Ian of Berington (Ian)

"Oh, um, sorry about the tail - sometimes it's almost like it has a mind of its own!"

Found when still inside an egg, Ian was raised by humans and was named after an old king’s dead youngest son. As the king treated Ian like his own child, he ended up becoming fully socialized to humans and human culture, learning how to read, write and even speak different languages - all of which Ian learned quite fast thanks to being a vetehi. However, as a result of being treated as a human despite not being one, Ian has grown to be very out of touch with his body and often forgets his reptile lower half, ending up splashing water and accidentally whacking  people with it if he doesn’t control himself. He isn’t entirely sure what he is and sometimes considers himself to be cursed, feeling like a human trapped in a body of a monster.

Despite his great insecurity with his own body, Ian is generally courageous and confident with a great love for exploring and adventuring around. While taught to be social, he enjoys his peace and silence and prefers to venture alone, as well as avoiding people on his adventures unless someone really catches his interest. He lives one day at a time and tries his hardest to teach himself to become indifferent to what people think or say about him, proudly being who he is, regardless of what exactly he is.

Appearance

TBA

Personality

Life in a castle while being pampered by the king and his servants have guaranteed Ian a life of luxury: fancy clothes, good food, entertainment and companionship whenever he desires it - everything he wants is within his reach. Despite this, however,  Ian often doesn’t require much: while he loves clothes they often feel heavy and cold over him when swimming so he doesn’t wear them all too often, he only eats what he requires and often prefers to be alone than with other people. However, he enjoys books and good music, and is always present when musicians come to the castle.

Although he has always been treated kindly just like any other king’s child would, this has actually made Ian feel strange about his looks: after all, if he is just like the others then why does he look like a monster? Sometimes Ian feels guilty for being treated kindly as it makes him remember he is different, and not being treated as a monster sometimes feels like an elaborate joke that will surely come to its end soon and he will be get rid of. Being treated as a human child has also taken its toll on Ian, as it makes him feel completely disconnected with his body: he knows what humans look like, and humans don’t have a long meters long tail. To make things worse, Ian has never been told the truth about his birth: rather, he has simply been told he is the king’s son who died but was given a new chance to live in a different body. Ultimately this has led Ian to think his vetehi body is not his real body and instead of a substitute of sort. All in all, his thoughts about his body are confusing and even contradictory, but at least he doesn’t really hate it.

Despite his upbringing Ian is not particularly eloquent with his words, often stumbling and stuttering when he tries to speak too fast or gets agitated. Likewise he tends to speak before he thinks, often blurting things out to others and revealing what he really thinks of people - however, these are more often words of compliment or attraction rather than anything negative. He tends to think of people as inherently good with good intentions in mind and can be a little naive as a result, something his sheltered lifestyle has definitely contributed to. Regardless, he is still polite when conversing and is generally thought to be pleasant, although somewhat reserved and clearly introverted in nature.

Ian is allowed to swim very freely in the nearby lakes and rivers and he loves to go on adventures, sometimes taking days to return home. He usually avoids other people though and uses these explorations as a way to reflect himself and sort out his thoughts, as well as to simply discover things in silence, in tune with the world around him. Ian is very considerate boy though and always tells people where he goes and around what time he will be back - he has a good internal clock that helps him estimate time even when he is swimming in dark, deep waters. While insecure about his body, when Ian is allowed to swim freely around he usually takes delight in doing so and enjoys being able to stretch and swim around to his heart’s content. He loves to do daring jumping tricks and just as a whole seems to have a grand time swimming, momentarily even forgetting his insecurities.

History

Before Ian was even born the egg he was in was stolen by mermaids who were displeased with more vetehi living near them. However, they didn’t want to kill the yet unborn child that was soon about to hatch and instead carried it far away and put it inside a fishing net where sailors eventually found it from among all the fish. Puzzled by this curious egg the captain took it home, and after some weeks a strange baby was born - it had human’s upper body but a snake’s lower body, and from the stories heard while sailing the seas the captain guessed the hatching had to be a vetehi.

