"Uncle Dart caught a really big fish. 8| "
Adrastos is a sea dragon. We needed a sea dragon. He looks to be about 17, don't really know his real age yet. It's not important at this point, though it could be useful to play with this later, when he becomes playable, instead of an NPC - probably about halfway or 5/8ths into the story. Keeping that option open right now.
Dart and Wil are on some kind of adventure/fishing trip/something. Again, keeping this open, because we might need to tweak it for plot development later on. Dart is seeking out sea dragons, whether for personal gain or some mission or something. Doesn't really matter. Adrastos is injured and tired after a long "hunting" trip in the deep ocean gone wrong, and they manage to knock him out, haul him to the coast of Valor, and take his dragonstone. He joins the party as an NPC who really doesn't want to be there - he is their prisoner. But he can't just run away because, dude, they have his dragonstone. And he can't swim with people-fins.
More on my headcanon sea dragons? :
Sea dragons dwell throughout the oceans surrounding Elibe; they had no real reason to travel through the Dragon's Gate back during the Scouring, since they very rarely travel onto land unless they're gathering berries or something. They live just off the coasts of quiet islands, where there are good sources of food from occasional land vegetation, warm-sea plants, and lots of fish. Are there coral reefs in Elibe? That'd be a good habitat, but there probably aren't any very close to the mainland.
Anyway, this makes Valor the ideal home. The dense forests provide extra sources of food. There are no humans, and very rarely do fishing vessels venture near enough to pose any threat to them. And, if one does come close enough, the dragons make sure there are no survivors. This is why it's called the "Dread Isle" - though nobody really knows about the monsters that lurk in the seas.
When Nergal started making frequent trips to the island, the dragons sensed his powers and retreated to the waters before he knew of their presence, afraid of what he would do to them. When Ninian and Nils first made their escape, the dragons did not attack their boat, as the general consensus was that the siblings, too, were dragons, and would thus work towards the benefit of dragonkind - they never had any real contact. When Fargus's ship came close, the only reason it didn't get attacked was, simply, because it got attacked - it seemed to the sea dragons that these humans shared a common enemy, and they left Eliwood and co. alone, hoping he would rout the intruders in their territory.
When Dart and Wil come close on their mission, one of the clan elders identifies them as some of the humans who helped them twenty-three or so years ago, so they begrudgingly let them be, retreating to their homes until the danger is gone. They don't know if it's some follow-up mission to make sure there isn't any danger or what, but they sense no harm. They don't realize that the two are, uhh, hunting them - it's not a mission of bloodlust, so they don't sense that. The capture of Adrastos goes mainly unnoticed because it takes place so far away from the homes these dragons reside in, and because... well, Adrastos was supposed to be gone for a while longer on that fishing trip.
Analysis? :
Adrastos's dialogue in-game is going to be the best and funnest thing to write ever. He's the Anti-Tiki/Fa/Ninian/Myrrh, being a male and totally not sweet or accepting towards humans. He doesn't quite fall into the category that Xane fills, while they are both kind of comic-relief characters; Xane had a purpose and a serious side to his character.
Eventually, most of Adrastos's sandpapery attitude will wear away, but he remains brash and disagrees with everything just because he can. He HAS to form some kind of begrudging friendship with Dart, just because it will be the very best like no pirate/mermaid friendship ever was. And maybe Wil can draw out a part of that nice side that Adrastos hides way down inside there somewhere with some sort of friendship/family discussion - I'd like to maybe go back to the days of Lyn's Legion here. I imagine Wil was just all up in Nils's business as he was prone to be in everyone else's, and he'd be all nostalgia-ing about it because of that wariness of humans that Nils sort-of had. This could be an expansion of canon, in a way - the character interactions that got skipped because of the tutorial. Like a bad fanfiction!
Another interesting interaction early-on would be between Adrastos and Jeremy. They're both being dragged along on this trip to Pherae on similar grounds; it wasn't completely involuntary, but neither had a better choice, other than, well, dying. This obviously wouldn't be able to be a support, unless it was set as retrospect after Adrastos becomes playable... Or! Adrastos could have some sort of secondary class, like Nils//Bard, and would become playable right away. He would be useful as a Thief, stealing vulneraries and all that jazz, perhaps unable to use weapons, now that I think about it... He could come prepackaged as middle-high level [13-17?] with excellent stats and high growths, like Fa or Myrrh after a few level-ups, but the only real way to level him up would be to steal a million enemy items or dodge 500 times prior to regaining his dragonstone and being force-promoted to Sea Dragon class! This would allow him supports with the other characters early-on, and would give us a Thief so that one doesn't have to be created. Too many OCs for minor roles = probably a bad thing. Astol/Ashtor/whatever would be a plausible returning character, once the group hits Ostia, but I don't think Cath or Chad would, unless we want to get into the whole Hugh/orphanage/etc. scenario later on in the game. And we could drag Matthew into it. All of which would be boss. But still, FOCUS!
Didn't I say I was going to take a nap?
Anyway, current list of Support OR random conversation things that would be cool/are decided/I have idea and want discuss, in no particular order:
Roy: Lilina, Nils, Wolt, Eliwood
Nils: Roy, Tessa, Adrastos, Eliwood, Wil
Adrastos: Dart, Nils, Wil, Jeremy
Tessa: Nils, Jeremy, Lilina
Jeremy: Tessa, Adrastos, Dart
Wil: Dart, Adrastos, Wolt, Nils
Dart: Wil, Adrastos, Wolt, Jeremy
Wolt: Roy, Wil, Dart
Eliwood: Roy, Lilina
Lilina: Roy, Eliwood, Wolt, Tessa
wow did I teal deer here? whoops.
We need more characters, NOW. Tonight's agenda: Isadora's kids, Does Rebecca have another kid?, Other returning characters?, etc.