Tyym was never much of a scholar, only really enjoying her music lessons when growing up. That makes this adventure of hers a strange one: why would she decide to enroll at the Studium?
It wasn’t exactly a decision made on a whim, though it was made quickly. Originally, Tyym’s plan was to spend a few days around Old Sharlayan to see where she could be useful, then move on as usual. This often included saving students from stray monster attacks, as their research often distracted them from danger. Normally for Tyym, these were quick jobs: she saved them, got her thanks, and left. One young man, however, kept the conversation going after watching his tools react to Tyym’s musical fighting style. He introduced himself as an up-and-coming Studium student, studying aetherology. This led to a discussion about the aetherologic properties of music and an invitation to join him at the Studium to move this into actual research. Tyym eventually agreed, seeing it as another adventure and another way to do some good for people. However, it wasn’t hard to tell that she was quickly smitten by the man as well. She found it surprisingly easy to keep a conversation going (by her standards), and she wanted to get to know him further.
Thus, Tyym ended up as a student. As a student she was pretty average, and ended up enjoying the student life more than actually studying like one. However, the research she did with her new friend was exciting and fruitful. The concept of music as an offshoot of magic became novel, with a base for how to “cast” it in different ways. From there, aether was tracked in different notes, chords, and songs of varying tones, pitches, volumes, and more to find correlations between different kinds of playing. This led to many theories of how to create more effective songs meant for healing, boosting morale, and other tasks. This also led to a better understanding of older legends like the “Song of Oblivion”, learning why they became the powerful and legendary songs they were. Additional research hinted at the potential of the song’s recipient to further influence a song’s effects, though the exact reason couldn’t be determined. (Once dynamis was discovered and researched, this became the missing reason.)
As a result of their shared interest in music, the two ended up meeting a wide variety of music fans at the Studium. Things started pretty simple, as they just enjoyed playing for each other from time to time and discussing the music they loved and created. However, they eventually realized they could share this love of music further, and created a club for music performance. They would often create their own works or adapt older ones to their group, and then host impromptu concerts to show their works off to other students. They called themselves the Sunrise Sonata after multiple incidents of waking students and faculty up at sunrise, and other traditions began to form as they became closer-knit with each other. These included things like rings fashioned for each other’s Studium achievements and to celebrate their bonds. The Sunrise Sonata became well-known for their bonds with each other through all of these traditions. Though this “recurring friend” deal was still fairly new for Tyym, she was overjoyed to find her first true friends through this ragtag group of musicians.
Outside of the Sunrise Sonata, Tyym and her research partner bonded further through their shared musical tastes. They quickly found they were very similar in personalities as well, so it was easy for them to grow closer and closer. This led to hanging out together more, followed by a series of formal dates. Eventually (“Finally,” according to their friends), the two officially started a relationship together. Outside of her family, Tyym had never met anyone that she felt so comfortable with, and this meant the world to her. Since her travels began, she had never had anyone to confide her problems with or trust with anything. And suddenly he was always there to support and encourage her when she had problems. Of course Tyym was always there for him as well, and she even helped him get outside of his research and on small adventures, when their schedules allowed. They were inseparable and truly in love.
Some time after graduation, however, their bond was severed. Tyym had been helping to organize some research documents one day, to have them formally submitted for future studies. While managing to sort out the mess of paper, she discovered a series of opened letters addressed to her boyfriend, from an unknown organization. Taking a break to leaf through them, she discovered a few unfortunate truths about this organization, and their contact. Although the Twelve are naturally worshiped across Ethirys, this group sought to warp this worship into something for their own ends. By taking existing doctrine and legends and “adjusting” them, they targeted people who were gullible and wouldn’t know any better, and tried to show them why their methods of worship were the only legitimate ways to celebrate the Twelve. As they emotionally exploited people to join, they tried to guilt people into participating more and more, seeking to keep their members exclusively with them while reaping all the support and funds from these unknowing victims. Based on the letters, it seemed Tyym was next on the docket to be recruited. With her musical and aetherological prowess, and since she was so willing to help anyone, they saw her as a very useful tool to sway more people into joining. Even if that meant influencing their very aether to convince them.
Reeling from all of this information, Tyym confronted her boyfriend about everything. And he confirmed that it was all true. Their initial meeting had been about more than just a passing interest in aetherology, as he had been studying for the good of his organization. He realized Tyym could be useful in their cause, as they needed people who understood aether and music. He remained adamant that, after they got to know each other, his love was true, and it only strengthened his mission. He wanted to bring Tyym into their fold so that they could remain together after their time in the Studium. After all, he couldn’t be with her if she wasn’t in the organization as well. Though she could tell his feelings were true, Tyym was crushed by this betrayal. The person she trusted the most in the world turned out to be manipulating her for the good of some cult, just so they could use her further. All of those adventures, all of their time spent building each other up and encouraging each other on, all of their smiles and laughs shared together… all of it was, even indirectly, part of this grand scheme. There was no way to truly trust him after that. She ended their relationship from there and left him for the last time, with all of their work.
For the next few days, Tyym remained incredibly elusive. Even her friends usually couldn’t find her. She only appeared at the Last Stand occasionally for food, and even then she never remained for long before going back into hiding. This was her first heartbreak, and she was in no mood to see or talk to anyone. The Studium features many places for students to go into hiding while they study, and Tyym took full advantage of this to hide away from everything and sit with her emotions. Eventually she felt better enough to come out of hiding, not saying much but being with her friends as they tried to help her out. And not too long after that, she was off on her next adventure. While she realized she was ready for something new after staying in one place for so long, she was also secretly ready to get away from the pain of everything that had just happened, and bury herself in her adventures to forget about it.
This hasn’t totally worked; she’s still occasionally haunted by the betrayal, and she tends towards extreme caution when even thinking about romance. But her time at the Studium provided a lot of good in her life as well. It was Tyym’s first successful social experience, and the first people she could truly call friends. In fact, the Sunrise Sonata still exists in the Studium, and she still catches up with her friends from time to time around the world. And she better understood why music was so impactful, increasing her drive to be there for everyone she met. After consorting with those who just want to tear others down for their own ends, she was more than ready to give them a true song to hold onto.