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Description

I have had this character since the early days of 2017, and he's gone through dozens of iterations - I'm glad to finally be able to incorporate him into HARPG through Aldergate-Academy . This was, secretly, my main motivation for getting everything finished - so it feels only fair I do his reference first.

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Full Name: Theodore Landon Edward Campion. He only responds to Cam unless close with someone, and that applies to students too.
Date of Birth: 13/09/1986
Nationality: French/British
Gender & Pronouns: Male, he/him
Sexuality: Gay
Height: 6’1”
Role: Cam serves as the Bucephalus house head, as well as teaching Dressage and Equine Behaviour and welfare.
Appearance: Cam is tall, lithe and athletic with russet brown hair and dark eyes. He has his mother’s cheekbones, prominent and sharp, and his father’s heavy set brows and permanent resting bitch face. The scars on his face are an old wound from a broken bottle, but they didn’t heal great over time. He dresses conservatively, with the work polo shirts showing the most skin you’ll see.
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Personality: Stern, cynical and someone who goes by the book in every context, Cam is generally a rather abrasive personality. He has very little sense of humour, and what he has instead is a deeply sarcastic attitude with more bite than bark. He’s fairly quiet and introverted most of the time, but distinctly has the vibes of acting better than people, which tends to ruffle feathers even if he never quite realises. He thrives on order and control, and has real trouble giving up either, entirely untrustworthy of most people. This also makes him violently independent - he refuses to rely on others, and sees people who do as weak and asking to be screwed over. He is his only true companion in this world, and no matter the context, if there’s a problem he needs to get out of it will be his responsibility alone. However, he’s great in a crisis - incredibly level headed to the point of coldness and has no trouble taking a lead when needed. He’s also admittedly quite unaware of how people read him - he doesn’t intend to come off as mean, it just tends to happen along the way thanks to his demeanour. Even in his few attempts to be more friendly it came off as awkward and fake, so he decided to stick with the devil he knew instead. Despite his many flaws, he’s incredibly loyal to those that earn it, even if they still might think he hates them, and he’s deeply compassionate when it comes to animals. His attitude to dressage is that of complete distaste towards modern riding and what is rewarded in the show ring, and he is far more understanding of horses and their needs than people. His interests lie in a mixture of classical dressage and modern natural horsemanship. Outside of horses, he is a staunch vegan (with the exception of second-hand leather) and while he doesn’t talk about it, is an avid insect lover.
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History: Born into perhaps some of the oldest money imaginable with a silver spoon tucked firmly in his mouth, he was incredibly privileged growing up. Yet, at the same time, like many children of upper class working families, he was always distant from both of his parents, instead spending more time with nannies and tutors. His mother was icy and vain, and his father a wickedly aggressive drunk, which he had a pretty common tendency to take out on his family. Despite that, he began riding as a child, and grew up on some truly gorgeous ponies, going as far as competing in pony Europeans in dressage even with a rigorous private school education. It didn’t make his home situation easier, but it did give him something to redirect his attention to. He developed dissociative spells towards the start of his teenage years, but managed to work through them surprisingly well on his own.
  After completing school, he made the decision to travel to Austria against his parents wishes and train under the elite riders of the Spanish Riding School, a choice that his parents loathed. Distance grew between him and the rest of his family as he spent three years there training as a groom, and another three training as a trainee and an apprentice, reaching the point of training his own stallion for the riding school. However, at that point, his father died suddenly - leaving him as the patriarch of his family. He ended up quitting the Riding School in the midst of his training to return to England to help sort the estate and deal with his father’s funeral - and, for what of it little she’d take, comfort his mother. At this point, his standing was laid out very clearly by her: he was the eldest and only male heir, and he was doing absolutely nothing with it other than wasting time. Ultimately abandoning his dressage career in hopes to appease his mother, he instead embraced the martial tradition on her side of the family and joined the Royal Navy at 24. On top of that, he met and was quickly wed to a young family friend, who, to her credit, was happy to be a wife with very few of the responsibilities considering the fact he had little desire for her and was never actually there.
