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Apr. 27th, 2016 05:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dawnoftruthP L A Y E R;
NAME: Sar
AGE: 32
PLAYER JOURNAL: fisherqueen musebox: yesisaworld
TIMEZONE: EST
CONTACT: Plurk: combeferret
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: (only applicable if you already play in the game)
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: (Apollon) Enjolras. Only his last name is given in canon. I chose his first name based on a line in the novel where a member of the National Guard claims to have heard him addressed as 'Apollo'.
CANON: Les Miserables
POINT IN CANON: Post Death at the barricades
AGE: 26
APPEARANCE:
Let’s look to Hugo himself for a brief look at Enjolras’s appearance to help flesh this out a bit. Hugo points out that Enjolras is “angelically handsome (1104)”, with a “pensive thoughtfulness (1104) ” in his gaze and appears to be very young. A 22 year old Enjolras, in 1828, looks more like a seventeen year old, and has a face like that of “a young girl (1105)”, though he is “prone to pallor (1105)” as well, particularly when he is overworked. He is of medium height, and underweight, as he typically forgets to notice things like needing to eat or drink and is prone to illness due to this.
Enjolras dresses rather somberly, mostly in tones of black and grey, with the very occasional switch to dark blue on especially festive occasions. It can be extremely difficult to get him into any other sort of clothing, and really, people have learned to stop trying.
His one vanity is a pair of gold hoop earrings, similar to those worn by Saint-Just, a leader in the French Revolution and a personal hero for Enjolras. When he is in need of courage, or facing a hard situation, he will put them on as a means of centering himself to do the work that must be done, and to serve as a reminder both of who he is, and who he means to be.
Hugo goes on to describe Enjolras as blond with pale hair, who has blue eyes and states that he appears to be serious and seldom smiles. I will be using Chris Jacobsen, a recent West End Enjolras,as his PB:
I also use some icons from the anime adaptation of the novel, Shoujo Cosette to give him more options to choose from.
CANON HISTORY:
Enjolras’s role in Les Miserables begins in 1828, when he is introduced, along with the other members of Les Amis, a student group determined to bring about revolutionary changes in France, and to help the poor and destitute. They masquerade as an education society, but in reality push for political change. To understand the climate that he lives in, as it reflects his history, it is important to look at what happened in France after the revolution.
The French Revolution ended in 1793, with the end of absolute monarchy in France. However, what came about after this revolution created many problems for the populace. The Reign Of Terror followed the Revolution and was, essentially, ordered by Robespierre, who said that terror should now become "the order of the day”. This meant that there was a period from September of 1793 to July 1794, in which several varying factions in France fought for power and a great many people were condemned and executed, particularly the political leaders of the days before the terror and those who supported them, , or were believed to have supported them.
In July of 1794, several of the Terror's strongest leaders, including Saint-Just and Robespierre, were executed and the reign of terror was over. Eventually the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France after leading a successful military campaign. While he had initially served to aid the French Republic, once he had returned to France from his military tours, he was approached to take part in a military coup against the current French Government’s constitutional leadership. He shortly did take over, coming to power in France and taking control of the government.
Enjolras’s early years would have been spent under Napoleon’s rule, as he was ousted from power in 1814, and after a few more attempts, including his failure at Waterloo, was exiled. Several of Napoleons changes in France left an important legacy, but nonetheless power passed back to the the brothers of the previous king, Louis XVI, who was followed by Louis XVIII, then Charles X, under whom the events of the July Revolution took place.
Enjolras and Les Amis had already been working towards establishing a free France yet again, with the example of men such as Robespierre and his earlier goals to lead them, the help of other republican societies across Paris and the ideas of writers such as Rousseau, whom Enjolras was greatly influenced by, demonstrated as he admonished Courfeyrac not to speak ill of him, and by the time of the events in July, were more than ready to join those other republican groups across the city to establish a revolt and raise up barricades.
The July revolution was caused, first of all, by the rise of Charles X to the throne because of his familial relations. This was resented by a large number of the people and was one strike against the government that had been lingering. The other strike came with the signing of La Charte, a french constitution that was signed by the king and other leaders of France, and did not promote true democracy.
The anger that this caused, anger over unemployment for the workers of Paris , anger that most of the newspapers in the city had ceased to be published under the new law, which prohibited this and you have the perfect recipe for a revolution. Hugo does not state what Les Amis were doing during this time, but Enjolras would likely have been present for the main events, particularly on July 26th, when many journalists and publishers of papers signed a protest and vowed that they would continue to print, and the police took the now illegal papers away.
This lead to some particularly violent fighting and barricades arising, the first time Enjolras would have been fighting on one of those, and on such a large scale. By the end of the three days of fighting, the insurgents, including Les Amis had captured the Hôtel de Ville, the City Hall of Paris.
Rather than the revolution that everyone had thought was coming when Charles X abdicated the throne, a new king, Louis-Philippe was brought to the throne, which angered many people and especially students like Enjolras who felt that their rightful revolution for the people had been stolen.
Two years later, still angered by what had come, the republicans in Paris looked for a new chance to raise a rebellion and fight to overthrow all kings in France. With the Death of General LaMarque, one of Napoleon’s former generals, who had taken a more liberal stance in the years since his exile, the chance for rebellion became clear as the people mourned the last hero who they felt had supported and stood for them.
