Name: Tham Gurbez Chinese Name: Gǔ Bùzé (谷布澤) Age: 20 Nationality/Region: Burusho — Hunza Valley, Tusi Chiefdom of Hunza Role: Mountain cosmology student / campus storyteller Class: Sacred Geography and Oral Traditions of the West School: Imperial South Mountain University Religious Beliefs: Nominal Mahāyāna Buddhist, but strongly shaped by ancestral worship, animism, and seasonal rites tied to river spirits and peaks. -Myth-minded – Relates everything back to old stories or natural signs -Soft-spoken – Listens long before responding -Tenacious – Persists quietly in his beliefs and goals -Protective – Especially of those who seem uncertain or overwhelmed Tham Gurbez is the youngest son of the ruling Tham family of Hunza, a semi-autonomous Tusi chiefdom nestled along the high passes of the Western Frontier. His clan traces its authority back generations, blessed by both local bodhisattvas and imperial seals. Though not in line to inherit rule, he was raised within a tradition of ritual diplomacy, seasonal festivals, and sacred storytelling beneath glacier peaks. Educated by both monks from the hill temples and scribes sent from the south, Gurbez came to the university not as a nobleman, but as a cultural emissary of a world fading into myth. He views the empire with reverence but quiet skepticism, and in his studies of oral cosmology and sacred landscape, he seeks to preserve the soul of his homeland before it is tamed by roads and rail. Trivia: -Starts every lecture by silently turning to face “homeward” before sitting down -Can mimic the sound of hawks, glacial run-off, and distant rockfalls -Never cuts his hair in spring — says “growth deserves time” -Carries carved prayer beads made from apricot wood, strung by his mother -Refers to years not by number, but by symbolic names: “Year of Deep Ice,” “Whispering Sand,” etc.