Aneirin (ann-NEY-rinn)

Aneirin Vanderhill (a.k.a. Ney? Rinn?)

Aneirin doesn't come across the pages of my series until later; Book Three, maybe.

One of Prince Corentin's expedition, Aneirin comes from a scholarly background but his curiosity makes him an apt explorer, especially with his arcane and martial talents. Though he considers himself a poor warrior, he can hold his own with the athletic men of the expedition just fine (it's a perception issue, not a talent issue). He serves as the knowledge behind the expedition, working from notes and references he spent a year collecting.
Aneirin was one of the scholars who were given the Anonymous Chronicle to translate and research, and he was selected over some of the more prestigious scholars to accompany Corentin due to his skills with weaponry and magic. (He was embarrassed; the scholars tended to be irate.)

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Leanly muscled like a runner, Aneirin keeps in good shape through his constant training with weapons to improve his impression of himself (though there's little chance he'll ever feel good enough, it's a vicious cycle).

Body Features

He's got the mid-tone tan skin of most of the continent, with golden hair that's on the fair end of things.

Facial Features

Blue eyes, clean-shaven. His eyebrows tend to look heavier than they are, as his forehead is usually creased in a focused frown. In reality his eyebrows are simply darker than his golden hair, and the frown makes the difference more notable.

Identifying Characteristics

Small scar above his left eyebrow from a childhood punishment that caught him just wrong. It's faded into his skin by now, but it does give his left eyebrow a tiny divot at the top, and when he raises his eyebrows the left one makes a flatter curve than the right side.

Physical quirks

Ambidextrous, uses both hands at once constantly, often to the bemusement of others, even if it's talking with one hand and writing at the same time.

Special abilities

Talented arcanist. Somewhere back in his family's line there was someone of royal blood, and the talent that came with that has continued through his family. His limits are more due to his lack of focus on magic rather than his lack of ability. He's about as talented as a master, but doesn't have the title as he has never completed a mastery project to submit for review.

Apparel & Accessories

Loose, well-made clothing of good quality fabrics, whatever is comfortable to sit around for long hours in whatever cramped position he might find himself in. This tends toward tunics and loose breeches, often cloth slippers instead of boots. He rarely has far to walk between his bed and his books, whatever his current project might be.

Specialized Equipment

While in Fethonia, he rarely has need of anything outside the realm of any other scholar. Lots of parchment and ink, but that's about it.
Later, once he has been granted the position of explorer with Prince Corentin, he'll be fully equipped as warrior and arcanist, with less of the scholarly trappings save those few books and scrolls he felt absolutely necessary to their expedition.

Mental characteristics

Personal history

nobleborn,

Sexuality

Bisexual, has more male companions than female

Education

nobleborn male, standard mental and physical education, took far more to magic and knowledge than weapons, though he's no slouch

Employment

Aneirin isn't employed so much as he has work he does, usually a research project of some sort for either the Library of Fethonia or a noted arcanist. He's from a lesser noble family, and doesn't actually need to work in order to have enough to support himself.

Failures & Embarrassments

Despite knowing it's not his fault, Aneirin has always felt like something of a failure as a warrior (which his father had wanted him to be). This has led him to practice daily, and he's now far better than he realizes. Still, he considers himself lesser, regardless of who tells him otherwise.
Aneirin has stuck his nose into places it didn't belong before, sometimes getting burned in the process. This is a recurring theme, and while he laughs it off usually, it also embarrasses him to be called on it. His curiosity leads him around, and it doesn't entirely matter to him if he steps on toes to get answers.
He was extremely embarrassed to be chosen over more distinguished scholars for Prince Corentin's expedition, despite understanding his martial and magical skills often far outclassed theirs, and when he tried to apologize to the other men, most did not react well in spite of Aneirin's good intentions. Some of these were rather public humiliations.

Mental Trauma

His father wanted a more martial son, and there was verbal abuse involved before his mother realized what was going on and appealed to her brother to step in. Aneirin went to live with his uncle then, and his relationship with his father is fraught at best, which leaks into how well he can get along with his mother, who stayed by his father's side like a good wife. He shies away from "family" concepts, and while he can be happy for others, he doesn't see family as something to seek, except in the "found family" sense of friends who grow close like brothers.

Intellectual Characteristics

Aneirin is ridiculously intelligent. He's quite capable of being an engineer doing work in physical space and with numbers, an arcanist, or any number of other intellectual roles, and a fair few martial ones as well. He enjoys learning for learning's sake, which has made him a bit of a jack of all trades, having dug his nose into so many fields that he has a little knowledge of everything and quite a bit of specialized knowledge that may or may not be related to his next area of expertise.

Personality Characteristics

Motivation

Knowledge. This is a man who doesn't need a reason to answer a question besides the question itself. This applies to attempting a new engineering design and working out the issues until it works as he desires or following a travel log into the wilderness because it hints at a mythical artifact.

Savvies & Ineptitudes

Anything in regards to learning is his wheelhouse.
Unfortunately his social aptitude has taken something of a hit in return. He can be rough around the edges, and tends to speak his mind bluntly, even if that offends or insults the listener in a way a more tactful statement of the same general meaning would not have.

Virtues & Personality perks

His patience in pursuing a problem is succeeded only by his curiosity and often one-track focus. He has zero cares for societal codes of conduct if they get in his way, and will speak to the lowest slave or highest priest if it serves his purposes. This can be a great go-between perk, if he can be trusted to be tactful enough not to cause worse issues.
Ambidextrous, regularly uses both hands at once.
Can read and write several dead languages in addition to his own and a number of current continental languages, including the "old" variants thereof, even if most of the continent has a standard trader tongue that serves as a common language. (That's "boring".)

Vices & Personality flaws

If he's in the zone working, disturbing him will always result in anger. His temper tantrums are repressed when the person disturbing him is of higher rank, but often that just delays his outburst. He has no patience for idiots, nor anyone who chooses to be close-minded about pretty much anything. It might have been socially redeeming, except that it's more of an academic's offense that someone would knowingly stifle knowledge of any kind.
Though he keeps his business private, his only real vice is sexual contact, especially when he's frustrated, burning through his anger and frustration with physical needs. Within Feshaesia, this is usually his patronage of one of a few selected brothels and festhalls that cater to his needs. On an expedition with only fifteen men into the wilderness where there is zero privacy, it's likely to cause some grief.

Personality Quirks

At least one of his hands is always moving, even if it's just twitching in his sleep. He also has a habit of humming or whistling tunelessly through his teeth while he's working or focused, and it drives anyone with a sense of pitch absolutely wild.

Hygiene

Though he keeps himself well, accustomed to the culture of the noblemen and higher caste scholars, Aneirin has been known to forget basic hygiene when he's focused on a project. It happens often enough that most who know him can generally tell how long he's been working by the stains on his tunic and the state of his five o'clock shadow/scruff.

Social

Contacts & Relations

He was raised from age twelve on by his maternal uncle, a scholar in his own right, though a historian of warfare. Through his uncle and the rest of his mother's family he has connections that can open most major doors in Fethonia to him if he truly needs it. His relations have learned careers, whether academic, arcane, or just educated. (A cousin manages all of Aneirin's finances, for instance.)
Aneirin is well known at the Library of Fethonia, and holds the same status there as some of the more prominent researchers employed by the Library itself. Likewise, his arcane knowledge has made him known at a certain not-quite-mastery level to the arcane community in Fethonia. Should he need to contact any scholar or master arcanist in the capital, he either knows someone or has some link that will get him in the door. His connections within both academic and arcane communities are not limited to his own level, unlike some who feel the various levels are something of a caste system. He's as likely to know the name of an apprentice little old enough to be more than a runner of messages as he is the master-level mages he studies under, with, or in pursuit of.