On his funeral day, June 5th, the republicans, many of them students and workers from secret societies, like Les Amis, rose to revolution, building barricades in the street. As the leader of one such barricade, Enjolras lead his friends to fight, this time as the leader of a barricade, participating in some terrible acts of his own (he was forced to kill a member of their barricade who had killed a civilian for example) , and watching as his friends fell before succumbing, with Grantaire, one of Les Amis who had avoided being killed before then by being drunk and sleeping, to the bullets of the National Guard. It was not until 1848 that a true French republic and democracy came about.
For a look at a wiki's take on Enjolras, see here: http://lesmiserables.wikia.com/wiki/Enjolras
CANON PERSONALITY:
In terms of personality, Enjolras is a study in contrasts. While his political leanings, his writings, and impassioned words point to him as fiery and fierce in every encounter, this is not the way that Enjolras moves throughout his life. While his anger at the state of France, and a government and upper class who let the workers and the poor suffer is certainly present, and he lives for France’s people and the glory of all, his anger is a cooler anger, sharp and freezing for the most part, and his passions are contained beneath a serious exterior.
He is not prone to outward bursts of emotion and keeps himself tightly regulated. Even his expressions of anger and excitement are delivered rationally. There is no jumping up on tables to proclaim his love for the republic or flamboyant displays in Enjolras, and most of what he says is delivered in a carefully even tone, hidden behind a smooth mask that he does not even realize he is cloaking things behind. It can be difficult for those who do not know Enjolras to describe him as having any passion or feelings for anyone, because they often cannot tell it from his words, and are not privy to his interactions with his friends.
Among his friends, Les Amis de l'abc, the friends of the abased (yeah, that's a pun. Les Mis is full of those, we might as well embrace it now), a group of seven students, one worker and a drunk who make up a revolutionary society and subgroup of the Society of the Rights of Man, Enjolras is a little different. He trusts the men in this group, his best friends, as he trusts no one else, and seems to relax, and perhaps thaw a little when he is with them. Serving as the group's leader does ensure that Enjolras is set apart from them a little, but he genuinely loves and appreciates, well, almost all of them, and values their input and individual skills that make up the group as a whole. Among them, he is a bit more prone to making the few jokes he makes, appreciating their humor, enjoying their various debates, and sometimes even simply listening to all of them instead of joining in. He still is calm and rather quiet, but he's not nearly as severe and cold as he often appears.
One place where Enjolras’s passions do come out strongly, despite his quiet simmering nature is in his political writings and pamphlets. As a leader of a revolutionary society in the period, he would have worked to produce essays that would be published in the newspapers of the day, and pamphlets paid for by les amis to attract new members along with speaking to them where needed.
One of my strong headcanons for Enjolras that I would definitely like to bring into the game is his connection to the written word. I imagine that he would have worked especially hard on shaping his rhetoric through writing, perhaps to deliver as speeches later, and have headcanoned it that he was closest to the journalists of the day, despite his law school status. This means that the revolution of 1830 would have been a very big deal to him, and he took its loss especially hard, making it part of what caused him to vow that the next revolution would be won.
While Enjolras is not overly prone to physical affection, he has been known to share his emotions with his friends whom he trusts the most, especially Combeferre. One such moment of displaying these emotions comes in the battle at the barricade, when Enjolras is about to kill a young national guardsman and Combeferre asks for him not to do so, pointing out that the man could be his brother. Enjolras replies, shedding a single tear, that the man IS his brother. This demonstrates the level of trust that Enjolras has in his friends, as he does not let others in on his thoughts and feelings through the novel. He is also shown as interacting with Combeferre on several other emotional wavelengths and the pair share touches and glances that seem to communicate many things with no words between them. Clearly, Enjolras looks to him as a friend that he can trust above others, and, when he is overwhelmed by his emotions, and does not know what to do with them, it is a safe bet that he will approach Combeferre for answers, or perhaps Courfeyrac, in whom he sees a great understanding of humanity and how to deal with it. Even among his friends such displays of emotion as a single tear come few and far between and there are some friends who do not even get that.
One of Les Amis who this falls toward is Grantaire, a cynical drunk who hangs around with the group because of his admiration and veneration of Enjolras. He is one character who does not get the displays of emotion that Enjolras shares with the others. To let himself go in front of Grantaire, someone whom Enjolras sees as having no respect for the republic, or anything sacred and who, in Enjolras’s eyes is so lazy and pathetic and disgusting that he drinks to forget the troubles of the world, would be something that Enjolras could never think to do. He has little time for those who are going to be silly, stupid or immature when there is work to be done, and a people who need the help of Les Amis to get these things completed, and he responds with irritation when he feels that they have gone too far. Again, his level of irritation is typically restricted to cold comments and withdrawal from the person who has sparked his wrath, but it is definitely felt and can definitely cut deeply.
Though several people can invoke the wrath of Enjolras, he has few actual enemies, save for the political structure which he wishes to overcome. He understands that people themselves do not make up the problem, though he certainly voices frustration with these people and writes fiery rants against them, to be published in Le National, but when it comes to face to face involvement, he is usually coolly polite. Considering that he is operating from a very illegal standpoint with most of them, there is very little else to do.
