I’m so curious where Matt is going to go with Julien, but here’s some observations so far.
Lady Aranessa of the Sundered House of Royce is introduced first in their scene, and Julien is described as one of her oldest childhood friends and a member of the vassal House of Davinos. There’s so much packed into the carriage scene. First, Aranessa is in her 40s, and Julien is described as just cresting into 30, so there’s a good 10 year difference between them that sets them apart rather than putting them on equal ground. Second, Sir Julien appears to be a knight, which isn’t necessarily a class devoid of nobility, but still subservient to a higher caste. Third, Aranessa is described to be in her house’s carriage and wearing a dress of exquisite craftsmanship and materials, while Julien is wearing flashy, reinforced armor and accoutrements suggesting a life dedicated to military service. Whatever social etiquette there is, it either permits Julien to ride sitting next to Aranessa, or they both shirk the norms enough to ignore the rule. In every possible way, Julien is portrayed as socially inferior to Aranessa, and yet he is the only one here for possibly the most vulnerable day of her life. There’s a profound interplay of class, duty, family, and affection between these characters—and that isn’t even accounting for dialogue yet.
We don’t hear them speak. We go straight to a flashback of Julien alone at the execution, and when Brennan asks for Julien’s thoughts, Matt begins with setting the scene that Julien is “looking down from his elevated, noble box view of this execution.” Status and class are at the forefront of Julien’s thoughts: it matters to him that he gets to look down at Thjazi Fang. We just saw him comforting Aranessa (Thjazi’s widow!), and Julien’s distaste for Thjazi follows immediately afterwards in the narrative. Although he was stoic in the carriage, he shows a faint grin at the execution, but says and does nothing else. Even when Aranessa is not there, Julien puts in effort to mask that distaste. This is a character that is not willing to express his thoughts openly, though they will leak out at moments of high emotion.
A member of another subservient house (not even mentioned by name, but loyal to the Halovars) touches and jokes that Julien should have had the honor of the execution. Julien pulls away physically, but speaks diplomatically and respectfully, even calling this not-yet-introduced person “my friend.” We learn through the conversation with Jacques Malterres that Julien is considered a war hero for winning the battle that ended Thjazi Fang’s rebellion. Rather than shake Jacques’s hand, Julien holds his hand steady, stares him down, and delivers a little monologue:
It has been quite some time, and with time, some things are forgotten. So while the honor is not mine, I appreciate you acknowledging such a historied walk of grace.
Jacques has no idea what the fuck that was, is intimidated, and just leaves. So we know Julien has a severe chip on his shoulder about some event in the past, but we don’t know whether it’s purely about Thjazi or perhaps also about the Houses of Malterres and Halovar. He keeps grudges. No forgiveness, no forgetting.
Then we go back to Aranessa in the carriage. Rather than impersonal and aggressive, Julien gives Aranessa his handkerchief and cushions his language tremendously while stating that Thjazi deserved to be executed. There’s no mistaking his personal opinions here: he understands that Aranessa loved Thjazi, and he concedes that there must have been qualities that warranted it, but he reasons that Thjazi must have changed to have ended up this way. Julien is still making an effort to speak within loose bounds of social propriety despite that it’s only the two of them there, but he’s not hiding his thoughts from Aranessa. Any gentleness here isn’t motivated by an effort to mask himself, so it appears that he’s doing this for her sake. Aranessa could clearly tell him off for speaking out of turn if she wanted to, yet she respects his differing opinions enough not to react defensively or punitively. Instead she shares her own thoughts, even treasonous and cowardly feelings of how she reacted to Thjazi’s plea to elope and that she hid from his execution. Similarly, Julien makes no criticism of Aranessa, instead speaking on Thjazi’s decision to choose “his pride over your love” and insisting that Aranessa has a right to mourn. His focus is on being “smart” and “continuing to live” and protecting Aranessa. Aranessa doesn’t take this as speaking down to her, but recognizes it as worry for her. She also warns him that refusing to feel is a different kind of risk, which seems to be a subtle warning to Julien about his own feelings and not merely a justification of her “unnecessary” emotions.
This is a phenomenal portrayal of a knight-lady relationship that we’ve only watched for about 5 minutes. It’s enough to know that these two are conscientious of their status at all times, even in private, but they have a deep trust and affection for each other beyond social obligation. There’s no doubt here. They believe what the other says, and they know each other well enough to read between the lines of dialogue and without the need to rely on body language.
After a minute to compose herself, Aranessa doesn’t know what to do at the wake. She’s caught off guard that no one formally greets her, but her first instinct is to offer a hug to Hal. There’s no way this is normal for either of them. Thaisha and Hal both recognize that “The level of vulgarity of how open she is being is a danger to her house.” She’s the widow, but is treated as a visitor to her husband’s funeral. She had no input into the process, the rites, the attendees. She sees the body and recoils. She barely contains her rage at Wicander when she had spent the day before trying to plea for clemency from House Halovar. For all Aranessa's composure, she's a mess compared to what she normally does.
Julien just watches this in silence from Aranessa’s side. He doesn’t interject until Wic and Tyranny are trying to leave and Aranessa looks ready to pop off, and even when he does, he frames it as concern that she needs to rest and has not yet had a moment with the body. He doesn’t give any snide remarks or intervene in Aranessa’s interactions with Thaisha, who has already displayed her hostility to Julien. He’s sticking to “his place” as a knight as closely as possible in Aranessa’s presence.
