Character Profiles VINE VEIN #7: Tydrix
Twenty-eight ages old, Tydrix was a father to a four-age-old, beautiful girl named Maix, and was husband to Marliegh, who was 25. He was a stocky, built man, with huge shoulders, and solid legs and arms. He knew not many hopeless days, and though his emotions were sometimes worn on his sleeves, and his feelings easy to injure, his spiritual constitution and outlook on life were normally as steadfast as the walls of the Copper City.
Hardship Breeds Harder People
Tydrix was a blacksmith earning a modest pay, and Marliegh was a skilled stonemason. The two had carved out a nice living for themselves and their daughter in the Pit of the Shade(Western District) of the Copper City, though of course their ambitions would see them discontent with their current situation. Another wave of Vexings had come to Vestean, and sickness was on everyone’s mind. But that wasn’t all, the Lightless had returned as well. It was more dangerous than ever to be wandering the city streets at night, and Tydrix was obsessively concerned with his family’s well being. He constructed Maix a suit of armor with perfumed rags sown into the helmet, in order to protect her from both plague and Lightless.
He and Marliegh had been young during the Burning of Age 90, but had felt the effects of it nonetheless. Marliegh’s mother had been killed, and Tydrix’s uncle(who had raised him), leaving them to be cared for by more distant relatives. Those were some of their darkest times, as not only did they have to mourn their lost loved ones, while the city was being put back together, but they had to live with people they hardly knew, people who really only cared for them out of obligation to the deceased. Tydrix’s uncle was a Shaper, so he had grown up knowing some of what those people did, their rituals, customs, etc. Though he had never become a Shaper himself, he had always been interested. And the opportunity to become one was just around the corner…
Nebra Oremire and the Order Dragtide
Winter of Age 95, an old woman comes to visit Tydrix while he is working. She says that she had heard word that he had a relative who was a Shaper, and that she was looking for him. Tydrix knew the trouble that came with associating with Shapers(Burners), and was hesitant to admit to this true fact. The woman, who called herself Webhome, told Tydrix that she was not affiliated with the Queen, nor did she belong to any Legion, but that she was simply trying to help what remaining Shapers were in the city. Tydrix eventually told this woman that his uncle was dead. To which the woman asked if he was a Shaper now then. Tydrix told her he wasn’t, and the woman took him to the side, speaking to him alone. She told him that if he wished to ever honor his uncle, to get revenge on his wrongful death, and the persecution of an entire people, that he could become a Shaper, and that he could see real radical change happen in the city. She told him where he could find her, and left him to think about her offer.
Tydrix met with the woman again days later, and told her that he would be down for becoming a Shaper. He needed to protect his family, especially now from the Vexings and Lightless, and wouldn’t allow them to be taken from him. The woman told him her real name was Nebra Oremire, and that she was an Elder Shaper. She took him through the Shaper Ritual, and Tydrix was joined with his star, Noiro, and he became the first member of Dragtide. Neb walked him through her plan, and that she was calling her Shapers the Order Dragtide, as they were to the flood that dragged away the Copper City’s filth and disease, including Queen Redshift Allacora.