Besides those who would oppress others, Enjolras has a strong distaste for traitors, spies, and those who would seek to destroy the sacred nature of the French Republic he wishes to bring about. He deals with people like this sternly, and affords no mercy to those who violate the sacred principles of revolution and it of itself. An example of this comes when Le Cabuc, planted within the ranks of the insurgents during the June 1832 rebellion in order to discredit the insurgents, shoots and kills an innocent civilian. Enjolras responds to this with strict judgment, calmly ordering the man to kneel,placing a pistol at his head, and giving him one last moment to think or pray, then calmly pulls the trigger.
While Enjolras is obviously grieved by being forced into this action, because killing is abhorrent to him, even when it is necessary, he is still able to calmly face the crowd of insurgents after ordering that the body be disposed of, and explains his reasoning behind the execution, namely that crimes of the barricade, in the height of revolution must be judged harshly and at once. He understands that here, above all else, "insurrection must have its discipline (1878-79)", and that assassination here is an even greater crime than usual, most of all because the revolution is a holy thing, and that the insurgents are acting as "priests of the republic(1879)", so it must not be possible for anyone to slander their work or conduct on the barricade. He also hates that doing this was necessary, telling those gathered that what Le Cabuc did was frightful, but that his actions in response were horrible. He certainly abhors the use of death, as necessary as it was just then, and adds that he will face judgment himself, pointing out that he's already condemned himself and that soon everyone will see his fate, reflecting that although he'll kill when necessary, dispensing justice hardly gives him any sort of joy, and rather, is a burden he's prepared to take onto himself when it is truly needed.
A similar example of Enjolras's strict judgments and attitudes toward things that profane the revolution comes when Javert is revealed as a police spy. Enjolras orders him bound and taken prisoner due to the man's potential as a hostage later on. When he speaks to Javert after this, he is again polite and coolly reserved, informing Javert that he will be shot at the time the barricade falls. When Javert suggests he kill him now, Enjolras is almost offended at the idea, pointing out to Javert that the insurgents are acting as priests and not as judges. Should the the barricade not fall, he would see Javert judged by the people themselves instead of passing more judgment himself. Furthermore, instead of being cruel to the prisoner, Enjolras asks if there is anything he needs, even helping Javert to drink water when he requests it. While he abhores what Javert has done, he'd certainly rather that the revolutionaries not be seen as bloodthirsty and wild, but as civilized servants of the more enlightened era he wishes to bring about.
Overall, when it comes to enemies, he holds to principle above all else. A swift judgment is needed when Le Cabuc, seemingly one of his own insurgents, harms an innocent, but for Javert, not one of his own, he must hold to the principle of allowing him the chance of judgment later, again so that the revolution can be seen as principled and reasonable above all other things.
These matters of principle, along with his strong devotion to the people help Enjolras to stay contained when he is angry or upset, and are applied outside of the barricade as well. With something that is no longer the republic to fight and die for, he is still likely to defend what he sees as "universal" principles, including respect for all people, the idea that everyone must be equal in seemingly every way, and that the bond, the "social contract" formed between groups of people in order to allow for mutual sovereignty must be upheld above all else.
It is almost strange to notice, given Enjolras’s love for the people and for helping them, that he tends to do badly when interacting with them on a one on one level. What this means is that, while Enjolras will be the first to champion a cause, fight on someone’s behalf, or bring food to the homeless, he is not very good at interacting with these people. There is a tendency, in his mind, to objectify those he does not know well, and a lack of personal understanding of how most people function or feel contributes to this problem. It is at these times that he feels most grateful for the assistance of Les Amis, who he is comfortable delegating such tasks towards. He does not seek to get out of doing them completely himself, and speaks and knows how to work a crowd well enough, but he is not as adept at conversing with many people and does not feel comfortable in doing this, although he keeps it up for the important task of raising the republic, and keeping the spirits of the people high.
Of course, in game, without his friends to navigate the smaller social details for him, Enjolras will be likely to flounder for a while. Due to the fact that he is generally bad at most one on one interactions not involving his friends, his reserve will likely come off as haughtiness or disinterest that he does not really have. This is a problem I would very much like to work on having him overcome here. Without les amis around, Enjolras will have to learn to handle his own interactions without accidentally scaring everyone away and ending up alone.
Overall, Enjolras is quite the study in contrasts being "as bold as fire, and as cool as ice(2040)" as described by his friend Bossuet. At once an impassioned revolutionary insurgent now far beyond the country that he lived for, and a solemn, and for the moment, rather sad, young man, who quite expected to be dead, his future seems wide open here. If only he can find a way to take it.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: n/a
ABILITIES:
Enjolras attended law school in Paris, is a strong writer of rhetoric and a decent shot with both pistol and musket, practices fencing for sport and is decent with a foil to hand, and has been the leader of a barricade in one armed insurrection, and played a role in another (he also participated in the revolution of 1830 that put Louis Philippe on the throne), but he has nothing in terms of supernatural abilities, magic, or any other qualities that would help him in this setting.
Unless we want to count the power of his convictions that drives him onward, even through exhaustion, anyway...
Other than his extreme willpower, Enjolras is a standard human without any especially meaningful other factors at play.
