BEAR CASTLE CYCLE | Tale of the Soldier
Cúén Cor Faélci
Secondary Character | 25 | Ethnicity: Cerfi | Lieutenant of Imperial Cavalry | Separatist spy | he/him
Faélci is the lieutenant of the other troop in Valeri's squadron and his least favourite person. They have despised each other ever since their time in the military academy. Though Valeri knows him as Fechín cor Faélci, a traitor to Mantgamias.
Fechín was Cúén's cousin, until he died and Cúén stole his identity. Faélcis are the ruling clan in the southern mountains of Cabalusia, but Fechín's branch of the clan sided with the empire during the Cabalusian civil war, opposing the rest of the clan. Fechín's father, younger brother to the count Faélci, Cúén's father, killed the count and took his title leading to a bloody feud inside the clan. It culminated eight years later when a few of the Mantgamia loyalists of the Faélci clan sacked their own ancestral castle and murdered the new count Feálci and his family as vendetta for the civil war. Cúén used the opportunity to steal his cousin's identity and join the military academy as his cousin.
Lady Riona was Cúén. She's dead now too, only to be worn by Cúén when the situation requires it as a costume just like he wears Fechín.
Cúén is a revolutionary and a trans man. As Riona he's a noble lady, but as Cúén he's who he really wants to be, a separatist fighter. The separatist group he's involeved with are not Mantgamian loyalists, in fact they are anti-monarchists, who want as little to be ruled by the Mantgamias as they want to be ruled by the empire. They call themselves Cabalusian Liberation Army. They have a foothold in several mountain villages of the south, where they wage guerilla warfare against the empire. Cúén is a rare noble in the Liberation Army, which mostly consists of peasants, who lost their homes during the civil war, making him one of the few of them who had a direct way to become an officer. So with his cousins identity, unlikely to be linked to lady Riona, he is the perfect man for the job of infiltrating the army to gain access to information and weapons.
Cúén has a sharp tongue and a sour attitude. He often plays the role of a hateful aristocrat to fuck with Valeri, whose playing the role of a peasant. Even though it goes against his deeply held convoctions. Still playing that role is easy, he does after all despise Valeri. Valeri, who he knows is Valeri cor Mantgamia, the son of the late duke Julius cor Mantgamia, who still joined the imperial army despite everything. Valeri doesn't even have the excuse of spying for the separatists (yet). Cúén is not a idealist or an optimist, not like Aerich, the leader of the Liberation Army, who manages to always hold on to his idealism regardless of the odds. Still he continues the fight, tired from insomnia and pessimistic about the future, if only for being so stubborn. His isolation amon the aristocratic military class who represent everything he fights against, away from his comrades, intensifies the struggle. Especially being away from Aerich, who's pure hopefulness can cut through his cynicism, and who he is desperately in love with.
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