Giles Geslowan

Giles Geslowan is an Aparnovosi seafarer and navigator with decades of experience, and a survivor of the Fall of Aparnovos. Since the early summer of 428 AU, Giles has served as the navigator aboard the Santana, often filling the role of ship's master when Leighton Allister is otherwise engaged or lending his expertise to the Argent Company's expeditions.
Giles was born into a seafaring family whose men had served in the Prince's Navy for generations, albeit mostly as seamen and warrant officers. After a short childhood spent in the bustling, dynamic world of Aparnovos' docklands, Giles put to sea at the age of ten as a ship's boy on a naval caravel. While aboard a modest vessel, this posting allowed Giles to be in close proximity to the captain's instruction of young officers, to which he often discreetly listened while going about his duties. He also occupied his time off watch by conversing with experienced hands, and would be known throughout the crew as an amiable though quiet presence who would always lend an ear to the concerns or old stories of his shipmates. While happy to help his comrades and make new friends, Giles was also perpetually adding the nuggets of wisdom and observations from these talks to his internal repetoire, and had an uncanny ability to memorize and recall information. It was not long until his evesdropping was noticed by the captain, and having befriended the trainees, Giles repeatedly implored to be included in the lessons. He was, however, refused until an opportunity arose while he was tasked with repairing the desk in the great cabin; within, Giles discovered a series of navigational exams prepared for the young oficers. Discreetly pocketing the parchment, he would spend the next several evenings adressing the practical and theoretical questions it contained, finding a welcome challenge and opportunity to structure his thoughts in a focused and purposeful manner.
Having asked one of the officers to submit his completed questionnaire along with the rest, Giles could only wait for the captain's reaction. While the dispensing of commissions for officers was strictly controlled by the naval scribes ashore, Giles was soon informed that the captain would nonetheless take him under informal tutelage while at sea. Throughout his time on the (caravel name), Giles was thus in an intermediate position between the ship's crew and officers, and thus was able gain valuable insight into running a harmonious and productive ship alongside his rapidly proceeding navigational training. Moreover, the friendships he built during his teenage years would help him secure further postings as his erstwhile classmates received their commissions. While the Prince's Navy often hired older, experienced sailing masters (navigators who were tasked with sailing the ship under the captain's direction) from the commercial fleet, as the officers of the (caravel name) received their own commands, they remembered the aptitude and enthusiasm of their former shipmate.
Between the paying off of the (caravel) and that point, however, Giles' prospects had endured a setback as he drifted between merchant and naval ships, as well as the odd stint of dockyard work. In comparison to either the more affluent commissioned officers or the seasoned ranks of masters and navigators, Giles had little prospect of advancement throughout his later teenage years. While working in the dockyard between voyages during this point, Giles began to spend more time with one of his more unusual coworkers, a young woman named Darylis Nevmata. The only daughter of a minor noble family within the city, Darylis had been estranged from her parents and their dysfunctional household for years, but was nonetheless assured of their inheritance; eldest, and especially only, daughters' rights in this regard were protected by Aparnovosi law. Both to spite her family and to satisfy her desire for challenging work, she had taken work in a local rigging workshop where Giles had also found employment, which was both far beneath her station and patently unusual for a young woman.
As they worked alongside each other, Giles and Darylis spoke of the greater prospects which laid in their hopeful futures, when she would receive her inheritance and he would have secured a posting suitable for his talents. Smitten with his daring and vivacious companion and determined to seize the chance to put his seafaring skills to use while securing their life together, Giles was spurred to reach out to one of his old shipmates when dockyard rumours relayed that the latter had been given a command of his own. Leronim Armivaios was one of the young officers on the (caravel), with whom Giles had a particular rapport built on shared studies and the efforts of the former to include him in the social circles of the officers. The result of their meeting was a friendly reunion, and a last-minute adjustment to the ship's muster which saw Giles serve under Armivaios as sailing master, relishing the opportunity to inaugerate his professional career of which he had dreamed for so long.
For the majority of its duration, the southward cruise of the (new ship) was a portrait of a sailor's nightmare; alternating stretches of doldrums and fierce storms, with long days of malaise punctuated with fits of staggering peril. Such cycles played havoc with the ship's provisions, with fresh water spoiling and food turning rancid or disintigrated by the cycles of wet and dry as the crew constantly manned the pumps. By the time the ship limped back to Aparnovos, the sickly, emaciated crew had been reduced to eating rats and shoe-leather. However, working with a single-minded focus and dedication whether on deck or in his cramped cabin, Giles had plied his trade with persistence. Weakened, exhausted, and yet hardened to the worst of the sea, he found relief in once again seeing Darylis, and in that he was able to submit the ship's logbooks to the naval scribes upon his return. Delivering concrete proof of how his methods and attention to detail had shaved weeks from the mission and in so doing likely saving dozens of lives, Giles had finally caught the discerning eye of the naval establishment.
After a period of recovering his health ashore, Giles would return to sea aboard successively larger and more important vessels, and as time passed he was increasingly known as a man that ranked among the elite navigators in the Princes' navy, who could both survive and interpret the vicissitudes of the wild southern seas. Once he held a comission marked with the silvery seal of the Prince of Aparnovos himself, Giles finally felt prepared to offer Darylis the respectable life to which they aspired, and asked for her hand in marriage. With his pay and her inheritance, the couple was able to purchase a stately, respectable home in one of Aparnovos' mercantile districts. The voyages on which Giles now frequently found himself employed were those of the last great seafaring epoch before the Fall of Aparnovos, where ships and crews were pushed to their limits in penetrating the great southern oceans, returning with goods and stories both strange and wonderous. But far more peaceful were his periods of leave, in which he and Darylis built a prosperous household and bore three sons; Temilitis, Dryenos, and Venaren. Over the years, all would follow their father's maritime calling and hold positions in the Aparnovosi Marines, the merchant fleets, and the dockyards, respectively.
Giles would often spin tales of time on the wide oceans and distant lands beyond in later years; while certainly outlandish, his long service and undeniable experience lent the accounts credibility and facts were often indistinguishable from fiction. The most impactful single episode of his life, however, occured within the walls of Aparnovos itself. Giles' youth was well behind him by this point, but had still stubbornly refused to retire despite the imploring by his sons. His obstinance was overcome months later by the failing health of Darylis, by whose sickbed Giles elected to dutifully remain, turning away from his prestigious posting at last.

Currently Boarded Vehicle

The Santana

Species

Men

Ethnicity

Aparnovosi

Year of Birth

350 AU 80 Years old

Birthplace

Aparnovos

Gender

Male

Eyes

Dark brown, peering from under bushy white eyebrows

Hair

Thin silver hair, full white beard

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Tan; reddened, weathered face.

Height

5'8"

Aligned Organization

Aparnovos

Other Affiliations

• Argent Company