tender hearted naivety.

basically everything stays the same except when christophe is captured/framed for the tragedy of duscur, a group of spies from the western church located at garreg mach free him & stage a suicide in order to keep rhea & the knights of seiros off their trail. 

this is mostly done because as the heir to castle gaspard & one of the leaders in the assassination plot christophe knows entirely too much information that could be used against the western church. the western church had no clue what rhea’s intentions were when christophe was captured therefore they feared that because christophe is an honest & just man he’d be easily persuaded into revealing more intel on the plot against the western church.

after christophe is freed he is essentially taken hostage by the western church, not being allowed to leave his secret post as to reveal too much. for this reason christophe is unable to see or even contact his father & adopted siblings again. everyone save for a small group at the wc headquarters knows he’s alive & they intend to keep it that way.

christophe’s captivity lasts until after the goddess’ right of rebirth in the year 1180. when the knights of seiros come to destroy the western church headquarters, he finally has his chance to escape & does so just as the church is set aflame. after this he goes into hiding & eventually finds himself allying with edelgard & her cause as at this point he’s discovered his father’s death & rhea’s involvement in it & wants justice for both himself & his father.

sir christophe edwart gasbard was the firstborn & only biological son of lord lonato & adopted elder brother to ashe duran & his younger siblings. he is nine years older than ashe, being nineteen when ashe was adopted & twenty two when he was executed by the church a year following the tragedy of duscur. his mother, lonato’s late wife was a wealthy merchant’s daughter from duscur. she died giving birth to christophe. lonato very rarely speaks of his late wife, therefore neither ashe nor christophe really knows anything about her. 

while christophe was expected to become the heir to the gasbard house, he spent a good amount of time working as a soldier / knight. when he was in his late teens he attended the officers academy at garreg mach monastery where he befriended cassandra / catherine in the blue lion house. following his time at the academy he worked as a knight who almost exclusively served to protect the western church. this would eventually lead to him becoming prey to members of the church manipulating him into aiding in a task to assassinate lady rhea. he was soon discovered however and was turned over by his friend cassandra to be executed by the knights of seiros in front of the cathedral of the monastery ( i can’t actually remember what church they said he was executed in but i do remember he was executed in a church so i may edit this part later )

while he in truth had no involvement in the tragedy of duscur, because of the chaos at hand & the central church’s desire to keep the assassination plot quiet christophe’s true reason for his execution was covered up & he was ultimately blamed for plotting with the people of duscur. despite showing no signs of doing so the general public believed this because it was common knowledge among faerghus nobility that christophe was half duscur. 

while ashe in truth only spent about two years with christophe, the elder’s kind & compassionate nature very quickly made an impact on him. christophe would often take ashe out for outings & teach him new skills similarly to how lonato taught him how to read. christophe taught ashe how to fish as well as how to wield various weapons such as a sword, lance & bow & arrow. it was christophe that first discovered ashe’s natural talent in archery & helped ashe improve over time. 

@deathsplot + unprompted but really came for me 

cassandra, like a whisper in tombstones; like a whisper of children, dangling feet on a cliff’s edge, laughter a swell like golden dust in their lungs. it meant something different then, left perilously between the red crackle of her blade: duty or freedom? duty or –

something wraps its way along catherine’s throat, like a hand clasping too tightly. her voice is hoarser than she wants, “christophe?” she swears just saying his name might kill her, might reopen all the festered wounds she kept bandaged up tightly. she’s stronger than this, but – she sacrificed him. she’s stronger than this, but – she left him to die. she’s stronger than this, but –

she didn’t realize how much time scraped away. that the timbre of his voice could be scratched away, pale, until it was back in its fullness and striking her, cold and impartial and formal, enough to bring a reprimand to her lips again just from the habit of it. she tries to swallow the tightness in her throat, fails. tries to not break with the ghost of him.

she’s stronger than this, but – “christophe, what the hell?” her voice breaks, eyes ashen even as she tries to smile. “you’re supposed to be dead.” she can’t apologize. rims of her eyes swollen from holding back tears, she finds that her foundations are only made of sand, bound to be blown or washed away, but she can’t apologize. if she does, what would that sacrifice have even meant? her resolution is shaken. 

she wants to hold him. she wants to check if he’s real. she wants, she wants, she wants – “christophe, how have you been?” it’s a stupid question. she falters. gods, seiros, why does she never know what to say when it matters? i’m sorry burns a hole in her. “i’m …” she sucks in a breath, “i can’t believe you’re alive …” she clasps a hand over mouth, the glass of her eyes turning downcast as she swallows down a sob.