# Devod Fields — Character Bible

*The Comic Relief Who Is Unexpectedly Competent*

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## Core Identity

- **Full Name:** Devod Fields
- **Known As:** [TBD]
- **Age:** 55
- **Occupation:** Shipment Delivery Carriage Driver — runs routes across Drenwick and surrounding regions. Intersects with trade inspectors, warehouse crews, and shipping points regularly

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## Physical Description

- **Age:** Mid-fifties
- **Build:** Wiry, lean
- **Energy:** Perpetual motion — hands always moving, talks fast, standing still looks like a temporary concession
- **Hands:** Never stop. Tapping, gesturing, fidgeting with whatever's nearby. The stillness when they stop is the tell — it means something heavy is happening
- **Eyes:** Scattered in casual mode (bouncing between thoughts), sharp and locked when assessing people
- **Overall impression:** The room matches the man — cluttered, energetic, more projects than time. Not a slob. A tinkerer.

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## Personality

### Core Traits
- Has 10 ideas; most are unsound, but one is somehow the perfect solution
- Occasionally a genius
- Insists Phelan listens to all his ideas, even the bad ones
- Aware his ideas are mostly terrible, but knows the 1-in-10 is worth the other 9
- Not an idiot — just has flawed logic. The distinction matters.
- Introduced as a joke, revealed to be essential
- Flirts with everyone, often doesn't realize it's not appreciated.

### How He Processes Problems
- Scattershot approach — throws everything at the wall, trusts that something will stick
- His "bad" ideas often contain a kernel that a more focused mind (Phelan's) can extract and use
- Doesn't filter before speaking, which is exhausting but occasionally invaluable


### Relationship With Emotion
- [TBD]

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## Standard Equipment

- **Delivery walking stick:** Always carries it. Used for prodding animals, leveraging stuck wheels, testing footing on rough terrain, and general delivery-driver problem-solving. Sturdy enough to strike with force — the kind of tool that becomes a weapon through muscle memory rather than intent. Ch14: instinctively used to protect Mere from a flanking mine dog, knocking it into Phelan's firing line. The tell — he positioned between daughter and threat, not between gear and threat.

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## Skills & Competencies

- **Navigation and spatial knowledge:** Years of delivery work across Drenwick and surrounding areas have given him detailed knowledge of routes, structures, and terrain — including abandoned sites like Velken's Drift mine, where he delivered supplies to salvage crews years ago. Knows the upper levels of the mine from memory
- **Practical problem-solving in tight spaces:** Handling hostile animals, securing loads, improvising solutions with available materials, managing movement in confined corridors. Delivery-driver competence that translates surprisingly well to dangerous environments
- **People skills (rough but effective):** Talks too much, but it works on nervous people. Can talk someone into hesitation or buy time through sheer earnest scattered energy
- **Structural awareness:** Knows which supports are load-bearing, which corridors are stable, how buildings and mines are put together. Practical knowledge, not theoretical

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## Backstory

- Divorced from Charlette Fields (Mere's mother). Marriage ended mutually ("or close enough"). Charlette hates him.
- **The Ultimatum (when Mere was 12):** Two years post-divorce, Devod was still seeing Mere. Charlette told him: cut all contact, or she'd move them both somewhere he'd never find them. No forwarding address, no legal recourse — custody was hers, divorce settlement gave him nothing. He complied. Strategic choice, not cowardice. Calculated that Mere staying in Drenwick (near him) was better than Mere disappearing entirely. Has lived with the guilt for 12+ years.
- **Mere doesn't know.** She thinks he chose to leave. Her estrangement is built on a lie she doesn't know is a lie.
- **Unsent gifts:** A shelf of wrapped parcels — twelve years of birthday and holiday gifts, age-appropriate progression, wrapping paper yellowing at different rates. Oldest nearly brown, newest still pale. Never delivered.
- Lives alone above a tanner's shop on Millford Street. Single large room optimised for one person with approximately fifteen active interests. Carpentry bench, tools from three trades, half-finished projects everywhere.
- Charlette has family in the northern provinces (mentioned as her threat destination).

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## Relationships

| Character | Relationship | Status (Current) |
|-----------|-------------|-------------------|
| Mere Fields | Father — disconnected (by force, not choice) | She knows where he lives. No active relationship. He was forced out by Charlette's ultimatum when Mere was 12. Mere thinks he left voluntarily. Reconnection forced by the Floundry case (Ch12). Mine expedition is more contact than in years. Door opened, not resolved. |
| Charlette Fields | Ex-wife | Divorced. She weaponized custody — ultimatum forced Devod to choose between contact and proximity. He chose proximity. She controls Mere through Thresholds ownership, income, schedule, and layered rules. |
| Phelan Varrant | Introduced Ch12 (Phelan visits alone) | Devod tests Phelan's connection to Mere through detailed questions (Pre-Compact section, shelf reorganisation). Confirms "partner." Opens up about Charlette because he trusts the one person connected to Mere who might change things. Professional relationship forged through the case. Proves essential — mine knowledge, Layer 3 conceptual breakthrough. |
| Ned Floundry | Co-worker / friend | Delivery routes intersected with Ned's trade inspection duties at warehouses and shipping points. Became friends. Ned confided in Devod about Compact irregularities. Ned told his family: "Talk to Devod if anything happens to me." |

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## Relationship With Mere

- Forced out of contact by Charlette's ultimatum when Mere was 12. Has watched from a distance for 12+ years.
- Knows details about Mere's life through observation, not contact — describes her work habits, personality traits with "rehearsed precision" (sentences practiced for twelve years with no one to say them to).
- Keeps wrapped birthday/holiday gifts on a shelf — twelve years' worth. Age-appropriate progression shows he tried to track her growing up without being there.
- Reads people well enough to test Phelan's connection to Mere through specific questions only someone close to her would know the answers to.
- "That sounds like Mere" — his refrain. The precision of someone who lost the right to say it twelve years ago.

