mindful of others. Not quite understanding everything she was told, Guen was nevertheless content to roam the streets with her friends without a care in the world.
As she grew older, however, Guen naturally grew more curious over the reason of her mother's isolation, and the constant absence of her father. Maria always replied vaguely that he had gone on a long journey, never finding the strength to tell Guen the truth. "Perhaps he became lost in a distant land," she would suggest, a lie to comfort herself as well before asking her child if she was unhappy with just her mother. During her younger days as a guileless and precocious child, Guen would always shake her head vehemently to deny this. And it had been the truth at the time - she was perfectly happy with their life together... but it was not a happiness that would last for long. With the passing of the days, Guen became more acutely aware of her family's impoverished state, and grew more and more resentful of her father's supposed wanderlust. While other girls her age walked around the market to show off their new dresses and hats, she had nothing.
A letter arrived shortly before her fifteenth birthday from her father to explain and apologize for his absence, revealing that he had left Maria when she had been pregnant because he had wanted to seek a greater adventure than that of fatherhood. He had been young, and foolish, and a most irresponsible fool. As a result, Guen grew angry from what she perceived as her mother's deceit and her father's abandonment. Finding the letter of apology insufficient, she became obsessed with the idea of finding her father and confronting him herself. To finance her journey, she sought out work where available, finding herself more and more often in the company of shady men and women that her mother did not approve. She found a sense of thrill among these folks, reveling in her mother's disapproval. When she was 17, a rare encounter with a young man of seemingly pure heart softened her resolve, but in the end, she was also met with disappointment. The experience left her feeling betrayed and more haunted than ever by the ghost of the father she never met. Everything her mother told her when she was younger finally clicked into place, but she already felt too despaired to continue her life in Amedra. She gathered her things and bid farewell to her mother before boarding the first ship to the Empire in order to leave behind the city of regrets, vowing to never return.
In an attempt to sway her decision, her mother revealed their family's history to persuade Guen to stay, as Amedra had been their family's home for centuries. She removed the locket she always wore to place it around Guen's neck, showing Guen the flower inside and telling her what it had meant to their family, who had been once favored by the royal family a long, long time ago. The Vicomtesse de Fayolle would be her official title, if she were to stay. Not quite believing what she was told, Guen vehemently denounced her mother's words as lies and steeled her resolve to leave, taking what she was given before setting out to make a new life for herself.
Afterwards, she spent some time traveling between cities in Koben, working often for ships and their captains as whatever was needed aboard before finally finding a home with one of the ships in the Jewel Sea Corsairs in Linhythe. Throughout this time, the letter from her father remained carefully sealed in an oiled leather bag, as she still planned on hunting him down some day. Over the years, her hatred for the man only grew, as he had spoken of another daughter in his life who helped him realize the joys of being a father, and how he should have never abandoned Maria and her. Given time to mull over his words, and her own experiences, she has grown ever more distrustful of men in particular. At the same time, she has also grown to regret how she had bid farewell to her mother all those years ago. Recently, she has been considering perhaps returning home to make apologies, though has found excuses at every turn to delay her journey back to Amedra to face her past. In part, this delay could be attributed to her desire to return home with enough fame and fortune to restore the de Fayolle name, as her encounter with a member of the Amedran court verified the truth behind her mother's desperate words all those years ago.
Current Story
Ignition
As peace crumbled, Guen found herself - along with Nailah and the rest of the crew of the Black Hound - bound for Belport under the orders of the leader of Linhythe. The illusion of freedom shattered, Guen found great disdain for killing in the name of the Koben Empire when it had never been an agreed part of their pact with the city to become a part of their military forces. Though she did as she was told, she returned to Linhythe with misgivings about her role in the deaths of so many and the partial destruction of Belport. The whispers that a great war was brewing were unsettling, to say the least, as Guen grew increasingly worried that there would be implications for the Corsairs to become further entangled in the Empire's affairs.
Soon after her return, Guen was visited by an old friend who eventually revealed herself to be an undercover agent for Miras. In order to gain Guen's help in persuading the Corsairs to leave Linhythe and aid the Kingdom in disrupting the city's order, Aly offered a deal Guen could not refuse: should they succeed, Guen would return home with her family's glory restored. Now anxious to redeem herself, Guen pleaded and bribed and bartered on Miras' behalf to convince the Corsairs that it would be better to leave the city. After all, they had been taken advantage of - there would be greater riches on the other side of the sea, and less orders to follow. On the eve of parting, those who did join her helped to set the harbor and the city ablaze. As violence ensued, Guen found herself once again unsettled by the bloodshed which seized the city and questioned the purpose of this war. A part of her wondered if she had made the right choice, though she knew that she was already at the point of no return the moment she agreed to help Aly secure the supplies.