INVENTORY;
Enjolras will be arriving wearing the clothing he died in, a full set of fairly plain but high quality clothing from 1832, including boots, black trousers, shirt, lightweight grey coat and red waistcoat with gold ornaments.
It was a sort of prank gift from his friends to identify him as the barricade's leader. Of note is the fact that this clothing IS covered in blood and marked with 9 bullet holes. He's also wearing a black cravat, rather loosely tied, and a pair of small gold hoop earrings, and has a red flag clutched in his hand.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
Nah
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE:
http://tushanshu-logs.dreamwidth.org/275470.html?thread=29083150#cmt29083150
PROSE SAMPLE:
“Permets, tu?” . Those last two words, somehow the last that Enjolras knew he would ever hear rushed through his mind with the report of the balls piercing his chest and stomach, and there was nothing for the moment but to smile, though the pain that tore through him was considerable. The worst physical pain he could recall, though the worst pain in all of this had come earlier, when Courfeyrac had ceased to shout his insults to the cannoneers and the soldiers of the guard and army and all had seemed to sink to silence then, and, when his own hunting rifle had been exhausted and broken at last, and he had stuck his hand out for another, to be met with...the empty space that was the absence of Combeferre, and before that, when he’d stumbled on the way into the Corinth, over the removed glass of Joly’s mirror, the metal having long been given over for the manufacture of more bullets, and the corpse of Marius’s friend, the odd old man that Courfeyrac had recognized on their procession here.
Each of those blows, each friend now gone had felt worse than the shots that rippled through him, left him pinned against the cafe wall, and so he had been able to smile, at the light that shone ahead of him, at the idea that someday what they did here would not be in vain, that the republic herself would one day be reborn. He bore himself up then, as Saint-Just at the guillotine, the golden rings around his earlobes glinting off a shard of broken glass, Grantaire, the man who’d seen the light of the republic, crumpled at his feet.
A Tomb all but flooded with the dawn. The fate he had condemned, was proud to have condemned himself to, as his friends had equally proudly done the same. A death in the radiance of the future. Everything came from light, and everything, including them, returned to it. Harsh, and blinding, beautiful. When his eyes dimmed and he had breathed his last, he’d passed into a better world, with that hope of happiness his beloved Louis-Antoine, Camille and Maxime had, not so long ago themselves held to as they went to their deaths, and became part of the blood itself of France. What fate was there that could be greater, after the heights of so much sacrifice as that? He shut his eyes, and was that light at last.
Until, what seemed not so much later, when that light grew too harsh behind his eyes, when the soul plummeted back to earth with the effects of gravity, when Enjolras knew again, and blinking harshly, tried to move, and found that he could not, slumped and bleeding as he was, in a strange and incredibly foreign place, dominated by bright swirls in the sky, so many moons as he had never thought to see at once, in so many stages, and an acrid smell from a large fire that dominated everything, and sent a chill up his spine all at once, despite that he knew it ought to be much warmer here. Perhaps it felt so stark because he was alone. Whatever he faced here, he faced alone. The fate to which he had condemned himself…
And no one that he knew was here beside him. In one hand, he still clutched the flag he had been holding when the bullets nailed him to the wall, the nine of each of Les Amis, and how he’d wanted to laugh at the symbolism that their time on earth, in liberating France was made no clearer than by that report. His other hand, which had been holding something much more solid and substantial than the cloth was still clenched shut as if he held another’s hand, but it had slipped at some point on the journey.
“Gran’taire?” He gasped the name, the last of his companions he had been near when this happened, unable to keep his eyes open as he tried to focus on his breathing as Combeferre or Joly, would say. Grantaire who had not needed to face death, who Enjolras had known was their friend, their brother, but not a fellow insurgent until those final moments when he’d taken his hand, asking the question, and...seemingly, following Enjolras into the light where he, and everyone else had vanished, leaving him to wake on a darker landscape where night, not dawn, illuminated all, and the lights that stood out against the sky were not of anything Earth’s nature might produce.
But there! In front of him, there was a being, perhaps fifteen feet off, gesturing Enjolras rise, glowing with the sort of light he knew too well. A warrior, with something stretching out behind him, wings, but with no shadow, and a grave expression that did not soften, when he gestured, though a small nod came with the gesture, confirming something of who Enjolras knew him to be, as if the golden scales that shone within his grasp did not already tell him everything.
He should be panicking for his last moments, for the things he’d done, for the prisoner at the barricade he had condemned to death at another’s hands, for the judgement he’d been forced to take into his hands, for the times on earth he had ignored this being and his fellows, but he couldn’t not step forward, and the words that had been drilled into him came out now, by rote, more recognition than anything else, bringing him comfort even as he stood in the presence of one so great as this.
“Quis ut Deus?” 1.
The words fell from his lips before he knew that he was speaking, and the quirk of the being’s lips told him all that he needed to know. Whatever stood behind it, Michael himself, soldier, warrior, prince of all the angels stood ready to weigh and guide him. What was there left to do but follow onward into his golden presence?
Notes:
“Who is like God?” -Michael asks Satan this question upon his death at the judgement and this is also a direct translation of his name meaning.
All Hugo quotes and paraphrases come from the Hapgood e-translation of the novel.
