Rheyk Shilamizane

**Race**
 **Place of Birth**
 **Occupation**

## Early Life

Rheyk Shilamizane was born in the Lyvank mountains three years after Rain Silves was born in the north. A very free-spirited and independent individual even in his childhood and adolescence, he was the partial consternation of his parents and the worry and scorn of the village elders, who had no way to deal with him and what he might do. He chose most often to visit the woods alone, where he taught himself how to carve and build, making himself a boat that he often carried up the mountain to row down the river, teaching himself how to master the raging white waters and rapids. He never really interacted much with his peers, preferring to be out and in the natural world of the Eltus forests surrounding his home to the wrestling, games, and other social things the other children preferred to do. As such, while he was not entirely hated, he was mostly looked down on - though a large part of that was due to the fact that he never grew above five feet in height. This meant he was a full foot shorter than the average adult agudner, which was something people often spoke about behind his back. Instead of attending classes with his peers, he found himself a tutor in the form of a eastern sergal who had been living in the mountains. The chief elders often blamed her for influencing Rheyk into being as independently-thinking as he was.

## Young Adult

When he was 7 (15 in earth years,) Rheyk was sent to a private tutor - an eastern living in a nearby cavern named Nashiea, who took it on herself to teach him all she knew about the world - history, philosophy, mathematics, sciences, etc. Rheyk was a quick learner and quickly advanced on to more difficult subjects - politics, higher mathematics, engineering, etc. He was happy with Nashiea as his mentor, and flourished under her tutelage.

However, at home, things continued to worsen. The other villagers became more and more wary, if not downright hostile towards Rheyk for standing apart and continuing to be far too individualistic and independent for him to fit in with the others. The elders continued to worry not only for Rheyk's safety, but everyone else's as well as at some points, things very nearly turned violent in regards to the short agudner. Things came to a head as he reached adulthood. He was celebrating his coming of age with his parents and tutor, when a mob stormed their home burned it down, very nearly killing everyone inside. The chief elders bring Rheyk to them and tell him he must leave Calisthemne for a while, to let people calm down. With the terrible knowledge that he was the one at the epicenter of his parents' home's destruction, he left Calisthemne without a word to either his parents or his tutor.

## Travel to Gold Ring

Travelling for days on end, Rheyk did not stop moving around until he finally came upon Gold Ring. As luck would have it, he finds lodging with a northern sergal who has moved south to form a new life for herself. Finding himself a small job as an assistant for a bartender nearby, he begins to make for himself a life in Gold Ring. While he is largely unnoticed, at least he is not hated, and he finds himself some friends. When Rheyk turns 20, he decides to risk a trip home to Calisthemne. For by this point, war is converging on the east, and reports of atrocity and devastation have reached Gold Ring. However, when he returns to Calisthemne, he finds that the village no longer exists. It has been completely torched, and everyone is missing, even his parents and Nashiea.

## Eastern Militiaman

Rheyk quickly flees the site of his ruined childhood home and heads to the nearest village. There, he sees a militia looking for volunteers. Without hesitation, Rheyk volunteers to join. Thus, he sees conflict for the first time three days later, and manages to survive it. There, he finds the stories of atrocity to be true, but he barely manages to escape enslavement. He heads further into the Lyvank mountains, finding another small group of fighters to join. He continues to fight in this manner as the east is conquered and pushed into further and further. Just before it is too late, Rheyk flees south again with a small group of other agudners, leading them to Gold Ring and presumed safety.

## Return to Gold Ring and Capture

Leaving the agudners behind in Gold Ring and safety, Rheyk begins to form a band of freedom fighters. They spend the rest of the war attacking and regrouping, always choosing decidedly military targets in spite of the propaganda by the north stating otherwise. As the final years of the war come into play, Rheyk and his band of fighters not only find themselves pushed back to Gold Ring, but also acquire a new technology - firearms, and by extension, Rheyk begins crafting some of the earliest known explosives. As the north tries to push into Gold Ring and the fighting becomes vicious street to street urban fighting, Rheyk and his group know they are losing. In a final desperate bid, they launch by all accounts a suicide counterattack. Much of the surviving group is killed and eventually Rheyk is captured, raped by the battalion commander who finds him, and then taken back up north as one of her personal servants. He never again sees the Lyvank mountains or freedom. Rheyk ends up dying at the age of 80, still in the same commander's house as a personal servant.