Rhys/History

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History
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## History

Half-brother to the infamous Gerow, Rhys was born to an Oni and a dark elf from the Niemeisu tribe. He couldn’t really tell the story of how the unusual combination came to be, because Rhys never met his parents. Growing up at the Oni village the only one he could consider friendly was Gerow. Everyone else in the village shunned the halfbreed. He had to learn to fight for his survival and he did just that. In fact the first half of his life was filled with constant fights. Rhys learned to be brutal and determined, mercy was not on his list of priorities. At the same time he also suffered, because he had to repress the more gentle and caring side of his nature. He was sure that it was a weakness that needed to be purged, a flaw that was hindering him to achieve greatness. When he was 15 Rhys left the tribe to venture to another Oni village of the Buldrai tribe. Known for even more war oriented culture, the tribe he joined was constantly fighting with everyone else near them. He quickly rose to prominence while leading raids towards anyone that the village considered to be dangerous. The rumors and myths kept spreading and soon many villages and tribes around the Buldrai started to revere and fear him as a war deity, which Rhys did not find to be all that bad. He loved fighting and it was of course amazing that he would get anything one could want by doing just that. Beautiful men and women, food and riches he would get all of that.

He still lived in conflict with himself however. He could not suppress the other “weak” side of himself no matter how hard he tried. Rhys tried to play it off as being whimsical to the others. Not attacking the merchant caravan but instead going for the stronghold of the bandits? Of course he did it for glory, not because he felt bad about attacking the merchants. The more time passed, the more he hated himself. Nothing was making sense anymore and the things he enjoyed felt trist and boring.

Rhys threw himself into fiercer and fiercer battles, each time just barely surviving. After one of those fights, where he had lost most of the vision in his left eye, the Buldrai decided that they had enough of him. A few Oni challenged him to a fight for the seat of the raid leader. He accepted on the condition that all of the challengers fight him at once. The battle was brutal and bloody, Rhys had no right to win it, yet he somehow did. Wounded and bleeding he left the village. Perhaps he was hoping to die at this point, but he survived.

After a long recovery Rhys had decided to go and search for the Niemeis. He hoped that they could teach him a better way to live. During his journey he met an amal named Misuso, who quickly became his first friend since Gerow. Misuso taught Rhys how to read and write and they often talked about philosophy and poetry. Easy and quiet life however was not really his fate. Rhys the Red Tempest was still well known and remembered. He had made more than enough enemies in the past and they all still were coming after him. In one of the constant fights Misuso got fatally wounded and Rhys himself had lost his right eye.

For the first time in his life Rhys was lost. Not only did he lose a friend, his vision was impaired now. He tried to still go on, to find the Niemeis. Over the years it became his sole reason for existing, even though he didn’t even know if they would accept a half breed like him. After some glory seeking warrior had found and fought him, Rhys was yet again at death’s door. He crawled to a forest clearing with a small pond and laid down. Perhaps now the Void would grant him the peace he searched for. This was the moment that Bhiki found him. For some reason that tiny jellyfish thing just wouldn’t leave him alone, it looked so worried that Rhys just had to laugh. He didn’t die yet again. Instead he gained a new companion. With Bhiki he didn’t have to hide his gentle side, he didn’t feel the need to and for the first time in decades he had found some peace and tranquility.

Rhys and Bhiki kept travelling around for a decade, still trying to find any clues of the illusive Niemeis, yet it seemed like they had vanished without a trace. Rhys bought any piece of literature left by the dark elves tribe that he could get his hands on. He even managed to learn some of their magic and gather some of the knowledge they had about the Aether. The tribe itself however was still out of his reach. Without another goal, Rhys continued to travel around, trying to learn more about the world. In all the years he had become something of a philosopher, though that profession seldom made him any money. In order to be able to care for himself and Bhiki, he turned to the one thing that he knew how to do - fighting. From time to time he would take some odd mercenary and bounty hunter jobs. Teaching martial arts, protecting villagers and merchants as bodyguard, hunting bandits. Rhys also kept contact with Gerow who sometimes asked him to find some wanted criminals.