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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lucean" data-source="post: 4246026" data-attributes="member: 67223">Doctor Phillip LeGraidHistory:The LeGraid family has been one of the most prominent families in New Orleans for over a century, being influencal in the finances, politics and culture of the fair city. It has also always been one of the most central families in the internal structure as well. It was extremely rare for the head of the family to have more than one child, who in turn would become the new head of the family. If there were more than one child, one of them would be chosen to become the new head and receive almost all of the family fortune as inheritance with the other receiving only a little or married off to another family. This had prevented the family from fragmenting despite it's great age and also had allowed it's head to remain unquestioned in their position. It was also always central that the one who had been borne as a LeGraid was the one controlling the family in case of a marriage, be it a son or a daughter, although it was almost always a son.At the beginning of the 20th century, the head of the family was Charles LeGraid, who was considered one of the strongest patriarchs in the family's entire history. He was a shrew businessman, always anticapiting the economic and political situations to come with frightening accuracy. His only son, Michael, was however another story, more interested in attending parties and cultural events than learning of the family business, somehow believing that just sharing his father's blood was enough. However, suddenly enough to cause a scandal, Michael disappeared from the city, only to return a year later with his new-born son Phillip. A great deal of rumours spread of this, speculations of what had happened, with each one more wild than the last. The story offered by the family was that Michael had met a daughter of a poor merchant family from New York and fallen deeply in love. Never being one for thinking ahead, he had eloped with the daughter, fearing his father's disapproval. His new wife had become pregnant soon after, but had died giving birth to their son. Finally, the mourning son had returned home with the child. The power held by the family made certain that no one questioned this story too vocally and prevented it from blossoming to a true scandal.The returned Michael was slightly different from before, being more tempered and even beginning to involve himself in the family business, but was still a prominent member of the local social life. For some reason though he seemed to avoid to have anything to do with his son, hesitant to even treating Phillip as his own flesh and blood. Charles LeGraid however developed a soft spot for the child, acting almost as a surrogate father to Phillip. A few years later Michael married again, this time to Augustine Reynolds, a daughter of prominent family in the Mid-West. Through Charles's skill the opportunities provided by this marriage lead to even more wealth and power for the family. From this marriage a daughter, Evelyn, was born and Michael treated her more as his own than he ever had Phillip, who was eight at the time of the birth.As Phillip grew up, although never in public, a great of whispering was done of the circumstances of his birth and his standing in the family. Members of the family itself and those associated with it treated him with distain, no one more than his own father, while Evelyn was doted upon. Somewhat ironically the only member of the family aside from his grandfather who Phillip got along with and even cared for was his half-sister, who always called Phillip her brother with great pride in her voice. Despite Charles LeGraide 's attachment to the boy, it became clear to him that Phillip could not remain in New Orleans, that he was too much of a sore spot to the family and even a danger to be exploited by some outsider. So with heavy heart Charles summoned Phillip to him when the boy turned 16, and told him that he could not remain within New Orleans for much longer, that he had to seek his fortune somewhere else. Charles did however offer to pay for whatever life Phillip decided to seek for. Phillip understood, to be truthful had expected the discussion to have taken place even earlier, and three years later informed his family that he would be leaving for medical school in New York. On the day of his departure only two people watched him depart with sadness, his grandfather and his young half-sister, who begged him to stay with tear-filled eyes.When Phillip moved to New York, it was the first time during his entire life when people regarded him as more than the mystery of the might LeGraid family. He however remained somewhat distant from his fellow students, not willing to truly expose himself to anyone, and extremely driven in his studies, as if he was trying to escape the secrets of his birth that way. He never drank much and always behaved very cordially, not letting himself loose. Despite all of this he managed to make a great deal of friends during those years, as most people found him to be someone to get along extremely well with as long as they didn't try to probe his secrets too deeply. Finally Phillip graduated as a M.D. and after having proven himself to be an exceptionally promising doctor, received more than a few offers from local hospitals as it was clear that he could not return to New Orleans. Yet he shocked everyone by instead choosing to join the Red Cross and leaving the country for foreign lands.-------------Have to stop now, both because I need to sleep and because that's already quite a lot of story. I'll try to get the rest up tomorrow with notes about the character. I already spoke with David about the secret concerning Phillip's birth, but I'll send him a more exact description of it, if it is alright. Let me know if there's anything wrong with the character story so far, it never hurts to point out where something doesn't work.</blockquote>

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