Ridoc Gamlyn

Ridoc is shorter than some of the other first-years, with brown skin and dark-brown hair that falls against his forehead.

His rider relic is a brown dragon silhouette on his upper arm.

By second year, Ridoc has added a swordtail tattoo that wraps from his neck toward Aotrom’s relic.

Ridoc has a smart-mouthed, irreverent manner from his first days in the quadrant. He jokes through tense settings such as squad meetings and history class, which makes his name easy for Violet to remember.

His humor often sits beside real fear rather than replacing it. In dragon classes and at Presentation, he jokes about being eaten or torched while still reacting with alarm, awe, and practical warnings when dragons come close.

Ridoc keeps using jokes in public, tense, and informal settings alike. He can be crude and openly playful, but his comments do not stop him from taking a side when a squadmate is being attacked or accused.

Rider Survival Course keeps Ridoc’s dark humor visible under pressure, but he also notices practical danger around him. During the bond-blocking exercise, he identifies that the loss of the dragon bond is wrong, steadies Violet when her ankle rolls, and helps protect other cadets while still joking through fear and exhaustion.

Interrogation training shows that Ridoc’s jokes can coexist with endurance. He admits fear, tries to lie immediately, refuses to trade a personal secret for water, and remains aligned with the squad’s agreement not to break even after being beaten.

Ridoc can restrain his running commentary when the situation demands it. After a tense Senarium confrontation, he tells Violet he kept his inside thoughts inside, and she recognizes the effort as part of his seriousness about protecting the squad.

Ridoc and Aotrom maintain an ongoing prank competition with each other. Ridoc once uses itching powder on the dragon, and Aotrom answers by soaking him with seawater.

Ridoc defends Violet as a squadmate when Tynan insults her, calling out Tynan’s behavior and warning him that listening to Jack Barlowe could get him killed.

He openly celebrates Violet’s success on the Gauntlet, calling her one of theirs, hugging her at the top, and defending that she completed the obstacle when someone objects.

Before Threshing separates the remaining squad members, Ridoc embraces Violet and bluntly orders her not to die.

After Threshing, Ridoc remains protective of Violet and angry about Oren and the others trying to kill her.

During Amber Mavis’s accusation against Violet, Ridoc stands at Violet’s back and challenges Nadine’s bias against marked cadets.

When Liam has to leave Violet’s match with Jack Barlowe, he asks Ridoc to guard her in his place. Ridoc jokes about the comparison to Liam but still stays close, protests Jack’s illegal attacks, and tells Violet to breathe after she and Jack collapse.

Ridoc remains close to Violet and Rhiannon after Resson. His joking reaction to seeing Violet alive drops away when he realizes the letters she carries belong to Liam, and he reacts with shocked grief.

After Violet names Colonel Aetos as the person behind an assassination attempt, Ridoc comes to her side, touches her shoulder, and helps walk her back to the edge of the mat.

Ridoc struggles with the scale of Violet’s hidden information about venin, wyvern, and Navarre’s propaganda, but he does not leave her. He says the four friends stick together until graduation and volunteers for the dangerous ward research.

Ridoc helps steady Sawyer when Sawyer doubts his worth after losing part of his leg, bluntly reminding him that he is still Iron Squad and still a rider.

Ridoc does not want Violet, Rhiannon, Sawyer, and himself separated on dangerous missions. He cites repeated disasters that happened when the core squad was split and says Liam’s old watcher role might have prevented some of them.

Ridoc is furious when he learns Violet has hidden Xaden’s condition, but his anger turns into a concrete demand for safeguards rather than abandonment. He agrees to help search for answers only if Violet defines a breaking point and tells Rhiannon, Sawyer, and Jesinia, and he later warns that he will reveal the truth himself if she does not.

Ridoc’s signet lets him wield ice. Violet considers it more common than Rhiannon’s summoning, but still impressive to witness.

Ridoc can use his ice practically as well as in combat. When Brennan needs treatment for a broken nose, Ridoc produces a thick icicle for Violet to use on the injury.

In Basgiath’s ward chamber, Ridoc raises an ice wall strong enough to shield Violet’s group from Baide’s dragonfire for a short time. The blast melts the wall and burns his hands badly, but the barrier buys the group needed protection.

Ridoc can shape ice quickly in close combat. Against venin, he blocks a sword with a thick band of ice and throws down a sheet of ice that helps Violet drop under a thrown mace.

Ridoc can draw water from the air, a skill he says only a few ice wielders have. He has learned to freeze water inside fruit beneath the peel and thinks he might be able to freeze water inside a living body, though he has not tested that possibility.

Ridoc learns to make one of Trissa’s delayed-activation runes work during rune training.

At the pass defense, Ridoc applies his ice-related signet directly against a wyvern’s body. After he reaches toward the creature during a close pass with Aotrom, the wyvern stops flying, falls, and cracks on the rocks below.

Ridoc survives Threshing and bonds Aotrom, a Brown Swordtail.

After Violet collapses from using oranges against Jack Barlowe, Ridoc’s knowledge of Jack’s allergy warning lets Emetterio get Jack to treatment in time.

Ridoc survives a dangerous freezing-related signet manifestation during Battle Brief with frostbite treatment and no permanent damage.

Ridoc provides the key lead that Lyra’s and Warrick’s journals are listed in a sublevel royal vault. After meeting Jesinia, he reports that she knows where the vault is and how to get through its wards, but that access requires someone from King Tauri’s bloodline.

During the journal theft operation, Ridoc supports the team from outside the inner Archives group. He helps keep watch at the Archives entrance and later takes Aaric away to hide the burned hands that would reveal the vault wards injured someone.

At the cliff trap during rider-flier training, Ridoc helps others cross and tries to stop Violet from falling, but the pressure trap fires and leaves him with two arrows in his abdomen. Brennan reaches him, blocks most of the pain, removes the shafts, and Ridoc survives the wounds.

Ridoc fights in the battle at Basgiath after admitting he is terrified and repeating Violet’s vow that no one dies. He helps coordinate weapons through Rhiannon’s retrieval signet, tries to free Aotrom from a wyvern, uses Violet’s crossbow in the rescue, and survives the battle.

When Violet secretly alters Basgiath’s wardstone so fliers can wield within the wards, Ridoc uses ice to cool a dangerous split in the heated metal after Sawyer’s attempt. He then celebrates the success because it lets the fliers keep wielding and stay with their squads.

During the poisoning crisis in Hedotis, Ridoc guards Violet in the kitchen and appears to be struck by the cook’s thrown knife. The blade only slices his flight jacket and the counter, and Ridoc immediately attacks the cook, retrieves Violet’s dagger, and comforts Violet when he realizes she thought she had nearly lost him.

After Trager is struck during Zehyllna’s gift test, Ridoc helps lower him, checks for a pulse, and silently confirms his death. The shock leaves Ridoc shaking before Garrick steadies him in formation, and the squad later chooses to remain with the bodies instead of accepting food and beds.

Ridoc stays beside Violet during the failed meeting with the irids, hears their painful communication, and signs updates to Xaden and Garrick. He summarizes their refusal plainly: they see Andarna as a weapon, will not help, believe humanity deserves to die, and say there is no venin cure.

Ridoc joins Rhiannon’s north-gate defense as part of the second-year command. Paired with Sawyer on the lower sector, he helps bring down wyvern pairs even as falling bodies damage the wall area.