Baptiste De Villepin

King Baptiste De Villepin is the main protagonist of the book Lords and Ladies. He is a Reven nobleman and son of Prince Bastien De Villepin and Adrienne Patis. He is also the nephew to King Rever V, thus making him also cousin to his son King Rever Lugh VI. He was a Duc for most of his adult life but ended up taking the throne in his later years due to his cousin dying without children.

He was married to Agathe Figuier and fathered two sons; Bastille De Villepin and Toussaint De Villepin.

Physical Appearance
Baptiste's appearance was only granted limited description in the book; he had shoulder-length wavy brown hair, brown eyes, and a large aquiline nose. He bore no facial hair or other notable facial features. He often expressed great pride in the significantly large size of his nose, due to the Reven societal traditions passed to him by his father. According to these traditions, the larger and more aquiline one's nose, the more blue-blooded and regal the bearer was. Baptiste often made a point to take note of the noses of others, held to this standard, and sometimes would even judge someone's entire character derived solely from the size and shape of their nose.

Nearly all of Baptiste's physical descriptions focused around his state of attire and clothing. He was quite fashionable and always kept privy with the latest Reven fashion trends, even while living away from the Capitale. While Baptiste described himself as "no dandy" and had few qualms with dressing down when the occasion suited, he was always eager to show off his finest attire when given the opportunity. He most often wore a red or maroon justaucorps, matching the colors of the De Villepin family crest, accompanied by knee-breeches with buckled shoes or sometimes riding boots. As a member of the royal family, he wore a black sash which signified his status.

Baptiste once expressed a personal preference to wearing cravats over jabots for neckwear. In terms of perukes, he often preferred blonde or pink, but he would occasionally wear a white or grey powdered wig.

Personality
Baptiste's personality gradually changed throughout the length of the novel, although a few common traits remained throughout.

Baptiste's personality would often alter quite dramatically between his ordinary personality, typically seen while in a position of authority, into a much meeker and uncertain persona while subservient. Though always conscious of his status and the rules of propriety which govern the lives of the gentry, he made no qualms in breaking these societal-imposed rules when they were nonsensical or beyond what might seem reasonable. For example, he refused to wait longer than five hours after the king forgot him and several other nobles at the royal dining hall. That being said, he still waited for four hours straight with no reprieve. This shows his desire to follow these rules while also imposing a limit to how far he might go to follow them.

While in a position of authority, however, his personality was much more confident and jovial. He was nicknamed the 'Dashing Duke' for his charming, charismatic, flirtatious, and likable personality. Though he was quite popular, he had few close friends of even acquaintances. This is because all of his everyday relationships often lacked any source of depth or true happiness. Like many Reven nobles, Baptiste often ignored his personal unhappiness by means of drunken revelry. Only after finding himself caught in a situation where drinking would no longer allow him to turn a blind eye did Baptiste finally begin to confront his personal anguish. He sifted between the long-held feelings of anguish regarding his parents, his loneliness, and his uncertain future.

Later in life, he came to accept and confront the difficulties in his life with the help of his boyhood friends. He made peace with his father's death and his mother's mental illness, ceasing to live in his father's shadow and resolving to find his own way through life. This let him realize his romantic feelings for his childhood friend, Agathe Figuier, which he was surprised to find were mutual. They were married in mid-June of the 754th Reven Year.

After Agathe died giving birth to their second son, Toussaint, Baptiste quickly fell into his old habit of disregarding his problems. He replaced drinking and revelry with throwing himself headlong into his duties as Duc. When he cousin died, forcing him to take the crown in his late middle-age, this only gave Baptiste a greater excuse to forgo confronting her inner turmoil over his wife's death.

Background
Baptiste was born in 718R only child of Prince Bastien De Villepin, the king's younger son, and Adrienne Patis, who the only daughter of Duc Armand Patis, a distant cousin to the throne. Baptiste was raised in the royal palace of Sa Sainte Capitale, under his father as a Marquis, for a time. When he was four years old, his mother was kicked in the head by a horse, causing her irreparable brain damage which led her to believe every day was the same up to the one she had been injured. On his twelfth birthday, his father sent him to the Capitale's École de Mœurs ("School of Manners") where he and others of noble peerage were schooled in academics and etiquette. There he met and befriended Georges Figuier and his sisters, Georgette and Agathe. He remained in schooling until he was sixteen, then considered a man in Reven society. From there, he attended to his duties as Marquis of Brionac, granted dominion over Brionac's southern plains by his father. Baptiste considered the four years he spent governing as a Marquis to be among the happiest of his life, often remarking how the calm of the plains brought him peace he could never find in the Capitale.

The Rebukers' War & Bastien's Death
In the 738th Year, when Baptiste was only twenty years old, the religious conflicts between Revès and Tadel reached a head. The Blind Church declared a religious inquisition on the Reven lands, cutting a bloody path through Fallet along their way towards the Capitale. The King of Revès quickly called his vassals to arms to hold back the invaders and bring aid to their former colonies. Baptiste, along with his father, fought in this war, which later became known as the Rebukers' War. The atrocities he witnessed committed against innocent civilians angered Baptiste to fight and it wasn't long before he proved himself a master of tactics and leadership. Instead of hanging back as many other nobles did, including the king, Baptiste chose to fight alongside his countrymen, following suit of his father. Unfortunately, this would end up Bastien's undoing and he fell in battle, decapitated by an invading Rebuker. Baptiste, who witnessed this, henceforth bore a deep-seated grudge against Tadel and the Blind Faith.

The Dashing Duc of Brionac
After the war, Baptiste returned home to Brionac, where he took up the mantle of Duc. Though always fastidious and hardworking, he found himself quickly overwhelmed the emotional toil wrought by the war. He quickly fell into a habit of hosting lavish parties, drinking himself to the point of unconsciousness. During these parties, he was known to take on a charming and happy-go-lucky persona. This made him incredibly popular among the Reven nobility and soon his parties were known to be the stuff of legend. Guests would come far and wide to see what grand display he would produce next.

Despite his heavy drinking and excessive partying, he remained a steadfast leader of Brionac. Due to the coastal duchy relying heavily on tourism, Baptiste was encouraged to continue to party so that he would draw in more guests. He worked with local merchants to arrange his parties to occur whenever there was a dip in tourists for the region, which led to Brionac quickly becoming one of the wealthiest regions of the entire world, let alone the country.