This is Leif. 

The working story is that he's a member of the Young Slayers- the Empire's training/brainwashing arm (Matthias was part of this himself). At first, he grew up excited to become a dragonslayer- a hero- a noble man who would defend the weak from evil dragons- only to have his hopes dashed by the YS. "Heroes" were nothing more than those who overthrew one tyrant to become one themselves- nothing more. He saw his compatriots bully and extort peasant folk, and it didn't help that after Matthias and Ari invade the Empire, his compatriots turned on HIM because he was born with green eyes. The insanity and paranoia that was gripping the empire was getting out of control.

The tipping point for him was that he and his fellow slayers were sent out to fight. Their generals were way in the back, ordering from behind (and relatively out of harm's way), but the "bad guy's" leader fought in the front lines, leading the charge. Meaning, the "bad guys" were acting more heroic than those supposedly on the side of good. 

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I got the inspiration for Leif while in the Scambaiting region of YouTube. There was a story about a scammer who reached out to Pleasant Green- who then got a team together of my favorite SB Youtubers to help take down their scam call center. It was actually the most tense thing ever- you could totally make a movie of it. (more on Dragonridersdance.com).

https://youtu.be/Un6sYuYTZyI