Helvah Sei'Dist

### Distinctive Marks:

Sei'Dist Dragonfly tattoo (left chest); Kamari teartrail tattoo (left eye, KoY); arm scarring (right arm, KoY)

**Helvah Sei'Dist** is the second son of Viscount Wiltheld Sei'Dist of Paraphilia, and a main character in Kingdom of Paraphilia: Wish.

With his quick wit, shocking beauty, and self-sacrificing nature (which he regularly denies), Helvah was always regarded as the more gifted of the Sei'Dist brothers, a status that earned him endless scorn from his elder brother, Vischias. Growing up in the increasingly erratic shadow of his troubled brother taught Helvah the skill of observing from a distance, leaving him wary of putting himself in harm's way, but willing to do so as the need arises. He is logical to a fault, and a scholar at heart, prone to analyzing even the smallest details for clues as to how to best address a situation. Though he would deny it, Helvah is very much a fixer. If there's a problem, there's no force on earth that will stop him from trying to solve it, whether or not he takes the credit.

Helvah's tumultuous relationship with Vischias was the core of his original storyline, which came to a head long after Vischias' untimely death. Harrowed by the ghost of his mad brother, Helvah fought to keep a grip on the life he built for himself, until the moment it all went to pieces.

## History

* ORIGINAL (KoY)
* REBOOT (KoY-W)

To Be Added

 To Be Added

The Blessed Son

Almost from the moment he was born, the Sei'Dist household took note of how different Helvah was from his brother. Where Vischias was outspoken and temperamental, even as a child, Helvah was quiet and thoughtful, possessed of a sweet nature and a friendly (if shy) disposition. Where Vischias raged, Helvah questioned. Where Vischias struggled, Helvah succeeded. They were both bright, both quick to mature, but Helvah was the one that everyone wanted to spend their time with--and Vischias could not help but notice.

Helvah excelled in every task he took up. He was talking within his first year, conversational by three, and reading by the time he was four, and as he grew, so too did his genius. He taught himself the flute, and mastered it easily. He studied chess until winning came as easily as breath. He read every single book in the Sei'Dist library, of his own volition, and committed their contents to memory. Every tutor and instructor was eager to gush about just how brilliant he was. For his part, Helvah never put much thought to his own intelligence; he simply had a thirst for knowledge, and sought answers in any form available. He found he liked people as sources the best, and pestered the servants tirelessly with questions about everything from the everyday workings of the house to their stances on philosophical questions he'd read about. Everyone tolerated it admirably. After all, Helvah was sweet, and easy to talk to. A far cry from his moody elder brother, whom--even as a child--many of the servants avoided.

Helvah grew up lacking for nothing, praised from all sides for his wit and brilliance. It seemed that everyone was fond of him. Everyone, that is, except for Vischias.

Misery Loves Company

As he grew, Helvah took note of the ways he differed from his brother, and the biases leveled on them both. Helvah saw the unease with which people dealt with Vischias, and felt he understood it, as the boy was no kinder to him than he was to anyone else. If anything, Vischias seemed to hate Helvah on principle, a fact which he never understood. Vischias was, in every way that mattered, his superior. Bigger, older, stronger, more confident, more traditionally handsome, and--most importantly--the heir. And yet, it seemed that just by existing, Helvah invited Vischias' ire.

Vischias started a campaign of torment almost as soon as Helvah could walk, ranging from bullying to outright terrorizing, all with no opposition. Helvah never tried to fight back. Where Vischias was strong, he was not. Where Vischias was fierce, he was painfully meek. He didn't stand a chance. Still, he spent most of his childhood variously seeking out and hiding from his brother, torn between want of his company, and fear of his temper. In the end, the fear won out. By the time he was ten, Helvah had made it his mission to avoid his dire sibling's wrath at all costs. Even if it meant avoiding him wholesale, just like everyone else.

Little did he know how much that impulse would define the rest of his life.

A Long Drop

At age twelve, Helvah hit a growth spurt, so sudden and jarring that it almost brought him level with Vischias, who was four years his senior. This only seemed to invite yet more unwanted attention from his troubled brother. And, he realized, his brother was troubled. Despite his sudden great height, Helvah was well-practiced in making himself unobtrusive, and that combined with his penchant for observation saw him learning several things that others did not. Vischias, who until this point was little more than a bully, began to show subtle signs of turmoil that no one else seemed to see. He walked the halls of the house at all hours, sometimes standing in corners and murmuring to himself, as if he had forgotten where he was. His sleeves were often stained at the elbows, and Helvah soon learned that his brother had taken to self-guided blood-letting. Worst of all, Helvah thought, was the look in his eyes when Vischias inevitably lost his temper. The rage in him was like a whole other person, entirely separate from the clever, sarcastic brother he had spent his early days with. Helvah raised the concern, but was largely dismissed. There was nothing wrong with his brother, he was told. He was just willful. Just passionate. Only one person heeded him: the house steward, Jonathan Priest.

A late addition to their household, Jonathan befriended a young Helvah right away, and made an enemy of Vischias just as quickly. His attempts to intervene on his charge's behalf were met with scorn from the older Sei'Dist brother, who shunned his every gesture of aid.