Noble
Personality
Bardiel is often withdrawn and melancholy. He might be a genius, but it's repressed under the submission to his duty as a Greythorne. Keeping up with the accounts, the societal expectations of his station, and the stewardship of the family lands and holdings are where he hides. The busier he is doing all the things, the less he has to think about himself. Putting everyone else first is his nature, especially after that tour Rykard arrange.
He still loves his brother. He dotes on him. He gets so fucking frustrated with him. But, he's all he's got.
Background
The Greythorne family can trace its roots back for centuries, further back than the dark ages of Britain's past. The sire of their line was Draconar Greythorne, a sorcerer who was famed for being able to change into a dragon--though, in reality, it was the other way around. Draconar was a warlord, controlling a large span of lands in Brittany before it became a province of France. When he became enamored of a lady known among mortals as Ceinwen, he vanished from the world. She was a Princess from Faerie. Over many generations, the Greythorne line often interbred with the Fae, keeping close family ties. And so, the family line continued. Many of them never died, simply crossing over into the fairy realm and vanishing amongst their immortal relatives when they grew too old to remain in the human world. Some two hundred years ago, Alastor Greythorne inherited the family's wealth. He built the family's current home and founded Greythorne's Mystic Emporium. The manor house and shop have been passed down from father to son from generation to generation, and the last to receive it was Mal Greythorne. Mal had a younger brother, Adalric, who had married a fae-blooded human woman, Raquel Derring, and had children. Adalric and Raquel raised their sons until the youngest was five, but then they were killed in an accident when trying to lift a very dangerous curse without a full circle of sorcerers. They were powerful, but one mistake was all it took, and they were gone forever, leaving their sons orphaned. Mal was kind enough to take the boys in, and while he proved limited as a parent, he treated them well.
As the boys grew up, Mal realized that they would need a proper education. He also realized that Bardiel was shouldering the weight of responsibility with a grace and practicality that belied his young years. Bardiel's magical talent itself had not manifested nearly so strongly as Mal expected. And those hopes for the boy to develop strong magical powers led to some friction. When he was in his mid-teens, Bardiel cast his First Spell. He had had a terrible day, because Mal was not always Mister Warmth. He was using his First Spell's conjuration to get away. Far, far away. Rykard (Mal's biological son) somehow caught wind of what happened, and decided Bardiel was making rash, adolescent, insane decisions. Rykard tracked him down and brought Bardiel back home, and he magically sequestered Bardiel's First Spell (because clearly the boy couldn't be trusted with it). Rykard looked out for Bardiel, after that. Bardiel found an ally and friend in Rykard, after that. He became attached to him immediately, and was soon difficult to separate from his cousin. Where previously the only family that Bardiel felt true connection with was Gabe, suddenly there was Gabe and Rykard.
As Bardiel grew, Mal did come to be very proud of him. The boy's wisdom, intelligence, noble etiquette, and heartfelt curiosity won him friendships and favor wherever he went. He was sent to a fine university and took to the strange worlds of mathematics and the emerging engineering fields like a duck to water. Rykard eventually puppet-mastered a scheme that got Bardiel serving aboard a ship for a tour, far from the machinations of home. Bardiel loved it. The tour was meant to be just for a year. But during that time, Rykard passed away. And Bardiel felt it from across the world. He wasn't the same, after that. He was convinced he could have done something to save him, if only he'd been home. He was convinced if he hadn't been selfish and hadn't accepted the post Rykard arranged, he could have saved his cousin, somehow. Figuratively speaking, Bardiel never really left that ship. He caught word his brother Gabe had settled in Port-Au-Feu, so that's where he headed. He'd lost the ability to travel back to Arcadia; because in a very real way, Rykard was the only thing left about Arcadia that he truly wanted to get back to. His magic to bring him back there wouldn't work. He settled in Port-Au-Feu with Gabe and hasn't thought much of Arcadia since.
What Bardiel could not know was that Rykard was alive and well in Sangria, and they were destined to meet again.
