PLAYER

Name: Tetra
Journal Username: tetradecimal
Preferred Contact: Tetradecimal
Current Characters: N/A


CHARACTER

Name: Zacharias Barnham
Canon: Professor Layton vs Phoenix Wright
Gender: male
Age: late 20s
Race: human
Nationality: Labrynna
Occupation: Inquisitor/knight

Patron Goddess: Farore

Backstory: A knight by training, Barnham makes his home in the city of Labyrinthia, where he was appointed by the local lord to the position of Inquisitor. In this capacity, he acts as an extension of his lord’s authority, charged with resolving disputes between citizens and arranging punishment for those found afoul of the law. Among his fellow inquisitors, he is the one that displays the greatest zeal for his duties. Though strict, he is generally well-regarded, including by his subordinates.

Barnham is a born citizen of Labrynna, where he has lived for all his life – most of which was spent in either study or knight training. He has done a bit of traveling in the region (to Lynna City, for example), but is largely content to remain in his hometown, to which he feels a strong connection. Like many in Labyrinthia, Barnham is human – and although some would consider him as “further from the gods” than those of Hylian blood, he feels no real drive to be closer. Rather than ambition for higher office, Barnham sees his true calling as the just and fair administration of the law that protects all citizens of Labyrinthia.

Barnham is an only child, but he does have a companion in Constantine, a small white dog he found and rescued on the outskirts of Labyrinthia about a year ago while investigating a string of thefts of food from nearby farms. Upon learning that Constantine was the culprit and was trying to provide food for his mother, whom Barnham’s horse had inadvertently injured several weeks, Barnham felt personally responsible and adopted the dog.

While his job is probably the single most important thing in his life, Barnham does make a point of visiting his parents once in a while and has also recently taken up learning how to bake.

Personality: Barnham is an upright, slightly arrogant man who takes his duties and his job extremely seriously. Foremost among these responsibilities, in his mind, is protecting the people he presides over through fair and speedy administration of the law. To Barnham, this means doing his best to shield respectable citizens from injury or crime… though one might say that his true specialty is bringing swift punishment down on lawbreakers.

Of course, crime is relative, and the larger part of Barnham’s zeal is reserved for heavier crimes, such as murder or other forms of grievous harm. Possessed of little sympathy for murderers and their ilk, Barnham can and has ordered severe punishment without hesitation for those he believes guilty. In canon, for instance, Barnham regularly orders women thrown to the flames for witchcraft. “Vile witch, enemy of Labyrinthia! May the fires purge you from this land!” – not exactly the words of a prosecutorial milquetoast. Nor does Barnham make any especial effort to understand the motivations of those he orders punished; some people, he believes, are simply born with motives and baseness beyond the understanding of respectable folk.

While he will do all that is in his power to punish serious lawbreakers, Barnham is a little less heavy-handed with minor infractions, such as petty theft or behavior unbecoming of a knight; he is largely content to leave enforcement of these issues to his subordinates, though he may have a sharp word for those he feels are derelict in their own duties.

All this is not to say that Barnham is a tyrannical or unfeeling administrator. Should his judgment be called into question, he is surprisingly open to reexamining his actions or his assumptions – even willing to stay his hand if someone is able to convince him that he has the wrong man. What Barnham is ultimately after is the truth and the good of his charged; it does no one any good to have the innocent punished, or to allow a true perpetrator to escape the law.

Generally speaking, Barnham toes the line in his city -- he follows the rules and obeys orders. However, he also has a strong sense of justice and may bend (but not typically break) the rules if he feels enforcing an edict would be unjust. He also has a bit of his soft spot; he adopted his dog Constantine, for example, after learning that he was inadvertently responsible for the death of Constantine’s mother. And in canon, when one of the witch trials results in the death of an innocent girl, Barnham offers to let her friend run him through.

Skills
Swordplay
Horseback riding
Baking (sort of)
Being a responsible pet owner
Logical reasoning

Spells/Tools
An enchanted sword
Spirit magic (amateur)

Ambitions Barnham’s deepest wish is for a just society with a happy populace, in which the law and officers of the law are avatars of truth and order. People would be honest and good and act in the best interests of the whole, not because they are forced to but because they would want to. There would be no having to choose between being lawful and being good, because they would be the same thing. Certainly there would be none of this Demon King cult nonsense, and also he would go on nice long walks with his dog and maybe have a sweet boat.

SAMPLES

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