Personality peculiarities and problems [Archive] - Wizards Community

Personality peculiarities and problems [Archive] - Wizards Community

Post/Author/DateTime Post
Radijs
10-31-07, 06:50 AM I'm going to start playing in an Exalted campaign soon. And more specifically I'm going to play a renegade Abyssal amongst a party of solars.

My character's bio is in short:
During the summer solstice he and his girl had snuck off to roll in the hay in the loft of the barn. During their intimacy she exalts into a solar.
The wyld hunt burns down the barn which kills joach, and as far as he knows the girl as well.
As he dies one of the death lords offers him a chance for revenge against the dragonborn. If he serves as a death knight.
So he becomes an abyssal with the title "The artisan of blood in seven shades."(Yes abyssals are given pretentious titles like that) and learns a good amount of sorcery and necromancy.
But eventually he realizes that the hatred in him has died and that he wants his old life back. So he flees his death lord to quest for repentance.

The birth of the Artisan.

Some hundred years ago a young man lived in a little nameless village. He was the son, grandson and great grandson of a farmer. It was expected that he would be a farmer as well. And his children and his childrens’ children would be farmers as well. Not a particularly exciting life, but there are things to be said for peaceful and prosperous life. And this young man, who thought he knew his fate, was Joach. He had accepted it and he was happy about his choice as the summer solstice approached.
For in his village the summer solstice was a special event during which the local gods of the fields and the river would be honored and thanked for their blessings which they bestowed on the village. And they would be thanked in the form of a large festival during which there would be good food and drink, games and enough chaos for a pair of lovers to sneak off to roll and tumble in the new mown hay. This was exactly what Joach was planning to do with his beloved Emily.
She was the daughter of old man Brown who had a little store on the other side of town and Joach had known her since they where both little children. As they grew they had been friends, comrades and now they where lovers. And in a few years, if all went according to plan they would be husband and wife with children of their own to care for.

But fate is a fickle thing and it spins its webs in complex patterns and forces us to leave this happy scene. *Ahem*
Some months earlier in the imperial city…
Several people there are tasked with watching the stars and one of them saw an omen in the sky. Another one of the solars was due to return to creation near the summer solstice. And as fate would have it, the exalted was due to arrive in a little village that Joach called home…

As sun began to set on the festival Joach had coaxed Emily away from her parents that they had snuck away from the festivities and where now locked in each others arms rolling around in the hay on the loft of one of the barns. They where hugging and kissing and completely oblivious to the world around them. They didn’t hear the beat of iron-clad hooves storming into the village as the Wyld hunt arrived looking for their quarry.
The man leading the hunt was a serious man. His letter said that it would be a boy or a lass just coming of age. So he ordered his men to round up all the villagers and see who was missing. After a short search only Joach and Emily where still nowhere to be found.
The villagers recognized the evil lurking in the nobleman’s heart and said nothing about the two missing children. And they did right by that because the officer quickly gave the order to put all potential candidates to the sword. The soldiers drew their weapons and where just to plunge their swords into the necks of the innocent children when disaster struck for Emily and Joach.
The play of their love had reached its pinnacle and while their limbs where intertwined the Unconquered sun spoke to Emily the light of exaltation surrounding her, piercing the night as a bright beacon. The Wyld hunt took note.

Joach was almost immediately several feet away from Emily looking at her as if she was the devil himself while Emily was staring at her surroundings as if she saw them for the first time.
Joach knew he had to run. She was an anathema. He had been told about them and she must have been using her evil magic to lure him into her arms. But it didn’t feel like he should run. The love he felt for her was real. It felt real, it felt good and how can something that feels so good be bad?
His train of thought was interrupted when he heard the voices coming from outside.
“He’s in the barn! Surround it don’t let him get away!”
And a second voice “Lets not take any risks. Set fire to the thatch!”

