Richard Hunt

Richard Hunt was entirely forgettable until he inherited his father's mercantile business at the age of 20. At that point, he proved how much of a shrewd businessman he was, managing to grow the failing endeavor into one of the most successful trade companies in the Glamour Isles in only a few years, using the last year of the War of the Cross as a launchpad for his future success. The money that he earned from his savvy decisions was enough to make him and his family comfortable for life.   As part of the path he took to grow his business, he met a Castillian aristocrat of a middling house, who he married as part of a lengthy negotiation to allow his ships access to Castille without being reappropriated for the Castillian Armada during the War. Lady Sienna Hunt became his wife, and he found to his surprise that they had much in common. Their love blossomed over the next few years after their marriage, and before long the two of them were as happy as it was possible for a married couple to be. The two of them settled down at Richard's home in the Glamour Isles, and there they had a daughter, Elena.   Finding that he no longer needed to travel around Théah to maintain his business, Richard began to cultivate an interest in ancient artifacts, an interest he shared with his daughter. Together, the two of them would read adventure stories and admire artifacts in private collections around the Glamour Isles. Richard even started his own collection of Syrneth artifacts, though his never grew to the size of his contemporaries in Queen Elaine's court.   Lady Sienna noticed his passion for the ancient, and she encouraged him to use that passion and his skill with paper trails to become a scholar. He joined the Invisible College, and quickly became known in the organization for his knowledge of the Syrne.   His marital bliss came to an unfortunate end in 1657, when he entrusted a merchant fleet to his wife. Lady Sienna set sail for the New World with the fleet, but the fleet vanished before its arrival. The sudden loss of his love drove him deep into grief, and he swore that he would find some trace of her. He searched for years, but never found a trace of her. As the years went on, he grew more desperate, resorting to supernatural means to try and find her. When his attempts to bargain with the Sidhe failed, he turned back to Syrneth artifacts, hoping that something in them would be able to locate his missing wife.   Richard's increasing desperation and continual grief put a rift between him and his daughter. The rift between them widened and narrowed through the seven years after Lady Sienna's disappearance, but never fully closed. Richard was far too busy researching the next artifact that might be able to find his wife to spend more than a token amount of time with Elena.   Eventually, among his continual desperation and the growing rumors about him from the other Avalon nobility grew too great for him. Not long after a heated argument with Elena, Richard Hunt was found dead in a closet, victim of an apparent suicide. A grief-stricken Elena packed up his research and put it into storage, unwilling to look into what was so important to him that he pushed her aside. It took years and an unexpected meeting to change her mind on the subject.