Florentius - The Paladin

Florentius, de jure 22nd Baron Palatine of Little Razpada, is a farmer and ex-mercenary, and the last surviving member of the House of Blackstone.

Biography
He was born forty-six years ago to Cassius, de jure the 21st Baron Palatine, and his wife Clothilde, at Home Farm, deep in the foothills of Little Razpada. At the age of 20, he was called up with his father and his elder brother, Cassianus, to fight at the battle of the Ashen Mire, where he lost his father, his brother, and the rest of his male kinsfolk. In the face of massive family debts and imminent penury — generations of dissipation had left the family lands mortgaged to the hilt and the house at Home Farm half-ruined from neglect — Florentius would then spend the next fifteen years as a mercenary; in the meantime, his mother and most of the household would fall to bubonic plague. Upon his return and the repayment of the family's debts, Florentius took up the rebuilding and running of Home Farm, and what little had remained of the Baron Palatine's authority — the "defence of the Blackstone Peace."

Barony Palatine of Little Razpada
While the senior line of the House of Blackstone reigned over Blackstone Keep, the junior line, Florentius' family, served the Lords of Blackstone Keep as Barons Palatine of Little Razpada, the mountainous region between the Free City of Razpada and Blackstone Keep itself. While the senior line worshipped the ancient sky gods, the junior line venerated (and indeed still venerates, with Florentius) the ancient, nameless harvest gods, whom the children of the family would glibly refer to as "the gods of figs and olives" after a line in one of the extant hymns. With the fall and extinction of the senior line, the junior line lost virtually all political authority, resulting in a string of feeble, dissipated nominal Barons Palatine who all but bankrupted the family and left Home Farm, the family seat, in shambles. Still, some of the more stable Barons Palatine, like Florentius, would attempt to maintain ties with former vassals and servants, and fulfill the family's feudal vow to defend their ancient liegelords' Peace.

Connections
Florentius is close friends with Father Top, whom he knows from his mercenary days. He has an uvuncular affection for Brunhilda, whose family had faithfully served his ancestors in ages past, and deep concern for Soulcatcher, whom he recalls as an unstable and prodigiously hirsute child from a village near Home Farm.