The Enduring Mage flies off in wings of crimson!
Posted: Thu Nov 09, 2017 4:16 am
Playing Veritas all this time... was very much like the closest you'd get to the experience of playing Darkest Dungeon in Arelith.
Playing him was an experiment in stress. At first I had the book for mostly that reason, to keep him perpetually tense, to push him forward where the situation would not... and boy, that wasn't really needed for long. It took very little time before V had enough responsibilities, duties, rivals, enemies, and frienemies to add to his very heavy mental weigh, and that was just great.
My own experience writing him as a character was like trying to describe a walking Kubler-Ross model that thought itself a man. He was constantly put under stress, and half of the times he would crack down under that stress, and the other half he would come stronger. He's been hopeless, victorious, glorious, desperate, abusive, commanding, heroic, broken, beaten, battered and there would be always something to rebind him back to stay operational, to keep him moving forward.
Any other character in this situation would have backed off and away, but this was exactly what he wanted. Even if there's nobody that really got to understand exactly why he did everything that he did!
You just don't leave an ancient red dragon waiting... for as long as we did, at least. But we did anyway
I dealt with hundreds of characters with V, and I don't remotely remember as many as I should. But here's what I've got!
The Tower
The Tower was, naturally, V's home, and where he based his operation and most of his RP. Its staff was very much like his own family. It's something that I dearly wanted to explore further with my wild mage, and I could not, and I got my good fill of it with V.
I don't take as many screenies as I should.
The Arch-people:
While I had a lot of previous interaction with Angela, it's Jacob the one that managed to surprise me further, and defined V's personality when he was still hot with the cooking mold. Their disposition to always help and facilitate MORE BLOOD when needed, and their superior sense of diplomacy often served as reference point for V when he was getting too lost in his own world.
Jacob in a nutshell.
The Wards:
Jadoth. I could write all day about Jadoth and all the frustrating feelings that he infuriatingly caved into my brain, like a character in a gritty grimdark show that survives too many seasons and you can't help but to actually care about what happens to him. He is a wonderful character, with horrible flaws and too many problems for you to possibly solve. And V certainly didn't expect to turn into his awkward uncle.
I'm not remotely sorry for half of the things we did.
Yorn is... a strange character, with a similar focus to Jadoth. As that they resolve around mostly drama and the roleplay of a misfit. I cannot say V got remotely as well with him as he did with Calel, though
The Dragonsongs:
Vail and Sarina are an item. Deal with it.
These are two characters that V forged an uneasy chain of feelings with that he didn't want to have to handle as a master of the Tower. Juggling emotions, the debt for what they have done and his own responsibilities was an amusing game by itself, though it was the combination of elements that lead to this situation to be able to happen. Vail's commitment, his relentless service, his dedication, and Sarina's own humanity, her-... in fact, I have another section for her.
The Magi:
Oh gods. So many characters. I'm going to be writing this thing all day.
Lissa Whitehorn: Lissa has been around for faaar longer than I got to play V, and I was thrilled to get to finally meet the mad gnome that had been laying all those devices with weird acronyms all over the island. While most of our interaction was based on the spriggan plot, there was still so much I wanted to dig out of her that I simply didn't have the chance.
Azar Anskuld: This guy, this guy has been around ever since my wild mage, and he's still as enjoyable to deal with as a I remember. There are rarely characters that exude as much personality as Azar, or that are dynamic and smooth to deal with magic nonsense and just go with the flow, without being afraid of carving their way through the lore to make something intense or interesting in the spot, and it was a delight to get to deal with Azar again. Hope you get your fey back!
Azar, you rascal, they were comatose in a ritual! That was meeeeean.
Astra Starlock
Tadgh
Lily Blake
Cern Cerfall
ABYEMELECH
Valorie Felblade: Go Mystran, yo!
Woopin Genderbell
Ayperi
Uuuuuuuuuhhhhh...
Isendel Dedralen
Celessssssssstia
BLOODY BAELINDOR: This is where the real elf RP is at. I love your style and your energy, and I'm glad that V got to boss you over and drag you as much as he did, but not glad enough that he didn't get to do MORE earlobe pulling!
Alastair
Oh how I hate that I didn't keep any logs now.