And then Julien is a total jackass on his own.
He pulls away while everyone is distracted, goes to the body while Thaisha’s deer is giving funeral rights, then waits until it leaves him alone. Matt narrates:
[Julien] looks down upon the well-adorned and well-remembered and well-beloved body of Thjazi, here in this warm hearth surrounded by the chattering voices of his family and his friends and all those whose lives he’s touched. I can hear the gentle, occasional sobs and stutters of my dear friend, Lady Aranessa. And I just quietly look down upon him.
“The only shame is I couldn’t watch you die twice.”
(spits) And then I walk away.
Again, Julien revels in looking down at Thjazi. He’s fixated on how much respect and affection is afforded to the deceased. Even then, he doesn’t act until he’s sure no one is watching. He doesn’t have any respect for Thjazi, but Julien wants to avoid consequences for showing that. This vignette is purely petty spite, and it’s solely for himself.
Just before going to speak with Thaisha, Julien puts a hand out over the shot of Yahrgraz that had been handed to Aranessa and asks, "Are you sure?" (To be clear, both Murray and Thaisha had made disgusted faces after taking a shot, and then Aranessa asked for what they were drinking.) Before she answers, Thaisha demands his attention, and Julien takes the shot himself, tries to hide his disgust, and goes outside to wait for Thaisha. (He had already asked for Aranessa's leave before the Thjazi scene.)
Julien's actions here seem to be motivated first in concern for Aranessa, but then he just wants some alcohol before he has to deal with Thaisha. There's also no way that this was proper decorum for a knight. It could be that Julien is matching Aranessa's informality now that Wic and Tyranny have left. It might also be that Julien is overstepping when he thinks he should act on Aranessa's behalf. Given how much we've seen them both disregard decorum at this point, it feels like the former is more likely.
The private conversation with Thaisha is also very calculated. At first, Julien uses the same diplomatic language as he did with Jacques. He freely compliments Thaisha’s son with examples that are specific enough to seem authentic and earned. There's no sly suggestions that something will happen to him or that Thaisha's behavior would affect that.
Then, finally, Julien slouches and drops the knightly demeanor for the second half of the conversation once Thaisha calls him out for grinning at the wake. Thaisha calls him "A lying scoundrel, a rat who betrayed his father and his family for one last hope of glory." He speaks directly in return. Despite all the vitriol he has for Thjazi, he still doesn’t throw insults so much as criticism.
On even ground, here, if you want to keep throwing these words away from me, you have to be willing to take it back, alright? My family was thrown into the mud by my father, and I pulled us back up. Your— (and he gestures back towards Thjazi) your kin turned on all of those who helped lift him up, and he needed to be taught a lesson, and it just so happened that I was the one who had the courage to do so. And I know that can be hard for you to muster into your stomach after all these years, but what’s done is done, and now we live, and now we mourn. So you can throw your words all you like. It does not change history. I don’t hate you as much as you may hate me. I’m not going to lie: you know I hate him.
From this exposition, it seems like Julien saw Thjazi’s actions as betraying Aranessa and her house despite other exposition that the House of Royce took the Halovars’ side after Thjazi rebelled. Perhaps he thought that Thjazi should have capitulated for the sake of Aranessa, but it’s hard to say whether that would have remedied anything. Maybe the act of rebellion was enough of a transgression in Julien's eyes because that alone betrayed the Sundered Houses. Maybe it was personal, about how it affected Aranessa. We don't yet know if it's one or all of these things, but it's all we have to go on so far.
In spite of all of that, Julien makes no threats. He insists that he doesn't hate Thaisha, and although she warns him never to harm her son, she also admits that she doesn't hate Julien either. Julien's defensiveness returns at her threat. "A pleasure as always, Thaisha." At least, they seem to have intentions to try to get along, even if only for their loved ones rather than out of concern for each other.
Altogether, my impression is that Julien is preoccupied with consequence rather than rules. Every action and word is chosen with the understanding that there will be a reaction. It offends him when the reaction does not seem earned. His house fell because of his father, it rose again because of Julien, and Thjazi is dead because he rebelled. Julien expects to be treated respectfully as long as he abides social expectation, but he’s willing to meet people on equal ground (Thaisha) when he realizes it’s not going to work. In Julien’s view, all the affection and respect for Thjazi is unearned, and he hates him for it.
It’s a fascinating approach to a lawful character because Julien seems to believe the social/class structure in place needs to be accounted for, without any suggestion that he is willing to challenge that structure. It seems to piss him off that it's not a meritocracy, but he still expects compliance. It’s a mentality that there’s rules, and people will abide by them, or else he will happen to them. That's how he can acquire status. We don’t know enough to say if he’s a good/neutral/evil character, but it’s clearly going to lead to conflict with many of the PCs.
What an incredible gift. Brennan made Matt into The Dwarf in EXU Divergence, tying the meta narrative into a celebration of how Matt created Exandria both in and out of game. Now Matt served up a character who sees the injustice of the social structure of this world, does not like multiple aspects of it, was harmed by it, and nonetheless chose to become an enforcer.
Matt is playing a cop in Brennan's long form campaign.
This is gonna be fantastic.
