Classius Von Mayberk

[Etherdrone]

Name: Classius "Classy" Von Mayberk
Gender: Colt
Race: Earth Pony
Age: 24
Occupation: Business Tycoon
Home: Canterlot
Appearance: Sporting a dark, chestnut mane and a darker shade of beige as his coat, Classy's mane is very well-maintained and groomed, appropriate to someone of his position. His hair is slightly longer than one would expect it to be however, slightly falling forward on his head and giving him a very relaxed look. For style and use purposes, his tail is also longer than a normal colt's and it is visible he takes care of it. His steel-colored eyes are a family trademark, courtesy of his mother.
Cutie Mark: A slightly bent horseshoe with three bits in the middle.
Talent: Ridiculous skills at being business-savvy; unparallelled luck.
Hobbies: Playing music, practicing self-defense, nose in other people's issues.
Personality: Classy is very decisive and will very rarely stop to ponder for too long over a single problem. He is a firm believer that a bad decision is better than no decision, and will act and behave accordingly. For all intents and purposes of his business practices, he is no stranger to underhanded business tactics to get what he wants, being a master tactician when it comes to manipulating people from the shadows without them realizing it. However, he is a great pony at heart and will go to great lengths, beyond the beck and call of duty to assist those in need with his unquantifiable wealth. Classy loves being in control not only to be in a better position to help others when needed, but he finds solace and peace in the knowledge that if something went wrong, it was his fault and no one else's. However, being a massively wealthy tycoon is imperative for him to be a force of good and he knows of this, and therefore is ruthless, surgically precise and overwhelming when it comes to making business with others. This makes him very difficult to approach and befriend, but those he holds dear to him are in a very good place. He holds his friendship with others very dearly, although thanks to his way of being, it is not easy to perceive when he is being honest or not.
Abilities: Classy can always remember something he's read, no matter how insignificant it was. His ability to process thought and memory are monstrously great, and he takes full advantage of what he knows he can do. When he needs to go relatively undercover to do things outside of the reach of his own name, he adopts an alter-ego he calls "Lucky", and infiltrates things with a friendly, enthusiastic demeanor.
Origin:
-    Classius is the third and youngest of his family. With the eldest sister (Gracely "Grace" von Mayberk) and older brother (Luxury "Lux" von Mayberk) leading the helm of their childhood, Classy grew in the manor with relative simplicity, growing in an admittedly favorable position that very, very few would succeed to claim the same. As they grew older, they were slowly introduced to the world of the tycoon business they were in, although nothing serious for a long time to come. However, things changed very quickly when their mother passed away in an unfortunate tragedy, an accident no one could have done anything to stop, and their father grew ill from the shock of the loss.
     The Mayberk tycoon, however, had its eyes set on nothing more than the business involved with the name the Tycoon had. The Mayberks, although being the chief owners of the name, had no real, full control of the tycoon, with each and every owner of their respective businesses and stock within the Tycoon were able to sign anything they pleased with the Mayberk name on it. Classy's father's brothers and sisters, uncles and cousins. They were the real power within the Mayberk tycoon.
The sole purpose of the Von Mayberk family, despite being the Top Seat of the Tycoon, was to, ultimately, decide on which project to fund when both tycoon parties came to blows. Mediators, if you will. And with that position in mind, Classy's father was being pressured in all directions by his family members to choose an heir to the seat. He was sick, he was not mentally stable. And he complied to their demands.
      One day, their father summoned the three siblings and told them of the demands thrusted upon them. In a year's time, they would be judged and analyzed accordingly, to see which one of the three was to be the true heir of the Mayberk line. The ones that would not succeed would be cast away from the main family line and join one of the lesser branches of the family. Classy was furious at the idea, refusing outright to participate in a contest that would possibly lead his siblings to ruin, rejecting his own right to take part in that stupid demand. Grace and Lux however, did not do the same, accepting the proposal and then taking part in a contest that inevitably brought great distance between them.
       As the year finally came to a close, much to everyone's surprise, Classy was the one chosen to be the heir of the family. Without trying to, without taking part in the contest, he was not given a choice and was judged the same way as his siblings were, and he won by a landslide. Shocked, horrified, Classy paid witness to his older brother and sister being taken away from the manor in the next week that passed, and swore to himself through tears and gritted teeth that he would fix this mistake. He would make justice with his own powers. Whatever it takes.
      Many years passed with Classy absolutely embracing the role that was given to him. He became the business, adopted the doctrine of the Tycoon and bent it to his will in ways no one ever thought possible. With one good decision after another, Classy calmly, slowly and expertly made every correct move he could possibly make and then some. He carefully put every piece where it should be, and waited for the perfect opportunity to strike. During this period of time, Classy's father passed away, with him directing his final words to his son: "I am sorry, my son. I see in your eyes that I have damaged you, and I have no rights to ask anything of you. However, I also see doubt, and you cannot have that. I know what you plan on doing, for I am your father. I have but one thing to ask of you, my son: Succeed. Show those leeches what it means to be a Mayberk, and fix this nightmare I did not manage to." With those words in his heart, his final worries and doubts were cast away to the winds, and he made his move when he was 20 years old.
       During the ceremony in which Classy would be considered the new chief of the Tycoon, he invited all other members of the Tycoon to a feast in the manor, and they all responded. Drinks were had, food was eaten and when the party was at its peak and he was announcing his taking the place of his father, officially, he also claimed all rights to the Tycoon business under his solitary hoof, showing to all those present that he had, through the course of the past few years, bought their businesses legitimately under the solitary name of "Mayberk". Of which he had full power over, from that moment forward.
       Of course everyone rioted, but he had no equal. He challenged everyone to name certain aspects of their own business, publicly showing negligence, ignorance or outright farces within their particular branches of the business. He casually stomped their flame and rage, installing fear and respect instead by claiming he wasn't a monster: he would allow them to be managers of their previous businesses, but from that moment forward, all practices and decisions would fall onto him to make, and no one else. He was the sole owner of the "Mayberk" sign, and if they attempted to take ownership of the family, they would face the cold, hard truth of reality. Classius won all the business branches to himself that day, and as he celebrated in the lonely party hall with no one other than just himself when everyone else had gone, he knew he made the right choice. He felt comfortable in his new position, as if he was always meant to be there. Princess Celestia herself paid a visit to Classius that night, and was reassured with the clear-minded of his being after such a tremendous, monumental act.

