Post by Aedan Cepero on Jul 1, 2014 4:49:30 GMT
Name:
Aedan Cepero
Age:
28
Physical Appearance: Standing roughly 5'9", he's a strong, well toned individual from the South Carolina Low-Country. His skin has a very light olive complexion he inherited from his father, but his bright blue eyes and wavy, chestnut hair are undoubtedly traits from his mother. Typically sporting a thin beard (primarily along his jawline, connecting into a goatee) he works hard to keep it well trimmed, but is often forgetful of it while in the field. He almost always wears a cross made of Spanish silver around his neck.
Strengths: Bilingual (English, Spanish), charismatic/charming (as the situation requires), college educated, brave (always "leads from the front"), empathizes with the soldiers he leads, highly intelligent (his mind's like a "steel trap," never forgets a face), ambitious (but not dangerously so), a sound tactician, passionate when it comes to the cause of liberty/love, and tends to have a calm and patient demeanor (unless, of course, pressed for too long, in which case his father's "Spanish temper" flares).
Weaknesses: Stubborn (He prefers the term "stiff necked Spaniard"), cocky, not good with horses (they tend to buck him... often), very poor liar (his face is "too expressive), has a weakness for the fairer sex, smokes cigars regularly, swears quite a bit (particularly in Spanish). Also, he's a catholic, which in the Colonies is a good way to get shunned from quite a few societies/opportunities.
Background: Born on January 7th, 1747, Aedan was the second of 3 sons and two daughters born to Felipe and Sally Cepero. His father, originally from Matanzas, Cuba, had been on a business trip with his father in Charles Towne when he met the beautiful Sally Rutledge at a high society event. Being the dark and handsome foreigner, Sally's interest became piqued, and in the months Felipe spent there they developed a budding romance that soon developed into Sally becoming pregnant with Aedan's older brother. Rather than let her slip into shame, Felipe did the honorable thing and asked for her hand in marriage, two days before he was scheduled to return to Cuba. This caused a major row in both families, as one was Anglican (Episcopal), of Scotch-Irish ancestry, whilst the other was devoutly Catholic of Spanish extract. Negotiations between the two families went on for months (while Sally began to show the reason for the marriage) and soon a compromise was reached. Felipe would be allowed to marry Sally, and remain Catholic, if they lived in the colonies instead of Cuba. The two married and using the rather generous dowry (along with some slaves brought up from Cuba) they created a mid sized plantation (roughly 500 acres) not far from Beaufort, South Carolina.
Growing up, Aedan lived what by all accounts was a very happy childhood. His mother was a loving and kind woman, and his father almost always had a joke and smiled often. The long, lazy days in the southern sun were spent playing with his brothers, and several of the slave children (his father had considerably less qualms about that than his mother did, as the Cuban slave code was considerably less stringent than the Barbadian code adopted by the southern English colonies), until the wee hours of the night. Chasing fireflies, fishing by the creek, playing a game with a ball and two goals that one could claim looks a lot like modern football. Occasionally, a schoolmaster would come by and help teach the children reading, writing, and arithmetic, while his father would teach them Spanish. Once able to read, Aedan spent many hours reading all kinds of books, from Virgil to Homer to Cervantes. He honestly never cared much for the English authors. In these books, he read of excitement, adventure, of the glories of being a soldier, and found that he desired to one day be like those men. Much to the chagrin of his parents he also taught some of the slave children how to read as well, though this was stamped out soon after his father saw one of the slaves reading a flyer in the town square.
When the French and Indian war (or, the Seven Years War) broke out, Aedan was too young to fight at the time. As the war progressed, he would continually ask his father when he could join the militia. "On your sixteenth birthday, and not a day sooner" was the constant response no matter how often he asked. Finally on his sixteenth birthday they had a small celebration at home and he immediately rode off to join the militia. There he only experienced one minor engagement, but it was of little note, and like that the war was over much to Aedan's disappointment. Returning home his father decided that instead of his son becoming a soldier, he should become a lawyer. Aedan agreed feeling that, if he could not have actual combat in the field, perhaps it'd be best to have combat in the courtroom. For his undergraduate he decided to attend a European institution, the Universidad Compultense, located in Alcala de Henares just outside of Madrid. There he spent four years studying the history of Spain, the early colonization, and relations between Spain and England. Upon graduation he returned to South Carolina and joined the bustling law practice his much more renowned uncles and cousins had built up in Charles Towne (Charleston), working as an apprentice there for a few years until becoming an accomplished lawyer himself.
As the years went by patriotic sentiment began to grow exponentially. Aedan often sat in on the state conventions with his two more renowned cousins, John and Edward. He even occasionally stood up and spoke himself, when sitting on the sidelines got too dull and some loyalist or another began to insult his family. A charismatic orator, it was not uncommon that the few times he did speak the speeches were published in the papers. Finally, in 1775, after the first shots were fired and the war had begun, Aedan was one of many of those who applauded greatly when the council voted to join the rebellion. He was also amongst the first to join the newly formed South Carolina regulars. Given his familial ties, former experience, and college education, he was made a captain in the 2nd South Carolina Infantry. Returning home for a brief moment before going off to fight, wearing his shiny new blue coat and shako with the South Carolina Crescent, his mother beamed with pride, immediately taking the coat to add several embellishments on it. His father was a bit more apprehensive, having heard the stories from his family when the British occupied Cuba. Still, he gave his son two gifts, a set of fine black boots, and his grandfather's Toledo forged sword. Embracing his family one more time, he rejoined the others from Beaufort who had joined the regulars and marched off to war.
