Hank Crispin

Hank Crispin was the husband of Maryanne Crispin and the father of Robert Crispin.

Appearance
Hank was tall and had broad shoulders. He had the same eyes as Robert Crispin as well as the same square jaw. He had thin, gray hair, monolid eyes, and a thin mustache. In order to walk, he always used a long, wooden cane. Robert described him as intimidating.

Personality
He was stern and cold, rarely showing his son or wife any affection. He was quick to anger and spent most of his time building model boats. He only shows any warmth when speaking of his time in the navy, which he seems to recall with great fondness.

History
Hank's maternal and paternal grandparents lived in a small mountain village in North Wu. They left for Estines when the threat of religious persecution became clear with the new emperor. All four of his grandparents escaped together with his father who was seven and his mother who was three. His grandparents wrote Crispin on their documents instead of their Wu surname in an attempt to assimilate.

Like many Doran men, Hank signed up for the military, choosing the navy branch despite the conditions being far worse than the army or the military police due to his love of boats. However, he was only able to serve for four years before getting injured and honorably discharged. This injury is why he has to use a cane to walk.

Robert claimed Hank couldn't find a wife due to his injury, terrible personality, mediocre looks, and presumed infertility. He was likely only able to Maryanne due to his parents paying her parents for her hand in marriage. She was seventeen when they wed while he was thirty-nine. Their marriage was never particularly happy, with Maryanne wanting children and a loving husband while Hank didn't really want to be married at all, knowing his infertility would damper his marriage.

Five years after getting married, Maryanne told Hank he was pregnant which he didn't believe, immediately accusing her of cheating. Although she denied it, he didn't believe her until the baby was born and saw they had the same eyes. Hank declared Robert was a miracle.

Initially, Hank seemed happy to have a son, but overtime he once again grew dethatched and him and Maryanne began arguing again. When Maryanne began tutoring Robert and raising him intensely to be a future general, he didn't seem to notice or care.

At Robert's military graduation, Hank smiled as his son was announced to be one of the officers in his class. He also patted his son on the back when Robert had served five years, allowing Maryanne to remove her armband.

Shortly after this, though, Robert suddenly got sick and quickly found himself on his deathbed. In his final moments, tears began to stream down his face while he looked at Robert. He said I'm sorry to his son, and when Robert asked what for, he simply said everything before dying.