seneca
basics
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personality
Seneca's life is entirely defined by his unyielding pursuit of international peace, his promotion of acceptance and cooperation, and his steadfast pacifism. On the surface he is pleasant, mellow, ever-smiling, and not prone to showing negativity or strong emotions. He greets others with courtesy and open-mindedness, and the outright sincerity with which he speaks can be charming and magnetic. Seneca has an able mind for politics and is clever and philosophical, and these qualities mixed with his good humor can make him appear whimsical, flighty, and blithely unconcerned. Regardless of the tense situations that he finds himself facing on daily basis, he is unflinchingly pleasant and a dedicated mediator between conflicting points of view.
His serenity is incredibly difficult to ruffle and his mood will only take a downward shift into a grave, focused intensity when he becomes angered by an injustice or meets strong resistance in the pursuit of his goals. Silence is a sign of discontent in Seneca, and his comments can become biting and sparse when faced with an incorrigible conversational partner. Himself unassailable in his beliefs, he is sometimes single-minded to the point of overruling his people's dissenting opinions when he feels he's in the moral right. He listens carefully to others and uses their opinions to inform his own world view, but his knack for achieving strategic victories against impossible odds has taught him a great amount of self-reliance on his own thoughts and abilities. On a less obvious level, Seneca is a deeply private person, highly confident, dominant, and fastidiously devoted to his work. Although he is genuinely benevolent and kind, he is also capable of subtle manipulations, and is far more guileful and calculating than he first appears. He is ultimately both Gensval's disarming team captain and its chessmaster, fully aware of how the game is played and what underhanded maneuvers are required to push his difficult agenda. |
extras
- Seneca joined the army when he turned eighteen, and was shipped to the front lines for being openly at odds with his hawkish grandfather's regime. He excelled in military service and became an accomplished sniper, notable for his skill in defending encampments with a mix of sharpshooting and traps. Despite the environment, he maintained his controversial pacifistic nature and exercised mercy wherever he was able, focusing on capturing points with the fewest number of ally and enemy casualties. Under his influence and due to his seemingly impossible successes, the ragtag unit that Seneca commanded during the war earned the nickname "Pathfinders."
- He eats a lot of fruit, and because his busy schedule often doesn't allow him time for proper meals, he snacks on them as he walks between meetings. He can be found traveling the halls with an apple in his mouth and a file open in his hands.
- Pausing to talk to strangers and palace passerby is a hobby of his; he enjoys hearing the personal stories and opinions of the public, processing them attentively and using them to inform his own view of the world. He has a knack for encouraging others to share their views with him, with polite questions, charm, and a show of genuine interest. This often makes Seneca late for appointments, but he considers it rude to rush a conversation or interrupt anyone who is willing to share a piece of their mind with him.
- In the same vein, Seneca loves open-air markets, locally owned shops, and fairs, and gets energized over the chance to talk to the people who created the wares and find out what their slice of life is like- he has an earnest appreciation for craftsmanship and culture, and often ends up leaving with at least one trinket per shop (if it's food, he wants to sample absolutely everything). The wide array of items he acquires during his visits outside the palace are typically given away as random gifts to the next suitable person Seneca sees, an exchange which allows him to enthusiastically reiterate to the recipient the story of the person that made it and the process that went into it. His passion on this subject is contagious and palace regulars are usually uncomplaining when a bizarre gift is thrust into their hands.
- Like most Gensvalians, Seneca has a great appreciation for nature and loves flowers. He can craft a flower crown in a quick minute.
- Although his social disposition has enabled him to have a wide circle of friendly acquaintances, he's only close with three people: his best friend and head of security Kincaid, and to a lesser extent, his two High Advisors Magnus and Roman.
