Looking to learn a bit more about the man behind the dragon?

The Man

For all intents and purposes, my real name is Roahm Mythril.  The more I have found out about the person I was named after, the less this name has come to mean to me.  Thus, to all my friends, I go by Roahm.

I was born on February 9th, 1981, in Beaumont, Texas.  I am of Scottish heritage, and was raised earlier in life around some elder relatives.  My accent largely comes from that, though it is mixed somewhat by being in the presence of southeast Texan accents.  Thus I make no claim that mine is a pure Scottish accent.

From an early age, I had to learn how to entertain myself, as my family was often too busy to spend much time with me.  As such, video games, computers, and art became major passions of mine.  As a young child, I spent countless hours playing games and drawing characters from them, and as the internet became more accessible, I gained friends who shared my interests.

I attended a local school, my favorite subjects being art and science.  Alas, classes I really would have enjoyed were never available.  I always wanted to learn Japanese, but our school only offered Spanish as a language course, and while they always offered Computer Science as an elective, there were never enough people who signed up for it to actually have the class.

After graduating, I moved to Florida for approximately 15 months, where I attended Full Sail, a media school.  I graduated with an Associate of Science in Game Design.  The experience was a good one for me, though it never turned into a career.  It did help me realize that, were I to get into the gaming industry, I'd like to get in as an artist.  If anyone has any contacts that could help me there... but I digress.

I currently live with my family in Texas, out in the country.  The area itself is fairly nice, though I miss living in Florida, and more than that, there is the problem that the only option we have here for high speed internet is HughesNet, and they suck.  We live a half-hour's drive from the nearest town, so companies like Spectrum won't come out here.  This unfortunately precludes me from doing things like online gaming, or being able to watch much on YouTube, as I generally have to wait until 2 AM to use the "bonus bandwidth" period to upload and watch videos.  Most online games, there's too much lag due to satellite ping.

My musical tastes are quite varied.  The only genres I really don't like are country and rap, and granted, I'm not too fond of metal.  However, most things have at least one or two samples I like.  My favorite types of music are house and trance, and I also like ethnic music, especially Chinese, Japanese, Irish, and Scottish.  I do not watch much in the way of TV, there aren't too many shows that really interest me these days.  About the only modern things I watch are Mythbusters and the Pokémon cartoon.  Other than that, I mainly watch older shows.  For example, I like the Dick Van Dyke Show and I Love Lucy.  A more recent show that alas is no longer around but I quite love is Mystery Science Theater 3000.  That show clearly was gone before its time, there were plenty more movies they could have done.  At least it lives on somewhat in the way of Rifftrax.

Spiritually, I classify myself as a deist.  I believe in a higher power, but do not believe in organized religion.  To me, spirituality has to be personal to mean anything.  I am kept from being agnostic due to science only being able to explain so much.  For example, evolution makes sense, but where the first living cells come from?  If matter can neither be created nor destroyed, where did we get what we have?  I had a major falling out with organized religion early in life, when my grandmother died.  She was the one person I really liked on my father's side of the family.  I prayed for her every night, but when she passed away, my "friend" who originally invited me to his church said it was my fault for being too busy to attend, despite praying for a full hour every night at my home.  Apparently his omnipotent God can only hear you if you pray to Him between a specific set of man-made walls.  Riiiiiiight...

That being said, I do not blame all of religion, nor do I blame all religious followers.  I know it was mostly just the fault of this one individual.  However, even when I was in church, it never felt like a good fit for me.   I never felt comfort, happiness, a sense of being welcome, I never felt any of those positive feelings you're supposed to feel.  It always felt cold and fearful to me, never warm and inviting.  Perhaps I just had a bad experience, but all the same, the more I look at religion, the less I personally can see myself following it.  There's just too much involved with it that I personally do not believe, and I could not abandon my personal principles to fit in with something for which there is no definitive proof.  I ask that if you wish to talk to me, PLEASE do not try to talk me into giving religion another chance.  It is not for me, and my experiences with it ended in one of the most painful experiences of my life.

I currently have no romantic attachments, as I am in no position to support a relationship.  Perhaps sometime if I can get into a better situation in life, be more financially able and such, I'd be more likely to look for such.

The Dragon

Roahm Mythril is also the name of my furry (or scaley, if you prefer to subdivide the fandom) alter ego.

My draconic identity came to me via recurring dreams.  In these dreams, I would find myself flying, but was never sure how I was able to do so.  These dreams continued for a long while, always feeling very vivid, as though they were suppressed memories, rather than a mere dream.  In my later years in high school, I began to have the dreams again.  This time, however, I flew over a lake.  As I did so, I could see my reflection : that of a dragon.

Soon after this incident, I stumbled across the Transformation Story Archive, where I read the story "The Winds of Change."  This was my first major exposure to transformation stories, as well as the subject of furries.  From here, I found more and more information about the fandom, various art resources, and realized that I had found a group that shared my interests.  I'm fairly low key in the fandom, I've never attended a convention, nor do I own a fursuit or anything of the like.  The sort you see on CSI and other such shows, you have to realize that is a broad stereotype to boost ratings, and nothing more.  It's the same sort of thing as the average African American character being a "gangsta from the hood" type, or the average gay character being a flaming, lisping queen.  At its most basic level, a furry is simply someone who is a fan of anthropomorphic animal characters.  One of the easiest examples of such to give is the Disney adaptation of Robin Hood.  We draw and create such characters as a form of creative expression.

As far as Roahm's history, he is adept in the use of elemental magics as well as iaido style swordsmanship.  He is most proficient in ice techniques.  Originally working as a researcher, translating an ancient language found in mysterious ruins around the world, he joined a group of friends, becoming an adventurer and lending his abilities to their cause.  Overall Roahm is a friendly, helpful sort, fighting on the side of good, though like most dragons, he can be distracted sometimes by treasure.  He is a direct descendant of the ancient race, his ancestor being Talos Mythril, a draconic alchemist who created a metal alloy that could contain a magical charge.  He named this metal mythril after his family.

In truth, a draconic identity fits me fairly well.  I am indeed quite entranced by shiny objects, and collect things like necklaces, rings, even rhinestones.  When I go out, I often wear several of my necklaces and rings, keeping my hoard close at hand.  My hoarding instinct even goes into my tastes in gaming sometimes, as I love games where there's a lot to collect.  I love Pokémon, Mega Man Battle Network, Dynasty Warriors, Spyro, and other such games.  I also tend to like high places.  I enjoy looking into the sky, and down at the ground below.  Such sometimes sparks my creative moods.