Pyxidus (“Pyx”)
Overview
Name: Pyxidus (goes by "Pyx")
Race: Human
Gender: Male
Age: 20-30, depending on topic chronology
Height: 6'2
Build: Slim
Hair: Brown
Eyes: Hazel
Skin: Fair
Birthplace: Elbion, Liadain. Pyx’s family are upper-class citizens of Elbion, and his father and uncles are well-known merchants.
Occupation: Pyx is a merchant by trade, training, and birth, but he is largely dissatisfied with the idea of conforming to a traditional merchant's lifestyle. His primary motivation is to make his living in the most interesting way possible, which he achieves via travel, magic, and cleverness.
Affiliation: None. Pyx is not a member of Elbion’s merchant council.
Home: None, though he feels most at home in Alliria.
Skills: Pyx is well-educated, clever, and a successful merchant. He is also extremely skilled at finding people, objects, and places using magic. He has no physical skills of note.
Appearance
Pyx is homely in appearance, with angular features and a skinny frame. He is 6'2 with brown hair and hazel eyes, and perpetual stubble for a beard. He has a friendly demeanor and a mischievous gleam in his eye. His clothes are plain, practical, and of good quality, but not as fine as one might expect of a typical merchant.
Personality
Pyx is a jovial, clever, likable youth with a good head on his shoulders. He is extremely fond of mischief, but accomplishes most tasks with competence and confidence, and is hard-working and reliable.
Pyx is uninspired by the idea of spending his life as an ordinary merchant, and strives to make a living in the most interesting way possible. He considers a successful business as one that is self-sustaining and supports its employees. His proudest business ideas are innovative and fun to establish, as well as helpful to the people and communities he comes to know and care about. He also loves to explore business ventures that provide a means for him to travel abroad.
When confronted with xenophobia, slavery, cruelty, inequality, and other infringements of human rights, Pyx becomes rebellious and endeavors to help those he can, often in clever and unexpected ways.
Skills and Abilities
Pyx is well-educated, having attended private academies in Elbion throughout his youth. He can read, write, and perform arithmetic, and has a solid knowledge of history, economics, business, and politics.
When he was 16 years of age, Pyx was accepted at the College of Elbion, and he attended the college for 4 years. He is reasonably accomplished at general magical spells, and though he was not as powerful as most of his follow students, he proved himself adept at wielding what magic he has. Pyx did not complete the ten years of study necessary to earn the title of Maester of the First Order, preferring instead to leave Elbion and make his way in the world as a merchant.
Since he was very young, Pyx has had the ability to find his way without using maps and to locate lost objects. Neither he nor his family had ever associated this 'luck' with magic, but it was a latent magical ability. His training at the College of Elbion helped him hone and control these abilities, which are as follows:
- Pyx can find the four compass directions without reference to celestial bodies, landmarks, or topography. By concentrating, he can identify the compass direction of a place, as well as roads that lead to that place. It is easy for Pyx to locate places he knows intimately well, difficult to locate places he is less familiar with, and very difficult to locate places he is unfamiliar with. The difficulty involved in finding any place also increases with distance. It is impossible for Pyx to locate an unfamiliar place with no information about that place and no connection to it.
- By concentrating, Pyx can locate objects (inclusive of items and living beings). It is easy for Pyx to locate objects he knows intimately well, difficult to locate objects he is less familiar with, and very difficult to locate objects he is unfamiliar with. The difficulty involved in finding any object also increases with distance. It is impossible for Pyx to locate an unfamiliar object with no information about that object and no connection to it.
Biography & Lore
Pyx is the son of a moderately successful Elbion merchant. He grew up with two older brothers and one older sister. His uncle Eamon is one of Elbion’s elite merchants, and the most successful in the family. Pyx does not get along well with his father, whose expectations he persistently fails to meet, but as things go his youth and family relationships are fairly normal.Pyx started his career working as an apprentice for his family's trade businesses. He chose to attend the College of Elbion for several years as a youth. Since leaving the College he has worked for himself, traveling across Liadain.
At the College of Elbion, Pyx found himself in disagreement with the xenophobic principles of the Foard of Maesters, and this significantly reduced his enjoyment of magical studies. He developed something of a reputation due to his protests, most notoriously for his impressive forgeries of Elbion amulets. He was issued a number of warnings and punishments during his time at the college; however, because he came from an influential Elbion family, he was never expelled for his actions.