- Seneca is very closed-off when it comes to personal matters and is typically consumed by his work, but isn't as married to it as popular opinion suggests; before his relationship with Kincaid he did carry out discreet and mutually-beneficial dalliances with dignitaries and businesswomen- generally, women of as close a rank equivalency as possible, who had an equal interest in privacy. Seneca is bisexual, but due to his high level of secrecy the only people who suspect he has a romantic or sexual side at all are those he's actually been intimate with. To the rest of the world, he's a celibate saint. The strong thread of dominance in his personality extends to romance and intimacy, and he plays the more active, rascally role in both.
- Seneca has a lifelong love for rap and hiphop music and his music library is filled with it (with the sole exception of an orchestral version of the Gensval national anthem that he switches to when he needs to maintain his stately image among company). In his youth he gained a proficiency in street dancing from the shared knowledge of an upbeat fellow soldier, and on good off-duty nights as a soldier he and his comrades would have fun with it. All dancing is now regulated to the ballroom variety at galas, but Seneca's still the best on the floor.
- He's embarrassed by stately ceremonies, and shows rare displays of self-consciousness when he has to be dolled up for public events. Anything that requires him to wear his dress uniform or crown makes him feel silly, peacockish, and uncomfortable.
- His fashion sense as a youth was punk-leaning, and even in regulated uniform he sported a mohawk up until his recall to the palace. During adulthood, he chooses a highly militaristic style of clothing in the rare instances he's allowed to style himself.
- It's well-managed and rarely becomes an issue, but Seneca suffers from PTSD related to some of the dark acts he and his comrades committed during the war. He saw many people die by his hand and through his scope, or be blown apart by the mines he planted to bottleneck targets into a narrower shooting range. The Gensvalians also planted bioweapons in Arthevican fields to kill crops and starve out Arthevican army rations- but the remaining food was allotted to the military, so they succeeded primarily in starving entire civilian towns to death, an act Seneca deeply resented and regrets.
- Seneca can come across as unduly cavalier about serious issues, frustrating many people within his own government who do not believe he is taking their concerns to heart. Having fought for the unpopular argument in a worldwide debate all his life, he views any bow to isolationist challenges as losing ground and can be headstrong in the ways he pushes progress forward. Seneca is not afraid to exercise his power to bypass resistance when negotiation fails. This breezy attitude extends to his security- due to his unimportant spot in the line of inheritance and unpopular stance with the ruling government, he was not raised with a strict royal guard, and can bristle at pampering and scoff at security measures- he feels like he's a better shot than many of the people assigned to guard him.
- His driving is a little too fearless. He spent ten years driving only jeeps and humvees, and often not on proper roads. In the rare instances when he and Kincaid sneak out with a car and he gets to take the wheel, Seneca takes the steep, winding mountain roads at an unflinching pace.
relationship with kincaid
Seneca has felt a natural chemistry with Kincaid since their first meeting on the battlefield. When they were reunited on friendlier terms, Kincaid's mellow attitude, like-minded ideals, and playful personality were an immediate draw, and their interactions quickly eclipsed all others for Seneca. Seneca has an ardent admiration for the strength of Kincaid's character, feels most at ease in his company, and treasures his thoughts and opinions above any other. Seneca privately harbored romantic feelings toward Kincaid for years, subtly shown, but strongly felt. Due to their extremely comfortable relationship, Seneca was able to play off any homoerotic undertone as simply friendly. He had no interest in seeking a romantic relationship elsewhere, despite having sworn himself to inaction, and for a long while failed to realize that it was because that part of his life was already being fulfilled by Kincaid. Now that they are a couple in secret, Seneca's greatest happinesses in life are the moments he can be alone with Kincaid away from the palace. Their bond has also added a personal factor to Seneca's quest for peace; he wants to make the world a better place for Kincaid to live in, and ensure that the horrors of Kincaid's past are never repeated.
history
By the time that Seneca was old enough to understand the the word prince, it was already paired with the assurance that despite being one, he would never become king. He was fourth in line for the throne as an infant, after his crown prince uncle, his uncle's newborn son, and finally his princess mother. Seneca never knew his short-lived father, and had the company of his mother only during childhood- she died before Seneca's teen years. She was a serene, whimsical, and not entirely intellectual woman who encouraged Seneca to get along with others, to hold his tongue to prevent conflict, and to try his utmost to maintain a good relationship with her brother's disagreeable family. Although Seneca heeded her wisdom and would come to value cooperation above all else, he disagreed with her policy of passivity and instead wanted to tackle conflicts head-on to find a positive solution. Seneca was an adventurous youth that liked to be happy and have fun, and more than anything, he wanted to enable others to feel the same way.
