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Just shy of 6’, Rhys cuts a rather dashing figure. When he chooses to smile, which is seldom anymore, it is a flash of bright white with a quirk of mischief. A thick mop of dark, loose curls covers his head, hanging down to just above his collar. Left loose and wild, he seldom does anything to contain the riot of curls other than tucking the front strands behind his ears. He still musters enough vanity to keep his hair washed and combed most of the time, though it’s a gamble on whether he chooses to shave. His eyes are a soft brown shaded by heavy brows and fringed by thick eyelashes, set off even more by the fair skin of his English heritage.

His hobbies tend to be physically taxing, so he keeps himself in decent shape. Certainly not over muscled, Rhys has a lean but toned appearance, more slender and quick than remarkably strong. His hands are worth noting, for his long fingers give him a refined look, but the grip they can muster can be hard as iron. His toned body and wiry frame are usually covered by very casual attire, mostly consisting of jeans and a t-shirt. When he’s riding, he wears a motorcycle jacket and simple black helmet. Under the clothing, he has a tattoo on his left shoulder - a pair of white lilies, in honor of his mother and sister. On his right arm, a faint red line runs from the middle of his forearm to his elbow, a scar from an accident of youthful indiscretion.

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Quirks//Habits//Oddities:

• Heavy drinker & smoker
• His trademark used to be producing a small flame with the snap of his fingers, usually to light a cigarette
  (his answer to mundane folks asking too many questions: a kit he bought on the internet)
• Since giving up magic, he's always looking for a lighter - he pats his pockets for it every time he gets up. Still, he loses them everywhere.
• Wandering eyes keeps him from holding direct eye contact unless the conversation is serious. This tends to make him look bored when talking to others.
• Twiddles things between his fingers - pens, coins, cigarettes

Skills//Talents//Abilities:

• Cooking - Worked as a line cook starting in high school. Not gourmet, but he can whip up a mean jambalaya
• Engines - Always something he was fond of, now considering trade school to expand his mechanical skills since giving up magic
• Languages - Speaks Latin, Gaelic, and a few dead languages his father taught him from the family grimoire
• Manual Dexterity - In order to conceal his magical talents, he learned the more mundane tricks like palming, card manipulation, pick pocketing & other sleight of hand

Flaws//Weaknesses//Deficits:

• Need to prove himself - He spent his life trying to prove himself to his father, then failed him in the worst possible way. Without that to strive for, he has no idea what to do with himself.
• Reckless - Without anything to ground him, he takes many unnecessary risks without consideration
• Drives others away - After losing so much, he’d rather be alone than suffer another loss, and strives to keep it that way.
• Uneducated - His time studying magic left him little time for school work. He ended up dropping out of high school after blowing off too many classes.
• Messy - He claims to have a system, but the house he shared with his father looks like an old shut-in's attic. No better in the kitchen: dishes washed only as needed, though at least they're scraped and neatly stacked. And let's not even mention the laundry...

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“It's so much darker when a light goes out than it would have been if it had never shone.” ~John Steinbeck

Fears:

• Being consumed by his own power - Magic has killed his entire family, save the only member without it.
• Losing the last of his family - Annabelle is all that he has left, and New Orleans is a dangerous place.
• Secrets of his father - Seeing what lengths his father has gone to as an adult, he wonders what he didn’t see as a child.
• Failure - His worst fear was realized when his father died, and he would do anything to never face that again.

Secrets:

• An ancient family name, Amergin was given to him by his father to honor their ancestors. He’d prefer it stayed with their ancestors.
• Rhys believes it wasn’t the ritual that killed his father, but his failure to execute it properly. He had some hesitation after the warnings of the other witches and directly attributes this with his father’s death.
• He has suspicions about his sister Coraline’s death and even wonders whether his father was involved.
• The ability to disguise himself through magic. Claiming direct descent from Merlin, his father taught him the spell supposedly used to disguise Uther Pendragon the night Arthur was conceived.

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Personality:
Rhys was instilled with a deep sense of responsibility and family pride from a very young age. The demands of his father were quite strict, and striving to meet them gave him a sense of purpose. His head filled with stories of ancient wizards and the great powers of their family, he took great pleasure in the use of magic to satisfy any whim. He knew better than to reveal his supernatural powers to the mundane world, but that didn’t stop him from pulling pranks and parlor tricks that left his school-mates scratching their heads in amazement. Having the power to control the smaller things in his life gave him a sense of security that his tumultuous childhood was lacking.

