General

Name: Tristan
Breed: Pure Alaskan Malamute
Sex: Male
Birth: 1925 Nome, Alaska (Late Spring, Early Summer)
Occupation: Sled Dog (Racing)
Rank: Team Dog

Characteristics

Personality: Quiet, polite, forgiving, patient, and unknowingly (to him) handsome. He's a gentleman, known to be polite and fair with a really big heart. He doesn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, so he’s always polite to them, even when he finds them annoying. He’s not the type that would purposefully break a girl’s heart; he’s just a guy that doesn’t take much interest in girls so he’s just polite to them all. Tristan has his father’s looks, but he is the complete opposite of Steele in terms of vanity and pride.
Talents/ Abilities: Racing, being a sled dog.
Weaknesses: Naive so much so he can be easily tricked and taken advantage of.
Dreams: That Alicyn gets what she deserves, to have Balto teach him as a mentor
Fears: Ali trying to be his mate again and Ava leaving him

Design

Colors: A dark grey (almost black), with a blueish hue.
Pupils: Black
Iris: Multiple rings of grey-blue
Schlera: Pale yellow
Paw Pads: Pink with dark patches
Inner Ears: Blueish-grey
Reference Sheet: None

Relationships

Parents: Steele (Stark X Indy) x Doris (??? X ???)
Siblings: Winnie, Kenan, Bran, Morgan, Louis, and Susie
Mate: Ava
Pups: TBA
Uncles: Slater
Cousins: Reiner, Ralph

History

Tristan was born in Nome, in the summer preceding the Serum Run. He was born with a mother named Doris and his father, Steele, was absent while his mother was pregnant. Tristan's litter went into labor a few weeks early, and Tristan was born prematurely. Tristan's siblings all died, and Tristan was the only survivor. Thus, Tristan was alone in terms of family, since Tristan's mother became rather depressed and distant from the loss of an entire litter. Steele was also heavily disappointed from the death of Tristan's siblings, and dived into his work as a supply runner to cope from the deaths. Steele never bothered to have an active role in Tristan's childhood. Thus, Tristan was essentially alone for his childhood. Tristan grew up like any other dog in Nome did, but he never knew that his father was known to be a glory hound and nobody ever really bothered to tell him. Tristan's relationship with Steele is rather strained because of the fact that Tristan barely knows his father. 

When Tristan was six months old, his parents tried having another litter. This time a litter of six was born (Kenan, Bran, Louis, Winnie, Susie, and Morgan), but in the process, Tristan's mother died from childbirth. Steele took the death of Doris pretty hard and ended up ignoring the new litter out of his own depression. Tristan decided to look out for his siblings, eventually becoming their somewhat protective older brother.

As a teen Tristan made many friends, and always spent time with the guys on his sled team. His team included his younger brother Bran. As for his other siblings: Kenan made his way onto Nome's #1 competitive team, Morgan became a hunting dog, Winnie became a show dog, Susie became a house pet, and Louis ran on a mining supply team with Steele. Tristan and his siblings were considered to be popular among the dogs in town, but Tristan wasn't as highly renowned as his younger brother Kenan. Tristan didn’t pay much attention to girls, because they were all the same. There was a particular girl, Alicyn, who always tried to get Tristan’s attention, along with her friends Meekah and Saba, but Tristan wasn’t interested at all. He was always polite to the trio, and quickly got away from them. His friends were always drooling over the popular clique, especially his younger brother Bran, but Tristan couldn’t see why they wanted them. They were such flirts, and seemed more like butterflies than dogs to Tristan.

Tristan also dreamt of being as great of a sled dog as Balto, and always was desperate to know Balto’s tricks. Tristan was too shy to approach the living legend, so he never really bothered to talk to Balto. One day, Tristan worked up the courage when Balto, Kaltag, and Nikki decided to have a race in Nome. Balto had won, and all the dogs saw the living legend complete the race with good time considering his age. As he was walking over to congratulate Balto for his win, he bumped into a  lost female wolf. Being the gentle hound that he was, Tristan helped her to her paws. He introduced himself, and she gave him her name, Ava. Tristan missed his opportunity to speak with Balto, but didn't mind as he found Ava intriguing.

