Andreas Nightsbane

Lord Andreas Niklaus Nightsbane
Gender	Male
Race	Hyur
Clan	Highlander
Citizenship	Gyr Abania
Age	58
Place of Birth	Ala Mhigo, Gyr Abania
Marital Status	Married
Occupation	Senior Advisor, Military Readiness, Gyr Abania, Garlean Empire
Height/Weight	6 fulms, 7 ilms / 264 ponz
Orientation	Straight

Family / Notable Relationships:

• - Father, Nicklaus Nightsbane (deceased)
• - Wife, Karinn Nightsbane
• - Son, Jossen Nightsbane
• - Daughter, Shinorah Nightsbane
• - Son, Jeffron Nightsbane (status unknown)
• - Daughter, Mihane Nightsbane (deceased)

Religion/Philosophy: Andreas follows both Rhalgr and Nymeia fairly equally, Rhalgr as the patron deity of Ala Mhigo and Nymeia as his own personal conduct and values align best. While he is not a deeply religious man, he does pray from time to time and tries to attend services at least semi-regularly.

Appearance & Personality

Appearance: - Andreas is a tall and fairly imposing man, standing over six and a half feet tall and with broad shoulders and a square-set jaw. His once-black hair is now heavily peppered with grey, though his green-blue eyes are still very sharp and shrewd. His eyes are deeply lined at this point, and he wears a neatly trimmed beard that covers most of his lower face. A prominent scar cuts across his forehead and left cheek, and his hands also have a fair share of scars, including a round mark on his right hand that resembles a gunshot wound.

Personality: - He is quiet and thoughtful, and mostly known for being steadfast and sincere in his conduct with others. He has a clear, deep voice when he speaks - and though he rarely raises it, it's the sort people listen to when he does speak. He is not a warm man exactly, save for with his family, but he had been widely respected and is known for being patient but firm with those around him. It is said he has a very deep stubborn streak, though this is rarely on display to see.

Personal History:

Andreas Niklaus Nachtsieger (Nightsbane) is the eldest son and current patriarch of the Nachtsieger family of Gyr Abania, a minor noble family dating back hundreds of years. His father, Niklaus Nachtsieger, was a decorated war hero who died in battle, leaving Andreas the heir to the family estates and their management at the age of only sixteen. Andreas had been groomed to someday take over the family since childhood, and did so to the best of his ability even at his younger age.

Upon his twenty-first year, he was engaged to Karinn Bertram in an arranged marriage with a slightly higher placed family. In spite of being an arranged marriage, Andreas fell very hard for his spirited, if sometimes head-strong, new wife Karinn; he had never encountered such a fiercely independent or outspoken woman, and was completely smitten. Karinn took a bit longer to come around – Andreas could be a bit insecure and shy, especially around women, and she initially thought him to be dull and a bit too uptight. Within the first two years though, she realized there was far more to this oft-serious gentleman soldier than she had expected, and begun to find his calm, measured mannerisms to be much more the mark of a bright and observant strategist rather than a slack-witted dullard. They served as balancing influences on each other, he to temper some of her more impetuous notions, and her to shake him out of his predictable ways.

They both continued to serve in the Abanian military, each rising through the ranks of officers easily. Andreas ended his career higher than his wife, less due to gender issues and more due to her impatience with incompetence and politics, especially at the higher ranks of military service. Andreas was shrewd enough to play the politics game where his wife did not. She retired as a colonel in rank, focusing exclusively on raising their four children and managing the family’s estates, investments and affairs, while he continued to serve and retired as a General from military service.

Upon retirement, Andreas switched to a career in politics – initially reluctantly, part of him wanting to spend more time with his family and the other still being powerfully motivated by a desire to serve his people and his homeland. As Ala Mhigo and Gyr Abania became increasingly under Mad King Theodoran’s sway, and its resources badly abused and depleted, he first continued to try and talk reason to the King’s council and officials, struggling to try and maintain his beloved home’s integrity while avoiding outright treason. Ultimately, the impact on the kingdom was too severe even for his own stubborn loyalty; when Theodoran first began plans to systematically dismantle the monk’s guild and then summarily execute any nobles who opposed him, Andreas and many of his peers banded together along with other like-minded individuals in the nascent resistance movement to the king.

