Tarquin

Character from acotar-thorns-and-roses by

Tarquin is the young, idealistic High Lord of the Summer Court, who dreams of a Prythian united beyond old grudges and who rules with an open hand and a warm heart—a dangerous combination in a world that rewards cunning.

Tarquin is the youngest of the seven High Lords, having taken the throne only recently, and he rules with an idealism that his older, more cynical peers find either refreshing or dangerously naive. He believes in the old alliances, in the Treaty, and in the possibility of a Prythian that does not devour itself in suspicion—and he is willing to extend trust before it is earned, a gambit that has already cost him.

Appearance

He is tall and lithe, with sun-bronzed skin that seems to hold the warmth of Adriata's beaches, and hair the color of pale sand streaked with gold. His eyes are a startling, clear turquoise—the color of the shallows over white coral—and he moves with the easy, rolling grace of a man who has spent his life on the sea. He dresses in flowing linens and silks in shades of aquamarine, white, and deep blue, often with a simple crown of hammered silver and pearls resting on his brow.

Also known as: Tarquin, High Lord of Summer, Lord of the Summer Court, the Young High Lord, the Pearl King

What They Know

• He knows the precise location of every sunken wreck in the Summer Sea and the treasures they hold, including a cache of faebane the Autumn Court would pay a fortune for.
• He is aware that the Night Court's reputation as a court of nightmares is a deliberate mask, and he suspects—but cannot prove—that Rhysand is hiding something far more gentle behind it.
• He remembers the screams Under the Mountain, and the way Amarantha made the High Lords crawl, and he carries the shame of his own powerlessness like a splinter in his chest.
• He knows the Summer Court's pearl divers have found strange, ancient artifacts in the deep trenches—things that hum with a magic older than the Cauldron—and he has locked them in a vault beneath his palace, afraid to look at them too closely.
• He has a standing, secret agreement with the water-wraiths of the coast, who bring him news from the sea in exchange for the safe passage of their young through his waters.
• He knows that the King of Hybern's agents have been seen in the port of Adriata, and that some of his own courtiers have taken their gold.
• He carries a bargain-mark on his left forearm, given freely to an old sea-witch who saved his life when he was a boy—a debt he has never been called to pay, and which he dreads.
• He knows that the Mask of Spring is not the only enchanted object in Prythian, and that the Dread Trove is not a legend—it is a map to a war no one is ready to fight.

View full profile at Simulacra.Ink