Nathaniel Gloom, eldest child of Xavier and Martha Emily, was born April 1st, 1540; six years before Tina. Sensitive, protective, and painfully aware of the household’s cruelty, he became a buffer long before he should’ve. He guarded Tina instinctively, stepping between her and Martha’s temper with a courage that didn’t match his age. He adored her from the moment she was born, and she clung to him like he was the only safe place in their home.

Even as a child, Nathaniel had an intuition most adults lacked. He read tone, read danger, read shifts in the air like he was wired for survival. His empathy wasn’t softness; it was strategy. He learned when to speak, when to stay silent, when to move Tina out of the room before their mother noticed them. He acted like the house’s tiny crisis manager, doing everything he could with the tiny power he had.

Tina’s death in 1550 broke something in him that never repaired. He was ten; old enough to understand what happened, young enough to be shattered by it. After losing the one person he felt responsible for protecting, Nathaniel couldn’t stomach the cruelty of the Gloom estate any longer. And with Martha spiraling deeper into abuse, he knew staying would kill him too.

So he ran.

Nathaniel left home with nothing but a small satchel, a broken heart, and the impossible hope that anywhere else had to be better. But the world wasn’t kind to a child alone. He tried to work, beg, barter; anything to stay alive. His empathy stayed intact, but empathy doesn’t buy bread. His moral compass stayed steady, but morals don’t keep you warm.

Yet even starving, even exhausted, he would give away food if another child needed it more. He couldn’t stop being the protector he’d always been.

In 1554, at fourteen, Nathaniel’s body finally gave out. There was no dramatic ending; just cold, hunger, and a boy who deserved better. His death wasn’t a failure. It was the cost of a world that refused to help him when he needed it most.

But the impact he left behind was massive.

Xavier never recovered from losing his brother. Nathaniel’s absence carved a permanent wound into him; a guilt, a longing, a desperate need to rebuild the family he failed to save. That grief is the engine behind the hybrids. Behind Ponnie. Behind Zuki. Behind every attempt to “fix” what died with Nathaniel and Tina.

Nathaniel’s legacy isn’t just his tragedy.
It’s the tenderness he carried in a house that punished tenderness.
It’s the protection he offered when no one protected him.
It’s the ripple of his loss shaping an entire bloodline’s future.

Short life. Heavy impact. The ghost of the boy Xavier still wishes he could’ve saved.

Here's Nathaniel's GL2 look, with his old design, what do yall think?