Backstory

No one can help how they are born. Nor where. Nor why. It is something they can be praised for, or shunned for. And many options in between. Though shunned was all that Leyus knew as he grew up. Even before he found out he was male. Just for how he looked within his village.The Jungles of Golmore are home to all of the Rava. It is how it’s been for generations. The best survive and the generations that come from them improve. So for his mother, Leyus was a shock. Skin lacking pigment, and eyes that were as red as blood, with just a shade difference for reasons unknown. Though crimson all the same. Albino is what he was called. A defect is what he was deemed.Though they could not kill the child at birth. No one could bring themselves to do so. Leaving them to raise the ghostly child. Even then, in a village of children and women, he was outcasted for the skin that burned like paper. He was not as fast, as strong, or as quick as the other children. They say it was due to his birth. In truth, it was due to the neglect. His own mother doing the bare minimum, and the rest of the adults doing barely the same.Kindness was unknown to him. A warm touch was just envy. So lacking in it, that he would flinch at the attempt to give such a tender touch now.Tears and questions on why he can’t be like the others, rebutted with the answer of, “If only you were born normal.”“ You should never have been born like this.”“ Not now.”In the constant bombardment, tears and questions were buried by resentment and anger. He started to lash out. Harsh words spat at kids and adults alike. Altercations when the other kids said something to him, as it was never nice. And the few times people were nice, he would respond harshly and flee.Letting forced isolation become self-isolation.It was like this for many years. Any training he did on his own. Watching the instructors from afar. Any games he earned from watching the other kids. He tried to play this by himself. He would tell himself it's okay.A lie that he told until it became a fragile truth.When he was found to be a jack. A male. He was not sad, or scared. He was apathetic about it. It didn’t matter either way.So like the others, he was put under the skill of an older male. A Wood Warden.The wood warden said nothing to him. Merely gestured. He followed. Nothing was keeping him here.Leyus had thought that the wood warden was going to train him. Taking him to where said training would begin. Instead, the wood warden took him to the forest edge.The words spoken to Leyus burned into his soul.“ You will die here, if you stay. I can tell just by looking at you. Even if you train, you would stand out. Skin like yours would stand out like the same shade would on an animal. Make it easier for danger to find you, and I am not in the habit of leading the young to their death. Leave. Leave and don’t come back.”Kindness? Disgust? Leyus could not know, as the Wood Warden told him to leave. All the same, he did. Knowing nothing of the world and stumbling to find people. People he did not know, but they were kind enough to guide him. If they could be kinder, he did not give them the chance.Stumbling through ears until he found a grimoire, then magic through it. Magic that he could do. Something he was good at doing. Something that he would use to find his way through this world.To prove that he had as much right to be here as anyone else. Even if it was just to himself.