Eden Ryder

A strange druid from the recesses of nearby groves that sneaks in and out of civilization, before his sudden abduction onto the Nautiloid he was a wandering researcher who lacked a place to be.

Now surrounded with others who share his affliction and working towards a common goal, he’s unexpectedly found himself having to navigate the world with an unexpected brain roommate and handle keeping his new found companions alive.

What he doesn’t expect however, is to find answers for mysteries that laid dead for well over eleven years, and possibly find the only people he’s ever trusted to be vulnerable with.

CIRCUMSTANCES OF BIRTH/CULTURAL HERITAGE

Born a half-elf between a human adventurer, Silas Ryder, and a druid wood elf, Nimue Orina, Eden has always felt the instinctual loneliness that comes with it, and the lack of somewhere to simply be. It certainly doesn’t help that both of his parents were somewhat fearful hermits, having witnessed horrors that came with their initial lives as adventurers.

Silas and Nimue had met during a recruitment call for adventurers back in the day, initially just to explore some abandoned ruins and part ways after the job was done. But alas, even as their call was finished, the group had stuck together and became something of a found family between them all. The group was composed of five; Silas Ryder [Human, Beast Master Ranger], Nimue [Wood Elf, Circle of the Moon Druid], Erdene Ragewood [Half-Orc, Oath of the Crown Paladin], Therias Vrye [Tiefling, Undying Pact Warlock], and Quillathe Zylkas [Half-High-Elf, School of Enchantment Wizard]. While they had all cared for each other in some way or another, Silas and Nimue had grown closer to the point of romantic intentions.

It was the party’s last adventure which pushed Silas and Nimue towards their overprotective ways. Hired by the higher bloods of Baldur’s Gate to investigate a trail of suspicious murders, they had come across a sprouting Bhaalist cult seeking their murderous lord’s approval. They had chosen a risen maneuver to take down this growing group, infiltration and dismantlement from the inside. It was on the path to succeed with a cult dismantled and destroyed, until a fatal mistake occurred that left Erdene, Therias and Quillanthe dead and the surviving couple on the run.

While they had left many Bhaalist dead in their wake, Silas and Nimue knew that they were never going to be safe within the public eye again. Worst of all, when they had tried to turn to those who had hired them for help, they were shunned away and nearly blackmailed with their own lives for even speaking of the terms.

Doing what they believed they could at the time for not only themselves but the child they had on the way, they abandoned civilization for the forests outside of Baldur’s Gate for the safety that the unknown brought.

EARLY LIFE

Isolated from the many normalities of civilized life, even from childhood Eden’s always turned to nature to find answers and fulfillment in daily life. Woodland creatures and lands alike became normal to the child, causing him to grow a unique and close understanding with what may seem wild and untamable. With Nimue’s teachings, he was quickly set on the path of a druid, with Silas’ teachings he became closer to wildlife than most probably would.

As a child, Eden was perhaps a bit more well adjusted than he is presently. While he still lacked the social graces that city life would have given him, occasional visits to nearby small villages and proper guidance from his parents allowed him to have somewhat functioning social skills. And with an expert druid teaching him, his skills were cultivated early, allowing them to become what they are today.

Something he’s picked up from his parents though, much to their dismay, is their inherent self-less nature that pushed them towards adventuring in the first place. Only here, it’s not to seek out greatness even at the cost of one’s self, but rather a giving of one’s self to others out of the simple act of caring, love even in some cases. While they had tried, Silas and Nimue could never fully guide their child out of this trait, not before it was too late at least.

It was in his mid-teenage years that he would suddenly and tragically lose his parents. At the time he never came to understand how or why, but returning home after running errands for his aging folks greeted him with the bloodied bodies of his parents, both of whom were missing a hand, and the murderer still standing over them.

Ambushed by an unknown assailant who had promised to torment him until his dying breaths, even attempting to carve the skin from his face in the process, Eden did the only thing he could think of and fought back- which ended in him alive, and the stranger strangled on the floor. It’s the only life he’s ever had to take before the Nautiloid, but he’s never forgotten it.

While he was overcome with a sadness he still bears to this day, he didn’t have anywhere else to turn to- his entire life had been one within the wilderness without comfort. So at the cost of his social graces, he remained in those woods for years to come, continuing the life his parents had given him but without the guidance.

Something that had always left something unsettled in the boy though, was his parent’s continued secrecy. Even until the day they died, they had never shared beyond a few wise words or censored tales of their lives before Eden. With the freedom that came with their passing though, he was able to begin his studies as a researcher- now free to enter greater cities and places rather than the smaller villages he had grown used to.

MIDDLE/ADULT LIFE

While the treks were great due to distance, a place that had captured Eden’s interest early on was the grand trading city of Baldur’s Gate. It is far from the comforts that the wilderness brings him, and far too clustered and overpopulated to be somewhere he’d truly settle, it brought the promise of knowledge that the isolation of his life until now had given him.

For several years he’s made a habit of occasionally entering the city to not only expand his own knowledge of the world itself, but also to familiarize himself with the more civilized world he was sheltered from. His social graces in crowds is still sorely lacking, but his confidence keeps him from truly embarrassing himself.

It was that unfortunate interest that would land him on a Nautiloid one day, and bring onto him a totally different life than the one he had been expecting.

INCITING ADVENTURING INCIDENT

The day the Nautiloid took to the city was the same one Eden had, of course, randomly decided to visit that sector in hopes of finding some book that had caught his interest. It wasn’t even an important tomb or anything of that sort, it had just been something he heard of off-handedly and decided to seek out.

Swept up into the Nautiloid and infected with a squirming parasite in his brain, he’s quickly had to come to an understanding with his situation and deal with it accordingly: seek a cure and get revenge on the damned fuckers who put him here in the first place.