Name: Randolph Lyall
Door: door pass

Canon: Parasol Protectorate
Canon Point: End of Prudence

Age: 395~ (looks 30~)
Appearance: here

History: wiki
Personality:

• Pragmatic
  The thing about Lyall is that he is very good at assessing situations, figuring out the most efficient way to achieve that and...then doing it (or planning to do it) without paying much attention to the ways in which that course of action might be otherwise harmful. He does try to choose options that aren't, of course, but in the end if he feels as if he must, then he must. Most notably, this trait is observable in his plan to eliminate Lord Woolsey. He convinces another pack to try and kill the queen behind their Alpha's back, with the intent of having that Alpha abandon them and come to challenge his own Alpha. It isn't until years later that he apparently even thinks about what kind of effect that had on the pack that he very, very majorly disrupted in order to save his own. In his mind, if something is necessary then it is necessary and the consequences to other people matter less than the desired outcome.



• Calculating
  Another very important part of who Lyall is concerns how he presents himself and how he uses that presentation to get what he wants out of situations and people. It is important to Lyall to go largely unnoticed by the people around him. (Some of his inner narrative suggests that it's something that happens somewhat naturally and that he's simply embraced it over time.) Although clothing and dressing well is important to him, he chooses to dress to just below the height of fashion. He always looks presentable but never enough to stand out. The other characters who do notice this observe that it's a calculated thing, that Lyall does it because he wants to be able to fade into the background. After all, it is easier to direct things and get away with doing it when you've assured that no one particularly takes much notice of you. As Alexia observes, Lyall "arranges everyone and everything around him just so". He doesn't absolutely always behave this way, but it's a large part of who he is. (And that air of invisibility? That's almost always cultivated. Lyall does not enjoy the spotlight whatsoever. He will take charge when he needs to, but prefers to arrange things so that he does not.)
  
  He also tends to be very calculating in exactly what information he gives out to anyone at any particular time. It is definitely common for Lyall to try to deflect direct questions or withhold information from someone if he feels it's not in his - or their - best interest for that knowledge to be known. Or even if he just feels like being the one to give that information would be inconvenient for him particularly.



• Self-sacrifical
  The role of the Beta is to serve both Alpha and pack, which Lyall is very good at but also takes to extremes that hurt himself sometimes and causes distress for the people who actually care about him. The biggest example of this is his choice to take on as much of Lord Woolsey's abuse as he could. Not only did he absorb the brunt of it so that the other pack members would not have to, but he also endeavored to keep them from finding out at all, suffering all of it alone (or so he thought) until Alessandro finally figured it out. This was a noble (and necessary, probably) thing to do but he was also asking someone who loved him - Alessandro - to stand by and do nothing while he was hurt regularly for years. Another slightly less extreme example of this is actually just slightly past his canonpoint but is still illustrative. Coming back to Biffy, whom he is still in love with, he simply assumes off the bat that Biffy is no longer interested in their relationship and decides that he cannot possibly impose his own unrequited (he thinks) desires and needs on a new Alpha who is already dealing with pack difficulties. The needs of his Alpha come before his own, everyone's needs (or at least, the needs of people he cares about) come before his own and he is willing to go without even though it's painful if it's for the better of those people. In the second example, Lyall thinks he's doing what's best and in reality he is causing some emotional distress for Biffy in the process, who is also still in love with him but assumes based on his behavior that Lyall is no longer interested. (Bad communication all around.)



• Protective
  The flip-side to all of these things is that Lyall applies absolutely all of them to (attempting) to protect the people he cares about. (In fact, Randolph means "shield wolf", which is a very telling choice on the part of the author.) Very few of his calculations are made in his own self-interest and most of it is to make it so his people (his pack, mostly) are alright. He sacrifices himself in order to protect others. He figures out exactly what a distraught Alpha (Biffy) needs in order to feel as if he can come clean about his problems and gives it to him, makes himself into what Biffy needs to unburden himself and therefore hopefully heal. He hates fighting and yet he unfailingly jumps to the protection of his Alpha and his pack when fighting needs to be done. Betas are made to serve, and Randolph Lyall is an excellent Beta because it is already in his nature.
  

Powers and Abilities:
- Enhanced sight, smell, hearing, speed and strength, even in human form. Lyall specifically is said to have a particularly advanced sense of smell.
- Wolf form: He can change at will, but only in the evening. Because Lyall is very old, he has more human intelligence, even in his wolf form than a younger wolf might have. The only time he looses that intelligence is during the full moon.
- Advanced self-healing: Werewolves heal particularly quickly (daylight slows it down but still works more quickly than mortals). Particularly severe wounds take up to a whole day to heal and minor ones heal almost instantaneously.

Inventory:
- Glassicals
- A journal written by Alessandro Tarabotti (his last one)

Samples: tdm samples