[Etherdrone]

Behavioral Background:

     "Due to not only his job, his own way of behaving and his actions, Classius von Mayberk is usually considered a non-entity in most tales in which he is involved in. He usually takes a subtle, background approach in the problems of those around him, and tries to make things fall in place without interacting with the foreground and current events personally. That usually means giving advice, simply stating his presence in the room or manipulating one event so down far the chain of reaction that when it happens in the foreground, tracing the originator of the cause is nearly impossible. He takes pride in making sure everyone around him is happy, and if a servant or family member is in immediate danger, he is the first one to answer the call of duty to assist, to the best of his abilities."
     "He is an impossible creature. One not meant for approachability, but one meant for inspiration and aspiration. Classius takes very few falls, and when the does, they are usually very shallow drops with little to no impact whatsoever on his personage. That's not to say he doesn't go on adventures every now and again, however, as he is very personal and direct when dealing with his own deals, or when visiting places he is particularly fond of."

His Greatest Vice:

     "Classius' relationship with his sister Gracely and his brother Luxury is rotten and broken. When he was assigned as the new top dog of the Mayberk family, he felt like he cheated his siblings out of that role, and will never forgive himself for this. Despite already being in complete control of the Mayberk family rights thanks to his monumental exploits, he finds approaching his siblings to be hard and damaging. He tries to give them family rights again, but they outright refuse it, making him feel even more miserable and regretful of what happened."
     "Those two however, feel very differently. Gracely detests the fact Classius wants to give them back their rights, as if he believes he did not earn his place at the top as he did. She admits wholeheartedly that she would never be able to accomplish even half of what he did by himself, and hates the degradation he puts on himself when it comes to their situation, expecting him to act like the Mayberk that earned his name more than anyone else."
     "Luxury, on the other hand, expects similarly from his brother, but also finds it condescending that Classius wants to give them back their rights as if he believes they don't have what it takes to live outside of the family's protection and name. He considers it immature and foolish that he attempts to quite literally, give everything back to them. He does not accept it, and adopts a stern, distant disposition."

