Impei Postmortem/Indefinite Shelving Kudos
Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2022 12:23 am
I've gotta shelve Impei because life is being a thing, and I have to make Choices and Sacrifices. I'm not sure when Impei will be returning, but it definitely won't be soon. There's a lot of rambling here, but shh.
Impei Cliffheart -- sometimes known as Delilah, other times known as Pale, and rarely known as Penelope Steadystride -- was a hexblade, who, through the power of desperation, loneliness, and one night sober, decided that maybe her philosophy on life was a little flawed.
She started out as a scavenger in the wastes of Skal during the resurgence of warlockery there, was 'invited' to flee Andunor by the adventurers of Skaljard via a dramatic showdown and accompanying ultimatum, and struggled, ultimately, to find her place.
And then she joined a coven. Things got kinda wacky from there.
Like several other of my characters, Impei was originally meant to be part of a duo that never took off, but I enjoyed the concept of her so much -- at the time, hinnish doom cultist with a sadistic streak -- that I kept building on her and kept thinking about what she was about. I remember the real final 'conflict' she had in Skaljard happened to be with a priest there, a cleric of Toril named Penwyr. She despised him for his generosity and kindness, if only because she saw it as antipodal to Skal's ethos. So one night, she approached him, and tried to convince him that his job was futility, and that her self appointed job was much more essential. She insisted that Toril needed villains like her. To her surprise, instead of trying to argue back, Penwyr just asked, "Okay, but is that what you really want?" It was a small seed, but sown well enough that it would tear the evil little woman apart.
What followed was a lot of spying, skullduggery, mostly unsuccessful, as well as a few roles acting as an enforcer that saw her down into Andunor and uh, surprisingly, mostly ignored. Honestly, I was afraid at the time that I was going to get killbashed on sight, but apparently when you cast curse weapon in public once or twice, people get the idea that maybe they should just leave you alone.
She was, in a word, a lot of fun. Hijinks, sadistry, stupidity, masochism in the form of comedic curiosity with things like the slime down in the slime temple... She was unfortunately, for the most part, a pretty selfish character. I struggled to generate RP for other people with her. She acted nicely as a foil for some group activities, and even in Andunor, I tried to invest her into the lives of other characters, but unsurprisingly, she found a lot of isolation. The height of her participation in Andunor were two separate bouts as a spy on the surface, attempting to gather intelligence on a couple of factions and settlements. Ironically, by the time those efforts bore fruit, Impei found her wrist being twisted and her nature unfurling. In order to gain the reputation she needed so badly in Andunor, she would have to betray kin -- someone who had been nothing but nice to her. She realized that when she sold this friend of hers out, she would essentially be alone again. And for once in her life, she wasn't sure if she could do it. I left it up to a coinflip. In the end, the first moral thought she had in ages won out.
I had debated remaking her as a swashbuckler or a favored soul. Swashbuckler probably would've been better, but uh. FS was cheesier, and I love me some cheese. If you've been in the discord, you've probably seen me moan about how stupid it was to make a DEX FS 26/Swash 4. It was very stupid. Plays well enough, but suffers on the top end, and lacks uncanny dodge. For obvious reasons, not having uncanny dodge on a dexbuild is tantamount to suicide.
There was a cool moment on Skal during Impei's remake where she explained what she was and who she was. And when she said the name Pale, people around the fire lit up, convinced she had given up the ghost ages ago. A couple of players told me OOCly that I gave them closure when Impei returned to tell her side of the story of how she got kicked off Skal and how she was doing since.
Then, I decided, on a lark, that Impei would confess these horrible crimes of hers to everyone she could. Someone in the discord told me nobody cares who your character is/was, and you could literally do that. I didn't believe them. And then funniest thing happened. Impei started confessing to people on the surface what she was and who she was, expecting some form of punishment, or at least disgust. In a sense, she wanted to see the ugliness she saw in people confirmed. But. Nope. As it turns out, when you oocly give someone a chance to redeem a character they will, without pause, take it. It generated a lot of fun RP in Cordor, Bendir, and Guldorand. Impei spent time conversing with members of The Gauntlet, unaffiliated paladins, old enemies, old 'friends', and some people she originally only had surface-level relationships with. She attempted to mend her relationship with The Merchant Navy, too. Got pretty far.
