Nyle Caeden

Nyle Caeden

Knight-Sophiste of House Durwald

Age: 27 • Virtue: Optimistic • Vice: Stubborn Goals:

Abilities

Agility: 3 (Quickness 1B) Animal Handling: 2 (Ride 1B) Athletics: 3 Awareness: 4 Cunning: 3 Deception: 2 Endurance: 3 Fighting: 4 (Long Blades 2B) Healing: 4 (Diagnose 1B, Treat Ailment 1B, Treat Injury 1B) Languages: 3 Knowledge: 4 (Education 1B) Marksmanship: 3 Persuasion: 3 Status: 3 Stealth: 2 Survival: 2 Thievery: 1 Warfare: 3 Will: 3

Intrigue

Intrigue Defense: 10 • Composure: 9

Combat

Combat Defense: 10 • Health: 11 Armor Type: x • Armor Rating: x • Armor Penalty: x Weapons: x

Sorcery

Sorcery Points: x • Sorcery Defense: x Arts & Works: x

Qualities

Destiny Points: 1

Benefits

Blood of the Bear, Expertise (Long Blades), Gifted Teacher, Knight-Sophiste, Long Blade Fighter I, Knowledge Focus (Nature), Miracle Worker, Weapon Mastery (Long Blades)

Drawbacks

Fear (Poison), Flaw (Thievery), Honor-Bound

History

Nyle was born the third child of House Caeden to parents in the prime of their political power. His elder siblings, sister Octanda and brother Clyvus, were raised to wield the house's power through the shrewd use of wealth and prestige in the family's time-honored tradition. Nyle, however, was always more taken with his family's estates, at home in their extensive gardens bejeweled with golden apiaries. He spent many days exploring the flowers and herbs growing on the estates, pestering the attendants to answer his many questions, and reading botanical books he'd begged his parents to acquire on his behalf.

His parents found Nyle's fascinations almost beneath the attention of their child, but in his youth, they were too engaged in their own maneuverings while properly raising their heir and second child to pay it too much mind. Nyle was regarded as the sweet but perhaps too simple child whose quirks were indulged because his elder siblings showed appropriate promise in the correct pursuits.

Nyle was not so simple as his parents sometimes imagined, though, and even as a child understood much of the machinations occurring around him as House Caeden worked to advance itself even if he cared little for it himself. Octanda and Clyvus, more favored to the house, often stuck together and scoffed at their younger brother's bookishness, which only encouraged Nyle's disdain toward those things they, and his house as a whole, valued.

As Nyle grew older, his parents began to look for ways to put their son's nature to the House's better use. Nyle was already better read than his siblings, so the path of an academically minded knight-sophiste seemed a natural fit, which Nyle himself already aspired to. They arranged a placement as page to House Kylervus, and Nyle soon found himself enchanted by the lush Three-Rivers lands, where a wealth of new botanical pursuits awaited.

Here, he also met Vaenda Durwald, who was serving as handmaid to the Lady Kylervus. The two got on well, both sharing a natural intellectual curiosity. Vaenda was also sympathetic to Nyle's complaints about his family's disregard for such matters, especially his elder siblings' dismissals. Nyle, in turn, was enchanted by Vaenda's tales of her family's high regard toward honor and duty, and he came to see House Durwald's history as the perfect example of what a true noble House should aspire to. Lord Durwald's founding of Gatewatch Academy to safeguard the rule of law and virtue signaled to Nyle the House's dedication to its great ideals.

Nyle soon discovered that, as is often the case in House Caeden's affairs, there had been another motive behind his placement with House Kylervus. Nyle had settled in well with the House, and his position as page allowed him to observe its inner workings unguarded. On his second attendance at Summer Court with the House, he noticed an uncommon closeness between Lady Kylervus and Crown Persym Ylrath. As had become customary, Nyle's parents questioned him closely about his experiences while visiting with him, and, even though he knew his observations were valuable, Nyle shared them without appreciating the ill to which they could be used.

Before that Summer Court had ended, House Caeden had used their knowledge of the intimacy between Lady Kylervus and the current Crown to secure a new and valuable domain for themselves. Nyle returned to Three-Rivers with House Kylervus and saw the pall that had settled over the family in the wake of being blackmailed. If the lady or any of her children ever knew of Nyle's role, they never acknowledged it to him, but he felt it keenly. House Kylervus had been kind to him, and Nyle returned their kindness by giving advantage to his own family. The incident hardened Nyle's distaste toward his family's beloved intrigues, and he determined never to engage in them himself.

Rumors & Tendencies

There are a variety of local rumors about Nyle:

• He gay
• X
• X