Harry Whitehorse

"One, complete every job assigned to you to the best of your ability. Two, the guild is your family, and a family supports each other. Three, do justice and punish the unjust. Four, never solve a problem with actions when it can be solved with words. Five, protect Dahngrest and it's people and support the Union. Six, the Don's word is law.

Those are the six most important rules of Altosk." -Harry

Harry Whitehorse is the grandson of Don Whitehorse, leader of Altosk and thus the Guild Union. While his grandfather is a strong heroic man respected by all, Harry is, to put it lightly, unimpressive. He has the unfortunate tendency to, as many put it "fuck everything up."

Harry Whitehorse is a member of Altosk
"You have talked before about how you wish you could not have your life planned out, so I don't think it is all just what you are used to and what you have always done. You are at an age where you can decide things for yourself, and it seems to me like you have decided to stay loyal. ...You're really not stupid, Harry." -Yeager

"You're a very judgmental person, aren't you. Comparing every guild to Altosk, I imagine?" -Yeager

"Of course I am. We run Dahngrest for a reason, y'know. To be like Altosk is something every guild should strive for." -Harry

Despite the fact that he claims to not want to follow in his grandfather's footsteps as the next Don, Harry is a very devoted and proud member of Altosk. Though his being in Altosk was essentially guaranteed since his birth, he seems happy with the guild and does believe in what it stands for. He takes great pride in Altosk's position as essentially the top guild in the Union, and believes that everyone else should respect it for that as well.

"Yeah well... Altosk is still the best so shut up." -Harry

The Don's Grandson
"He's got Whitehorse in him, I can see it. Never did care for it, really" -Barbos

As the Don's grandson, following the rules of family sucession, Harry is expected to take over following his grandfathers death. While at first glance he may not seem to be anywhere near the man his grandfather was, those who know him do feel that he does have the potential to be a good leader as well. As far as his relationship with the Don goes, he clearly looks up to him and tries to model himself after him.

''"It's not like we were ever really that close... like you said, he's got a lot of stuff to take care of." ''-Harry

What with running a large guild like Altosk along with the guild union though, the Don was often too busy to pay much attention to Harry. He still is though, Harry's only family, having never known his father and his mother having died when he was very young. So he does still seem to be on pretty good terms with his grandfather.

Harry Whitehorse is an orphan
Yes so I've headcanoned the entire story of how Harry came to be.

Harry's parents
It starts of course with Don Whitehorse's daughter, who was married to a young knight from a noble family in an attempt to quell the enmity between the empire and guilds. The Don wasn't wild about the idea but she insisted she wanted to do it. And so she did. The knight in question was stationed in the fledgeling town of Heliord at the time. It was a small dinky little city back then, and she grew quite homesick for the hustle and bustle of Dahngrest. Regardless, for an arranged marriage the two actually got along fairly well, their personalities being well suited for each other. However, there really wasn't a lot of romance between the two, as well as they got along, it was almost more like they were best friends than anything else. Even so, they did have a child together, one boy, Harry. As Harry grew older, his mother insisted on frequent trips to Dahngrest, to see his grandfather as well as to ingrain in him a sense that this was his heritage. His father, at the time, was on his knight's pilgrimage, and was thus not aware of this. When he finally returned to Heliord, upon hearing of this, he became quite angry, as it was his intention for Harry to become a knight just as his father did. His mother argued that he had just as much right to join the guilds, she wanted to familiarize him with both so that he could fairly choose. This was their first big argument. Their fighting quickly grew, and then faded away as the two grew apart. She would often sneak off to Dahngrest, usually with her son in tow. Then one day, his father vanished. No one knows what happened to him, but those in the inner circles of Altosk believed that the Don' daughter was having an affair with another member of Altosk, and that had something to do with it. Rumor has it that the man in question was Raven, however he denies that it was. Unless he's messing with Harry. Anyway, following her husband's disappearance, she and her son moved back to Dahngrest. Harry was about 5 at the time. Things settled down for a while, almost a year, but then she disappeared as well. It's popular belief that the empire had something to do with it, as the knights had suspected her of being responsible for her husband's disappearance. At this point most people felt this to be a sign that the empire and guild union were not meant to work together, and many, especially the members of Altosk, wanted to retaliate, after all, she would have inherited the guild from her father. In the end, nothing happened, though. The guilds and empire were pretty much back where they started.

Harry's childhood
As for Harry, he of course, went to live with his grandfather. Raven had at this point risen quite far in the guild, and found himself often looking after the boy in the Don's absence. Harry, a naturally stubborn and ornery child, did not take to Raven at first, but quickly grew somewhat attached to him, in a rather begrudging sort of way, looking up to him, even. (Though not as much as he did to his grandfather, of course.) Raven of course was as aloof as ever, but does seem to have developed some level of affection for the boy. He acts somewhere between a father figure and a weird uncle figure. As Harry grew older he also came to be fairly well aquainted with Yeager and his daughters, as Yeager seemed to come in to meet with the Don on a fairly regular basis, to Harry's mild mystification. It didn't occur to Harry until he was quite a bit older why Yeager was there all the time.

