Life is good for Nyklos Vespasian, or it would be if he’d let it. As the Heir Apparent to the Vespasian fortune, Nyklos could have a place in noble society if he didn’t take such delight in mocking those in power. As the Heir Apparent to the Vespasian fortune, he could surround himself with the finer things in life if he weren’t so destructive to property, reputation, and self.

Nyklos’ psionic abilities manifest at the onset of puberty with an onslaught of images of things he didn’t understand. He does not remember the three days of the Event, but when reality began to make sense he had covered his largest canvas with a riot of color without any recognizable form. When his father found him, naked and smeared with paint, Cato’s first act was to cover and remove the painting, only then seeking the advice of medical staff on his son’s condition.

Nyklos has instituted an artist colony based around the abstract images that flood his mind. Although this art style has not gathered favor among the old money families, he occasionally sells a painting to a patron who sees something hauntingly familiar in the swirls and angles.

His abilities have given him a reputation at the gambling halls and led him to the seamier side of society. He has used them as “parlour tricks” to amuse his retinue, and even garnered him some note as a finder of lost things.

Outwardly he is a feckless sybarite squandering his father’s money on pleasures of the flesh. Internally he is scared of not having control over his powers, with precognition occasionally giving him flashes of things he doesn’t want to see. Since his powers have awakened his father has shown an interest in the young man, something Nyklos makes a show of rejecting, but inwardly he welcomes the attention.

He has collected a coterie of ne’er-do-wells that fancy themselves a secret society. They call themselves the Red Blowfish Gang, a name they adopted when they were young and roaming loose through the city.

Although conceived as a character for a modified Gran Meccanismo setting, Nyklos would be at home in any era where a rich, indolent, young artist with a penchant for mysteries fits in.

Nyklos Vespasian