history
Matthias's parents were highlanders from some a nearby refuge. It was under attack by an organized group of bandits, they tried their best to flee to the Shroud in hopes that they could save their child and themselves. Seeing as the bandits were hot on their trail, they left him in a bush close to Gridania and garnered their attention. Little to say, they never returned and died as a result of the bandits. A nearby scout found him crying and brought him into the local orphanage. Due to the closed nature and discrimination towards outsiders at the time, he was commonly harassed by the other orphans and village folk. Due to his inherent aetheric talent, he was tasked with learning to become a Mender of the Wood. Though he grew a distaste for prejudice, he still yearned to help people and complied.Eventually a visitor came by and had forgotten some interesting tomes that he had swiped. Various theories, hypothesizes, and other rhetoric was scribed alongside various scientific and aetherial findings and other conjectures. This fascinated and brought forth the realization of how limited the Shroud truly is, making it his goal to get out of there as soon as he could. Being the desperate kid he was at age 11-12, he scrounged up all the coin he could muster and ran away from the orphanage. He began soliciting any adventurers, pleading his passionate goals and what he wants to earnestly do to help people. He did this for hours until he pestered a female Roegadyn mercenary that was passing by. Initially she declined, as she had no business wasting her time on someone else when she should be focused on her latest dirty work she was hired for. Despite that, she stayed and watched from the sidelines as he resumed his pleading. After seeing some shady characters start to approach him, and honestly moved by his repeating speeches, she agreed to be "hired" for what little coin he was offering. This lead to her bringing him to Limsa Lominsa, as it was a land that was better suited to his philosophy regarding knowledge and how he wanted to go about his overarching ideals.After being brought there, seeing as he clearly had nowhere else to go, she took him in and let him live under her roof. After half a decade, she got the legal work done and formally adopted him as her son. She would often do whatever she could do to make sure she and her son Matthias were living a comfortable life while doing everything in her power to support his goals. Some time later around the age of 21-22, he was looking into some taboo tomes that a large group of bandits procured and planned to sell on a black market for solid coin. Seeing as it could contain valuable information, they decided to try and sneak in, get the tomes, and get out. Things didn't go according to plan and she had to think quick, so she had Matthias hide while she garnered the attention of all the bandits. This lead to her facing over a hundred bandits by herself. After a long struggle, she had lost an arm and a leg, yet she was the only one left "standing".Stabbing her now broken sword into the ground, she slumped against a tree and held the antique amulet Matthias had given her for her birthday with a picture of her knuckling the top of his head. With a single tear from the sight, she smiled and said "I guess I was finally do some good in the world after all..." Only for the antique to glow curiously. By the time Matthias ran out, she had vanished without a trace; leaving behind only her broken blade. This traumatic event is what jumpstarted his almost exclusively independent work ethic and colder, serious nature. After this, he kept her broken blade with him as a memento and made way for Sharlyan where he spent the next decade and a half.
