Carmine Steel

"" —Carmine, to Releroth, about the rules of engagement

Carmine Steel is the main protagonist of CVRN. Carmine's weapon of choice is his Dual-Dagger Crossbow Sword (DDCS) known as Gwyn Blade.

Appearance
Carmine is a tall male, with a muscular build and short black hair. He is a Faunus, but like his uncle, is not easily identifiable as one as his only Faunus traits are his yellow, cat-like eyes and retractable claws. His body contain all manners of scars from years of surviving Grimm attacks on his village.

Carmine wears a black coat that reaches his thighs. He wears a grey shirt with a red hood that he keeps up most of the time. He also wears long brown pants with black strap on pockets, a red belt, dull grey metallic greaves and black boots. On his right hand, Carmine wears a brown glove. On his left hand, Carmine wears a metallic gauntlet known as Omen.

Personality
At first glance, Carmine seems to be calm, reserved and quiet. He keeps to himself when not in the company of anyone familiar. Despite his outwardly cold nature, behind his exterior lies a fiercely loyal friend and a person of good humour. Carmine is also shown at times to be adept at calming intense and sometimes bleak situations. He acts on impulse, and does things instinctively. He is also shown to be resourceful, good at improvising, seeing the whole picture of the environment around him with attention to detail and using it to his advantage. In this way, he can formulate short term plans on the spot, a skill contributing to his position as team leader. He does not fare very well at long term planning though and leaves this aspect to Roth. He likes it when life surprises him and doesn't see the benefit of having a long term plan if life is unpredictable by nature.

He is also shown to be observant, seeing the strengths and weaknesses in his team mates. He also doesn't believe that every weakness in inherently useless. Carmine also cares deeply for his friends and will go out of his way to help them whenever they need help, another trait making him an effective leader. Carmine also has a firm sense of moral justice, a trait he obtained from the way he was raised by his parents. Because he was raised in a secluded village and trained to fight Grimm for most of his life, he never had the time and exposure to regular society to develop or recognize the reactions to mundane experiences. This can lead to him displaying a lack of social grace and speaking without thinking. Despite being brought up in a dangerous environment, he is also shown to be an optimist and idealist, but also can see the reality in situations and believes that with a little hope and resilience, anything can be overcome. When in combat, he maintains absolute discipline and focus and fights with blind abandon, sensing absolutely no pain.

Due to a lifetime of surviving and training to fight against the Grimm, Carmine and the people of his village have extensive knowledge of the Grimm, types of Grimm, strengths and weaknesses of the Grimm. Therefore, he can analyse the situation quickly when Grimm are involved and immediately formulate the best strategy to fight them. This makes him an extremely valuable member of the team. After his family moved to the Kingdom of Vale, Carmine spent an extensive amount of his spare time in his uncle's bookshop reading up on Grimm, mastering both the theory and practice of fighting Grimm. He eventually got interested in other genres of books which jump-started his interest in reading. Carmine also has an interest in weapons and often inquires about them and their owners' effective fighting style. He is also shown to be very patient and often meditates when he has nothing else to do.

Background
Carmine was born to Shamry Auburn and Rosso Steel, who were large group of travelling nomads in Vale that originated from Vacuo, his mother being the group's healer and his father, an ex-Huntsman who was dedicated to protecting the group from Grimm and bandits. Not long after he was born, so was his sister, then his brother. By the time he was 7 years old, the group had become so large that they needed a place to settle down, and so they made a village in a large abandoned fortress in the mountains of Vale, away from the prying eyes of the world. Years in the village were spent defending against Grimm attacks and training to fight Grimm, but it was easier than life on the road. Carmine also went hunting with his father and brother to provide food for the village. He led a very simple life, and was very close with his fellow villagers.

However, when Carmine was 16, the village was overrun by Grimm and the survivors of the attack had to relocated of the coastal cities south of the city of Vale. A few members of the village decided to move to the city of Vale. His uncle, who split off from the village years ago, was also staying in Vale, and even owned a bookshop there. Carmine's family made several visits to Vale, and Carmine and his siblings went there more often than not. While visiting Vale, Carmine heard stories about Beacon Academy, the training that went on there, and the Huntsman that graduated from there. After training in combat with his father for a year, when Carmine was 17 years old, he took the entrance exam to enter Beacon and did very well despite not having transcripts as he had not gone to combat schools such as Signal, relying instead on his years of survival skills and training from his father. After the entrance exam, he was accepted into Beacon Academy.

History
When Carmine first arrives at Beacon Academy, he spent the first few minutes wandering around. Unable to find the Ampitheatre, Carmine climbed onto one of the tall aesthetic pillars in the school to find out where it was. He located the Ampitheatre when he saw a gathering of students walking toward a large entrance, including Releroth Ravenest. When he was up there, he noticed Vermilion Forest dragging his suitcase in the opposite direction and decided to investigate.