Cas Ridley

Calais "Cas" Ridley is a prince of Tara-Ingerilor, a song of King Godfrey, and the alleged father of Reinhold Ridley and Julia Osteler. He follows the king's orders to destroy Merek's rebellion in an attempt to earn his father's approval.

Early Childhood
Cas's mother was a Navitian refugee fleeing a plague with her husband and her three-year-old twins, Gace and Luinne. When they arrived at the palace looking for work, she caught the king's eye, and shortly thereafter bore a son, Cas. Much to her husband's fury, the child was born with the royal birthmark. Upon hearing of the boy's birth, King Godfrey ordered he be taken from his parents and raised by a nurse, similar to Cas's half-brother Mikael Godfrey. The same nurse was tasked with raising Leto Capulet a year later, so Cas and Leto were raised side-by-side. Their nurse allowed them to do whatever they wished, as long as they didn't cause too much trouble.

Cas was a painfully shy child who preferred playing by himself. However, Leto was a troublemaker, and Cas didn't want to lose his privilege of doing whatever he wanted. He broke out of his shy outer shell to keep Leto under control, and soon blossomed into a social butterfly. The two boys shared a mutual admiration of their older siblings, which drove them to befriend Claire Seymour, the only one between them in age. Through Claire, they grew close with her brother Merek. In this way, Cas and Leto are responsible for the royal siblings being such a tight-knit group.

Merek's Revolution
Cas appeared to be relatively unaffected by the deterioration of his family, probably due to his conflicts with Merek and Claire. The next two to leave are Faye and Eli, neither of whom Cas was close with. During this time, Cas eagerly rises up to his new position as the second eldest son in Merek's absence. He takes over Merek's responsibilities and commits himself to subduing the revolution - anything to earn his father's attention and approval. In the process, he drifts apart from Leto, who elected to not tell Cas about his decision to join the revolution after seeing how dedicated Cas was to destroying it.

After Leto's departure, Cas covers up his shock and hurt with anger and disowns Leto as his brother. While he's still motivated by the desire for his father's attention, he develops a second motivation - anger towards Merek for tearing his family apart, and anger towards Leto for leaving him. Cas's anger at Leto was so strong that, when King Godfrey commanded him and his remaining siblings to kill the traitors, he has every intention of obeying, even to the point of fighting Leto to the death.

During Merek's final attack on the palace, Cas leads the first wave of defense. Leto originally volunteers to fight him, but Merek refuses to allow it and takes his place. Merek wins the duel, nearly killing Cas, but decides to spare his life before the final blow.

The Angel's Awakening
After the Great Angel awakens, it collects Cas's life, along with his family. It offers him death as a mercy.

Adulthood
After the conflict settles down, Cas is allotted a territory of Tara-Ingerilor to govern. After Anaia vanishes at the same time as Queen Nysa, Cas develops a habit of disguising himself, slipping away from the castle, and getting blackout drunk.

At some point in the following years, Cas allegedly fathers a son, Reinhold Ridley, who shows up on his doorstep at age two. Cas denies that he's the father, but orders some of his servants to raise Reinhold in a separate castle. Reinhold was likely conceived while Cas was on one of his drunken excursions.

Six years after Reinhold's birth, Cas's daughter Julia is born by a different woman without his knowledge.

The Event
Cas disappears during the Event, along with the rest of his family. His son, in a different castle, survives the Event with memories untouched.

Appearance
Cas is described as a relatively attractive young man with untamed black hair that falls to chin length and heavy bangs. His eyes are coffee brown, and he has light brown skin with scattered freckles. He stands at 5'10 and his birthmark is on the back of his right hand. He has mild vitiligo.

Merek Seymour
Merek and Cas don't get along well, to put it lightly. They rub each other the wrong way on every possible level. Fundamentally, Cas hates Merek for being good at everything with (seemingly) no effort. Merek views Cas as irresponsible and unreliable, and hates that Cas can make him loose his cool with only a few words.

Claire Seymour
There was tension between Claire and Cas since their very first meeting. Their feud is somewhat due to Claire's tendency to nitpick over everything everybody does, and Cas hates people breathing down his neck. His dislike of Merek was also extended to Claire, and vice versa. Additionally, they're rivals in the sese that they're both social butterflies who're nearly the same age. However, Claire and Cas's mutual dislike isn't as intense as Cas and Merek's. Claire has expressed a begrudging admiration for Cas's ability to make anyone like him, and Cas finds Claire's quick wit amusing despite himself.

Rosaline de Clare
Like all of King Godfrey's children, Cas is very fond of Rosa. Despite his best attempts to connect to her, she always prefers Mikael and later Leto, who's more softspoken and gentle than Cas. Cas occasionally comes off as jealous over this, but it doesn't impact his relationship with her or his brothers.

Luinne Ridley
Cas admires Luinne, mostly for his wit and unique set of talents (like hypnotism). For his part, Luinne finds Cas endearing. Although the two are quite friendly and spend a lot of time together, it doesn't stop Luinne from leaving Cas without warning to return to Naviti. According to Anaia, Cas was heartbroken over the sudden departure. However, he doesn't appear to hold any grudges. Later in life, Luinne frequently visits Cas, and is one of the few people Cas confided in about the existence and circumstances of his son Reinhold.

Isolde Rowntree
Isolde and Cas don't seem particularly close, as demonstrated by Cas's apparent indifference to Isolde being married off. However, after Leto joins the revolution and Marcella proves herself untrustworthy, the two are seen together more and more. This is likely because of Mikael's change in character and Rosa's disappearance leaving them with no one else to confide in.

Anaia Sulwell
Cas and Anaia are unusual as far as lieges and retainers go because neither of them appear to like each other. Anaia constantly criticizes Cas and treats him with the lowest permissible amount of respect, while Cas complains about Anaia and never says anything positive about him. Most people assume that Cas asked Anaia to be his retainer because he found him to be entertaining, which isn't too far from the truth. Underneath it all, Anaia is the only person who sees Cas at his weakest moments, and thus he's the only person who's seen the full extent of his superiority complex.

Cas is hit so hard by Anaia's disappearance that he develops an alcoholism problem. When Luinne accuses him of never caring about Cas, Anaia says that there was only one person in the entire world whom he loved more than Cas.

Trivia

 * Cas is represented by a horse and the color lapis blue.
 * The horse is associated with power, freedom, endurance, expanding potential, warning of danger, and overcoming obstacles.
 * Cas's star sign is Capricorn.
 * His tarot card is the Lovers, and his moral alignment is chaotic neutral.
 * Unlike his half-siblings, he does not have a middle name, as is custom for the Navitian people.

Related

 * Cas Ridley/Poem
 * Cas Ridley/Supports