Joshua Dùghlas LeTreis, known as the Jovial King and the Hidden Fox of the South, is a Sixth Age king of Atlania who inherits a realm weakened by centuries of decline, factional strain, and foreign pressure. Groomed for kingship since childhood, Joshua is well educated, politically experienced, and far shrewder than his outward manner suggests. By the time he rules, age has begun to touch him earlier and more visibly than is usual for Atlanians, giving him the appearance of a slightly doddering, pudgy, aging monarch. Rather than resist this impression, Joshua uses it. He hides a sharp strategic mind behind warmth, harmlessness, distraction, and the image of an old man fussing over details.

Joshua’s reign is defined by restoration. He must work around the competing forces of Atlanian royalty, the grand consul, and Stanzgarian interests while maintaining the illusion that Atlania remains as strong, stable, and independent as it has always claimed to be. His politics require patience, misdirection, and careful pressure rather than bold conquest. He is canny, foxlike, and deeply attentive to minutia, keeping track of small matters others dismiss until those details become leverage. His fondness for war games, miniature soldiers, and full-scale strategic exercises is more than a pastime; it reflects how his mind works. Joshua sees the kingdom as a board full of moving pieces, hidden threats, exposed flanks, and opportunities disguised as trivia.

Unlike more dramatic Atlanian kings, Joshua does not need to look heroic to be dangerous. His small beard, balding light auburn hair touched with gray, dull green eyes, and age-softened body make him easy for rivals to misread. He seems jovial, fussy, and perhaps past his prime, but beneath that façade is a brilliant statesman and strategist trying to rebuild Atlania without provoking the forces that would rather control, divide, or quietly inherit it. His weakness is that he can become lost in details, chasing minor threads too deeply, but this same habit also allows him to see patterns others miss. Joshua is a king of ledgers, maps, rumors, toy armies, polite smiles, and concealed knives: not the strongest man in the room, but often the one who knows where every door, debt, and weakness lies.

The Jovial King, Hidden fox of the south

King of Atlania (in the 6th age)

in his 60s

Male

Joshua wears a small beard, neatly kept but modest, suiting the image of a genial older king rather than a grand warrior-monarch. It helps soften his face and supports the harmless, slightly doddering persona he often presents in public. Like much of Joshua’s appearance, the beard is easy to underestimate: mild, tidy, and unthreatening at first glance, but part of the careful mask worn by a canny ruler who prefers people to notice his age before they notice his mind.

Joshua keeps his hair short, but age has left it thinning and balding, especially toward the crown and front. He does not try too hard to disguise it, which helps support the image of a harmless, aging king more concerned with maps, ledgers, and miniature soldiers than vanity. What remains of his hair is usually kept tidy and practical, brushed into place without much flourish. The style suits his public mask: slightly old, slightly soft, and easy to dismiss, while the sharp mind beneath remains carefully hidden.

Joshua’s hair is light auburn, though age has threaded it with visible gray. The color likely once had more warmth and life to it, but by his sixties it has faded into something softer, thinner, and more weathered. The gray helps sell the image of the Jovial King as a harmless aging monarch, especially in a culture where Atlanians often remain youthful-looking well into later life. On Joshua, the early signs of age become part of his disguise: he looks older, gentler, and less dangerous than he truly is, allowing the Hidden Fox of the South to keep his sharpest thoughts safely behind a tired smile.

6'

180

Joshua’s most noticeable identifying trait is that age has begun to show on him earlier than expected for an Atlanian. While many Atlanians remain strikingly youthful into their seventies and only begin aging rapidly closer to one hundred, Joshua already carries visible signs of age in his sixties: thinning hair, gray at the edges, softer features, a slightly tired face, and a body losing its old firmness. This makes him stand out among the royal court, where age is usually easier to hide for longer. Joshua turns this into part of his public mask, allowing others to see a harmless, aging monarch while missing the sharp, foxlike mind still working behind his dull green eyes.

Joshua has a pudgy, age-softened build that stands in sharp contrast to the tall, fit, martial image many Atlanians expect from their kings. At six feet tall and around one hundred eighty pounds, he still has the frame of an Atlanian nobleman, but years of court life, strategy tables, paperwork, and limited exercise have softened him. This physical decline is especially noticeable because Atlanians usually retain a youthful vigor well into their seventies before aging more rapidly closer to one hundred. Joshua uses this to his advantage; his softer body and harmless old-man manner make enemies underestimate him, mistaking a lack of physical sharpness for a lack of political danger.

