Tasper Heol

Male

Tas, Tassy, Heol

Protagonist

14

120lbs

5'4

Dark brown nearing black

Skinny and lanky, with long arms and legs and not much muscle

Medium-dark, with red hued undertones

Black

Dark brown

None

Messy dreads with shaved sides

None

Quick-thinking, intelligent, fast, strategic, and a fast learner. Good runner. He's also a diligent worker and doesn't quit once he's started something unless he fails miserably.

Touches people absentmindedly, pulls at his hair when thinking, frowns a lot, rolls his eyes and crosses his arms and makes it very obvious when he doesn't respect someone, touches his face/rubs his nose when embarrassed, clenches his jaw a lot.

His fear of dragons and death motivates him to stay underground, while his anger and need for vengeance forces him above ground. He's torn between two vastly different worlds, torn between safety and freedom. He is also fueled by loyalty, a strong survival instinct, and a thirst for knowledge.

Gets flustered too easily, physically weak, lets his anger blind him to the point of disaster, disrespectful, emotional, a little harsh, overly loyal to his friends, but his loyalty runs shallow whenever he's forced to choose between loyalties, too ready to argue and voice his opinion regardless of who it hurts

Subconsciously prejudiced against Northerners/the Northern slums. Has a distrust for those in authority. Learns to hate the Board.

Running, training, "helping" Daso cook, investigating other people's business, hanging out with friends, reading history books, engaging in philosophical conversations with his mother, eavesdropping at social functions

INTP-T: The Logician
Tasper shares a few traits with his parents. He inherited his mothers strategic skill, take charge attitude, disrespectful but even tone, and determination. However, he has none of her fearlessness, her grasp on her emotions, or her stoicism. He inherited his dad's intelligence, emotional nature, and sensitivity. However, he lacks his fathers resourcefulness, selflessness, and even temperament. Traits unique to him are that he is good at connecting with others, quick to form loyalty, stubborn to a fault, and proud. Although he hates it, he will eventually admit to a fault with enough pressing. He defends others, especially people he's loyal to, and doesn't take everything at face value.

Tas loves the spicy squirrel skewers prepared by Daso. After a successful Chaser mission, the two would often throw something of a feast for the regiment. Squirrel was a staple in that feast.

Tas would love cats.

Tasper admires the strength it takes to wield a sword, axe, and bow. However, since he is physically weak, he mostly relies on daggers.

A rusted old coin his father found above the surface. After running it through some tests, it was deemed unhelpful. His father decided to give it to Tas as a symbol of hope. After all, if humans once lived above ground, then they could again.

Tasper would never admit, but he loves the idea of a gentle blue sky.

Tasper is a scavenger who aspires to be a Chaser. His job is to travel above the surface to locate goods and crops. Hunting, gardening, harvesting, etc. After a week or two in the story, he becomes a Chasing student, and remains a Scavenger all the while.

Tas thinks the gov is perfectly fine until his run in with Javi and the Traders. He starts to see the flaws in rewarding "important work" and leaving others to starve. Socialism wherein the elite benefit more than the common man turns his stomach.

Atheism. Tas believes in the tangible. You have one life, in his opinion, and the fear of losing that life should be enough. As for a devil? What could be worse than a dragon?

Tasper has had the basic elementary education required for a Scavenger. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and a course on map reading and plants, animals, and agriculture uptop. This year he begins his training to be a Chaser, requiring intense physical training along with a higher level of strategic education.

Tasper was born underground in the darkness. His dad was a researcher and his mother a gifted Chaser. He never lacked anything as compared to those around him, and he felt sympathy for those who could never achieve better jobs to acquire better rations/homes. However, he saw the system as fair. As long as they were provided for, they should be content. Tasper was born a fearless kid, always looking towards the surface. However, when his father died, mauled by a dragon for doing nothing but researching above ground, terror of the dragons coupled with a blinding rage towards them forced Tasper into a contradiction of sorts. He stands by the fact that his anger outweighs his fear, but when above ground he can barely keep himself level-headed. He wants to be brave like his parents were, but he struggles with feelings of inadequacy and fear. These traits, formed by both his mother's excellence and his father's death, are the cornerstones of Tas's character.

Birthdays are very irrelevant in this culture. Since they've lived underground and have had to ration so many things, along with the fact that most of the founding citizens simply forwent the practice, birthdays just aren't celebrated. Other occasions, such as graduations or job related things, are.

None

As the story progresses, his character develops into an even more conflicted role. As he learns about the secrets the Board has been hiding, as Nyir's Chasers fall one by one in the battle against the dragons, as Dara uncovers the truth about the Board's history, Tasper is forced to grapple with his own cowardice. If it is possible to kill dragons, then why aren't they? His fear --that it is impossible to win the war on Dragons-- becomes more and more of a reality even as he is training and becoming a more viable Chaser each day. He is so wrapped up in the Northerners cause and their call for freedom that he is forced to push down his feelings of fear and insecurity. Once his mother leaves for her final recon mission, he is forced to face his uncertainty and overcome it. He chooses to fight the dragons, chooses hope over fear, chooses freedom over safety. It isn't until the final page of the novel that it is revealed his choice was incorrect. His own fear and self-preservation, represented by the Board, was the only way to keep humanity alive. Now that the Northerners have convinced him and the rest of the Lower World to join the fight, humanity has sealed its fate.