#hescrates

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Hescrates family/background lore crap below. Writing this down so I don’t forget. (Also don’t read this it’s so cringe)

(Tw violence, assassinations, war, corruption, bloodshed, gore, political turmoil, and again, my cringe.)

- Their family holds high nobility status by providing armed forces for the despot monarch of the kingdom, bordered by other equally hostile autocratic nations and the open ocean. This family is well established from generations of such services as conducting assassinations, sieging enemy settlements, and participating in direct conflicts as supplementary forces. As a result, they hold significant influence, political power and land, and they value ruthlessness above all.

- Noble blood is less important than producing results. Hescrates’ mother, Seonis, is an outsider in terms of high society, but owns a massive fleet of ships that dwarf the kingdom’s own naval powers. Prior to allying with Alfaust, Hescrates’ father and the family patriarch, she terrorized the coastline cities with her forces, stealing, killing, and wreaking general havoc with no mercy. An agreement was eventually reached in which she would be granted clemency, wealth and power if she lent her forces to the kingdom for their battles. (I took inspo from how back in ye olde days of piracy, sometimes governments would just pay out the pirates because they couldn’t afford to fight them off lmao)

- They had ten children with each other (Hescrates being one of them) but also have numerous other children outside of wedlock. The ten that were in the public eye were raised in the family estate and left mostly to their own devices, with all the wealth and resources they could ever want. Until it came time for Alfaust to choose an heir. These heir apparents varied from detached to bloodthirsty to downright tyrannical. Some were poisoned, some stabbed in the back, and some maimed beyond recognition. Ruthlessness was encouraged to such a degree that making an example out of the weaker candidates was a surefire way of gaining Alfaust and Seonis’ approval.

- Hescrates, an unremarkable middle child, up until this point had only pursued an interest in music and theater, seeking the tutelage of the king’s bards in their free time. They fell under the “detached” category. Only the elder children had really received much training to prepare them for bloodshed of this calibre. As a result they were a prime target to become a spectacle for their parents’ favour, and their fate was essentially sealed.

- Many repeated assassination attempts and near escapes later, and at wits end, they sought out a pact with a hag. Unreasonable resilience and strength, in exchange for song. The one thing she knew they valued the most, sewn shut from them forever. With this, they were able to kill the rest of their kin before they could do the same to them.

- Despite the advantage they received, killing their parents to satisfy their now deeply seated resentment would have been an unwise choice, especially with the entire kingdom’s forces ready to hunt them down for ending two of the most influential individuals in the upper echelons of society. So begrudgingly, they accepted their new station, leading mercenaries and armies into the same battles that the family had dominated for generations. The ruthless heir that Alfaust and Seonis had wanted.

- BG3 occurs many years after these events, at which point they’ve made a reputation for themselves as a cold-hearted terror even amongst the nobility and made numerous enemies, both foreign and domestic. Hescrates is known for being cruel with purpose, generally having little to no remorse, and following a dog-eat-dog philosophy when it comes to morality. They are abysmally aggressive to any overly familiar diplomats during peace negotiations or conciliatory “celebrations”. However, not much is known about how they are like when removed from the context of their familial pressures, the corrupt nobility, and centuries of bad blood.