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Description
Someone asked about Hyden's parents, which by sheer coincidence, was a writeup I was already working on!

VISCOUNTESS AURELIA MARIA HYDEN was a cunning and ambitious aristocrat with a significant paranoid and obsessive streak that worsened as she got older. Born with only the weakest of magical abilities herself, her plan was to grow the then-declining Hyden family's power and wealth (and, importantly, her own) by producing strong, magically talented heirs that she could use to network with other noble families.

Unfortunately, though Aurelia herself was healthier than most recent members of the notoriously sickly Hyden lineage, her plan was doomed to fail as she suffered miscarriage after stillbirth, with the few children that did survive birth inevitably turning out so frail that they died in early childhood. The combined mental and physical toll of seeing her life’s plans crumble before her eyes while enduring so many difficult pregnancies caused her mental and physical health to sharply decline--something she refused help with, as she had come to believe the healers were poisoning her. By the time that Arcturus IV was born, she had no confidence that her then-infant son would survive to adulthood. She passed away from a pregnancy-related complication when he was around 6 or 7 years old.

VISCOUNT ARCTURUS ALEKSANDER HYDEN III was a strange, quiet, introverted sort of man with middling magical abilities. He spoke with a lisp and walked with a limp due to congenital issues that had not been corrected in his childhood. Often described by others as “touched in the head”, Arcturus III disliked attention and the shunned the spotlight, leaving social networking (as well as the family finances) to Aurelia, as he was far more interested in his studies than in people. His lack of social skills and limited magical potential meant that his career options were limited to that of a researcher--something he seemed quite content with, and devoted himself to fully once Aurelia passed away and Arcturus IV had been shipped off to Whitefell Magical Academy.

He and his son had a bitter fight and serious falling out during Arcturus IV's teenage years. Arcturus IV blamed him for Aurelia's death, among many other grievances. During the heated spell battle that followed, though Arcturus IV demonstrated shocking levels of magical prowess far beyond what his father was capable of, Arcturus III still managed to humiliate his less-experienced son by disarming and defeating him. Arcturus IV spit on his father and stormed out. After graduation, he stopped going by "Arcturus" at all, now using only his surname, Hyden. He also cut off his father entirely... though, of course, he had no qualms about showing up to collect his inheritance (and estate, and title of viscount) when Arcturus III eventually passed away under mysterious circumstances.

(Note that Aurelia and Arcturus are shown here how they looked late in their lives--they were about the same age during life, Arcturus III just lived several decades longer.)

Description
Someone asked about Hyden's parents, which by sheer coincidence, was a writeup I was already working on!

VISCOUNTESS AURELIA MARIA HYDEN was a cunning and ambitious aristocrat with a significant paranoid and obsessive streak that worsened as she got older. Born with only the weakest of magical abilities herself, her plan was to grow the then-declining Hyden family's power and wealth (and, importantly, her own) by producing strong, magically talented heirs that she could use to network with other noble families.

Unfortunately, though Aurelia herself was healthier than most recent members of the notoriously sickly Hyden lineage, her plan was doomed to fail as she suffered miscarriage after stillbirth, with the few children that did survive birth inevitably turning out so frail that they died in early childhood. The combined mental and physical toll of seeing her life’s plans crumble before her eyes while enduring so many difficult pregnancies caused her mental and physical health to sharply decline--something she refused help with, as she had come to believe the healers were poisoning her. By the time that Arcturus IV was born, she had no confidence that her then-infant son would survive to adulthood. She passed away from a pregnancy-related complication when he was around 6 or 7 years old.

VISCOUNT ARCTURUS ALEKSANDER HYDEN III was a strange, quiet, introverted sort of man with middling magical abilities. He spoke with a lisp and walked with a limp due to congenital issues that had not been corrected in his childhood. Often described by others as “touched in the head”, Arcturus III disliked attention and the shunned the spotlight, leaving social networking (as well as the family finances) to Aurelia, as he was far more interested in his studies than in people. His lack of social skills and limited magical potential meant that his career options were limited to that of a researcher--something he seemed quite content with, and devoted himself to fully once Aurelia passed away and Arcturus IV had been shipped off to Whitefell Magical Academy.

He and his son had a bitter fight and serious falling out during Arcturus IV's teenage years. Arcturus IV blamed him for Aurelia's death, among many other grievances. During the heated spell battle that followed, though Arcturus IV demonstrated shocking levels of magical prowess far beyond what his father was capable of, Arcturus III still managed to humiliate his less-experienced son by disarming and defeating him. Arcturus IV spit on his father and stormed out. After graduation, he stopped going by "Arcturus" at all, now using only his surname, Hyden. He also cut off his father entirely... though, of course, he had no qualms about showing up to collect his inheritance (and estate, and title of viscount) when Arcturus III eventually passed away under mysterious circumstances.

(Note that Aurelia and Arcturus are shown here how they looked late in their lives--they were about the same age during life, Arcturus III just lived several decades longer.)