Llyre es vel Volaerys

Llyre es vel Volaerys (formerly known as Lirei-Nai of House Is, and more commonly known as The Traitor) is a Rathniri politican and businessman based in the city of Almorria in the Imperium of Almorre, a nation in Sparwood.

'<>'

Appearance
Llyre, the youngest member of House Volaerys, is rather unassuming in terms of his appearance, due to his habit of obscuring his entire body, including his face. With very rare exceptions, he wears a heavy wooden mask carved into the shape of a wolf's head, as well as a dark grey poncho that covers his entire torso, as well as simple brown trousers with leather boots. He dislikes wearing armour. When unmasked, he wears a somewhat opaque black veil covering his lower face. Since becoming Hand of the King, he also wears a golden brooch on his cloak.

Beneath it all, he is a fairly lean and tall young man, with (somewhat unnaturally) pale skin, messy black hair, and distinctively pale grey eyes circled by long eyelashes and fading dark circles. His eyes are described as the colour of dirty ice, paler than stone and darker than milk, like two white moons. He has pointed ears shorter than those of a fullblooded elf, and wears many earrings in them, as well as a multitude of simple rings on all of his fingers.

Llyre's face bears a distinctive scar across the left side of his face, from his mouth to his ear, exposing some teeth. Despite its age, it does not appear to be healed, still raw-looking. The rest of his body is speckled with faded scars from his adventures in Rathnir.

A more visible trait of his are two large black wings on his back, the left of which is severely damaged, in the same state as his face, unhealed despite its age. Usually he hides them beneath his poncho, especially now that he cannot fly due to the injury of his left wing.

As of lately, beginning shortly before the onset of the Almmori War for Independance, Llyre's skin began to take on more of a sickly grey hue, and he refused to take off his mask in front of anyone, including his own family. In certain lights, his shadow almost looks as though it has ram's horns, and if you manage to catch a glimpse through the eyeholes of his mask, it almost seems as though there are more eyes than there should be....

What secrets are he hiding?

Biology
It's unclear what exactly is going on with Llyre, at least biologically speaking. While reaching milestones at the rate a Nivosus Elf would, albiet slightly faster, his aging appears to have slowed down after reaching 16-17, and it is unclear if this is due to his mother's species, or something else.

The first thing of note are the wings mentioned in the previous section. Unfolded, Llyre's wingspan is close to 10 feet (300 cm). These wings are somewhere between the appearance (in terms of shape) of a hawk or owl's wings, adaptable to passive soaring as well as more high-energy flight. The plumage seems to extend across his back between the wings as well, before trailing off. The natural colour of his wings are tawny brown with white undersides and speckling, but are dyed black for unknown reasons.

In terms of internal structure, due to his mother's race (assuming this is not a spontaneous mutation), he has a body optimised for flight and survival in high mountainous reigons and in the upper canopy of trees, perhaps having evolved in Eldham instead of the Rathnir he finds himself in now. Regardless, in addition to the previously mentioned wings, he also posesses hollow bones, allowing him to theoretically lift off far easier. The downside to his more delicate bone structure is that blunt-force trauma can be particularly dangerous, thus he tends to avoid melee combat whenever possible.

Llyre's body is not particularly adapted to storing fat, and requires high amounts of proteins and calories to function. This supports the hypothesis that his species originating in Eldham as well. Beyond these things, his eyes posess a nictitating membrane that offer a degree of protection from debris and wind while flying, and he posesses pointed canines and some of his molars seem to have been converted to carnassials.

His heartbeat is unnaturally slow, and his body temperature is low to the point of alarm, but this is a recent change since his time adventuring. His eyes do not reflect light. More research required, since these traits were not present in his childhood but he has no memory of what could have caused the shift.

Personality
A harsh contrast to his somber appearance, Llyre is a fairly lighthearted and charming young man. He takes an optimistic approach to foreign affairs, freely offering help and working hard to keep positive relations with nearby nations, though he doesn't seem particularly close to many people outside of House Volaerys itself.

