ready ur bums ‘cause its time for “All! About! Teach!”
so vaike aka Teach is from a small town, which i believe ive called Wyck after his jp name & i think i gave him the last name Rorrickson in a comic on a whim so. there u go. anyway. this town. its decent-sized, but run down, and abandoned by the noble who runs that territory during all times except tax time. so thats mostly where vaike’s disdain of nobles comes from. ver little funding for education, probably just a poor priest trying his best & calling it good enough if the kids walk away being able to read & do basic sums.
he was the biggest & strongest youth of the village, and while definitely a troublemaker and ruffian, wasn’t so bad. yet. then some bandits attacked & he took up a woodcutter’s ax & turned it on them & while there was definitely some help, he was the big force that drove them away. so the other youths & a few of the older but not too old men were banded under his strength, & he had a bit of a protection squad going on. which, as they successfully repelled another raid or two, went to his head.
now, he’d always been a bit of a brat. he’d steal pies off windowsills. but now he had power. had all the strongest arms in the village under him, the strongest of them all, and, well, his little protection squad pretty much turned into the bandits the town needed protection from, taking whatever they wanted, whenever. the game plays it off as ‘oh he had a silly little gang as a kid nothing serious’ & im here kicking that outta town & saying it was not silly, this lasted late teens through early 20′s & he did some awful stuff as a psuedo bandit leader.
but this wasn’t really making him feel good. having people scared of him was. eh. not his thing after all. silly pranks & being good were his thing. but some of his mates were less inclined towards that & found that sorta thinking soft. so there was a mutiny. he got stabbed. he stabbed harder. soon after that it was announced the exalt & her brother were to visit, yknow, something about like. an inspiring religious speech or something. he’s unimpressed. its all for show for the other nobles. theyd show up & leave & nothing would change.
so he decides he’s gonna get back a bit at ‘em. he’s pissed. doesn’t know why. he runs a town after all. sees chrom. thinks he’s gonna jump some soft little noble boy. gets his ass kicked. gets that scar on his eyebrow. chrom’s a good sport though. lets it slide with a bit of a goody-goody lecture that vaike doesnt rlly listen too. he’s too impressed. thought all that shepherd nonsense was some cozy noble picnic club yknow. expecting to get put to death for the offense of jumping a prince, but nah. they have a drink probably. vaike’s in awe.
next day, he sees emelan speak & sees the exalt in a new light too. actually listens. cries a tear. between those two he decides he’s done with the gang life, can’t deal with it anymore. he’s doing no one any good. & he wants to do good. really. forgets a lot that’s what he wants, gets distracted very easily, but good is good. & so he thinks. maybe chrom could use another ax. maybe he needs someone to stand loyal at his side in case the same sorta stuff goes down in the shepherds as in his gang. so he shows up at the barracks & barks at the door til someone lets him in & doesn’t leave. he’s chrom’s faithful wolf now, even if that means making like… the awful sacrifice of eating the prince’s cooking sometimes. he won’t let someone stab chrom in the back, even if it means getting his hands dirty, ‘cause hey, theyre already dirty.
vaike is. yes. forgetful. it’s an adhd thing definitely. losing his ax is like misplacing ur phone & being like ‘i swore i just had it’ cause ur so used to it being there that u dont even recognize its presence & then bam its gone.
he’s not stupid, much as i & the game make him out to be. he’s not smart, book-smart at least, but he generally picks up on others’ feelings & definitely their opinion of him. he’s happy to play the fool tho, to help relieve tensions or keep anyone from realizing there’s actually a hey serious person under there maybe
his best friend… is minerva. he loves that wyvern. sorry chrom after minerva arrives that is his new bestie.
i go ham w the ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ thing w vaike bc like. he is basically a not-really-reformed bandit among a buncha goody goody nobles & everyone’s just. way more decent than he is. he’s there to make sure chrom doesnt go the way he did & is ready to kill bc hey. he’s already done some rlly nasty things when he failed to be a proper leader, why not do some more to make sure someone else does a good job.
which leads into him reclassing into an assassin later on (gaius tries to teach him the thief/stealth bits but. alas. he does only Decent at best w teaching the teach)
while he’s definitely a meat & potatoes type of guy when it comes to preferred meals his real favorite food is apples & by extension apple pie. loves his savories, loves his sweets too. loves food in general, so long as chrom didnt cook it. he’s even half decent at cooking himself, tho only rlly can do simple recipes. no fancy stuff from him.
he’s bi w a big biiiig preference for women
also on the topic of kids & pairings im not. big on giving him canon kids but i do lean towards laurent & gerome bc i think they just. have the best dynamics. laurent bc he can get Serious vaike & gerome bc even without a parental connection he has to deal w vaike loving on minvera. like. cmon. he’s gotta. thats his bestie let him pet her this one hasnt seen him in ages he’s gotta give her a proper pet. mr batman doesnt get a choice in tolerating vaike here.
if he was an ac villager he’d be coach