You can say that Father Joseph is in his late twenties about 5'7" tall, with tonsured light brown hair and beard and piercing blue eyes. He commonly dresses in the plain black robe of his order. His figure is largely hidden in his robe, but he is lean and trim without being aggressively muscular. He abides by the traditional rules if his order (including chastity) though he seems to regret memories of wilder conduct in his youth as a student in Paris.

Backstory: born in Nantes, Brittany (of a French, not Breton, family); from a very devoutly Catholic gentry family; ancestors fought for the Catholic League in the 16th century Wars of Religion. Joseph's father was an officer in the Cardinal's Guard in the mid 17th century. Joseph was trained in the choir of Nantes Cathedral, but persuaded his father to let him study at the Sorbonne in Paris. While there, he showed ability in his studies but fell into the dissipated life of the students. The death of a young woman he had loved led him to repent and join the Jesuit order, where he became a missionary in New France to further expiate his sins and escape the temptations of metropolitan France. He both hopes for martyrdom and fears he would fail to show courage if it came.