Issen Nakoya

**Issen Nakoya** is a Lycan fire Weaver, and bastard son of Nenith noble, Bjorn Veneris. Taken in by his father once his weaving showed, Issen served as a war-mage to Nenith in the Esporian Independence War. Issen later served for Esporos against Nenith as a war-mage. After the Esporian Independence War, Issen moves to Nome with his girlfriend, Astrid Beauregard, to become a teacher at Kodras in Nome at the behest of Mikeal Quaashie.

## Description

### Appearance

Issen has black hair, piercing blue eyes, and a raking facial scar. His hair turns white around the full moon each month. Taking after his mother, Keshana Nakoya, Issen has always been shunned for his darker skin than his pure-blooded sister, Ariana Veneris. He stands shorter than most at 5 foot 5 inches. He has a lithe muscular figure.

While in Nenith and Esporos, Issen dressed in warmer clothes such as a long, military-style, fur-lined coat, gloves and boots. He carried a small short sword within the coat. At Ahnreik, Issen wears a mixture of scavenged clothes and lead shackles to absorb his void energy. He becomes much thinner and weak. At Ahnreik is also where Issen gained his facial werewolf scar.

At Nome, in the warmer climate, Issen opts for lighter white linen long-sleeve shirts to hide his bright leylines and simple pants.

### Personality

While in Nenith, Issen is defensive, snappy and eager to prove himself, due to his birth. Bullied throughout his schooling and training, Issen grew into a cold exterior to defend against anyone who would question him and comment on his background.

With Okelani, Issen becomes more open as he finds himself with people who don't comment on his heritage. He is charismatic and becomes very patriotic as one of Okelani's trusted advisors.

At Ahnreik, Issen is initially very stuck up and unused to physically hard work when he arrives. He is initially beaten up by some senior prisoners when he arrives due to his noble bearing, but is quickly left alone after he doesn't react. His attitude is quickly beaten out of him, and he becomes used to the dull repetition of work.

In the present, Issen is mostly reserved and offers advice only when necessary. To most, he seems cold, but Issen just doesn't want to bother with their opinions of him. As a teacher and a former rebel leader, Issen can give rousing speeches and hold attention when he wants it, but is also adept at deflecting attention away from him.

## Background

### **Early Life**

Born to a high-ranking advisor and soldier to the king, Bjorn Veneris, and a prostitute by the name of Keshana Nakoya from Grenia. He was always looked at with disdain from both his father and the rest of the court, and less favored over his pure-blood sister Ariana from Bjorn and his wife Katya. But his only saving grace to allow him pretty much to live is that he’s a void weaver. They don’t know where this bloodline comes from since with all the noble breeding, weaving has been pretty much non-existent for 20 years. That’s why Issen thinks he kept around. He is taught weaving by old weaving tutors outside of his strict schooling. He is good at weaving but becomes very defensive and snappy to any who will challenge him because of him struggling to prove his worth because of his heritage. He takes after his mother and the court doesn’t like his looks.

Issen is fast tracked through school and weaving instruction, as the war with Esporos is starting. He becomes a war-mage and is enlisted quickly into the military as a destruction force.

### **Protest for Grenia**

He becomes very attracted to a political group forming, headed by a warrior named Okelani who was said to have the blessings of the spirits. Issen rose through the group’s ranks to become trusted by Okelani before the group’s antics escalate. They are going to do a violent demonstration against the invasion of Grenia. Issen feels strongly for his mother’s homeland and also, he agrees with the group that racial discrimination is bad in the Empire. The demonstration goes poorly and leads to the destruction of lots of official buildings and the deaths of guards. The group scatters but the head honchos are rounded up. Okelani is executed but Issen is spared because of his father’s status. He is brought before the royal court and is put into disgrace. He is banished and sent to work in a supply coal mine for the rest of his life in Anhreik. They brand him with the traitor’s mark on arm and his father cuts him as a reminder of what he is to them and how he is an embarrassment to his reputation. En Route to Ahnreik, the caravan is attacked by werewolves, and Issen gets bitten. A support caravan from Ahnreik arrives and brings the prisoners to their destination.

### **Ahnreik Coal Mines**

Issen is initially very stuck up and unused to physically hard work when he arrives. His burn and his wounds also hinder him quite a lot. He is forced to wear lead shackles that absorb his connection to the Void energy. He struggles through it. It is also very cold, and they aren’t treated the best with food etc. He is also initially bullied by the older dudes because of his noble bearing but is mostly just alone. His attitude his quickly beaten out of him and he goes into the lull of work life after like a month. He’s there for 2 years and is skinny and hasn’t weaved in 2 years but no one really messes with him anymore, he’s just another part of life, surprisingly he still lives even though other have died easily around him. The rebels attack the supply camp, destroying it in the process. Prisoners and guards are taken prisoners by the rebels. The other prisoners quickly rat Issen out to be of noble blood even though he doesn’t really take to that identifier anymore. The rebel leaders bring him to them, confused why he’s here and not just executed. He tells them he’s banished and shows them the brand. They initially think he’s a spy somehow. Issen doesn’t really care what they think, he just hopes they don’t crush his hands and execute him.

