ill met app.

[acquaint]

Character Information

Name: Sylvain Jose Gautier
Canon: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Canon Point: Azure Moon (Blue Lions route) final chapter; post-final battle, pre-epilogue. (Note: the player character, Byleth, was female and no other students from the other houses were recruited into Blue Lions.)
Age: 24
History: Character info; cw for mentions of child abuse.
Personality:

Charming

It's important to remember that Sylvain has, essentially, two sides to him: one that he allows people to see and likely prefers them to see most of the time, and his true personality that he only shows in private or in the presence of very close friends. For most of his interactions, Sylvain projects an outward appearance of affable insouciance, with a light-hearted and easy going charm that allows him to get along with most people right off the bat. He's caring and helpful, generally quite likable, and gives off that older brother vibe for most of his classmates, some of whom he's taken care of since childhood. He's always seen with a smile on his face and is almost always surrounded by girls, of which he's never out of compliments for.

Self-Loathing/Shallow

But that's the thing—they're just words, sweet nothings that he doesn't mean no matter how much he may insist otherwise, because they're just as fake as that flirty personality he wears like a mask. The reason for that lies within his crest, something hereditary that tends to only manifest in battle and allows him to wield the Lance of Ruin without suffering from the physical and mental strain of doing so. Most, if not all, of Sylvain's internal struggle stems from his crest—from the moment he was born, Sylvain was given everything and anything he could want, whereas his older brother, Miklan, was given nothing simply on the basis that he wasn't born with a crest. Throughout his childhood, Miklan tormented Sylvain, abused him and even attempted to kill him at every opportunity until Miklan was eventually disowned, all of which Sylvain had endured silently. Sylvain believed his existence was the reason Miklan had suffered, and that he had unknowingly destroyed whatever future (and whatever life) Miklan may have had simply because he was given the crest that Miklan didn't have. The abuse he had suffered throughout the years have colored his opinion of crests and how they've become so ingrained into the life and culture of Fódlan; it's also influenced his opinion of himself, as he was led to believe that his crest was all he's good for and all he's worth. So deep is his hatred for crests and ultimately, himself, that he struggled to reconcile his own self-worth outside of his crest, believing that people only want to be close to him to reap the potential benefits that comes from being with him. Throughout the game, he wonders what his life would have been like if he was born without a crest, if perhaps he was able to somehow pass it on to his brother, would Miklan still be alive. He envies the player character for being ignorant to the struggles of having a crest, who was sheltered from the burden of it for much of their life because they were raised in a mercenary company.

It's the reason why he dates around with no intention of commitment—what's the point of getting serious with someone and settling down when they have no interest in who he is anyway? He justifies it by saying that they only wanted to use him as a means of becoming nobility, yet he doesn't allow any of them to come close enough to actually get to know him like he really wants. It's the same with nearly everyone else; for all of Sylvain's smiles and friendly disposition, he keeps people at a distance, only showing them a side of himself that he's cultivated over time—one built of easy smiles and easier lies, convincing himself that, yes, this is all he's good for: a crest and a lance and a duty to defend the northern border with his life. At least, it's what he'd convinced himself of, until that side of himself, that mask he wore every day, became real.

Self-destructive

But like all masks, they crack eventually. For all that Sylvain tries to keep people at arm's length—not only to protect himself but to protect them from himself, because Sylvain is surprisingly self-aware and knows better than anyone else how deep his self-hatred and insecurities run, all while being notoriously awful at letting the people who actually want to help him in—he's pretty bad at it because he cares too much, especially when it comes to his friends and his allies. Let it be known that Sylvain would be the first to lay down his life for Felix, Ingrid, or Dimitri without a second thought, not because of chivalry and honor and all those other notions of duty that their kingdom had force fed them with since they were able to walk, but because he cares about them. They'd been friends since childhood and he'd watched them grow, wiped their tears whenever they cried despite having no one to wipe his own. His friends are so important, much more important than he is and ever will be, and while it's so easy to write it off as dedication, in reality it's his self-loathing and self-destructive tendencies rearing its head again.

