Description: Broad-shouldered and a few inches over six feet tall, Romulius manages to strike the impressive frame that would be expected of one of the Mourning Isles' warrior sons. Like the rest of those born of Blackshore, cerulean gaze serves as a clear signature of his bloodline, striking and vivacious on a tapestry of rough-hewn bronze. He keeps a full, well-trimmed beard of coarse hair the same midnight color as the curtain of locks that fall just below his shoulders, ending in loose curls. The whole of the man's body is marked by a latticework of scars, pale white lines marking out tallies against the darker tones of skin infused by the warmth of a lifetime's exposure to the sun. It's not uncommon to see him with a jaw set with conviction and determination, pride and stubbornness apparent in their frame around a pair of thin lips set below a broad nose.

Personality: Stubborn and with a pride that has (thankfully) found some waning since the days of his youth, Romulius is far from the image of levity that his younger brother strikes in the eyes of the Peerage. Honorable to a fault and with a passion that occasionally manages to spill out of a carefully curated sense of politesse and decorum, he possesses a dedication to family and duty that tends to overshadow good sense. Cursed by Blackshore's mercurial blood, he is as quick to flash a grin as descend into a violent temper, vivid blue eyes taking on the appearance of Mangata's furor when driven to particular agitation. Quicksilver is, after all, a fickle thing, as prone to expressions of pleasure and contentment as it is rage and contempt.

Background: While he wasn't born to Blackshore's head of house, Romulius was still the first of his generation and the heir presumptive to the barony thanks to the Mad Baron Oswald's presumed lack of personal progeny. Cornelius Blackshore's firstborn son, the young lord was raised from birth with the expectation that he would one day come to rule from Blackshore Keep and carry on the family's lengthy history of naval architecture and fierce militarism.

Cornelius, in his duties as chief Naval Architect to Donrai Thrax, was required to spend the vast majority of his time sailing the Compact's seas, and his young family was almost always in tow. When formal tutors could not be arranged, the disciplinarian would see to Romulius's education himself, oft at the expense of more direct attention to his younger siblings - a fact that the eldest relished, acting as a shield to Dycard and Skye when Cornelius's tempers would rise to violence. For all of his intensity, though, there was no denying his father's commitment to securing a better life for his children, even if his firstborn was often used as a tool with which to achieve it. The young lord was often presented to other houses in order to discuss future political matches, Cornelius intent on finding a capable bride for the heir-apparent to the barony of Blackshore.

It wouldn't be until later in his childhood that the veneer of a relatively charmed life would begin to crack, his mother Florence of House Gilden turning ill after his fifteenth birthday. With her health quickly waning, Cornelius was forced to deposit both his wife and young daughter back at Blackshore Keep with his older brother in order to carry out his duties to Thrax without distraction. The apparent abandonment was a source of division between Romulius and his father, especially when the stress of separation would lead towards more violence that the young lord made his best efforts to shield his younger brother from. As the spare, Dycard was undoubtedly afforded more freedom in his pursuits, and the elder brother was happy to live vicariously through his sibling while resigned to his lessons beneath their father, all the while gnawed at by the knowledge that his sister and mother were subject to Oswald's violent tempers and deteriorating mind.

It was just a few years after coming of age that tragic news struck in the destruction of Blackshore Keep, allegedly by way of dragonfire. At sea with Cornelius and Dycard, their ship immediately diverted course towards their family's holdings to assess the damages. Their travel was cut short when the ship was waylaid by pirates, an ambush that saw only Cornelius escape while his two sons were captured. The next two years would see Romulius and Dycard in captivity, the elder brother stubbornly refusing to submit to the pirates' demands to join the crew in their reavings. He was instead forced to venture into their fighting pits at various ports of call, made to fight to the death in bets or for simple amusement. It would be a long while before the brothers were able to escape, forever changed by their time as prisoners.