### Esporian Rebellion

They realize that he’s the only young weaver born for like 20 years and they want to use his exceptional skills. Issen thinks it’s all a trap to just incriminate him for something, and plus he hasn’t, *he couldn’t* weave for 2 years. They keep him under close watch, and they set up their base of operations while slowly trying to get him to not be starving anymore. Issen thinks there must be a trick somewhere, expecting them to just kill him one of these days. But they continue to show him kindness, in hopes that he switches sides to help them. Astrid, daughter of the noble house of Beauregard from Oswia joins their cause. They bring Issen up to their war table one day, still in chains, but they sit him down and talk war in front of him. He can’t believe they would talk strategy in front of their biggest enemy. Issen nervously puts in his input for a bridge ambush and holding a key city of Aratku. They’re shocked he’s contributing against his nation, Issen disconnects the idea from himself to not draw attention. He has recovered quite a bit from starvation. They ask if he wants to finally help them with his knowledge of the Empire’s inside workings. Issen neither grunts in favor nor deny so they take it as a yes. And indeed, Issen becomes more helpful, in exchange, he gets the chains off but keeps the guards. Issen is still easily spooked and expects only self-degradation. His weaving makes surprising recovery, and he gains more trust, losing the guards from himself. He still doesn’t speak a lot, but his words are highly valued in the war room where he spends most of his time studying maps anyways. He still is gaunt and has shaggy hair, but at least his arms are lean and defined. His hands seem to have this permanent slightly black tint from the coal mines and the brand stands stark against his brown skin. He’s been with them for 4 months. There is pressure on the war, and they move to Aratku to fully secure it after a successful siege a month prior. Issen sleeps on the ramparts, being the only ample weaver to defend it. Aratku is attacked in the night and they scramble to defend it. In the chaos, lots of the city wall is destroyed but they take Jorah, son of the King captive, problem is they also take Issen captive. They are at a standstill at Aratku for a week while messengers go to both sides. The King agrees to a permanent truce with the Esporians in return for his son, Aratku and Anhreik back. They agree and want Issen back and also, they mark their claim.

Issen is held in the deepest dungeons of Frostholm, made for weavers. There, he meets with Petra Roth as an interest of hers, but ultimately refuses her offers.

It is surprisingly easy when it came down to the hostage exchange. Both sides withdraw to their capitals and look ahead to the long journey of licking their wounds. They care for Issen back in Kinburg and it’s easy to see he’s regressed a bit after being held in Empire hands again, and having his void energy messed up again. But he has plenty of time to recover and Astrid has also been getting an eye for him. To distract him, they have Issen write lots of letters and official papers (also partly because he’s the only one who can write properly other than Astrid), but it gives him purpose. It’s a tough first year of setting everything up for the country, but it seems ok for now and the people he thinks are just happy to be alive and are surprised it worked. Issen is happy for his comrades but doesn’t exactly feel like he belongs still.

### Recovery and Teaching at Nome

In hopes of finding himself and finding other people to relate to, Issen decides to travel to Souji Slax, where apparently the origin of weaving was from. Astrid decides to go with him. Issen studied some Elderspeak with his tutors and Astrid knows Common, so she does a lot of the translating further south. They make it to Yokanabe, where Issen is shocked with the level of Void energy in the air. They spend time there, but don’t go anywhere near the fortress on the mountain overlooking the sacred site. They meet another person at the site named Jack, but he’s not a weaver, he just likes the feeling of the place. Issen disagrees, but only mentions it to Astrid how scary the place feels. Jack offers that they should come back to Nome with him to see the Chief Lector and the weaving school since Issen wants to find others like him. Issen now hopes to become a teacher at Kodras. But first arriving at the city Issen must build a reputation. He works as closely to weavers as he can, as an assistant an academic shop by the school. They rent a little space for them in the corner of town. Astrid works as a nurse at the hospital. Eventually Issen is summoned by the Chief Lector himself, claiming that he had felt Issen arrive in town just by the presence of his aura alone. He questions why he’s here. Mikeal sees the brand, as Issen recounts his story and shares that he wishes to become a teacher. Mikeal informs him that he’s in luck as a position for physical weaving just opened as someone had retired at old age at Kodras. Issen is shocked at his luck before sharing that he’s not quite back to full potential of weaving because of his suppressant history. Mikeal doesn’t seem to mind. He asks for Issen’s surname, which up till now he had dropped his father’s surname ever since being banished. Issen then chooses to use his mother’s surname—Nakoya. Issen then falls into his new life of teaching weaving students (Professor Nakoya) and living with Astrid. He eventually becomes the youngest member to sit at the Souji Council, with glowing recommendation from Mikeal.

## Relationships

### Bjorn Veneris

Issen had a tight relationship with his father, only being kept around for his weaving abilities. Any role of a child was taken over by Ariana. The only action of pity Bjorn had towards Issen was sparing his life, but otherwise, discarding him from his life.