Count-Palatine Paule Westmark

Henry Cavill as Paule Westmark

CHARACTER BRIEF

Full Name:	Paule Westmark
Byname:	The Shadow Baron
Age:	39
Kingdom:	Rhaedan
House:	Westmark
Title/Profession:	Count-Palatine
Position:	Advisor to Prince Jerric / Guerilla Warfare
Place of Birth:	Elkmound Keep

FAMILY

Father:	Tinan Westmark (d.)
Mother:	Aithne Westmark nee Sollinger (d.)
Siblings:	Ambassador Armon Westmark
Spouse:	Baroness Katarina Westmark nee Rhaedan
Children:	Baronet Coriaria Westmark Lord Castor Westmark Lady Lilium Westmark (d.) Lady Laurel Westmark

The Baron of Westmark, Paule barely remembers a time when his land was not under siege and is currently in charge of its rebuilding and stepping out into the light again from the shadows of stealth and darkness. Married to Katarina Westmark, they have recently reunited their children to make a more public face to the recovering Westmark and its rebuilding to full force.

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Paule Westmark did not have an easy life or rule so far to say the least. Born in 1290, he was only seven summers old when the ships of the Corsair fleet landed on the shores of Westmark and launched their invasion. From the day the invasion begun, it was clear that Paule would not have the life of most nobles. Instead of learning etiquette and social graces, he was trained to use a dagger with deadly efficiency and his Baroness mother, a skilled healer, started teaching him how to assist in healing the wounded when they arrived at the Keep. During the first eight years of the invasion, the Westmark barony employed the same basic tactics that most large units would use, but the Corsairs were ruthless and did not follow the typical scheme of war.

By 1305, it was clear that the Barony of Westmark was under full siege. While the armies of Rhaedan and Taniford helped to contain the Corsair advances, they did little to nothing to assist in driving back the Corsair hordes. Paule's father, frustrated with the perceived lack of support, started hiring assassins - including a Master Assassin to start teaching the then 15 year old Paule the art of stealth and assassination. Paule would learn from the Assassin during the evening hours and during the day would be brought up to speed on the war and the more proper tactics of Rhaedan military units during the day.

For the next three years this training cycle continued in private. Paule learned to mix poisons and heal, to help and learn from his people and lead and prepare to become the next Baron should something happen to his mother and father. Unfortunately, in 1308, the truth would come to pass. During a siege of Elkhorne Keep, Paule's father challenged the Corsair to a one on one duel. His condition of victory is that the Corsairs would leave his lands. Her demand was that if she won, then the oldest heir would be forced into marriage to her daughter, solidifying a legitimate claim in the eyes of Rhaedan of Westmark as Corsair territory. The duel between Paule's father and the Corsair Queen was not clean in the least. However, it seemed that Paule's father had the upper hand, until the Corair Queen employed a cheap tactic and poisoned the Baron with her blade. As he laid dying, she declared victory and demanded Paule surrender.

The Baroness of Westmark refused, and the ransacking of the Keep began. Paule was spirited away along with his brother, and the Baroness was murdered. Paule was broken. And angry. Very angry. Embracing this new desire that he had to seek vengeance on the Corsairs, Paule started employing the tactics that were taught to him at such a young age. He broke the Westmark army down from an army in standing into tactical strike units combining infantry and archers that worked namely under the cover of darkness. They would hold a position, and then if forced to retreat, destroy anything of value and poison the wells. They would hold a vineyard and poison the wine. He would employee prostitutes to kill amorous Corsairs in their sleep. He led raiding parties against supply ships, and prison camps. No longer did Westmark armies meet the Corsairs in the open field. They would run and cover and strike from the shadows. This made a marked change in the war and siege and infuriated the Corsair Queen to no end.

In the winter of 1308, King Breac, recognizing the advances that the young Baron had made against the Corsairs, started to send in more proper Rhaedan units and scout teams. One of these units was led by Lady Sir Katarina Rhaedan, the King's third cousin. Katarina was not only there to serve as a scout, she came with a simple missive. She and Paule had been arranged behind the scenes and she was to become his wife to null the Corsair Queen's claim that her daughter be the one to marry Paule Westmark. They married in a public ceremony and the proclamation was made of a new Baroness. The Corsair Queen rose to the challenge and had her daughter issue a duel to Sir Katarina on the field of battle. Winner to take Paule and Westmark.

This time, Paule was prepared. As Katarina battled the Corsair Princess, he moved in stealthily behind the Queen and her guards with a small unit. As Katraina took a hard strike to her side, she was able to drive her blade through the head of the Corsair Princess. When the Princess fell to die, the Corsair Queen rose to yell her protest, only to taste the blade of Paule Westmark in her back as the young Baron filleted her from ass to neck and ripped away, retreating again into the shadows. This dual death of Princess and Queen was the first fracture in the Corsair lines, and with the collapse, the Corsairs started challenging the Queen's widowed husband, and gave Westmark its first real chance to turn the tide of war.