There was little Emily and Joach could do as the thatch, dry from the summer’s sun lit up like a torch. They tried to get out but the doors and windows had been barred. So they held each other, tears streaming down their faces as the smoke choked their lungs while they waited for the flames to consume them.
Just as Joach felt the icy grip of death he saw the door burst inward and a man stepped in holding an ornate sword ready.
“Prepare to die!” the man cried just as Joach blew out his last breath.

That solstice evening was the last time Joach ever saw Emily again.

As Joach’s spirit began its descent towards Lethe it cried out the pain of its loss, his hatred and his despair. And as fate would have it. Someone was listening. One of the thirteen death lords felt the anguish of his passing and took note.
It felt the hatred in Joach’s spirit and it decided to take advantage of it by christening Joach as one of its new Death Knights. Time stopped.
Joach felt himself alone in the desert. Black-grey sand that swirled as the wind disturbed it. A black starless sky above and still the impression that the place was fully lit. It was there that Joach dwelled for what seemed to him to be an eternity. Slowly his hatred burned away all that was good about him and over the years love turned to hatred and a desire for revenge. Revenge against the man who killed the woman he loved, revenge against the dragonborn and revenge against the entire world.
A man approached Joach’s spirit and made him an offer Joach didn’t want to refuse. In exchange for his name he would be given the strength, skills and tools to burn away all the dragonborn. Joach accepted the offer. Nobody here knew his name nor had anyone any inclination to call him by it. That day Joach became the Artisan of blood in seven shades and began to serve his new master.

For many years The Artisan studied the powerful arts of necromancy and set out into the world to wreak havoc. Where he went he brought death and destruction. He struck at the dragon blooded like they had struck at him. Their wives, their children all fell before The Artisan and their homes burned in the flames of his hatred.
But his hatred did not last. It burned brightly for many years but after long contemplation The Artisan realized that it would never burn away his pain of his loss.
A fragment of memory returned to him. A feeling that had been locked away in the darkest depths of his soul. He had felt it when he was playing hide and seek in the cornfields. When he swam in the river and whenever he had been with Emily.
Happiness…
He wanted it back. With his hatred he could never regain what he had lost. But he could redeem himself. If he could spare others his own fate, he could save himself.
The Artisan betrayed his master… He would be Joach again. One day…

The Artisan is an Abyssal, a creature of cruelty, malice and hatred. And even though he is trying to reclaim his humanity he is more easily a malefactor then a benefactor. He is emotionally lost and he can remember little of the feelings he had when he was mortal.
He strives to regain these feelings lost to him.
He has some compassion in his soul for those who have suffered loss for he knows their pain and the ache in their heart as well as the pain in his own.
His greatest weakness is the hate still rooted deep in his heart and he will lash out against the object of his hatred at every opportune moment.

Now I figured that his soul is pretty tainted and him being an abyssal he's pretty much evil by nature and habit and that doing evil and spreading suffering comes far more naturally to him then altruism.
What other aspects could I give the artisan to fill him out?
Grimcleaver
10-31-07, 07:09 PM I like your ideas. There's not a lot of Exalted on these boards usually. It's always tough running an Abyssal in a Solar group--the only thing harder would be running a Solar in a Dragon-blooded group really. But yeah. I like the concept. I would be interested to hear whose he is, since that would have a lot to do with how he ends up. Off hand he sounds like First and Forsaken Lion's doing. But yeah, it makes a big difference who your liege is.

The other big question, of course, with any Abyssal is how do you feel about death? Certainly at first I can imagine your character hating and fearing death--seeing it as a barrier preventing him from getting his revenge, preventing him from being with his love. But now none of that is true. Your love is out there somewhere in the lands of the dead, freed from the Solar essence that had latched onto her. Then again--were it not for that Solar essence glomming onto her soul when you two were happiest, she wouldn't have ever been taken from you, would she? Perhaps there's another bit of vengence for you to do. But yeah, the interesting thing here is the possible Orpheus angle--going into the underworld to rescue the soul of the girl you love. Learn the right charms and you could even bring her back...sort of.

