Xeres / Characters / Nomar Willowbrook
Nomar Willowbrook
He knows the name of every bird in the grove, but not what he wants to be when he grows up.
Basic Information
Full Name
Nomar Willowbrook
Nickname
Bird Boy
Race (Grade)
Human (F)
Class
Child
Height
4'0"
Birthday
Greenrise 3, 1299
Age
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Birthsign
Bloodline Ability
Unknown
This Bloodline ability has not yet been unveiled to you.
Physical Description
Nomar Willowbrook, Bird Boy of Root & Bloom Ward
Appearance
Nomar is a wiry, sun-browned boy with a mop of messy curly brown hair that his mother has long since given up trying to tame. His face is dusted with freckles across the nose and cheeks, the kind that darken in summer and fade only slightly by winter. He has his father's warm brown eyes and his mother's easy smile, a combination that makes him instantly likable to just about everyone he meets. He dresses in simple, practical clothes, usually a green linen vest over a cream-colored shirt with sleeves rolled past his elbows, cinched at the waist with a leather belt that is clearly a hand-me-down, worn soft and buckled at the tightest hole. His clothes are perpetually grass-stained at the knees, smudged with dirt at the hems, and occasionally decorated with burrs, seed pods, or the odd feather he forgot to take out of his pocket.
Unique Characteristics
Nomar's pockets are a naturalist's curiosity cabinet in miniature. At any given time they might contain an interesting stone, a shed feather, a beetle he is observing, a handful of acorns he is saving for the squirrels near his mother's garden, or a piece of bark with a pattern he thought looked like a face. He has a small scar on his left shin from falling out of a tree two years ago, which he shows off proudly to anyone who will look. His hands are almost always busy, fidgeting with a stick, braiding grass, or sketching birds in the dirt with a twig. He moves with the restless, boundless energy of a boy who would rather be outside than anywhere else, and he has a habit of whistling back at birds, sometimes accurately enough that they answer him.
Personality
Positive Traits
- Cheerful and good-natured, quick to laugh
- Deeply curious about animals and the natural world
- Surprisingly patient when observing wildlife
- Kind to smaller children and protective of his mother
- Brave in the way that children who don't know better can be
- Remembers everything he learns about animals and birds
Challenging Traits
- Easily distracted by anything with wings or fur
- Forgets chores when something is happening outside
- Climbs things he probably shouldn't
- Goes quiet and withdrawn when he misses his father
- Occasionally brings home animals his mother did not agree to
- Stubborn when told he can't keep a creature he's found
Mama, did you know that goldcrest warblers build their nests upside down? They hang them like little baskets. I saw one today!
I'm not dirty. I'm camouflaged.
Dad would've liked this one. It's the same color as his patrol cloak.
Likes
- Identifying birds by sight and song in Elderwood Grove
- Helping his mother in the garden (when he remembers)
- Climbing trees and exploring the ward's edges
- Collecting feathers, stones, and interesting bugs
- Listening to Trail Wardens tell stories about the wild
Dislikes
- Being stuck indoors when the weather is nice
- People who hurt animals or destroy nests
- Baths (a constant negotiation with his mother)
- When adults talk about his father in sad voices
- Being told he's too young for something
Background & History
Born Between Worlds
Nomar was born in Allensdale in the spring of 1299, the son of Talia, the village herbalist's daughter, and Corin, a Trail Warden who patrolled the roads and wilderness between settlements. His earliest memories are not of Allensdale itself, he was only two when it was destroyed, but of movement: being carried, the sound of his mother's voice singing softly to keep him calm, the smell of campfire smoke, and his father's arms lifting him over rough terrain. These fragments are all he has of his birthplace, and he does not fully understand what was lost, only that his mother sometimes gets a faraway look when she hears a song she used to know.
