History
Early Childhood
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A two arc mission to Augiery culminated in quite a surprise. Not only did Ryan Gawyne return with treaties, notes and intelligence beyond all the expectations House Gawyne had put in him. Cushioned between papers and clothes reeking of the distances travelled lay a little bundle, quiet but alert. Its round baby eyes darted about, its little nostrils flared and vestigial ears twitched as it soaked in all the new impressions. Yet it did not utter a sound.
And neither did its father when pressed whence the child came from, only insisting it was his and he had every intention of raising it. All other considerations aside, the child was his responsibility and would remain as such until he had equipped it with all it needed to persevere in the world. And then, like him, it would forge its own path across it.
It was a promise easier made than lived up to. There were debriefings and meetings and evaluations of all the things Ryan Gawyne had learned in the time spent with the self-professed enemy of all of Idalos. Of course that threat paled to that of the Eternal Empire in the eyes and interests of Rynmere, which was why the mentally agile Ryan had been dispatched there on his errand of diplomacy and research. Though he only excelled at some of these things he’d found an in with the warrior women of the south and exploited it.
And now, as he gained some small amount of glory for his endeavours, he failed at living up to the responsibilities brought home with him. That token fame, however, also made it possible for his family to arrange for an excellent marriage despite the bastard now crawling the halls of their homestead and getting into all manner of trouble.
Because the boy, while he had remained uncannily quiet, was possessed of an incredible sense of curiosity, quite like a cat. And like a cat, he managed to somehow always slip into places he was not supposed to be. When the former Sonnet Venora arrived at the estate, she came as a Rynmere noble scion born and bred, but also as a creature of bountiful compassion. Despite her new husband’s resistance when it came to the truth of the child’s origin, she quickly decided to take the nosy little bastard as her own in as far as custom would allow it.
Of course that was before she had children of her own.
Later Childhood
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When he turned six arcs old, the boy, Cassian, knew the Cursive script by heart, even though he rarely spoke the words out loud. He would later joke he knew how to read before he knew how to speak and that would only be a slight distortion of the truth. An arc later he even made forays into the Ancient Language, seeing as he had wormed his way through most of the available literature in the everyday script.. Which delighted his father, a scholar by heart himself, and while his growing duties still didn’t allow Ryan Gawyne to make good on the responsibility he’d taken upon himself (and likely never would), he made certain his home’s libraries were well-stocked and more guests were brought in so that the boy could learn from their tales and examples.
Even though she now also had children of her own to look after and dote on, the boy’s stepmother still managed to at least try and care for Cassian. As was her nature, she worried that the boy buried his nose too much in his books and observations and contemplations and spent too little time out and about. His half siblings might yet be too little but there were other children around whom the bastard did not seem to get along with. In their stead, she moved to gain him a fluffier and more loyal companion. When he turned seven arcs, Lady Sonnet presented the young Gawyne with a puppy. It was fluffy and cuddly and playful and awkwardly cute… and the next trial she found it nailed to a wooden board and Cassian flaying it bit by bit.
I just want to find out how it all works. Such was his reply and to his stepmother it was just as shocking as the act itself. Even while she still tried to make sense of the whole thing, she reasoned that it was ultimately her fault. The boy’s father was eternally busy and she had neglected him for her own children’s sake. He’d been raised by books, not people and thus never been properly socialized, never been taught that there were limits to be placed on curiosity. And she reasoned she had to fix this, now. In part because she worried that next, the child might decide to figure out how one of his half-siblings worked under the skin.
Lady Sonnet made Cassian swear sixfold oaths of secrecy before ultimately initiating the boy into a secret she had. It wasn’t appropriate, she knew, it was dangerous and about as insane as the child’s actions. But she was desperate and knew that what had been missed over many years could not be caught up with mundane means. In a quiet, candlelit room she made him meditate and gather himself and he took it all in stride with his all-encompassing curiosity, wondering what new thing his stepmother would show him.
What she showed him after what seemed like an entire trial of breathing and thinking and letting go of his body was an entirely new world. Sinking a part of herself into the thing inside of him which she found frightfully pale in places, she brought Cassian into a world of emotions. Most users of magic would have blanched at the idea of initiating a child, but Sonnet was desperate, and ultimately, her actions seemed to be met with success. Under his stepmother’s tutelage, the boy would indeed soon soften his curiosity with empathy. For all she could perceive, the woman’s gamble had paid off, not stunting Cassian’s emotional development further and bringing him back into a world of socially acceptable behaviour.
At least outwardly.
Adolescence
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Whether Lady Sonnet did indeed harm the child’s Tangle or whether there were other forces at play here… or whether he simply was what he was and content to remain so, the woman could not change the boy’s nature. She’d only given him a tool to further his curiosity and maneuver through his life in a manner which saw him pass social situations without unnecessary friction. He might not truly have empathized with these people, deep down inside, but he could read them and act upon what he read. As far as appearances were concerned, all was good.