And though she was warned that if she was ever outed in Cordor for her espionage, she'd be pariahed and put on watch across the isle for sure, she tried to make life work there. Liberty's administration gave her a chance with a budding new role, and seeing this as an opportunity to prove to herself that she could be more than what she was, she took to the role. And when Najih's administration came into power, she defended the legitimacy of that role with a fervor. I'd like to say I did a -lot- with that role, but I'm not sure if I really did. But I did manage to generate RP by having Impei audit the Navy, which saw her talking to a lot of people I otherwise never would. I also arranged a few meetings, met with folks I had no reason to meet other than to be nosy, and generally, used Impei's job as an excuse to meet people and give them something to RP about.
None of this, I think is FOIG; these are just the broad strokes. There's a lot of details I've omitted here, because I do think the nuance to the story, and the individual stories of Impei's interactions in Arelith are great, and best told through the perspectives of the characters she interacted with. I've had a blast with Impei, and I hope you've had fun with her too, whether you saw her for the little goblin she really is, or for the confused, repentant fool she's become. And finally, the kudos proper; If a name is omitted from this list, I apologize. However, some names, I've specifically omitted for FOIG reasons. You know who you are, and thank you for RPing with me.
Hathran, and the rest of her coven -- Hathran, or at least the one I met, was part of a coven, and helped Impei's formative development quite a bit. Aside from being a great adventuring companion, Hathran's unwavering dedication to aesthetic made her appear dangerous, mysterious, and powerful.
Poppet -- Another warlock that Impei adventured with on Skal the first time around. She was part of a temporary town watch that Impei was in, doomed to failure as it was. Poppet helped Impei escape Skal with her skin intact.
Penwyr -- Already mentioned above, Penwyr sowed the seed of doubt that would eventually be Impei's undoing, all the way back on Skal. She was a little disappointed when she returned to Skal and didn't find him there.
Yorland Blackwall -- I swear I'm getting this name wrong, but in the event I'm not, Yorland Blackwall was also a formative member of that town watch. His aggression was a subject of fascination for Impei, and her only regret was not seeing the moment he faltered. I enjoyed watching that dwarven aggression myself, and Yorland's actions generated a lot of fun RP.
Rose Greenthistle, Loki, and Oberon -- Part of a group that Impei was in, these three were a riot and added a lot of character to the underdark. They played the impish sadist archetype to a fault, deranged, eager to hurt, and somehow, lucid enough to organize... anything. Oberon especially continued to play different roles in Impei's life, sometimes as a cooperator, other times an antagonist, and finally, as a friend.
Zarra -- Impei and Zarra bonded over a common fascination. I'll leave it at that. Zarra was fun, though. About as mirthful as you might ever see a drow while still maintaining a powerful and threatening presence. I'm half convinced it was Zaara. Or was it Zaraa? I need to keep better notes. Don't hurt me, I'm an airhead.
Luci -- These two met on the surface, and uh. Boy, did they cause chaos. Luci's an oddball, but a fun one.
Minto Fuzzypaw -- For the longest time, I thought it'd be a great idea for Impei to kill Minto -- or at least try to. Luckily, that never panned out, but the RP we generated between them was great anyways and involved a figurative rainbow.
Myzzrin Brightburst -- Myzz is Myzz. She's tons of fun and was helpful to Impei in a lot of ways. They even managed to bond a little!
Izahne Tiller -- Izahne's involvement in Impei's development was infrequent but always impactful, and Izahne had a way of building things up.
Slag Ironvein -- Slag was great. I think he's been rolled by this point as announced in the Bendir discord, but he was a wonderful take on paladins. Charming, compassionate, kind, heroic, always willing to sacrifice, and completely and utterly intolerant of the unrepentant, just like a paladin should be.
Zemys -- Impei was hitting on him, just so you know.
Fiona Brightheart -- Fiona was a great foil for Impei. Someone for her to tease on her path to success until Impei realized she was trying to be more like Fiona.
