IACTA EST ALEA

» PLAYER INFORMATION
Player NAME: Pan
Current AGE: 24
Player TIME ZONE: Singapore time (UTC/GMT+8)
Personal JOURNAL: pulped
Player PLURK: unhedged

» CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character NAME: Cesare Borgia
Canon & MEDIUM: The Borgias, TV series
Canon PULL-POINT: Season 2, Episode 4, after defeating the French
Character AGE: 21
Character ABILITIES: Like most noblemen of his stature, Cesare wrote and spoke Spanish, Italian, French, Greek and Latin, knew music and dancing as well as manners and all the proper codes of conduct in 15th century Italy. He would know history from the works of Tacitus, Livy, Thucydides and Herodotus, as well as poetry from Virgil, Horace and Ovid, while taking the life of Julius Caesar as a roadmap for his own life (later on he would engrave scenes from Caesar's life on his ceremonial sword).

Aside from mental pursuits, he is shown to be gifted with the sword, enough to hold his own against the best condottieri, warlords, of his time. But his true advantage lies in drafting such genius strategy using espionage and subterfuge to outwit his enemies so that his men would never have to fight needless battles.

Character PERSONALITY: Cesare Borgia is bewildering in his contradictions. He is brilliantly charming, gifted with words and greatly helped by his good looks, with lucid intelligence that strikes awe to most that meet him. He has a way of seeming entirely polite while dealing hidden insults and a way of delivering veiled death threats with the easiest smiles, exculpating himself from being accused of either (what threats can you mean? He was only quoting Virgil, that Death, also, is in Paradise). His words rarely, if ever, mean what they say. He is mischievous, often choosing the most devious way of punishing his enemies, yet skilled in diplomacy and intrigue when needed. He knows precisely how to honor promises to the last letter while finding ways of slipping past the intention entirely. Cunning is a word invented for him.

"There is talk of something called honour. Let us show them another way."
But behind that arrogant front is a man conflicted with his place in life. He is a Cardinal without faith, who believes his God is deaf, blind and pitiless. He loves his sister Lucrezia more than he should and finds himself excessively jealous when she finds herself a husband. He envies his brother Juan his place as a soldier and the Pope's favorite, the prodigal son, while he the dutiful (and in his mind, capable) son is met only with constant criticism and disapproval. All of this has made him grow stern and distrusting, always imagining knives in the dark and poison in every cup. He is Spartan in his tastes as his true pleasures are not allowed him.

"Sounds like a riddle. If the husband of my mother is not my father, then who is? To think you could have been my father. Would I have been different, mother? More at ease. Perhaps, dare one say it, happy?"
Underneath the easy smiles and the controlled gaze is a passionate man with an equally fearsome temper. He mostly knows how to keep it in check for the sake of keeping appearances but Cesare would suffer no slights to his or his family's honor, which he never forgives and always avenges. If he lives by any rule, it would be this simple one: complete security for absolute loyalty. It is a case of with him or against him, and those loyal to him would be protected with any means possible while those who deceive and betray him would suffer most dearly, as he is known to take great pleasure in dealing out punishments. Vengeance certainly becomes him.

"I propose another toast. To monkeys. They lick your hand one minute, bite your neck the next, and everyone knows what you do with the monkey that bites you. You wring its neck."
Ruthlessness as well. Nothing is impossible and everything is permissible. There are no lengths he wouldn't go to and no depths he wouldn't plumb to secure his own and his family's safety, honor and glory. Religion and morals are irrelevant, so are social norms and precedence, which makes him utterly unpredictable as he plays by absolutely no rules. He repeatedly asks the Pope to remove the Cardinal's hat from his head, fully knowing that never in history has anyone renounced a Cardinalate. Where there are no roads, he makes his own. What makes him so dangerous is the ferocity of his ambition, for which he would sacrifice all comfort and pleasure, and his self-sufficiency; that staunch confidence in himself that borders on delusion.

"If anything happened to her. I'd die."
His family is both his strength and the chink in his armor. They, especially his sister Lucrezia, are what he fights for and without them there is no purpose to his ambitions. He respects and cares deeply for his mother, whom he often goes to for guidance as he knows she sees much more than she says and is wiser than many. His sister is the light of his life, the one thing that makes all suffering fade away; he would suffer any pain any number of sleepless nights, even death, to see her keep her innocence, her joy.
 

placeholder!

4th Wall. Yes to knowing historical facts but ask before telling him, no to knowing his canon.
Threadjack. Yes, asking beforehand would be nice.
Backtag. Yes, but if the reply comes some 10 days after the latest tag, then I prefer to drop and talk things out as older tags get harder to do (except for important logs!)

Hug. Yes, but this is the face he will make unless your name is Lucrezia Borgia.
Kiss. Yes, see above.
Flirt. Yes, he will probably flirt back.
Fight. Yes.
Injure. Yes to scrapes, ask for anything more major.
Kill. No.
Telepath. Yes, just let me know in your prose/brackets that this is a thing.