Naughtan Neletist

"This article refers to the common-born lord of House Neletist. For his like-named daughter, see Naughta Sei'Dist."Naughtan Neletist (Nika Newton) is a former Paraphilian merchant, and current lord of a small holding in Sadistique. He is a minor character in Kingdom of Yaoi: One Wish.

A Colorblind Merchant
Born to a family of traders in southern Paraphilia--province unknown--Nika was an only a child, a fact which found him under pressure from the word go. A stocky build and a somewhat dopey disposition left him permanently on the receiving end of his father's ire, a trend that persisted until their eventual falling out. His inability to differentiate between certain fruits and patterns only belabored his father's exasperation.

Determined to succeed as a tradesman, Nika quickly learned to identify objects by tact and scent, an ability that not only allowed him to excel as a merchant, but gave him an edge against those who traded in forgeries and rotten goods. This combined with his jovial good nature and a strange skill for memorization quickly made him popular among the trading caravans. It was in this way that he secured rights as a supplier for Axiom College in the capital city of Erotica, a lucrative deal that made his family known in Paraphilia--and one which brought him into contact with the young nobleman who would later change his life.

When he was old enough to branch off from the Newton clan, he did not hesitate. Nika left Paraphilia for a neighboring country, where he met Natalie Miller, the woman who would become the love of his life. Charmed by his humor and relatively strong moral center, Nattie was only too happy to marry him, and soon she bore him a daughter: Madison. For a time, they were happy, and Nika continued to work tirelessly on expanding his network of influence, intent on making a name for himself and his family.

The Storm
Unfortunately, it was shortly after the conception of their second child that disaster struck, and Nika's good luck took a nosedive. The tiny village they called home was suddenly besieged by an ice storm, which lingered for a solid month. The trading roads froze solid, and many of Nika's contacts lost their crops, forcing him to default on agreements he had already made. With nothing left to sell but textiles and nothing to feed his family that was not already owed, he was forced to peddle what he had left as the snow gathered at the door. Soon, the village was buried, leaving the residents frozen into their homes.

Armed with nothing but stale bread, a hammer and a single blanket Nika gained in return for his horse, the Newtons rode out the last of storm. For five days, he clutched his pregnant wife and their daughter beside the embers of their fire, feeding them what remained, and waited for death.

When the sun returned at last, Nika's partners arrived to find him nearly gone. He had starved himself almost to death, and was quickly fading. The last of his stock paid the family debts as the subsequent months saw him bedridden, until the birth of his second daughter, Nadia. The ordeal left him permanently changed, both physically and mentally, and left him direly certain of one thing: neither he nor his family would suffer that way again.

A Business Proposition
Now accompanied by his family, Nika returned to his native Paraphilia, quickly settling in the northern province of Sadistique. It was here that he set about his plan to better their lives, and the first stop he made was at the home of the Viscount, the notorious Cruelle Sei'Dist. Nika found his way onto the kitchen staff at Kingsfall Manor, where he surveyed the traders and supply trains that kept the powerful family stocked. All the while, he worked at befriending those who toiled in the halls, eager to gain allies that could help further his cause. His efforts paid off when he discovered inconsistencies in the pricing and quality of goods, a fact which he brought to the attention of the master himself, backed with the offer of more suitable supply at better cost. The seldom-swayed Viscount was impressed, both with his honesty, and the balls that it took to infiltrate his House.

The dishonest traders were dealt with in classic Sei'Dist fashion--with a gallows--and Nika was given the contract. He recruited the most trustworthy of his competitors' sources, and took over supply of the fortress. It was a lucrative move, one that quickly found his family in the black, and Nika hungry for more opportunities to expand his horizons.

As Cruelle's eldest son entered the final stages of training for the Judge's Throne, Nika was struck with a new strategy: to integrate his own blood in the household. Eager to gain the Viscount's approval, he legally changed his family's name from Newton to Neletist, in a nod to the Sei'Dist tradition of pun-names. His efforts were hit-and-miss. The result was Nika becoming Naughtan, his daughters changing from Madison to Madessa, Nadia to Naughta, and Cassandra to Quaita--the latter a shameless lifting of Cruelle's own wife's name. It was a decision that Natalie (now Natrelea) greatly disapproved of. Regardless, Naughtan pressed on. It was the first of many rash decision to come.