Another interesting question is how you get your revenge on the Dragonblooded? A direct assault upon the shores of the Blessed Isle, swinging your big ol' soulsteel diaklaive around seems doomed to hideous and overwhelming failure. Do you stick to the fringes of the empire, haunting the small loyal satrapies? Do you have a plan to build an army worthy of Mordor and invade en masse? Do you intend to sneak in and dodge Dragonblooded itinerates and Sidreal asassins at every turn? Certainly here is going to determine a lot of who your character is, with machiavellian schemer on one end of the scale and hopeless fatalistic bloodseeker on the other.

Then there's the question of how the Solars fit in. I mean hanging out with Solars is suicide for a lot of reasons. First they embody an energy you hate, as do you to them. You mostly thrive by killing and eating folks. They tend not to dig that. Beyond that there are ideological issues too numerous to count. Beyond that even is your resonnance with your Deathlord, which forces your obedience to his will even at the utmost end of rebellion--and Deathlords do not like Solars. Bottom line is, it seems like there should be something you need or want from the Solars to decide to travel with them. Certainly it will cost you a lot, and in the meantime you will likely be hated and maybe even injured a few times--cause Solars do not like Abyssals much either.
Radijs
11-01-07, 06:25 AM Its going to be a difficult thing to do yes, But I'm playing along with some good players and an excellent, if somewhat sadistic storyteller.

I've been told that there's a deathlord who can't have any death knights because of some FUBAR. The ST hinted that I could be that FUBAR, or part of it.

I don't really know how he feels about death. The whole revenge is something he is trying to free himself from, its just so hardwired into his being that its going to be a constant struggle.
He wasn't going to charge to the island blindly and he isn't going to do that now. So far he's probaly lashed out at more isolated pockets of dragonblooded and their allies.
Like the dragonblooded stole his love from him so he steals the ones the dragonblooded love.

The idea is that the Artisan wants to reclaim his humanity and be free of his death lord. Because he realizes that what he has done can never give him true happyness and that he has become something just as bad or worse as the dragonblooded who wronged him so long ago.