When his mother passed Seneca inherited her spot as third in line for succession, but since the crown would be passed through his uncle's side of the family, Seneca was never destined to hold any state power. Nevertheless, by tradition he was groomed as a royal, and came to be viewed as the black sheep of the family- the bleeding-heart son of a flighty princess. His relations with his extended family were strained at best and barely civil, and the more he had to stand as an accessory beside his grandfather's wartime rhetoric, the more fiercely he grew opposed to it. He fell into alignment with the counterculture movement and began to protest his family's policies with increasing openness, and the mounting tension between Seneca and the reigning regime resulted in Seneca being (justifiably) branded by the media as a borderline-disloyal hippie problem child. His activism went so far as to lead to his detainment for civil disobedience at an anti-war protest (a stance viewed by the majority as undermining the morale of the country-defending war effort), but he escaped conviction due to his position and despite his raucous insistence on equal treatment. It was traditional for Gensval royals to enlist in the military upon turning eighteen, and the approach of his birthday led to a polarizing moment for Seneca among his immediate social circle, who tried to encourage him to spurn the tradition and impending draft, and participate in far more radicalized and harmful moves against the government. Repulsed by their suggestions, Seneca followed an emotion and impulsive-driven turn away from his former stance and toward moderation, and broke from his circle to enlist in the military. But in a politically charged move captained by his ruling grandfather, he found himself immediately shafted to the front lines.
He spent his time in the war troubled by a moral crisis, and directed his tactical efforts toward ending conflicts rather than instigating them. The unit he rose to command would come to be nicknamed the Pathfinders, proficient in ISTAR and rescue missions. Thanks to his strategic competence and good cheer, Seneca built a strong rapport with the soldiers he served with, and found among them the first supporters of his then-unpopular way of thinking.
When his mother passed Seneca inherited her spot as third in line for succession, but since the crown would be passed through his uncle's side of the family, Seneca was never destined to hold any state power. Nevertheless, by tradition he was groomed as a royal, and came to be viewed as the black sheep of the family- the bleeding-heart son of a flighty princess. His relations with his extended family were strained at best and barely civil, and the more he had to stand as an accessory beside his grandfather's wartime rhetoric, the more fiercely he grew opposed to it. He fell into alignment with the counterculture movement and began to protest his family's policies with increasing openness, and the mounting tension between Seneca and the reigning regime resulted in Seneca being (justifiably) branded by the media as a borderline-disloyal hippie problem child. His activism went so far as to lead to his detainment for civil disobedience at an anti-war protest (a stance viewed by the majority as undermining the morale of the country-defending war effort), but he escaped conviction due to his position and despite his raucous insistence on equal treatment. It was traditional for Gensval royals to enlist in the military upon turning eighteen, and the approach of his birthday led to a polarizing moment for Seneca among his immediate social circle, who tried to encourage him to spurn the tradition and impending draft, and participate in far more radicalized and harmful moves against the government. Repulsed by their suggestions, Seneca followed an emotion and impulsive-driven turn away from his former stance and toward moderation, and broke from his circle to enlist in the military. But in a politically charged move captained by his ruling grandfather, he found himself immediately shafted to the front lines.
He spent his time in the war troubled by a moral crisis, and directed his tactical efforts toward ending conflicts rather than instigating them. The unit he rose to command would come to be nicknamed the Pathfinders, proficient in ISTAR and rescue missions. Thanks to his strategic competence and good cheer, Seneca built a strong rapport with the soldiers he served with, and found among them the first supporters of his then-unpopular way of thinking.