![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
firebrandish) wrote2024-01-28 08:44 pm
Bio
Although he often has cause to try and blend into a crowd, Clive is anything but nondescript. His striking blue eyes are usually a bit obscured by his unkempt hair, but it does little to hide the scar that covers the majority of his left cheek and trails down onto his throat. To those familiar with the mark of the Branded, it's fairly obvious that he went under the knife to have his removed. He can sometimes be seen absentmindedly running his fingers over this scar when he's lost in thought.
The outfit he can most commonly be seen in is a suit of black and red leathers and armor with a hooded cloak. While he isn't the tallest man in the game, he has a very intimidating physical presence all the same; he's broad and muscular, often standing with shoulders squared, arms crossed, a stern expression on his face. He's also usually armed, carrying a greatsword strapped to his back, which he wields right-handed.
As the son of a noble house, he retains many of the manners and mannerisms of a high-born man without any of the arrogance of the aristocracy. Clive is kind and even-handed, egalitarian in his treatment of peasants and princes. He's honest, too, though that might be because he doesn't have enough guile to be a truly convincing liar.
Clive isn't the sort of man who does things by halves. He's almost overbearingly protective of the people he loves, and will run himself ragged looking out for their needs. He mulishly stubborn, too, and while he's slow to anger, that anger burns hot, and it can sustain his grudges for years to come. When he sets his sights on a goal, he tends to focus on it with a single-minded sort of determination that leaves little attention for much else.
That kind of inattention to personal matters has proven detrimental in the past, causing him to miss out on years of a potentially fulfilling romantic relationship... not that he really allows himself to get that close to too many people when he's as busy as he is trying to carve a path to a better world for the people like him who've suffered because of an accident of birth.
Jill; childhood friend, first love
Torgal, goodest boy; the pupper
Elwin, father; former Archduke of Rosaria
Anabella, mother; former Duchess of Rosaria/Vicereine of Sanbreque
Byron, uncle; merchant of Port Isolde
That ambition would burn away to ash on what later became known a the Night of Flames, when the Holy Sanbreque Empire (in collaboration with his own mother) would betray their alliance with Rosaria, slaying Archduke Elwin and absorbing his territory. It was on that night that Clive lost control of himself and manifested the Eikon Ifrit, causing even more death and destruction when he attacked the Phoenix. He was found in the rubble the next day and turned over to the Imperial army by his mother, where he would receive a tattoo on his cheek that marked him as a Bearer of magical abilities and subsequently spend the next thirteen years fighting the Empire's battles.
He would unexpectedly reunite with his childhood friend Jill on the battlefield, having been sent to kill the Dominant of Shiva without knowing who it really was. While he was almost cut down by soldiers of the Ironblood army, he was rescued by Cid and taken to his Hideaway. There, Clive and Jill would commit themselves to fighting for a better future for magic bearers across Valisthea, eventually even taking up Cid's mantle after the older man's untimely death.