ESSENTIALSName: Julian Wethe
Nickname: Novice Julian
Age: 15
Social Class: Indentured servant. He was raised by the monks after being orphaned, and they essentially conscripted him to help copy records that were damaged in a partial roof collapse of their chapel. Unlike other novices who would be free to leave should they decide they do not wish to become full monks, Julian has nowhere else to go, and considers his service to the monks who raised him to be repaying his debt as much as advancing in life to an adult profession.
Occupation: Scribe
APPEARANCEJulian's unusually red hair is kept cropped short, and tied into a short ponytail at the nape of his neck when it grows too long. He has red-brown eyes and a high forehead, and skin that is fair but not overly pale. He dresses in the plain robes of the monks of the Order of Chronologists, in red-trimmed white colors of an acolyte... which are occasionally also stained with droplets of ink. Julian's boots are sturdy, battered, and second-hand, but hardly visible beneath his robes; his long, pale fur-trimmed cape for outerwear is both newer and nicer-looking.
Julian is short and slender for his age, primarily because he is actually a young woman. Having been accepted as a novice in the Order of Chronologists, he presents as male at all times. At 15, his figure is emerging, but fortunately the loose robes of a monk (and the local preference for heavy, layered garb to protect from the cold) do much to hide this. He is not physically strong, having grown up on the austere monk's diet, but he still has enough muscle to accomplish daily chores such as carrying firewood and armfuls of scrolls.
PERSONALITYFastidious and polite, but shy. Julian is a very open and sincere person, but also tends to hide behind scripted formalities when interacting with others. His secret is not at all a source of shame to him (he could be hiding the fact that he's Touched!), but Julian does tend to come across as high-strung and a little nervous. In spite of his apparently worried default setting, Julian deals with intense situations with tense but clear thought. His tendency to worry also means that he is prone to taking too long to act, but when he has time, Julian is a careful and methodical planner. Fortunately, he has encountered few truly trying situations due to his age, but similarly, he has had little to no responsibility in planning anything of great importance.
The Order decided that he would make an acceptable scribe due to Julian's attention to detail, and his intense interest in learning. Having gotten the opportunity to become a scribe instead of wasting himself as a girl with nothing in the world, Julian's greatest hope is to continue as a novice and eventually a full monk, and follow scholarly pursuits. As part of his initiation into the Order, Julian penned the death record of his previous female identity, and so does not consider himself any sort of paragon of feminism breaking barriers into the Order of Chronologists. But he enjoys the services he performs, using his education to help others, deriving as much happiness from what he gains for himself as to what he offers others.
Julian does have lingering curiosity with regards to his birth parents - all he knows is that he was apparently left on the step of the Order's chapel as an infant, with no signs of who may have left him there. In spite of being raised by the monks after being abandoned, who cared for his well-being enough to raise him as male so that it would be easier to find work in the city, Julian bears his birth parents no grudge, whoever they may be, and he does not exactly consider it his quest to discover his parentage, but he is unable to completely banish the question from his mind. Julian is not at all sure what he could possibly say to his parents even if he did discover their identities - if nothing else, what would they think of their little girl dressed in the robes of a monk, having taken on a male name and everything?
Following the partial roof collapse that damaged many scrolls and badly injured one of the monks, Julian still tenses at the sounds of the chapel settling, particularly at night, and if it is sleeting or icing outside.
ABILITIESJulian is literate, able to both read and write, though as he is still young, his vocabulary is not the most expansive. He is detail-oriented and careful, but also capable of seeing the bigger picture in order to plan ... but he takes comfort in focusing on the smaller things, and, when stressed out, cannot always step back and trust in his ability to strategize. Part of this is due to his youth, though Julian will always be troubled by headaches and gastrointestinal issues due to his worrisome nature. He also likes to work at being the peacekeeper, putting in good words where he can to keep people working together harmoniously, though this is another ability that he will grow into as he crosses into adulthood and others begin to take him more seriously.
HOBBIESReading; writing; listening to stories and music; people-watching.