However, some of his friendliness seems somewhat... artificial. It's quite hard to get a guage on his true intentions and motivations, as he rarely shares any information about himself beyond superficial facts. Like his literal mask, his personality seems to be somewhat hidden beneath his aggressively friendly mask.

Llyre is also painfully ambitious and proud to a fault. While it is hard to get under his skin, if/when he does feel insulted, the response is often nuclear, with days of planning leading up to his scorched earth tactics. Even until the last minute he will wear a cheery face, before the mask slips. His anger tends to be quite calculated and honed to the point that it seems deliberate more than anything, intentional rather than true anger.

He seems alarmingly willing to sacrifice the people around him for the betterment of House Volaerys and Almmore-Dubris, as well to further his political ambitions of unification of the North Sea, and thus his sense of loyalty and justice are rather warped. His morals are rather fluid, fluctuating with his goals, and has few qualms against distasteful acts such as violence, treason, and other crimes, most often seeing these things as means to an end. If he must be ruthless and a monster, so be it. He is not above threatening opponents, often in conjuction with Noodle, playing a somewhat good cop/bad cop role.

Biography
UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Early Life - He remembers little of his youth, beyond snapshots and memories. He remembers his mother's laugh, soft, his siblings, a brief glimpse of the sea over a field of golden wheat. He knows that his childhood was happy, for a time. Not much else remains. Llyre's mother died when he was a child, and he ended up joining his father, the then-Lord of House Volaerys, in Rathnir. While he doesn't remember it, much of the memories are tainted with a sense of deep misery that he can't place.

Exile and Adventuring - If his memory of his childhood is fuzzy, then his time adventuring is even more so. Little remains, most of it from his journals. The only solid reminders of what happened are his scars, his ruined face and wing. From the pieces he can remember, he knows he travelled for some time across central and eastern Rathnir, before returning home after his father's death.

Time in Serafaint - Llyre's time in Serafaint was marked with turmoil. While initally seemingly quite positive, relations with the Doge, Exarian Crimsone, rapidly declined after a percieved slight towards Aerin during a discussion in the brewer's guild. While in Serafaint, the two had run a brewery from a large warehouse in the port district of the city near their home. Due to the rising tensions, House Volaerys announced their departure from Serafaint and Tovarisha as a whole, which only drove the wedge further between the formerly friendly relations of House Crimsone and Volaerys. They left shortly after, with the tensions turning to outright hatred and distrust.

Thalassii - After leaving Serafaint, Llyre and House Volaerys as a whole settled in Thalassii, establishing themselves in the young nation. Here, Llyre began his political career, first on the Almmori high council, before becoming Chancellor of Thalassii, and begining to expand his influence on a more international scale. Before the war, he had been working to expand the ice road network in Northern Sparwood, as well as developing Almmore. He was head of Thalassii Secret Police as well.

Almmori War of Independance - However, this also did not last. What began as an idle thought and a happy dream soon festered into something darker. Something dangerous. The Unification of Northern Sparwood was all he wanted, all he could think about. Any means necessary. When Loic returned, promising conquest, Llyre saw an opportunity that could not be missed. It's unclear what drove him to this place, the gaps in his memory growing wider and deeper, eating away at his mind. An infection. Perhaps this was how things always would have ended. It wasn't hatred for anyone, or a specific desire. He went to Loic, who had already formed an alliance with Osseus, of which his adopted family member Noodle was already part of, with information and resources, in exchange for a United Sparwood.

In time, word of his betrayal reached his former friend, King Chorboi's ears. For this, against Thalassii law, he and Noodle were banished from the kingdom and stripped of their ranks without a trial. For this, Thalassii would burn. After gathering his things, retuned to his hometown of Almmoria, and shortly after, the city declared independance along with Dubris, another city under Thalassii control, and his place in the high council was reinstated.

Aver Viodoxa.

