#hotunromancablenpc

The big paladin fellow Gaius is from the noble house Julianos of Nephenus. He and his wife were leaders in the empire’s military. The empire was in the process of expanding, going around conquering shit, particularly cities which housed magical colleges, because they enslave natural spellcasters in Nephenus (so like spellcasters whose power comes from within them rather than an external source. Warlocks are safe.) They were about to take a city with the last remaining college when it’s headmaster, a lich and fucking demigod, straight up teleported the college and bits of the surrounding city into a desert. That’s where the game the quiet year begins: the people now stranded in the desert have one year to prepare before the armies of Nephenus catch up to them. At some point during that year, Gaius suddenly developed sorcerer powers, wild magic, of course. Knowing he was totally fucked once people found out and probably experiencing doubts about this whole conquering and enslaving business in general, he and a few soldiers particularly loyal to him deserted Nephenus and fled into the desert. 

And it’s there he encounters my dear Lautrec. Lautrec is a sorcerer, his power coming from his draconic bloodline. He used to belong to a mercenary company/crime family in the underdark, led by his abusive father figure/lover, Evfra. When he’d decided he’d had quite enough of Evfra’s cruelty he stole a crown belonging to the matron mother of House Xorlarrin, then brought it back to her, claiming that it was Evfra’s company that stole it, and that they planned to try again for more. House Xorlarrin soldiers promptly slaughtered Evfra’s entire company and Lautrec himself personally burned Evfra alive, which was deliciously ironic because Evfra was quite fond of asking poor Lautrec to execute people with fire for even the pettiest of sleights. The matron mother of House Xorlarrin then took Lautrec as one of her concubines, but eventually he had to flee the underdark because he accidentally discovered House Xorlarrin’s Big Secret, and the matron mother was absolutely going to kill him about it. So for a century he wandered the surface, just so happening to be in the city Nephenus was invading when it teleported. 

The rest is sort of conjecture, because the quiet year isn’t really played using individual characters. Lautrec took up various disguises and roles in the new little city, observing and manipulating the goings on from the background, waiting for an opportunity to escape the desert before Nephenus showed up and killed them all. Gaius wanted to help the mages fight against Nephenus (whose army is being led by his WIFE oh my GOD the drama), but they were, for obvious reasons, very slow to trust the deserters. I think their first interaction was Lautrec offering to help Gaius, because by that point he’d become rather familiar with the new little city and its factions and important people and improving their odds of collective survival made his individual survival more likely. Somewhere between that moment and the inevitable invasion, he fell just stupid fucking in love with Gaius.

I suppose they finally hook up at some point after the city is safe from Nephenus (and erased from the collective memory of the world????) It’s probably a little slow and difficult to start, because Lautrec leaves. He just leaves a lot, he leaves the desert and comes back with resources and occasionally people that had been left behind in the original teleporting (most notably Eilan Underfoot, the husband of one mister Hama Underfoot, best friend of miss Mira Proudwaters, which resulted in Lautrec’s immediate and non-negotiable adoption into the local halfling community.) At first he just leaves because he doesn’t know how to stay, and then it becomes his job to go out and spy and smuggle things into the desert. And poor Gaius had a wife and child that he had to abandon, so he’s dealing with all that. So they’re in for a good bit of pining I’d imagine, but eventually they end up together and they’re so god damn soft and happy.