Her homecoming was nothing like she had imagined. While her reunification with her mother was as warm as she could have hoped for it to be, her family's title was only restored in part - a small but valuable portion of their land was rewarded to her as a result of her actions, but it was nothing like what the Fayolle estate had been in its glory days. The story of how she had earned the title of Baronessa spread quickly through court, and Guen was faced with hostility almost everywhere she turned. The constant conflict between the new Corsairs and the city did little to contribute to her finding footing in the Amedran court. Additional guards were sent to watch over her and her entourage as they traveled between Auraen and Amedra, as people made it clear that the former pirates would not be trusted. Troubles brewed around the kingdom and Guen made it a point to become involved in the nation's affairs. It wasn't long, however, before troubles at home became too difficult to ignore - dissatisfied with their new life, the Corsairs were too eager to return to their old ways of pillaging and plundering. Determined to resolve the issue, as she still considered the Corsairs somewhat her responsibility, Guen sought out allies with whom she would destroy the rebellious Corsairs once and for all in order to secure her position and reputation as the city council threatened exile in order to rid the scums from Amedra's waters. In light of their success, the Corsairs, or rather, what was left of them, became renamed as the Agate Alliance.
Post Agate Alliance
Having settled into the city, Guen continued to live out two lives as a noble in court while continuing to maintain a presence in the underbellies of Amedra. Eager to make new friends throughout the city, she frequented local businesses such as those belonging to Euphemia and Sara for both business and pleasure.
Since not all pirates were content to live under the watchful eye of the Amedran court, many departed for their old life during Stormtide. Though displeased to see some of her known associates go, she was even more unhappy to find out that they became involved in the kidnapping of prince Sigmund just a few months after, leading to the events on Shackle Island. Guen, along with Noel, Naila, and Judah, pretended to kidnap the princess of what is now East Miras to infiltrate the den of kidnappers in order to salvage the alliance between East Miras and Koben. There, unexpectd, she had a run-in with Spencer which was... more or less unpleasant but determined to overcome her past, she gave him permission to board her ship to return to Amedra.
After, she returned to Auraen after to find a small rebellion squashed at its start by a mystery elf who said that he had arrived in time to save Guen's mother from being assaulted by the mob that had presumed Guen was indeed the princess's kidnapper. Suspicious, but grateful nonetheless, Guen thanked him and allowed him to stay on her property before accepting his request to become an advisor in her service a few weeks after. While managing her affairs and starting to train the locals to prepare for the oncoming war in case of an attack, Guen's crew once again sailed at the suggestion of the baroness to the mystery citadel. There, after engaging with some soldiers from West Miras, Guen and Noel pilfered panels of a stained-glass window from the island's chapel and she returns home to find a mysterious (and itchy) mark on her right wrist.
Now growing increasingly involved in the affairs of state, Guen found herself elevated in rank before sailing north on yet another expedition. Her ship was to carry scholars to assist in the search for Mareus in a joint effort with West Miras. Skeptical that this search would bear any fruit, she departed with mixed feelings as the last time she'd been this far north, it'd been for the attack on Belport. Was this really so different, to be sailing here, again, but under the yoke of a different master?
Deciding that it would be okay as long as no lives would be put at stake, Guen was content to stand as a representative of Amedra as the search for Mareus continued until she was swept away in the torrents of the collapsed glacier. In a split second, everything she'd known shattered - once Spencer helped her out of the ocean, she found herself staring at the face of the newly awakened dragon the size of a mountain. Even more bewildering were the events that soon followed after - the appearance of Mareus's god child, her request, revelation, and then, the cryptic whisper from yet another god.
Having felt the strange draw from Iridus for quite a while, Guen, now determined to investigate this, sailed south instead of returning home. As they neared Linhythe, she donned another disguise and found herself feeling rather nostalgic as she crossed paths with many old friends at Hangman's Cross. Long gone were the days when her biggest worry was over her next meal, now she held the fate of not only herself but her entire crew - her entire city, even - in her hands. Having preferred the gods absent from Alva so she could exercise complete control on her own life, she found herself slipping into despair as she realized herself a pawn, pushed first into the Six Circles, then thrown back by Dunor to face the newly awakened generals of Atros and Aurea.
Feeling at fault for now having dragged her entire crew into this ordeal, Guen could only see certain deaths in their futures - if not by the claw of the generals, then by the teeth of Dunor. After all, they were but mere mortals - how were they expected to face down the gods? Yet, reassured by her friends, and the unexpected arrival of Judah at their camp, Guen became determined to succeed and thrive despite the odds. Burying her doubts, Guen became focused only on her goal to survive and keep her friends safe from harm first through the battle against Ursus, then Velegor soon after.
Nothing could've prepared her for the sight of Dunor's arrival at Hangman's crossing, or her own consequent painful departure from it. The agonizing truth of having been used and betrayed was one of the only things which helped her maintain her sanity and composure as she was forced back to the now collapsing Six Circles. She would have to live to make sure Dunor would regret it all, somehow.
