Cristobal Melgarejo De Quijas

[Cristobal De Quijas]

Player Name: James

Character Name: Cristobal Melgarejo De Quijas
Age: 25
Race: Human
Height: 5'9"
Weight: 74kg

===Physical Description===

Dark hair, brown eyes, and elegant facial hair designed to disguise a weak chin. He has a slight softness of features which hint at a more sedentary and academic lifestyle when compared to more active and militant Corezan noblemen. Cristobal is a man who, although has maintained the bare minimum exercise so as not to let himself run to fat, has not gone out of his way to train heavily in the military arts.

His clothes, typically from a colour palette of cheerful oranges and soft browns, are expertly cut to conceal the fact that he isn't the brawny and dashing young man of action he is meant to be at his age.


===Possessions===

---Home sweet home---

A small private manor on one of the Quijas family's country estates. He won't be seeing much of that any time soon.

---Quit nagging me---

A horse, named Gertrude, after Cristobal's favourite housemaid.
Both Gertrudes are nags, but you couldn't say that to Cristobal's face.

---Espada---

No Corezan gentleman should leave his estate without a duelling sword at his hip. Even if Cristobal would like to, sometimes.

---Knife to meet you---

He has concealed a dagger. He privately hopes he never has to un-conceal it, but when travelling in strange parts out from under the oversight of the Ducal militia, it seemed like a good idea. It's damn uncomfortable, hidden beneath his clothes.

---Travelling money---

More than needed, really, but better to be safe than sorry. After all, if he extends the family line of credit, they'll know what he's up to - and that will be trouble he doesn't want right now.

---Private Journal & magic pen---

Cristobal likes to put his thoughts to paper, so as to keep them organised. Aside from a leather-bound journal, he possesses a remarkable pen: it was a coming of age gift, which bears an enchantment so as to never run out of ink - at least, not until the enchantment fades. But the fee to renew the enchantment each year isn't so exorbitant that Cristobal has ever failed to pay for the convenience.

===Powers or Strengths===

---Nobility---

As the scion of a branch house of the main Quijas family, Cristobal has access to all the courtesies and privileges of his class and standing.

This includes a network of family contacts, both mercantile and noble, as well as one or two less-than-noble people, thanks to his sister's decadent lifestyle.

---Intelligent---

Cristobal is a problem solver. Give him a puzzle, and he will exhibit an almost childish delight in trying to untangle it. His family have happily directed his efforts towards accounting, logistics, and managing the estate, but Cristobal is capable of more than that, given the opportunity.

---Physically fit---

Although not an athlete, a soldier, or a warrior, he isn't physically useless. He is fit, of average strength for his size, and can climb and swim. Which is more than most paper-pushers. He's also not bad with a knife.

---Perceptive---

Cristobal's most notable talent is his ability to read between the lines, or have an intuitive feel for when something isn't quite right. Although he can't 'spot a lie' precisely, he has a strong intuition for when he's not being told the whole truth. Although this can get him involved in affairs he sometimes shouldn't be - finding out the truth is just the kind of puzzle he likes to solve.


===Weaknesses===

---Can't call upon his family for help regarding Ysabel---

Although a nobleman, Cristobal's obsession for restoring his dear sister's honour and place in the household is not accepted by his parents, and as such he is limited as to how he can use his noble birth as a point of leverage in his efforts.

---Curiosity---

Sometimes, poking one's nose into a problem in an attempt to solve it is a recipe for getting one's nose cut off. Cristobal has, on one or two occasions, been entirely too clever for his own good and discovered matters of scandalous nature in the estate which
his family then had to cover up a second time - after explaining to Cristobal why they'd kept it secret in the first place. Sometimes, a butler is just too valuable to dismiss, despite the odd peccadillo or eccentricity. He just can't leave a good mystery alone.

---A bit of a sap---

Cristobal is a sentimental fool of the worst sort. He is just the kind of foolhardy romantic who'd throw his station to the wind in the name of finding his dear sister 'because it's the right thing to do' - a mentality rather out of place in Corezo where conventional morality would actually have him let the sister disappear into obscurity while he focused on his own ambitions.

===History===


Cristobal was born to Pedro and Teresa Melgarejo De Quijas, into a branch house of the main Quijas family. The Melgarejo De Quijas were a small but prestigious family whose duties typically involved a lot of financial paperwork and investigative accounting.

Cristobal's education was mostly academic, with just enough physical activity to ensure he wasn't an embarrassment at social events. Not that the cheerful young man would have embarrassed them too badly, unless he somehow got challenged to a duel.

When his sister was born, the 7-year old Cristobal doted on her, something which didn't change over the years, no matter the young Ysabel's behaviour. For if Cristobal was the epitome of the obedient scion of a noble family, working hard to ensure that he could shoulder the mantle of his family's duties, then Ysabel was quite the opposite. Stubborn and contrary as a child, once she reached sixteen she was a relentless and reckless socialite, not always in the best of company, as she sought new thrills and new ways to annoy her mother.

Despite their different temperaments, the siblings were close confidants, each accepting of the others' differences and finding in each other a safe sanctuary to complain about the difficulties of their disparate lifestyles.

And yet, as they say in Corezo, there's nothing like a good scandal to tear a family asunder. At the age of sixteen, Ysabel became infatuated with some stranger in Qadis. Worse, as the relationship developed over a year, she failed to exercise proper restraint and became pregnant. She refused to identify her paramour and, once the bastard child Alonso was born, fled her family's estates. The outrage of her parents at this betrayal of family interests was extreme, and she was promptly disowned.

At first Cristobal waited, assuming that Ysabel would at least send some kind of correspondence to him. After three months passed, he realised something was wrong. And yet only Cristobal saw the punishment, and Ysabel's absence, as a bad thing. His concerns fell on the deaf ears of his parents.

For the first time in his life, Cristobal conceived of a plan to disobey his family's directives. Stating that he was taking a leave of absence for some much needed recreation, he left the family estate and went to visit a close friend of his sister in Qadis to begin his search.

[Metarie]

Approved.