   Despite his late entry compared to most, thanks to his sharp disposition, attention to detail and general willingness to obey orders, he found himself climbing the ranks far quicker than others, serving as a Lieutenant Commander after six years there. Which, for him, seems to be an unlucky number - because at that point his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Requesting leave from his position to once again return home, he was greeted with a similar lecture as he received before, much to his barely concealed confusion. She was very clear that his duty was to restore whatever he could of the family name and legacy, including passing it on to children - something that proved rather difficult due to the aforementioned homosexuality and a lack of desire to raise children of his own. However, he wanted to give her some form of closure at the end of her life, and his wife had always wanted kids, so they began trying for a baby. Ultimately though, his mother passed a few months later - and they found out his wife was pregnant a week later. Out of guilt, he encouraged his wife to keep the baby despite his own reservations, and his daughter was born after a long labour. Through everything, he still couldn’t find it in him to name her after his mother - instead settling on Verity.
   After his mother’s death and the birth of his daughter he began to come to terms with his own life - and how little of it was his own creation. Despite years serving, perhaps his bravest act was choosing to leave it all - divorcing his wife, leaving the Navy, and returning to his first love of dressage. Since then, he has returned to his studies with more dedication than ever, pouring over books and learning from the few he still respects in the industry. Ultimately, he took the job at the academy for three reasons: one, his respect for the headmistresses; two, his urge to try and spread more classical principles and raise awareness to some of the obvious flaws in modern dressage; three, to find some semblance of meaning that is exclusively his own and not one dedicated to his name.
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
Relationships: Generally he has gone through life disliked in most contexts - too quiet for his peers at school, too British for his companions at the riding school, and too good for his military comrades. His attitude certainly doesn’t help - he’s incapable of holding himself with an air other than aloofness. However, he does have a few key relationships in his life despite this: the academy dean, who was an old tutor and friend of his and someone he respects deeply, his ex-wife Trinity who he’s closer to now than when they were actually married, and her brother, Alex, an old and very extinguished flame that he often goes to for sage (and eccentric) wisdom. Other than that, he still has his friends from his early twenties - Barclay, the academy groundskeeper who Cam recommended for the role, and Hector, the quirky owner of a queer nightclub in the centre of London.
   Generally, among work colleagues, he tends to keep his distance - most view him with quiet distaste or slightly more vocal dislike. However, he finds himself getting on well with Bailey and her straight-forward, no nonsense nature, and despite his best efforts otherwise will often get dragged into Jack’s atrocious plans. The eventer has always been determined to get Cam to lighten up just a little; a quest he’s not gotten tired of yet despite its lack of results.
Teaching style: Due to his upbringing and military experience, he will take nothing short of perfection from his students. There is no hesitation from him when it comes to removing students from his classes, nor any real sympathy: to him, it is always earned. He places a strong emphasis on etiquette - if you are a minute late, you’re out. If your shirt is untucked, you’re out. If your tack or attire is incorrect down to the spur straps, you’re out. He’s incredibly strict - and by extension, incredibly unpopular with students. That doesn’t mean, however, that his teachings go unlearned - his breadth of knowledge is one appreciated by most, even if they don’t appreciate his attitude, and even the most cocky student can begrudgingly admit their horse goes better after his tuition. There is always deep respect given to those who meet his standards, though - if you put enough effort in to meet them.
He only tends to teach senior school, and is well known for his unconventional first week of teaching which often involves entire lessons spent in walk, asking students to explain exactly why they use every piece of tack (and removing it if they don’t give a sufficient answer, including saddles), or simply not letting them ride at all - instead focusing on groundwork.
On days off, you’ll probably find them…: schooling his Hanoverian mare Briar or reading something non-fiction with his Doberman Virgil, who tends to follow him every place he’s allowed.
Notes: he knows four languages to varying degrees of fluency - French, English, German, and Spanish. His mother was an opera singer, and as if making him half French wasn’t obnoxious enough, she also passed down her perfect pitch - a skill he rarely uses nowadays past annoying people and occasionally proving the fact that he is indeed a very good pianist.
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
Horses:
M192 Nouvelle-France
S187 Artistique

Art:
Academy Intro
The Secret Aldergate Hacking Club
Donstrupper Autumn Clinic Collab

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
References: ThePoseArchives , Aleks Kend on AdobeStock

Description

I have had this character since the early days of 2017, and he's gone through dozens of iterations - I'm glad to finally be able to incorporate him into HARPG through Aldergate-Academy . This was, secretly, my main motivation for getting everything finished - so it feels only fair I do his reference first.