Corbin! Ah, I just remembered who you are! V would have held a more polite and confident attitude toward this character if I had remembered in time. Corbin legitimately unnerved V, when it seemed that the decision of mastership would fall on his shoulders.
Erinnnnnnnn.
Patrick O'Sullivan: A friendly old coot. Literally, those are the four defining words that describe Sully. An upbringing, optimist character, though not careless or apathetic toward other people in any mean.
The Wardens:
First and foremost, Thulk:
Thulk is what seems to be, at first glance, your standard dum-dum me-smash-you-good half orc, and builds beautifully from the racial background into a real, tangible, malleable character. Thulk is the living example of how to take the best of your racial culture into roleplay, and even then remaining perfectly dynamic and involving of all the people around, OOC and ICly keeping everything together and everybody having fun.
Blake.
Sarah Anderson.
Lemli
Diiiiiiiiiilirrrrr, fix our broken coffee machine!
Ollarrrrrmmmmmmmmmm
Bar-... no, that one goes to the other list.
Jantira is da man. And he's occasionally da bat. And also da dragon. Jantira is deceivingly a lot of things, and oddly reliable when you need him to be.
Tiss one strange Adam's family
The Sweethearts:
Oh yes. I have a list for this.
For the strangest reason, V seemed to have always a collective of oddly flirtateous friends that he'd nicely pretend he wasn't aware of.
Serena Stirling is the ultimate sweetheart. She could always soothe the mage with just the right words, and he always knew that there was something funny going on around with Serena, enough to keep his guard up... even when he really didn't want to. She may be very high in the list of characters I wanted to build more with, to do more with... alas!
"Loose lips sink ships, captain".
Olivia Van Graf is another strange character that V... should have been particularly more wary around than what he actually was. Olivia's seemingly insane nature was relaxing, and her flexibility made her easy to deal with as both master and just a mortal mage. Their creativity and willingness to, as always, RP through the thick and fog of "what the hells are we doing?" kind of RP, and do it fluently gets her a special place in my heart.
I guess that's one way to get to know somebody. "Wanna enchant an infernal contract with me?"
Nehala Rein was the tiefling V didn't know what to do with. I swear that there wasn't a day or a moment that having her in the room didn't produce conflicting feelings into the mage. Whether to strangle or kiss her, or do both at the same time. In another case and situation, we could have done more, so much more. I just hope you keep playing her and find a balance to keep pushing her story forward!
Baranna was the other tiefling V didn't know what to do with. The wonderfully roleplayed gruff, overly beefy grunting woman of the obscure motivations is a mystery to V.
Elisha Vashti... goes to another list. Probably.
But Sarina goes here! Sarina is a strange character, and strangely humanized to even her exotic, infernal nature and perception. Her struggles, her care, perhaps the most strange thing about her is her own perception about herself, and it's something that's always sparked his curiosity, even though he'd never say so.
Saphira Blackstone (yes, I'm putting her as a sweetheart, sue me!) I didn't remotely expect that I'd deal with Saphira as much as I ended up doing. At first their relation was strictly professional and cold, and for the barrier-putting socially-cold enchanter that wouldn't let anybody too close, Saph was one of his closest friends, and of the few people he could actually confide and always share a piece of his mind, of his true thoughts.
Meridia Silverheir: Iiiiiiii missssssss youuuuuuu. We never got around going to the Underdark and scouting around with the raven familiar.
Ayperi - You belong here! And you know exactly why!
The Malignant:
Vivi was the strangest thing that could have happened to V, and it was also the best. The sheer conflict that their relation spanned all around the island was amazing, the echoings of it, and how far the rumors went. Not to mention, what actually is true of all that. I'm every bit glad I went out of my way to involve her, and I'm every bit sad that she was dismissed... even though we know better.
The (outer) Inner Circle:
Because just calling them friends and allies is out of fashion. V, naturally, made a good collection of friends and contacts from out of his work. In this list:
Aston Khan: The feeling-confused shapeshifting socially awkward monk was great to involve in as many situations as I could, and his own calm demeanor when the ceiling was coming down and observations of emotions surging at poorly-timed moments were great. He was equally great to have around and discuss philosophy and lore with.