NAME: Sar
AGE: 32
PLAYER JOURNAL: fisherqueen musebox: yesisaworld
TIMEZONE: EST
CONTACT: Plurk: combeferret
OTHER CHARACTERS PLAYED: (only applicable if you already play in the game)
C H A R A C T E R;
NAME: (Apollon) Enjolras. Only his last name is given in canon. I chose his first name based on a line in the novel where a member of the National Guard claims to have heard him addressed as 'Apollo'.
CANON: Les Miserables
POINT IN CANON: Post Death at the barricades
AGE: 26
APPEARANCE:
Let’s look to Hugo himself for a brief look at Enjolras’s appearance to help flesh this out a bit. Hugo points out that Enjolras is “angelically handsome (1104)”, with a “pensive thoughtfulness (1104) ” in his gaze and appears to be very young. A 22 year old Enjolras, in 1828, looks more like a seventeen year old, and has a face like that of “a young girl (1105)”, though he is “prone to pallor (1105)” as well, particularly when he is overworked. He is of medium height, and underweight, as he typically forgets to notice things like needing to eat or drink and is prone to illness due to this.
Enjolras dresses rather somberly, mostly in tones of black and grey, with the very occasional switch to dark blue on especially festive occasions. It can be extremely difficult to get him into any other sort of clothing, and really, people have learned to stop trying.
His one vanity is a pair of gold hoop earrings, similar to those worn by Saint-Just, a leader in the French Revolution and a personal hero for Enjolras. When he is in need of courage, or facing a hard situation, he will put them on as a means of centering himself to do the work that must be done, and to serve as a reminder both of who he is, and who he means to be.
Hugo goes on to describe Enjolras as blond with pale hair, who has blue eyes and states that he appears to be serious and seldom smiles. I will be using Chris Jacobsen, a recent West End Enjolras,as his PB:
I also use some icons from the anime adaptation of the novel, Shoujo Cosette to give him more options to choose from.
CANON HISTORY:
Enjolras’s role in Les Miserables begins in 1828, when he is introduced, along with the other members of Les Amis, a student group determined to bring about revolutionary changes in France, and to help the poor and destitute. They masquerade as an education society, but in reality push for political change. To understand the climate that he lives in, as it reflects his history, it is important to look at what happened in France after the revolution.
The French Revolution ended in 1793, with the end of absolute monarchy in France. However, what came about after this revolution created many problems for the populace. The Reign Of Terror followed the Revolution and was, essentially, ordered by Robespierre, who said that terror should now become "the order of the day”. This meant that there was a period from September of 1793 to July 1794, in which several varying factions in France fought for power and a great many people were condemned and executed, particularly the political leaders of the days before the terror and those who supported them, , or were believed to have supported them.
In July of 1794, several of the Terror's strongest leaders, including Saint-Just and Robespierre, were executed and the reign of terror was over. Eventually the Corsican Napoleon Bonaparte came to power in France after leading a successful military campaign. While he had initially served to aid the French Republic, once he had returned to France from his military tours, he was approached to take part in a military coup against the current French Government’s constitutional leadership. He shortly did take over, coming to power in France and taking control of the government.
Enjolras’s early years would have been spent under Napoleon’s rule, as he was ousted from power in 1814, and after a few more attempts, including his failure at Waterloo, was exiled. Several of Napoleons changes in France left an important legacy, but nonetheless power passed back to the the brothers of the previous king, Louis XVI, who was followed by Louis XVIII, then Charles X, under whom the events of the July Revolution took place.
Enjolras and Les Amis had already been working towards establishing a free France yet again, with the example of men such as Robespierre and his earlier goals to lead them, the help of other republican societies across Paris and the ideas of writers such as Rousseau, whom Enjolras was greatly influenced by, demonstrated as he admonished Courfeyrac not to speak ill of him, and by the time of the events in July, were more than ready to join those other republican groups across the city to establish a revolt and raise up barricades.
The July revolution was caused, first of all, by the rise of Charles X to the throne because of his familial relations. This was resented by a large number of the people and was one strike against the government that had been lingering. The other strike came with the signing of La Charte, a french constitution that was signed by the king and other leaders of France, and did not promote true democracy.
The anger that this caused, anger over unemployment for the workers of Paris , anger that most of the newspapers in the city had ceased to be published under the new law, which prohibited this and you have the perfect recipe for a revolution. Hugo does not state what Les Amis were doing during this time, but Enjolras would likely have been present for the main events, particularly on July 26th, when many journalists and publishers of papers signed a protest and vowed that they would continue to print, and the police took the now illegal papers away.
This lead to some particularly violent fighting and barricades arising, the first time Enjolras would have been fighting on one of those, and on such a large scale. By the end of the three days of fighting, the insurgents, including Les Amis had captured the Hôtel de Ville, the City Hall of Paris.
Rather than the revolution that everyone had thought was coming when Charles X abdicated the throne, a new king, Louis-Philippe was brought to the throne, which angered many people and especially students like Enjolras who felt that their rightful revolution for the people had been stolen.
Two years later, still angered by what had come, the republicans in Paris looked for a new chance to raise a rebellion and fight to overthrow all kings in France. With the Death of General LaMarque, one of Napoleon’s former generals, who had taken a more liberal stance in the years since his exile, the chance for rebellion became clear as the people mourned the last hero who they felt had supported and stood for them.
