Ashley Fiennes

Ashley Fiennes

Biological
Full name:	Ashley Fiennes
Born:	August 22
Birthplace:	Kingsfall, Valendia
Sex:	Male
Race:	Human
Hair:	Brown
Eyes:	Brown
Height:	5'10"
Weight:	185 lbs
Personal
Marital Status:	Widowed
Family/Relationships:	{{{family}}}
Religion:	Bastion Elementalism (Mullenkamp)
Title:	Grand Steward of the Rota Fortunae; Sayadin of the Dark
Nicknames:	None
Hobbies:	Reading, blacksmithing, weapon collecting
Known skills:	Sayadin powers, Riskbreaker abilities.
Favorite color:	Gold
Inspiration:	Sydney Losstarot
Motto:	"I am the reinforcements."

Early life

Ashley was born in the small village of Kingsfall in the Graylands region of Valendia. His father was a blacksmith, and his mother died in childbirth. As a child, Ashley was scrawny and was often picked on by the local boys due to his pretty boy looks and bookworm tendencies. Though he was smaller than the other children, Ashley was a natural and absorbed the training techniques he learned from his father's many books like a sponge, more than holding his own against the local ruffians. He began a formal apprenticeship with his father when he was 13, and took very easily to the smithing trade.

When Ashley came of age, however, he did not take over his father's smithy as per the custom. Instead, seeking to prove himself, he sought to join the Kingsguard division of the Valendia Knights of the Peace. He served with distinction, quickly working his way up the ranks, and became one of its youngest officers. It was during this period that Ashley would meet and fall in love with an innkeeper's daughter, Tia Lesaine, and the two wed and had a son named Marco. Life was blissfully content for the young family, but their happiness was cut tragically short. During a family picnic, a group of highwaymen brutally attacked them and Ashley was unable to prevent them from killing Tia and Marco. This incident would be the major turning point in Ashley's life. He became dead inside, and transferred into the VKP's highly dangerous elite Riskbreaker Militia, changing his name to Ashley Riot. His driving mission in life became bringing criminals and brigands to justice, whether by the law or the sword. His prodigious strength, skill and single-minded determination, coupled with his near-insane devotion and bravery (it could be fair to say Ashley was trying to get himself killed) made him the best asset the Riskbreakers had. He became the go-to man for missions even other Riskbreakers would shrink from. In an order that prided itself on suicide missions to the point where there was a 30% survival rate among its agents, the fact that Ashley a senior agent with six years under his belt spoke volumes about his skill.

The Graylands Incident

It was his tremendous reputation that led his VKP superiors to call him in the middle of a balmy October night to deal with what was ostensibly a hostage situation at the manor of decorated war hero and senior MP Duke Aldous Byron Bardorba. Members of the terrorist group/religious cult Mullenkamp seized control of the manor, taking the Duke and his family hostage. Their demands were for the release of cultists that were imprisoned as the result of a failed assassination attempt on the King of Valendia the previous winter, and the resignation of Arch Cardinal Batistum, corrupt head of the Iocan Church. The VKP charged Ashley with the task of apprehending the cult's leader, Sydney Losstarot, and in an unusual move, VKP Inquisitor Agent Callo Merlose was assigned to assist him.

When Ashley and Callo arrived at the manor, they were greeted by Crimson Blades, who were there under their own orders from Batistum to capture Losstarot. The cultists set the manor on fire, and Sydney fled to the Dark City of Lea Monde with the Duke's young son, Joshua.

