Gavino Lionetti was the fourth son of a Skingaardian merchant named Gennaro Lionetti and his second wife Sofia. The Lionetti family was a modest family that had long been producing servants for the ruling house of Skingaard, house Kiraric. While the Lionetti family had eventually branched into the mercantile business, they had their start as a lineage of servants to House Kiraric, and maintained the tradition of sending many of their sons and daughters to House Kiraric to serve in whatever fashion the Royal Family would see fit (hey, it was a good way for a common family to find good jobs for their kids). This was to be Gavino's fate, as he was sent to the Kirarics at the tender age of seven to train with his uncle Raffaele Lionetti, who was already a Knight in service to House Kiraric. Gavino spent a few years as an errand boy, stableboy, and (more or less) a page, before Raffaele officially took him as a Squire and began to train him in the ways of Knighthood.
Gavino proved well-suited to the skills of Knighthood, eagerly absorbing the lessons that Sir Raffaele taught him. He served his uncle faithfully for several years, even fighting alongside him on voyages where he had been assigned to guard them when they came under pirate attack. Gavino was blooded early, and thanks to Raffaele aggressively seeking opportunities for real combat, he saw much more of it during his training than many squires of Skingaard, in addition to the usual lessons on etiquette and heraldry and all the other Knightly skills one was expected to have. During this time, he also picked up a love of dancing, as well as some degree of skill in playing the fiddle. Aside from a notable knack for swordsmanship, Gavino became quite accustomed to watching Raffaele's back, and his alertness and sharp-eyes saved his life several times in tight skirmishes with pirates and raiders. By the time he reached the age of 20, he was well and truly ready to take on the mantle of knighthood. Dynast Orsino Kiraric himself witnessed his skills, and knighted him. Gavino's family was proud, and managed to pull together enough money for his arms, armor and horse, but this was only the beginning of the story.
Gavino soon started to make a name for himself at the frequent tournaments held across Skingaard, proving not only a capable hand with a sword after winning several such contests, but quite a draw for the ladies given that he'd grown into a rather spectacularly handsome young man. While Gavino was not adverse to the attention, he remained mindful of the mores of Skingaard, and was careful to avoid any undue attentions from women of noble birth. Much like his Uncle, he would fairly frequently be called upon to guard noble personages (often cousins of the main Kiraric line) on journeys across the sea or land. Occasionally these assignments saw him do battle against pirates (on sea) and more rarely other knights or bodyguards, when Gavino would be called upon to protect or champion his charges. The life of a mildly-renowned tourney knight and bodyguard might have been the extent of it, if it had not been for a twist of fate that brought him to the attention of the royal family.
During one of the largest annual tournaments, held in the capital of Manau, the youngest Prince of House Kiraric, Amando, had slipped away from his guards, somehow managed to find himself in common garb (or at least garb well beneath his station) and attempted to untie and drive away the horses of a commoner Knight he had overheard making disparaging remarks about his elder sister, Karissa. While the Horses did indeed stampede away, Amando didn't quite manage to remain on board, and soon found himself surrounded by a very angry knight and a couple of his friends, who did not seem inclined to believe Amando, garbed as he was, when he claimed he was a Prince of House Kiraric. Gavino happened to hear the commotion, arriving just in time to see the Knight getting ready to draw steel on the young Prince. Gavino -did- recognize Amando (having been around House Kiraric for much of his career), and threw himself into the situation immediately, and though his first effort was to try to talk the Knight and his two friends down and explain who Amando was, their rage overtook them and they pressed the attack. It was a dangerous battle, as all the combatants were armed but unarmored, but it proved a short one…in less than a minute, the first knight was dead and the other two had fled. Gavino brought Amando back to the company of his guards, who had arrived just in time to see the tail end of the fight. The ultimate result was that Gavino was sentenced to a flogging for unsanctioned dueling…and then promptly inducted into the Royal Guard of House Kiraric.
It seemed Gavino's time with Amando was not yet over, either, as he was promptly assigned to the protection of the impulsive young Prince. Fortunately, after just a couple years of narrowly managing to keep Amando from pain and misfortune, Amando was sent to one of the loyal noble houses of Skingaard to be trained as a squire. Gavino did accompany him, not only as a friend and bodyguard, but to help train him in swordsmanship and the arts of combat. Still, while Amando was on his (relatively) best behavior during his training, his stubborn nature and hot temper still meant that he tended to find trouble from time-to-time, and Gavino soon gained another reputation: That of a fearsome duelist, as he was often called upon to act as the young Prince's champion. Eventually, Amando's father decided to send the young Prince after his sister, Karissa, in Mobrin, to better assess the situation and determine whether it was safe for her to remain there. Gavino faithfully traveled along with him, ready to do his duty, but also quietly dreading just how much trouble his young charge could end up getting into in a foreign land.