On his funeral day, June 5th, the republicans, many of them students and workers from secret societies, like Les Amis, rose to revolution, building barricades in the street. As the leader of one such barricade, Enjolras lead his friends to fight, this time as the leader of a barricade, participating in some terrible acts of his own (he was forced to kill a member of their barricade who had killed a civilian for example) , and watching as his friends fell before succumbing, with Grantaire, one of Les Amis who had avoided being killed before then by being drunk and sleeping, to the bullets of the National Guard. It was not until 1848 that a true French republic and democracy came about.
For a look at a wiki's take on Enjolras, see here: http://lesmiserables.wikia.com/wiki/Enjolras
CANON PERSONALITY:
In terms of personality, Enjolras is a study in contrasts. While his political leanings, his writings, and impassioned words point to him as fiery and fierce in every encounter, this is not the way that Enjolras moves throughout his life. While his anger at the state of France, and a government and upper class who let the workers and the poor suffer is certainly present, and he lives for France’s people and the glory of all, his anger is a cooler anger, sharp and freezing for the most part, and his passions are contained beneath a serious exterior.
He is not prone to outward bursts of emotion and keeps himself tightly regulated. Even his expressions of anger and excitement are delivered rationally. There is no jumping up on tables to proclaim his love for the republic or flamboyant displays in Enjolras, and most of what he says is delivered in a carefully even tone, hidden behind a smooth mask that he does not even realize he is cloaking things behind. It can be difficult for those who do not know Enjolras to describe him as having any passion or feelings for anyone, because they often cannot tell it from his words, and are not privy to his interactions with his friends.
Among his friends, Les Amis de l'abc, the friends of the abased (yeah, that's a pun. Les Mis is full of those, we might as well embrace it now), a group of seven students, one worker and a drunk who make up a revolutionary society and subgroup of the Society of the Rights of Man, Enjolras is a little different. He trusts the men in this group, his best friends, as he trusts no one else, and seems to relax, and perhaps thaw a little when he is with them. Serving as the group's leader does ensure that Enjolras is set apart from them a little, but he genuinely loves and appreciates, well, almost all of them, and values their input and individual skills that make up the group as a whole. Among them, he is a bit more prone to making the few jokes he makes, appreciating their humor, enjoying their various debates, and sometimes even simply listening to all of them instead of joining in. He still is calm and rather quiet, but he's not nearly as severe and cold as he often appears.
One place where Enjolras’s passions do come out strongly, despite his quiet simmering nature is in his political writings and pamphlets. As a leader of a revolutionary society in the period, he would have worked to produce essays that would be published in the newspapers of the day, and pamphlets paid for by les amis to attract new members along with speaking to them where needed.
One of my strong headcanons for Enjolras that I would definitely like to bring into the game is his connection to the written word. I imagine that he would have worked especially hard on shaping his rhetoric through writing, perhaps to deliver as speeches later, and have headcanoned it that he was closest to the journalists of the day, despite his law school status. This means that the revolution of 1830 would have been a very big deal to him, and he took its loss especially hard, making it part of what caused him to vow that the next revolution would be won.
While Enjolras is not overly prone to physical affection, he has been known to share his emotions with his friends whom he trusts the most, especially Combeferre. One such moment of displaying these emotions comes in the battle at the barricade, when Enjolras is about to kill a young national guardsman and Combeferre asks for him not to do so, pointing out that the man could be his brother. Enjolras replies, shedding a single tear, that the man IS his brother. This demonstrates the level of trust that Enjolras has in his friends, as he does not let others in on his thoughts and feelings through the novel. He is also shown as interacting with Combeferre on several other emotional wavelengths and the pair share touches and glances that seem to communicate many things with no words between them. Clearly, Enjolras looks to him as a friend that he can trust above others, and, when he is overwhelmed by his emotions, and does not know what to do with them, it is a safe bet that he will approach Combeferre for answers, or perhaps Courfeyrac, in whom he sees a great understanding of humanity and how to deal with it. Even among his friends such displays of emotion as a single tear come few and far between and there are some friends who do not even get that.
One of Les Amis who this falls toward is Grantaire, a cynical drunk who hangs around with the group because of his admiration and veneration of Enjolras. He is one character who does not get the displays of emotion that Enjolras shares with the others. To let himself go in front of Grantaire, someone whom Enjolras sees as having no respect for the republic, or anything sacred and who, in Enjolras’s eyes is so lazy and pathetic and disgusting that he drinks to forget the troubles of the world, would be something that Enjolras could never think to do. He has little time for those who are going to be silly, stupid or immature when there is work to be done, and a people who need the help of Les Amis to get these things completed, and he responds with irritation when he feels that they have gone too far. Again, his level of irritation is typically restricted to cold comments and withdrawal from the person who has sparked his wrath, but it is definitely felt and can definitely cut deeply.
Though several people can invoke the wrath of Enjolras, he has few actual enemies, save for the political structure which he wishes to overcome. He understands that people themselves do not make up the problem, though he certainly voices frustration with these people and writes fiery rants against them, to be published in Le National, but when it comes to face to face involvement, he is usually coolly polite. Considering that he is operating from a very illegal standpoint with most of them, there is very little else to do.
