Baron Barrett Bancroft

[TheOrangeButterfly]

"I am a simple man, of few words and even fewer friends. Many a heart have I broken, and many pieces have my heart been broken into, yet I continue to live on. I cannot let this name down, this... 'noble' title that I carry. If it can even be called that anymore. Gracious, merciful, loving, kind: Where have these attributes gone? How have they been torn asunder from my very soul?

A man pushed once too far is the same as a straw that breaks a camel's back, for once broken he may never return to his former glory. He will only live within the shadow of it. They say I can't do it, well, I am doing it. I am bringing honor back to the Baronage of Bancroft, Bretonia herself may not recognize me as a noble any longer, but that will not stop me from creating for myself a different kind of kingdom. One with money, power, and influence. One that will not be broken. One in which I follow one man, and one man only, into the fires of hell itself. King Rorry of the Sigmas.

That part of my journey is still going, how I got here and why, however, is now being reviewed."






The story of Barrett Bancroft, heir-apparent to the Baronage of Bancroft, Bretonia:


All Barrett had left of his childhood were his memories, fond ones, not unlike a standard childhood with its small joys with few letdowns in between for the spice of life to insert itself in from time to time. It was one such memory, one of the last ones he remembers of his family being together, on that fateful month of August.

It was a crisp, breezy day as the leaves were just beginning to soften in colors to light browns, maple yellows, and bright oranges. The world was as it should be on his family's plantation in the backwaters of Bretonia. In peace, harmony, love; It was everything a man his age could ever want. He had a family that loved him, girls to chase, ships to fly, and free land to tread upon.

It was one such morning that he was strolling along the old winding country path, south of a small green hill, just north of a spectacular natural spring which glistened calmly in the mid-morning light. The epitome of peace. He was courting a young noble's daughter by the name of Elizabeth Jefferson. She was a fine young girl, they were fit to be married within the year. Uniting two families who had seen their fair share of squabbles over lands and ancient rights in their little fief of Bancroft and Shellsbury. A unity that was going to last for more than a lifetime, joining the families and ending the back and forth bickering that had gone on for generations.






Until the critical reports started streaming into his phone:

"Baron Joseph Bancroft, his wife, and his daughter were killed today in a tragic assassination thought to be hired by......."

*CRACK* His phone dropped out of his hand and onto the path he was walking upon with a harsh, honest sound. Honesty, all his life had he not heard more true and more tragic words than those he had just heard. Barrett tried at first to calm himself, he then cried out in a rage before breaking down in tears on that lonely path out in the plainslands.

Gone.

All of it.

Barrett's entire existence was shattered in one day.


Father: Baron Joseph Bancroft III - Dead
Mother: Jennifer Marie Bancroft - Dead
Sister: Julie Bancroft - Dead

To be continued....

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[TheOrangeButterfly]

"That's when the news centers started reporting something that I feared most...lies. The Queen herself had put out a warrant for my arrest in Bretonia. What had I done to earn the queen's wrath? I was just a young man out to fend for myself in a world that seemingly hated my father. Perhaps it was our families odd rise to nobility over two centuries and a half centuries ago, or it could have been something much, much more sinister."

*As Barrett was recalling the past information he took a sip of the whiskey that was in front of him, Rorry sat at the table with almost a concerned look on his face. He had never heard this story before, but he seemed quite intrigued, almost as if he were mesmerized.*


"You see, Bancroft's hadn't always been Barons, or anything noble for that manner. Before the Golden Age of Bretonia, as we Bretonian's oh-so-longingly call it, there was a war of pirates, brigands, and all sorts of murderers taking advantage of Bretonia's then-vulnerable state. The worst of them were the Buccaneers, ruthless men and women who wanted nothing more than to pillage the lands for their own profit. Working under Queen Elanor I, my ancestors aided in the destruction of said buccaneers.


Commander Leonard Bancroft, who, at that point in time, had not yet risen to the rank of Admiral, was serving as an advisor to Fleet Admiral Sir Thomas Scott. Leonard had been one of the squadron leaders to push into the Leeds system, and after the war he had been granted the Knighthood, and was then known as Captain Leonard Bancroft. Later on in his career he rose to the rank of Admiral, and gained the trust of Bretonia's Royal Family, and was granted the Barony of a small plot of land on a planet somewhere around the Edinburgh system. I can't tell you the name of it, as the original name for the planet was lost with the years."

*Barrett sighed heavily, as if recalling the information was a struggle that he didn't intend to go into at the beginning of this conversation*

"So that is how the Bancroft's, a simple family who merely did their duty to their country and their queen rose to nobility. It was no accident that Leonard was able to rise so quickly from being a commoner to becoming a Baron."

*With this, Barrett smirked slightly as if remembering an old joke.*

"He had married into the Royal Family, albeit one of the most outer-rim of the family you could say. It was a girl, given to Leonard in marriage when he was yet a Commander, who later was realized to be a third cousin to King William I. This, I believe, was why my family was finally assassinated. Quite a long tale, if you ask me."

*He chuckled slightly, taking a bite of bread from the table in front of him*


To be continued...

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