Social Rank: 8
Concept: Cultural Critic
Fealty: Crownsworn
Family: Grayhope
Gender: male
Marital Status: widowed
Age: 31
Birthday: 7/2
Religion: Pantheon
Vocation: Scholar
Height: average height
Hair Color: dark brown
Eye Color: pale gray
Skintone: fair

Obituary: There never was a Nierzen Grayhope. There's no records of a man by that name existing, no one that seems to remember him, no evidence that he ever walked the streets of Arx. And yet every now and then, someone will mention a Tasha, or talk about her tragic murder to some gang that once was as big as the Grayhopes known as the Darkbloods, and whatever happened to those fellows? Wasn't Tasha married to some Grayhope? What was his name. And wasn't there some funny writer, that tweaked everyone's noses? No one remembers, of course. Not anymore. But somewhere, Tasha and Nierzen are together again.

Description: Straight, dark hair pulled back from the sharply defined angles of his face lends him a stern gravity about his expression that softens somewhat when the hair falls forward around his ears and cross his high forehead. Dark, defined eyebrows weigh heavily over his deepset gray eyes, pale and clear and incisive. His nose is hawkish, his mouth mobile and quick, thin lips expressive and marked by early lines that whisper future grooves at the corners of his mouth. Not tall, his leanness is stark, built on wiry lines with the suggestion of physical quickness.

Personality: Nierzen is dry as dust, clever to a fault, highly curious and inventive, but generally inclined to be one of life's observers and commentators. The cultural reporter of his time, he has a keen, precise eye for hypocrisy and relishes pointing it out. The platform of public commentary is where he truly shines. A brilliant writer and raconteur, he tends to reserve his in-person bite unless specifically requested for criticism, but is rarely truly mellow unless he's at least a few drinks in. Warm with few to none, he possessed a weak spot for orphans and very young children that he will mock even as he yields to it. Few things are immune from Nierzen's scrutiny and snark. His inner monologue is scathing and it applies equally to himself as to others.

Background: Technically, Nierzen's father was supposed to have taken vows and avoided marriage, but the weaknesses of the flesh are many. He eventually forsook his vows for Nierzen's mother, who died shortly afterwards, because that's basically how life works. Nierzen grew up as a cousin to the main branches of the Grayhope family, not necessarily in crushing poverty, but not entirely too far from it. His father mostly worked as a scribe and scrivener up until he passed away from drug-related complications while Nierzen was around 9.

Nierzen ended up attached along with several other orphans, but himself, as one of the best educated ones, ended up aimed for Vellichor and the archive. He was cynical very early and never entirely dropped the habit. He married young and madly in love only to lose his wife to complications from the "family business": a sales operation gone wildly, horribly wrong. This left Nierzen young, widowed, and /even more clear eyed than before/.

He harbors a low misanthropy for basically everyone in general but a special one for his family in particular, yet finds himself inextricably bound up with the ties that hold family together because they are his connections to the world outside the archive. It leads to a snarky, bitter, macabrely hilarious existence. His restlessness has grown with each passing year since his wife's death. Maybe he'll find a way to turn the social order upside down and put himself at the top of it. In the meantime, he'll keep making fun of the people who don't.