There is a certain simplicity, an ease, in not having to explain your background because it can be understood simply from your name.  True, it may still require some explanation for those not familiar with Vodacce tradition, but when one has lived his entire life in Vodacce, does that matter?

No one is certain where the name originated, but the two most likely sources are:

• Root 1: Thean ‘expositus’ (esposto in Vodacce) is a past tense verb of ‘exponere’ which means ‘to place outside’
  
• Root 2: From the Thean phase ‘ex posito’ which literally means ‘out of/from this place’

The truth could be one, the other, a mix of both or something else entirely.  But the simple fact is that it means that prior to ‘Esposito’ Dante had no surname.  He was an orphan, abandoned as a child.

Features: Olive skin, dark eyes, dark hair.  His hair is kept short, a style that he’d grown accustomed to as a monk.  But he has begun to experiment, letting it get longer than it’s been since he was a boy.  His frame would still be described as lithe or, in comparison to the swordsmen in the court, downright scrawny.  But he’s working on that.

Age: 19.  Or 20.  Things get fuzzy as an orphan.