melodrama

Froaude's early life more or less revolves around his ring, that is, the Rhule Fragmei (read: super-OP magical item) called the Ring of the Dark Emperor. Long story short about the ring: it was held by an emperor who gave it to a subordinate who used its shadow powers to terrorize the world until a hero, Halford Miran, cut off his hand and took the ring. Halford Miran later gave the task of guarding the ring and preventing it from being used to a village, that chose who would be imprisoned with it via lottery. When chosen, this person would have to be locked in a prison that Halford Miran put magical bindings on such that the ring couldn't be used from inside. So. Froaude is born in this village (he has a different name that he forgot and then saw no meaning in keeping, so we'll keep calling him Froaude) in the country of Roland, and when he's a child, his father is chosen by lottery to guard the ring. His father then tries to flee the village with only Froaude's sisters (rude), but leaving the village is Not Done because the ring is too powerful to be left unguarded. Froaude then kills his sisters and his father, and his mother gives him up to be sacrificed to the ring because she's afraid of him.

Cue a few years of solitude locked up with this evil ring, thinking about how to use the ring and get revenge on everyone for what they did to him by throwing him in there with it. He learns how to use the ring and has his chance when a nobleman attacks their village (to steal pretty children, y...eah) and he's able to break out of the prison when his mother comes for him. He's still pretty pissed off about the whole abandonment to the ring thing, so he kills her and then kills everyone else left in the village so that no one would know he had the ring. Then he spends a while roaming around until he decides he needs power, and to have power he needs to be educated and pretty much nobility, so he seeks out the nobleman who attacked the village and becomes his son.

For the next almost twenty years (yes he murders a whole village at age 5) he immerses himself in his education and learns how to work over the world of nobility. Along the way he arranges for the rest of his noble family, the house of Froaude, to meet unfortunate deaths, so that his adoptive father will be the head of the family. He joins the military and rises in the ranks at an incredible speed, winding up becoming a Colonel at 17. By the time of the actual canon storyline he's about 23 and presents himself to Sion Astal, the King of Roland, offering to "shoulder his darkness" if Sion lets him work for him. He gives a little speech about how what Sion clearly wants is to be the King of the whole continent of Menoris, but he can't do it if he's seen dirtying his hands with things like, say, purging the corrupt nobility or something like that. Enter Froaude, who says he'll take care of all of this stuff for him, Sion's "darkness," so that Sion can remain a Good King. Sion thinks he's probably reaching with that whole continent takeover stuff, but he accepts. Froaude then, well, takes on all the nasty stuff - working in Sion's shadow he's very much personally responsible for purging the nobles who don't support Sion (including his adoptive father, he enjoys that part) and he's somewhere between court advisor and assassin for a while.

He provokes the neighboring country of Estabul into rebelling against their ally Roland solely so he can swoop in and crush the rebellion and have Roland take over. It doesn't go exactly as he imagined, but he gets it done. Sion is less than pleased, ethically, with Froaude's methods, but Froaude manages to convince him that the brutality is the only way to put Roland on the Correct Path, so Sion just... lets him do all this. He tries to kill Ryner Lute, Sion's best friend, at one point, because Ryner stresses Sion out and that's just not cool. People who stress out the king should just die painfully, man. Seriously. During the time before Sion decides he has to kill Ryner in order to prevent the ancient monster Mad Hero inside him from devouring the thing that happens to be inside Ryner, the Lonesome Demon, Froaude basically goes around killing nobility and pulling strings to do nasty stuff that will make Sion look great as a king. Along the way, he decides to kill Ryner himself and tries in the most convoluted way possible— by manipulting Luke Stokkart, another of Sion's subordinates, into doing it... sort of. Using Sion's earlier edict for Luke and co. to kill Ryner (that Sion wrote to get Ryner to leave the country where he'd be safer, I know...), Froaude kidnaps Milk Callaud, Luke's captain and Ryner's friend. He then tries to blackmail Luke into killing Ryner in exchange for Milk's safety, but Luke nearly cuts his hands off so he backs down. Froaude takes his petty grievances that Ryner is still alive to Sion later and is told in no uncertain terms that he's being small-minded and idiotic for not laying off this petty dislike of Ryner being alive. Sion then shows him his inner Mad Hero Monster Thing to shut him up, and Froaude is the only person for a while who knows about the Thing other than the guy who put it there, Lucile Eris (also full of monster things, ie demons).

Later on, after Sion and Ryner's to kill or not to kill moment, Froaude decides he might as well totally kill Ryner and companion Ferris Eris anyway, because why not. He also attacks Ferris to provoke Lucile, to see what Lucile will do if someone threatens his sister. The answer is cut people's limbs off, but Froaude manages to stick his arm back on just fine. He's fascinated by Lucile until he figures out that Ferris is his weakness, and after deciding he'll kill her one day before Lucile can get to her, he goes back to running dirty deed errands for Sion. Roland then begins invading other countries in the southern part of Menoris - Froaude leads an army a few times, as he's since been promoted to Lieutenant General. Other than that, he mostly hovers around Sion and alternates between worrying after his health and asking if it's okay if he goes and kills Ryner or somebody else, things which he never intends to not do if he's told to behave anyway...