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━

Full Name: Theodore Landon Edward Campion. He only responds to Cam unless close with someone, and that applies to students too.
Date of Birth: 13/09/1986
Nationality: French/British
Gender & Pronouns: Male, he/him
Sexuality: Gay
Height: 6’1”
Role: Cam serves as the Bucephalus house head, as well as teaching Dressage and Equine Behaviour and welfare.
Appearance: Cam is tall, lithe and athletic with russet brown hair and dark eyes. He has his mother’s cheekbones, prominent and sharp, and his father’s heavy set brows and permanent resting bitch face. The scars on his face are an old wound from a broken bottle, but they didn’t heal great over time. He dresses conservatively, with the work polo shirts showing the most skin you’ll see.
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
Personality: Stern, cynical and someone who goes by the book in every context, Cam is generally a rather abrasive personality. He has very little sense of humour, and what he has instead is a deeply sarcastic attitude with more bite than bark. He’s fairly quiet and introverted most of the time, but distinctly has the vibes of acting better than people, which tends to ruffle feathers even if he never quite realises. He thrives on order and control, and has real trouble giving up either, entirely untrustworthy of most people. This also makes him violently independent - he refuses to rely on others, and sees people who do as weak and asking to be screwed over. He is his only true companion in this world, and no matter the context, if there’s a problem he needs to get out of it will be his responsibility alone. However, he’s great in a crisis - incredibly level headed to the point of coldness and has no trouble taking a lead when needed. He’s also admittedly quite unaware of how people read him - he doesn’t intend to come off as mean, it just tends to happen along the way thanks to his demeanour. Even in his few attempts to be more friendly it came off as awkward and fake, so he decided to stick with the devil he knew instead. Despite his many flaws, he’s incredibly loyal to those that earn it, even if they still might think he hates them, and he’s deeply compassionate when it comes to animals. His attitude to dressage is that of complete distaste towards modern riding and what is rewarded in the show ring, and he is far more understanding of horses and their needs than people. His interests lie in a mixture of classical dressage and modern natural horsemanship. Outside of horses, he is a staunch vegan (with the exception of second-hand leather) and while he doesn’t talk about it, is an avid insect lover.
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
History: Born into perhaps some of the oldest money imaginable with a silver spoon tucked firmly in his mouth, he was incredibly privileged growing up. Yet, at the same time, like many children of upper class working families, he was always distant from both of his parents, instead spending more time with nannies and tutors. His mother was icy and vain, and his father a wickedly aggressive drunk, which he had a pretty common tendency to take out on his family. Despite that, he began riding as a child, and grew up on some truly gorgeous ponies, going as far as competing in pony Europeans in dressage even with a rigorous private school education. It didn’t make his home situation easier, but it did give him something to redirect his attention to. He developed dissociative spells towards the start of his teenage years, but managed to work through them surprisingly well on his own.
  After completing school, he made the decision to travel to Austria against his parents wishes and train under the elite riders of the Spanish Riding School, a choice that his parents loathed. Distance grew between him and the rest of his family as he spent three years there training as a groom, and another three training as a trainee and an apprentice, reaching the point of training his own stallion for the riding school. However, at that point, his father died suddenly - leaving him as the patriarch of his family. He ended up quitting the Riding School in the midst of his training to return to England to help sort the estate and deal with his father’s funeral - and, for what of it little she’d take, comfort his mother. At this point, his standing was laid out very clearly by her: he was the eldest and only male heir, and he was doing absolutely nothing with it other than wasting time. Ultimately abandoning his dressage career in hopes to appease his mother, he instead embraced the martial tradition on her side of the family and joined the Royal Navy at 24. On top of that, he met and was quickly wed to a young family friend, who, to her credit, was happy to be a wife with very few of the responsibilities considering the fact he had little desire for her and was never actually there.