Additional Info
Relies on guns and charms. Not very skilled at close-quarter combat. Considers it very messy.
Was introduced to guns after one of her former captains realized how bad she was at fighting with a sword, and told her that she needed it to learn to be useful to the ship in skirmishes. He gave her his spare, and was rather amused by the girl's early attempts of shooting practice until one of his deckhands got injured in the process. Afterward, Guen was told that either she improved her skills, or she was off his ship at the next port. She charmed some of the sailors aboard to teach her, practicing on her own til she more or less learned to aim properly.
Speaks Common and some conversational Valski. Been trying to learn Songhua, but to very little success.
Loves garlic or anything with a strong flavor. Food with lots of spices is her favorite.
Has a habit of collecting buttons... in general likes to hold onto small trinkets and keeps them in a box at home.
Also trying to start a collection of guns, though given how expensive they are, most of the older firearms in her possession are stolen.
The pin Guen wore in her hair was one of her only prized possessions until it was lost during Mareus's awakening (ad then later found again in the 4th circle, damaged). It is a camellia japonica "nobilissima" flower. She wears a pendant with the same flower inlaid in mother of pearl. It's the symbol of the de Vayolle family, though given its obscurity, Guen often claimed that it's a symbol of purity and innocence from her homeland, far faraway.
Has a tattoo of birds on her right side. No one has seen it except a select few.
Started using the "Favreau" name after the name de Fayolle being recognized in a very strange encounter...
Obsessed with skincare.
Gained the mark of the citadel (right wrist) after taking home panels of stained glass for a window.
Took an unfinished Nesha figurine from the collapsing circles.
Relations
Arlengwyn Aethril
A wild-child. Not too fond of her when they have shared dreams, given the unpredictability...
Celestina Rojas
Admires Celestina a lot for what she's managed to accomplish, and remains grateful to be understood well enough by the duchess to be kept on a loose leash.
Lyon Espadas
Knew Lyon from early, early days, and more or less sees the two of them as cut from the same cloth. Remains wary around him, but is friendly enough.
Clotaire Lever
A stranger, but one with whom Guen stood in what she'd thought would be her last moment. Finds the fellow a bit uptight, but so are most Kobeners...
Fidelo Lonars
Business acquaintance. :)
Naila Issafeyr
She's family and they've been through thick and thin together. She trusts Naila with her life, and more. Naila's the one whose opinion Guen trusts the most, especially given the frankness with which Naila tends to express herself.
Judah Sawyer
A reliable presence, though considers him a bit dull at times because of his seriousness and uprighteousness. In her mind, he's a "good" person in the most classic sense of that word and she finds great amusement in prodding him out of his comfort zone at every opportunity. Despite the differences in their life philosophies, she does hold him in high esteem.
Marise Lucilius
Thinks it's hilarious that the princess abhors traditions of nobility and may or may not have encouraged some of her acts of rebellion. Taught Marise lockpicking after the events of Shatter, and is about as fond of her as she could be of a child.
Andros Rhodon
A good dog, though perhaps one who relies on his instincts too much and his brain too little.
Nienna Rafales
Half-sister. She knows she exists, though has no desire to ever meet.
Spencer Stroud
An unfortunate reminder of an unfortunate period of time her life. Guen tries her best to not think about him, but they've been running into each other rather frequently as of late. She's moved on and forgiven him in light of recent events, though it's unlikely that she'd find it in herself to do much more than keep him at arm's length.
Eoghan Elwynne
Sometimes, she wonders if his mount is the more capable soldier of the pair as she finds Eoghan a bit childish and clumsy for someone of his age and station. Nevertheless, he makes for pleasant company enough and is rather good for lifting the spirits.
Ryanna Geist
Have never met in person, but finds her fiery dreams rather ... memorable, if nothing else.
Nice Espadas
A good drinking companion, though finds it incredibly unfortunate that they seem to share the same crappy taste in men after finding that that Nice was also involved with Spencer a some point. Thinks of Nice mostly just as a soldier, and someone who is not like her brother at all.
Noël Sauveterre
He's family and they've been through thick and thin together. She trusts Noel with her life, and more. Guen had a crush on him when they were younger, but those feelings faded as they got to know each other.
Urûvion D’Wälder
A sort of father figure to Guen who looked out for her during her early years in Linhythe. She grew apart over time but she still held him in high esteem until he refused her offer to leave Linhythe with her. The end of their relationship left her rather bitter.
Tess Vossen
Considered Tess a friend once, though she's quite certain the feeling's no longer mutual given her own ascend to nobility and her knowledge of Tess's past. Glad that at least they were able to share drinks again, if nothing else.
Shiloh Klinge
A familiar face from Guen's early days in Linhythe, though she was surprised to hear that they'd made it in Koben. Considers them a bit wreckless but still a good person to have by your side, especially in light of recent events.