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All credit to the artist Barry van Gerbig, Jr.
House Calvara is founded on the belief that the strong shall rule the weak. Its founder, Reyes Calvara, led the House to glory through his innovative guerilla warfare campaign against the elves, building a slave trade empire in Daendroc. With his disappearance, Andreas Calvara has taken the reins to continue building the Calvara slave and exquisite craftwork trades.
Sigil: Tiger
Colors: Orange, black, and white
Culture: Daendroque
Religion: Unionism
Family Theme: Military
Business: Slaves, jewelry
It is difficult to trace the exact roots of House Calvara far beyond 256AC, where the name first appears, as the family was large and spread over many different continents. As the story is told, a group of Mansuriya fleeing persecution found their way to Daenshore, and as they intermingled with the Daendroque ailor present, the Calvara family was the eventual result.
In 256AC, Reyes Landon Calvara was born, retaining the dark brown skin of his forefathers, though having many lighter skinned relatives. The Calvara family at this time was dirt poor, but instead of accepting his condition, Reyes harnessed this as fuel for his growth. Reyes always had good attention to detail, and in his youth, he learned from his uncles how to craft jewelry and other fine clockwork pieces. Beginning with making counterfeit jewelry, he hustled his way into having a small base of wealth, by which he was able to turn his production into a legitimate enterprise. Now able to serve higher class citizens, Reyes made a name for himself as a jeweler and craftsman, able to afford a higher standard of living than his ancestors.
As he grew into a young man, though, Reyes still had a fire in his belly. Having climbed the social ladder to where he was relying on his own abilities, his core philosophy became that of meritocracy. Over time, this expanded to a belief that the strong should rise to the top, and being a superior being, it was his job to assert this. So, as any young man looking to make a name for himself would do, Reyes turned his focus to matters of military. However, he wasn't interested in a formal military career, instead forming his own ragtag band of relatives to create a war party. Wishing to prove his worth to the Regalian Empire, he led his band into the forests of Daendroc, to strike at the Empire's timeless Nelfin enemies.
Reyes was painstakingly meticulous about how his warband operated. With so few men and nearly all of them blood relatives, he knew that casualties were unacceptable. As such, he adopted and developed a set of guerrilla warfare tactics, leading ambush after ambush against the Nelfin. The Calvaras sought not bloodshed, but victory; they focused on demoralizing the enemy and securing surrender, after which they would enslave the living troops and ship them back to Daenshore to be sold.
Reyes's band was successful for many years, gaining notice of the local nobles, who wanted to make use of his ingeniousness in tactics. When a greater lord wanted a lesser lord disposed of, Reyes was the man to answer the call. Leading a fifteen-month-long guerrilla offensive against the local lord, Reyes lost many compatriots, but ultimately claimed victory. As his reward, Reyes now claimed the title of the overthrown lord, supported by his satisfied liege.
For a time, this satisfied Reyes. He started a family, and his first-born son Andreas was born in 282AC, sharing his father's Qadir lineage despite Reyes's ailor wife. Yet serving as a minor agricultural lord was not Reyes's ultimate purpose, he felt, so he set out again.
It was here that the thread of Reyes Calvara unravels. He struck off deep into Nelfin lands, seeking to cause irreparable damage. After a few years, contact ceased, and the slave train that he had supplied slowed to a stop. The worst was assumed, and young Andreas was left as Patriarch of the family. Yet, Andreas was too young to rule properly. Instead, he was sent to the School of Bloodcast, in hopes of invoking the same genius of his father. While Andreas was away, his uncle ran family affairs, but couldn't perform in the same capacity as Reyes, weakening the family's pool of wealth.
And so it was that after graduation, Andreas gathered his own warband comprised of his peers and family, setting off to rebuild the Calvara slave trade. In their idle time, he set about mentoring his relatives in their jeweler and clockwork crafting, determined to follow the paths to wealth and power that his father had laid out for the family. Reclaiming his rightful spot as patriarch, Andre set about righting the ship that was his House.
Having resulted from an intermingling of Qadir and Daendroque ailor over generations, Calvaras can have variations in appearance, even among siblings. Of course, when grouped together, it is still easy to see the resemblance among them, as all have tan to dark brown skin, with mostly black hair, though a few have brown hair. Eye colors may vary, but many simply have brown eyes.
Calvara men have a wide disparity among body types, even among those that are part of the warband. While Andreas keeps himself about as muscular as Qadir can be, and encourages the same among his soldiers, there are plenty that keep more agile frames, particularly the archers. Many keep facial hair, but this may be attributable to their interest in emulating their leader. There is no pattern in hairstyles, and clothes are encouraged to be unique as well.
Calvara women are very rarely welcome within the warband, and as such often have lithe figures. Despite their restrictions on combat, they are allowed much freedom in intellectual pursuits, and run the business side of the slave trade and jewelry businesses. While the men often supply both of these trades, the women secure the buyers and complete the contracts in most cases. As with the men, the women are often encouraged to be unique in their appearance, though they face more of an unspoken emphasis on striving toward unique beauty rather than just unique appearance.
Alcaudete – agricultural hold in Daendroc, ruled by House Calvara since 280AC
Being a newly formed family, I'm keeping the family tree rather fluid at this time. You can easily create a sibling or cousin to Andreas, and with minimal difficulty you can create a member of the previous generation. If you're having trouble deciding on what your relation or background within the family should be, I'm certainly willing to provide guidance.
Current roster:
Main line:
- Andreas Calvara - @Reinir
- Mariana Calvara - Dre's little sister, played by @GamingLeopurred
Cousins:
- Aisha Calvara - @Sasspai
- It is requested that your Calvara is your main character. While this is difficult to enforce, the minimum expectation is that your Calvara character is who you play when attending events.
- You will be respectful to your other family members and fellow Massivecrafters. If OOC issues arise, please bring them to the attention of Reinir.
- You will maintain OOC communication with the family through our discord server and keep a clean reputation on the server (i.e. no mutes, bans, etc).
- Your character is played for the best interest of the family. That is to say while you will have freedom to act generally as you please, you should not act to endanger the family's status or reputation.
Family Application:
IGN:
Character name:
Character relation to Andreas:
Character concept (personality, career, appearance):
Why do you want to join House Calvara?
Timezone and Activity Level: How much do you anticipate playing your Calvara?
References (optional):
We also are accepting staff that would suit our family. If you believe that this would be the case, please fill out the application below.
Staff Application:
IGN:
Character name:
Desired Staff Position:
Timezone and Activity Level:
References (optional):
Why do you want to join House Calvara? Can take the form of an IC letter if you prefer
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