Rysn Ftori

Rysn Ftori
by botanicaxu
Profession	Accountant, Merchant
Nationality	Thaylen
Homeworld	Roshar
Universe	Cosmere

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Rysn is a young woman from Thaylenah on Roshar. She currently works in the Thaylen Gemstone Reserve, managing Queen Fen's personal finances. Previously she was an an apprentice merchant under her babsk Vstim. She has a pet Larkin which she calls Chiri-Chiri.

Appearance and Personality

Rysn has the long, white eyebrows typical to the Thaylen that she tucks behind her ears. She wears a glove on her safehand although she finds the practice of covering safehands a silly tradition resulting from Vorin cultural dominance. She usually prefers to wear vests over long-sleeved shirts and ankle-length skirts.

• Images of Rysn
• Rysn and Chiri-Chiri by Ralf Melevo.jpg

  Art by Ralf Melevo

History

Shinovar

“I've heard of the grass. But it's just so odd. ”

—Rysn to Vstim

Five months into her apprenticeship to Vstim, Rysn went to Shinovar with her babsk to trade Soulcast metal for chickens, cloths and exotic dried meats. She found Shinovar very strange because of its ecology, lack of spren and the Shin culture. After setting up an Alerter fabrial, they met with their contact Thresh-son-Esan. She was surprised to learn soldiers are the lowliest of men among the Shin while farmers are lavished with attention and respect. Vstim and Thresh started bargaining, each one taking pains to explain how worthless their wares were which Rysn found very uncharacteristic of her babsk. They eventually came to an agreement and Vstim asked Rysn what she learned. She answered that the Shin are a humble people and remarked their haggling. Vstim told Rysn to get a pot of the Shin grass and care for it until she no longer found it odd, saying that would make her a better merchant. She thought the grass was imbecilic.

Despite what Rysn thought, the goods they bought from the Shin proved to be very profitable. This caused Rysn to name her pot of grass Tyvnk, meaning "sullen", because she refused to be sullen at being so overtly wrong while Vstim was right so she let her grass be so. They eventually made their way to the Reshi Sea with a caravan of sixteen longboats laden with people and goods purchased cheaply in lands rimming the Purelake, guided by a Purelaker named Gu. Rysn acted as the trademaster because of Vstim's sickness.

Reshi Isles

Rysn: " You will take the trade. You will trade with me. "
Talik: " Oh? And what makes you say this? "
Rysn: " Because Relu-na approves of boldness. "

―Rysn and Talik

Rysn was astonished to find out the "islands" that the Reshi lived on were the backs of greatshells called Tai-na, much to the amusement of her companions. Like in Shinovar, she found the locals to be primitives and were dismissive of them. Once they landed, Vstim told her that she would have to trade with the Reshi because his weakness would ruin the deal and to be bold while dealing with the Reshi for they would appreciate that. While Rysn, along with Kylrm and Nlent, was making her way to the meeting the Reshi trademaster, she ran across people jumping from the top of the Tai'na to the sea. An Aimian named Axies the Collector, who was hanging upside down and tied by his feet to a shell nearby as a punishment for asking the king about the soul of his god, informed her that the Reshi did this as a sign of courage. They continued climbing all the way to the Tai-na's head to be met by the King, who was a woman to Rysn's surprise, and her guards. A man named Talik stepped forward and asked Rysn why Vstim was not attending. Rysn informed him she was authorized to handle the trade but Talik told her the deal was off. Rysn continued trying to convince Talik to take the deal, and managed to impress the king enough to speak with her directly. However, the king eventually informed her that she would not complete the trade with Rysn, and would wait or Vstim to recover from his illness. Rysn, believing that Vstim's illness was fatal, and thinking the only way to gain the Reshi's respect enough to complete the trade that day was to show her boldness, climbed down the feeding rope that had been lowered to the Tai-na whose name Talik had told her was Relu-na. She pleaded her case to the island's god directly, in the hopes of showing her boldness, and in spite of the concerned commands of the king. She hung there for a time, speaking to the the god, only for Relu-na's motions to catch the rope and snap it in two, leaving Rysn to fall. Falling down, for a split second she saw the eye of Relu-na, then felt a rush of wind and crashed into the sea. She fell unconscious.

“I needed to do something. To prove courage. I thought... I needed to be bold... ”

—Rysn to Vstim

When she woke up, Vstim told her Relu-na had slowed her fall and saved her life. Rysn figured out that Talik was a former apprentice of Vstim, he wasn't as sick as he appeared to Rysn and he had set up the trade with the Reshi as a practice run for Rysn. Vstim told her she had both her legs shattered and he didn't know if she would walk again. He told her, however, that she would most definitely trade again and that the other Reshi islands would line up to trade with them. He told her they had come to the island to trade for the corpse of a larkin. Rysn was also gifted with a live larkin by Relu-na.

Thaylen Gemstone Reserve

“This is my consequence—payment for a contract I entered into willingly the moment I climbed down the side of that greatshell.”

—Rysn to Vstim

Rysn was preparing for an important auditor to visit the Thaylen Gemstone Reserves, where she now works after losing her legs in the Reshi Isles. It’s revealed that Vstim got her the job after she graduated from his tutelage. She felt embarrassed by the lack of her legs, and was of the opinion that her career and freedom were over, and she’d had to take down most of the relics of her travels from her office because they reminded her too much of what she’d lost. However, she still kept the Shin grass and looked after Chiri-Chiri the Larkin, which was now slightly longer than Rysn’s palm.

Vstim was brought into her office by a guard, where he offers her the captain’s cord to an expensive ship Wandersail, and reveals that he’s the auditor. Rysn reveals that she approached a radiant to heal her legs, but she’d waited too long and thought of the legs as her own.

After she’d done her part in opening the Gemstone vault, she’s carried by guards along to Vault Thirteen - which held the King’s Drop - when the guard holding her chair was killed by a queen’s guard. Rysn pulled herself along the floor, tying the King’s Drop to her leg using the captain’s cord after the traitor dropped it fighting with other guards, and made her way towards the door, grabbing the crossbow of a fallen guard as she did. She realised she can’t cock it as she can’t stand, so she tied the captains cord to the crossbow and her chair in a makeshift pulley. She watched as Chiri-Chiri fed on the Voidlight the traitor was holding, then shot the Singer through the chin. Rysn was later found lying next to Vstim's injured body by Dalinar, after the Gemstone Reserve had come under further attack. She informed Dalinar that the enemy had stolen the King's Drop.

Attributes and Abilities

Trading

Rysn is being trained as a merchant by her babsk Vstim. She is a good observer of character, being able to guess the reasons for the way Vstim traded with Thresh for which Vstim lauded her wisdom. She is determined while bargaining, perhaps too much so considering how she nearly crippled herself by jumping off the top of the Tai-na in the Reshi Sea. Perhaps her biggest fault as a merchant is her prejudice against other nations and cultures. She constantly complains of being dragged to "backwater" places by her babsk and she usually considers cultural differences from the Thaylen that she sees in other people a sign of primitiveness. Vstim is trying to remedy her lack of an open mind by making Rysn care for plants and animals from the places they visit.

Trivia

• The writing process of one of Rysn's chapters in Words of Radiance were recorded and released as a series of YouTube videos.

Notes

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