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Nimueh knew very little of the history of his parents, only that he had an ice father and an Alkidike mother who pleaded with Aisha for him without the matron's approval, and attempted to spirit him away in the night. He was found as a newborn in the forests of the Chibale Isles by a young Alkidike named Elsheba, hidden in the nook of a tree. His parents, Elsheba eventually explained, had been killed by a beast sent by Aisha, punished for their hubris in daring to breed without permission. Even as a child, Nimueh knew he was different; he knew that he was never meant to exist, even if it was never so much said to him in words. Elsheba didn't detest hybrids, but she held the greatest reverence for Aisha, and took the death of his parents, and her finding him as a sign from Aisha.

He was raised in a small tree on Isle Amara with his adopted mother, her mothers Levonn and Senza, and his aunts (Elsheba's younger sisters) Anya, Ashani, and Lumikani. Here, Elsheba was far from a nurturing parent. She was still young, flighty, and spent more time hunting in the forests for food and sport than tending to the young boy she'd adopted. More often than not Nimueh spent his time with his grandmother Senza, who raised him alongside his aunts. She was kind, but somewhat distant, and while not cruel she lavished her daughters with more attention that Nimueh came to crave. Levonn, meanwhile, was more distant. She, unlike her daughters and wife, detested hybrids, but even she treated him indifferently rather than with actual cruelty.

Possibly Nimueh's earliest defining moment was an experience at a marketplace where Elsheba was forced to pull him along, where he was met with derisive sneers and sharp eyes, and the realization that not only was he a hybrid, but he was wrong in all the ways that were important. He lacked antennae and, as such, was imperfect; his coloration lacked all the proper hues, appearing more like an ice earthling than a true Alkidike; he sported crystals (crystals!), and where all other Alkidike were female, he was male. It was a state that he would have come to detest, if not for the presence of Elsheba's childhood friend and eventual partner, who was a hybrid Alkidike, and also male. While he and Nimueh were never especially close, due to his travels, Samoset at least became a role model in that he was happy, able-bodied, and good enough that Elsheba was close to him.

So it was with excitement that Elsheba announced to Nimueh that he would be spending a good amount of time with Samoset in the future, that they were going to go on a trip! Together with another small group of Alkidike, they traveled away from the Chibale Isles, east... but it wasn't until the first night fell and they were settling down to sleep that Nimueh realized what had really happened: he had been given away. In the young child's mind, he had been forsaken by the only mother he had ever known, and given to someone who was virtually a stranger.

In reality, however, a faction of discontented Alkidike (of which his grandmother, Levonn, and aunt Lumikani were a part) had rebelled against the rest of the Alkidike. Unhappy with the lax breeding and disrespect shown to Aisha, the Extremist threat grew larger and more violent every day, and Elsheba, seeing the growing tension, had felt that Nimueh would be safer with Samoset's family in Tale.

On a brief break in Jauhar, on the way to Tale, Nimueh fled from Samoset and hid himself by a tree... where he was found by a young hybrid prentice named Callum. Finally venting his feelings about being different, Nimueh was told, for the first time, that he COULD be different. That different wasn't necessarily a bad thing, and coming from someone so kind Nimueh had no choice but to concede the point.

Once he arrived in Tale, Nimueh realized that he had found Alkidike society oppressive. Out in the world, without the feeling of being less than he should be, Nimueh was introduced to the lifestyle of the Earthlings; and he loved it. For a few happy months he played side by side with his uncles Drexl and Lixes, Samoset's younger brothers.

The happiness was short lived. News soon came that the tension in Andile had broken, and the extremists (for some ill-informed reason) were marching to Sauti, where they believed their young matron was making a stand. With fear that they would reap havoc in their path, Nimueh and the other children escaped to Sauti where they stayed with the war camp during battle, during which Nimueh became lost in the crowd. In the aftermath of the battle, the extremists were banished from the mainland... and Nimueh found himself orphaned. With concerned adults fawning over him, he should have voiced that he had a mother in Jauhar, but... the fear of returning someplace so oppressive when he had been so happy in Tale terrified him, so he kept quiet. And when the adults opted to take him to Zena, he didn't argue.

He was taken in by a group of travelers going back home to Zena- and there he was adopted - by an Alkidike.

Life with his new mothers, Izuzue and Xansa, was completely different to his life back in Andile. Izuzue, an Alkidike, had left home to explore the new lands of Zena decades ago, believing that the Alkidike call to conquer the other races was metaphorical - and that by living in Zena and becoming respected, she had 'conquered' the place for her people's sake. That being said, she had not returned home for a long time, so some of her views on Alkidike culture were a bit relaxed; she had even settled down and married an Ice earthling!

After spending so long as a reviled member of his town back in Jauhar, Nimueh was shocked when Izuzue accepted him into her family with open arms, believing that he had been sent to her by Aisha for her decades of service. While Nimueh was skeptical of the thought, and initially resented the idea of calling this strange woman his mother, over time Nimueh began to feel more at home here than he had anywhere else. In Zena, he was a smart young boy who learned quickly. The villagers still saw him as a half breed, but the family he had been adopted into was respected and so the venom was nowhere near as toxic as it had been in his early childhood. His new parents were supportive and kind to him, teaching him everything they knew about their craft, taking the time to listen to him when he had concerns or dark thoughts.

He felt loved, unconditionally, for the first time in his life. As he came into adolescence, Nimueh realized that Elsheba, while she had his best interests at heart, had not been a fit mother for him. She was impatient, inattentive and ashamed of who he was- and far from the supportive figure he had needed in his life. While he missed her, the idea of meeting her again terrified him - and in that realization he finally accepted his news mothers with open arms.

