Hieronymus "Hero"
Bonaventure
Full Name: Hieronymus Bonaventure
Date of Birth: April 13, 1781
Occupation: Second Lieutenant, HMS
Fortitude, British Royal Navy
Personal History: Cornelis van der Waals,
Hieronymus’ maternal grandfather, was a cartographer and navigator
employed by Dutch merchants trading with the Japanese. He traveled
repeatedly to the Far East and back, learning some smattering of the
Japanese language in the process, and helping to codify the quickest
and safest sea passages to Japan. His daughter, Adda van der Waals,
was something of an amateur cartographer herself, and she delighted
in helping her father in his work. When Adda fell for a studious,
pale scholar on holiday in the Netherlands, it came as a
disappointment to her father, both because he was losing his
daughter and losing one of his most able draughtsmen, woman or not;
that the scholar had been English, and that Adda would leave her
home in the Netherlands to return with him to England, only served
to compound Cornelis’ disappointment.
Jerome Bonaventure, the scholar who captured
Adda’s affections, was the younger son of a family known for
explorers, adventurers, and soldiers. He had himself disappointed
his parents when, opting not to follow in the family traditions, he
took a post at Oxford as a lecturer in antiquities. Somewhat frail
in appearance, and introverted when out in society, with his wife he
was the model of the ideal husband, and strived to be an exceptional
father to their three children. He might have fallen short of the
mark, in the estimation of at least one of his offspring, but judged
by his own lights he had done his level best.
Hieronymus Bonaventure, the first born of the
couple and named for his father after a fashion, was raised on a
steady diet of philosophy, myth and legend from his classicist
father, and cartography, geography, and tales of adventures at sea
from his mother. By the time he reached the age of majority,
Hieronymus had decided to reject his father’s plans for his future,
and left Oxford behind to take to the high seas as an officer in the
Royal Navy. He soon made a name for himself, first as a brash and
headstrong young midshipman, then as a somewhat more somber and
calculating lieutenant. By his twenty-seventh year, he was marked
by a few in the Admiralty for a great career, could he only survive.
Known Relatives: Jerome Bonaventure
(father), Adda van der Waals Bonaventure (mother), Cornelis van der
Waals (maternal grandfather), Cornelius and Claudia Bonaventure
(siblings)
Physical description: Bonaventure stands
a few inches below six feet tall, and is slim but muscled. His
hair, of a light brown color, is worn a few inches past the collar.
On his left bicep is a spiraling black tattoo, like the “moko” of
the Maori. On his left buttocks is a brand indicating membership in
the family of Drift. A scar runs from his right eye, across his
temple, to his right ear.
Equipment: Bonaventure carries into
battle a sword captured as a spoil of war. A hussar’s light cavalry
sabre, it was taken from a defeated foe during the disastrous Battle
of Calabria, where on August 3rd, 1805 the British and
their allies were routed by the French General Massena. Also,
Bonaventure wears on a cord around his neck a miniature globe,
encased in a clasped shell of sharkskin, a gift from his mother. In
a holster at his side, he carries a Mauser C96 pistol, another spoil
of war.
Following his mother’s example, Bonaventure has
become something of an amateur cartographer himself, and has been
compiling maps and notes during his years on Paragaea.
