History of Sir John Milton (Henry De'Montford)

[Mike]

I have been thinking about my eventual new character for when I return to being a happy player.

I have decided on a character called Henry. I would assume his age to be between 40-50. As a rough description I would say that he is a poised and distinguished gentleman with a face lined and creased by both happyness and more recent harder times. His black hair is peppered with grey and white and his blue eyes are piercingly calm.

Usually Henry will be seen wearing chain mail, covered by a blue, silver trimmed, surcoat complete with his family crest on the left breast. The right breast is surprisingly empty despite the regional vernacular of having an organisations crest upon it, such as an order of knights or lords household. He wears no helm and does not hold a shield, however, a shield (covered) can be seen either on his back or on his horse. A fine longsword and a well tooled (and well worn) scabard hang from his belt. His arms and armour are in excellent condition and are obviously well used. In the extreemly cold conditions Henry wears a silver trimmed blue heavy cloak to keep warm.

As for his profession Henry claims to be a Blademaster. His manners, knowledge of society and stance bely a more prominent profession, namely that of a Cavilier. He was trained by one of the great Knights of the time (His training began at the age of 6) and as befitting his family name was initiated into the Order of the Templar as a Knight on the anniversary of his 10th year holding a blade (aged 16). In his youth Henry was a fine and noble example of a Knight Templar, he defended the weak, gave charitably to the poor and aquited himself well on the battlefields chosen by his superiors. At the age of 20 his family chose a bride whom he married and almost immediately sired twins, a boy and a girl. Both his children were imersed in the life of society and the Order. In the same year his son and daughter were initiated as Knights in the Order Henry was promoted to a high rank. This marked the important turning point of his life before play begins.

Upon promotion Henry was exposed to increadible corruption witnessing senior members commit adultary, murder, extorition, accepting cash for the Knights aid in regional conflicts and sending Knights to combat under false pretenses for their own gain. He bacame increasingly, and publically, critical of his superiors and peers.

His daughter, a fine warrior and true Knight, was victimised in an attempt to silence his errant ways. She was sent as part of a woefully underfunded expedition to cull the giants. She and her command were set to fail with the giants being prewarned of her mission and were ambushed in a raveen. His daughter was never seen again and was classified Missing in Action [presumed dead], the political circle of Knights blamed Henry for teaching his daughter poorly which resulted in this horrible defeat. His son blamed him for his outspoken ways (and lack of power to prevent or aid her) and became involved with Henry's enemies. Henry's wife never recovered from the shock and died 3 months later.

Henry was unfortunately resolute in his critique of the Knights and was framed (with the aid of his increasingly bitter son) for his wifes death. Presented to the Knights supreme council on a charge of murder and bringing the order into disrepute. Henry submitted to a detect lie spell under his trial (several mages and clerics were called to perform this test), under the influence of the spells Henry was found to be telling the truth. He was found innocent of the murder trial but the council found him guilty of 'Bringing the order into disrepute' and banished him from the Kingdom, confiscating his family estates, assets and titles in the process.

His estates and wealth were passed to his remaining son, less the expenses of the trial, taxations of the order and inheritance duties of the kingdom.

Henry then took an oath to accept his banishment and forsake the Order and its trappings until such a time he could convince the Knights of the error of their ways by his honourable actions in the field. Five years have now passed. The order have posted a bounty for Henry brought back dead or alive as he has become an increasing influential figurehead to a small and very young group of Knights Templar whom attempt to live by his example.

Henry uses the title bladesmaster to avoid unneccessary difficulties with the local nobility, he gives generously to charity and only owns the following high value items his full plate (magical, inc shield, gauntlets and helm), which he will not wear, chain mail, a heron marked family sword (magical, herons denote blademaster status), lance and horse. Any money he does not need to live will be spent on good causes.

His trademark skill is the abilty to stand in a 1.5' diameter circle and, without moving his feet, defend using only a blade against multiple opponents, he will not draw his blade until the first opponents blade is comitted to a swing. He practices drawing the blade frequently and can smoothly draw and attack as normal in a single segment. This ability can be used from sitting, lying or stading positions.