[Gracie Sky]

I can certainly appreciate the amount of detail that was put into this character. He is well thought out, but there are a few matters that you may wish to address.

The primary problem I see with Classy is the fact that he is too good. He's better than my suspension of disbelief warrents for him. It's true he was born into the tycoon business and was taught a few things about the trade, but you distinctly label it as "nothing serious". When he was pitted against his two older siblings, he refused to participate and somehow still won... by a land slide. Is this a conspiracy, or is there a good reason he won in a contest he did not participate in? Of course, I don't know what kind of contest it was or how the victor was decided, but I find it very hard to believe Classy could win such a contest. You might want to explain how he beat his two older siblings.

After winning the head seat of his family, he proceeded to win the head of the entire tycoon. He embraced the tycoon doctrine and made all the right choices at the right times. That's hard to believe from a pony who has the experience that would be described as "nothing serious". That leads me to the conclusion that he is simply a natural genius; a prodigy. Or this could be what you mean by "unparallelled luck". Either way, his achievements are beyond what I believe him capable of performing through logical means.

I'm imagining him as a borderline "perfect" character. He is never challenged in the storyline you've provided for him so far. It just seems he already knows what to do to suceed and he is always successful at what he attempts... and even the things he doesn't attempt. I would recommend being careful with this, because we call such characters Mary Sues. His only issue seems to be his struggle to be accepted by his sibblings, whom got kicked out of the family because he won the contest he didn't want to win.  This is an acceptable problem he needs to overcome, but I somehow feel the issue is already half resolved. His siblings seem to not mind being forced to leave as much as they mind Classy trying to hand them back their status for free.

I would've liked to have seen Classy actually struggle to get where he is and from what you've provided, I didn't get that feeling. Perhaps you had something in mind, but it's not clear enough to me and I think it needs to be in order for me to better relate to this character.

Other than that, though, very well put together. He just needs to be completed.

[Etherdrone]

I can certainly appreciate the amount of detail that was put into this character. He is well thought out, but there are a few matters that you may wish to address.

Thank you for the comment! I certainly appreciate the time you've put into reading all of this thoroughly, and commenting on it!

I'll certainly take my time to explain some things about Classy. Certainly, he seems too perfect to be true, and while that was just a tad bit by choice, some things you asked about certainly need to be explained.

First things first, the "nothing serious" introduction to the tycoon. When that happened, he and his siblings were young; he was about 12 while Grace was 16 years old. No one's going to put serious business work under the control of these kids, no matter what kind of blue blood runs through their veins. At best, they would be allowed to witness, study and observe, but not control anything. But then again, they were just kids at the time.

When he was pitted against his siblings and refused to participate, he didn't have a choice on the matter. He said "no" when his father had already sealed the deal where only one of them would be chosen, Classy included. This contest that lasted for a whole year had very little based on the tycoon itself. The family wanted a pawn, not a super business-savvy master of the arts, so they picked the winner based on luck, social ability and mental focus. Grace and Lux certainly don't lack on those parts, but Classy (perhaps for believing he wasn't being analyzed) simply stood out much more than the other two. He was good at simply being a clever, intelligent and sharp noble kid, and the tycoon liked what they saw, and picked him. Needless to say they made a horrible mistake.

When he won the contest, he didn't immediately challenge the seat of the tycoon. He was 14 years old. In the 6 years to come, he would single-mindlessly devote himself to learning and making the right decisions in order to become the head of the family business. He would feverishly study, practice, learn, visit, work and expand his influence little by little on the businesses that belonged to his enemies at the time. He was being driven by the desire to take "revenge", so to speak, but as he worked and took part in the family business, he started to feel comfortable with himself. As if he was meant to work this way all along. Would that make him a prodigy in some way? Quite possibly, yes, but still one that had to work feverishly to acquire the skills he did.

