Rhisiart Powell, often called Rhis or the Second, is a Forislar swordsman, teacher, and professional second best known for his loyalty to Ryan Dùghlas LeTreis. Born to a very minor noble house in Shella, Rhisiart joined the Stanzgarian Road Corps to see a wider world than his birth would likely have allowed him, learning the blade there before refining his craft after his discharge. At five feet seven, with pale white skin, deep mahogany-brown hair worn short and wavy, blue-green eyes, and the powerful build of a dedicated fencer, he is not physically overwhelming, but he carries himself with discipline, precision, and contained force. Reserved, thoughtful, caring, and judgmental, Rhisiart is not quick to anger, but his anger festers when it takes root. After meeting Ryan in Atlania, he found in him both a friend and a swordsman of terrifying promise: stronger, faster, sharper, and gifted with an eye for detail Rhisiart could barely imagine. When drake fire began consuming Ryan’s future, Rhisiart refused to watch him die as a husk of himself. Instead, he dragged him out of the barracks and began the brutal work of reteaching a master swordsman how to fight with his off hand, becoming not merely Ryan’s companion, but the second who helped preserve the legend.

The Second, Rhis

Rhisiart Powell’s role is to serve as Ryan Dùghlas LeTreis’s second: the trusted companion, blade-teacher, and quiet counterweight who stands beside him when pride, injury, or rage threaten to consume him. He is not simply a follower, but the man disciplined enough to challenge Ryan, loyal enough to stay, and skilled enough to help rebuild what drake fire nearly destroyed. In the story, Rhisiart represents the kind of devotion that does not need spectacle; he saves Ryan not through grand speeches, but through stubborn presence, hard training, and the refusal to let a great swordsman become a ruin.

32

Male

Clean shaven always

Rhisiart wears his deep mahogany-brown hair short and wavy, practical enough for sword training but not so severe that it looks military. The style suits his reserved, thoughtful nature: neat, controlled, and understated, with just enough natural wave to keep him from seeming stiff. It frames him as a disciplined swordsman rather than a flashy duelist, someone more interested in studying the blade, reading an opponent’s habits, and quietly improving his craft than in drawing attention to himself.

Deep mahogany brown

5'7"

150lbs

none in particular

Rhisiart has the powerful build of a dedicated fencer: compact, balanced, and shaped by speed, footwork, and repeated blade drills rather than brute size. At five feet seven and around one hundred fifty pounds, he carries strength through his legs, shoulders, wrists, and core, the kind of practical muscle built for lunging, recovering, redirecting force, and fighting through long practice sessions. He is not imposing in the way a battlefield bruiser might be, but there is a coiled precision to him, as though every part of his body has been trained to serve the sword.

Rhisiart has pale white skin, common to his Forislar heritage and contrasting strongly with the darker Atlanian tones around Ryan’s world. His complexion gives him a quieter, sharper look beside more sun-touched warriors, especially paired with his deep mahogany-brown hair and blue-green eyes. It suits his reserved nature well: understated, cool-toned, and controlled, with little about him meant to draw attention until he moves with a blade.

Forislar

blue/green

none in particular

none

Rhisiart is reserved, thoughtful, and simmering, the sort of man who watches more than he speaks and remembers more than he admits. He tends to measure people carefully, especially by how they move, how they hold a blade, and how they respond under pressure. His calm is real, but it is not empty; anger settles in him slowly and stays there, banked beneath discipline rather than flaring outward at once. Around Ryan, that reserve becomes steadier and more protective, giving him the patience to challenge, teach, and support a man whose own temper burns much hotter. Rhisiart’s manner is quiet, but never weak: he is the kind of person who may say little in the moment, then decide exactly what must be done and follow through without drama.

Rhisiart is motivated by helping Ryan, perfecting his craft, and seeing more of the world through adventure. His loyalty to Ryan is not passive admiration; it is active, disciplined, and demanding, the kind of devotion that drags a wounded friend out of despair and makes him train until he can stand again. Beyond that bond, Rhisiart is driven by the blade itself. He wants to understand swordsmanship in all its forms, studying styles, sketching movements, teaching what he learns, and refining himself through constant practice. Adventure appeals to him because it gives purpose to that discipline: new roads, new opponents, new techniques, and new chances to prove that quiet loyalty can be just as strong as legend.

Rhisiart is motivated by helping Ryan, perfecting his craft, and seeing more of the world through adventure. His loyalty to Ryan is not passive admiration; it is active, disciplined, and demanding, the kind of devotion that drags a wounded friend out of despair and makes him train until he can stand again. Beyond that bond, Rhisiart is driven by the blade itself. He wants to understand swordsmanship in all its forms, studying styles, sketching movements, teaching what he learns, and refining himself through constant practice. Adventure appeals to him because it gives purpose to that discipline: new roads, new opponents, new techniques, and new chances to prove that quiet loyalty can be just as strong as legend.

Rhisiart is a skilled teacher of the blade for his age, with a particular gift for breaking swordsmanship down into habits, angles, timing, and recoverable mistakes. He may not have Ryan’s overwhelming natural gifts, but he understands craft deeply enough to teach even a master how to rebuild himself when injury steals away what once came easily. His talent lies in observation as much as execution: he studies other fighters’ stances, footwork, guards, and transitions, sketches them for later analysis, and turns those lessons into practical training. As a swordsman, he is precise, disciplined, and dangerous; as a teacher, he is patient enough to correct the same flaw a hundred times and stubborn enough to make the lesson stick.