Family Ties

Aneirin hasn't spoken to his father since he left home at twelve for his maternal uncle's house, and the rest of that side of his family is more or less unknown to him—he knows of them, and can probably name the closer blood ties, but he's not familiar with the people themselves. (Thus the assumed surname Vanderhill, literally "from the hill".) Still, should some kind of slight to the Beirne family be aired, they would likely back Aneirin against such insults. (Though he's unaware of it, Aneirin's selection for Corentin's Expedition went a long way toward repairing his value in his father's eyes. His father has followed his career from a distance.)
Through his father's family, he's connected distantly to the Feshaesian royal family. It's not a close enough tie to merit special treatment, but it does add something when considering him for a position like the expedition.
Aneirin is very close to his maternal family (even if not his mother, as she remained at his father's side). Though no longer bearing a single surname as they have a propensity for female offspring, this is a network of themselves, as they've spread across a number of useful fields within Fethonia, and within both the nearby area and their native region to the southwest, now a princedom under the High King.

Religious Views

Loosely, his religion is Polytheism, but he mostly focuses on [Aatos or Izmeni?], the deity of knowledge and magic. He's also fond of swearing by [the other name], a saint of sorts raised to a demigod-like status for great achievements. Aneirin isn't particularly strident in his beliefs, more that he acknowledges the gods exist and goes on about his business. He's far too taken up with learning to devote much thought to gods or worship.
He typically follows the Wheel of the Year celebrations, but he does so because he enjoys the secular festivals, not the religious traditions behind them.

Social Aptitude

Before he opens his mouth, Aneirin is fairly charismatic. He's not ugly, nor does he cut a pathetic figure. He can smile and nod with the best of them. His confidence isn't what it could be, but in a crowd he tends to display more confidence than he feels as a defense mechanism. He doesn't go out of his way to speak to others, definitely an introvert, but in a group of well-known people he's comfortable enough to converse.
It's the conversation that tends to get him into trouble. He's blunt and often tactless. His social interactions are goal-oriented for the most part, seeking a piece of information or an answer he needs rather than catering to others or offering polite niceties. He's better with people he knows, especially since they're usually better prepared for his particular peculiarities.

Mannerisms

He often talks with his hands, whether it's with purpose or just the natural way he's usually moving in some fashion.
Aneirin is someone who will never use one word when a phrase or three would better clarify his meaning. Elaboration is a theme, and he rarely needs to be asked to explain himself. If anything, people cut him off and agree with whatever he was rambling about. He doesn't consider it rambling, but it borders on it.

Wealth & Financial state

Upper class, from a "lesser" noble line (quite far removed from an actual title, but still with the wealth and influence to back him up if necessary), and though he tends to work on retainer for his various projects, he would have something to fall back on if he needed it. He lets more financially-minded people keep track of his assets, however (namely a cousin), and if asked, would only really be able to state his level of comfort and lack of monetary concern.

Alignment

Lawful Good/Curious

Current Location

Fethonia

Ethnicity

Feshen

Age

early 30s

Birthplace

Fethonia

Current Residence

near a library? scholarship? academy? arcanists?

Pronouns

he/him

Gender

male

Eyes

clear blue

Hair

golden, below the shoulder, tied back or half back

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

mid-tone tan

Height

5'9"

Weight

runner's build, long and lean

Quotes & Catchphrases

"...I read it in a book once." (frequently sing-songed along with him by other Expedition members)

Belief/Deity

Polytheism (Aatos? Izmeni?)

Aligned Organization

Feshaesia

Character Prototype

I was picturing Brad Pitt in Troy and Alexander Skarsgård in Tarzan when I had a mental image of Aneirin, but I think the character would be better played by an actor less well known and more cautious-seeming, more like 'Eusebios' in Clash of the Titans or even better, the character 'Luna' in Riddick.