Business
TBA

Relationships

 * Family
 * Rhaelys es vel Volaerys (welcometothehive) - Llyre's older sister, and his only full sibling. She's nice. He doesn't entirely approve of her engagement to Arch, but is warming up to the idea. She has taken a neutral stance on the war, which Llyre dislikes, but accepts for his beloved sister.
 * Aerin mo sen Volaerys (Cyme_) - Aeren is Llyre's older half-brother through their father, and the current lord of House Volaerys. The two are incredibly close, to a nearly concerning degree, often spending time together and sharing secrets. Among these secrets are the true goals of the house, as well as their numerous brewing recipes, and perhaps something even darker... He also has killed both of the family pets, Jimmy the Cow and Noodle's Horse, much to everyone else's annoyance and distress.
 * Phoenix es wir Volaerys (GoldenPheonix) - Phoenix is Llyre and Aeren's adopted brother. Llyre is quite fond of him, and the pair of them sometimes go fishing together.
 * Noodle es wir Volaerys (Noodle_Woodle) - Another adopted family member, the Lich of Osseus is Llyre's close political ally, the pair frequently teaming up together against rivals. Between the two of them, Noodle almost always plays bad cop, levaraging his own connections with Llyre's charm. Outside of work, they're fairly close, often involving eachother in their shenanigains and pestering Aerin.
 * Other Relations
 * Archturious Talinthus (ArchXngel) - Engaged to Rhaelys, Arch is Llyre's future brother in law. They have been at odds in the past, frequently butting heads in terms of politics and religion, however, the engagement has started to improve their relationship to a degree. Llyre's relationship with Arch's children is incredibly strained due to their alliance to Thalassii.
 * Friends
 * King Zeth "Mercrio" Ritonidas I (Mercrio) - An old friend and longtime ally, Mercrio became King of Almmore-Dubris after the Independance. They have long supported eachother, with Mercrio sheltering Llyre after his banishment from Nova Thebannii, and helped eachother rise to the High Council back when Almmore was nothing but a dream by Blake. Llyre now serves as Mercrio's Hand of the King as they join Loic's forces.
 * Enemies
 * Chorboi Etruscii (Chorboi) - A former friend, their relationship soured following Llyre's choice to follow Loic. Now, the two stand on opposite sides of a looming war, each with their own hatred and anger. Chorboi's refusal to grant Almmore-Dubris independance has permanently ruined any chance of reconcillation the pair could have had.


 * Other Relations
 * Jonathan Lozharo (NateThunder_) - In another lifetime things would have been different. Before Llyre's maddened obsession for Northern unification had consumed his mind, the two were friends. On Llyre's end at least, he had considered courting the king, but never made any moves towards his affections beyond writing some poems that he burned after Lozaria sided with Thalassii. Following his defection to Viodoxa, the two are no longer on speaking terms. Despite this, he still hopes to avoid bringing the war to Lozaria unless Jonathan forces his hand, implying he still cares somewhat about their old relationship.

Trivia

 * He recently became the head of a mystery cult worshipping an unknown god, but previously showed little to no interest in religion.
 * The name he was given at birth, Lirei-Nai, is based on the the characters of 黎 (lí) meaning "black, dawn",  鈴 (rei) meaning "bell" or 霊 (rei) meaning “ghost” or “spirit”, and 賴 (nài) meaning "to depend on". Nai was a traditional suffix for House Is, and Llyre is a romanisation. Based on this, his name could be translated as "bell of the dawn", or "the black ghost". The coin has been tossed, but has yet to fall.
 * His former hobbies included fishing, writing poetry, painting, and exploring. Since the Independance, he no longer seems to find enjoyment in these activies, usually spending his minimal free time staring across the sea in the bay of Almmore or pacing around in the bottom floor of the family home, talking to someone that isn't there.
 * He is completely colorblind, seeing the world in shades of grey.
 * Llyre's favourite flowers are lily of the valley.
 * Out of character, he has frequently been likened to Assistant Mayor Bellwether from Zootopia.