Feno Trispeiros

Changeling masquerading as Feno Trispeiros. True name/nickname is TBD (thanks Brax). Known as Xarb until further notice.

## Character History

### Origins

Xarb was born to a lesser nobility family within the city of Ninuwā. A quirk of the legal and economic focus of the city allows people to purchase noble titles from others. This does create some bizarre situations where a noble may lose nobility, as it is the title that is important rather than the blood, and a family and lineage retroactively becomes noble.

Xarb's family are proud Changelings. Feno's mother was an incredibly successful negotiator and mediator, after brokering lucrative trade deal between Ninuwā and a nation that was a long time enemy of the empire. She won the favor of both Ninuwā, as well as the nation and was resplendently rewarded as a result. Xarb's father was a magic researcher, pioneering a systematic study of corporeality and discovering anti-matter. He was given a grant and a research position at the Arcanum in Ninuwā. They are uncharacteristically successful, as there is often a great distrust of Changelings, and most changelings will keep their true identities hidden.

With their newfound wealth, they purchased the title to small great house in a neighboring district to the Arcanum turned the fortunes of the house around. They were happy, for a time. But when Feno was eight years old, tragedy struck. The family awoke, choking from the smoke as the great house burned around them. Xarb's father turned himself and his son incorporeal and brought them out of the house to safety. Then, his father went back inside to find his wife. He never returned. Investigators believe that he lacked the components to turn his wife incorporeal and so he turned himself corporeal in an effort to manipulate the physical world and perhaps drag his wife to safety but was killed in the process. Investigators also believe the fire was set intentionally, though the case was never solved and the culprit never found. Rumor would have it that the family was killed because Xarb's father was approaching another breakthrough in his research that would give Ninuwā a magical edge that others could not come close to matching.

### Time on the Street

Xarb was now an orphan. Technically, the heir to the great house, but was terrified that his parent's murderers would kill him, if they knew he was alive. So, he went to the streets pretending that he had died in the blaze along with his parents. Spent around five years on the streets. Using the small bits of magic he had learned from his father and the diplomacy of his mother to stay alive, he turned to crime. His favorite method was scamming visitors and tourists to the city. The Arcane Walls of Ninuwā are a tourist attraction, and Feno used magic to con the tourists as a guide, changing forms in order to escape suspiscion.

He became infamous enough that he caught the ear of a detective named Feno in the Magic Crimes division of the Seekers. Feno initially believed that there was a small ring of people scamming tourists, but later discovered that it was the actions of one changeling, (Xarb), pretending to be multiple people. A game of cat and mouse ensued. Xarb was finally cornered by the detective, who had become impressed by Xarb's skills. Feno had realized that his culprit was able to evade capture by usage of incorporeality tricks that could have only come from a prominent changeling family who was killed so many years ago. Feno conviced Xarb to let him become a confidential informant and arrest some of the criminal elements that Xarb had met while living on the streets. Over time, they became close.

### Adoption

Feno found out that Xarb had no family and no one to take care of him, and so he brought him into his own family as a foster child, and Feno's family accepted him as their own, though only Feno knew that Xarbwas a changeling. Once again, there was a time of peace and happiness. Xarb joined the Seeker Academy when he was the appropriate age (17) and began to train to be a seeker, like his adopted father.

But, once again, tragedy struck. Feno told Xarb that he had discovered something interesting about Xarb's parents' case, and that they should talk that night. After Xarb spent the evening training at the Academy, he returned home to find that, again, his house was burning. This time, he noticed that the flames were remarkably resistant to being extinguished. He ran inside the building to rescue anyone who might still be alive, but found that everyone was already dead. He fled the burning of the building to one of his old hideaways on the street and spent the night listlessly thinking and dreaming.

When he awoke, he was resolved. He would take the place of his dead, adopted father and investigate the murders of both of his families. He was convinced that both fires were arcane and were connected to the same culprit. The only way he would find the truth would be through the work and resources of the Seekers. He went back to still-smoldering wreckage of his home, placed his clothes on the body of Feno and then took the form of Feno. He then lay in the mostly undamaged safe-room of the house and pretended as if he had been knocked unconscious from the smoke but was laregly protected from the fire.

### Present

Seekers coming to look for survivors found Xarb, disguised as Feno, and revived him.

Xarb now seeks to investigate the murders of his families, through the guise of his deceased father. He is paranoid, and trusts no one, as misfortune seems to follow him everywhere. He realizes that he almost certainly has a target still on his back, as the murderers were certainly targeting Feno who now seems to still be alive and actively investigating the crimes.

## Aliases

Giles Barfunkle - No disguise, but named member of the Poisioned Thorns. Known only to Buzzy the Orc.