Roji (RO-jee)

18-20, tall, skinny,   He hadn't grown any more vertically in several years, and was beginning to wonder if he was ever going to fill out. Voice deeper than you would expect from someone so skinny, but lump in throat   From a small village, little more than a boomtown, near Durkent, not really poor, but no luxuries, very rustic, primitive Lived near lots of small lakes, rivers connecting them   Mom is iron charmer, involved with other charmer at particular mine, other charmer had 2 kids (treated as full siblings), fathers not really known, just miners, doesn't really matter, foreman kinda had father figure role, mostly just because he was the most responsible guy around. Mine runs on 3 day cycle, two work days, then everyone off. Charmers work one day of cycle, then off other two; 2 charmers, each works one day.   Iron charmers don't need a lot of power, but need to be able to keep up reliable, steady stream for long period, to separate ore from gangue, purify it.   Miners mostly male, few females, rotate between working the mine and sexing the charmers Few other support staff, gardener, hunter, cook Some families around there, mostly single guys, only about 10 kids total, sent to school with the klerion (female, assigned there specifically because of all the guys, plenty of charm to go around), who watched Roji and his siblings for signs of charm ability. None of the miners showed any, nor had the other kids, but Roji did, and pretty significant.   Other extended family elsewhere, but he's only ever met them a couple times, because they had to relocate for Mom's job   Kind of boring as a kid, but read voraciously. Moms and foreman had some books, klerion had more, and could get even more through her connections Late to start with Sezithorum (age 18?) because he didn't care enough to apply himself earlier, took that long before the klerion would pass him, especially to someone with as much of a reputation as Sezzi. Still figuring out that just reading and being smart aren't enough, he has to actually work to accomplish something, can’t be lazy and have everything come to you   Roji year or 2 older than most when they start with a wizard, klerion kept him longer to make sure he was ready, knew enough to not waste Sezzi’s time, trying to instill work ethic, need to put effort in He chafes at it at the time, but when he gets there and meets Tiska, he recognizes that he still isn’t really ready, feeling in over his head, started accepting that people know better than he does, especially Sezzi, gets frustrated at the time, but doesn’t question Sezzi anymore, trust him implicitly blushes telling her, thoughts of her seeing him as a stupid kid   “I really like enchantment, making magical items, building things. When I first came to live with Sezithorum, the thing that amazed me the most wasn't him, or his power, or the things he could do, it was the indoor plumbing. I still don't have more than a vague idea of how it works, but I'd like to be able to make that happen for my parents.”   Gets tainted by cynicism over the course of the story, loses innocent naïve optimism Becomes more active, not just letting life/the world happen to him Takes what Sezzi says about having to kill Narz as gospel, doesn’t question it