Mykthar Silverbeard, is also the real dwarf. He failed at being a dwarf so hard that he went all the way around and became the real dwarf of this list. As one of the oldest friends V made in the island, he simply knew to trust the dwarf, and dragging him along (or occasionally following) in their weird shenanigans and inane plans was often the highlight of too many days, even well-moved days.
Go back to Dragon Age, Varric! We can see through your guise!
Lyyyyyyyle.
Other folk:
Khabul: The Keeper of the Status Quo, a pretty dangerous guy that V certainly didn't know what to do with, and thus got stuck in the middle of preserving a fragile alliance.
Bhando: No, don't be greedy. You already got your own kudos in your kudos thread! Staph!
Pierce: Despite all the things I heard about you OOC, ICly you were great to deal with, and every time that V knocked on Cordor to keep your folk up to date or argue, it's always left me with a good vibe and the feel that I could come back to RP whenever I wanted.
The Wizzzzzzzzard: The wizard doesn't exist. And at the same time, the wizard is all of us. V actually met the wizard, five times, and probably none of them were Cluny, and honestly, that's great! He was mentioned a lot in our RP, and treated like an unseen threat that may have been lurking at any moment. And the same can be said about Elise.
General shout out to all dwarves for being generally cool beans and other interesting sorts of beans. Barik, Falgrim, the thane, other's which name I can't remember!
General shout out to all elvessss for having particularly pointy ears. And I mean, like, really pointy! And Alara. Obvs. The elves were great, specially Keryvian and his TEMPER PROBLEMS.
General shout out to Kera and her other shorties!
Hendrick. V remembers who you are, and he will come for you. One day, maybe.
Nym, the spaaaaaaace leeeeeeelf. Still as endearing to deal with as he was with my last three characters.
The goodies (and the too zealoty to be goodies!)
These are all characters that I love to argue against... because that is what V did. He doesn't take a "this is your opinion, this is mine" for an answer. If you have a belief, you damn better be able to back it up, and he went well out of his way every single time to deal with those that could match him verbally, and call out his moral obscurity.
Lacroix was great at that. V always saw him as something like a link between a man that was trying to do good and just a zealot that wanted to nail the sword into something evullll, but his motivations always marked him as less likely to actually do anything. In V's eyes, he was a man ruled by fear rather than righteousness.
Snow was the real hero here, and even though I never got to talk with her about all the talk of what was really happening, she's always been there to sew the wounded and stich the cut back together time and time again, and often time, prevent that from happening. Her moral discourse and understanding of psychology were also a refreshing plus that I wanted to grill more at.
We did a lot of stuff, didn't we?
Hyskos. THE ANGRY EGYPTIAN MAN. Hyskos is the worst extreme of a paladin, and he's great at that. V grew to hold nothing but contempt for him, and he would have sooner forgiven the spriggans for their crimes against everything than dealt with Hyskos again.
Edgar! He was there, and never actually got a direct word with him.
And Cato was there too! And he was amazing in his very holy and righteous way. And then in his lapses of cold diplomacy and corteou... what do you mean that corteous is not a real world? Oh god, I've been mispelling courteous all this time. ANYWAY!
Cato was, like the best opponents, a man that spoke softly and carried a big stick, and even when V didn't remain composed, Cato did in turn. Enough to remind him that he -should- as well.
Elisha Vashti.
Elisha Vashti.
Elisssssha Vasssssshhhhhti.
There's smut written about V and Elisha.
There is not a single character in this list that V has more mixed feelings about. Her actual humanity as a character, her depth, the fluidity of emotions, everything that makes her as she is, and not just that, but your narrative integrity, your prioritization to put the actual story before and beyond any momentary encounter. You are the best kind of player, and I am honored to have had the attention that I was granted to have Elisha as the main rival of my character.
A little special shoutout to Titania, for running one of the plots that were actually one of the most reliable sources of RP, and letting my mage sink boats with a falcon punch. Wish for being there and actively trying to kill my mage (and succeeding most times!), and Grumps for his last good news.
This long overdue kudos thread is courtesy of... me leaving, actually. As I will be disappearing for a rather extended period of time. Take care of the wiki and be nice to your resident DMs. Don't feed them too much LSD, or stuff may happen!
