Gopher Wood was the former Head of the Oak Family, and later became the Dreammaster of The Family's Penacony chapter. Despite his position as a Family leader, he is secretly a Pathstrider of the Order. He has two adoptive children: Sunday and Robin. He is the basis for the cartoon character Old Man Wood.
With two of the Nameless gone (Razalina and Tiernan), the Watchmaker had to go to the front lines in Penacony. It was at that moment his rivals saw an opportunity. By the time Gopher Wood the representative from the Montour system's Family arrived at the Watchmaker's call, the Stellaron had already been activated and was seeping into the primordial Synesthesia Dreamscape. The Family knew far more about the Stellaron than the average person. They helped the Watchmaker swiftly quell the civil unrest and played a part in building Penacony, under the disguise of the Harmony. Those three Amber Eras were known as the Age of Dreaming. The Watchmaker, who had been left in the dark, sent out invitations across the universe, spreading the hype around the land of the dreams.
However, the Stellaron was never truly sealed by The Family. It existed in a different form within the Dreamscape: the Penacony Grand Theater itself. The opulent dream is built upon the decay of spirits, with a toxic elixir called "pleasure" flowing through the Dreamscape. It tempts people to indulge in the Dreamscape, and gradually their minds succumb, becoming nourishment for the sweet dream. Weaknesses that plague humanity were magnified and nourished by The Family. Penacony became a new kind of prison, even more impenetrable than the previous one. Sadly, the Watchmaker realized this far too late. By then, The Family had a firm grip on Penacony, swiftly quelling any opposition that arose.
Status: Married
Met on: 2120 AE
Married on: 2124 AE
We originally met because I was a researcher for the Intelligentsia Guilds Candelagraphos school. Sent to penacony to collect information on the newly prospering planet of festivities, in hopes of fleshing out our records on the region. In the process I was arranged to meet and speak with the leaders of penacony, including Dreammaster of the time, Most Reverend Gopher Wood. I only knew of him as a bishop of The Harmony, and new politician.
Our first interview actually ran long, and I found out many years later that he had stayed almost an hour late to continue speaking with me. I realize in hindsight that I'm not sure if he knew that the Intelligentsia Guild is sponsored by the I.P.C... I can't imagine he would've agreed to meet with me if he had. He certainly knows now, I complained enough about my work being impacted by them.
Anyway- after my meetings with the rest of the leaders I ended up being invited back for another meeting with Gopher, this time over lunch instead of in the evening. I thought nothing of it at the time, I'd given him my contact information on the off chance he had something about penacony he wanted to tell me after I'd left. I didn't even realize that it was a casual meeting until I was sat there talking to him, without my beloved notebook. That became a somewhat regular thing while I was on penacony. After my first batch of meetings I got to spend my time simply enjoying the dream. Taking notes and all that of course, I was there so I could write a paper on the place, but still. I spent 2 solar months there and over that time I found myself gradually spending more and more time with the beloved dreammaster.
It was... Nice. He was nice, moreso than I expected. I was more entertaining than he'd anticipated as well. At some point he'd gotten used to it all, to people asking weirdly personal questions and the obligation to at least kind of answer. I was a nice change of pace, I didn't really care about him, not outwardly anyway. My curiosity carefully tempered to prevent myself from asking an insensitive or invasive question. My thoughts were interesting too, the chair opposite his desk just close enough that he could still read my thoughts through his halo. I was pretty single mindedly focused on the information I needed for my paper, but occasionally my thoughts wandered. In that he realized that we have similar taste in books, that I was displeased with my position in the guild, and that I was, perhaps unconciously, waiting for an escape.
In reality he should've been more careful. But he was younger then, more confident in himself, his follwers and his plan. People would trust him more if he had a spouse, it would be easier to take care of his newly adopted children too with another person around- assuming I was as easy to influence as I seemed.
He doesn't remember when he started having me around because he enjoyed me, and not simply as a piece in his plan. But the company was nice, I was forever willing to help. My gratitude for being cared for and out from I.P.C. controll pulled much further than it realistically should've been. Not that I cared much.
That was another reason I was nice to have around, I was honest to a fault, even after he was caught in the fire and his halo permanently rendered useless alongside his wings. He knew me well, he knew if I had an issue I'd voice it. Though most of my issues were simple, easy, shallow compared to the problems brought to him by the family.
It was nice to have me around after Sunday and Robin became more independant of him. He'd never quite had the paternal instincts for them. But he was certainly nervous after they left, he claims it's because it was their moment to prove their value as pawns. That if particualrly Sunday had managed to get something, anything past him, it could- and would compromise his entire plan.
Sunday had never been anything short of faithful, and all Robin had to do to play her role was to keep being Robin. His fears entirely unjustified, but that doesn't make having someone else around nice. I was a comfort to him, humanity made me predictable, consistent. Even when he couldn't read my mind he found himself able to predict where I'd be and when, it made seeking me out easy.
I was also trusting, far moreso than I potentially should've been. Converting me to the Harmony was easy, to following the Order was somehow easier. My path of Erutdition abandoned without a second thought.
