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Claude Virtus
A major character in the Draconis series. In Virtus Draconis, he is a mercenary apprentice with the Eon Group, a syndicate of mercenaries, or rather, a paramilitary group. For reasons unknown, his first mission ends in disaster when he is poisoned with an untreatable venom. The search for the cure kickstarts the true plot of the first book.- The Ace: Deconstructed: The plot seems to treat Claude as this, but as the story goes on, it's shown that Claude was anything but. He is the result of considerable childhood trauma.
- Badass Adorable: He has his moments, being the awkward Manchild that he is.
- Badass in Distress: His incapacitation due to Black Blood poisoning is what truly kicks off the plot, and must be rescued by Anna's payment of a blood price.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Claude packs a mean wallop, especially after gaining his powers. Yet he still remains nice and cordial all around. Well, most of the time.
- Big Good: Claude is undeniably this, in spite of his work as a mercenary. He has a strong moral compass, dislikes violence and loves his family dearly. He is also one of the heads of a revolution against Meredith Staunton.
- Break the Cutie: There are several, but there are two particular moments that break him, one with no hope of recovery: Defeating Ruhiel, possessed by his newfound powers as a Hand of God (which causes him a severe panic attack due to committing infanticide), and witnessing his father Bai-Feng die a horrific death, with him unable to do anything to save him.
- Cain and Abel: The Abel to Mordred's Cain. It actually makes sense when Bai-Feng is assassinated and his motivations come to light.
- Came Back Strong: When he's briefly knocked out and close to death during the fight against Ruhiel, Claude speaks to Adonai, who “grants” him the Hand of God for him to use against the boy.
- Color Motif: Closely associated with the color red. Fittingly, when Anna wakes up, she has become a red dragon as well.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Boy, oh boy, where do we begin? He grew up as a different kind of child (the subtext strongly implies he was displaying autistic traits growing up), bullied by his peers. One day, going out to play with friends has the unfortunate effect of attracting a pack of mutant yeti onto their village, which results in a brawl that ends with his parents dead. Ostracized and
Mis-blamed afterwards by the village he lived in, the traumatized kid was adopted by Bai-Feng, which improved his outlook... but did not heal his trauma fully. - Dark Is Not Evil: He gains an almost demonic appearance upon gaining the Hand of God, or rather more reptilian and vengeful than others, but he is absolutely not a bad guy.
- Disney Death: Twice in the first book: Once when he's poisoned with an incurable substance, and implied during the fight against Ruhiel, when he loses consciousness. Bai-Feng even panics that he's losing his son again.
- Don't Call Me "Sir": Claude is actually quite informal with people and has no regard for decorum most of the time: he'd rather see people for who they truly are than see them hide behind a façade of manners.
- Dragons Are Divine: Zigzagged. He's by no means a divine or spiritual being, like a god or spirit, but inherits divine powers of ambiguous origin to defeat a dangerous enemy. These powers give him almost godly abilities, but the appearance of something much meaner.
- Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: He mostly pities Ruhiel, rather than outright hate him, but bring Meredith up and he goes into a major frenzy, especially after Prelid is wiped off the map.
- Fatal Flaw: His crippling self-loathing and traumatic past play him like a fiddle, hounding him every step of the way with PTSD-induced flashbacks and nightmares and a hesitation to trust others. Anna helps him, slowly, out of this mindset.
- Happily Adopted: His being adopted by Bai-Feng (and a resentful Mordred) may very well have saved his life after being ostracized by his people, and bullied for most of his life.
- Heroic BSoD: Not one, not two, but three of these:
- Once when he kills Ruhiel. He relaxes back to normal and suddenly gains awareness of his actions, leading to him questioning his very sanity in a severe panic attack that Mordred has to gently coax him out of.
- The second time is when Bai-Feng is murdered, and this one, unlike the first, has no resolution. All he can do is cry his heart out with Mordred and bemoan and mourn their death.
- Lastly, the wiping out of Prelid, which inevitably led to Mordred's death. It's the catalyst for his Roaring Rampage of Revenge, as he no longer tolerates Meredith.
- The Hero: Protagonist of Virtus Draconis.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Mordred. It’s mostly one-sided.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Following his parents' death, Claude was needy of love as an orphan who was hated by pretty much everyone in Prelid. Bai-Feng, pitying him and to honor his friends', the Virtuses', sacrifice, takes Claude in.
- Improbably Quick Coma Recovery: Downplayed, as while he makes a successful and easy recovery upon receiving a blood transfusion from the recently transformed Anna, it still takes him a week to fully recover.
- Interspecies Adoption: Played straight: a dragon is adopted by a tiger and a wolf.
- Morality Chain: Inverted: others have to play this role to him, due to how emotionally damaged he is. It's especially notable with Bai-Feng, who is the one responsible for training and raising him into being a (mostly) good person.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He wasn't fully aware (or rather, in his bloodlust, didn't notice) that he'd end up taking a child's life, which is something he wouldn't do under normal circumstances. He doesn’t take it well.
- Nice Guy: Within reason. You don’t want to find out what happens when you piss him off.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When the powers of the Hand of God are activated, he becomes notably more bloodthirsty and violent, but oddly reverent and almost worshipping to the one who gave them their blood to begin with (Anna in his case).
- Passing the Torch: Bai-Feng does this to Claude and Mordred when he's dying. Either way, Claude would have somehow become The Leader.
- Primary-Color Champion: Well, he's red-skinned.
- Red Is Heroic: He is a red dragon with white hair.
- Semi-Divine: Implied, thanks to the Hand of God and the blood transfusion they received from Mystic Anna.
- Split Personality: Downplayed. He has his nice guy mode, where he is normal, and then there's the berserk Tranquil Fury, the battle focused badass that throws caution to the wind to fight until he's finished his task, for the sake of his "master", Anna.
- Split-Personality Takeover: Implied with the Hand of God, as it alters his personality somewhat, but he retains enough awareness to know what's going on. This side of himself simply ignores his limits and inhibitions.
- Superpowered Evil Side: Everyone assumes the Hand of God's powers to be this for Claude, but this gets cleared up close to the ending, when Gunter and Anna are discussing these powers at a café.
- Took a Level in Badass: Becoming a Hand of God grants him a plethora of powers and strength, turning him into a monster in combat.
- Tragic Keepsake: The Rosicrucian spear.
- Universally Beloved Leader: Deconstructed. While he's the de facto leader of the group, he is nowhere experienced enough to be a leader, leading to a critical mistake at the city of Dalet that nearly costs him his life. He is also quite insecure in his position, such as at Prelid, where he doesn't want to face a major abuser and bully.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Compared to Mordred, who has far more dexterity with weapons, Claude is more pacifistic and fights with a staff, rather than firearms or more dangerous weapons.
