Yularen

Artistically Done: Yularen; or, Ballad Of The Forgotten Son; Or, Exile In Not-Dagobah

Broad Strokes: Learning The Lore; Or, Backstory Shmackstory; Or, Give Me More Context, Damn You

The rich and powerful have a tendency to want to stay in power [citation needed]. The families at the very top of the food chain make decades' worth of plans to keep their influence, and, if possible, grow to have more 'pull' over the world. This often results in morality being subverted as the generations go by, replaced by a greedy thirst for power with seemingly no end. This desire to grow in influence only becomes more pronounced as time goes on; moral bankruptcy eventually becomes the norm, all to avoid actual bankruptcy. Every child that is born is raised from birth to be the perfect heir to their predecessor's legacy, to improve upon what had been accomplished by the one that came before them.

The Mithraw family is one such family.

For generations, the proud Mithraw family has held a sizable amount on influence all over the world for a long, long time. A highly rich and influential family, that owns huge shares in the biggest companies one can find; particularly, and most notoriously, the pharmaceutical company SurgiPharm, which dominates the public health sector. Practically the biggest of big wigs, sitting on a goldmine of money and power, free to do as they please. It seemed as if with every new head of the family, the Mithraws only grew more powerful. Every new heir was raised to improve on his predecessor's failings.

Yularen is the latest heir-- or, at least, he was meant to be.

Since birth, Yularen was raised in a cold, almost clinical manner, as tradition and procedure dictated within his family. Raised by meek servants and overly-demanding and detached parents, enrolled in one of the most prestigious schools in the world and placed in more extracurricular activies than one could count, Yularen certainly had no shortage of sources of knowledge. Throughout his formative years, Yularen was carefully groomed into what his family saw as the perfect heir. Politics, mathematics, history, martial arts; Yularen grew to be not only proficient at everything one could think of, but excellent. The new Mithraw heir seemed to have a bottomless ocean of talent and potential, that he was all too happy to tap into and develop. The 'young master' was excellent at everything he put his mind to, always rising on top of whatever activity he was made to do. Of course, his parents focused on developing talents and abilities that would be useful to their family.

Exceptional in every way. Diligent, intelligent, and a stickler for doing things by the book; the young master had a great respect for order, for rules. A diverse individual, with an almost absurd number of skills at his disposal, as a result of his parents' devotion to raising him to be the finest individual he could be.

But, sadly, they raised him without love. For all of his life, Yularen was placed above everybody else. Told he was better than everyone he was around, raised to believe that he did not need anybody, and that others needed him, for his entire life. Yularen was separated from his peers at school, and even his tutors were ordered to keep their lessons wholly professional. He was raised without love, but yet, he pined for it. Every time his family attended a gathering, one could see him there. Standing in the corner, watching the other attendants interact warmly, with sincere, genuine love. The happy families smiling at each other, the couples kissing. Yularen could hardly understand love and happiness, and yet, he desired to have them.

It was this desire that led to him breaking his family's mold, and his disowning.

A sad, lonely boy in the shell of a man who was bred and conditioned to be infallible. Always appearing to be stoic and composed on the outside, but conflicted and confused on the inside. Yularen wished to please his parents and honor the Mithraw name, but at the same time, he wished to follow his heart. As they say, it is only natural for a child to dream, and it is only natural for a child to desire the approval of their parents; to struggle between the two eventually grew to be agonizingly painful. So, Yularen branched out, and began to partake in activities that his family most certainly did not approve of.

Fortunately, and contrary to what one would expect, none of these activities were immoral or illegal. They were, for the most part, simple hobbies. For one, he certainly did enjoy singing quite a lot; at first, his parents approved of it, when he sang alone in his room. But approval quickly became scorn when Yularen began to sing in front of crowds; he also liked tending to the flowers, but his mother would complain that such a job was unbecoming of the next master of one of the most powerful families on the face of the Earth. Cooking was also one of the hobbies that Yularen took up; his father had certainly not been happy when he learned Yularen had been baking biscuits and sneaking them to local orphanages in the dead of night, while they slept.

Eventually, these things grew to be far too much for the men and women of the Mithraw family. After so much hard work, so much dedication to raising the boy, to them, it seemed like their son had squandered it all, betrayed their family, gone against everything they had wished him to be. The purpose of his birth, torn apart; he was to be the heir of the Mithraw family. In their eyes, Yularen owed them that much. As soon as their son dared to go against the destiny they had chosen for him, he became a waste of life in their eyes.

Much like one pulls out a thorn in their side, and with about as much effort, Yularen was removed from his family's registers. Disowned. Cast out.

For all intents and purposes, Yularen Mithraw no longer exists. There is only Yularen.

A Heir's Self; Yularen's Personality, or, Local Genius Is Kind Of Creepy

Yularen's personality can be accurately summed up in a handful of words. Melancholic, cold, calculating, yet unfailingly polite, soft-spoken and composed. The former heir of the Mithraw family is often seen as an oddball by most common folk; his seemingly emotionless, and distant way of being certainly makes Yularen someone that's rather complicated to break the ice with. At first, Yularen may seem nigh-impossible to approach, which has served to make him rather unpopular with his peers throughout the years. As a result of his rather peculiar and isolated upbringing -- Yularen was not allowed to have true, genuine friends -- the Mithraw heir's social skills are, quite frankly, far from spectacular. This, however, is not to say that Yularen does not enjoy the company of others; in fact, it is very much the opposite. Yularen craves social interaction, with almost every fiber of his being-- he's simply just not very good at it.

While interactions with him may be awkward at first, if one is willing to forge through the barriers that Yularen has built up around himself throughout his life, they'll find a peerless companion to hold nearly uncountable interesting conversations with. While he is a man of few words, Yularen practically sits atop a mountain of golden, nearly-encyclopedic knowledge of various subjects that can do wonders to keep a conversation going for hours upon hours. Sometimes, his sheer collection of information and knowledge can even give him an unsettling aura of omniscience that hasn't done his number of social interactions any favors. If one is willing to look past this, they'll find that Yularen is not unpleasant, by any sense of the word. Just a little bit soft-spoken, quiet, and disquietingly perceptive.

As one would expect, Yularen's favorite hobbies tend to be solo activities. The Mithraw heir loves a good book, for instance. He is also very fond of simply learning about various subjects, in an effort to gather as much knowledge as possible, simply out of a desire to expand his borders. However, while he fancies learning at least a little about any and all subjects, Yularen most definitely has a favorite; art. Some say that art is the finest, purest expression of one's self -- their emotions, their personality. Due to this, Yularen took a particular liking to art long ago, being of the opinion that, if he studies a person's art, he can get to know them better. This, going hand-in-hand with his stunning perception, and his analytical and deductive skills, gives him an incredible amount of insight into the personalities and thought patterns of the artists under his scrutiny. Musicians, poets, novelists; artists of all kinds are assured to have Yularen very interested in their work.