Pentunia -- Do I really have to explain? Pent's great. Fun to RP with, a great motivator -of- RP, and with some real good characterization.
Elindros - See above. Also put some joke about Elindros' eating habits here.
Tomar Sunborn -- A character with a pretty interesting history who was just trying to make things work. They had a couple of long talks about practical things, too.
Argus Boldaxe -- [Insert belching noise here].
Arthur Drexler O'Briar -- Another character I felt like I didn't get enough time to RP with! Arthur played the role of a Gauntleteer -- that's what I call them, don't judge -- very well. He was inviting and quick to generate RP for Impei.
Liberty -- I didn't get as much time as I would've liked to RP with Liberty, but she -was- fun, dramatic, and a bit of an imp -- almost literally. She also gave Impei a chance, which really helped me cement my RP in Cordor, so thank you for that.
Flamma -- !
Estelle, Najih, and the rest of the Cordorian Administration --- Sorry I'm lumping all of you together, but truthfully, I wish life wasn't moving as fast as it was for me right now. I don't feel like I got enough time with any of you, and I hope the RP I generated with and for you was fun.
Natalie, Ginny, and the Cordorian Navy -- Same as above. Every time Impei got to sail with you lot, it was great. Fun rapport and lots of excitement. Also, you took that audit like a champ.
I feel like I'm spacing out on something really big and important, and I'll probably remember it tomorrow. Or next week. But ultimately, Impei's life on Arelith was the story of a hin who turned to sadistry and opportunism to numb her compassion, and once that well dried up, was faced with confronting her loneliness, or destroying the last vestiges of her empathy to rebuke it. In the end, empathy won out this time. But she'll never quite get over the guilt of something like her being so readily accepted, knowing that she could've faked it all with the same flourish.
Thank you all for making Impei's life on Arelith so diverse and filled with so many highs and lows. Again, I hope that whether she was Pale or Impei to you, that you enjoyed the little hinnish menace. And while I don't really want to say goodbye to her, I think her story has, at least right now, come to a close. Impei'll be around for a few more IRL days to say goodbye, but afterwards, I'll be shelving her indefinitely.
Cheers, eh?
Impei Cliffheart -- sometimes known as Delilah, other times known as Pale, and rarely known as Penelope Steadystride -- was a hexblade, who, through the power of desperation, loneliness, and one night sober, decided that maybe her philosophy on life was a little flawed.
She started out as a scavenger in the wastes of Skal during the resurgence of warlockery there, was 'invited' to flee Andunor by the adventurers of Skaljard via a dramatic showdown and accompanying ultimatum, and struggled, ultimately, to find her place.
And then she joined a coven. Things got kinda wacky from there.
Like several other of my characters, Impei was originally meant to be part of a duo that never took off, but I enjoyed the concept of her so much -- at the time, hinnish doom cultist with a sadistic streak -- that I kept building on her and kept thinking about what she was about. I remember the real final 'conflict' she had in Skaljard happened to be with a priest there, a cleric of Toril named Penwyr. She despised him for his generosity and kindness, if only because she saw it as antipodal to Skal's ethos. So one night, she approached him, and tried to convince him that his job was futility, and that her self appointed job was much more essential. She insisted that Toril needed villains like her. To her surprise, instead of trying to argue back, Penwyr just asked, "Okay, but is that what you really want?" It was a small seed, but sown well enough that it would tear the evil little woman apart.
What followed was a lot of spying, skullduggery, mostly unsuccessful, as well as a few roles acting as an enforcer that saw her down into Andunor and uh, surprisingly, mostly ignored. Honestly, I was afraid at the time that I was going to get killbashed on sight, but apparently when you cast curse weapon in public once or twice, people get the idea that maybe they should just leave you alone.
