Kadrys van Zyl

Kadrys van Zyl is a mayor and senator from the Geltisch Handelsrijck, although he was born in Novior, Østerion. He currently runs the city of Harhoven and serves as one of the most trusted senators to king Zephyr Paradox on the Geldish Senate.

Appearance and Personality
Kadrys stands at around 182 CM, shorter than the average Gelt possibly due to his part Østerian heritage. He has darker skin compared to other Gelts as he spends a-lot of his time outside in the hot Southern Geldish sun. He can be seen wearing his red frock coat along with a red-white striped shirt from his time in the Geldish Navy Engineering Corps.

Many describe Kadrys as a man who cares little for the affairs of others but his own or his close ones, not out of hate, but out of suspicion and his everlasting adherence to his father’s teachings. But when with his friends, he is said to be a collection of sarcasm and allegedly awful puns. He enjoys spending time with his closest friends King Zephyr Paradox, Creeperoni van Papania and Piet GoldenMaen.

Birth
Kadrys Van Zyl was born to Jan Van Zyl, a merchant, hailing from the Geld and Freedea Leroeina, a seamstress, hailing from Østerion. The two met in Novior when Jan visited the city to negotiate a deal with a local business there. The pair fell in love the second they laid eyes upon each other and would get married in a year,

A few months after the marriage, Kadrys was then born in an inn in the city of Novior to sounds of cheers from the cousins, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts and all the other relatives of Jan and Freedea. Kadrys’ first name would be chosen by his mother while he took the last name of his father much to the delight of Jan’s relatives who were present. A rather strange birth, but fitting for the strange man Kadrys would grow up to be.

Early life
Kadrys was first raised for the first 5 years of his life in his mother’s house and workplace, learning how to sew. He was made fun of by his peers for being somewhat like a girl, as Kadrys enjoyed reading and sewing more than he did climbing trees, slingshots or playing war. This would cause Kadrys much anxiety and he would distance himself from his mother as he wished to learn to be a man like his father. His father would be incredibly flattered by his son’s attempts to be more like him and would take Kadrys on as many trips as possible as part of the merchant profession. Kadrys would first vist Handeldam, the glorious capital of the Geld when he was six years old. He would be blown away by the beauty of the capital, compared to the smaller Novior at the time. Kadrys would always beg his father to stay an extra day in Handeldam, much to his father’s delight who wished to raise his son as a man of Geldish culture and mannerisms. But on one fateful day, as Kadrys and his father returned from Handeldam after another trip they would find out that Freedea had died in her workplace after the storage room caught on fire. Jan would be devastated and quickly relocated his family to Handeldam, vowing to never return to Østerion. Young Kadrys would have a personality shift as a result of his mother’s death, becoming a lot quieter and less enthusiastic about anything.

Teenage Years in Handeldam, The Navy and PTSD
Kadrys would live out his teenage years in Handeldam, practically chained to his ever more paranoid father. Kadrys lived out his teenage years in a middle-class area where his ever more paranoid father raised him to be serious, blunt and straightforward, causing Kadrys’ classmates to dislike him very much. Kadrys would be the target of bullying in his school because of this, which led to his father signing him up for the academy of the Handelstaat navy. Kadrys would be drilled relentlessly into a formidable seaman, the navy restored Kadrys’ enthusiasm and cheerful spirit for a while. Kadyrs would always describe his time in the navy as “A time where I felt like I accomplished something, a time where I had friends who could share that accomplishment with me,”. But his time in the navy would be cut short on one faithful day, on what seemed to be a regular patrol, his ship would be ambushed by pirates. His friends would be killed in the scuffle and Kadrys himself would be injured. Though his ship, luckily, didn’t sink, Kadrys’ cheerful spirit did sink once again however. Upon returning to Handeldam he would break down into an emotional wreck, refusing to come out of his room, cursing his dad for signing him up for the navy. Kadrys would eventually reconcile with his father after a while as well as come to terms with his life in the navy just in time for his 18th birthday.

Adult Life and Return to Østerion
After graduating from navy school, Kadrys would find a job as a ship engineer in the royal shipyards of the Geldish Navy. It was noted that he specifically requested to not be part of any ship testing or be put in any task where he had to be on a ship as his memory of the ambush still haunted him very much. Eventually, Kadrys would suffer another breakdown after a ship design he was given to improve was of the exact same class as the ship he was ambushed on. Kadrys would resign from the shipyard much to the disappointment of his father. Feeling lost and without, Kadrys returned to Novior. When he arrived at Novior, he realized how little he remembered of the city, but he was certain it’s much larger now than when he last lived there. Kadrys drifted around Novior for a couple weeks until he eventually came upon a poster seeking for a new logger. Kadrys having few options and going broke by the day quickly accepted this job, he would begin making enough money until he coulda afford a house right next to where he was born. As a final act of coming to terms with his areas of hurt, he visited his mother’s grave and finally layed flowers there for the first time in his life.