For a birthday present my awesome and incredibly talented friend Niere told me she'd draw me whatever character I wanted her to; after much thought (I love her art so much that it was hard to pick!) I decided on Raff, Cyn's best friend:

(Isn't Niere an amazing artist!)

Raff (his full name is Rafion, but he never goes by that) is a half-elf Messenger (the same rank as Cyn; they're basically the same age now, but half-elves age rather slowly, so that'll change; this is going to be a plot point for Cyn when he eventually realizes it) who shares Cyn's skill with animals; instead of a fox, though, Raff has a pet mouse. (He likely has trained a different animal or two, as well, but he always has a mouse.) His robes are always travel-worn (he gets yelled at by the higher priests for that- Messengers aren't supposed to look unkempt) because he just doesn't notice when they start to fall apart; he's one of the Messengers out on constant delivery assignments (rather than working from a home mosque, like Cyn does), so he's bound to look more travel-worn, anyway. Raff was originally training to be a ranger before he was Called by Hermes, and, charismatic as he is, he hasn't quite grasped all that goes along with civilization, such as tidy clothing, lol. Oh, and don't ask him to hide his ears to pass as a human- he prefers to look elven (that is, unless he's planning some sort of mischievous disguise, of course!) because then he can look more unique; there aren't a lot of elves in his part of the world.

I didn't pick him to be drawn because of Cyn's backstory (although Raff will be in that), but because he's going to be the main character in the next story I'm working on. Where Cyn's story is a kinda dull backstory (no wonder- I'm writing it mostly for myself so I can give him character development for the D&D game), Raff's is going to be an actual story not told from first-person point of view: it's a rather silly mystery involving stolen letters and a magic-possessed priest, and the shenanigans that ensue from the fact that Raff is more Charisma than Wisdom/Intelligence (ie more charm than brains; he's more inclined to try to influence people to get himself out of trouble than actually avoiding the trouble in the first place).

This is going to be a very fun story to write because I do enjoy characters with low Wisdom or Intelligence; they get themselves into so much amusing trouble. ;)

~Meri