Character Background

The Carnot Family have historically resided in Brittany, where they lived a humble but comfortable existence on interconnected plots of family land where they were mostly involved in traditional pastoral farming.

The pleasant temperate weather, and generally lenient local Nobility made for an idyllic existence, up until the Revolution of course. Even then they faired far better than most of the urban populations.

The Carnot's were generally apolitical, with mixed relations and outlooks on the various local officials. However Brittany itself was a hotbed of Royalist sentiment and the Carnot's paid the price for their neighbors agitation and outspoken beliefs.

A crackdown ordered by the National Convention in 1793 saw widespread terror in the countryside as officials more or less invaded the area, making mass arrests for "counter-revolutionary" behavior, and turning neighbor against neighbor before eventually progressing into public summary executions.

Amid the terror, conscription gangs roamed the region looking for military aged males that could be used to fill the ranks.

Volunteers, and their families, faired far better under the attentions of the various officials. A token, small as it was, to prove commitment to the Revolution.

Gaspard volunteered, both out of the belief that he would eventually be conscripted anyway, and out of a desire to spare his family persecution. In truth he had no loyalty to the old regime, and no real love for the revolution.

But he loved his family a great deal, and as such was willing to endure much to see them spared.

Gaspard, being raised on plentiful home grown food stuffs and having Norman blood in his veins, was a large man by nature. What's more the family kept horses for work and travel, and he was quite comfortable in the saddle from a young age.

When this came to light during the conscription process, he was ordered into the ranks of the Cuirasser's

A veteran of Fleurus, ironically his first real battle after his training period, it was at that time that Gaspard began to suspect that something was wrong with him.

The sensations he experienced as part of a real Cavalry charge could not be considered natural, and this was reinforced throughout the Italian campaign.

It was late in 1799 when his own compatriots turned him in after several of them witnessed enemy troops "dying of fright", and having reported their own unsettling accounts and sensations in his company that Gaspard was arrested to calm the frantic soldiers.

His Commander, François-Etienne Kellermann, intervened on his behalf as the senior officer had already been made aware of the existence of the Mesmerisme through personal connections.

This, fortuitously, was the beginning of Gaspard's second career in the service of the Republic...