Besides those who would oppress others, Enjolras has a strong distaste for traitors, spies, and those who would seek to destroy the sacred nature of the French Republic he wishes to bring about. He deals with people like this sternly, and affords no mercy to those who violate the sacred principles of revolution and it of itself. An example of this comes when Le Cabuc, planted within the ranks of the insurgents during the June 1832 rebellion in order to discredit the insurgents, shoots and kills an innocent civilian. Enjolras responds to this with strict judgment, calmly ordering the man to kneel,placing a pistol at his head, and giving him one last moment to think or pray, then calmly pulls the trigger.
While Enjolras is obviously grieved by being forced into this action, because killing is abhorrent to him, even when it is necessary, he is still able to calmly face the crowd of insurgents after ordering that the body be disposed of, and explains his reasoning behind the execution, namely that crimes of the barricade, in the height of revolution must be judged harshly and at once. He understands that here, above all else, "insurrection must have its discipline (1878-79)", and that assassination here is an even greater crime than usual, most of all because the revolution is a holy thing, and that the insurgents are acting as "priests of the republic(1879)", so it must not be possible for anyone to slander their work or conduct on the barricade. He also hates that doing this was necessary, telling those gathered that what Le Cabuc did was frightful, but that his actions in response were horrible. He certainly abhors the use of death, as necessary as it was just then, and adds that he will face judgment himself, pointing out that he's already condemned himself and that soon everyone will see his fate, reflecting that although he'll kill when necessary, dispensing justice hardly gives him any sort of joy, and rather, is a burden he's prepared to take onto himself when it is truly needed.
A similar example of Enjolras's strict judgments and attitudes toward things that profane the revolution comes when Javert is revealed as a police spy. Enjolras orders him bound and taken prisoner due to the man's potential as a hostage later on. When he speaks to Javert after this, he is again polite and coolly reserved, informing Javert that he will be shot at the time the barricade falls. When Javert suggests he kill him now, Enjolras is almost offended at the idea, pointing out to Javert that the insurgents are acting as priests and not as judges. Should the the barricade not fall, he would see Javert judged by the people themselves instead of passing more judgment himself. Furthermore, instead of being cruel to the prisoner, Enjolras asks if there is anything he needs, even helping Javert to drink water when he requests it. While he abhores what Javert has done, he'd certainly rather that the revolutionaries not be seen as bloodthirsty and wild, but as civilized servants of the more enlightened era he wishes to bring about.
Overall, when it comes to enemies, he holds to principle above all else. A swift judgment is needed when Le Cabuc, seemingly one of his own insurgents, harms an innocent, but for Javert, not one of his own, he must hold to the principle of allowing him the chance of judgment later, again so that the revolution can be seen as principled and reasonable above all other things.
These matters of principle, along with his strong devotion to the people help Enjolras to stay contained when he is angry or upset, and are applied outside of the barricade as well. With something that is no longer the republic to fight and die for, he is still likely to defend what he sees as "universal" principles, including respect for all people, the idea that everyone must be equal in seemingly every way, and that the bond, the "social contract" formed between groups of people in order to allow for mutual sovereignty must be upheld above all else.
It is almost strange to notice, given Enjolras’s love for the people and for helping them, that he tends to do badly when interacting with them on a one on one level. What this means is that, while Enjolras will be the first to champion a cause, fight on someone’s behalf, or bring food to the homeless, he is not very good at interacting with these people. There is a tendency, in his mind, to objectify those he does not know well, and a lack of personal understanding of how most people function or feel contributes to this problem. It is at these times that he feels most grateful for the assistance of Les Amis, who he is comfortable delegating such tasks towards. He does not seek to get out of doing them completely himself, and speaks and knows how to work a crowd well enough, but he is not as adept at conversing with many people and does not feel comfortable in doing this, although he keeps it up for the important task of raising the republic, and keeping the spirits of the people high.
Of course, in game, without his friends to navigate the smaller social details for him, Enjolras will be likely to flounder for a while. Due to the fact that he is generally bad at most one on one interactions not involving his friends, his reserve will likely come off as haughtiness or disinterest that he does not really have. This is a problem I would very much like to work on having him overcome here. Without les amis around, Enjolras will have to learn to handle his own interactions without accidentally scaring everyone away and ending up alone.
Overall, Enjolras is quite the study in contrasts being "as bold as fire, and as cool as ice(2040)" as described by his friend Bossuet. At once an impassioned revolutionary insurgent now far beyond the country that he lived for, and a solemn, and for the moment, rather sad, young man, who quite expected to be dead, his future seems wide open here. If only he can find a way to take it.
POINT OF DEPARTURE: n/a
ABILITIES:
Enjolras attended law school in Paris, is a strong writer of rhetoric and a decent shot with both pistol and musket, practices fencing for sport and is decent with a foil to hand, and has been the leader of a barricade in one armed insurrection, and played a role in another (he also participated in the revolution of 1830 that put Louis Philippe on the throne), but he has nothing in terms of supernatural abilities, magic, or any other qualities that would help him in this setting.
Unless we want to count the power of his convictions that drives him onward, even through exhaustion, anyway...
Other than his extreme willpower, Enjolras is a standard human without any especially meaningful other factors at play.
