Sythe

Sythe is a Wolf Keidran of the Border Forest Tribe and a nephew to the Grand Duke. He was once a diplomat for the wolves, interacting with the humans of towns on the territory border and eventually had the responsibility of securing an alliance with the Tiger Clan foisted upon him in the form of an arranged marriage. He has since been forced to become a deserter of his tribe and a fugitive from the Templar, set on a journey to seek sanctuary in the mysterious, hidden village of Lyn'knoll.

Personality
"Extremely pessimistic and easily frightened in high-stress environments."

Biography
"Sythe is a pony-tailed wolf most at home far away from battlefields and conflicts. Raised by his uncle, he was trained his entire life to be a diplomat between humans and keidran - even spending over a year living among humans back before the borders were closed. Sadly, his perfect human speech and years of education in interspecies cultures and politics have so far gone completely to waste since war began breaking out. Internally, Sythe has a very negative view of his own kind - believing that the war is mostly at the fault of the wolves for provoking the humans in the first place. Ultimately, he would like nothing more than for his life to go back to normal."

Appearance
Sythe has yellow eyes and a pale brown coat of fur of a solid color across his entire body, including his mane, which is cut short at the front and left long in the back where he wears his hair in a ponytail tied off near the ends by a blue band. His build is toned with some muscle definition that is mostly obscured by his disheveled fur. Like all Keidran, he stands on two canid paws with extended, digitigrade ankles, and at full height reaches approximately 6' 1" ; he stands a full (wolf) head over Flora, and appears to be only slightly shorter than Natani, who is 6' 3".

Sythe is most often seen wearing a simple loincloth, in which he makes his first appearance. Later, he meets Flora at her and Trace's camp, garbed in a beige tunic with long, light-grey sleeves and a pair of grey trousers. He then appears in a dark-grey robe while searching for Trace and Flora from a town's rooftops; a robe in which he is seen again later.

Once the war breaks out between the wolf tribes and human society, Sythe appears during the Wolf army's raid on Pinewood, wearing nothing but a pair of brown trousers with a belt around the waist. This topless look would become his recurrent attire during his journey with Raine, Red, Maren, and Karen, his loincloth apparently relegated to nightclothes and swimwear.

Sythe's weapon of choice is a glaive, which he carries around regularly. Earlier, he used to have one that had a wide, trailing point blade with a hook on the reverse side attached to a long stave with a solid iron langet. Later, as a soldier for the wolf army, Sythe's choice of glaive had been downgraded to a simple bladed head affixed by two nails onto a shorter haft.

Background & Personality
Sythe was Flora's bodyguard and fiancé in an arranged marriage to help unite the wolf and tiger tribes. However this marriage was canceled after Flora started a relationship with Trace. When he first meets Trace with Flora, he ambushes him and tries to kill him, only being stopped by Flora who says she'll kill Trace when the time comes for it. At one point, he attempted to guilt Flora into killing Trace by falsely claiming that Trace was responsible for the murder of Flora's parents and her enslavement. But right before entering Trace's tent, Flora had a change of heart, ruining Sythe's plans. Later, Sythe locates Trace and Flora at an inn and attempts to kill Trace and take Flora home, but is attacked by Maren and her friends while Trace and Flora escape unnoticed. After the scuffle, the friends, Keith, and Sythe all eat pizza together and he seems to form a friendship with the others. Later, while Trace, Flora, and Keith are traveling to a port town, Sythe meets with Flora and tries to convince her to go with him back home and continue with the marriage. Flora refuses and Sythe finally gives up and returns to Keidran territory empty-handed.

During the Keidran's assault on human territory, Sythe tries to help Maren, Karen, Red, and Raine escape but is caught by his leaders. Karen then claims that Sythe is her father (although not true), further enraging the wolf leaders before Sythe and the others finally escape after Raine involuntarily uses a transportation spell. Sythe is then identified as a deserter and a traitor for "eloping with a human" as the leaders seemed believe Karen's story was true. Zen is then ordered to capture Sythe alive if possible and silence the others by any means necessary. After they begin travelling again, the group runs into Templars and claim that Sythe is their slave, but a Kiedran among them recognises him and so they then believe the group is harboring a spy and react aggressively.

Sythe's appearance has changed from a regular Keidran as seen in the first chapters to a more realistic wolf look in the later chapters. His name was the Keidran word for the scythe, but he changed it to the human word so they could pronounce it, the entire time oblivious to the fact that he spelled it wrong.