She was, in a word, a lot of fun. Hijinks, sadistry, stupidity, masochism in the form of comedic curiosity with things like the slime down in the slime temple... She was unfortunately, for the most part, a pretty selfish character. I struggled to generate RP for other people with her. She acted nicely as a foil for some group activities, and even in Andunor, I tried to invest her into the lives of other characters, but unsurprisingly, she found a lot of isolation. The height of her participation in Andunor were two separate bouts as a spy on the surface, attempting to gather intelligence on a couple of factions and settlements. Ironically, by the time those efforts bore fruit, Impei found her wrist being twisted and her nature unfurling. In order to gain the reputation she needed so badly in Andunor, she would have to betray kin -- someone who had been nothing but nice to her. She realized that when she sold this friend of hers out, she would essentially be alone again. And for once in her life, she wasn't sure if she could do it. I left it up to a coinflip. In the end, the first moral thought she had in ages won out.
I had debated remaking her as a swashbuckler or a favored soul. Swashbuckler probably would've been better, but uh. FS was cheesier, and I love me some cheese. If you've been in the discord, you've probably seen me moan about how stupid it was to make a DEX FS 26/Swash 4. It was very stupid. Plays well enough, but suffers on the top end, and lacks uncanny dodge. For obvious reasons, not having uncanny dodge on a dexbuild is tantamount to suicide.
There was a cool moment on Skal during Impei's remake where she explained what she was and who she was. And when she said the name Pale, people around the fire lit up, convinced she had given up the ghost ages ago. A couple of players told me OOCly that I gave them closure when Impei returned to tell her side of the story of how she got kicked off Skal and how she was doing since.
Then, I decided, on a lark, that Impei would confess these horrible crimes of hers to everyone she could. Someone in the discord told me nobody cares who your character is/was, and you could literally do that. I didn't believe them. And then funniest thing happened. Impei started confessing to people on the surface what she was and who she was, expecting some form of punishment, or at least disgust. In a sense, she wanted to see the ugliness she saw in people confirmed. But. Nope. As it turns out, when you oocly give someone a chance to redeem a character they will, without pause, take it. It generated a lot of fun RP in Cordor, Bendir, and Guldorand. Impei spent time conversing with members of The Gauntlet, unaffiliated paladins, old enemies, old 'friends', and some people she originally only had surface-level relationships with. She attempted to mend her relationship with The Merchant Navy, too. Got pretty far.
And though she was warned that if she was ever outed in Cordor for her espionage, she'd be pariahed and put on watch across the isle for sure, she tried to make life work there. Liberty's administration gave her a chance with a budding new role, and seeing this as an opportunity to prove to herself that she could be more than what she was, she took to the role. And when Najih's administration came into power, she defended the legitimacy of that role with a fervor. I'd like to say I did a -lot- with that role, but I'm not sure if I really did. But I did manage to generate RP by having Impei audit the Navy, which saw her talking to a lot of people I otherwise never would. I also arranged a few meetings, met with folks I had no reason to meet other than to be nosy, and generally, used Impei's job as an excuse to meet people and give them something to RP about.
None of this, I think is FOIG; these are just the broad strokes. There's a lot of details I've omitted here, because I do think the nuance to the story, and the individual stories of Impei's interactions in Arelith are great, and best told through the perspectives of the characters she interacted with. I've had a blast with Impei, and I hope you've had fun with her too, whether you saw her for the little goblin she really is, or for the confused, repentant fool she's become. And finally, the kudos proper; If a name is omitted from this list, I apologize. However, some names, I've specifically omitted for FOIG reasons. You know who you are, and thank you for RPing with me.
Hathran, and the rest of her coven -- Hathran, or at least the one I met, was part of a coven, and helped Impei's formative development quite a bit. Aside from being a great adventuring companion, Hathran's unwavering dedication to aesthetic made her appear dangerous, mysterious, and powerful.
Poppet -- Another warlock that Impei adventured with on Skal the first time around. She was part of a temporary town watch that Impei was in, doomed to failure as it was. Poppet helped Impei escape Skal with her skin intact.
Penwyr -- Already mentioned above, Penwyr sowed the seed of doubt that would eventually be Impei's undoing, all the way back on Skal. She was a little disappointed when she returned to Skal and didn't find him there.