After the death of the Princess and Queen of the Corsairs, the Westmarks continued to secure back their lands, city by city, farm by farm with the support of the Rhaedan armies now in full swing. In order to further secure Katarina's place as Baroness, in 1310 she gave birth to twins, Coriaria and Castor. Coriaria was born five minutes before her brother, and therefore became the heir of the land. Katarina was a quick study to learn the tactics of her husband and started leading several daring raids herself, actually creating all female units to strike out at the Corsairs. And in 1312 she delivered her husband another set of twins, two daughters, Lilium and Laurel. Sadness would strike the family in a bout of White Fever five years later when Lilium's life was claimed.

For the next fourteen summers, this guerrilla war would continue between Westmark and Corsair, now with the support of Rhaedan and reluctantly, Taniford.

It was Katarina that lead the mission to take back Elkmound Keep in 1325, which marked the beginning of the end of the siege of Westmark as finally the full armies of the Rhaedan forces pushed back the Corsairs, usually with a Westmark scout in the lead. In 1326, with the close of the war, the Westmarks have mainly become isolationist, working to rebuild their lands, clean up and reprepare to be the stalwart defenders of both South Rhaedan and the seas.

Immediate Family

Katarina Westmark nee Rhaedan (36) — Third Cousin to King Breac and wife.
Coriaria 'Cricket' Westmark (19) — Baronet - Heir of Westmark
Castor Westmark (19) — Lord - Knight in Training
Lilium 'Belladonna' Westmark (d.) — Lady - Died of White Fever in 1318 at age 5.
Laurel 'Foxglove' Westmark (16) — Lady - Raised in Church

Physical Features

Standing at 1.9 meters tall, Paule Westmark carries himself with the pride and the weathered bearing of a seasoned war veteran. His face betrays his age of nearly forty summers old, though is still handsome. Ears that are rather large frame either side of his head, with curly black hair that is kept moderately short and just off of the nape of his neck. He shaves, but there is a permanent shadow of a beard along his jaw and his dimpled chin. He has high cheekbones and slightly sunken cheeks. His almond shaped eyes are a bright blue in color, and above them is dark and bushy brows. His nose flattens towards the middle, having healed a bit crooked at some time in the not to distant past, with full bowed lips beneath that.

He has a thick neck that leads into an athletically built frame, not overly muscular, but a frame that speaks of stealth and speed over strength and brawn. Over his frame, he wears a dark grey nearly black leather robe, hinted with traces of gold and brown embroidery. Brown leather crosses diagonally over his chest to a pair of shoulder pads on his right side. Leather gauntlets and bracers cover his forearms. Over the center of his chest is a stag's head made of silver as a catch for the belt. Around his waist is a golden sash, over it is a dark belt of leather, a dagger carried in a sheath at his waist.

The robes of leather hang down to reach the calf high leather boots he wears, fine gold embroidery in the hem of the robe along with the crest of the House Westmark, are courtesy of his wife. Underneath the robes he wears a loose white cloth shirt, a pair of black leather pants with a dark belt. He does not wear gloves except in cold weather, with his left hand bearing a simple a gold band of marriage.

Quirks

Assassin Training — In his youth, when the war first began, Paule's father thought it best to start to teach his son the art of stealth so that if something happened to his parents he could hide. What started out as stealth has branched out. It is rumoured that Paule lead many of the missions that wreaked havoc on the Corsair rear lines.
Deadly Wit — Paule has a sharp tongue and quick wit; unfortunately due to his time as a Baron under siege, he had to have a quick and ready tongue to get his point across quickly.
Dirty Tactics — From poisoning water supplies, hiring prostitutes to lure away unsuspecting Corsair officers, to trapping Corsairs in their ships as they burned, Paule Westmark is not the type to follow the standards of a stand-up battle. His units are trained in stealth and guerrilla warfare and in strike and fade tactics.
Family Loyalty — Ever since Katarina and Paule first bonded truly over the deaths of the Corsair Queen and Princess, they have been a bond stronger than steel. That loyalty carries over into each of his children, and there is nothing that the Baron Westmark would not do to see his family taken care of.
Release the Hounds — An avid breeder of the large Westmark Bog Hound (OOC: Irish Wolfhound), Paule takes good care of these loyal and gentle giants, training them in the arts of hunting and defense, and many of the best trained serve as castle guardians or as part of the entourage to the family. To own a Bog Hound is to own one of the top domesticated creatures in the kingdom.
Wine Connoisseur — As a result of the war and losses suffered during the siege, the Westmark barony now owns a few vineyards across the land. One of these vineyards produces a nutty and fruity tasting wine that is called Blood Wine, as the vineyard was planted on the mass grave of Corsairs that were murdered by a poisoning of the nearby water supply. The wine is safe to drink, but it is said that it is more potent than the usual wine because of its fertilizer.