I simply abridged the whole "6 years sweating tears of blood" part. I figured that explaining his story instead of detailing that particular part of his struggle was more imperative to showing the kind of person Classy is.

After the fact, of course, I do not blame you if you think he is "perfect"; that was... somewhat the "intention". The "intention" as in, I created a character that was relatively outside of the reach where one can relate to him on a realistic level, and I realize this. He struggles with his family a lot (mostly to ground his existence in reality; as you said, absolute perfection is not good), but the main idea is for Classy to be someone that can inspire others to become the best they can be and succeed despite the odds - his family hates him for taking the Tycoon from them, after all, and since no one was fixing the problem, he took matters into his own control. That was his plan from the very start.

Most of his struggles would come after the fact. Now he's in complete control of the Tycoon - making the right decisions with that much authority; much harder said than done. However, he does feel comfortable in his position, as if he was meant to be in it all along, so maybe he doesn't feel pressured by the difficulty of his job...

Regardless, he was built to be someone that inspires others to do good things, not to be someone that anyone could be if they tried hard enough. Think Superman, for example. He inspires others to do great things by being the example. Classy does the same, but with money and strategy instead of super powers. That was a horrible comparison, but I already made it. So I'll live with it.

[Gracie Sky]

Your explanation does clear up a hoofful of things. Although it wasn't clear in the way you put it, he DID participate in the contest, but he was forced to do so, even though he didn't want to. You'll want to make that clearer. His "victory" was partially rigged, since the ponies who were voting were probably voting based on who they could best manipulate to their desires in the future. That should also be made clearer, although more or less hinted at, since they probably wouldn't admit to something like that but Classy would probably deduce anyway.

I'm not sure if I should say something like this, since it may or may not be spoiling possible development of Classy... so...

Spoiler: show

I have trouble believing Classy would blame himself for the departure of his siblings from the family line. If he didn't win, one of the others would have won and at least one of the other siblings would have had to leave anyway. It would be more logical to blame the system that forces the losers to leave the family... which may or may not be why Classy wanted to take over the tycoon, except he doesn't seem to put his focus on actually changing the rules. He simply tries to give his siblings their rights back in spite of what the rules did to them. On his siblings' side, it seems like a matter of pride that they won't accept his help or support, since they consider themselves (I'm guessing) overacheivers as well. The most likely solution to the problem would be... er... dismantling the tycoon or resigning. I doubt he would be able to approach his siblings as a social superior when they are family.

You mention that he is the type of character that would inspire other ponies to be good hearted ponies. This is admirable, but the way you have him setup makes the whole concept a bit... inflated.

First off, you mention he should be somepony who would inspire others to be the best they can despite the odds. The issue I have with that is Classy was never really the underdog, or at least I haven't been made aware of the extent of his struggles in learning the trade after winning the head of his family line. What would really help is if he had a mentor or someone to teach him the trade... or did his father fulfill that role before dying? It's hard for me to believe that even for a prodigy, he was in such a league of his own that he mastered the trade just by his own determination for revenge.

Secondly, he seems to like operating outside the scope of public view. Not too sure how anypony would know about the good deeds he's done... unless you're talking about the readers aspiring to him. Still, it would be a bit of a waste of his potential if a lot of his achievements went unnoticed or were credited to the wrong pony in the eyes of the public.

[Etherdrone]

Your bring some very fair points! Let me see if I can elaborate on them properly.

The Tycoon definitely wanted someone they could manipulate, but someone that was worthy of being the "face" of the family line to use as the voice of the business. You know, someone that was good at smiling, waving and talking at large events? As Classy stood out as a more competent social individual than his siblings, he was chosen to be their new puppet - although that plan of theirs clearly backfired. Lack of foresight, or simply not paying attention to how sharp-minded he was... regardless, it came back to haunt them in the end.

