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Character Name: Lante Firik
Canon: Aruosumente
Canon Point: Chapter 18.
Background/History: Nothing is known of Lante's history prior to the rainy day when Rucetta and Kian found both him and his twin brother Dante in the forest. As Lante was violently ill then, Dante was forced to make a deal with Kian-- to serve the country with his outstanding swordsmanship in exchange for Lante's safety and future comfort. This would mark the first of many instances when Dante would make sacrifices for the sake of his brother.

The boys were placed under Rucetta's care, where their differences became as plain as day once Lante recovered from his illness. Lante's cheerfulness and amiability was an antithesis to Dante's sullen, silent self and made himself at home easily with the rest of the men at the Fin Field border. The men took to him naturally, offering him food and candy and old clothes and in turn, Lante would share them with his brother (whom others never really liked). At the same time, an odd observation would turn up: Dante was capable of sensing when Lante was in trouble and absolutely refused to leave Lante even for a few days. Likewise, when separated from Dante, Lante would fall ill once again, only to recover to the pink of health once Dante returned.

And then, one day, Kian came to visit. Rucetta was sent away to another stronghold and the boys left to his care. During his absence, the advance guard of Fin Field, the neighbouring country, attacked. To provide time for their soldiers to move out, Kian placed Dante and Lante outside the stronghold to face the 300-odd Fin Field soldiers. His intentions were simple: To sacrifice the brothers and make them as heroes when Rucetta returned with backup.

This did not go according to plan.

Dante would fight to the death to keep Lante safe, that much was true. Except that not only did the brothers survive the massacre, Dante would go on to become a legend within the region for killing all 300 of the Fin Field advance guard. In exchange, he would lose his sanity and run amok upon the smell of blood, injuring (and even killing) anyone in his path blindly. Only Lante, his brother, could snap him out of such conditions and not be harmed. He'd become his brother's keeper.

As Rucetta would put it-- whomever who controlled Lante would also control Dante, a dangerous weapon. Both brothers were instated as leaders of the knights and as fate would have it, Kian was assassinated soon after.

Fast forward to the present, Lante remains the head of the White Knights and is friends with Kian's son, Legna, who was previously unaware of the intense dislike Lante held towards his father. The both of them sit on the council with the current emperor and advise him on issues to discuss with the senate. One day, Legna, being the country's Oracle, has a foreboding dream that informs him of a murderous intent against the emperor. He attempts to wrangle out the identity of the mysterious to-be-assassin and at the same time, would start to learn about the past: Of the Firik brothers, of Kian, and of what transpired between the time the brothers were found to the assassination of his father.

Personality:
External facades paint Lante in a very positive light-- he's cheerful, upbeat and constantly surrounded by friends no matter where he goes. Some of it may be due to his looks (he states once that girls occasionally give him flowers for his hair), but most is due to his networking capability. He's the type of guy who can stroll up to anyone and engage them in conversation. Maybe not in length, but he constantly makes sure to try to follow up until the other party's comfortable to fall in the general vicinity of the friend category.

But that's not all! He's adventurous and game for almost anything (see: How he was absolutely fine with helping out the emperor with his hare-brained science experimens) and if you really need him for a pinch, he'll help bail you out and offer to put himself in the line of fire instead. Assuming that it isn't too serious a penalty to take on, of course. When he hears that Legna has never gotten clearance to view the fireworks, for instance, it's Lante who advises him to appeal to the senate about Lante's apparent bad influence on the emperor-- after all, if the senate hears that, they'll surely let him out to watch over the emperor, shouldn't they? If it's for a friend, he's fine.

Let it not be said that he's overly generous and is willing to take on everything for the sake of this construct of friendship however; Lante not a generous man and can be as calculative as anyone else. There are certainly Reasons for why he chooses every action that he takes-- whether to garner support, or to further his own motives. Going back to the example of telling Legna use him as a scapegoat for the fireworks, a little background needs to be given with regard to the plan: Due to the actions of the previous Oracle, the senate and military highly ostracised Oracle involvement in anything related to the state-- this had gotten so bad that Legna barely knew anything about the world outside the palace. Lante disapproved of this. By giving Legna a bit more freedom, he stood a chance to shift the mindset while making it so that Legna seems to be the one initiating things, leaving his own hands clean.

It isn't as dastardly a plot as it could possibly be, but for someone to be able to propose something like that on the fly, the great question remains as to where his limits are in terms of manipulating others, and just how many people has he managed to ensnare. He learns the habits of others and uses it against them. He appeals to their emotional side, to their logical side, to whichever side that he's certain will be able to be able to get him the results that he desires. Is that why he makes an effort to become close friends with others? It's never really stated.

And if charisma along doesn't do the job, Lante's also an ace liar. A fellow council member, Moeran states it himself-- that Lante's style of lying is so delicate that those on the receiving end seldom think that he's lying, much less to question him about things again. It's ingenious-- this way, he no longer has to keep his web of lies straight, so as long as he's never asked about it again.

But just as no one is inherently bad, he doesn't do all those things out of pure mischief. He does genuinely like people and loves being surrounded people but he likes it even better if he can protect those close to him (in this case, his brother, Dante) at the same time. Being a child that was constantly told that he was "useless" due to his inability to wield a sword, he nevertheless learned a different sort of weapon-- one that he can wield with finesse and precision and possibly more damaging than just a swordstrike. He's not really the villain, more like the anti-hero sidekick but it's not hard to see how one step in either direction could change that entirely.


Abilities/Powers: Lante...actually has no outstanding supernatural abilities. He is, however, an accomplished liar with an outstanding ability to mingle with any crowd (although he also stands out because of how exburent he tends to be). He knows how to hold a sword (but not how to use it well) and probably a bit about gunpowder due to how much time he spends hanging around the science labs, but nothing in detail.

Items/Weapons:
i) His sword
ii) His coinpurse (with coins, naturally)
iii) A sword maintenance kit