Brandon Rizer

Sachiko Izuka (grandmother)

Lucy Rizer (sister)

Zacarias Rizer (brother)

Stacey Rizer (sister)

**Brandon Tatsuya Rizer** is a Japanese-American dracologist and dragon rider who serves as captain of the Contra Defense Force. He is a graduate of the Dracolonia Academy of Dragon Riders and served among the Noble Dragon Riders alongside his dragon companion, Stryker. He is considered an Elite Jumper of Defense and Interspecies Relations by the Grand Jumper Council and a strong asset to the Jumper's purposes, later becoming the vessel for Aldastar. He is the main protagonist of the Vitaria Saga and a self-insertion character of the author, B. L. Grant.

## Biography

### Early Life

Brandon Rizer was born to parents Daniel and Catherine Rizer (neé McKinley) on the Hickam Air Force Base near Honolulu, Hawai'i. He was born into a military family serving in the United States Air Force, a family tradition that started with his paternal grandfather, Lorenzo Rizer. At age 3, his family moved to Davis County, Utah to be stationed at the nearby Hill Air Force Base, where he spent most of his childhood. While away on military business, Brandon and his older siblings, Lucy and Zac, would be watched under the care of their grandmother, Sachiko Rizer (neé Izuka), who moved to Utah with them from Hawai'i.

From a young age, Brandon has developed a vivid imagination derived from media that Sachiko would show him as well as bedtime stories she seemingly made up. Several of these bedtime stories contained creatures of fantasy going on whimsical adventures, catch the young Brandon paid full attention to. Lucy and Zac were 5 and 3 years Brandon's senior, respectively, and often tuned out Sachiko's stories while Brandon remained captivated, even so far as to ask Sachiko if he himself would one day experiences adventures like these stories. Sachiko reassured him that it may be more possible than he'd think, which Lucy and Zac brushed off as getting his hopes up. When Brandon was 8 years old, a fourth child, Stacey, was born into the Rizer family.

As Brandon grew older, he grew interests in stories of fantasy and science fiction stemming from his grandmother's stories. He immersed himself with media containing fantasy elements including films, video games, and television shows as a form of escapism from a rather mundane life, even so far as writing out his own stories in hopes of being a story teller. Academically, he was a rather average student who's grades were passing, but not overly impressive. Throughout high school, he described himself as "sometimes forgotten by most of the student body", retaining a small handful of friends but often going unnoticed otherwise, even by bullies. Despite being an unremarkable student, Brandon was able to graduate high school with outstanding achievement awards in both English and Computer Technology fields. It was around this time Brandon concluded to spend his higher educator to become a screenwriter or game designer, unknowing of where his life would lead not long after.

Brandon spent his first year of higher education at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City studying literature and computer science. It was around this time that his grandmother, Sachiko, was diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer. This slowed the progress of his studies as he began to fall into a depression over this news. Days after his 19th birthday, Sachiko passed away due to the cancer, leaving broken hearted Brandon coping with the first major death in his life.