   Despite his late entry compared to most, thanks to his sharp disposition, attention to detail and general willingness to obey orders, he found himself climbing the ranks far quicker than others, serving as a Lieutenant Commander after six years there. Which, for him, seems to be an unlucky number - because at that point his mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Requesting leave from his position to once again return home, he was greeted with a similar lecture as he received before, much to his barely concealed confusion. She was very clear that his duty was to restore whatever he could of the family name and legacy, including passing it on to children - something that proved rather difficult due to the aforementioned homosexuality and a lack of desire to raise children of his own. However, he wanted to give her some form of closure at the end of her life, and his wife had always wanted kids, so they began trying for a baby. Ultimately though, his mother passed a few months later - and they found out his wife was pregnant a week later. Out of guilt, he encouraged his wife to keep the baby despite his own reservations, and his daughter was born after a long labour. Through everything, he still couldn’t find it in him to name her after his mother - instead settling on Verity.
   After his mother’s death and the birth of his daughter he began to come to terms with his own life - and how little of it was his own creation. Despite years serving, perhaps his bravest act was choosing to leave it all - divorcing his wife, leaving the Navy, and returning to his first love of dressage. Since then, he has returned to his studies with more dedication than ever, pouring over books and learning from the few he still respects in the industry. Ultimately, he took the job at the academy for three reasons: one, his respect for the headmistresses; two, his urge to try and spread more classical principles and raise awareness to some of the obvious flaws in modern dressage; three, to find some semblance of meaning that is exclusively his own and not one dedicated to his name.
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
Relationships: Generally he has gone through life disliked in most contexts - too quiet for his peers at school, too British for his companions at the riding school, and too good for his military comrades. His attitude certainly doesn’t help - he’s incapable of holding himself with an air other than aloofness. However, he does have a few key relationships in his life despite this: the academy dean, who was an old tutor and friend of his and someone he respects deeply, his ex-wife Trinity who he’s closer to now than when they were actually married, and her brother, Alex, an old and very extinguished flame that he often goes to for sage (and eccentric) wisdom. Other than that, he still has his friends from his early twenties - Barclay, the academy groundskeeper who Cam recommended for the role, and Hector, the quirky owner of a queer nightclub in the centre of London.
   Generally, among work colleagues, he tends to keep his distance - most view him with quiet distaste or slightly more vocal dislike. However, he finds himself getting on well with Bailey and her straight-forward, no nonsense nature, and despite his best efforts otherwise will often get dragged into Jack’s atrocious plans. The eventer has always been determined to get Cam to lighten up just a little; a quest he’s not gotten tired of yet despite its lack of results.
Teaching style: Due to his upbringing and military experience, he will take nothing short of perfection from his students. There is no hesitation from him when it comes to removing students from his classes, nor any real sympathy: to him, it is always earned. He places a strong emphasis on etiquette - if you are a minute late, you’re out. If your shirt is untucked, you’re out. If your tack or attire is incorrect down to the spur straps, you’re out. He’s incredibly strict - and by extension, incredibly unpopular with students. That doesn’t mean, however, that his teachings go unlearned - his breadth of knowledge is one appreciated by most, even if they don’t appreciate his attitude, and even the most cocky student can begrudgingly admit their horse goes better after his tuition. There is always deep respect given to those who meet his standards, though - if you put enough effort in to meet them.
He only tends to teach senior school, and is well known for his unconventional first week of teaching which often involves entire lessons spent in walk, asking students to explain exactly why they use every piece of tack (and removing it if they don’t give a sufficient answer, including saddles), or simply not letting them ride at all - instead focusing on groundwork.
On days off, you’ll probably find them…: schooling his Hanoverian mare Briar or reading something non-fiction with his Doberman Virgil, who tends to follow him every place he’s allowed.
Notes: he knows four languages to varying degrees of fluency - French, English, German, and Spanish. His mother was an opera singer, and as if making him half French wasn’t obnoxious enough, she also passed down her perfect pitch - a skill he rarely uses nowadays past annoying people and occasionally proving the fact that he is indeed a very good pianist.
━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
Horses:
M192 Nouvelle-France
S187 Artistique

Art:
Academy Intro
The Secret Aldergate Hacking Club
Donstrupper Autumn Clinic Collab

━━━━━━ ◦ ❖ ◦ ━━━━━━
References: ThePoseArchives , Aleks Kend on AdobeStock