BASICS
Name — Melanthios of Kepanos
Nicknames — Mela
Age — 29
Gender — cis male
Pronouns — he/him/his
Current Occupation — itinerant fortune-teller
Date of Birth — August 28
Place of Birth — Kepanos
APPEARANCE
Build — thin, gangly
Complexion — cool olive
Hair — ash brown, elbow-length, usually braided back
Eye Color — jade green
Distinctive Markings — none
Clothing — linen
chiton tied at the waist with a hempen belt; wool cloak for cooler weather; leather sandals
Accessories — carved olive-wood walking stick; carved divination stones in a pouch
PERSONALITY
Unflappable — not easily upset or confused, especially in a crisis; imperturbable
Gregarious — fond of the company of others; sociable
Garrulous — excessively talkative in a rambling, roundabout manner, especially about trivial matters
Fatalistic — demonstrating a belief that all events are inevitable, so one’s choices and actions make no difference
Headstrong — determined to have one's own way; willful; stubborn; obstinate
Uncanny — mysterious; arousing superstitious fear or dread; uncomfortably strange
TROPES
Blind SeerThe Chooser of the OneWandering Wizard
HISTORY
Father — Hermolaos
Mother — Theokleia
Older Sister — Aletheia
Older Brother — Kleandros
Older Sister — Helike
Melanthios was born in a village called Kepanos, to a shepherd and his wife. He's the youngest of four children, with two older sisters and an older brother. As the baby of the family, he was everyone's favorite, but was especially beloved of his eldest sister Aletheia. Melanthios was a happy, sweet-natured child who made friends easily. He loved to play with the other children in his village, making up stories and pretending to be mighty heroes. At first, it appeared that he would thrive, being hardy and active, but fate had other plans. During his sixth winter, he was struck with a terrible sickness that left him bedridden for weeks. It was uncertain if he would pull through, especially once he slipped into a coma.
He managed to stubbornly cling to life, but it came with a cost: when he finally woke, he found he had gone blind. His family grieved, but melanthios seemed unpurturbed. In fact, he spoke of having been visited in his unconscious state by none other than [Apollo (if in Greece) / Meneos (if in made-up setting)], bearing the gift of prophecy. His illness and subsequent blindness, he claimed, were the price of the god's blessing.
As it happened, Melanthios had not lied about his godly visitation, nor about his new prophetic gift. As he convalesced, he was bombarded with visions of the future. At first, they were muddy and bewildering, and he found that the flow of time became confused. He would speak of things that had yet to happen as if they'd already come to pass, or conversely, forget that a previous event had already occurred. Even so, he felt that this gift held within it a purpose.
Unfortunately, not everyone viewed Melanthios' new reality with as much reverence as he did. His friends, once eager to play with him, now found him unnerving and refused his company. Even his family saw him in a new light. His father, pious though he was, refused to let his youngest child accompany him to tend their flock for fear that Melanthios would fail to watch over them properly. His mother's embraces felt colder, and she sometimes spoke as if he had died. His sister Helike pitied and babied him, and his brother Kleandros looked upon his disability with scorn, for weakness was a doorway to poverty and death. Only Aletheia's affection for him remained unchanged, and she became his sole companion until her marriage some years later.
As Melanthios grew older, he became more of an outcast within his village. With Aletheia married and mother to children of her own, he had no one to call a friend. He no longer felt part of his own family, and once he reached his majority, decided to leave Kepanos behind for good. So began his life as an itinerant fortune-teller, offering glimpses of the future in exchange for food and shelter. People tended to take pity on him at first, but soon found his tendency to ramble on about nonsense unnerving, and their hospitality quickly wore thin. The life of a mendicant was ill-suited to his affable nature, though, and it took a toll on his state of mind, especially since it was soon becoming clear that his visions tended more toward the mundane rather than the world-shaking prophecies spoken of in stories.
Thus resigned to a life of loneliness and even eventual madness, he continued to wander, until one day he found himself in the market square of a great city. With his divination stones, he called out his offer of glimpses of the future when his mind was suddenly engulfed by a vision the likes of which he had never experienced before.
