Geraith Jen Casalan

I would be leaving out something important about Matt's kingdom and the world it's from, if I didn't mention Raith, his race, and some of the thoughts behind him.

On the world where Matt is king of a winter realm, there are five races of elf. Four are magical in nature and proficient in the practice of it by the time there are adults. And then there is the fifth race, simply known as "the Fifth".
* They cannot use magic, but it also cannot be used against, for, or on them. Which means they cannot be healed by magic either.
* They stand a head taller than their magical counterparts (ears not withstanding), and are many times stronger and faster.
* They are universal blood donors (it seems to work for *most* humanoids) with antiseptic blood cells that, oddly enough, attack cancer cells as though they were the common cold.
* Their senses are sharper, especially hearing ... those ears (much bigger than those of the other four races) are good for something.
* And, like their magical counterparts, can only be killed by physical trauma.

The major disadvantage to being one of the Fifth is that they are all sterile. No Fifth has ever fathered or carried a child. This means that they all come from two magical parents. One in ten children born on that world will be one of the Fifth regardless of their parent's race or ability and the occurrence seems to be completely random. The best result of their racial sterility is that the Fifth (almost every single one of them) are absolutely crazy about children. It is not uncommon to see a whole unit of Fifth making complete fools of themselves to amuse some kid they don't even know. When they are babies each Fifth seem to attract a Fifth Race Parent who becomes a third parent and helps them to learn how to function in what is, predominantly, a magical world. Being a Race Parent is the closest they well ever come to having children of their own, so they take the task very seriously and the Fifth Forces grant them military leave for it.

As a race, they are uniquely qualified to be the world's military force. They are immune to the magic of most of the baddies and much more suited to the physical strain of hunt and battle than the rest of the magical population. The Fifth are the first name in military, security, and big beastie pest control.

*This* Fifth, in particular, is Raith. He is the personal bodyguard of the Ferestia family (Mathaius and his 16 daughters). This isn't really a normal assignment for a decorated Fifth officer. He is allowed this special assignment because of his unique service record. From the start, he has seemed to be unnaturally lucky and has a long history of getting the job done against impossible odds. He is a free floating military agent given leave to do whatever he thinks deserves his attention. Single-handedly stopping a plot to abduct one of Mathaius' daughters by taking out the undercover team (both magical and Fifth) just outside the Whitespire garden gate got Mathaius' attention. And that is how one of the Fifth's most proficient killers and greatest hunter of legendary beasties became "Uncle Raith" the protector of the Innocents of Whitespire.

See, I *say* I tend to avoid elves. It's just certain kinds I dislike. Certain "racial stereotypes" I try to avoid. D-and-D varieties, Tolkein-esque boring perfection, they way they look in the dragon-age franchise ... I was starved for the imperfect, muscular, and *mostly* non-magical elves that occupied my comic time in high school and college. Elves that get dirty and play rough. So I wanted to try to put a little of that into the one elven world I allow myself to have. So is Raith a tribute to Drew Hayes' Jace San Lanargaith? Absolutely! I miss that comic and those characters (as he wrote them before he died) like I would miss an old friend.

There is more to his story, but I have been trying to write this comment section for about a week. It seems I can write about as well as I can draw right now. Slowly and Painfully. I'm done trying to force it. Hope this is enough to read.