Joshua has dark tanned skin, fitting his southern Atlanian heritage and giving him a warmer, more grounded appearance even as age begins to soften the rest of his features. The depth of his tan contrasts with his thinning light auburn hair, gray strands, dull green eyes, and increasingly age-worn face, making him look both distinctly Atlanian and unusually weathered for his people. Though he is no longer especially active, his complexion still carries the old southern coloring of his line, helping preserve a little of the vitality his body is beginning to lose. It also strengthens the image of the Jovial King: sun-warmed, approachable, and harmless-looking, while the Hidden Fox behind the smile quietly watches everything.

Atlanian

dull green

few apparent prejudices

age is starting to hit Joshua

Joshua hides a shrewd leader’s mind behind the façade of a cheerful, slightly doddering old king. He smiles easily, chats warmly, fusses over small details, and lets others believe he has wandered off topic when he is actually gathering information or steering a conversation. He may pause to talk about his parakeet, toy soldiers, old war games, or some minor administrative detail, only for the person speaking with him to realize too late that Joshua has been testing their patience, honesty, or ignorance the entire time. His movements are slower than a younger king’s and his manner can seem harmlessly distracted, but his dull green eyes miss very little. Around rivals, he uses warmth as camouflage; around trusted friends, the mask drops enough to reveal the careful, foxlike strategist beneath.

Joshua is motivated by the restoration of Atlania after several centuries of decline. He wants to rebuild the kingdom’s strength, stability, and dignity without revealing too openly how fragile it has become. Much of his reign is spent balancing hostile or competing powers: Atlanian royals, the grand consul, Stanzgarian interests, and internal factions that would gladly take advantage of weakness if they saw it clearly. Joshua’s goal is not conquest or glory, but recovery. He wants Atlania to survive long enough to become truly strong again, and he is willing to play the harmless old king, lose himself in details, and move pieces quietly across the board until the realm has room to breathe.

Joshua’s greatest flaw is that he tends to get lost in the details of things, sometimes chasing small threads, minor reports, personal habits, supply figures, court rumors, or administrative oddities long past the point where others think they matter. This habit often serves him well, because tiny details frequently reveal larger patterns, but it can also slow his decisions and make him seem more distracted than strategic. He may spend too much time refining a plan, testing a suspicion, or arranging pieces on the board when faster action would be wiser. His foxlike caution also means he can become overly comfortable with indirect methods, preferring misdirection and quiet manipulation even when plain authority might solve the matter more cleanly.

Joshua is a brilliant strategist and statesman, with a rare talent for seeing how small details connect into larger political patterns. He keeps track of the minutia of Atlania obsessively: taxes, troop placements, noble grudges, trade figures, staffing changes, foreign interests, court rumors, and tiny shifts in public mood. What seems like old-man fussiness is often careful intelligence gathering, allowing him to spot weakness, opportunity, or betrayal before others realize anything has changed. He is also gifted at war games, both miniature and full scale, using them not merely for amusement but to test plans, study personalities, and train his mind to manage complicated conflicts without revealing his true intentions too early.

Joshua loves war games, both miniature and full scale, and treats them as equal parts hobby, study, and quiet political exercise. His favorite possessions are his tiny army men, which he uses to recreate old battles, test hypothetical campaigns, and think through the balance of power within Atlania. To outsiders, this can look like an aging king amusing himself with toys, which suits Joshua perfectly. In truth, his games help him sharpen strategy, study logistics, observe how others solve problems, and disguise serious military thought beneath harmless recreation. Even at leisure, Joshua is still moving pieces on a board.

Joshua is canny, foxlike, jovial, and deliberately easy to underestimate. He presents himself as a warm, aging, slightly distracted king, but beneath that harmless surface is a patient strategist with an excellent memory for details and weaknesses. He is not bold in the way of warrior-kings, nor cold in the way of harsher rulers; his strength lies in misdirection, patience, and making others reveal more than they meant to. Joshua enjoys appearing harmless because it lets him work quietly around stronger, louder, and more antagonistic forces. At his core, he is a restoration king: pleasant in manner, sharp in judgment, and always playing a longer game than he admits.

Harisa

his pet parakeet

Long sword

his tiny army men

Honeydew

King of Atlania

Joshua has to try and work around the antagonistic forces of the Atlanian royalty, grand consul, and Stanzgarian interests while maintaining the appearance that Atlania is still as strong as it has always been

Atlanian Mysticism

Mid Rainy Season

he has been groomed to be king since childhood

Well educated

A Parakeet from Valarna