But asking him to do good is akin to asking a zombie to stop eating brains or a vampire to stop sucking blood. So thats going to be a very very harsh struggle.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Radijs 10-31-07, 06:50 AM	I'm going to start playing in an Exalted campaign soon. And more specifically I'm going to play a renegade Abyssal amongst a party of solars. My character's bio is in short: During the summer solstice he and his girl had snuck off to roll in the hay in the loft of the barn. During their intimacy she exalts into a solar. The wyld hunt burns down the barn which kills joach, and as far as he knows the girl as well. As he dies one of the death lords offers him a chance for revenge against the dragonborn. If he serves as a death knight. So he becomes an abyssal with the title "The artisan of blood in seven shades."(Yes abyssals are given pretentious titles like that) and learns a good amount of sorcery and necromancy. But eventually he realizes that the hatred in him has died and that he wants his old life back. So he flees his death lord to quest for repentance. The birth of the Artisan. Some hundred years ago a young man lived in a little nameless village. He was the son, grandson and great grandson of a farmer. It was expected that he would be a farmer as well. And his children and his childrens’ children would be farmers as well. Not a particularly exciting life, but there are things to be said for peaceful and prosperous life. And this young man, who thought he knew his fate, was Joach. He had accepted it and he was happy about his choice as the summer solstice approached. For in his village the summer solstice was a special event during which the local gods of the fields and the river would be honored and thanked for their blessings which they bestowed on the village. And they would be thanked in the form of a large festival during which there would be good food and drink, games and enough chaos for a pair of lovers to sneak off to roll and tumble in the new mown hay. This was exactly what Joach was planning to do with his beloved Emily. She was the daughter of old man Brown who had a little store on the other side of town and Joach had known her since they where both little children. As they grew they had been friends, comrades and now they where lovers. And in a few years, if all went according to plan they would be husband and wife with children of their own to care for. But fate is a fickle thing and it spins its webs in complex patterns and forces us to leave this happy scene. Ahem Some months earlier in the imperial city… Several people there are tasked with watching the stars and one of them saw an omen in the sky. Another one of the solars was due to return to creation near the summer solstice. And as fate would have it, the exalted was due to arrive in a little village that Joach called home… As sun began to set on the festival Joach had coaxed Emily away from her parents that they had snuck away from the festivities and where now locked in each others arms rolling around in the hay on the loft of one of the barns. They where hugging and kissing and completely oblivious to the world around them. They didn’t hear the beat of iron-clad hooves storming into the village as the Wyld hunt arrived looking for their quarry. The man leading the hunt was a serious man. His letter said that it would be a boy or a lass just coming of age. So he ordered his men to round up all the villagers and see who was missing. After a short search only Joach and Emily where still nowhere to be found. The villagers recognized the evil lurking in the nobleman’s heart and said nothing about the two missing children. And they did right by that because the officer quickly gave the order to put all potential candidates to the sword. The soldiers drew their weapons and where just to plunge their swords into the necks of the innocent children when disaster struck for Emily and Joach. The play of their love had reached its pinnacle and while their limbs where intertwined the Unconquered sun spoke to Emily the light of exaltation surrounding her, piercing the night as a bright beacon. The Wyld hunt took note. Joach was almost immediately several feet away from Emily looking at her as if she was the devil himself while Emily was staring at her surroundings as if she saw them for the first time. Joach knew he had to run. She was an anathema. He had been told about them and she must have been using her evil magic to lure him into her arms. But it didn’t feel like he should run. The love he felt for her was real. It felt real, it felt good and how can something that feels so good be bad? His train of thought was interrupted when he heard the voices coming from outside. “He’s in the barn! Surround it don’t let him get away!” And a second voice “Lets not take any risks. Set fire to the thatch!” There was little Emily and Joach could do as the thatch, dry from the summer’s sun lit up like a torch. They tried to get out but the doors and windows had been barred. So they held each other, tears streaming down their faces as the smoke choked their lungs while they waited for the flames to consume them. Just as Joach felt the icy grip of death he saw the door burst inward and a man stepped in holding an ornate sword ready. “Prepare to die!” the man cried just as Joach blew out his last breath. That solstice evening was the last time Joach ever saw Emily again. As Joach’s spirit began its descent towards Lethe it cried out the pain of its loss, his hatred and his despair. And as fate would have it. Someone was listening. One of the thirteen death lords felt the anguish of his passing and took note. It felt the hatred in Joach’s spirit and it decided to take advantage of it by christening Joach as one of its new Death Knights. Time stopped. Joach felt himself alone in the desert. Black-grey sand that swirled as the wind disturbed it. A black starless sky above and still the impression that the place was fully lit. It was there that Joach dwelled for what seemed to him to be an eternity. Slowly his hatred burned away all that was good about him and over the years love turned to hatred and a desire for revenge. Revenge against the man who