Background
Ryybyn grew up as an orphan in the Aurum Empire, a theocracy centred around the gold dragon god Avizandyr. Because they were assigned as female, they were inducted as an acolyte within the church. They were drawn to the choir and other musical groups devoted to Avizandyr’s hymns, and received training as a healer.
Lutz, an orphan boy, was their closest friend in early childhood. Due to the both of them being exotic races, they were ostracised by other children and even adults. Lutz was taken away and conscripted into the Inquisition training academy when a group of bullies reported his magical potential.
Ryybyn was later fostered into the family of a fellow acolyte, Elena. Their upbringing was quiet and uneventful as the church forbade indulging in hubris – fun, flashy, or selfish things of any sort.
Riot Kings
Kolya Kotnyr and his entourage came to town and recruited Ryybyn to help them steal holy relics from the town’s catacombs. Tempted by a life of fun and fancy outside the Empire, Ryybyn left home with Kotnyr for the Sovereign States. Ryybyn became the lead singer, songwriter, and bassist for Kolya’s band, the Riot Kings. Ryybyn’s magic potential blossomed and flourished as they were finally able to express theirself with their music, and Kolya knew he’d gotten his mark.
The Riot Kings toured across the states causing mayhem as they went, but always staying just out of the mainstream and the spotlight to avoid the State Mage Bureau’s attention. Kolya had a silver tongue and enchantment magic to get his way and make anyone a pawn in his games. Ryybyn turned a blind eye, thinking it was all just fun and that they would never be a target – not knowing that Kolya was sabotaging all their relationships and slowly but surely isolating Ryybyn from outside influence.
Ryybyn fell into a depression after their then-boyfriend Todd attacked them and left them scarred. As their depression deepened, they lost their magic including access to Alter Self, which they had used to experiment with gender and only further fuelled their depression. Kolya even turned his echantments on them and manipulated an gaslit Ryybyn. They turned to alcohol and other drugs to cope and were replaced as the band’s singer.
Drunk and fed up with not singing the songs they wrote, Ryybyn confronted Kolya and demanded to sing for the next gig. Kolya instead used a magic item to steal Ryybyn’s voice. Mute and terrified, Ryybyn fled.
Saga 1: The Promotion
Ryybyn’s voice later returned but hoarse, raspy, and unable to sing. Even if they could have they felt disillusioned and with no more love for music. They ended up arrested on a drunk and disorderly, and kept making disturbances until they got theirself on a prison labour transport to the new continent, Zeyyon.
The transport was interrupted and Ryybyn united with State Mage Alison Crowe and the rest of the party to survive and return to civilisation. Ryybyn aided Alison when an injury impacted Alison’s casting ability, and in turn Alison vowed to help Ryybyn find their magic and their voice again. The two became inseparable.
Saga 2: Homecoming
In a drug-fuelled haze one night, Ryybyn unwittingly became a member of the Bloodsand Cartel. They used it to their advantage to get gear for the party and found theirself in bed with Ezekiel, a cartel lieutenant.
While the party was was held captive by the fish-like Elych, Ryybyn used a shard of the Tear of Ragnaxxa, a piece of the evillest dragon’s soul, to supercharge their magic and rescue the party. This came at great cost, as the corruption damaged Ryybyn’s body and soul. They were slowly dying.
On another drunken bender, Ryybyn purchased a dilapidated houseboat and fixed it up with a lot of assistance from Alison.
Saga 3: Total Eclypse
Ryybyn and the party found themselves at odds with the Eclypse gang, a group of Riot Kings fans who had been recruited by shady forces. Ryybyn was initially caustic to one of them, Tryxxie, but believed she was being abused by Shy’kako as they were by Kolya. When they were finally able to convince Tryxxie to do the right thing and stand down, Tryxxie sacrificed herself to save Ryybyn from Shy’kako’s attack. Tryxxie’s death sparked Ryybyn to return to music, to inspire others as their old music had inspired Tryxxie.