Much later, after Ryner and some other people have formed not only an Anti-Roland Coalition but also a People's Republic of Sphelliyet in a conquered nation in the middle of the Menoris continent, to oppose Sion, Froaude harasses the shit out of them. First a messenger is sent to Roland to try and convince Sion to agree to a peace treaty that forbids the use of Rhule Fragmeis in battle - Sion becomes emotionally distraught during this meeting and agrees, at which point Froaude just throws a knife into the girl's neck and says, nah, we're going to disagree with that, okay? He convinces Sion to go along with the story that the messenger attacked them and had to be dealt with, and also to let him go screw things up in Sphelliyet to make up for the messenger trying to make a fool of them in Roland. He goes to meet with Ryner, but can't - instead winds up meeting with Vois Fiurelle, the actual string-puller in Sphelliyet. Of course by "meeting," we mean "threatening to murder," because it's Froaude... He nearly kills Vois and some of Vois' subordinates (that he hadn't already killed) in a bizarre which-one-of-us-is-more-awful-as-a-person discussion centering around using the Rhule Fragmeis. At the end he makes some eerie comments and just takes off back to Roland.

Annnd that's his last appearance up to his canon point.

Miran Froaude is a creepy dude. He makes no effort towards hiding this fact and neither does the source material, which cannot seem to bring him into a scene without pointing out how cold and disturbing and emotionless he appears. A creepy dude. It's not unfounded, of course: the man takes visible pleasure in violently wrecking things (things as in people) and actually declared his own character's purpose to be "that guy who does the king's dirty work." He is ruthless, sadistic, and will kill anything that gets in his way or that bores him, because if it's boring then it's not contributing to his Purpose, so why keep it around? Many people who meet him are quickly put off, whether out of intimidation or because they can tell by looking at him that he's disgusting and has no qualms about killing. But just as many are fooled, and consider his silver tongue a potential ally of their own, and believe they can win his loyalty and thereby secure his talents to use to their own end. So it is not so much that people are fooled by him into thinking he's not so disturbing and ruthless, but rather that they occasionally make the mistake of giving him their trust. To Froaude, his self-appointed Goal is more important than anything, even other people's feelings and lives, even his own life - although he does consider his own life innately worth more than just about everyone else's. He's not overtly condescending, not in public, but behaves in such an emotionless way towards others' feelings that it's not hard to figure it out...

The one person Froaude exalts--basically worships, in his creepy way--is Sion Astal, the King of Roland. To explain why, one first has to drag themselves back to his past, which is a bit hard to do considering everyone who's ever come into significant contact with him is dead (see: he killed a whole village as a child). Froaude was an orphan who was literally bought into the noble house of Froaude as a child, and slowly the members of the household began meeting mysterious deaths until only his adopted father was left, leaving him as the head of the house. Froaude then threw himself into climbing military ranks and got exceptionally far by the age of 17, by being annoyingly perfect, all for his final goal of getting to the King's side. Froaude wants, in loosest* terms, for Roland to take over the whole continent, and he wants a good King who's capable of doing it. What he gets is Sion Astal, who exceeds his expectations in almost every way possible. Sion is actually flawless, as far as he's concerned, and so his loyalty gauge maxes out and maxes out hard. He will do anything for Sion including give his life, but his loyalty feelings aren't as heroic and shining!! as Sion's other immediate underlings. Froaude is, again, the creepy one; he hangs back in corners and listens and waits for the opportune moment to say just the right thing to show Sion that his disturbing methods are the right ones so he'll be permitted to go wild. He's not fluffy and you probably wouldn't want to invite him to a King's Best Friends slumber party, but Sion is the only person at all that he genuinely respects.

(*Loosest terms because later volumes state pretty blatantly that Froaude either doesn't realize or isn't quite willing to admit that what he actually wants is Sion personally, that is, he's in love with his boss. Like, completely. In a conversation with a godlike being claiming to be Menoris itself, Froaude's motivations are laid out as less wanting to see Sion's dream come true and more wanting someone he approves of and trusts to love him. He's also pretty obsessed with seeing Sion full of Dark Stuff surrounded by Good and Noble Ideals. There's definitely a point there, but he's too cold and calculating to react to love the way other people do, so he ignores it.)

His affection for Sion does not, however, make him wholly honest when it comes to his work— he'll go behind Sion's back and do things like set up rebellions in neighboring countries so that Roland can take over, he'll make false reports of his own actions so that there aren't any "indiscretions" he has to answer for, and so on. Sion often sees through these things and calls Froaude out on them, to which he simply asks what the king will do - and normally it's nothing, so he just keeps doing his thing. His conniving, manipulative thing. Although Froaude's actions are often brutal enough to cross the line of "any means necessary," the most brutal option is normally the one he picks unless he can be convinced otherwise. He has no qualms about not going behind Sion's back to do something awful, either, like the time he murders a messenger from another country right in front of Sion and says they're better off falsifying a report of what happened and why she was killed. He does this ostensibly for Sion's benefit - no one is allowed to see the king waver, so she had to be killed - and he orchestrates he elaborate cover-up on his own. He worries about Sion, in his bizarre, gross way; things like covering these messes and just generally frowning after his health/mental state. Froaude isn't the brains behind everything, but he's certainly the brains behind a good majority of the nastier stuff. With these things as well, when he asks permission to destroy a different country from the inside out and Sion replies, "If I say no, will you give up?" — the answer is a plain and simple "No."

