desertshrub

Extra Info:

Leo's entire character can be easily parsed when you know about how exactly he views Ascalon, which is where he primarily grew up.

I couldn't not make a charr, which is a highly militaritic culture, who is so reluctant to engage in "giving however many lives for victory" without acknowledging that a physical scar of how war is extremely corrupt and punishes all, is literally a charr starting area. Like Ik it might seem as me trying to make a completely contrasting charr (which tbf am) but i Swear it makes sense and is warranted...its all very facinating to me.

Ascalon is a living reminder that those in power fighting wars with grander meaning are all lost upon the common soldier. A king denied the grace of death in his blind rage and doomed his people to eternal hatred. Never evolving never given the chance to start anew.

It's a horrifying spit on the natural cycle of life, this is how Leo views it, it was his main drive to become a necromancer believing that if he understood the connection between life, death, the mists, he could greater understand how to possibly rid the foefire curse other than the obvious. Actually this little paragraph from my ship thinkpiece words it pretty well:

"Leo, on the other hand, was a coiled snake ready to strike. He had ambitions of his own, he grew tired of constant death, reckless fighting. Spirits lamented over lost opportunity, of being playthings in wars fought by higher powers. He grew up in a land that was a physical cautionary tell of how single individuals could ruin the very souls and doom entire nations. Souls that cant rest, souls that cant return. It was Ascalon that inspired him to become a necromancer, to commune with spirits, to treat the dead with reverance, and thus respecting life before its final march. It did outcast him from his warband, save for a single individual."

This leads into his reluctance to "Fall in line" blindly following the teachings of the charr taught to him in the farhar. He does so out of necessity, not out of any love or faith in such beliefs. Whenever possible he takes the harder road, doing things his way, less casualties, respect for life itself. Death is the natural end of all life, but what he hates is needless death, war is a terrible scar left on the soul itself.

So, he bites his tongue, he observes, he trains. What do higher ranked officers like to hear, how do you cheat lines and cut corners. The intracacies of charr politics of blood, skill, and carefully placed words. He would not Kill for it, not in the way he was expected to. He required the patience of a saint to see this all through in a way that stayed true to his beliefs. The personal story of his warband unraveling after they die fighting in Ascalon, his legionnaire granting him the favor of fighting against him in an arena to prove his worth all provide just the right amount of forward momentum he needed, as well as a reminder why he wants this change so badly in the first place.

It makes sense why he tends to keep to his own, why he is so defiant and stubborn. I review him as a reluctant "hero" that cannot escape the path he was put on. He has to be change because nobody else will do it if not him, he cannot leave his duties behind, even if he wants to. He makes personal sacrifices for this all the time. Above all of this, he is kind in a gentle, quiet way. In the same way a cave providing shelter from a storm is gentle. He is grounded, stabilized by his ideals with the patience needed to continue to weather any opposition, after all its his empathy, his bleeding heart for those he should have considered mindless ghosts the reason hes even here in the first place....