Info

Name: Arco Ettore
Source: D&D OC (originally created for a horror-themed mini-campaign, then transplanted into Baldur's Gate 3, hence the icons)
Gender: Male (he/they)
Sexuality: Pansexual/panromantic
Race: Tiefling
Class: Rogue (Jester subclass, based on the Happy Jack supplement)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Background: Urchin
Playlist: Here

History

"He will be laughing still, at the end."

Short version:
Abandoned as an infant due to his devilish appearance, Arco was raised in a city orphanage run by strict (and often cruel) caregivers. Despite the less-than-stellar conditions, Arco was a playful and charismatic child who made friends easily. He also possessed a talent for showmanship, especially knife throwing, and this talent became his primary source of income - he'd put on shows in the city square, attracting the attention of commoners and nobles alike. As he grew from a child to a teen his skills grew, and eventually he caught the eye of the local baron, who took him in as a court jester.

Unfortunately for Arco, the baron was a demanding and sadistic man who delighted in forcing his new pet to perform all sorts of humiliating acts, often while the rest of the baron's friends looked on and laughed. After nearly a year of being mistreated it all grew to a head and the thin grip Arco had on his sanity finally snapped, leading him to murder both the baron a well as the rest of the court in a bloody spree. Arco doesn't remember the details of this event; all that's left is the echoing screams of his victims mixed in with his own desperate, mocking laughter.

He fled the country shortly thereafter, knowing it was only a matter of time before the city's guards came after him for his crimes. He now lives a life on the run, performing and stealing when necessary, without any greater purpose to his existence other than survival. He still maintains a loose grip on his sanity, often treating situations with much less care than they deserve and occasionally drifting into bouts of madness when under duress. More than anything, he just wants to feel good - through pleasure, or pain, whichever seems the best choice at any given moment.

Personality

+ Charming
+ Playful
+ Accepting of outcasts
+ Very protective of children, especially non-human children (tieflings, orcs, goblins, etc)
- Violent
- Judgmental
- Hedonistic
- Has a bad habit of laughing when it's inappropriate

Likes:
+ Good wine
+ Good music
+ Performing
+ Dark humour
 

Dislikes:
- The dark
- Enclosed spaces
- The rich and powerful
- Cruelty towards children

History - Long version:

Arco was abandoned at an orphanage as an infant. Unbeknownst to him, his parents were a female demon and a male human; neither were willing to raise him, as he was the product of an illicit affair. While the orphanage wardens were unkindly and his life was relatively squalid, Arco made the best of it by leaning into his innate skill for performing and knife-juggling. He would often put on little shows for the other orphans, telling jokes and doing knife-throwing acts with his best friend, a half-orc named Jacques.

 

Things weren’t all fun and games, however. Whenever he did something wrong - or, more accurately, whenever his keepers felt like it - he would be locked away in a crate in the orphanage’s basement. As a result, he developed an intense fear of small spaces and the dark.

 

As the years passed, Arco dreamed of a better life, somewhere far away where he and his friends could be free. With age came skills and knowledge - specifically, how to put on shows for others in order to trick them and steal whatever coin they had on their person. In what was to become a cruel twist of fate, Arco’s reputation drew the attention of the local baron, who sent out a messenger to collect him from the orphanage and bring him back to the castle as his court’s official jester.

 

Despite wanting a better life for himself, Arco did not want to leave his friends behind. After so many years of being around the other children, they were more like family to him - and much more precious than some faraway man who suddenly decided to take him away. With little power of his own, however, he was soon forced to leave the only life he'd ever known.

 

Upon arrival at the castle, Arco immediately recognized that this was a far worse situation than he had been in at the orphanage. The baron turned out to be unjust and cruel, commanding Arco to perform for hours and regularly belittling him for all manner of perceived slights: his thin frame, his demonic heritage, and - most often - the fact that his parents abandoned him.

 

Arco endured the abuse - both physical and mental - for as long as he could. Ultimately, he had nowhere else to turn; trying to run would surely get him killed, and even if he managed to escape, where would he go? The orphanage wouldn’t accept him. He had no idea where Jacques was now. The rest of the world was just as unwelcoming to someone with a face like his. So he simply plastered a grin on his face and kept smiling, kept laughing, until it became too much.

 

One rainy night, when the baron had gathered all his subjects in the ballroom to watch him torment Arco, the baron's own son - a sickly, weak young man - interfered on Arco’s behalf. Enraged, the man struck him down before beginning to beat him mercilessly. Arco, who had begun to develop feelings for this young man - and who had himself experienced those same beatings at his father's hand - finally snapped.

 

As a jester, he carried his daggers with him constantly; performing knife tricks was his greatest skill, after all. Now those daggers flashed and spun with new purpose, both palms grasping their hilts as he descended into a murderous rage. A furious flurry of blades ensued; first the baron, then the guards, then the loyal subjects gasping in horror. None were safe from the jester’s massacre - none, save the poor baron's son, lying in horror beneath his father’s bloodied, lifeless body as Arco laughed and laughed, blood smeared across his face and body.

 

In the end, he was still laughing as he left the castle, striding out into the storm and letting the rain wash away all evidence of his crimes. The bodies he left behind were only the first of many more to come in the years that followed.