Loyal/Caring

But here's where it gets complicated, because in the end, it is dedication: for as much as Sylvain fools around and never seems to care about his training, he never fails to show up whenever his friends need him. He's the kind of guy who makes a childhood death pact at, like, ten years old and still honors it even at twenty-four; it's the one thing that makes him get his act together and curbs his self-destructive habit of throwing himself in the path of danger for his friends rather than actually pulling them out of it. He never outright refuses to help anyone either, even if it may be out of his way, or even if they didn't ask him in the first place. He tells Ashe that it's their job to help anyone who needs it, and that everyone's the same, deep down: "If someone's in trouble, I help them. You don't need to be a valiant knight to know that." He spends time with Dedue, a man from Duscur whose people have been subjected to prejudice following the assassination of the king, heedless of the misunderstandings people may make about him for doing so. He insists that a person can't be judged by the worst of their kind, that what happened during the tragedy doesn't concern Dedue himself, much like the way he wishes people could view him: to be free from the attention that having a crest grants him, which is both as much of a spotlight as it is a microscope, always judging and scrutinizing each move and choice he makes.

Clever

And while he plays up his dumb playboy act like it's going out of style, he is, in fact, surprisingly intelligent. There's an expectation of nobles and crest-bearers that he rails against vehemently, the idea that people who don't have crests are lesser than those who possess them. As someone who is both, Sylvain was expected from a young age to do great things, expected to be better than the rest and a model for people to look up to; to lead his citizens to a brighter future. It's something he both hates and is terrified of, partly because he wishes so desperately to have the freedom to live his life the way he wants to, without the burden of crests and the suffocating weight of everyone's lofty expectations; partly because he's seen firsthand what happens if he were to fail to meet those expectations: his brother cast out and disowned, reduced to nothing but a bandit and who had ultimately died a monster, attempting to wield the Lance of Ruin in a last ditch effort to prove his worth despite knowing the consequences of doing so without having a crest. So Sylvain does the exact opposite, builds up a reputation for himself as nothing but a dandy and a philanderer, one who doesn't care about training and studies and hard work. In actuality, it couldn't be further from the truth: Sylvain is smart and calculating, able to grasp complex magic formulas at a mere glance, expressing his suspicions of the true cause behind the Duscur tragedy despite the story that everyone else believes. One of his favorite gifts is a board game set, and he's seen studying up on Sreng outside of his classes, learning about their history and land despite his duty to defend the border from their invasion. He values hard work and respects those who truly dedicate themselves to following their passions or honing their skills, but further than that, what he actually admires are people who are true to themselves: people who don't try to pretend to be someone different, who know who they are and what they want and are unapologetic in trying to achieve it.

Where and how did your character enter the Hedge? The thing is, Sylvain hadn't counted on surviving the war. Of course he did everything he could to keep his friends and comrades safe, fought tooth and nail to stay alive, but the gravity of actually not dying in that last battle was nearly overwhelming. Five years fighting on the front lines while facing down former friends and countrymen really takes a lot of a person, who knew. So while victory celebrations started, Sylvain walked out instead, taking a long break outside and clear his head. By the time he went back in, the sun had already set as he made his way through the corridors; they seemed to stretch on forever while also getting darker and darker.
Additional Memories Lost: n/a
Skillsets:

• Weapons proficiency: Sylvain's main weapon of choice is the lance/spear, and while he isn't Felix "While You Were Partying, I Studied The Blade" Fraldarius who wakes up at four in the morning to destroy training dummies every day, Sylvain is actually quite good at wielding it. He has to be, when he's tasked to defend the border from invading armies from the north; when he's the only one able to wield the Lance of Ruin. His fighting style apparently incorporates "flashy techniques" and "evocative poses", and "always draws attention." Yeah, I hate him too. He's also decent in wielding axes and good at handling horses.
  
• Education and upbringing: As heir to House Gautier, Sylvain was given a thorough and elite education both at home and later at Garreg Mach's Officer's Academy that would prepare him for his responsibilities as the next Margrave, i.e.: horsemanship, etiquette, territory management, politics, the whole shebang. Sylvain is good at diplomacy and has a talent for warfare (even if he may hate it), having grown up fighting for Faerghus his whole life. He is skilled in military strategy and battlefield calculations, and is a decent tactician with a focus on avoiding as much casualties as he can. He's the kind of guy who would cut off your supply chains right from the get-go; the guy who would first come for your gold, your lands, and then eventually, your head. He plays the long game.

Inventory:

• his outfit
  
• the Lance of Ruin, which is a cool and creepily unsettling lance made from the bones of a dragon.
  
• a random pack of jerky

Sample: Here and here!