Avan
I don’t mind shy characters, but I do mind bumbling idiot characters. It’s not about manning up or anything like that. I just don’t see how someone with lesser talent (in this type of story where talent tends to matter) and a lack of anything interesting including charisma can hang on or even thrive. There’s making a character normal-ish feeling to be relatable, and then there’s making them feel annoying to read. As much as it’s nice to imagine that average people can become the best of the best at something, especially when surrounded by geniuses. You can be a good career physicist, but when surrounded by Einsteins, you are 9 times out of 10 not going to be anything special in comparison. So unless we’re talking about that 1 time out of 10, it’s going to be too much friendship and plot armor or too many plot conveniences for me. Unless he’s hiding some massive stuff. Like the worldbuilding so far though, hope the character becomes interesting at least. Interesting characters are enough for me, strength isn’t the only way too keep people invested, but it certainly is nice.