During his younger years, Nimueh became enamored with natural formations, crystals, and different metals which he made into simple jewelry as a hobby. He felt no true calling to any sort of craft, and yearned, above all, to travel... but, for the time being, resigned himself to working with the family merchant business.

A Familiar Face
In the years following his meeting with the hybrid prentice, Callum, the sad but kind man he met had become an inspiration, until he could only vaguely remember his face even while his words helped grow Nimueh into a more confident young man.

Nimueh briefly held aspirations of being a merchant, like his mothers, and so on one excursion to trade in Sauti he ran into Callum who, shockingly, agreed to take Nimueh on a trip through Sauti to show him the sights. Callum was playfully flirtatious and beautiful, and Nimueh quickly fell hard for his traveling companion, only to be rejected once he confessed his crush. Though embarassed at the rejection, Nimueh and Callum continued to travel; up until an unfortunate run in with a sermal left Callum mauled and injured, and unfit to travel. Once they'd returned back to a Sauti settlement, Nimueh had no choice but to leave him in the capable hands of the healers and return home to Zena.

Back in Zena, Nimueh threw himself into work (his punishment for running off through Sauti for months without letting his mothers know), as well as a new training regimen. The fight with the sermal haunted his thoughts constantly, and so he decided that, while no fighter, Nim at least wanted to be able to defend his loved ones if it came down to it.

And so, Nimueh became a guard, and life in Zena continued.

In Zena, time seemed to freeze just as the land did. Between his work, his physical training, and raising a raptrix pup he adopted, Nimueh had little time for proper romance, though he did his share of 'socializing'. He stirred a brief relationship with a neighbor his age named Gawan, but his commitment to leaving Zena in order to explore the world cut any aspirations of a long term relationship short. As he grew, and prepared to leave home, however, Nimueh was reunited with Callum, who had come all the way to Zena after so long to finally return Nimueh's feelings and, knowing that they shared the same love of travel, Nimueh and Callum rejoiced in their newly formed relationship.

Growing more accustomed to one another, Callum and Nimueh traveled through Zena to see the sights, growing closer and closer as time passed, overcoming their own jealousy and insecurities. Callum told Nimueh about an experience in Oba where he was briefly held captive by an Oban couple, and drugged, but had eventually escaped. Nimueh grew more and more fiercely protective, and as their trip continued on he fell for Callum, hard.

Despite their relationship still being new, the two came to the somewhat rash realization that they wanted to be parents. They had only been together a short time, but with Callum's near death experiences hanging over him, and Nimueh's longing to start a family of his own, they hastened to Jauhar to pray to Aisha for a child.

It was the first time he had returned to Jauhar since his childhood, but Nimueh was certain that with his newly built confidence he could survive the stares... and with the promise of a family on the horizon, he knew he could shoulder any burden necessary. What he didn't expect was for the matron to promptly dismiss his case, insisting that because he had fled from Chibale and chose to live as an Earthling (despite his growing reverence for Aisha, due to his mothers' influence, and the fact he had always kept his hair in dreads) Nimueh had forfeit his right to breed as a Sister.

Crushed by this realization, Callum and Nimueh turned to another option: surrogacy. They were introduced to a woman named Eema who was, like Nim, a hybrid of ice and alkidike descent. With the promise of children, Nimueh rushed to Zena to commission a small home for them to live... and, while visiting, embraced the reality that he truly wasn't an Alkidike. Shaving off his dreads, Nimueh embraced the life of an earthling fully and returned to Jauhar to await the birth of their child with Callum.

They really shouldn't have been surprised that they were having twins.

Into the world tumbled Ygraine and Sol, twins that instantly became the center of Nimueh's life, while also proving to be a true handful. Constantly testing their parents' patience, the children grew up in Zena surrounded by family and, for the most part, shielded from any bias thanks to their grandmothers' influence. When they were nearing five years old, a tournament was held in Oba to celebrate the years of peace, and the young family decided to go to support Callum's fight.

It was then that tragedy struck. Callum went missing, and after days of searching for him Nimueh had no choice but to take the children home to Zena to the safety of their grandmothers. Months passed without word of Callum, until one day the twins admitted that he had been taken by a mysterious Oban couple who had attempted to kidnap the children. Realizing it was likely the Oban couple that Callum had mentioned so long ago, Nimueh left his children in his mother, Xansa's care and threw himself into traveling Tendaji, searching not only for the kidnapping ring (referred to as The Collectors), but also for a method of counteracting a toxic flower that Callum had once told him was a key component to the ring's success. The highly addictive flower caused a fog that numbed the mind and senses, and without a method of overcoming it it was unlikely Nimueh could retrieve Callum safely.

Months passed, and Nimueh had little luck in actually finding the Collectors... but he did find a Healer who concocted a powder that would counteract the fog, somewhat, enough to at least return the senses. With this powder in hand, Nimueh was forced to concoct a last ditch plan to find Callum. His mother Izuzue insisted he shoudl return home, that his children needed him to care for them safely, but Nimueh couldn't imagine abandoning Callum, not when he knew what was happening to him. So the plan was made. He would pose as a hybrid and let himself be drawn in, sneaking the powder into the Collector's compound in the guise of the gem necklaces he always wore. The lure worked, and Nimueh was taken in by the couple, who attempted to lull him into a false sense of security, before administering the flower, just as expected.

Nimueh spent two months in the compound, devising a way of escaping, before he was able to find Callum and flee. But by this time it had been two years since Callum's disappearance - and he was highly addicted to the drug, and psychologically damaged from the experience. Nimueh, himself, suffered from the side-effects of the powder, which he'd been overdosing on since his capture, and during his recovery.

Both men had a lot of healing to do, and there was no assurance their relationship would make it through it. Especially with Nimueh's crushing feelings of guilt at abandoning his children to find Callum, leaving them alone for over a year without parents, even if he had brought Callum home safely.