Among the first characters introduced in The Almoner are Eddie and Randall Richter. This father and son operate a large produce farm in the shadow of the Eclipse Spire. With the uncountable masses living underground, how did these two end up on the surface? I'll take a deep breath, and explain:
The Richters are Forsaken, banished by the Church to the surface of All 16 years prior to the timeline established in the opening chapter. Randall, who is Eddie's son and is 16 years old, was born in Tides (one of the vast subterranean city-states). Immediately following his birth, he was seized from his mother by the Church and sent to join his father in surface exile.
Eddie's crime? He was found to have associations with the Auger of God, a growing secret society of religious dissenters. Though the Auger of God has typically been non-violent, the Church does not abide heresy of any kind. So they sent him packing topside, where he will live out the remainder of his days.
So what the hell did Randall do? After all, he was only half-formed in his mother's womb when his banishment was ordered. It is not unprecedented for the Church to extend the sentence of a man convicted of heresy to his descendants, ranging from 1 to 5 generations depending on severity of the crime. Eddie's sentence would typically not have been extended to his unborn son, but the Adjudicators in his case decided to make an example of him due to his high-profile marriage to the Prelate of Tides. The 13 Prelates are governors of the city-states, and together form the Council of All. Their rank in the Church is subordinate only to the Pontiff himself.
So 16 years after the banishment, Eddie runs the farm with the help of his old friend Marco, who had originally introduced him to Auger of God. Eddie has sworn off further association with the Auger in deference to his son. He's also abandoned the scriptures of the Church, as there is no need for pretense on the surface. His world lacks meaning; he hasn't seen his wife in 16 years, she no longer speaks to him, and his relationship with Randall is a struggle. His sense of obligation to his son is the only thing that keeps him going.
Randall loathes his dad. He holds him responsible for their empty lives, and for being separated from his mother at birth. Though he is expected to help his father on the farm, he's lazy and brooding. Conversation between father and son is stunted and unnatural.
Randall fills the void in his life with the Church's scripture, and is aided by missionaries who tend to the Forsaken from their outpost at the Eclipse Spire. For several years he's been wearing stark white skin paint in the manner of the missionaries, to shield his body and the soul within from the malignant gaze of Tuefel, the sun-devil. This leaves his skin pale and un-pigmented like those from the underground, in contrast to the bronze tanning of his father and most other Forsaken.
From the opening chapter, Eddie and Randall are at odds. When they discover an unspeakable presence in a charred crater near their fields, the intangible yet ever-present barrier between them grows and becomes insurmountable. Randall seeks to foil the plans of his father, and Eddie finds himself troubled by a new and persistent thought: his obligation to his son is clear, but does he even love him?
