Ether Rizal

Details

It's clear to see that Ether cares about his appearance. He's a well-groomed young man; his hair always smooth and neat, his stubble well-kept and his skin clear. He doesn't shy away from wearing make-up and always wears beautiful clothes, made by the finest of materials. He loves wearing lots of jewelry, often enbedded with crystals or decorated with charms. He's a Rizal after all, he has an image to keep up. When working, he wears sheer, loose fitting fabrics, and a veil covering his face.

Ether is a very calculated individual, despite seeming to be a laid-back and carefree person at first glance. He promotes a happy-go-lucky attitude while thinking about how every move he makes can be in his favor. He's not a manipulator at heart, but can certainly act like one. Ether is innovative and creative, thinking in solutions rather than problems, making him quite the optimist. He likes socializing and is very charismatic, which certainly helps him in his work as diviner. Because of his outgoing personality he's a very open minded person, making him respectful towards individuals with different beliefs as him. He has a distaste for judgemental, controlling people.

Ether is specialised in dream divination, where he can see visions of the future of others in their dreams. Without a dreaming individual excluding himself, there's no magic. To get the clearest visions, the dreamer has to rest their head on his lap, where he in turn rests his hands on their head. This way, he can access the defensless mind of the dreamer once they are asleep. When he works his magic, the dreams take form of thick, black substance, much alike to smoke or ink. It's up to Ether to interpret this smoke. Without physical contact, there is not enough focus, resulting in whispy, blurry and vague visions. His work costs quite a bit of energy, meaning he can divine twice a day or night without losing focus. If he divines more often, his body gets fatigued and will collapse if he keeps pushing through.

Born as the second son to Fredericus Rival and Sabina Crawley, the high expectations that were once his brother Mortem's to carry became Ether's burden. As soon as he showed his first signs of divination, his intensive training started. He was no older than four when his father preached to him about the importance of status, riches, achieving once's goal and making the Rizal family proud. When other kids played outside, Ether was perfecting his divining. After the disappointment that was his first son, Fredericus made sure his second son would be a shining success to the Rival family.

Ether accepted the long hours of training as normal, until he became older and realised that not everyone spend so many hours at home. He longed for more freedom, but knew better than to bring it up. He had done that, once; when he was a kid, around seven years old, he told his father he wanted to play outside with some other kids he had seen. He'll never forget the rage that overcame his father, as he yelled at him about responsibility, forsaking his family and honor. Though, after this lecture, his father would sometimes bring the child of a friend of his over for Ether to play with for an hour, after which they would evaluate the playdate together. What went well, what could've gone better, what he should've said instead. His mother was not one to mingle whenever his father trained him. He saw her rarely; they had dinner with each other two days a week, more as a formality than that they truly enjoyed it.

At sixteen years old, Fredericus decided Ether was ready for work. He became a diviner and it didn't take long for him to become famous in town, as he was a Rizal. Not every client he had was pleasant. More than once the physical contact required for a reading got lost in translation; some clients hated him for the future they had brought onto themselves; and some were just nasty, privileged rich people to begin with. Ether found it was easier to go with the nastiness, to a certain level, than to fight it. Maybe his father had turned him into a people pleaser, after all.

A lot of the income that he earned from work went to his father. 'For making him what he is now', he was told. One night Ether decided he wanted more out of life. What that more was, he didn't really know; but he wanted to find out. He stole some money, snuck out, wound up at the local tavern and realised just how much he got cheated out of his childhood. The realisation combined with his need for more living, made him decide to move away from home. He left behind everything he had ever known to go live on his own at twenty years old. He moved far away from Ishgard, to Moonbright, a place of acceptance. Here he build a new life of his own, though he did use his family name to gain respect and fame fast. This didn't all go without hardships, as his sheltered life had made him naive and unknowing about a lot of things of the outside world. But he's grown a lot in four years and learned to be an independent boss bitch <3.

- Ether loves to do all that God has forbidden. Maybe a late teenage rebellion stage?
- He never drinks alcohol when he's alone. Company makes it taste good.
- Chicken is his favorite kind of meat.
- Would love to be a bird and to soar in the skies.
- He's trained in the basics of combat and can handle a sword pretty well, though he isn't very strong.
- His agility and speed make him quite good at sports. He'd rather be lazy, though.
- A bit of a manwhore. Loves to sleep around and dig in people's dreams without their permission.
- Dislikes babies and kids under 8 years old. Is oh so scared to break them (or mess them up).
- Lives in a room above a tavern. Started living there there when he moved away from home, and never left.
- Loves loves perfumes, and has a vast collection of different fragrances. Always has incense lit in his room.
- Absolutely adores all the costums, rituals and festivals Lemuria has to offer. Though his patron deity is still Raanan.
- He's a good debater and can and will debate you about anything if you let him.
- Loves his job now that he works for himself.
- His banana no longer has the tip of the peel