Saga 4: Heartbreaker
Ryybyn came face to face with their ex, Todd, as well as his friend, Flynn, at a mixed martial arts tournament. Ryybyn discovered the truth that Kolya soured their relationship with Todd and caused him a great deal of trauma as well. Ryybyn attempted to make amends however, Todd ghosted them. Flynn joined the party.
Ryybyn’s relationship with Ezekiel becomes strained. They start trying to get sober.
Saga 5: Fires of Revolution
The corruption on Ryybyn’s soul intensified due to the thinned veil in Byrgenwick, hastening their impending death.
Ryybyn reunited with Lutz, now an Imperial Inquisitor. Ryybyn could tell that Lutz harboured a crush for them, however, their reecent heartbreak and poor physical and emotional state made it hard for them to return that level of affection. Circumstance forced them to part ways once more.
The party confronted the villain they had been hunting for so long in the midst of a ritual. The ritual went sour and all present died.
Saga 6: Beyond the Veil
In the afterlife, Ragnaxxa’s stain on Ryybyn’s soul turned them into a Reaver, a malevolent spirit consumed with hunger. Ryybyn let their despair and self loathing get the better of them and turned monstrous and antagonistic towards the rest of the party.
Ryybyn discovered Tryxxie’s soul, reverted to a childlike state after predation by other reavers, and sought to reunite her with Shy’kako’s soul as atonement. After this was achieved, they allowed Ragnaxxa’s corruption to take over fully and became nothing more than a hungry beast. The party was able to knock Ryybyn down and beat the Ragnaxxa out of them.
However, Ryybyn’s soul was left a weakened husk and unfit to return to life. Avizandyr made a divine intervention and imbued part of his own soul into Ryybyn’s and sent them on their way back to the living.
Saga 7: Gold Dragon Tour
The party was alive, but in the far end of the Aurum Empire. Ryybyn struggled with their guilt over their actions as a reaver, but ultimately came to accept it as a part of theirself thanks to help from a priest of Avizandyr.
The Emprie was then on the brink of war with the Sovereign States over disputes in the new world of Zeyyon. Ryybyn used connections within the Bloodsand Cartel to smuggle everyone back to the States, but they were betrayed. The cartel’s leader, Malik showed up instead and nearly killed them all.
Saga 8: Sunfall
The Golosto Games
The party followed a lead to save Flynn’s mentor and former Cartel leader, Ahmad, and got themselves into the macabre Golosto Games. There, they found Ezekiel had been transformed into a raging behemoth and forced to fight. The party euthanised Ezekiel, and then discovered Ryybyn now had the ability to revive the dead. The power of Avizandyr within them was enough to revive Ezekiel and return his sense of self, but his body remained monstrous. As Malik had transformed Ezekiel because of his involvement with Ryybyn, Ryybyn felt great guilt for Ezekiel’s state and tried to help him every way they could.
Zeyyon
The cartel was on the new jungle continent Zeyyon, sabotaging the States’ and Empire’s colonisation efforts and turning the two large nations against each other. Lutz, now High Inquisitor, was at the imperial colony and recruited to the multinational team to root out the cartel. After a lot of hesitation and dealing with their guilt over Ezekiel, Ryybyn finally reciprocated Lutz’s feelings of love and the two became a couple.
From their time in An’Shyvann during Saga 3, the party knew that the cartel was the only real support network for religious exiles within the desert nation, so Ryybyn convinced the other nations that they should have the goal of disposing of Malik and his supporters but allow the rest of the cartel to stay in peace. Ryybyn helped found the new fledging nation as a safe haven for exiles, and named it for Shy’kako — at Alison’s insistence.
Saga 9: Crawl Back
The present. Back in the States, Ryybyn caught wind that they’re being stalked and there has been a rush of petty vandalism across the country. If they’re going to make good on their promise to Tryxxie and inspire others with their music again, they’re going to have to get their voice back from the man who stole it: Kolya.