Harry was a difficult child, as mentioned, he was very stubborn and easily annoyed(still is), and on top of that he was afraid of the dark. So getting him to bed was usually a bit of an ordeal. One that usually required some form of storytime. Raven, with his natural penchant for making stuff up, was fairly good at this, often even doing different voices for different characters, which Harry enjoyed. Harry's favorites though, were when his grandfather would tell him stories about when he was a young man, partly because it was a rare ocassion that the Don would have time for that.

Harry had a difficult time making friends when he moved back to Dahngrest, mainly due to his attitude. So he ended up spending a lot of time just wandering the halls of the guild HQ. Some found him annoying, but others, amused by his oddly grumpy (for a small child) disposition, took a liking to him. He would hang out with various guild members as they went about their business, absorbing information. It's thanks to this that Harry knows so much about Altosk and the guild union. Of course the one guild memeber he'd hang around was Raven, when he wasn't out on an errand for the Don. And Harry would sometimes ask to go with him on those as well.

Harry Whitehorse is a complicated young man
He has a deep, intricate psyche. (And by that I mean he's totally doesn't at all.)

He doesn't know when to shut up
"Because you do not have the control or tact to keep from hinting things like that!" -Yeager

"I do so!! I don't even know how to "hint" at things!" -Harry

"Oh ja, that's right. You just come out and say them without thinking." -Yeager

Harry often comes off as rude. Sometimes he really is being rude, and he knows it. Most times though he's just speaking without thinking what he's saying beforehand, especially when he gets worked up over something. Unfortunately he does seem to be a very a emotional person, so getting him worked up is about as hard as getting Raven to say something inappropriate.

"Ouch, ya gotta go easy on the harsh words there kid, you'll get a hardass reputation otherwise." -Raven

This results in Harry saying a lot of things that he doesn't really mean and he ends up regretting having said them later. When he gets mad at someone especially. He does not hold back insults. Especially with the knights. Harry has no love for the empire or the imperial knights and makes that abundantly clear at any mention of either.

"I'm just treating him as the knights treat us. It's only fair." -Harry

On the fence between maturity and immaturity
"You may look like you're 5, but is it necessary to act that way? " -Judith

Harry is at that age where he wants to be treated like an adult, but is still getting used to actually acting like one. He does have his moments of maturity, but for the most part, to put it simply, Harry is a brat. He whines a lot, annoys people, and just acts generally juvenile. He's been known to sulk and brood over things. While he has no problem letting people know when he's angry, if he's sad or his feelings get hurt he will not ever admit it, though it is fairly easy to notice, as he'll say things that are clearly untrue, in an attempt to cover his own vulnerability.

"Well I hope you're not because I'd hate to have a disgusting, lying bastard like YOU for a father!" -Harry (directed at Raven)

He also doesn't like to let other people see him cry (or blush for that matter), because he thinks that as a man, he has to appear tough at all times, not that he does that very well anyway, and thus tries his best to mask any unmanly emotions such as those.

''"You have a funny way of trying to be nice to people. You don't make it very obvious." ''-Yeager

His skills with the ladies (or lack thereof)
"At least I am not a whiny teenager who is a failure at flirting with girls." -Yeager

"Raven always said that girls like it when you tell them they're pretty. " -Harry

Harry has the misfortune of getting his advice from the most notorious pervert in all of Dahngrest. While Raven can get away with his incredibly forward flirting technique because he is a sexy beast, Harry cannot. In fact he usually gets a slap in the face (or two) whenever he tries. It doesn't help that, true to his state as a teenage boy, he's a bit of a, in the words of Judith, a "perverted little punk." If you are well endowed ladies, you may catch Harry stealing a glance (or four) at your chest. He's not very good at hiding it.

What's Harry always whining about anyway?
(And I mean what is he really whining about.)

"You're probably right. I am just a "dumb kid", after all. I wouldn't trust me either." -Harry

While he may not be entirely justified in this regard, Harry doesn't feel like he has a lot of control over the things around him or his own life, for that matter, and that bothers him to no end. In part this is because of how his future has basically been laid out for him, but on top of that he feels like no one ever tells him anything. That they don't trust him enough to tell him anything important.

"You are a very nosy boy, and I must say, that annoys me quite a bit." -Yeager

This results in Harry constantly questioning people, even when it is none of his business. He feels compelled to know the whole story, and will pursue it until he finds out what he wants to know. Or until he's yelled at to leave it alone several times. This does tend him to get in trouble quite a bit, unsurprisingly.

Good intentioned, but stupid
"Now now, don't pick on Harry. He is a good boy, if a little rude sometimes." -Yeager

Really, Harry does mean well most of the time. He actually tries pretty damn hard to be a strong, productive member of Altosk (true to the guild laws), but his tendency to 'act now, ask questions later', can often lead to his good intentions backfiring and causing more problems than they solve. Add to that the fact that Harry is at least a little naive, and you can see why Harry really doesn't mean to cause all the trouble that he does.