INVENTORY;
Enjolras will be arriving wearing the clothing he died in, a full set of fairly plain but high quality clothing from 1832, including boots, black trousers, shirt, lightweight grey coat and red waistcoat with gold ornaments.
It was a sort of prank gift from his friends to identify him as the barricade's leader. Of note is the fact that this clothing IS covered in blood and marked with 9 bullet holes. He's also wearing a black cravat, rather loosely tied, and a pair of small gold hoop earrings, and has a red flag clutched in his hand.
ANYTHING ELSE WE SHOULD KNOW?
Nah
S A M P L E S;
ACTIONSPAM SAMPLE:
http://tushanshu-logs.dreamwidth.org/275470.html?thread=29083150#cmt29083150
PROSE SAMPLE:
“Permets, tu?” . Those last two words, somehow the last that Enjolras knew he would ever hear rushed through his mind with the report of the balls piercing his chest and stomach, and there was nothing for the moment but to smile, though the pain that tore through him was considerable. The worst physical pain he could recall, though the worst pain in all of this had come earlier, when Courfeyrac had ceased to shout his insults to the cannoneers and the soldiers of the guard and army and all had seemed to sink to silence then, and, when his own hunting rifle had been exhausted and broken at last, and he had stuck his hand out for another, to be met with...the empty space that was the absence of Combeferre, and before that, when he’d stumbled on the way into the Corinth, over the removed glass of Joly’s mirror, the metal having long been given over for the manufacture of more bullets, and the corpse of Marius’s friend, the odd old man that Courfeyrac had recognized on their procession here.
Each of those blows, each friend now gone had felt worse than the shots that rippled through him, left him pinned against the cafe wall, and so he had been able to smile, at the light that shone ahead of him, at the idea that someday what they did here would not be in vain, that the republic herself would one day be reborn. He bore himself up then, as Saint-Just at the guillotine, the golden rings around his earlobes glinting off a shard of broken glass, Grantaire, the man who’d seen the light of the republic, crumpled at his feet.
A Tomb all but flooded with the dawn. The fate he had condemned, was proud to have condemned himself to, as his friends had equally proudly done the same. A death in the radiance of the future. Everything came from light, and everything, including them, returned to it. Harsh, and blinding, beautiful. When his eyes dimmed and he had breathed his last, he’d passed into a better world, with that hope of happiness his beloved Louis-Antoine, Camille and Maxime had, not so long ago themselves held to as they went to their deaths, and became part of the blood itself of France. What fate was there that could be greater, after the heights of so much sacrifice as that? He shut his eyes, and was that light at last.
Until, what seemed not so much later, when that light grew too harsh behind his eyes, when the soul plummeted back to earth with the effects of gravity, when Enjolras knew again, and blinking harshly, tried to move, and found that he could not, slumped and bleeding as he was, in a strange and incredibly foreign place, dominated by bright swirls in the sky, so many moons as he had never thought to see at once, in so many stages, and an acrid smell from a large fire that dominated everything, and sent a chill up his spine all at once, despite that he knew it ought to be much warmer here. Perhaps it felt so stark because he was alone. Whatever he faced here, he faced alone. The fate to which he had condemned himself…
And no one that he knew was here beside him. In one hand, he still clutched the flag he had been holding when the bullets nailed him to the wall, the nine of each of Les Amis, and how he’d wanted to laugh at the symbolism that their time on earth, in liberating France was made no clearer than by that report. His other hand, which had been holding something much more solid and substantial than the cloth was still clenched shut as if he held another’s hand, but it had slipped at some point on the journey.
“Gran’taire?” He gasped the name, the last of his companions he had been near when this happened, unable to keep his eyes open as he tried to focus on his breathing as Combeferre or Joly, would say. Grantaire who had not needed to face death, who Enjolras had known was their friend, their brother, but not a fellow insurgent until those final moments when he’d taken his hand, asking the question, and...seemingly, following Enjolras into the light where he, and everyone else had vanished, leaving him to wake on a darker landscape where night, not dawn, illuminated all, and the lights that stood out against the sky were not of anything Earth’s nature might produce.
But there! In front of him, there was a being, perhaps fifteen feet off, gesturing Enjolras rise, glowing with the sort of light he knew too well. A warrior, with something stretching out behind him, wings, but with no shadow, and a grave expression that did not soften, when he gestured, though a small nod came with the gesture, confirming something of who Enjolras knew him to be, as if the golden scales that shone within his grasp did not already tell him everything.
He should be panicking for his last moments, for the things he’d done, for the prisoner at the barricade he had condemned to death at another’s hands, for the judgement he’d been forced to take into his hands, for the times on earth he had ignored this being and his fellows, but he couldn’t not step forward, and the words that had been drilled into him came out now, by rote, more recognition than anything else, bringing him comfort even as he stood in the presence of one so great as this.
“Quis ut Deus?” 1.
The words fell from his lips before he knew that he was speaking, and the quirk of the being’s lips told him all that he needed to know. Whatever stood behind it, Michael himself, soldier, warrior, prince of all the angels stood ready to weigh and guide him. What was there left to do but follow onward into his golden presence?
Notes:
“Who is like God?” -Michael asks Satan this question upon his death at the judgement and this is also a direct translation of his name meaning.
All Hugo quotes and paraphrases come from the Hapgood e-translation of the novel.