Yorland Blackwall -- I swear I'm getting this name wrong, but in the event I'm not, Yorland Blackwall was also a formative member of that town watch. His aggression was a subject of fascination for Impei, and her only regret was not seeing the moment he faltered. I enjoyed watching that dwarven aggression myself, and Yorland's actions generated a lot of fun RP.
Rose Greenthistle, Loki, and Oberon -- Part of a group that Impei was in, these three were a riot and added a lot of character to the underdark. They played the impish sadist archetype to a fault, deranged, eager to hurt, and somehow, lucid enough to organize... anything. Oberon especially continued to play different roles in Impei's life, sometimes as a cooperator, other times an antagonist, and finally, as a friend.
Zarra -- Impei and Zarra bonded over a common fascination. I'll leave it at that. Zarra was fun, though. About as mirthful as you might ever see a drow while still maintaining a powerful and threatening presence. I'm half convinced it was Zaara. Or was it Zaraa? I need to keep better notes. Don't hurt me, I'm an airhead.
Luci -- These two met on the surface, and uh. Boy, did they cause chaos. Luci's an oddball, but a fun one.
Minto Fuzzypaw -- For the longest time, I thought it'd be a great idea for Impei to kill Minto -- or at least try to. Luckily, that never panned out, but the RP we generated between them was great anyways and involved a figurative rainbow.
Myzzrin Brightburst -- Myzz is Myzz. She's tons of fun and was helpful to Impei in a lot of ways. They even managed to bond a little!
Izahne Tiller -- Izahne's involvement in Impei's development was infrequent but always impactful, and Izahne had a way of building things up.
Slag Ironvein -- Slag was great. I think he's been rolled by this point as announced in the Bendir discord, but he was a wonderful take on paladins. Charming, compassionate, kind, heroic, always willing to sacrifice, and completely and utterly intolerant of the unrepentant, just like a paladin should be.
Zemys -- Impei was hitting on him, just so you know.
Fiona Brightheart -- Fiona was a great foil for Impei. Someone for her to tease on her path to success until Impei realized she was trying to be more like Fiona.
Pentunia -- Do I really have to explain? Pent's great. Fun to RP with, a great motivator -of- RP, and with some real good characterization.
Elindros - See above. Also put some joke about Elindros' eating habits here.
Tomar Sunborn -- A character with a pretty interesting history who was just trying to make things work. They had a couple of long talks about practical things, too.
Argus Boldaxe -- [Insert belching noise here].
Arthur Drexler O'Briar -- Another character I felt like I didn't get enough time to RP with! Arthur played the role of a Gauntleteer -- that's what I call them, don't judge -- very well. He was inviting and quick to generate RP for Impei.
Liberty -- I didn't get as much time as I would've liked to RP with Liberty, but she -was- fun, dramatic, and a bit of an imp -- almost literally. She also gave Impei a chance, which really helped me cement my RP in Cordor, so thank you for that.
Flamma -- !
Estelle, Najih, and the rest of the Cordorian Administration --- Sorry I'm lumping all of you together, but truthfully, I wish life wasn't moving as fast as it was for me right now. I don't feel like I got enough time with any of you, and I hope the RP I generated with and for you was fun.
Natalie, Ginny, and the Cordorian Navy -- Same as above. Every time Impei got to sail with you lot, it was great. Fun rapport and lots of excitement. Also, you took that audit like a champ.
I feel like I'm spacing out on something really big and important, and I'll probably remember it tomorrow. Or next week. But ultimately, Impei's life on Arelith was the story of a hin who turned to sadistry and opportunism to numb her compassion, and once that well dried up, was faced with confronting her loneliness, or destroying the last vestiges of her empathy to rebuke it. In the end, empathy won out this time. But she'll never quite get over the guilt of something like her being so readily accepted, knowing that she could've faked it all with the same flourish.
Thank you all for making Impei's life on Arelith so diverse and filled with so many highs and lows. Again, I hope that whether she was Pale or Impei to you, that you enjoyed the little hinnish menace. And while I don't really want to say goodbye to her, I think her story has, at least right now, come to a close. Impei'll be around for a few more IRL days to say goodbye, but afterwards, I'll be shelving her indefinitely.
Cheers, eh?
.