Other people are another story entirely, when it comes to respect and honesty. When he's confronted or cornered he'll coolly inform whoever it is that they got him! they won! but he doesn't back down without a fight (aiming to kill, as always). And it's easy to see that he doesn't respect anyone genuinely— Froaude doesn't go around informing people that they're useless, because he's too intelligent to think that kind of arrogance is a good idea, but he'll let slip a bunch of similar insults when he's, say, about to cut someone's head off, because it's not like they'll be able to backtalk him about it. More than anything he tolerates, mostly for Sion's sake but also for the sake of people leaving him alone; his M.O. is shadows, stealth, etc, and he has absolutely no patience for people who want to get up in his face and give him a hard time about the things he's good at. So he tolerates. There's a quality about him that is a strange kind of emotionless; he is not without emotion, that much is clear, but he is very in control of his emotions. His standard response to everything is to look mildly sinister and maybe deign to smirk a little, even in casual situations. Froaude doesn't get (visibly) angry, or visibly much of anything else, either. It's heavily implied that he honed this talent throughout his youth in order to better manipulate people by not allowing them to read him, while he can read them upside down and backwards and bend actual nations to his will (one time he caused a rebellion just so he could crush it and make Sion look good).

When dealing with the subset of people Sion considers his closest friends, he is - angry. Jealous. Sion having attachments as strong as the ones he has to Ryner and Ferris clouds his judgment as king, supposedly, and Froaude is not okay with this. This is partly because it's true, partly because Sion won't fit Froaude's image of the perfect king that way, and partly because he is just plain jealous that Sion likes other people more than him. Hence his multiple attempts to kill Ryner, whether or not he's been ordered not to.

While he is in control of his emotions he is also, well, awkward. Being as he is incredibly goal-focused, and being as his goals are incredibly violent/political/not at all normal, and being as he habitually kills or causes the deaths of everyone he interacts with for long periods of time, Froaude is not accustomed to actual casual behavior. Friendship and small talk without an end goal in mind mystify him - it's like he simply doesn't get the point. He's tactless because purposeless things don't require decorum, surely! and has nothing to say to the accusation that he has no friends other than, "I get that a lot." When he's rescued from danger, he can't help but keep asking why the rescuer even bothered, considering they don't get along and he would have just turned a blind eye to it; he even asks if this means they're on good terms now, because obviously that was not an act of someone who really wouldn't mind seeing him dead. There's also the time he took his precious king's birthday so seriously he actually said its success is "for the sake of this kingdom's future" while asking these guys who don't like him to help set up the party. After enough time he might not "get along" with people in the strictest sense, but his tolerance ebbs away from 'tolerate or murder' and inches towards 'tolerate or just walk away from' - a marked improvement, really. He's kind of the creepy not-friend that everyone deals with because the ringleader said they have to.

About his own oddness, Froaude is very frank. He knows how cold and uncomfortable to be around he is, and he doesn't particularly care. He makes a joke out of it with Sion in particular, responding to the king's comments about how frightening he is with things like, "Should I take that as a compliment?" He's very, very aware of how "in the dark" he is and yet he doesn't feel the need to pull other people down with him - others who are "dark," like guy-full-of-demons Lucile, thrill and fascinate him by being similar to how gross he is, but people who are very much in the "light," like Sion, he believes should be preserved. He's quite serious when he says that someone already low down and dark like him should take on the dirty work and become the royal assassin, in order to preserve the purity and goodness of the king. A perfect king isn't a man who would do the kinds of things Froaude specializes in, after all. While he harbors some bitterness about the way his childhood went and initially wanted revenge on the world, he doesn't angst about it; the closest he gets is occasionally thinking about how Sion's greatness can "bury" his darkness. Otherwise, he's just doing his thing normally.

A final point is that he is an actual genius. He's good at talking his way around things, sure, but he is brilliant. He seems to know things, such as the time he walked in on Sion reading a document that had been secretly gathered about Froaude's past, and he immediately knew that that's what it was. The reason is because he is a masterful manipulator, and so as a result is also a pretty good predictor of other people's behavior -- Sion's other men don't like him, so naturally they would dig up his past and try to get him fired. Duh. He's also incredibly cunning and has a good eye for the Big Picture; while he'd easily kill the last remaining noble of that country he, oops, made rebel against itself, he recognizes and concedes to the more politically useful option of leaving her alive to negotiate with her people. Willing to slaughter hundreds of people he may be, but crazed about it he is not. And his actual work - paperwork, killing people work, saying 'yes sir' work - is described as "disgustingly perfect."

Still creepy though.