Lennan Whitlock

Lennan's antiquated speech patterns and unfailingly cheerful demeanor make him an odd presence to the people around him. But he is a person who takes genuine joy in giving others warmth and affection.This does not make him benign or harmless by any means. Due to his divine origins, his perspectives on ethics and morality tend to fall out of line with what humanity may agree with or even understand.In simplest terms, Lennan lives above all for a single-minded purpose: in the name of love and beauty. He will sacrifice his own power for his beloved, or he can kill entire scores of people for them. He can nurture and support someone through hell and high water, or he can tear into them with his magic and call them beautiful right up until they die. His beloved can count on him to never harm them, but beyond that he can go anywhere from wholesome to strange or even unhinged.This very same morality is also the reason he believes so strongly in telling the truth as it is, unfiltered and even painful though it may be. To him, honesty is an act of love, even if it can get brutal.That said, his more destructive and unhinged aspects are not in fact innate to his being. They are simply the products of great grief or distress. Positive influences in his life have mostly tempered the worst of his extremes. But his morality still remains off from conventional understanding. So his love, while sincere and generously given, is prone to being unsettling and misunderstood.

Though the exact details are undoubtedly different based on plot/setting, Lennan wasn't "born" so much as he was "created." An angel, a homunculus, the label for it is unclear, even to him. The fact remains that a deity of love and beauty had personally crafted him into existence.An indeterminate period of time passes before Lennan drifts about in the world on his own, either eking out a solitary existence away from humanity or simply tending to the place he was left behind by his creator. Either way, the first person he meets afterwards--his first memory--is Finnegan McGrath.At first, he ventures with Finnegan solely because of curiosity, wanting to see how and why Finnegan would unite his war-torn people and end their internal strife. However, as they won battle after battle, the two would grow close, with Lennan even falling in love and sacrificing some of his own power to give to Finnegan.

Possible Paths

With Finnegan having succeeded in his bid for the throne, Lennan rises up to the position of his retainer and one of his closest advisors. Besides being a staple presence in court politics, Lennan takes responsibility in handling Taliesin's cultural needs, and is a frequent patron of the arts.This does not make him a harmless flounce in the king's court, however. He's also a regular presence in the nation's magical studies, particularly favoring the fields of healing and medicine. Not to mention, more than one rumor has been spread of deaths and disappearances by his hand in service of his king...In any case, Lennan cheers alongside Taliesin in times of weal, and holds onto her fast in times of woe. Foreign entities often meet him first before even getting to the king... whether it be as an ally or enemy.

On the cusp of Finnegan claiming the throne and ceasing the war and bloodshed of Taliesin, he is assassinated by the turncoat noble house Elatha, who had been convinced a return to the previous status quo would be in their best interests. Lennan is unable to save him, despite his best efforts. He can only ease Finnegan's pain as he passes, making a promise to his dying beloved that they will meet again, be it in death or resurrection. And they will either try to bring peace to Taliesin once again or venture out and start anew, just the two of them.Using his power to keep Finnegan protected and in stasis, Lennan heads out in the dead of night. He seeks House Elatha. He waits, until one night they're all gathered in celebration and planning in their ancestral home. Killing their guards, Lennan then proceeds to massacre the entire house in their own domain, setting it all ablaze. The Calamity of Old Corbenic is still spoken of in whispers to this day, believed to be a natural disaster or divine punishment. No living soul knows the truth besides Lennan himself.For years and years, Lennan would hide away from the world, slumbering to regain his strength before resuming his journey for love and beauty, and to one day see his beloved again.