Armed with names that perfectly melded into the Sei'Dist line, Naughtan petitioned to have eleven-year-old Madessa betrothed to eighteen-year-old Kaindiva, Cruelle's heir. The act of decimating his family names in return for favor was so base and shameless that Cruelle actually approved of it, finding the depths to which the man would sink genuinely impressive. Still, it was not enough to secure a betrothal, as Naughtan remained a commoner. So, Naughtan proposed a deal: he would use his connections to gather intelligence on the rest of Cruelle's court, in return for a lordship and the betrothal he sought. His skill of memorization guaranteed any conversation he overheard would be recalled, any letter that found its way to his hands kept to be spoken long after it was burned. He would become a spy, to assure his daughter's placement in the House.

Whether Cruelle believed that the lowly merchant could accomplished what he promised, the folly of the prospect amused him greatly. Knowing full-well the uproar a common betrothal would cause, not to mention the presence of a poorly-dressed commoner at court, Cruelle happily agreed. If Naughtan succeeded, he had only to gain--and if he failed, he would have a new head for his collection.

The Viscount's Clown
His appearance at court sparked the outrage Cruelle had predicted. Unable to discern between colors, Naughtan often turned up dressed in every outlandish print and shade imaginable, a fact made worse by a stylist Cruelle assigned for that very purpose. This foreseeably horrified noble patrons that entertained him and his beleaguered wife, the latter of whom tried and failed on countless occasions to dress him properly. His own uneducated interest in high fashion only made this worse, resulting in his presenting like a foppish jester. He became known as the Viscount's Clown, his social status as a resident joke known to everyone but him. As far as they knew. In truth, what they thought meant little to him. Coin was gold, no matter how it was made.

In terms of his bargain, Naughtan was as good as his word. Now a bannerman, he used his developing network of merchants to underbid every caravan supplying a noble house, replacing them with his own. This gave him ready access to the homes of all of Cruelle's detractors. In the coming years, those who opposed him quickly found themselves without heads, all while Naughtan collected payment from both the Viscount and his barons. It worked obscenely well; as the time approached for Kaind to take the Throne, the Neletist family found themselves as wealthy as their peers, if not so well respected.

Then, Kaind Sei'Dist died--and with him, Naughtan's plans for his daughter. Desperate to cement his presence in the household, he renegotiated the deal. Now that Cruelle had a new heir--his youngest, Whiltheld--he would need a bride more his age. As Maddy was too old, the duty was left to her younger sister, Naughta. Betrothed at only twelve, the deal was struck that would set House Sei'Dist on the path to becoming what it someday would be.

Ten years later, as Whiltheld ascended the Throne, Madessa found herself married off to Prince Hyppoliti, son of the King's Inqusitor--and at the latter's own request. Naughtan was only too happy to consent.

Ripples
With success finally achieved and his family legacy secured, Naughtan filled his time attending galas and soirees, ever-vigilant for the next big move that might further cement his position in high society. It was a practice that quickly became an obsession. What started as a method of gathering intelligence for his ally, the dreaded Viscount, devolved into a game, the information gleaned becoming trade material for better and better deals between even more guilds. The coin was coming in, and though he was widely lauded as a rat, Naughtan found he did not care. With just a few moves, he had guaranteed his family's safety before his girls were even old enough to work. They were untouchable from every side...save for within.

The subsequent years had Natalie watch as her husband gladly acted the fool, selling his time and his daughters' hands in the interest of bettering his false name. The final straw came with the death of Kaind Sei'Dist, and the resulting change in arrangement that saw her middle-child sold for marriage to a fearsome warlord's spare. Overwrought from years of observing as her husband made choices she despised, Natalie left, attempting to take the girls with her.

Naughtan persuaded the elder two to stay, insisting that his actions were to benefit them, and that the alternative was far worse than what his now very sheltered children wanted. Then twelve and fourteen, Naughta and Madessa were pragmatic enough to see the writing on the wall: leave and be a seamstress, or remain to become a queen. Their youngest sister, Quaita--then only five--refused outright, and Natalie left, taking the reclaimed Cassandra with her.

Naughtan never saw his youngest again.

Aftermath (Original Canon)
His daughters married as planned, solidifying the Neletist ties to two of the three oldest families in Sadistique. The third remained at large only because his wife took his last child when she left.

