Rye

Art by Aush10

## History

Rye's father died when Rye was just a baby, so he never got to know him. His mother, Aria, raised him alone, and he led a relatively normal life, aside from not having a father. But as he grew up, he started noticing that when he left home for a few hours, his mother would be exhausted when he came back, sometimes - in her words - as if she ran a marathon then wrestled a bear. He thought nothing of it, until one night, when he couldn't sleep and wanted to ask Aria to sit by his bed to help him sleep, he went into her room, and heard her softly chanting. She was asleep, and it sounded like she was just sleep talking, but the vowels sounded... wrong. Needless to say, that didn't help him sleep. When he questioned her about it in the morning, she said it was probably just a bad dream. Not convinced, the next night, he eavesdropped on her, and hearing the sleep-chanting again, he questioned her about it again in the morning the next day. She told him it was something not fit for his age, and that she'd tell him when he grows up, yet year after year, she delayed it, despite the claims that he is "a big boy already" and that she promised. On one seemingly normal morning, he found a letter on his table, from his mother to him: "If this letter exists, this means I am dead. Process this, then keep reading. It is important. So you probably heard stories about your father's heart just exploding - well, they are true, and it wasn't natural. But let me backtrack a bit. Your father and I both went to a school of magic, hoping it would help us in our lives, and because we were young and thought it would be fun. Well, most of it was actually pretty boring at the beginning, so we decided to take a shortcut - Thaumaturgy. If you have no idea what that word means, that's good - thaumaturgy is the most dangerous type of magic, bar none. We were young, and thought we'd be fine, until it was too late. We were casting a ritual, but something went wrong, and your father took the backlash, and it exploded his heart. For a few months after that, I went without using any thaumaturgy, but the thing about thaumaturgy is, it makes everything else seem... boring. Eventually, even though I knew the consequences, I returned to practicing thaumaturgy. This is probably my cause of death, though at the time of "writing", I have no way to know. All I did was condition this letter to appear on your desk should I die. Now in case the rest of the letter didn't make it clear, I'll say it: steer clear of thaumaturgy. I would not want the same fate that befell your father (and probably me) to also befall you. I want you to know that I love you, and wherever I am right now, I deeply regret I can't be with you. Take care." He never found the body, so he still doesn't know to this day how she died. The letter provoked a fear of thaumaturgy in Rye, but also made him want it, though that want was deep and suppressed. At first, he tried his luck at becoming a knight of the city, but gravitated towards academia, because of his keen mind and curiosity, and his dislike of the very strict rules. At first, he wouldn't go anywhere near anything having to do with any occult magic, but as time went by, he first allowed himself to study and research things generally related to more occult types of magic while steering clear of thaumaturgy itself, then to do a bit of studying and research on thaumaturgy while promising himself this won't be the focus of his research, then to focus on thaumaturgy while promising himself to never practice it himself. Eventually, he gave in and started practicing thaumaturgy itself giving himself the excuse that his theoretical knowledge will help him be safe, while knowing it is not true. At first, he learned it slowly and carefully, but soon enough he realized that no matter how careful you are, when thaumaturgy is concerned, things WILL go wrong, and started studying it more rapidly. And that's it, this is how Rye became a scholar and a thaumaturge.

## Appearance

Rye is, mostly, unremarkable. He is a human, with black hair, brown eyes, and his only remarkable feature is his eyebrows looking like like someone cut through them with a blade diagonally (result of a bit of backlash from some spell).

## Personality

Rye is somewhat closed up generally, especially when his childhood or parents are concerned, usually trying to avoid talking about his these subjects, though he can talk about them if asked directly, and while he'd be a bit uncomfortable, it wouldn't be more than discomfort. He may seem cold at times, but those who get to know him find out he just doesn't show emotions that aren't strong - when his expression is neutral, he could be anywhere between satisfied to disappointed to amused to annoyed. He does not consciously keep his face blank, it's just how he is.

## Tower of Death

One of Rye's main preparations is sharpening up his Necril - whenever you go into someone else's territory, it is always good to speak their language. Other than that, Rye trains in fighting while huge - admittedly, it is very taxing, and even dangerous, and he was kind of putting it off, but that expedition, which can be a very real threat, got him to finally do it. He also practices blasting things both from afar and through his greatsword, since by that point, most of what he did was theoretical research, and while he knew how to do these things, he wanted to make sure he’d be able to do them in practice.

Additionally, he researched as much as he could about all sorts of undead - zombie, skeletons, ghosts, ghouls - you name it. He also worked a bit - mainly in experimentation that required some sort of thaumaturgic magic (it is not a common type of work, but there are few people who can do that work, so he didn’t struggle to find where to work), and used some of the money to get a cracked amethyst, which he heard and read should help identify undead, though didn’t feel any immediate effect, he hoped it would manifest when he actually saw the undead.

Now during his research, Rye found out that some undead are resistant to certain kinds of weapons - zombies don’t have any weak organs, so the only way to deal with them is to cut chop them up which Rye can already do with his greatsword, while skeletons only consist of hard material - bones - so poking them or trying to cut through them is less than ideal, so Rye got a hammer - an earthbreaker to be precise. He also helped others who are less knowledgeable on undead with getting proper weapons - especially those who were planning on going in there with only a spear or bow.

For instance, this is Rye helping Flick:

> Flick: "*So Rye, do you have any tips on how to deal with these undead creatures popping up everywhere? Maybe trade a few secrets?"*
>
>

> Rye: "*Well, there's a really simple way to deal with them. Extremely easy, in fact."*
>
>

> Flick: "*Oh really? Well now you've got my attention. Please do tell of this simple way."*
>
>

> Rye: "*Just be a cleric. It's not that hard"*
>
>

> Flick: "*... That's rather selective. It's also useless information to me. Oh well."*
>
>

> Rye chuckles a bit, before saying: "*Well if you want some applicable advice, I'd suggest picking a less sharp and more bludgeoning type of weapon, on top of your sharp weapon. Taking down some undead like skeletons with an axe is going to be hard, no matter how large the axe is."*
>
>

> Flick pauses for a moment, before saying: "*Huh, that's definitely good advice, I haven't thought of that. Thank you my friend. Have another drink, on me!"*
>
>

Also, for a while, rye tried to figure out how use his Destructive Blast in a way that would cut the enemies rather than batter them, but failed to find something and settled on using it to deliver direct force, which he theorized would also knock the undead down, though that application of his Blasts was far more draining, and he didn't think he'd be able to turn blasts into direct force more than maybe 10 times a day tops.