Personality

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Uwe is quiet, opting to appear the fool rather than opening his mouth and proving his mother right. He does not enjoy crowds, finds riches distasteful, and yet he frequents any party he is invited to and drapes himself in gold in an effort to not appear a complete fraud. As his mother has considerably less control over his life, he finds himself drawn to people who would often be called "bossy" in order to live his day to day life, but he's played the game long enough that he doesn't think he shows it as a weakness - in fact, he prefers to call it leadership and a teaching opportunity. After all, he is a hero - don't you think he would know what he should be doing, and therefore allowing others to decide and make their own mistakes is a helpful training exercise? He gets easily flustered around pretty boys, and freezes if someone flirts with him. Uwe rarely uses his magic as he thinks that people will realize it's not actually that impressive and will realize he shouldn't be considered a hero. He would love to drop the act, but it's been going on so long he doesn't think he'd be able to any more without hurting his mother. Is in absolute awe of the other heroes and inflates them in his head, though he's also a little paranoid that they know and are just stringing him along to make fun of the little guy. (246)

History

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Uwe's father died when he was young enough to still believe him a hero. His mother tried her hardest to raise her son, but she had been born the spoiled daughter of a wealthy merchant and then married to become the spoiled wife of a small grocer. While life had not been as easy as it was as a child, she was taken care of and had nothing to do but squander what money they had and, eventually, show off their son. When Abner died, all of that changed. She did not know how to run the grocery, and it was soon taken from her. She took Uwe back to the Faline, only to find her father dead and his fortune in tatters. She attempted to find work, but it never took to her - she would say she was too vibrant to be tied down by anything so menial as labor, but Uwe learned that it was mostly that no one wanted to keep on someone as lazy as she. In an effort to provide for herself, she sniffed out every piece of money that had been owed to her father when he died and used her surprisingly power magic to remove it from them. She would have made an excellent con artist, but the thought did not even cross her mind. She needed money, she did not want to work, and people owed her father's corpse business.

They were not comfortable, but they survived.

Uwe grew, aware he had magic but entirely unaware of what it was. His mother pushed him to the Order from a young age, though she refused to let him leave Faline for true training, leading to him being picked on often as a "mama's boy" and "too soft to stand alone." As he still was unable to show what kind of magic he had, it was rarely pushed. When she realized that he would, in fact, do what she said, she told him that the Order was, perhaps, not actually for him, and instead that he should marry a "nice girl." The ones she pointed out to him, of course, were all from wealthy families, ones that wouldn't notice or care if they ended up taking care of a poor, single, helpless mother-in-law, but he felt no connection to any of them. He would try for his mother, however. He found few things less fearful than her wrath.

It was during this "quest for a nice girl who could pay the bills" that the Monster came to town. Uwe was walking the streets, bored between "appointments" that really just felt like he was trying to sell himself, when he saw a horrendous creature threatening, well, everyone. However, he didn't see everyone - he saw a pretty red bull who looked both terrified and also like he thought no one else would step up. He faced the monster, quivering, but heroic all the same. And, wow, he was beautiful. Stupid, but beautiful. Without thinking - not uncommon, as he had his mother to think for him, but she was not here so he was unthinking and uncontrolled - he rushed towards the bull and through up his magic.

And the world went black and white. All but a small wall of dancing, colored wind. Immediately he felt it in his chest, his bones, his head, but somehow, somehow the monster turned away.

He woke up, hours - or perhaps days - later, his mother chatting with a neighbor outside the window as though nothing had happened. "My little hero," she called him when she noticed he was awake. He told her that he didn't think he could marry a girl, and she stomped for a minute before exclaiming, exasperated, "But all the boys around here are either married or poor! Kill your poor mother, why don't you?"

Enough people had seen him distracting the monster that he was lauded a hero, and taken by the order to become a mage protector. His mother used his fame to be taken care of, but, even to this day, he's scared that what he did was not enough, that he is not a hero, that, someday, people will learn he is truly a weak coward at heart. Maybe someday. (706)

Wind Artistry