People usually assumed Clopin Trouillefou was an only child, the eldest child, the eldest son, or the only son of his family, a reasonable assumption considering his place as Gypsy King. But the truth was very different: he was the youngest of three sons, number four out of five children. His family situation was very different from what many assumed it to be, his arrogance to some would indicate an only child, his energetic, mischievous nature was more typical of a middle child. He was the younger of twin sons, born breech six hours after his brother, a difficult birth for the slim waif that was his mother, hence the reason his father had always told him he was trouble from the moment of his birth. The six hour difference meant he and his twin had two different birthdays, the older twin being born at 6pm on the 30th of October, Clopin being born on the very stroke of midnight on the 31st, an ill omen for as superstitious a man as Adriel Trouillefou. Adriel himself was not full Romani, but few were aware of it and none knew how pure his blood was or was not. His mother had been a beautiful woman with royal blue eyes and red-brown hair, Gypsy by nature if not by blood. There was always some question as to her lineage, no one knew if she was half-Gypsy or a foundling taken in by her tribe or really what her story was. All anyone knew for sure was that she came from a tribe local to Orleans, her maiden name was Vaillant, and that she married the leader of the Parisian tribe, a man most knew only as Trouillefou. Together they'd had five children: Magdalena, Adriel, Gaia, Bexhet (pronounced Beh-jet), and Rene.
Adriel had been a boy of eighteen when his father died at the hands of the hangman and had taken his father's place as Gypsy King, presiding over the hideaway his father had found and dubbed the Court of Miracles. His mother had always hated Paris and so returned to Orleans and her maiden name after her husband's death, her younger sons going with her. Magdalena had settled among a tribe in Spain where she acted as herbalist and healer while Gaia took up the same position in the Court. Their younger brother was an odd one, always venturing between Paris and Orleans, known by two different names. In Paris, he was known by his full name Moses Bexhet Corin Trouillefou, but in Orleans, he was Bexhet Vaillant. Only those related to him had the privilege of addressing him by Moses, a name chosen by his mother because he'd been born among the reeds at the river's edge on a hot summer day when she'd decided to take quick dip to cool off. His preferred name was Bexhet, but to Clopin he was "Nonc," a moniker that came about by the boy's difficulty in saying "mon oncle." He was dark-skinned with black hair and eyes much like his older brother's, both sisters inherited their father's dark Gypsy features except Gaia's eyes were sky blue, her hair thick and waving. The youngest, Rene, inherited his mother's red-brown hair and fair skin, but shared his brothers' black eyes, Magdalena sharing most of her father's dark features save that her eyes were brown rather than black.
Giselle was a slim, beautiful woman with crystal blue eyes, her waving black hair kept loose, the oldest daughter of a large family of her own that was said to have descended from Egyptian and Hebrew roots, though they were themselves mostly Romani. Her younger sister, Yocheved, had converted to Judaism when she wed a Jewish man, and was devout to her faith. She and her three children were the only members of Giselle's family that Clopin and his siblings had ever met for reasons their mother had never divulged. Giselle had been pregnant when Adriel met her, the father being a fellow Rom who'd been slain by so-called Gypsy-hunters, but so deeply had the Gypsy King fallen for her that he readily married her, vowing to raise the child as his own. The child was born a year before Adriel's first, a son she named Cassim, a son Adriel looked after as his own but did not see as a legitimate heir since the boy was not his blood. Adriel's and Giselle's first child was Maurice Rumen, first in line to take his father's place as king, followed four years later by Lynette Aimee, their first daughter and mother hen of her younger siblings. Five years later, Giselle gave birth to their twin sons, Darien Kalderasha and Clopin Kandala, who most take for identical twins but were likely fraternal twins. Five years after the twins, their younger daughter and last child was Megara Carolina, a headstrong, independent girl with a passion for everything Greek.
Now, most people always had difficulty telling the twin boys apart, but there were clear differences to those sharp enough to spot them: Darien's skin was a shade darker than Clopin's and where Clopin's eye were black, Darien's were brown. The best way to differentiate was much simpler: Darien's earring was worn in his right ear and Clopin's in his left, though later on Darien did pierce his left as well. Clopin picked up his father's accent, while Darien did not, though their voices sounded exactly alike and Darien could expertly mimic the accent. The two were naturally thick as thieves in every sense of the term, often finishing each other's sentences and always seemed to know what each other was thinking. Darien, in the early days of his youth, had usually been able to read Clopin's thoughts, until Clopin learned to block his mind, not to keep his brother out, but to block out things he realized he could see or sense but others did not. In their early childhood, they always caught the same cold, but while Darien only ever had a sniffle and cough, Clopin's usually turned into a fever that left him bedridden. The healers always told Adriel and Giselle that in all likelihood, Clopin wouldn't survive childhood, being the weaker, smaller of the twins. However, as they grew older, Clopin grew stronger and outgrew his childhood maladies, eventually coming to be the same height and weight as Darien. Despite that, Adriel still put little stock into his more troublesome son, assuming that the illnesses that had plagued him would've left his heart too weak to ever withstand the strain of being King.
Clopin, though bearing a strong resemblance to him, had never been particularly close to his father and later on even felt some lingering resentment. Adriel being the tribal leader and a provider for his family usually had a lot on his mind and precious little time to spend with his family. What little time he could get was usually spent grooming Maurice and Darien to take his place, often leaving Clopin to his own devices, which is probably why he got into so much trouble. It often seemed the only time Adriel went out of his way to make time for his youngest son was when word of Clopin's exploits reached his ears and he saw fit to beat some sense into him. For the day and age, Adriel was far from abusive, but that didn't mean Clopin was spared corporal punishment, far from it in fact with the trouble he stirred up. The first few times his father raised his hand to him, Clopin had cried which only seemed to frustrate Adriel further.
"A king does not cry, Clopin!" he snapped, "Tears are a sign of weakness! And a king must be anything but. Your people must never see such weakness or they will never respect you."
"Umm, Papa," Clopin returned, "then why do you always say you weep for me?"
One exasperated sigh and backhand later, Adriel stalked off, rubbing his temples and complaining of a headache while Clopin just stood there rubbing his sore cheek. Unfortunately, Clopin never did quite learn to think before running his mouth off.
Adriel died when Clopin was in his early twenties, his two brothers were away, enjoying the freedom of the open road, leaving Clopin to step up and take charge of the Court. Word of their father's execution was sent out to his siblings and naturally they all returned to Paris to bid their last farewell before turning to the affairs of their people. A king must make many sacrifices for his people, not least of all being his own desires and freedom. It was not a sacrifice many people could make, so when both of his older brothers stepped down from their rightful place, Clopin neither blamed nor envied them. He loved Paris and any time he'd opted to leave, it was never for more than a few weeks and rarely ever beyond France herself, but Maurice and Darien preferred traveling far and wide, they couldn't bring themselves to give up their freedom to be tied down in so dangerous a city as Paris. So Clopin did and rarely did he ever ask himself what his father would do, he'd watched his father run the Court his entire life, had learned by observing what to do and what not to do. So it was that the scrawny, sickly little son that Adriel deemed unworthy of taking his place came to earn his place as King of the Gypsies.