Esteemed Orator Sensei RX-78-2

Rex Septimus Octus Duo
 Chidren | Lucian Sandia (deceased)

**Rex Septimus Octus Duo** is the official speaker and speechwriter of **House Shadhavar**. He has also been looked to for certain speeches and announcements made by the court.

## Description

Rex is grey-haired, middle-aged noble with a stocky build. His skin is fairly olive in tone due to his residence among a port city and regular trips to the dock area. His well kept-beard and clothes bear the slight scent of the ocean from the salt-heavy air. He has light-grey eyes though one is covered under a patch due to poor eyesight from a sailing mishap in his youth. Almost in contrast to his house founder, Rex wears very understated robes and coats. Only the quality of his clothes and the rings on his fingers speaks to his status.

## Personality

Unlike some of his more eccentric house members, Rex tries to maintain a calm, even tempered mood; however, his patience is regularly tested by the antics of his house founder, **Xekral Shadhavar**. Much lecturing can be heard from Rex towards his house founder at any given time. Rex is also a fastidious believer in adopting the appropriate tone and speech for the appropriate times, that there is a time to be terse and a time to be eloquent, soft and loud, grave and jovial. As such he will usually quiet his emotions if he believes they will hurt his cause. He believes that doing so lends more weight to his words when he finally speaks in anger or the like. After all, outrage is not effective if you're always outraged.

## History

### Early years

Rex was born Rexal Veran, the third son of lesser nobles Nathan Veran & Vica Veran. As a third son, the family could only support him until he was 10 years old. Afterwards, he needed to work to pay his own living expenses; so, he began work on the docks as a **squawker**.

Squawkers were young apprentices that were, in essence, people that could speak well and retain good amounts of information. They would relay orders between decks or among them, depending where they were stationed. A squawker needed to remember 15 separate commands or reports at minimum to be effective, which Rex exceled at, having studied every piece of literature in his meager house library. They were also used to report manifestos, crew status, repairs needed and maintain accurate calculations of supplies and cargo. Rex abandon his full name, choosing only to go by his shortened first name, as that was all that was needed among the sailors.

### Becoming an Esteemed

At the age of 17, Rex was a well trained sailor and squawker. He kept up communication with his house, sending them money from time to time so younger siblings wouldn't have to work for their food. However, he lived, slept and for all intents and purposes belonged to the docks. Then he met a young looking noble on the docks, later finding out it was Xekral Shadahavar. The noble seemed to be impressed with his oratory skills and invited him to join his newly formed house. Rex, naturally suspicious of such an offer, turned Xekral down.

Xekral would return on several occasions asking him questions about whether he liked this work and if he wanted a better stage for his skills. Over time, Rex became less and less resistant to the idea. Then, one day, Rex decided to test Xekral, demanding any reading materials he asked for and saying he'd stab Xekral if they abandoned him. To his surprise, Xekral agreed eagerly, even admiring his threat. So, Rex left the docks and joined House Shadhavar. Xekral taught him all manner of decorum and manners, despite not following much of those rules themselves. After a few years, Rex was introduced to the court as a member of the house. Rex has been a member of the house for 50 years and a member of the court for almost as long

### Cutting Former Ties

Rex stopped communicating with his family, leading them to assume he died. A funeral was held for the young Rexal Veran and his plaque was added to the Hall of Echoes. As the years went by, when a member of his family died, Rex would anonymously donate funds to the hall to cover the installation of the most recent plaques, including his families'. To this day, Rex has told no one in House Shadhavar his former name and no intention to ever do so.

### Marriage and Loss

Rex became infatuated with a young woman of lesser nobility named Lara Sandria. Having been an esteemed for a dozen years, he felt he had status enough that no one would oppose him courting her. Lara, however, was unimpressed by things like wealth or status. So, Rex fell back on the only thing he knew: words. He would come and tell her a new chapter of a story. Where his wealth and power were useless, this story seemed to brighten her face and bring a smile to it. He dared not finish it for fear of losing any reason to come and she did not ask about the end. After a while of this story telling, he began to interject his own feeling for her in the story, as a poor man attempting to woo a princess. When he got to the characters proposal, Lara said yes, his intentions apparently being less subtle than he thought. They were married in the spring on the steps of House Shadhavar. Several years later, they had a son named Lucian.

Though, this new family was only temporary. Lara and Lucian came down with a fatal illness, the cause of which was unknown, but seemed to have affected dozens of people in Abishot. Rex exhausted every ounce of knowledge he had but to no avail. Nothing in his books matched this disease and no remedies helped. Thus at age 40, Rex lost his family. He immortalized the time they had together in his own name: 7 years, 8 months, and 2 days. Thus he became know as Rex Septimus Octus Duo. He can be sometimes be seen visiting the Hall of Echoes to visit the names of his family.