Not wanting to raise such a creature, the sailor put the baby in an auction. Through a series of weird events and odd luck the king himself was interested in the baby, and upon seeing it became convinced it was, in fact, his recently deceased younger boy reborn - their skin was the same colour and the child’s features, in his eyes, seemed exactly the same. Ian was bought and adopted and made into a proper part of the family, the king punishing anyone who tried to slander his dragonic son. He named the vetehi after his dead son and started treating him as his child reborn. With the help of the court mages and their wisdom, they were able to provide Ian appropriate food to eat and he was built a large aquarium to live in.

The king’s fixation on this creature was treated with great pity, and so nobody wanted the mourning father to get even more upset by being told this is not his deceased son. In addition, his oldest son would inherit the throne anyway, so what the ageing king wanted to do wasn’t all that important.

Ian was treated as he was a human and as such got a similar upbringing: he was taught to read and write, he was homeschooled and taught proper etiquette and manners, despite Ian being unable to really leave his aquarium. He was given beautiful clothes, and as he grew older his long body was decorated with precious stones, giving him a rather regal and glimmery look.

Unable to really meet many people outside of the king’s immediate friend circle and associates or leave the castle, Ian grew up to be rather sheltered, and for some time he didn’t really question himself or his circumstances. It was only when he was older he started to understand he looks different and wanted to see the world outside. For very long the overprotective father was hesitant to do so, but after a while ended up giving in, and Ian was able to swim in nearby places together with servants. As he started getting too large to be carried the king decided to build a large pool that was in direct contact to water, and using this Ian could access lakes and rivers and even the sea.

In many ways Ian had an easy life: he lacked nothing while growing up, except for the truth about his birth. Instead he would be told he was a reborn the way he now is and the he used to be a human in his past, and Ian had no reason to doubt this, making this a strong part of his identity despite it being a false truth.

Nowadays Ian is able to adventure freely, but still prefers the comfort of his home castle. The third oldest son (first son with the king’s second wife) has been crowned the new king and Ian has a very good relationship with him. He is worried of his father’s ever declining health though: he probably doesn’t have much left.

Skills/ABILITIES

• Typical for a vetehi, Ian is good at memorizing things and learns faster than humans by average
  
  
• An excellent swimmer - naturally
  
  
• An adequate singer but can't play any instruments to save his life
  
  
• His body is very strong and he could kill even larger animals by strangling them - something he sometimes does if he is given living prey. However, his human upper body is not much stronger than a normal ordinary human would be. 

Trivia

• *Ian was raised as male, but he actually doesn’t know his biological sex due the fact he has never been with other vetehi and doesn’t know how to tell vetehi sexes apart. It’s not a big deal to vetehi tough as their society isn’t based on gender roles or expectations; rather, biological sex is only relevant if the vetehi want to mate.
  
  
• The gems in his body were added by the king after he was told it was something these creatures did
  
  
• Ian has never eaten a person but has bitten others a few times, and is afraid he will bite people again. However, thanks to being raised by humans, he doesn’t really see humans as prey and is usually fine as long as he gets meat from elsewhere. However, if his food time has been neglected or forgotten he might start drooling after people - and hating himself for it.
  
  
• Afraid to meet other vetehi; thinks he isn’t one of them and fears the other vetehi will think so too, either attacking him or killing him.
  
  
• Sometimes people give him living prey for their own sick amusement. Ian isn't particularly bothered by killing something he is going to eat, but he feels a little embarrassed and uneasy when people watch him feeding. However, he is too embarrassed to say anything about it.
  
  
• The king’s wife had died along with their youngest son and as such Ian never had a mother. However, he treated one of his nurses as one. He has 5 siblings: three older brothers and two older sisters. The oldest brother and sister are children from his first wife, the other three are from his second wife. The third oldest son is now a king as the king wasn’t pleased with his first two children, who ended up pursuing life elsewhere anyway. Ian doesn’t know the two oldest but is in friendly terms with the king and his little brother, while the sister and he have a very passive relationship as she is afraid of him.
  
  
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