Rhisiart enjoys sword fighting, sketching other fighters’ styles for later study, painting, and gardening. Even his hobbies tend to become forms of discipline: when he watches a duel, sparring match, or street fight, he studies footwork, guards, grips, timing, and mistakes, then sketches what he saw so he can break it down later. Painting gives him a quieter outlet for that same careful eye, while gardening lets him work with patience rather than pressure. His hobbies show the calmer side of him: thoughtful, observant, and precise, but still always refining something, whether it is a blade form, a drawing, a brushstroke, or a row of growing plants.

Rhisiart is caring, disciplined, and judgmental, with a quiet intensity that makes him seem calmer than he truly is. He is not cold-hearted, but he measures people closely and can be hard on weakness, wastefulness, or self-pity, especially in those he believes are capable of more. His loyalty to Ryan shows the best of him: patient, stubborn, protective, and willing to do difficult work without needing praise for it. Beneath that discipline, however, is a simmering anger that he lets build slowly rather than release cleanly. Rhisiart is the sort of man who will tend a garden, sketch a sword form, teach a wounded friend to fight again, and silently decide he has judged someone unworthy long before he ever says it aloud.

Ash-Grilled Skewer Wrap

Hare

Messer, but any sword really

An Atlanian styled arm torc from Ryan

Light Cyan

Rhisiart is a teacher of the blade and a professional second, earning his place beside duelists, adventurers, and dangerous men who need someone steady at their back. His work is practical rather than glamorous: he trains swordsmen, studies technique, offers correction, stands witness in matters of honor, and serves as the disciplined companion who keeps a hotter-blooded fighter from losing himself. With Ryan, that occupation becomes something deeper. Rhisiart is not only a sword instructor or hired second, but the man who helps rebuild Ryan’s fighting life after drake fire nearly destroys it.

Rhisiart largely follows Ryan’s politics, not because he lacks opinions, but because his loyalty is personal before it is ideological. He trusts Ryan’s instincts, judgment, and larger purpose enough to stand behind him even when the details of noble politics, court factions, or regional disputes are not his own main concern. Rhisiart is more interested in people, discipline, loyalty, and craft than in power for its own sake, but once Ryan chooses a side, Rhisiart becomes a steady and dangerous supporter of that cause. His politics are therefore quiet, practical, and relational: stand with Ryan, protect what Ryan is trying to build, and judge everyone else by whether they help or hinder that work.

Atlanian/Stanzgarian mix

Early Summer

Rhisiart Powell was born in Shella, in the Vallis Pinguium, to a very minor Forislar noble house with enough name to give him education, but not enough power to promise him a grand future. Rather than stay home and accept a narrow life built around local expectations, Rhis joined the Stanzgarian Road Corps, partly for work, partly for discipline, and partly because it would let him see places he knew he might never reach otherwise. The Road Corps gave him roads, danger, structure, and his first serious training with a blade.

After his discharge, Rhisiart continued refining his swordsmanship, turning practical military training into a deeper craft. He became a sword-for-hire, teacher, and professional second, traveling through Atlania while studying every style he could see closely enough to remember. He sketched footwork, guards, grip changes, and mistakes for later study, gradually building himself into a precise, disciplined swordsman with a teacher’s eye. He was not the flashiest fighter in the room, but he was the sort who noticed why the flashiest fighter had won.

While working in Atlania, Rhisiart met Ryan Dùghlas LeTreis and found someone who unsettled his understanding of the blade. Ryan was gifted in ways Rhis could not ignore: stronger, faster, sharper, and possessed of an eye for detail so exact that even Rhisiart, already a serious student of swordsmanship, could barely imagine where that instinct came from. Their relationship began in admiration, rivalry, and professional fascination, but became something far deeper. Rhisiart did not simply see Ryan as a better swordsman; he saw a man worth following into hell.

Ryan’s career was rising brilliantly until drake fire changed everything. The wound did not merely burn him and pass. It lingered, eating away at one of the most skilled swordsmen alive day by day, even after the flame itself had been extinguished. Others were stunned by the horror of it, but Rhisiart was not willing to stand by and watch Ryan die as a husk of the man he had been. He dragged him out of the barracks where they were staying and began the difficult, humiliating, necessary work of reteaching a master swordsman how to fight effectively with his off hand.

That choice defined Rhisiart’s place in Ryan’s life. He became Ryan’s second in the truest sense: teacher, witness, companion, critic, stabilizing force, and the quiet blade beside the louder legend. His loyalty is not soft or passive. Rhisiart cares by demanding effort, by judging honestly, by staying when the work is ugly, and by refusing to let someone he loves surrender to ruin. He remains reserved, thoughtful, and disciplined, but beneath that discipline is a slow-burning anger at waste, weakness, and the unfairness of seeing brilliance almost destroyed.

By the time Rhisiart is remembered as the Second, the title is not an insult or a lesser station. It is the role he chose and earned. He is the man who stands beside Ryan, follows his politics, sharpens his craft, and keeps him moving when pride or despair might otherwise drag him under. His life is built around swordsmanship, loyalty, adventure, and the stubborn belief that even a broken master can be taught a new hand if someone refuses to give up on him.

Well educated

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