While Ava was telling Tristan where she was from, their conversation was interrupted by Alicyn and Meekah. Tristan found Alicyn to be particularly annoying, as she was flirting with him for a fling. Tristan introduced Alicyn and Meekah to Ava, and the two seemed polite enough, Tristan sensed that the two town dogs were not particularly fond of the wolf, but nonetheless befriended Ava against their disapproval.

Drama and gossip spread among the teens in town as news of Dingo and Rune's romantic relationship became the talk of the town. Tristan and Ava's relationship was overshadowed by this drama, so they quietly became an item on their own without public interference. Tristan's relationship with Ava never encountered much struggle in regards with Tristan's relationship with Steele, as Tristan's relationship with him wasn't much to begin with. Even Winnie believed the pair to be a good match when she was around the two.

Sadly, Alicyn's manipulative nature that was once directed towards Dingo is redirected back to Tristan when he is too polite to her one evening when she finally gives up on trying to win Dingo over. Tristan offers to escort her home since it is late and on his way to his final destination. Alicyn takes Tristan's kindness and decides to place her efforts on Tristan. On their walk home, Alicyn manages to cause Tristan to get injured, helping him to the boiler room of the hospital. She then drugs him and pretends that the two mated. When Tristan comes to from the morning, he cannot remember what happened aside from his injury. Alicyn pretends to be loving and tricks him into thinking that they had a fling.

Tristan is quick to try to leave. As he tries to get his bearings, he groggily makes his way out the door where he encounters Meekah and Saba walking with Ava in the middle. Ava asks Tristan what he had been doing, and that she had gone to his place but couldn't find him. Ava then sees Alicyn and a blanket  with the indentation of another body. Thinking Tristan cheated on her and had a fling with Alicyn, Ava runs off in tears. Tristan calls after her and tries to follow, but is unable to because of his injury. Saba and Meekah smirk and walk past Tristan to meet with their friend inside the boiler room.

Tristan becomes rather depressed and returns home. His musher is worried about him and finds Tristan limping home. Tristan's musher has Tristan looked at by a vet, and the vet says that Tristan has sprained his leg. Tristan is relieved from working for a few weeks while he recovers. For the first week, Tristan was limited to his home.

Eventually, in two weeks, Winnie barged into Tristan's home and yelled at him for his horrible treatment of Ava and what a big mistake he made. Kenan is not far after Winnie and asks her to calm down and hears Tristan's side of the story, since gossip had spread about Tristan's affair with Alicyn behind Ava's back. News that Alicyn was pregnant also spread. Kenan and Winnie asked Tristan what he would do if Alicyn was pregnant with his pups, and Tristan said that'd he do the responsible thing, despite his displeasure to do so. Concerned for his brother, Kenan decided to look deeper into the night Tristan got hurt.

Kenan overhears Reiner and Alicyn talking, and learns the truth that Alicyn is pregnant with Reiner's pups, and that the pups were a ploy to force Tristan to be Alicyn's mate, since she knew Tristan would do the gentry task of providing a sense of family to the pups. Kenan asks Doc to call a town hall meeting, where Kenan helps Tristan get there and Winnie brings Ava. Alicyn, Dingo, Meekah, Saba, Rune, and Reiner also go with a few other town characters such as Sylvie, Dixie, Mel, Dipsy, Kirby, Ralph, Dusty, Ia, and Ayn. At the meeting, Kenan exposes the truth behind Alicyn's pregnancy, explaining that Alicyn tricked Tristan, injured him, and pretended that they had a fling. Alicyn becomes green eyed when her plan falls through, and in a moment of rage, she exposes the reason why she gave up on trying to get Dingo's affections by telling the whole town who Dingo loves, and then saying that she wanted to hurt Dingo but hurting his crush's family (Tristan).

With this new revelation, Tristan and Ava reconcile and officially become mates. The whole town spites Alicyn with a level of disgust similar to Steele after the serum run. Alicyn has her pups two months later and leaves them behind in Nome before moving to a new town to start over once more. Tristan tries to find it in his heart to forgive Alicyn for her actions, but never manages to. He and Ava live happily ever after with a family all their own.

Other

Modifications: None
Name Meaning: Old French form of the name Drustan, but the spelling was altered by association with the Latin word “tristis” which means sad
Relation to Balto: My Balto Family Tree (Steele's son, Ralph's cousin)

Credits

Design © Exile
Body Line Art © Eskapade
Head Picture Render © Aicmikay
Original Art © Universal Studios & Amblin Entertainment