Lioph

His name comes from Bibliophile, which is a lover of books, and he named himself this after he discovered the word (since he'd already realized that his love of books was a big part of his identity.) The eldest among his quintuplet siblings; has a faint, blue sheen about him.

Studious and unsure of himself, prone to mumbling and withdrawing what he was originally talking about. ("Actually/on second thought, nevermind/it's not important..." is a common way he trails off.) Much more confident in private than he is when speaking to others. He wants the approval of his father especially, as he admires his father's scientific pursuit of magical artifacts. Lioph has a talent for tapping into and utilizing magic found in vessels besides himself (magical relics, sure, but even magic that's already within and being used by living creatures.) That said, he isn't able to use any magic from within himself, however, and is constantly "leaking" his inborn magic. This shows up in the form of the soft blue light continuously radiating off of him. Because of this, however, he's one of the few his father can actually see clearly at all times. ...Well, his general shape, anyway.

Lioph has small bones, and is rather thin. As a result, he's usually kind of cold. Besides this reason for doing so, Lioph gets a sense of comfort or emotional support from being swaddled in layer after layer of cloth. So, he usually wears at least three layers of clothing at a time. He also enjoys hot chocolate with marshmallows.

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After having been made into an adult and staying at the castle for a while (mostly reading in the library, and getting especially excited about books his father contributed to), he finally met his father for the first time and asked to become his assistant. At first, Gaelin refused, claiming that he already had an assistant. Unwilling to give up, he persisted until, finally, Gaelin agreed to let him be a sort of understudy. What really won Gaelin over, however, was that Lioph was able to use and understand sign language. Lioph was always diligent under his father's guidance...but he hasn't told Gaelin that he's his son yet. The right time just hasn't come for that yet...

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At one point, Lioph was sent on a solo mission to research a particular and peculiar phenomenon occurring in the Ashfall Waste. Gaelin didn't seem to notice how uneasy his understudy was, and in response to the stammering "I don't know about that"s, he simply replied that Lioph could use some experience in this field, the Ashfall Waste was too out of the way for Gaelin himself to go, and Lioph was always cold anyway, so he was fairly suited to the climate. Lioph couldn't really argue with that, so he wound up finding himself wandering the waste alone.

He was so nervous about it that he jumped at every sound and was constantly shivering. Whenever he settled down in a town, he slept soundly only because of how shot his nerves were. Finally, he made it to the research facility he'd picked out to look into the matter at. Unfortunately, he soon found out that this was not the location he had intended to go to. Rather, the records were kept on virtually the other side of Sornieth, in the Starfall Isles. This new journey was, thankfully, expedited by the dragons at the Ashfall Waste branch of the Serpentine Alliance, and was much more pleasant than his initial trek.

There, this time at the correct facility, he met the one who was essentially the librarian: Viper. It was kind of an intimidating name, but the two got to talking. The friendly encouragement Viper used whenever Lioph began to retract a thought really helped to coax him out of his shell. The research took several days, but it wound up taking longer, too, as the pair enthusiastically shared all manner of ideas and facts that they had. Indeed, Lioph not only had made a sound business connection, he had made a good friend.

Correspondence continued between the two, even when Lioph returned to Gaelin's group. Lioph and Viper would exchange letters, in one of which, Lioph finally shared his story: everything from his parents to how he and his siblings came into being to the castle and his own current situation. It was nice to confide in someone, especially someone as intelligent and knowledgeable as Viper.

Though, Viper did open up about himself, too, sharing his somewhat traitorous opinions on his clan leader. Lioph could hardly write in a straight line, he was so panicked about Viper expressing that in a written letter, which could expose the Spiral and get him into trouble. It wasn't like Lioph was going to tell anyone, and Viper was intelligent enough to keep that to himself most of the time, but Lioph still worried.

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