Hope this all makes sense!

[mr_e]

What a loser.

Seriously though, seems a well thought-out character. Should be interesting to see in action. Does he dye his beard blue? That would be cool.

[Mike]

What a loser.

Seriously though, seems a well thought-out character. Should be interesting to see in action. Does he dye his beard blue? That would be cool.

Dont know why you ask if his beard is dyed blue. . . . No it isnt, why do you ask?????

Confused

[Mike]

Ahhh, you gotta love google. I found a reference to Blue Beard [Ch?teau de Gilles de Rais (dit Barbe-Blue)] who had his estate confiscated by his enemies (this is recent scholarly thinking - not very well proven acording to the website) and yes it is rather a similar story but I don't think I knew about it before I wrote the history. . . .

Mike

Reference website

[mr_e]

Dont know why you ask if his beard is dyed blue. . . . No it isnt, why do you ask?????

To match his surcoat, silly! Plus I'd just seen that producer (Mark Hudson?) who works with Sharon Osborne on the "X Factor" show. He dyes his goatee at least two different colours. At once.

[Mike]

Dont know why you ask if his beard is dyed blue. . . . No it isnt, why do you ask?????

To match his surcoat, silly! Plus I'd just seen that producer (Mark Hudson?) who works with Sharon Osborne on the "X Factor" show. He dyes his goatee at least two different colours. At once.

[Mike]

I have decided to edit the name of this character to Sir John Milton. He is a 60 year old character with the same history.

This is to bring him in line with a concept for a character I have been hoping to play for a while. I will post the stats soon.

[Fez]

no, no, no, you can't change the character's name, it has altered my entire perception of who he is - henry is a name that brings out sympathy for his unjust plight, john however suggests he is a simpering moron who deserves everything he gets.

also, for some reason i get the impression i've heard the name john milton before but i can't for the life of me think where. anyway, won't it get confusing during gamesnights if we start calling you john while presumably we'll have to call the real john and john something else?

i suggest an immediate cull of everyone called john to avoid this potential problem, and we should start killing them off alphabetically - now, which comes first, E or R?

alternatively, i suggest i stop using the internet during my lunch breaks so that in future this meaningless rubbish i am typing can be avoided

[Guest]

John Milton 1608 - 1674 - A celebrated 17th century author, poet and essayist

I knew that literature A - Level would come in usual eventually![/img]

[Fez]

John Milton 1608 - 1674 - A celebrated 17th century author, poet and essayist

I knew that literature A - Level would come in usual eventually![/img]

that was me - forgot to log back in

[Mike]

Sir John is a name I have bandied around a couple of times as an idea for a character. It comes from an adaption of the town Milton Keynes. However, Milton Keynes is a silly name so I shortened it. It is interesting that there is a historical figure whom had the same name.

As for what to call me. Well my friends would call me Sir John, however, you can call me Milton, if you prefere. . . . We shall have to see if he provokes sympathy when you meet him in game time. Some how I suspect not for a man of noble birth and a man of the streets. You never know though. :D

[Mike]

I know that this is really silly but now I have had some more time to think about this situation I have decided that I have really got two characters here. The first is Blademaster Henry and the second is the venerable Sir John Milton.

With this in mind I have decided to be THE Sir John Milton and his character profile and statistics shall follow shortly.

Mark is there any chance I can have a character sheet from your hefty pile of photocopies?????

[Fez]

i'm confused - does this mean the history at the top of this thread is of henry d'montford and sir john will have a completely different background?

[Mark Scollon]

Course you can have a sheet Mike. I'll bring them with me next week.

[Mike]

i'm confused - does this mean the history at the top of this thread is of henry d'montford and sir john will have a completely different background?

You are correct. Henry de'montford is a character in his own right. I originally thought that the two characters were similar enough to survive a name morph. However, when I thought about it properly I realised that the renegade Henry had a totally different image in my mind to Sir John.

I will write up the history and Stats of the totally new character Sir John when I get home (and after I have eaten a lovely fish for tea!)