About the spoiling thing, you're not entirely wrong. Grace and Lux clearly have respect for Classy's monumental achievements, taking over the Tycoon and all, and they realize they wouldn't be able to do what he did. However, Grace believes Classy is belittling himself for trying to give them back their rights and thinks less of him for it. Lux believes that Classy is patronizing them like he believes him better than them, and thinks less of him for it. Both are definitely overachievers in their own rights, and that also serves to boost the distance between them. Pride about what they themselves managed to do, and so on.

The point being was, however, that Classy was the one chosen to stay and he (definitely because he was very young at the time) blames himself for it. It wasn't a system created by the family because it's tradition - it was basically a criminal act by those that wanted a pawn to keep their system intact. That was one of the reasons as to why Classy took over the Tycoon; so that kind of cruelty, for lack of a better word, never happens again. "If the Tycoon is broken like this, then I'll become the Tycoon and fix it the hard way". The other reason was definitely to give family rights back to his siblings, but that's not going very well.

Your final point is a very good and valid one. This is an issue that makes sense in retrospect, kind of. Let me see if I can explain. Spoiler alert, I probably can't!

Classy sponsors events all the time. For example, a terrible but cute jab at Equestria's lore that I gave (because it was funny and interesting) was that he sponsored Equestria's Rodeo Competition (The Last Roundup) as a charity event! Poor AJ, missing on the prize money... Of course, simply paying the winner some cashmoney was just a means to attract ponies there to have an event in the first place. Sponsorship alone did the rest for the charity itself.

When he spots fishy activities within businesses or similar things, he investigates the issue and sees if he can solve it without having to resort to more drastic measures. However, he feels that pressuring others with the pure weight of his family is something to be used sparingly, otherwise he will be reduced to nothing more than a silver-lining wearing tyrant, and that's not what he wants.

Thusly, he either hires help to "infiltrate" on the problem and see if they can solve it somehow, or he goes himself, but with another name as to hide his identity: wearing the name of Lucky instead.

Spoiler: This is an example, sort of. • show

...This is getting convoluted, let me give an example to make things less awkward. Say there's an animal parade event that he sponsored, but the owner of the event and animal handler has a shady history of strange overall behavior when partaking in these events. Say that he was bored and didn't have anything better to do, so he adopts the guise of Lucky and goes there as an agent of the sponsor, just to see how things are going. There, he gets to see firsthand that the animal handler isn't actually treating his animals very well, to the point of it being cruelty. Under Celestia's good sun, he believes that this behavior cannot continue for the sake of pure decency, thus he contacts somepony, so that this pony can invite ponies that would also see this, and feel compelled to release the animals. Think... Classy (as Lucky) contacts random agent Ace Swift so he may get in touch with Fluttershy to see the events firsthand. Of course she would free the animals, right? And if the owner of the pets would try to cause a scene, all Classy would have to do is blow his own cover!

It is a relatively background approach to the problem, and it exercises the decency of others to act. Granted, the example could possibly vary in many different ways, maybe the agent wouldn't even need to be contacted at all. Maybe some attendees of the parade would stumble upon the cruelty and confront Lucky about it. He'd probably say some vague things to compel the ponies to do the right thing... and if the owner of the pets would try to cause a scene, we all know what Classy would do. It's all part of being a chessmaster!

Um... think Yakumo Yukari, but less evil? If that makes any sense? It probably doesn't.

Anyway, let me escape this tangent by going into another. He was never the underdog, and that is... true. Succeeding against the odds might be something Classy doesn't need to do, although as you say, he wasn't on a league of his own to learn everything by himself, he definitely had teachers. His father showed him some things, so did his butler, who was a close family friend and relatively knowledgeable about life in general.

His manor had extensive libraries about many different subjects regarding the Tycoon, and private tutors taught him things as well. He didn't have a single, badass master of the business to teach him all he knows and then some, but he acquired experience from everyone around him and grew as a result instead. He had six years to learn, after all, and climbing slowly but surely, brought this little pony pretty far. That's kind of what makes his victory impressive? It might seem that way to me, but perhaps someone has good ideas...