-blonde hair, red eyes, sharp features -broad shoulders, tall, lean muscular build -always wearing imperial regalia like intricate suits with long sleeves that hide injuries and dark colors that hide bloodstains -always has some sort of weapon on him -uses fancy, elaborate words (terrifying instead of scary, amusing instead of funny, etc etc, says 'do not' instead of don't, 'cannot' instead of can't, etc) -runs extremely cold, constantly freezing -highly volatile -cold, deeply paranoid, hyper-vigilant crown prince -his serious, deattached personality hides something raw, aching, and desperate -born to the Emperor's first wife (the Empress) -the emperor never loved his mother in the first place and grew to resent her, ultimately killing her himself when Ruei was three, and he doesn't even remember her -his father didn't really like Ruei either, completely abandoning him emotionally and politically -the Emperor took a second wife, the Empress Consort (from the powerful Ellen family), and favored her and their new son, the Second Prince -as a kid, Ruei possessed a kind, innocent side. He genuinely loved his younger half-brother (the Second Prince) and wanted to be a good sibling. when he was seven, he tried to become friends with his half-brother but his half-brother laughed at him and pushed him down the stairs, ending with him getting a scar on the edge of his forehead that's still there today -when he was fourteen, he was poisoned and walked to his bedroom without a single sound, collapsing in his bed and coughing blood -empress consort saw Ruei an obstacle that needed to be removed -in his entire youth, they launched constant, ruthless assassination attempt against him, beating him half to death every single day -he basically only survived through sheer willpower -he doesn't have any gaurds or entourages -he lives in a small, bare room barely the size of the servants quarters -after surviving a big assassination attempt orchestrated by his stepmother's relatives, his mind shattered -realized that anyone around him could be a spy or an assassin, forcing him to erase his own innocence just to stay alive -to prevent his enemies from ever sensing a vulnerability, Ruri made a persona of unhinged, violent unpredictability -conditioned himself to immediately draw his sword at the slightest hint of danger -his aggressive demeanor is entirely a survival mechanism built to endure a court that desperately wanted him dead -completely touch-starved, even by his own hand -no experience in romance whatsoever, mostly because he has a habit of maiming people who get within 20 feet of him 😂