Appearance
Age: 31; height: 6 ft 3 (so, quite tall by Frankish standards); weight: 225 lb; discretely muscular; dark brown hair and eyes. Bears multiple scars, including shameful whip marks in his back; small reddish brand in the shape of an axe on his right forearm. Always dressed in austere, all-black clothing and felt boots. Has a dagger and, a rare belonging for one who seems to be a commoner, a real broadsword (executioners’ swords normally have rounded tips). His belt and harness are of dark red leather.

Personality
A man of few words, used to inspire fear or disgust, Louis is socially awkward and seems to have forgotten how to smile and enjoy life. He’s austere and cautious around anything that could trigger too many emotions, possibly out of professional habit. He also is aware of his dark charisma and aura, and won’t hesitate to exploit them if it serves his purpose. On the other hand, he’s surprisingly a very polite gentleman who will do his utmost to help anyone seeking him for his basic healer skills. He also is obsessively fussy about personal hygiene… a probable effect of getting his hands stained with blood that cannot be washed away from his conscience.

PB: Arjun Rampal
Biography
Why would anyone want to become an executioner? No one would have ever guessed that such would be the fate of a Parisian baker’s only son. Rejected as his successor for an unknown reason, Louis spent his childhood being mistreated by the perpetually inebriated master. But thankfully, his mother was there to run the business and to secretly pass on the knowledge to her beloved son… until she died from one too many miscarriages and starvation forced on her by her abusive husband.

But Louis was growing up… freakily fast, and a lot. It seemed that childhood wasn’t meant for the likes of him if her was ever to survive. His father instated some kind of truce, for lack of a better word, and allowed him to work as his apprentice. He was betrothed to the miller’s daughter when the plague came… and so, for the second time, he was deprived of a beloved woman.
But the worst was yet to come.

His father wasn’t a bright man. Easily influenced by a group of fanatics, he chose to  leave everything behind and follow them, allowing Louis to be captured and exploited as their chosen scapegoat who needed to expiate. His father himself agreed to offer him as a sacrificial victim: not only he would rank up in the sect, but it would also rid him of a dangerous rival, should he decide to take up the bakery again. Louis was tortured to the brink of death and left behind.

Rescued by the monks of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, he was miraculously restored to health… at least physically. For the mindless ministrations of his brutish father had damaged Louis’ soul beyond repair: he had become a vengeful monster inside, one who wouldn’t rest until he’d get back to the one who had ruined his whole life.

When Louis found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time and ended up being arrested for having bullied a spoilt noble’s son, he was sentence to hang. His only way out of it was to accept the charge of royal executioner, and so he did… not expecting that he’d have to bear with it for years without hearing a word about his father.

Experienced as he became in the trade, and thus respectfully feared, nothing had prepared him to being told by a Bishop’s messenger that he would have to burn a pregnant woman at the stake. That was an absolute limit to him – it even was one to the law he was meant to serve: pregnant women were systematically spared. But the Bishop had made it clear that there would be one exception. Without telling anyone, Louis escaped by nightfall and deserted his function. Having become a wanted outlaw, he journeyed northward, aiming to put in as many leagues as possible between him and Paris. And so, the one who had be known as Clovis in Paris, then Clodovicus to the monks, as well as Hlodwig and Ludovic through his travels, reached the Isle and soon adopted a new, more convenient version of his name: “Lwee” was easier to pronounce in the Anglo-Saxon language that he was slowly learning with the strangers he happened to meet on the roads and it ensured that his past identities were buried for good.

Note: This character is adapted from my own novel.