killed the woman he loved, revenge against the dragonborn and revenge against the entire world. A man approached Joach’s spirit and made him an offer Joach didn’t want to refuse. In exchange for his name he would be given the strength, skills and tools to burn away all the dragonborn. Joach accepted the offer. Nobody here knew his name nor had anyone any inclination to call him by it. That day Joach became the Artisan of blood in seven shades and began to serve his new master. For many years The Artisan studied the powerful arts of necromancy and set out into the world to wreak havoc. Where he went he brought death and destruction. He struck at the dragon blooded like they had struck at him. Their wives, their children all fell before The Artisan and their homes burned in the flames of his hatred. But his hatred did not last. It burned brightly for many years but after long contemplation The Artisan realized that it would never burn away his pain of his loss. A fragment of memory returned to him. A feeling that had been locked away in the darkest depths of his soul. He had felt it when he was playing hide and seek in the cornfields. When he swam in the river and whenever he had been with Emily. Happiness… He wanted it back. With his hatred he could never regain what he had lost. But he could redeem himself. If he could spare others his own fate, he could save himself. The Artisan betrayed his master… He would be Joach again. One day… The Artisan is an Abyssal, a creature of cruelty, malice and hatred. And even though he is trying to reclaim his humanity he is more easily a malefactor then a benefactor. He is emotionally lost and he can remember little of the feelings he had when he was mortal. He strives to regain these feelings lost to him. He has some compassion in his soul for those who have suffered loss for he knows their pain and the ache in their heart as well as the pain in his own. His greatest weakness is the hate still rooted deep in his heart and he will lash out against the object of his hatred at every opportune moment. Now I figured that his soul is pretty tainted and him being an abyssal he's pretty much evil by nature and habit and that doing evil and spreading suffering comes far more naturally to him then altruism. What other aspects could I give the artisan to fill him out?
Grimcleaver 10-31-07, 07:09 PM	I like your ideas. There's not a lot of Exalted on these boards usually. It's always tough running an Abyssal in a Solar group--the only thing harder would be running a Solar in a Dragon-blooded group really. But yeah. I like the concept. I would be interested to hear whose he is, since that would have a lot to do with how he ends up. Off hand he sounds like First and Forsaken Lion's doing. But yeah, it makes a big difference who your liege is. The other big question, of course, with any Abyssal is how do you feel about death? Certainly at first I can imagine your character hating and fearing death--seeing it as a barrier preventing him from getting his revenge, preventing him from being with his love. But now none of that is true. Your love is out there somewhere in the lands of the dead, freed from the Solar essence that had latched onto her. Then again--were it not for that Solar essence glomming onto her soul when you two were happiest, she wouldn't have ever been taken from you, would she? Perhaps there's another bit of vengence for you to do. But yeah, the interesting thing here is the possible Orpheus angle--going into the underworld to rescue the soul of the girl you love. Learn the right charms and you could even bring her back...sort of. Another interesting question is how you get your revenge on the Dragonblooded? A direct assault upon the shores of the Blessed Isle, swinging your big ol' soulsteel diaklaive around seems doomed to hideous and overwhelming failure. Do you stick to the fringes of the empire, haunting the small loyal satrapies? Do you have a plan to build an army worthy of Mordor and invade en masse? Do you intend to sneak in and dodge Dragonblooded itinerates and Sidreal asassins at every turn? Certainly here is going to determine a lot of who your character is, with machiavellian schemer on one end of the scale and hopeless fatalistic bloodseeker on the other. Then there's the question of how the Solars fit in. I mean hanging out with Solars is suicide for a lot of reasons. First they embody an energy you hate, as do you to them. You mostly thrive by killing and eating folks. They tend not to dig that. Beyond that there are ideological issues too numerous to count. Beyond that even is your resonnance with your Deathlord, which forces your obedience to his will even at the utmost end of rebellion--and Deathlords do not like Solars. Bottom line is, it seems like there should be something you need or want from the Solars to decide to travel with them. Certainly it will cost you a lot, and in the meantime you will likely be hated and maybe even injured a few times--cause Solars do not like Abyssals much either.
Radijs 11-01-07, 06:25 AM	Its going to be a difficult thing to do yes, But I'm playing along with some good players and an excellent, if somewhat sadistic storyteller. I've been told that there's a deathlord who can't have any death knights because of some FUBAR. The ST hinted that I could be that FUBAR, or part of it. I don't really know how he feels about death. The whole revenge is something he is trying to free himself from, its just so hardwired into his being that its going to be a constant struggle. He wasn't going to charge to the island blindly and he isn't going to do that now. So far he's probaly lashed out at more isolated pockets of dragonblooded and their allies. Like the dragonblooded stole his love from him so he steals the ones the dragonblooded love. The idea is that the Artisan wants to reclaim his humanity and be free of his death lord. Because he realizes that what he has done can never give him true happyness and that he has become something just as bad or worse as the dragonblooded who wronged him so long ago. But asking him to do good is akin to asking a zombie to stop eating brains or a vampire to stop sucking blood. So thats going to be a very very harsh struggle.