Before the accident, Rhys made New Orleans his playground, taking the laissez faire attitude of the Big Easy and claiming it for his own. Late nights, jazz clubs, and impressionable tourists were his favorite pastimes, giving him the much needed release from the pressure of his father’s demands. Despite his wild streak, he was careful to stay out of any real trouble lest he risk losing his father’s approval..

With his father’s passing, everything has changed for Rhys. Where he was once quick to laugh and always ready to impress, he has now turned into himself. He spent the past year wandering the country in quiet reflection, avoiding any meaningful contact with others. Returning now, Rhys is a much different person than those closest to him once knew. His usual affable nature is now more apathetic than anything. Anyone questioning it only serves to draw out a sense of mild irritation from him. All this is a thick protective layer, hiding the guilt and anguish that churns within him, and any further prodding is likely to bring it out in an explosion of temper. As much as he tries to maintain his casual indifference, Rhys is a volatile mix of unresolved issues, ready to go off at a moment’s notice.

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History:
Killan & Marie Hart were witches in Manchester, England. Their coven traced lines back to the druids, with Killan claiming (unsubstantiated) direct descent from Merlin of Arthurian legend. This was the claim his father made before him and so forth, making the Hart family unusual among witches for their patriarchal structure. They had three children together, Coraline Evangeline, Amergin Rhys, & Annabelle Jane Hart.

When Annabelle was very small, a seer foretold a terrible tragedy befalling her as a direct result of her bloodline. In an effort to save her youngest daughter, Marie used her powers to seal off Annabelle's magical heritage, including her powers. Though the ritual cost Marie her life, she died satisfied she had protected her daughter.

Rhys was taught the arts of witchcraft from a young age under the strict tutelage of their father. Coraline was also a skilled practitioner of magic, but Killan was driven to ensure his legacy, as his father had before him. Though Coraline did all she could to help her siblings, the weight of family responsibility weighed heavily on Rhys' shoulders.

Through the cruel twists of fate that so often come of prophecy, the time came that their father attempted a spell that required the channeled energy of their entire bloodline. When it became clear that Annabelle would not be able to contribute, he split the burden between his other two children. Coraline, having always been the protective one, especially after the loss of their mother, took on the greatest burden in order to spare her younger brother. This resulted in Coraline's death and the Hart family's banishment from the coven in England. Bringing his two remaining children with him, now 13 & 11, Killan Hart immigrated to America, taking residence in the city of New Orleans.

When they came to the states, their father made a place for the family with an alliance to the native coven of witches, but set his sights on greater power via the vampire coven. He was more willing to provide occult assistance than the native witches in exchange for favors to be called on when needed. These services sometimes crossed into grey areas that the other witches questioned, but nothing so far over the line as to cause a rift between them. Rhys was often involved in these back room dealings. His father often told him that a vampire that believes he has a witch under his control is a vampire more easily controlled.

At the age of 17, Rhys' training began in earnest. Killan sent Annabelle back to England to live with family on their mother’s side. All his attention then focused on helping Rhys master the art of magic. The harder he pushed his son, the more Rhys used his spare time to paint the town red. School was all but forgotten. Finally Rhys persuaded his father to let him drop out entirely, convincing him it served only as a distraction. The extra time he used working as a line cook at an authentic hole in the wall restaurant that drew tourists like crazy. This served two purposes: funding his late night escapades, as well as providing the companions to go with them. He’d often flirt with some of the native witches, but his careless demeanor and his father’s dubious actions left the ties between the coven and his family strained.

About a year ago, Killan believed he had found a means to bring his lost daughter back from the other side. This led to his engaging Rhys in a combined ritual that drew on all of their power. When the rest of the witches of New Orleans found out what he was attempting, they did everything they could to dissuade him. Killan ignored the warnings and drew his son into the ritual, tapping into all their combined power at great risk to themselves. In the end the ritual failed, not only failing to reclaim Coraline’s life, but claiming the life of Killan Hart as well.

After his father's demise, Rhys left New Orleans, leaving the arrangements for his father and everything else behind. Due to the confusion, news of their father's death didn't reach Annabelle for some time. Before he left, he wrote her an abrupt note breaking the news and enclosed a key to the family home. Though he never sent it, the executors of the estate eventually put it in the mail when Rhys could not be reached.

A year later, Annabelle has returned to an empty house, everything abandoned the way it was the day their father died. Out of money and roads to travel, Rhys is finally headed home.