Description:
    Before thy eyes stands a man who is 'tall, dark, and handsome' in that remarkable, Lyscene way. He has laugh lines around his eyes, but they are shrunken, shallow, and fading. His facial hair is often between completely shaven, or stubble and this has begun to fade from pitch black to edged with grey. His hair is often of medium length, and brushed back or aside, immaculately cut. His brows are thick, dark, heavy. The eyes there...black, like coal but glisten like onyx and often Santiago's face is set in such a way as to be stoic or even, cold. When he does smile it is full, practiced, and shows his teeth. On the neck are images leading up towards the back of the ears: Tattoos of red-bloom roses, red like blood, with black thorns and vegetation creeping down under the clothing. His skin is light brown, yet in seasons when much sun is had, this Fidante turns darker.

Personality:
    The Mantis In The Roses - that is what Santiago Leonardo Fidante is often referred to as in the nicer gossip circles of Velenosa. A reference to the man's vast, clinical intelligence and razor-edged perception, and rapid wits.
    In far more unkinder circles, there's different names. Different praises. It's less about the genius touch he handles Roses with, and their land, and more about the absolutely viscious way in which Santiago Leonardo Fidante will protect his family. He has the personality of the dutiful, clinical gardener who ensures not a leaf is out of place, not a petal too many, not a thorn too blunt. Once, they say, when he was young he was full of life and joy; giving to charities, and walking through the lands with adventure on his soul. Now, after the death of his siter - Giancinta - Santiago is seemingly muted. Not joyless, but stoic, looking upon the world with the lens of Tehome.

    Santiago is the type to enjoy the long game. The board games, the stacking of coins and blocks - conquering his own mind in privacy, but when set into social circles? He will find a pretty flower to post upon, and wait. Watch. Not a petal out of place.

Background:
        Santiago Leonardo Cortez Fidante.
They talk about this man's childhood with laughter, and good tidings, and /goodness/. When he was young, his bright mind was seemingly put to endless use to make things better. People, better. His siblings would have ideas for games? Santiago, would make those games, better. More efficient, and gilded with the light and richness of knowledge. In his youth his father had seen his gift of a sharp mind and put him into tutoring. All was good, the world, was good. The Roses were happy, and bloomed fine.
        Santiago would guide his country behind the scenes, and bring order to the organization of coin, people, and plans like a benevolent overseer.

        The murders changed that.
Oh yes, murders. A sister. A niece. As the blood of Fidante hit the earth, so did people around Santiago begin to report the man growing more withdrawn, focusing inward, his office became his home and his social existence began to crawl - and that sharp mind became stoic, distant, and almost cold on a clinical level. It is often that physicians would tend him, and he would speak, and learn, and learn...and learn. Years would go by, and there were rumors that those who did wrong to or within Fidante often disappeared soon after - and those rumors grew quiet when they looked to the office of Santiago Leonardo Cortez Fidante, and for many years, there was an aura they say, of foreboding there. When Calista Fidante came into power, something changed again, and 'The Mantis In The Roses' came out of his office to set his dark eyes on the world. His estate was put into order almost immedietly - and so did great red roses bloom from that day on...but the goodness wasn't quite gone but, changed. Different. The gardens smelling a little of rot beneath the perfume of roses, and surely, it's just the fish parts mixed into the soil...right?

    Santiago had put his estate into true order, and once they were made as a distant hub for him to go abroad, he left to be beside his niece with the reputation hidden in quiet rumors as a terribly viscious protector of his family, and of Fidante itself.

Relationship Summary

Family:

Aconite - I once did her a kindness. She has repayed this each day since the day she was four, by becoming a true Woman of Tor. Intelligent, but wise and compassionate. Yet tempered by etiquette.

Calista - Niece.

Esme - Niece.

Thorn - Ward of Fidante.

Thorn - A Ward of Fidante in title, but she has established herself as part of my family. As such, she is held to the same standards in my eyes as any of my nieces; and each time, she meets it. Thorn is the kind of Wild Child I had imagined myself having as a daughter, when I was a young man, and now that I have met with her, spoken with her, I could confirm it to the whole of Arvum that she is not just wild and free; but deeply invested into the soil of Tor, literally and figuratively. Her wisdom lays in plants and the truth of the earth, rather than people, and besides? She, knows the Secret of the Best Roses.

Esme - This woman, one of my nieces, is like a light in a cavern. She does not show her full hand, but she is still a light in the dark, enough so as to bring one comfort, safety, and some small amount of joy just by existing. Her mind is sharp, and her will is strong.

Calista - The Duchess of Tor, MY Duchess, and my beloved sister's daughter. One of them, but the one who most reminds me of my sister. She is the epitome of Tor, and what it means to be Fidante. Cunning, wise, she loves her people as if they are not just her people, but family. Fidante.