Basil Blackfeather is the eldest son of one of Absalom’s more noteworthy tengu families. His father Mortimer started the Sylvan Bounty Tobacco Company and parlayed an intriguing blend of pipe-weed and a gift for well-spun tales into a career in local politics; his mother Annabelle – the Honorable Annabelle Duskwing – is the arbiter criminals most fear appearing before. While not of noble birth, the Blackfeather house is one with a finger on Abaslom’s pulse and a curiously influential connection of friends.
Basil’s older sister Eleanor got the green thumb… talon… of the family and runs the farm where the Sylvan Bounty grows its tobacco crops. (The less we speak of his younger brother Linus, the better. That one’s a troublemaker.) Basil, with a keen mind and a knack for observational skills, was drawn to his mother’s law books, but flavored with a young boy’s fascination with mystery and investigative work. Some say Basil’s mother encouraged this behavior by letting Basil read the files of tricky cases the authorities were having trouble; there are even whispers that a few criminals were brought to justice thanks to the lad’s eye for detail.
As we meet Basil as an adult, he is enrolled at one of Absalom’s most respected law colleges, but Basil’s friends have noticed an increasing restlessness: a desire to do more than burn candles into the late-night reading books. And then, at a break between terms… Basil’s dorm room starts to show signs of having been vacated, as a “B. Blackfeather” appears on the enlistment sheet for the newest Edgewatch recruitment class…
Basil Blackfeather is played by Jason McDonald.