The boy’s insides however were another thing entirely. Knowing too much about the people around him, their base desires, their crude emotional makeup and their foreseeable reactions… it made him disdainful of them. And with disdain for people in his heart, he found even less reason to interact with them. So he returned to his books, which contained all the knowledge he could ever desire. For a while, at least.
While he made the expected time to learn all the things a noble scion of Rynmere should learn, at least in theory, and while he met a stalwart or two who managed to not bore him, the books were still where Cassian’s heart lay. Even better that he could not connect to them through his magics. They at least kept their mysteries until he reached the words that spelled them out. Because for an Empath, all men carry their hearts on their sleeves, and most men’s hearts turn out much smaller than they’d like to think.
Of course, books were written by people, and people were still fallible. As he grew older, Cassian began to realize this taint in their origin. Books, too, were subjective and small-minded and represented limited points of view. And, worst of all, you couldn’t ask for clarification where they were vague, and you couldn’t vehemently disagree with them where they were wrong. You could just keep them or toss them in a fire. Which was to say that books, at the end of the day, were only a minor improvement over people.
Somewhere between the childhood where he was mostly left to his own devices unless he overstepped his bounds and the onsetting adulthood that would see more and more expectations piled upon his shoulders, Cassian was forced to exit the shell he’d hidden in for so long. Using his arcane senses to make up for his lack of social graces he made a case to his father that due to the circumstances of his birth, he would never inherit anything of merit. His ability to absorb knowledge however would allow him to become an effective advisor to his kin.
Of course he’d need a letter of recommendation to the University of Rynmere… and a stipend. Cassian’s stepmother wholeheartedly supported the idea, certainly in part because she still worried for her own offspring, and the young man’s logic was sound as well. Lord Ryan Gawyne easily saw the value in having the eldest of his children armed and equipped to support his half-siblings. He arrived in Andaris with some spare clothes, a stack of paper, two quills and an inkwell to his name. And enough coin to rent a spartan room and buy everything else he needed, courtesy of House Gawyne.
Young Adulthood
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Surprisingly enough, Cassian did not do as well as he and anybody else imagined he would. It was not that he didn’t understand the things he was taught, he simply often refused to accept things as they were laid out for him. Also, some topics of study simply weren’t as interesting as one would have expected. Neither statecraft nor battlefield strategy offered any occult secrets, they came down to matters of logistics and mathematics it seemed. And the intangible element of humanity which he already knew to master through his magics.
The arts had lustre but lacked function and thus appeal for Cassian. Theoretical geography and cartography had none of the adventure his father had spoken of. What did interest him in the end were those things where not everything was revealed to humanity. Something he could blame on the lack of vision of his forebears, or their unwillingness to overstep certain boundaries. Of locations, of discipline… or of morality. A weakness Cassian lacked.
Not so his professors and tutors. They accepted things as handed down by men who presumably had possessed the fortitude to do what was necessary to achieve the information they sought. They were content to think they knew without ever having seen for themselves. In those days Cassian felt a pang of gratitude to whomever had granted him his intellect. When he was a child, he had been as these learned men and women. But he was not a child anymore, was he?
On the other hand, he did fall into some rather inane and adolescent patterns of behaviour commonly associated with university students. Not necessarily the drinking and general mayhem, but Cassian did join a dueling club, had the odd sub rosa scuffle and certainly took on a fair share of dares. But even this, he would justify and rationalize to himself, was less of a social endeavour and mostly because he couldn’t, simply couldn’t resist a challenge.
And yet, the young noble, bastard or not, chafed under the yoke of what he perceived as conservative schooling at the Academy. How fortunate then that Andaris begun an exchange program with the city of Viden by which students would be allowed to transfer to the most prestigious center of learning in the entire world. One where, maybe, Cassian would be able to spread his wings and rise.
His family seemed to have similar notions. Or maybe it was even an act of kindness to remove their bastard offspring from the scrutiny of the island. Or they wanted to put him out of their misery. Or maybe they had more ambitious designs for the young man. While considered more humble than Cassian would portray, House Gawyne does value intelligence and knowledge, and covets them with a passion. Viden possesses all the knowledge in the world. With a sufficiently prestigious and capable boot on the rock and ice, the entire house might have access to these treasures.
Present
Cassian has freshly arrived in Viden on the wings of the Universities' student exchange program. Far, far away from anyone who might know him for better or worse, he is met with both the footfalls and freedoms of essentially beginning his life anew. The young man is however unlikely to change his stripes, so it remains to be seen whether the new environment will be more easily endeared to his qualities or be repulsed as the worthies of Andaris were. Being a noble scion of Rynmere, if neither born nor bred properly, gets him an inroad but will only take him so far.
The rest is up to him.
Starter Quest
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Before you left for Viden, Lady Sonnet Gawyne approached you privately and gave you a letter sealed with the Gawyne family seal. She requested that you not open it until you had arrived at your new university.
The letter slips your mind until you rummage through your possessions one evening in Viden and find it lying among your things. If you choose to open it, you’ll find that it is short and to the point:
![[Approved by Rumour]](.//images/icons/cs_ok.png "[Approved by Rumour]"){kind=icon}
