Utgand

Utgand

Utgand is a boy from the Kingdom of Ulke. He is one of the main characters of the series, being one of the protagonists of Book 1: The Elemental Masters (specifically being the main protagonist of Part 2), a supporting character of Book 2 and a major character of Book 3. He is the Master of Fire and is 14 years old.

## Backstory/Background

Utgand's parents gave birth to him in dire circumstances, as they were being led out of the Forest of Secrecy to safety by Amani, who pretended to want to help his parents get to safety, when truly, he wished to kill them to get rid of the magics of the Kingdom of Ulke, seeing them to be useless for Ulke and wanted the kingdom to not be magic-oriented. At the last moment, Utgand's father, Otlan, managed to get Utgand to safety, giving the lives of both him and his wife as they did so. Utgand was eventually found and adopted by Karam and Pitishua, a couple with no children. After several years of of letting him believe that they were his birth parents, they revealed his past to him. This did not bother Utgand until later, however.

While Utgand seemed happy and carefree, he actually had no friends due to his "annoying" personality, despite his parents always accepting him for what he was. This led Utgand to (inside) feel deeply insecure and unsure of himself, much in contrast to his personality on top.

## Personality

Utgand is an ENFP, being the campaigner personality type. He is extremely attention-seeking and extroverted, often randomly stating facts that could be entirely out of place simply for the sake of having attention. This comes with several strengths, however, and Utgand is extremely optimistic, happy-go-lucky and carefree, always looking to the best that could happen, and makes light out of even the darkest of situations (though in some cases, such as Minyama's temporary death, he is unable to) and proves to be warm and friendly with everyone he comes across, unless they prove to be evil (such as the little boy and Huzuni, whom he has no hope for, unlike Cwameeng). Utgand is also Type 7 in enneagram, also known as The Enthusiast, making him bubbly, excitable, and able to easily embrace the new and unknown. His 6 wing gives him traits of the Loyalist, making him extremely loyal to his friends and his kingdom.

However, Utgand also has a deeply insecure side to him where he often feels that he is useless and "normal", often demoralizing himself, particularly when he gains fire powers. He questions his life, and whether he deserves the powers and to a lesser extent, life itself. He goes through a major character change phase throughout part 2 where he goes from random, happy-go-lucky and carefree to deeply depressed and self-conscious. However, once he is encouraged by Cwameeng and to a lesser extent Aibai, he regains his bright and optimistic personality and is able to help save his friends from the Revolution. Afterwards he continues to be encouraging and courageous.

In part 3 and 4, Utgand is still optimistic and talkative, but he is slightly more teasing to his friends (although very sensitive to their feelings) and is encouraging to them. Utgand also shows that even he has his limits to optimism, both at the end of part 3 and towards the beginning of part 4. He gets deeply depressed after Minyama briefly perishes. His reaction to Cwameeng's betrayal is rather mixed, as while he does not directly attack or confront Cwameeng, he does not seem willing to make amends with him, although like everyone else forgives Cwameeng at the end and goes back to being friends with him.

All in all, despite his flaws and insecurities, Utgand is bright, optimistic, bubbly, friendly and very supportive to all of his friends, and remains so to the very end.