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## Relationship With Ned Floundry

- Delivery routes crossed with Ned's trade inspection work at warehouses and shipping points
- Regular contact became genuine friendship — Ned trusted Devod as a confidant
- Ned shared concerns about Compact irregularities: same vendors across too many transactions, money flowing in circles
- Ned didn't have the full picture but was asking questions — then the curse hit
- Ned told his family: "Talk to Devod if anything happens to me"
- Devod connects the dots when Phelan explains the case: the Compact silenced Ned because he found the vendor scheme

## Knowledge of Velken's Drift

- Delivered supplies to salvage crews at the abandoned magical ore mine ~3 hours SE of Drenwick
- Knows the upper levels from memory — which sections are stable, which supports are load-bearing, which corridors lead where
- Mine closed 15-20 years ago when main veins were exhausted
- Hasn't been back since, but structural memory is solid
- This knowledge is essential for the mine expedition (Ch14-15) to procure ghostveil moss

## Relationship With Phelan

- Phelan visits Devod alone in Ch12 (Mere doesn't go — her avoidance is active)
- Devod tests Phelan's connection to Mere through questions about Thresholds details. Phelan's non-reaction to "my daughter" reveals he already knows her. Devod catches it: "You already know her."
- Confirms "partner" — Devod opens up about Charlette because he trusts the person connected to Mere
- Phelan initially endures Devod's scattered energy because the case requires it
- Phelan's cold-reading assessment: "Ninety percent noise, ten percent signal. Familiar." — the parallel to his own processing noted but not dwelled on
- Mine expedition earns genuine respect — Devod's practical competence and refusal to flinch under pressure
- "Move the lock" idea (Ch16) — Devod's delivery-driver logic solves the case's hardest problem. Phelan credits him during the walk-through (Ch18)

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## Wants vs. Needs

- **Wants:** To be useful. To be listened to. To reconnect with Mere without having to name what went wrong
- **Needs:** To prove (to himself and Mere) that the scattershot approach — ten ideas, nine bad, one brilliant — has genuine value. That being wrong most of the time doesn't mean being worthless

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## Voice & Dialog Notes

- Should be distinct from Phelan and Leon
- Enthusiastic where they're measured, scattered where they're focused
- Occasionally lands something that stops the room
- [TBD — further refinement during drafting]

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## Character Progression

*Tracks how Devod evolves as the story progresses. Each entry is canon once the corresponding chapter is finalized.*

### Book 1

| Chapter | Development | Category |
|---------|-------------|----------|
| 11 | Named by Ned's family as trusted co-worker. Mere recognizes the name — pipeline established | Setup |
| 12 | **First appearance.** Phelan visits alone at Millford Street. Provides case intel (Ned's Compact concerns, dead-drop instruction, vendor irregularities). Identifies Velken's Drift mine as ghostveil moss source. Mentions "my daughter" — Phelan's non-reaction reveals he knows Mere. Tests proximity (Pre-Compact section, shelf reorganisation). Confirms "partner." Reveals Charlette's ultimatum, Thresholds ownership, systematic control. Unsent gifts visible. Scattered energy → focused grief → hope. Reads people like his daughter reads shelving systems. | Introduction, revelation, backstory |
| 14 | Mine expedition — navigates by 15-year-old memory (paces, landmarks, chisel marks). Walking stick used to deflect flanking mine dog from Mere — instinctive protective positioning, not the equipment. Mere files it as inconsistent data point. Cart journey: fills silence with chatter, calibrates word choice with each of Mere's responses. "That's not rats." | Competence, revelation |
| 15 | One brilliant idea among nine bad ones saves someone during bandit fight. Team bonds forged | Key moment |
| 16 | "Move the lock" idea solves Layer 3 — delivery-driver logic applied to magical architecture. Buried in idea #7 of 10 | Breakthrough |
| 17 | Present during Phelan's crash. Earnest, helpful, doesn't leave | Character |
| 18 | Phelan credits his Layer 3 concept to the team. Mere's complicated reaction | Validation |
| 19 | Present during cure. When Compact hired hands attack during Phase 2, joins Jonael downstairs — walking stick vs. cudgel, forearm strike then collarbone. Two men down. Returns to room afterward as though nothing happened. | Combat / Support |
| 20 | Does not appear in chapter. | — |

### Book 2
<!-- Future -->

### Book 3
<!-- Future -->

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## Open Questions

- [x] When does Devod first appear? **Named Ch11 (family interview), first appearance Ch12 (Phelan visits alone)**
- [x] What caused the divorce? **Mutual ("or close enough"). Marriage was over. The ultimatum came two years post-divorce.**
- [x] Why does the mother hate him? **Implicit — Charlette weaponizes control; Devod represents a connection she can't manage. Specific cause TBD but the ultimatum shows the depth.**
- [x] What is he actually good at? **Navigation, spatial knowledge, practical problem-solving in tight spaces, structural awareness from delivery work**
- [x] Does he know about Mere's relationship with Phelan? **Yes — confirmed Ch12. Tests proximity, Phelan confirms "partner." Devod: "Mere doesn't say that unless she means it."**
- [x] Physical description? **Established Ch12 — mid-fifties, wiry, perpetual energy, hands always moving.**
- [ ] What exactly is his "one good idea" during the mine fight (Ch15)? Structural knowledge? Talking a bandit down? Improvised solution?
