<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/0/05/Rixi.jpg)</div>Rixi, ratfolk street performer (https://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=1172297)<br/><br/>Rixi grew up in a ratfolk warren much like any other. He learned the traditional skills of his people from his parents, and the art of the drums and their associated magic from a wise clan elder. His childhood was full of hard work, but also safety, camaraderie and love. He could ask for no better place to grow up.<br/><br/>Sadly, the very prosperity of his home warren was also what drove him to leave. The numbers of the clan grew prodigiously, until it was clear to everyone that the tunnels and the land around them could not support them all. As often happens for young ratfolk in such a warren, Rixi found himself consumed with a desire to see the wider world, and so he relieved the warren of the burden of caring for him by striking out for the nearby city.<br/><br/>City life was not kind to Rixi, which is a polite way of saying that it was a nightmarish struggle for survival. The trade goods he brought with him from the warren hardly turned a profit at all, and before long he was reduced to busking and occasionally stealing to earn his daily meals. The first thing he learned was how to make himself appear harmless, by carrying his body close to the ground and making jokes at his own expense. This skill kept him safe from townsfolk who might otherwise have attacked him as "vermin".<br/><br/>Rixi survived, and by some definitions he thrived. He even found himself part of a small gang of similar youths, humans and halflings and half-elves, all trying to scratch out a living in the indifferent city. With them he found safety, camaraderie and love once again, and as his skills sharpened and his magic grew, he was able to protect them and grant them some measure of prosperity.<br/><br/>But in the end, it was all for naught. A watch patrol hauled him up for some charge or other - theft, or unlicensed busking, or Loitering While Rat - and sentenced him to hard labour in the new world. He was bundled onto the convict boat, but never reached his destination...