06-27-2021, 02:21 AM
Background
Nolan was born to an ordinary human couple living in 'the Burbs' slums of Chi-Town. Or so he thinks anyway. In reality his grand-father was a near human D-Bee who had arrived in Rift Earth through a Rift approximately 70 years ago.
In order to blend into society, his grandfather, his mother, and unbeknownst to Nolan, he himself (though he was too young to remember) have undergone cosmetic surgery to lose their D-Bee features (pointed ears), and as a child Nolan was taught always to hide his eyes with contact lenses and/or goggles and sunglasses to hide his cat-like irises. Unaware of his ancestry, Nolan simply thinks the strange eyes are a family mutation, that they must hide or be ostracized by their neighbours
Nolan's father is completely human, and as far as Nolan knows may even be unaware that his wife, and his father-in-law, have this mutation. As soon as he was old enough to understand,Nolan's mother prepared him in how to hide his eyes, but before she felt he was old enough to be told the truth of his ancestry, she died of one of the many diseases that run rampant in the slums.
Growiung up in the slums was difficult, and from a young age Noolan grew used to hard labour, assisting his father, and then eventually working on his own as manual labor, and somethimes hired muscle.
Secretly, Nolan's grandfather and mother taught him to read, taught him to question everything, but also taight him the necessity of keeping such knowledge secret.
However, there are few ways out of the Burbs, and most end in a very short, brutal life. One of the few ways out for many young men is to join the CS military, and Nolan decided to do just that. He isn't overly physical, but he is above avereage, and the young man soon showed promise, as he copuld endure hardships that had other trainees begging for mercy and/or simply collapsing.
Then he made a mistake, one day early in his career as a soldier, he was acting as a messenger, bringing a report from his platoons lieutenant to his commander,. He was caught reading the brief, something that tno one suspected he could do, so they had not bothered to secure it in an envelope.
After he was punished though, the commander decided not to waste that skill. Literacy was a rarity, and while not a skill to be shared, that ship had sailed so the CS would make use of it.
Nolan was assigned to a special operations unit, one tasked with finding technology lost in the Dark Ages. That assignment eventually led him to the next, tasked along with the team of learning everything they could of ley lines, nodes, and Rifts. If the CS can learn to predict Rifts, harness the powere of the ley lines, or even command REift portals themselves the knowledge would make them unstoppable.
He was tasked with learning everything he could, being given access to countless books that were 'forbidden', some of them written by authors from alien worlds, others just history that the CS would rather not have the general populace knowing.
This had an unexpected result. It was in reading a forgotten elven treatise on magic that Nolan had an epiphanyt, something fnally clicked, and in that moment he could actually sense the magical energy of a nearby ley line. Entraned Nolanstudied even more feverishly, aware that he could not dare show the CS that he was making any signifigant progress at all, but all the while learning magic, and strengthening this new gift.
Nolan is conflicted, he has succeeded at the task the cS set him to do, but if the CS learns just how well he has succeeded, then he is doomed. Because he did not find a technological way to harness the magic, rather he has become a part of the magic itself, and therefore opposite of everything the CS stands for. He is completely confused by this new gift of being able to literally see magic, and he even thinks he has a grasp of several simple magics, but he has dared not try them for fear of being caught.
Nolan was born to an ordinary human couple living in 'the Burbs' slums of Chi-Town. Or so he thinks anyway. In reality his grand-father was a near human D-Bee who had arrived in Rift Earth through a Rift approximately 70 years ago.
In order to blend into society, his grandfather, his mother, and unbeknownst to Nolan, he himself (though he was too young to remember) have undergone cosmetic surgery to lose their D-Bee features (pointed ears), and as a child Nolan was taught always to hide his eyes with contact lenses and/or goggles and sunglasses to hide his cat-like irises. Unaware of his ancestry, Nolan simply thinks the strange eyes are a family mutation, that they must hide or be ostracized by their neighbours
Nolan's father is completely human, and as far as Nolan knows may even be unaware that his wife, and his father-in-law, have this mutation. As soon as he was old enough to understand,Nolan's mother prepared him in how to hide his eyes, but before she felt he was old enough to be told the truth of his ancestry, she died of one of the many diseases that run rampant in the slums.
Growiung up in the slums was difficult, and from a young age Noolan grew used to hard labour, assisting his father, and then eventually working on his own as manual labor, and somethimes hired muscle.
Secretly, Nolan's grandfather and mother taught him to read, taught him to question everything, but also taight him the necessity of keeping such knowledge secret.
However, there are few ways out of the Burbs, and most end in a very short, brutal life. One of the few ways out for many young men is to join the CS military, and Nolan decided to do just that. He isn't overly physical, but he is above avereage, and the young man soon showed promise, as he copuld endure hardships that had other trainees begging for mercy and/or simply collapsing.
Then he made a mistake, one day early in his career as a soldier, he was acting as a messenger, bringing a report from his platoons lieutenant to his commander,. He was caught reading the brief, something that tno one suspected he could do, so they had not bothered to secure it in an envelope.
After he was punished though, the commander decided not to waste that skill. Literacy was a rarity, and while not a skill to be shared, that ship had sailed so the CS would make use of it.
Nolan was assigned to a special operations unit, one tasked with finding technology lost in the Dark Ages. That assignment eventually led him to the next, tasked along with the team of learning everything they could of ley lines, nodes, and Rifts. If the CS can learn to predict Rifts, harness the powere of the ley lines, or even command REift portals themselves the knowledge would make them unstoppable.
He was tasked with learning everything he could, being given access to countless books that were 'forbidden', some of them written by authors from alien worlds, others just history that the CS would rather not have the general populace knowing.
This had an unexpected result. It was in reading a forgotten elven treatise on magic that Nolan had an epiphanyt, something fnally clicked, and in that moment he could actually sense the magical energy of a nearby ley line. Entraned Nolanstudied even more feverishly, aware that he could not dare show the CS that he was making any signifigant progress at all, but all the while learning magic, and strengthening this new gift.
Nolan is conflicted, he has succeeded at the task the cS set him to do, but if the CS learns just how well he has succeeded, then he is doomed. Because he did not find a technological way to harness the magic, rather he has become a part of the magic itself, and therefore opposite of everything the CS stands for. He is completely confused by this new gift of being able to literally see magic, and he even thinks he has a grasp of several simple magics, but he has dared not try them for fear of being caught.