Growing Up in Root & Bloom Ward
Root & Bloom Ward is the only real home Nomar has ever known. He grew up running barefoot through the garden paths, learning the names of plants from his mother and the names of birds from his own patient observation. By the time he was five, he could identify a dozen bird species by song alone, a skill that impressed the adults around him and became his defining characteristic among the ward's children. His father was still alive during those early years, and some of Nomar's happiest memories are of sitting on Corin's shoulders while walking the trails near town, his father pointing out animal tracks and teaching him to read the signs the forest left behind.
Losing His Father
Nomar was four years old when Corin died in the Crystal Streams flood. He does not remember the day he was told, not exactly, but he remembers the shape of it: his mother holding him very tightly, the house being full of neighbors who spoke in soft voices, and his father's patrol cloak hanging by the door for weeks afterward before his mother finally put it away. He asked when his father was coming home for a long time before he understood the answer. He still talks about Corin occasionally, usually when he sees something in the woods that reminds him of a story his father told, and these moments come without warning, a flash of sadness across an otherwise cheerful face that passes as quickly as a cloud crossing the sun.
The Bird Boy of Elderwood Grove
In the years since Corin's death, Nomar has thrown himself into the outdoors with the single-minded intensity that only children can sustain. Elderwood Grove, the wooded area near Root & Bloom Ward, has become his second home, a place where he spends hours crouched behind fallen logs watching nesting pairs, tracking migration patterns he doesn't have the vocabulary to describe, and building up an encyclopedic knowledge of local birdlife that would impress naturalists three times his age. He can name nearly every bird in the grove by sight, sound, and flight pattern, and he has given personal names to several that he recognizes as individuals. The ward's residents have taken to calling him "Bird Boy," a nickname he wears with uncomplicated pride. His mother worries about how far he wanders, but she also recognizes that the grove gives him something she cannot: a place where the world makes sense and nothing has been taken away.
Goals
See Every Bird in Xeres
Nomar's most passionately held ambition is to see and identify every species of bird in the world, a goal he states with the absolute conviction of a seven-year-old who does not yet understand how large the world is. He keeps a mental list of every species he has spotted and is working on drawing them from memory, though his artistic skills lag considerably behind his observational ones. He has heard that there are birds in distant lands that are bigger than horses, birds that can mimic human speech, and birds made entirely of fire, and he intends to see all of them personally.
Take Care of His Mother
Though he cannot articulate it clearly, Nomar carries a quiet awareness that his mother is tired in ways that have nothing to do with sleep. He tries to help in his own ways, bringing her wildflowers, attempting to weed the garden before she asks, and sometimes simply sitting beside her in the evening without needing to be told. He has overheard enough adult conversations to understand that she does too much by herself, and while he is too young to do much about it, he has a fierce, protective love for her that surfaces whenever he senses she is struggling. He has told more than one neighbor, with great seriousness, that when he grows up he is going to make sure she never has to work so hard.
Become a Trail Warden
When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, Nomar's answer changes frequently, ranging from "a bird" to "someone who lives in a tree" to "a dragon rider." But the answer he gives most often, usually in a quieter voice, is that he wants to be a Trail Warden like his father. He does not fully understand what the job entailed beyond walking in the woods and helping people, which sounds like the best possible life to him. He does not yet connect this ambition with the danger that killed Corin, and his mother has not had the heart to discourage it.
Current Status & Relationships
Residence
Role
Child
Family
Talia Willowbrook
Mother
Corin Willowbrook
Father, Deceased
Community
ATTENTION!
Nomar Willowbrook is seven years old and possesses no skills, abilities, or influence of any consequence. He is a small boy with grass-stained knees and pockets full of acorns. What he does possess is an extraordinary capacity for noticing things. He watches the world with the unhurried attention of someone who has not yet learned to filter out what adults consider unimportant, and as a result he often sees what others miss: the hawk circling at the edge of the treeline, the fox prints in the mud behind the bakery, the way his mother's smile doesn't always reach her eyes. Whether this attentiveness will someday grow into something more remains to be seen. For now, he is simply a kind, curious boy who loves his mother, misses his father, and knows the name of every bird in Elderwood Grove.