Ashley and Callo followed in hot pursuit, but Callo was captured by Sydney shortly after their arrival in the city. Sydney led Ashley on a wild goose chase all over the city, trading barbs with him and playing mind games at every turn, and all the while Ashley fought Guildenstern's Crimson Blades as well. Despite the games, the Riskbreaker came to a sort of respect for the sorcerer, and the two even joined forces against the Blades. Sydney finally revealed his true objective: making Ashley his successor to the powers of the city and Master of the Dark. The entire incident was simply a way for Sydney to draw out a worthy successor. Ashley pointedly refused until it was clear that the Dark was Guildenstern's true objective; Sydney begged Ashley to stop the power-mad knight from gaining mastery of the Dark and Ashley pledged to do so. He killed Guildenstern in a dramatic duel atop Lea Monde's Grand Cathedral, and in doing so became Sayadin of the Dark, Sydney's true successor to the legacy of Lea Monde. The city began to crumble, and in the ensuing chaos, Ashley rescued the severely wounded Sydney and spirited him to a Mullenkamp safehouse outside the city of Lesalia. Ashley nursed the wounded sorcerer back to health, and in that short period of time, he realized he was deeply in love with Sydney. For his part, Sydney returned Ashley's feelings, but was bound by a solemn pact made with his father, Duke Bardorba, to save Joshua from the "taint" of the Dark. With the last of the Bardorba family dead save Aldous and Sydney and the Dark in the hands of a righteous successor, all that was left for Sydney to do was to kill his father and them himself. Ashley begged him not to go through with it, but Sydney swore an oath that could not be broken, so instead Ashley vowed to aid him. They returned to the Graylands, to the Duke's secondary manor, and Ashley told Sydney to use the last of his Sayadin power to place a glamour over himself to make him appear to be the Riskbreaker in order to gain entrance to the manor. Sydney objected, knowing full well the implications of such an act, but Ashley insisted, wanting to give him one last gift out of love if they could not be together. In Ashley's eyes, his life was over anyway when Sydney decided to take his. Sydney did so, killed his father and then himself.

Because it was Ashley Riot who was ostensibly the last person to see the Duke alive, he was the prime suspect in the assassination and as a result became the most wanted fugitive in the kingdom. He was formally expelled from the VKP in disgrace, but by then Ashley was a vagrant, travelling the kingdom, learning to control his developing Sayadin abilities and using them to help people. He went through a period where he was nearly driven mad by grief over the loss of Sydney and the fact that he seemed to be a conduit for the souls of all those who died in Lea Monde.

Post Valendian Cataclysm

When Valendia fell two years later, Ashley was drawn through the Corridors into Hallowed Bastion, perhaps an instinctual response driven by his status as Sayadin. However it happened, though, Ashley awoke on the beach and was found shortly thereafter by a fishing boat. Ashley settled in the city proper and took over an abandoned smithy, renouncing the name Riot because it reminded him of his utter failure. Business boomed, and he took on Lian Feynman as an apprentice after the boy stumbled into the shop begging for a job in the wake of his expulsion from the Knights of the Bastion. Ashley became very fond of him, and took great amusement in his youthful enthusiasm. A few months later, a chance encounter with Callo in the Bastion's marketplace, would shake up his life again. He'd long believed his former partner to have perished in the destruction of Lea Monde. She revealed she'd found her way to the Bastion also, and that she'd been taken in by Prince Ansem along with a few other Valendian refugees. She introduced Ashley to Ansem, who was greatly intrigued by his Riskbreaker abilties. Gabriel Crescent was equally impressed, and tried to recruit Ashley into the Knights of the Bastion. Instead, Ashley founded the Rota Fortunae as an adjunct organization to the Knights, along the lines of the Riskbreaker Militia.

Life was good for Ashley in the Bastion, until the day he saw Sydney Losstarot--the lover he thought was long dead--kissing Ansem in one of the gardens. Ashley was devastated beyond description at the seeming betrayal, and a seething hatred for Ansem burned inside him, but there was little he could do about it--Ansem was his sovereign, and his tremendous personal sense of honor would not allow him to renounce his oaths. For his part, Sydney insisted he had no idea Ashley was still alive and was led by Mullenkamp to initiate the prince into the mysteries of the Dark, but Ashley's bitterness and jealousy would hear none of it.

When Ansem was overthrown by Dimetrius, the Knights of the Bastion suffered heavy losses due to traitors within its own ranks and fighting against Dimetrius' powerful supernatural allies. Thus, it fell to the Rota Fortunae to coordinate the guerilla strikes and sabotage missions that the Ansemite loyalists would rely on to fight back against the numerically superior Dimetrian forces. Because of this, Ashley became de-facto leader of what would come to be called the Resistance with the others--even the famously, stubbornly self-reliant Sir Gabriel--deferring to his leadership.

Ashley buries his pain and rage toward Ansem and Sydney, and throws himself into the Resistance leadership role. Only time will tell what impact the situation will have on the Resistance.