*LUCEAT— nicolò di genova of the old guard franchise. primarily headcanon based but incorporates a combination of comic + film canon. low activity and mutuals only. written by charlie (she/they, 27+, white, us). muse bio and rules brief below the cut. affiliated w/ @rvolving’s yusuf. explore: sideblog, pinterest.
RULES BRIEF— please do not use heavy additional spacing between words / characters or gradient-coloured text when writing with me. in general, heavy formatting is hard for me to read. blog is exclusively 21+. all triggers are tagged with #trigger cw and i try to be diligent in tagging everything. i do sometimes write non-explicit smut but it's very rare and will always be tagged. please note that nicky is an immortal gay former monk, ordained roman catholic priest, and crusader who then became a moral vigilante, his backstory and canon include instances and themes of religious trauma, religious prejudice, homophobia, internalized homophobia, eating disorders and self-harm (these are exclusively in the context of medieval monastic practice), violence, war, and more. i will always try to not exploit these themes, but they will be mentioned / discussed, but always tagged. please follow with care (for what it's worth, it's a happy ending). minors will be hard blocked. mutuals only, all mutuals are welcome / invited to im me or ask for discord. if i don’t like you / the things you post, i will soft / hard block as i see fit. please note that i don't usually respond to / write one-liners because i'm the world's worst reviser and i can't shut up. to see examples of my writing before following, feel free to browse my ic writing tag.
a note on shipping: nicky is happily married to the love of his life. as far as requited love goes, i will only ship him with yusuf. unrequited and elsewise complicated ships are still encouraged in a gremlin great plot way, because i love the drama.
CHARACTER BASICS— nicolò di genova (nicky, nico), he/him, gay, auadhd, current alias nicolas (nicky) smith, born in 1069 in the then-village of genova, in what is now northern italy, to a minor merchanting family, sixth of six sons, sent to monastery in piemonte, selected for ordination at 16 and ordained at 20, later abandoned monastic life to join the bishop of puy-en-velay's recruitment campaign at the onset of the first crusade in hope of attaining the clean soul in death that papal decree promised for all those who fought and in hope of aiding his fellow christians, first death came at the hands of his future husband and fatimid defender yusuf ibn al-kaysani on the fields outside of the holy city, in 1099 at the age of 30, thereupon unaging and (apparently) unkillable, nearly a thousand years old in the modern day, please read detailed backstory here
please note that, despite historically inaccurate depictions in the comics and elsewise assumptions, nicky was not, and did not ever become, a templar. he was also not a knight.
APPEARANCE— fc luca marinelli, for physical details and sensory impressions please read this post
NOTABLE QUALITIES— introverted, patient, and profoundly kind, defined by these qualities despite a strong latent drive towards the despair of punitive violence into which he can sometimes become lost, intelligent and contemplative, a little philosophical, quiet and often soft-spoken but strong in his convictions and firmly and calmly outspoken when driven to be, a man both of faith and of the loss of faith, loving, and sympathetic, a thoughtful listener, prone to devotion (for better or worse), a man who, with help and acceptance of love, overcame a lifetime of shame and self-disgust, abandoned the self-obsession on sin, and who tries wholeheartedly to help others overcome the same, 'to put some good into the world'
SKILLS— gifted warrior (after nearly a thousand years and countless wars throughout time he is skilled in many, if not most, forms of combat) but a truly exceptional marksman, trained and deadly experienced sniper, can speak over 30 languages passably, further knowledge of up to 80, mother tongue is ligurian but grew up also speaking greek and sabir and a few other gallo-italic languages, now speaks modern italian as his 'native' tongue, reads/writes/recites latin, educated by minor wealth in genova and later extensively (for his time) in the priesthood, in addition to centuries of education gained throughout the world including several (more than five) runs through culinary school, a very good cook with a passion for feeding people, frequently works in kitchens during ‘time off’ though he prefers to sous despite his profound skill, good with a needle, knowledge of building, farming, and other traditional skills from his monastic past, constructive, focused, and always busy, a beautiful dancer, and a clear, rich singing voice with great clarity of tone
IMMORTALITY & MODERN LIFE— whether a curse or a blessing, nicky is (for the time being) immortal, immortal but not unkillable, he can be killed but will not remain dead, he can starve or drown or die of thirst but will return to do so again, both fatal and nonfatal wounds put on him heal rapidly, scaling to the severity of the wound but most major wounds heal within several minutes, he does feel pain, hunger, fatigue, etc, when he is killed the moment of death is too small to measure and broken immediately by his body 'restarting', when a new immortal has their first death nicky will dream of them in that death, together with a group of fellow immortals (including his husband, with whom he shared first deaths) nicky works as a contract killer of the immoral, and has fought for justice in conflicts throughout history and pursued the deaths of evil people, oppressors, and abusers in major and minor ways across history