Like many, Andreas initially welcomed the covert assistance from the Garlean Empire, finding the supplies and information of great value from what was hoped would be a future ally. Instead, like so many other Mhigans, he found himself played a fool when as soon as the King was toppled, the Garleans moved in and occupied what they’d believed to be a newly-independent and liberated Gyr Abania. Angry, bitter, and wracked with guilt for his role in accepting the Garlean aid initially, Andrea made two of the most difficult choices in is life – one, to send his wife and daughters into exile with other trusted family friends for safer lands outside of Ala Mhigo. The other was to further deepen his connections to Garlemald in hopes of fostering an insurgency from within the Kingdom and unbeknownst to its new masters. While it meant the majority of his compatriots and his homeland would see him as a turn-coat, a traitor, and a spineless lackey, he and a few of his closest associates knew it was also one of the only ways in which they could get close enough to senior level Garlean officials to have any strategic knowledge of their plans and operations. He accepted this burden with great pain and disgust, openly declaring service to the Garlean Empire and playing the toadie in public, all the while leveraging every bit of his Imperial position and information to funnel critical information to the various intelligence and military networks of the Mhigan resistance in the capitol.

Karinn refused to leave her beloved husband, and instead chose to remain behind with him and their younger son Jeffron, who was just thirteen when the Kingdom fell. She plays an instrumental role at her husband’s side, adopting the position of a demure and supportive Imperial noble wife, all the while actively serving in the resistance with her husband. At present, Andreas commands a position of reasonable trust within the Abanian territories of the Garlean Empire. His countrymen by and large despise him, calling him mocking names to his face and often spitting at his feet now. The Garlean officials regularly use him as an example of a “Smart and Loyal Mhigan” who can see the future, and have given him prestige and decorations for his Imperial service. He still holds no true command authority in terms of Garlemald himself, of course – after all, he’s still a conquered Mhigan and there are far too many Garlean families to occupy any position of real power and authority. However, he currently holds a post as a regional representative of the military’s acquisitions authority in Ala Mhigo, working with other Imperial facilities to determine what levels of arms and equipment is required to maintain troop readiness within Gyr Abania and also provides him a solid understanding of troop placement, capabilities, and readiness throughout the land. His having access to this much information of military and strategic importance is so valuable, he continues to withstand the slurs and disdain of his countrymen, knowing it is all for a far greater good than the vast majority will ever know…

Andreas and Karinn had fairly regular contact with their eldest child Jossen Andreas, as his position within the Garlean Army allowed for Andreas to generally know his whereabouts and to use the chain of command to convey messages to Joss. When Joss secured leave and returned home, the family would reunite and catch up as best as they could, both on general welfare and also the growing network of arms and intelligence being run by this side of the Mhigan resistance. They did their best to provide for their younger son Jeffron, who had always been a bit wild and after the invasion, became outright insolent. With a few years’ determination and hard work, they managed to channel his brash, anti-establishment anger into more useful pursuits, and as soon as he was old enough to set out on his own, he became heavily involved in many of the field operations and smuggling networks. Due to his extensive use of clandestine contacts, cover identities, and outright illegal activities (where arms smuggling in the Empire is concerned), they formally have no contact with Jeffron at all any longer. Every year, at both Yule and for each of their birthdays, they will receive a large, unmarked package filled with presents. Otherwise, all of the arms smuggled in are sent to other contacts for discretion and the maintenance of appearances….though these often include a personal note to one or both of the parents, which are always burned upon reading as soon as received.

They try to maintain contact with their surviving daughter Shinorah, though the building of the wall between Gyr Abania and Gridania by the Empire has made this increasingly difficult. Prior to the establishment of the wall but after she had settled in Little Ala Mhigo, they tried to send her at least one letter a month; many of these did not get through, and since the erection of the wall, communication has slowed to a trickle. They can no longer write to her directly, and rely on the kindness and sympathy of fellow sympathizers to relay either coded messages or verbal missives to Shinorah through the complicated network of anti-Imperial Mhigans scattered throughout Eorzea.