Mor's Characters

relatives

Magnus Wolfe-Bernardon, Duke of Rothesay [father]
Maria von Salzberg Wolfe-Bernardon, Duchess of Rothesay [mother]
Lady Christina Wolfe-Bernardon [sister]
Lord Lionel Wolfe-Bernardon [brother]
Lady Margaretta Wolfe-Bernardon [sister]

Edwin Wolfe-Bernardon, Duke of Rothesay [grandfather, deceased]
Kristina Wolfe-Bernardon (née Karlsdotter) [grandmother]

sexuality

Heterosexual

relationship status

Unattached

Appearance

Tall and coolly handsome, Erik is in many ways the physical embodiment of the ideal of aristocratic good looks. He has an interesting face with a wide chin, a very broad, sloping jaw and smooth, wide planes over his cheekbones. He has a straight, angular nose and a heavy brow paired with an ivory complexion and ice blue eyes. He also has very soft, fine, dark brown hair kept just long enough to create a slightly tousled look, but not so far as to detract from the regimental air he obtains from his solid build and intense expression. If he were to be seen unclothed he has a lean, muscular physique from a soldier's training and is in excellent physical condition. His large hands have some calloused marks related to handling weaponry, horseriding and sports.

Erik's wealth and affluence are reflected in the subtly rich manner of dress he favours. His suits are always to the latest style and cut and his shirts of the finest cloth, while he has a remarkably varied and dazzling array of silk cravats

personality

At first glance Erik is the model of aristocratic charisma and social pleasantry. He is very intelligent and sharply aware of himself and other people, able to make accurate judgements about people he meets very quickly. He's not always right, but there is a shrewd and calculating caution in him that mean he is very good at smooth recoveries in tricky social situations. Casual acquaintance with Erik is therefore pleasant perfectly safe. But for those who fall on the wrong side of what happens to be a very nasty streak, another story is told. Erik is a well-practised philanderer and heartbreaker, using his good looks and status as a very wealthy, affluent man to seduce his way through half the noble households in England. He can be ruthless in his dealings with people and if he takes a dislike to anyone he is vindictive and sadistic in his treatment of them. He does not necessarily have a hot temper, per se, but rather a cold spitefulness that surfaces occasionally. He is not averse to Machiavellian politic and orchestrating the downfall of his enemies in particularly brutal ways, as has been surreptitiously done in the past.

For those he cares about, however, he is a loyal, passionate and powerful man to be with, and provides charming company. A genial, kind Erik makes for a excellent ally, friend or lover. To be in Erik's good books is therefore generally a nice place to be, as he is perfectly capable of being generous and benevolent. The trouble is he has a certain impatience and flightiness about him that mean he tires quickly of company, and is prone to changing his mind. He has never been with a single woman for a significant period of time and flippant dismissals are the norm. He does have a soft spot for the vulnerable, however, and a fairly charitable side of him emerges sometimes.

history

Though a titled member of the Scottish nobility, Erik has a significant depth of Germanic and Nordic heritage in his family, largely on the maternal line. His mother is natively German but moved to England as a debutante where she met his father, a robust, loud and cheerful Scotsman. They met at a ball in Edinburgh when they were both 21 and got married a year later. Maria became pregnant within a year of marriage and had their eldest child, a daughter whom they named Christina. Erik was the next born a year and a half later, followed by Margaretta within another year and a half. Because there was little age difference between the three, they were able to grow up in one another's company, which during the early years was a pleasant experience for each and they got along as well as young siblings ever can.

However, when they were separated for tutoring, the two girls were able to become inseparable confidantes and partners in crime while Erik was left to diverge along an independent path as the only boy and heir to his father's expansive estates. Christina and Margaretta became exceptionally vain and self-absorbed creatures as they entered their teens and treated Erik with unrestrained unkindness, shrieking and teasing their brother without reserve. Erik, at this point merely a young and somewhat insecure thirteen-year-old, grew bitter and resentful not just of his unkind sisters, but of the female kind in general. A seed of misogyny was planted in the impressionable teenage him by his sisters, and if anyone were to psychoanalyse the adult Erik, presumably there would be conclusions drawn about his treatment of women, namely in sexually manipulating them, as some form of revenge against the early abuse suffered at the hands of his sisters.

