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Rizabonne — Description
Name: Rizabonne (pronounced 'rih-zah-bonne')

Age: Young adult

Height: 7'2" at shoulder

Weight: About the same as a horse his size.

Species: Giant rat (distant descendent of the conventional brown rat)

Occupation: Valiant steed and faithful companion

Personality: In a violent 180 from his master and companion Sanzell, Riz is one of the most affectionate creatures you are liable to meet. He loves meeting people, and individuals that he likes he will often greet in the matter of an eight hundred pound Golden Retriever.

Riz is extremely physical, and is happy to be pet, cuddled, climbed on, and will even tolerate some roughhousing, though if he's messed with too much, he will deliver a reprimanding nip. While excitable, Rizabonne is gentle and quite approachable, to the extent that Sanzell tends to use him as a pillow when he sleeps. He'll rarely bite or even bare his teeth at something unless he feels like he or someone he likes are in imminent danger and takes to new people a lot faster than his master.

Riz's loyalty to Sanzell is extremely strong, far stronger than his loyalty to Sanzell's word. It is near impossible for Sanzell to keep Riz from following him for very long, and if Sanzell is hurt, or hallucinating, Riz will doggedly stay by his side, even refusing to get food if it means leaving Sanzell. This carries over to others to some extent: the rat is highly empathetic and hates seeing anyone in distress.

A Note on Riz's Intelligence: Riz is not of human level intelligence, nor does he have any means of speaking. He could communicate to other rats with squeaks, and Sanzell's good at reading his moods from experience, but he doesn't 'talk' or even really think in words. Riz could be described as on par with a particularly clever dog: he can work out some pretty complex concepts and even understand speech to some extent, but the structure of his mind is more animal than human. When Sanzell speaks to Riz, he will often reinforce his point with hand gestures, just like someone might with a dog.

Likes: Sanzell, meeting new people, cuddles, petting, hugs, warm soft things, sleeping with Sanzell, licking people, being with Sanzell, the words 'smart', 'good', and 'cute', especially when they're applied to him, being helpful and useful, new places, new smells, food, especially cheese (this is not because of the cartoon-induced idea that mice are crazy over cheese, Riz just particularly likes the taste), adventure, clean water, new exciting things he hasn't seen before (if he can't understand how something works it will amaze him like a five year old at a magic show, he will investigate it excitedly and then plunk himself in front of it and just stare)

Dislikes: People being angry or shouting, Lilith (can't detect her presence but seems to know when Sanzell's talking to her), bad people who hurt Sanzell, chemical smells, screaming, crying, people being sad, having his whiskers pulled, mean birds.

Strengths: Riz has an even better nose than Sanzell, but his greatest advantage is in his ability as a mount. Riz is nimble, fast, and extremely sure-footed, able to make his way through extremely hostile terrain with relative ease thanks to a combination of excellent balance and decent stamina. His fur can keep him warm against the cold, and for an animal, he is very clever. Rizabonne is especially dangerous with Sanzell's direction, as being a large animal, and a beast of burden on top of that, he is quite strong, and has a vicious set of chompers that can bite through rope in one go.

Like any rat, Riz is an excellent swimmer. He's actually better than Sanzell, who isn't much of a swimmer if he is a swimmer at all (and he'd rather not be)

Weaknesses: As a rat, he doesn't really have much of an idea of strategy in a fight. He's a much tougher opponent with Sanzell giving him directions- without Sanzell, Riz is only as dangerous as a large, clever animal, and one that's not naturally inclined to be violent, at that. There's also the fact that, for all of how maneuverable he is, he's just plain big and in a world of narrow walkways where it's a careful balancing act not to fall into the sky below, that in itself can be a potentially fatal disadvantage.

Riz also is not particularly aggressive, he'll typically only attack when directed or if their opponent has already attacked and wounded him or Sanzell. If he does attack, it's usually either biting, scratching, or simply using his size and speed to rush the opponent in a tackle. He has no armor whatsoever and his best defense against a bladed weapon would be to dodge it or stay at range.

Also, like Sanzell, while Riz would be a completely normal sight in his home world, in Phaeton, he's liable to raise some eyebrows. He's also colorblind, but that probably won't matter much.

Reference Notes:

Rizabonne is missing the tip of his tail. Even with this, when his tail is straight, it's just about as long as his head and body combined.

The red band around his neck is tied at the back, and Sanzell hangs onto it when riding Riz. Yanking on it hard could choke Riz, but just holding it is harmless.

He has a distinct bluish tint to his fur.

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Riz has a lot less detail about him than Sanzell, so his reference sheet is a lot simpler. Also, yay for being able to draw rats! I still goofed his proportions a bit but what can you do.

Riz is (hopefully) going to be the general accessory to Sanzell 's shenanigans at .