Xiaz DeVagrant

 

The eldest and shortest of the DeVagrant brothers Xiaz DeVagrant is 101 years old and a sturdy 4ft 9in tall. He’s about average height for a male drow of his years and aged enough to be a respected member of his community without being so old as to be seen as decrepit. 

That said from what we can gather most people do think of Xiaz as a bothersome old fart.

He’s temperamental at the best of times, apparently never smiles and has the marked expression of a man forced to suck down daily on a mouthful of angry fire ants.

I guess if we had to use only one word to describe Xiaz it would be bitter, but seeing as we don’t here’s a few more to explain exactly how bitter the old prune is: in short he is a crabby, caustic, sarcastic, vitriol of a man, who is embittered, austere, sour and resentful of everything and everyone.

Xiaz is the kind of guy who thinks life owes him something for all the hard work he’s put it, he’s done his share and it’s about time he had some recompense for all the toil and sacrifices he’s had to make. He’s also the type of man who doesn’t realise that his sharp, hot-headed and over-bearing nature is the reason most folks don’t like him.

Now Xiaz is certainly hardworking and not a selfish man, he has after all, dedicated his life to caring for his elderly parents, running their meagre business, and supporting his younger brothers. The problem is that he cannot understand that those choices were his to make and that he doesn’t win instant recompense because he chose to live a life of ‘sacrifice’ to others.

His bitterness exacerbates at the mere mention of Dirzryn's existence. Allowing him to rumble irascibly about the ‘easy-life’, he thinks his brother was given, and caw loudly about how unreasonable it is that some illegally born brat should be, ‘showered in riches.’ He also considers it ‘highly unfair’ that Aezlyn grew semi-pampered with an education and was encouraged by their mother to chase after his ‘silly daydreams’ of cultivating alchemic ingredients because none of those things have anything to do with the family farm, business or their heritage.

Which begs the question what would he do with his life if he had this freedom of choice he thinks is so sorely lacking?

His answer; ‘well I certainly wouldn’t go chasing after a bunch of medicinal herbs or waste it on flitting about rubbing elbows in some high and mighty brownnosed aristocracy.’  Which suggests he quite frankly doesn’t have a clue what he would do but can’t see far enough past the end of his shrivelled upturned nose to realise it.

Fair to say then that Xiaz is not fond of change, even slight changes to his daily routine, such as being dragged half-way across the globe for ‘some ridiculous interview,’ as he deems it, though his sturdy voice falters slightly in its conviction as he makes that utterance so we know that he secretly likes the attention. In reality he probably enjoys having the opportunity to wax lyrical about how wronged he has been, to set the record straight about his family’s involvement or lack thereof with the notorious Dirzryn and just generally have a good moan at a group of people who aren’t already sick of listening to his incessant gripes.

A shame then that we can’t repeat some of the colourful language used to describe his feelings towards the young master DeVagrant, nor do we plan to write any more on the subject since we covered it in detail enough when speaking to Aezlyn and Erynai. Which is merely another irksome point for Xiaz no doubt and another thing that casts disparity on being the eldest child, in fact this should tie in nicely to his victimised belief that he is the sole provider, the responsible one continually ignored but forced to hold the family together.

No Xiaz, no one has forced you into this position other than yourself.

The reason your marriage failed is probably because you are an arrogant, militant, narrow-minded and callous man fixated on preserving a non-existent stability instead of interacting with those around you. We here at Black Wednesday’s are in fact astounded that you were ever wed, seeing as not one person here was able to put up with your constant bellyaching for more than twenty minutes at a time. Being so self-involved we are also assured that you didn’t notice the staff slipping away for cigarettes and coffee at regular intervals because that would involve realising that the universe doesn’t revolve around you or depend or your sagacious insights to get its own coffee.

Just for fun, because we can and we know Xiaz in particular will hate this comparison, here’s their four portraits pinned together: