History

Dimitris Umbrius grew up a rather unburdened heir. He was bright and sociable and his parents were not the bridling sort, which allowed the boy to spend his youth romping around the estate, commandeering his father's orphyr, and generally being an adorable menace. His first real trial was the (unnecessary, who asked for this) promise of a younger sister in his tenth year. He had misgivings that she would infringe upon his monopolies, and spent a truly laughable amount of time plotting her demise. But because he was pliable at that age, little Anya would wear him down with her doughy hands and warm, helpless trust. His tantrum broke like a fever, or a tide, to be replaced by an equally saturing affection.

Still, all was not well. His mother never fully recovered from labor, and only became weaker with every turning season. Dimitris always knew she was delicate, but life brimmed so fully in her laugh, in the way she stretched his cheeks to bemoan his suppleness and her lack (so he better grow into the handsomest elf ever). He thought his mother was the sun when she was glass, and he wasn't prepared for her protracted decline. Thinking it was only a matter of time before the adults stymied the wound, he pretended not to notice her sallowing cheeks and called her radiant every day. Soon she would regain her vitality. Soon this would just be something to forget.

His juvenile hopes died with her in 8244. And it seems heartbreak was nearest death, because it leeched all the life out of his father too. When Dimitris realized he had lost not one parent but two, his sense of security was swept from beneath him. Worse yet, cobwebs of a happy childhood clung to him wherever he went, and its absence made him angry. No one seemed to know how to comfort him or quell his rage, and most gave up trying - except his sister, who held on even after he made her cry. His feelings for her were complicated: she was the reason their mother died, but so was he. They were both guilty of having been born, but she chose him when his own father couldn't. She was all he had left of a joy that grew more distant by the day. She would wear him down again because he loved her too much to hate her, and it turned out he needed her too. Tending to her gave him something to do, that he found he still cared about doing, until the siblings were sent to Delverne to remember the good things.

There, he found some peace in the land and people that raised his mother. All this was why he later returned to Miras the same young master he had once been, and why he eventually forgave his father (just half). Grief became a sad but faraway memory, and everything before was preserved...translucent but whole.

In subsequent years, Dimitris grew whichever way he wished, just as he had when he was a boy. He continued to entertain his interests, secretly nap through lessons, and grow his circle. Though he was successful in the social circuit and maintained enough respect to do what he wanted, he found governance, holding court, and all the official humdrum boring as hell. He was doing the bare minimum to prove he wasn't about to cede his title, but he might've been dragging his feet just a little.