Living off a stipend paid by his noble sons-in-law, Naughtan retired from trading entirely, selling off his holdings to pursue whatever amusements could hold his fancy. These exploits ranged from drinking to gambling, decimating the money he had carefully made in the years prior. The monthly allowance payments from the office of the Viscount and the Royal Inquisitor were all that kept him alive--but he was alive, alone.

And then, quite suddenly, one of his two payments stopped. When he went calling to question this sudden absence of funds, Inquisitor Prince spat in his face. It was in this way that Naughtan learned of the Sei'Dist Massacre, and the death of his second daughter, her husband and their eldest son.

The realization that such a fate has befallen his own blood without his knowing was enough to snap him from the decades-long bout of self-pity that bound him to Paraphilia. Left with no money and no reason to stay, Naughtan finally sought out his wife, who had returned to their village outside of the country. There, he learned she had moved to Widow's Row, a ghetto, under the claim that he was dead. Cassandra had passed away in the interim, preferring starvation to comparison with her own father. Natalie looked on him with nothing but pity, and the two could not be reconciled.

How this might change in the Wish remains to be seen.

Personality
Though names for the same man, Nika Newton and Naughtan Neletist are two entirely different people.

As Nika, he was widely known for his lack of guile and almost foolish honesty, a persistent point of contention with his father, Nikol. He made himself notorious returning over-payment to folk that had the gold to spend, as keeping one coin more than was owed was stealing. Nika was many things, but he was not a thief. The deals he made were fair, the things he said entirely meant. The oddness of him as an honest merchant endeared as many people as it alienated. More than anything, he was kind, with a habit of overthinking that bordered on obsessive. The thing he wanted most in the world was the safety and comfort of his family, and he was willing to suffer any punishment to gain it.

His love for them was such that he was willing to do whatever it took to achieve their happiness.

When Nika became Naughtan, many of these features remained, but became distorted over time. His honesty became dependent upon gain and situation, his thoughtfulness crossing the line from excessive to nearly paranoid. Naughtan's primary focus is the continued importance of the name he chose, and the futures of his daughters as heads of the major Houses. The goal he was most focused on--the success of his line--became a reality, but at a heavy cost: he traded success for the love of his family. The foolishness of Nika has largely worn away, appearing only in moments of lapse. It has long-since been replaced by a self-awareness that is almost crippling.

Naughtan knows his choices have not always been good, or even moral--but there is no arguing with the outcome.

Trivia

 * Naughtan has an eidetic memory. This allows him to recite text he has read at any point, at any time. Both Naughta and Vischias have shades of this trait, she with spoken word, he with patterns and details.
 * His inability to discern colors is due to red color-blindness, which is ironic, as he is the source of the Sei'Dist family's distinctive scarlet hair. He perceives green and red as murky brown, and violet as blue.
 * Naughtan is left-handed, making him one of only two KoY characters so far. The other is Vischias.
 * Vischias greatly resembles Naughtan, bearing his large frame, wide hands and square jaw. Naughta is perpetually annoyed by his having inherited her father's puckish upturned nose. The major differences are his olive complexion and the Sei'Dists' blue eyes.
 * He writes and takes notes in blue ink, as it is one of few colors he can easily identify. That his wife is blonde is no coincidence, either.
 * Naughtan never recovered from starving over the winter. He regained some of the weight but remains lank even after. His barrel-chested frame despite this leaves him looking a little awkward. He needed a cane by the time he was forty due to permanent muscular atrophy.
 * His wife, Natalie, refused to use the pun names he chose, calling him Nika even in public. The only time she strayed from this was the day she left him, as a sign of her acceptance of the life he chose, and her refusal to be a part of it.
 * Natalie's last words to him were: "If you see Nika, tell him I miss him." He still hears them in his dreams.
 * He is one of only three merchant characters, the other two being guest characters Marco Carriero, a trader, and Paladin Wainwright, a smuggler also a trader.
 * The person he respected most in Paraphilia was Cruelle Sei'Dist, as the man's brusque nature often led him to being brutally honest--regardless of the consequence. He was one of the few people to appear at his funeral.
 * Naughtan acted as Kaind Sei'Dist's second for the duel that took his life. His attempts to negotiate for peace between he and Domine Nance II failed, largely due to interference by Prince Leigh.