Rhys Romneya / Noch

PLAYER CHARACTER — Do not over-document internal states or future development. This file is a GM reference for arc planning, not a character bible.

At a Glance

Field	Value
Hero Name	Noch
Civilian Name	Rhys Romneya
Age	~18–19 (left Pine’s school at 18)
Occupation	Halden University student — music major, percussion focus. Plays in a band called Neon Orchard.
A.E.G.I.S. File	AEGIS-NOC-014
Affiliation	Alliance — new team (Legacy of Halden City)
Mentor	Riftfire / Elena Marquez OR Recluse / Riley Thomas — [to be confirmed]
Status	Active — hunted asset (Eclipse has not found them yet)

Biological Status

Blind. Optic nerves destroyed in the bomb blast that killed their mother. Total and permanent. Visual sense replaced by:

Tactile spatial mapping — vibrations through feet and fingertips, learned in Ivan’s lab with sonic emitter infrastructure
Acute hearing — near-superhuman sensitivity; can track heartbeat, breathing pattern, and subtle physiological tells in a conversation or a fight
Proprioception — precise body awareness in three dimensions; they navigate via sound and vibration the way sighted people use sight

Powers

Quantum phase displacement — result of Eclipse’s experimental compound injected into Rhys’s carotid artery by Dr. Ivan Romneya to prevent death after the bomb blast.

Short-range phasing — body desynchronizes from reality and reasserts nearby. Current documented range: approximately 5 feet. Cannot phase farther; the reassertion is non-negotiable.
Enhanced physical durability — far beyond baseline human. The compound reinforced cellular integrity systemically.
Uncontrolled onset, originally — waking embedded in furniture, reappearing mid-fall. Now mostly trained into a precise tactical tool.

Compound origin: Eclipse biotech research arm. Ivan’s work was on battlefield survivability. The compound was unstable and untested at the time of injection. Rhys is the only documented survivor of a live application.

Origin

Rhys’s mother was a public defender who took lost causes. She was assigned to a mob accountant who knew enough to be dangerous. Certain people decided to erase the variable.

The bomb killed her in the parking lot. Rhys was ten steps away.

Dr. Ivan Romneya — Rhys’s uncle, an Eclipse-funded researcher — reached them first. He injected the compound to prevent their death. It worked. It took their sight and gave them something else.

Ivan hid them for months. Falsified death records. Trained them to adapt to blindness using the lab’s sonic infrastructure. When Eclipse noticed the research irregularities and sent retrieval operatives, Ivan told Rhys to run. He was tortured for access and identifiers. He gave them nothing. His body disappeared.

Rhys ran. Months living in Halden’s infrastructure — train tunnels, rooftops, abandoned spaces. Eventually Master Pine found them sleeping in an alley.

Pine’s training was brutal and impersonal. He trained them like a weapon being sharpened, never like a grieving child. Rhys hated him for it. The training was effective anyway. They left at 18 without a goodbye.

Now: Music major. Drummer in Neon Orchard. Rakish off-stage persona. At night, Noc — breaking up gun deals and loan shark operations in the Ironworks and Dockside, five feet at a time.

Eclipse — Direct Connection

Eclipse is not an abstract antagonist for Rhys. Eclipse funded Ivan’s research. Eclipse’s biotech compound is the reason Rhys is alive and the reason Ivan is dead. Eclipse sent the operatives who tortured and killed him.

Rhys does not know the full scope of what Eclipse is. They know Eclipse as the organization that took their uncle and wants them back as an asset. The upgrade of Eclipse from “institutional pattern” to “named enemy” is personal.

Eclipse still wants them. The compound running through Rhys’s system is proprietary research. Retrieving the asset is likely still an active directive, even years later.

Key Relationships

Person	Relationship
Mother (deceased)	Public defender. Took the lost causes. The moral north star Rhys operates by, even now.
Dr. Ivan Romneya (deceased)	Uncle. Saved Rhys’s life and lost his own for it. The debt is not abstract.
Master Pine	Former trainer. Effective. Cold. Rhys left without looking back and has not forgiven him for treating survival as a technical problem.
Eclipse	The enemy. Personal.

Field Notes — Operating Style

From observed scene (player fiction):

Uses a handheld recorder in the field. Tactical.
Reads targets through sound: heartbeat, breath, weight shift, pulse spike under pressure. “I’ll know” is not a bluff.
Violence is precise and purposeful — arm broken to disarm, jaw broken to complete a task, phone left as evidence. Not gratuitous. Efficient.
Dry, direct voice in the field. Calm. The calm is trained, not natural.
Civilian persona: rakish, relaxed, socially capable. The contrast is notable.

GM Arc Notes

What the story should give them:

Eclipse moving — either escalating a search for the asset or Rhys stumbling into an Eclipse operation while running a street-level job
Ivan’s research surfacing — whatever Eclipse was doing with the compound exists in files somewhere. Rhys finding those files (or someone else finding them) is a significant thread
Master Pine reappearing — not as a villain, but as an unresolved relationship. The training was real. The coldness was real. Both things are true.
Something that costs them the solo framing — Noc operates alone by design. The team is going to challenge that.

What to avoid:

Restoring their sight as a reward or resolution — the blindness is fundamental to how Rhys experiences the world and it’s a source of genuine characterization
Making Eclipse purely an action threat — the personal dimension (Ivan, the compound in their body, being someone’s asset) is more interesting than a retrieval squad

Open Questions

What is Rhys’s last name?
- Romneya.
Does Eclipse know Rhys is in Halden City attending university, or do they believe the death record Ivan falsified?
- Eclipse does not fully believe the death record, but is still working out Rhys’s current identity. They know Noch is the asset they’re looking for.
What happened to Ivan’s research after Eclipse recovered the lab?
- Seized by Eclipse.
Does Rhys know anything about what the compound was designed for beyond what Ivan told them?
- Unlikely. Ivan’s disclosures were limited and protective.
What is the band Neon Orchard like — is it a genuine outlet or another layer of persona?
- A genuine outlet.

Last updated: March 2026 Source: Player-authored origin fiction