Finn

Short Bio
Finn and his twin sister Grainne are the heirs to the clan of the Tearless, a powerful family who are blessed with a very long lifespan but lack the ability to cry. When they learn that they are supposed to kill each other, they flee along with Finn's servant/best friend Dermot, trying to escape their family and find a way to break their curse.

Personality
Appears very kind and caring; is loyal to his friends and a good listener. However, his gentle appearance is more of a defense mechanism against his true nature as he tries to deny his identity at all costs, desperately clinging to the idea of a perfect hero. Although he would never say something cruel or hurtful on purpose, he can be rather ruthless and selfish at times. The fact that he cannot cry due to his family’s curse causes him to be in an almost constant state of stress and bottled up emotions, although he hides it under a layer of exaggerated kindness. Grainne and Dermot are the only people he opens up to, and he cares about them from the bottom of his heart.

History
Born heirs of the Tearless, Finn and his sister Grainne are separated at birth. While Grainne spends her entire childhood with the other clan members, Finn is raised by two foster mothers, Liath and Bodhmall, far away from society. His childhood passes relatively peaceful, and he learns all kinds of different things, from cooking to sword fighting, having no other social contacts beside his foster mothers. He is also raised to distrust his blood relatives, since Liath and Bodhmall are rebels against the Tearless clan.

Although Finn loves them more than anything, he accidentally kills them on his 13th birthday, having lost the control over his powers. He is brought back to his blood relatives, where he meets Grainne for the first time. Although their relationship starts out pretty rocky, they soon grow close (and are joined by Dermot a few years later). At age 18, Grainne learns that she and Finn are supposed to kill each other so one of them can follow into their mother’s footsteps. They flee together with Dermot, and later meet their half-sister Tulcha and the seer girl Branna, travelling the country together.

Grainne
Twins bound together by fate(™).They are inseparable and would die for each other (even though, ironically, they can only be killed by the other). They are complete opposites – while Finn is rather shy and introverted, Grainne is highly assertive and outgoing. He heavily relies on her energetic character, especially when it comes to conflict situations. At the same time, he is highly protective of her, stopping at nothing to keep her safe – even if it means crossing moral boundaries (which contradicts his idealistic fantasies of being a perfect gentle hero). They’ve got this moirail thing going on where one can pacify the other when out of control (I’m sorry I Homestuck’d).

Dermot
At age 15, Finn saves Dermot from a bunch of Tearless slave traders, claiming him as his servant. Although Finn intends to release him afterwards, Dermot decides to stick with him since he is fascinated with him (and soon develops a huge crush). Even though his romantic feelings are unrequited, Dermot becomes the second most important person in Finn’s life, helping him feel more human and functioning as a link between him and the outside world.

Liath & Bodhmall
Despite not being related by blood, he considers them his true mothers. Their deaths have an impact on him that he never quite manages to cope with.

Trivia/Writer's Corner
Finn is the heart and soul of this story, everything was basically built up around him. The original idea was writing a story about "the only son of an evil family who is gentle", but as I grew older it became a little unrealistic to me, and now it's more like "the son of a family who does cruel things because of their inherited mental state, who tries to escape his true nature" (lol). The idea of them not being able to cry was there from the beginning, although their main task used to be collecting tears from crying children, since everything had more of a fairy tale character. Finn started out as a really naive and innocent character but the longer I'm writing the more he's slipping into moral grey zones lol. Nevertheless, he can be really sweet and I love him a lot;;

Funnily, the name "Finn" stuck with me from the beginning, and originally I didn't base him on the mythological Finn MacCool. The association came later on when I added more characters, although they hardly have anything in common besides leading a band of young "warriors" (and the part of his backstory where he's raised by two women).