The exception to Erik's general cold indifference towards women was his mother, whom he fiercely adored an respected as a boy. He takes after his sharp and calculating mother more than his friendly and affable father, and therefore always got along better with her than with Magnus, whom he often found to be a tad irritating. At first Magnus was hopeful that his only son would be an excellent companion for all things masculine, like hunting and shooting, arm-wrestling and drinking. Yet the cool, reserved boy took little pleasure in sports, and found his father's unsubtly unguarded manner and warmly affectionate disposition at odds with his own secretive cleverness and general aloofness. Magnus therefore little understood his son, and though he loved him perfectly well and was proud of his academic achievements - Erik went to school at Eton and then went on to study at Cambridge with a number of old schoolmates, having done well at school and been lauded by teachers - the two have remained cordial but ultimately detached relations.

Though Erik was clever, academia took little of his attention - more to his taste when he went to Cambridge was the luxurious life of the high-brow socialite. His penchant for womanising behaviour and general debauchery began in his mid to late teens, where he found his aristocratic good looks, extravagant titling and air of self-assurance allowed him to manipulate young, naive women to his every whim. While at Cambridge Erik entered into a string of affairs, starting barely two weeks after his arrival with a young Miss Henrietta Johnson, the cousin of one of Erik's friends. Henrietta's father discovered the tremendous stain on his daughter's honour by disturbing them in the most compromising of positions, yet an unconcerned Erik merely paid off the man and moved on, leaving Henrietta disgraced, heartbroken and miserable. Erik started on the next seduction, then the next, and the next. Among his more colourful dalliances was one with a married woman, a wife of a knight in her forties, Lady Edwina Kellogg, which went on for some months before he was caught by her son, Charles, who was, unfortunately, Erik's age and colleague at Cambridge. Charles tried to get Erik's name blacklisted and muddied within the academic social circles, but Erik's superior powers of connection and wealth ultimately allowed him to sail through the scandal virtually unchanged.

He graduated from Cambridge and returned to Scotland, living a languid and unconcerned aristocratic life. At his beloved mother's hinting, however, Erik has started to acknowledge the necessity to find a wife eventually. Though he has little interest in settling down quickly, he is by no means disinterested in finding suitable material for the future Duchess of Rothesay. The question is, could the love of a good woman actually change a notorious philanderer and misogynist, or would it merely be a charade of harmonious marriage while Erik continued as ever he had?

other information

Heir apparent to the Duchy of Rothesay
Full name Erik Albert Frederick Magnus von Salzberg Wolfe-Bernardon

rp sample

It was morning and pale, barely-dawn sunlight streamed in past innocent pink curtains at the window. The light hit the crisp white sheets with lace edging on a large, comfortable bed where a pretty girl lay sleeping, her auburn curls fanned out on the white pillow.

A young man sat up languidly beside her.

His naked torso seemed strikingly pale illuminated in the sunlight, and his dark hair was slightly tousled and tickled his brow as he looked down at the girl, whose milky white shoulders lay equally unclothed peeking from beneath the covers, her youthful face peaceful in sleep.

Erik turned away idly, his gaze falling to the little table beside the large double bed, and picked up an indigo ribbon which lay abandoned among a few other trinkets. He uncoiled the silky material, winding it around his fingers, and caught the sweet, perfumed scent the girl must favour. Several minutes passed with Erik leaning disinterestedly on the headboard, glancing occasionally at the girl to see if she had awoken and twirling the ribbon almost boredly. At last, he looked beside him to see wide open blue eyes.

"Oh," breathed the girl, reaching a small hand out to him. He smiled again, not a warm smile, but genuine, and allowed her to lay a hand on his chest.

"Hello Katie," Erik said loftily. The girl was Lady Katherine Carlisle, daughter of the Earl of Westmorland. A sweet little thing, barely seventeen, and the picture of girlish innocence with her lovely red hair and big blue eyes. Well, not so innocent now. Erik dangled the ribbon before her.

"Mind if I keep this, darling?" He said lightly, and Katherine blushed.

"Why would you want that old thing?" She said, embarrassed by Erik's blatant scrutiny of her and wriggling uncomfortably under the covers. He smiled, and tossed the ribbon towards his discarded coat on the floor.

"Personal reasons."

A couple of days later, when Erik had returned to his own home and and left the Lady Katherine with empty promises and unreasonable hopes, he absent-mindedly tied an indigo ribbon onto the iron rail of his bedstead, where it sat beside a dozen or so other scraps of cloth and ribbon, all in different bright colours.