Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro, Roscuro for short, is a rat unlike the others of his kind. He loves the light and is less vicious, sadistic and cunning than the other rats, for the vast majority of the time.

History
Chiaroscuro is born innocent among the evil rats of the castle dungeon some years before Despereaux. Because of a match-related reprimand from the jailer, Roscuro does not act like a rat, afraid of light. He comes to be fascinated by light and goodness, despite objections from fellow rats. However, his love of light is what causes him to make a grave mistake in the human world, landing in the Queen's soup. The Queen consumes some of the soup, then realises there is a rat in her meal. She is so shocked and disgusted that she dies right there, causing great grief for the royal family. This incident resulted in his plot to take revenge on the humans by kidnapping the princess. Through out his life, Botticelli urged him to be evil like other rats, and, most of the time, Roscuro does this. In the end, it is through the actions of Despereaux and the princess, and Roscuro's own true love for light that he finds his self-redemption.

Personality
At the start of the book, Roscuro was urged and influenced to be bad, and so he soon was, manipulating ands bullying. Toward the end of the book, Roscuro is a kind and caring rat who adores the light. Roscuro is quite friendly, so he soon makes friends with Despereaux. But, as said in the book, broken hearts never fully mend, so Roscuro was never purely happy and whole.