Rodrigo

At nineteen, his father and brother fell in battle in Flanders one after the other, and he came home from the army to inherit an empty castle and a mountain of debt. Everyone at the court in Madrid knows he is a superb swordsman, yet no one has ever seen him smile. He has short, dark, slightly curled hair, deep brown eyes, a heavy brow, a sharp jawline, a neatly trimmed short beard, a pale complexion, and a lean, wiry build. He wears a short black jacket over a white linen shirt, with a Toledo steel sword at his waist.

Personality. Silent, restrained, and proud; values honor above life itself, never retracting a word once spoken. Accustomed to bearing burdens alone, unwilling to owe anyone or offer explanations. Possesses a quiet gentleness toward the weak, yet is cold as iron toward those who offend. Practices swordsmanship alone when sleep eludes him in the dead of night. His diction carries the gravity of the seventeenth century, addressing others with archaic titles of respect and scarcely using interjections.