#i was going to do 10 questions per infodump but i was afraid no one would read it

[lindira]

Questions for Your Tav - Envy

Part 1! Questions taken from this list of Questions for Your Tav!

What was your Tav’s place of birth and raising like?

Envy was born and raised in Baldur's Gate, specifically in the Lower City. His family wasn't well-off by any means, but they weren't poor either. His father was a baker and his mother was a seamstress. They had a tiny bakery with an apartment upstairs. Envy remembers being happy there.

After his parents' deaths, Envy lost the bakery and his home, since he was only 6 and his parents didn't have a will. The Flaming Fist seized his parents' assets and left a small account in Envy's name at the Counting House, but Envy had lost track of the paperwork and doesn't even remember his real last name. He doesn't even know that it's still there for him. The Flaming Fist dumped him at a foster home and promptly washed their hands of the entire situation.

What relationship did your Tav have with their family/guardian(s) growing up? Has that changed with age?

Envy had a wonderful relationship with his parents, from what he can remember. They let him try to help in the bakery and played games with him in the evenings. He was devastated when they were killed and doesn't know of any other relatives.

As for his foster "family", they barely paid attention to him. The foster system in Baldur's Gate isn't very good and there isn't very heavy vetting in foster families. They were mostly just people he lived with who were paid to feed him, and didn't care when the older foster children bullied him. He ran away with his few belongings when he was 9. No one came to look for him.

Did your Tav receive any formal or informal education? If yes, how well did they learn? If no, why not?

His mother homeschooled Envy until she and Envy's father died. His parents recognized that Envy that he was intelligent but had a learning disability, so they didn't send him to the local school because they didn't think they had the capacity to work with his dyslexia. Envy learned Infernal more easily than Common because of the shapes of the characters, so they focused on Infernal first with the intention of building off of that progress to try reading Common. His mother didn't have the chance to make good on those intentions.

Envy's foster parents sent him to school, but the school didn't know what to do with a dyslexic child, so he was often left out of lessons. He knows his numbers very well and understands what sounds are supposed to go with what letters, but making the letters stay put and make sense is very difficult for him. He acted out in class often because he didn't know what was going on and got bored. Envy stopped going to school after he ran away.

What hobbies does your Tav have? How did they acquire these interests?

It's not really a hobby as it is his life's calling, but Envy loves to sing, play the lute, and tell stories. He's always been singing and making up songs, but he learned to play the lute after many, many hours of watching buskers play on the street for coin. One kindly bard took it upon himself to give his old lute to Envy after buying a new one. The bard gave Envy a few lessons and Envy picked it up quickly.

Actual hobbies include drawing, cooking, and sewing. Envy picked up drawing as a kind of coping mechanism for his dyslexia. Aside from writing notes to himself in Infernal, he memorizes stories by drawing them out and improvising the words.

He learned the basics of how to cook and sew from his parents. After he's able to provide for himself a little, he picks up the hobbies in more than a survival capacity because he wants to recapture some of those fond memories of his parents.

Did your Tav have any formal or informal employment? If yes, what was their job? If no, how did they make ends meet? How did they feel about it?

Envy has a hard time holding down a steady job. It's hard for him to find a position that pays well enough to support him because almost all of the good-paying jobs require someone that can read. He takes odd jobs here and there throughout the city that can be done by a person that isn't that strong (His strength is 8, lol). He's worked as a courier, a butcher, a janitor, and most frequently as a server at the Low Lantern tavern. He loses those jobs frequently too, usually for mouthing off at customers or at his bosses. He... doesn't have much of a filter and doesn't like authority.

What really gets Envy out of poverty is his bard work. Busking gets him enough coin and attention to get gigs at various taverns and eateries. But the income isn't steady, so he maintains his day jobs to support himself.