On returning to their home, they found the very beginnings of Skye's works to restore their family to its former glory, the first limestone structures of New Hope razed around a modest port. Immediately turning themselves towards her support, Romulius would come to serve as both the family's Sword and as its Minister of War, skills learned in the fighting pits forging the man into a weapon more lethal than any master-at-arms had ever been able to make of him. Quickly falling into line with the new reality of his baby sister acting as Baroness, he would be named her Heir and Voice and be turned upon the capital in Arx, an experience entirely unlike any he had faced prior to making landfall there.

One such stint in the capital would see a reconnection with a childhood friend in Princess Natasha Thrax, his closest companion and confidante since the age of eight. While they had carried out an extensive epistolary campaign in the years since the burdens of adulthood had forced distance, the pair would quickly reforge their friendship in a connection that would eventually bloom into a betrothal that saw the two wed, Romulius giving up the name Blackshore to join House Thrax as Prince.

Relationship Summary

Sibling:

Dycard - My younger brother. We've kept each other alive and protected each other for as long as I can remember. It's time to come home.

Skye - If it necessitates me cutting the Dream to ribbons, I will find you.

Frenemy:
Friend:

Scylla - The Baroness Stormblood has earned every bit of success that she has found in this world. I first met her as the Admiral of my family's 2nd Fleet - she is steadfastly loyal and far sharper than she has any right to be.

Mabelle - Her friendship is one of my more confounding ones, but I will continue to levy praise on her many enterprises in service to her people and the Compact at large as long as she might allow.

Ian - A friend and mentor. He's quick to correct my mistakes in the sparring ring, and I'm fortunate to be able to lean on his wisdom.

Apollo - The Duke-Consort Malespero is perhaps the most outwardly unexpected of my friendships, especially given its strength. Let there be no mistakes - Apollo has earned every bit of regard he possesses, and doubtlessly ranks amongst the Compact's best and brightest spirits.

Lianne - The Duchess Malespero may never cease to confound me, but there are exceedingly few individuals I would rather engross myself in conversation with. She never lacks for insight, and all the better that she might offer it from such a radically different perspective than my own.

Ophira - It is a rare thing that we see anything close to eye-to-eye, but it is impossible to express exactly how much her friendship has meant to my life.

Family:

Iseulet - My cousin who is willing to step up to so much. I hope everything works out well.

Thesbe - Iseulet's twin sister. The crafter. I hope one day she will join us as she should be.

Rowynna - My dear cousin. I'm glad that she's found her way to our side of the family.

Aedric - He's always been my favorite uncle, perhaps unsurprisingly. Free to the sea for much of my life, and steady when our family needed him to be.

Kael - I do not know my cousin even a fraction as well as I would like to, or as I ought to, but the man's reputation is well-earned. His honor, by my reckoning, is a more sure thing than the sun rising in the morning.

Jasher - While my cousin-by-marriage might have possessed some misgivings upon my joining the Royal House of Thrax - and he still might - I have never felt any for him. His reputation precluded such things long before we met, and to have been afforded the privilege of knowing him as a friend and brother-in-arms is a blessing I do not count lightly.

Turo - There was a time, once, where I would have counted you amongst the most fiercely magnanimous members of our bloodline. It was by your good graces that my sister was allowed to set House Blackshore back upon the path it has coursed for a millennium. I mourn what you once were.

Enemy:
Patron:
Mourning isles:

Haakon - The Lord Eswynd is a fast friend and, by my estimate, undeserving of much of the less savory elements of his reputation. If every prodigal could show the same efficiency and competency in their service to our Compact, I imagine most would be much more tolerant of those who have proven their wisdom by bending the knee.

Parent:

Florence Gilden - My late mother. Some wounds will never heal.

Cornelius - My father. An altogether unpleasant man, but his dedication to House is undeniable.

Spouse:

Natasha - The Compact possesses no shortage of those individuals who could be said to be blessed by excessive fortune. That Thrax and Blackshore saw their alliances important enough to cement with my marriage to Natasha certainly means that I count as the greatest amongst them. I have known her since the age of eight, when a chance encounter carried me to Maelstrom alongside my father, and led to the founding of a friendship that I have held longer than any other in my life. She is at once the most competent and most frightening woman I have ever had the privilege to know.