Almost forgot to do this!!! āšš¢, make it dealer's choice! Whoever is most interesting to you
Ahh, I appreciate the ask!! You're about to get a very random scattering of these... Originally I was gonna take advantage of it to talk about the New Guy, but the first one was way too good to not take a detour, and then it became all detour ahaha.
ā - Estranged family/relatives they've never met
Balthazar has never met his mother. She left him and his father not long after he was born, before he was even weaned. He has no memories of her at all, not even faint ones. He knows that she was an elf, he knows he bears a strong family resemblance to her, and he knows his father loved her very, very much throughout their relationship of less than three years, and that's more or less the extent of what's certain about her. That's fine by him though- he may never have even seen her, but he hates her passionately. He resents that she decided to bring him into the world just to abandon him, and that she couldn't be bothered to even leave a letter explaining why. And he hates that his father spent all his time mourning her loss when he was a child instead of moving on with his life- he spent his whole childhood compared to this woman who in his eyes clearly never cared for either of them at all, drowning in the misery of his father projecting his idealized not-wife onto his "daughter" and being so terribly sad every time he was reminded that child might choose to be something else. It's his father's fault, he knows, but it's also hers: couldn't she have been more straightforward? Couldn't she have been honest enough to be cruel? If she'd just broken his father's heart properly, maybe it wouldn't have been such a catastrophe the first time he cut his own hair. At the same time, he has an uneasy understanding of what it's like to be evasive and to just skip town on the easy way out... He hates her for that bit of empathy, too.
š - Person who raised your OC and/or was important during their formative years
Yinguang was mostly raised by maids and tutors- his mother was in his life, but he definitely had a more intimate relationship with his wet nurse and she was his primary caretaker for his early years (it wouldn't be seemly for a lady to have to spend all her time on her son! she has a life, after all!). This maid had lost her own infant daughter not long before Yinguang was born and he was given to her to nurse, and he always liked to think that this meant he was able to replace her child in a moment of sorrow. After all, who wouldn't want him? Wasn't he good to her? Whatever private feelings she may not have shared with the young master, she certainly treated him with affection. He remembers the lullabies she sang to him and the gentle way she bandaged his scraped knees when he tripped running in the garden (again), and the way she always clicked her tongue and pretended not to know about his pranks when a cousin wound up doused in water or a maid turned out a sheet only to find it filled with frogs. She was the first to praise him when he did well in lessons and the only one to encourage him when he struggled. Moreover, she hardly ever hit him- he was good by an early age at avoiding his tutor's punishments, but it was a relief to be around someone who seldom saw a need to punish. Around the time he was twelve she left his family's household to return to her hometown to take care of her parents- Yinguang didn't learn until weeks after the fact when he was home from school on break, and although it was unseemly for a boy his age who had long since outgrown tantrums, he cried for hours after learning. Until the time of his graceless disownment by his family at twenty-three and subsequent flight from his homeland he still wrote to her every few months. Even though his nurse herself could neither read nor write, he sent a messenger who could read out his letters and write down her responses. He eagerly awaited her polite news about the south and her words of encouragement for his career- here and there he considered paying her a surprise visit, although other obligations (mercifully) always prevented it.
š¢ - Person they can't stand
It's a petty one, but Carmen never got along well with her Aunt Marcela. The family households were nearly as one, Marcela and her mother being as close as they were, and Carmen spent a lot of time as a little girl being scolded or corrected by a woman she considered a tyrant. "Close the gate, foolish girl, the goats will get out." "Stop taking the kitchen knife to hack at flowers, it's as blunt as a rock!" "If you let the dog knock over the water while I'm cleaning, you'll be the one mopping up the mess!" "Don't stay out after dark, your mother's been worried sick! For heaven''s sake girl, you know there are wolves about!" What a nag! She was a rambunctious kid, and though her parents gave up early on reining in her rambling ways Marcela never did. Because of that, Marcela is burned into her mind as the face of mindless tedium and know-it-all grouching. As an adult she can begrudgingly see that her aunt was never cruel or unreasonable, but it's not any easier to swallow that stubborn youthful pride... They've never quite reconciled, although the matter hasn't been helped by Carmen's near constant absence from home or the fact that any time Marcela contributes to the family letters it's to lecture her for the way she's been traveling or how she's taking care of her horse.