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Personality
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Basic Traits
"All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you.
But first, they must catch you."
-Richard Adams, Watership Down.
Virtues: Passionate, curious, creative, intelligent, liberal, determined, idealistic, romantic, gentle (or at least attempts to be), whimsical, perspective, amicable, eccentric, sensual, patient, lust for life, loyal, affectionate, seeks to help others, emphatic, fun loving, charming, genuine (when you peel back the furtive layers, at least!!), excitable, wears his heart on his sleeve, charitable, TRYING HIS BEST.
Vices: Vengeful, emotional, sardonic, capricious, creepy, willful, prideful, catty, bleeding heart, obsessive, easily baited, vain, desperate, moody, secretive, stubborn, self absorbed, reckless, self destructive, hedonist, occasionally unwittingly cruel, liar by omission, lack of self worth, occasionally two-faced, dangerous, furtive, lack of moral clarity, occasional sailor mouth...heartbreaker.
Likes: All the unloved or unknown creatures of the world, in particular the ones who crawl and slither upon the ground (snakes, snails, bugs, etc etc), sweet fruits, the smell of books, poetry, beautiful/handsome men, the warmth of the sun on his skin, handmade or commissioned gifts (no strings attached!), attention, humans/mortals and their ways, learning new things, the comfort of a nice cave, forests, people who know how to have a good time!
Dislikes Slavers, spiders (more fear than dislike), the Seelie/Ljosalfar Court, the way the sun burns his eyes, iron, plastic, being nagged/bossed around incessantly, not being as perfect as he'd like, necromancers, the undead, the cold, people who make him feel inferior, and the way he can't eat bread without getting an upset stomach, having his time wasted.
Hobbies & Interests: Reading, writing/journaling, gardening & horticulture, animal husbandry, teaching others, sketching, exploring & adventuring, caving, treasure hunting, occultism, chemistry, botany, biology, the 'humanities' (or... the alfarities?), anthropology, philosophy, entomology, symbology, magic and magical research, people-watching, basilisk (or horse) back riding, collecting, hosting parties & get togethers, recreational drug use.
Fears & Phobias: Astraphobia *, mild Erotophobia* (*post Archmage), Cacophobia, Arachnophobia, Scopophobia, mild Thalassophobia, Dementophobia."Extra Fears"Being unwanted. Abandonment. People seeing him for what he really is and not liking what they see. Becoming what he hates. Hurting those he loves. Not having control. Being judged and unaccepted. Being considered less than. Loss or lack of freedom. That none of this was worth it in the end. (this boy can fit so much anxiety in him--)
Neurosis: Paranoid-Schizophrenia, Psychotic Episodes, PTSD.
Health: In very good general health, but suffers from; Mild gluten intolerance. Hypermobility. Hyperalgesia. Hypersomnia & Insomnia. Dependency/Addiction to opium and other substances* (*verse/timeline dependent)
Habits/Extras: Preening his hair or beard. Either staring for too long or not making eye contact at all. Expressive ears and antennae. Getting in reaaaal close to those he's interested in. Clams up when yelled at. Memorizes the scent and gait of almost everyone he meets. Oral fixation - chews on tip of thumb when nervous, chronic 'chain' smoker of tobacco, cannabis, and sometimes opium.
Voice Fairly deep (Light baritone), but has a sliiight effeminate quality to his voice that emerges more when he is excited or upset. Got a nice melodic quality to his voice. Light accent somewhere between a Donegal and Persian accent ( Good luck figuring out how THAT sounds)
Languages Alfari (Dokkalfar and Ljosalfar dialects), Common, Undercommon, Sylvan. Various Earth languages (mostly old fashioned or dead versions of these languages, fluency varies). Deep Speech/R'lyehian, courtesy of Aeshma.
Western Zodiac: Aries Sun, Taurus Moon, Leo Rising
Chinese Zodiac: Fire Rooster
Celtic Zodiac: Alder Tree
Tarot Card/s: The Magician, The Tower, Strength, The Chariot, Knight of Wands
Temperament: Sanguine/Choleric
MBTI: ENFP-T -
Characterization
Valeriu is a beloved character to me. I've been writing him for almost as long as I've been roleplaying, so he is among my most well developed characters. Much of his characterization has happened organically, developing over years of roleplay, and slowly finding his voice the more I went on. Now, finding his voice while writing comes very easily to me. I take a lot of inspiration from many different pieces of media, art, music, and books to flesh him out. I would like to dedicate this space to simply giving OOC insight into the characterization of Valeriu.
OVERVIEW
Vali's story, ultimately, is a focus on elements of freedom, of sacrifices for a better life, of making decisions for freedom and autonomy that eventually come to bite you in the ass, about making one's sacrifices worth it in the end, about becoming what one hates the most. His story is one about slavery, freedom, triumph, defeat, love, hate, madness, and desperation.
Hes kind of a little shit. A bit of a bastard. Sardonic, evasive, paranoid, strong willed, a little grumpy at times, maybe a little unwittingly manipulative, maybe a little too desperate for the friendship of others. He is a polarizing person, hard to pin down. Good at making people feel heard or felt, and also very good at making people feel like they know him, when they don't actually know all that much at all. He's not a liar so much as he excludes important details. Call it a survival mechanism or a fatal flaw.
But the gist is basically hes wearing a mask, and that mask is cracking, and he's desperately trying to keep it on his face to avoid letting anyone see any weakness underneath. Growing up in a society that favors strength and reviles weakness so much will do that to a guy. At least underneath theres something worthwhile, where a more affectionate, genuine, open, more willing to be the curious weirdo he actually is.
INSPIRATIONS
I take inspiration from a variety of characters and sources to flesh out this character. Everything from my favorite video games to mythology.
Those familiar with the title might notice that I have taken a lot of inspiration from the video game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, as inspiration for Vali's mental state and inner turmoil. These aspects were present before, but I was not sure how to properly, and accurately, impliment them until I came across this game. It gave him a ton of inspiration, and I got to thank the game for giving me the courage to finally tackle some more serious topics about my character.
Other inspirations of note include; Lord Summerisle from the folk horror movie 'The Wickerman' -- these two characters share the same sort of disconcerting charm about them. While he can be amicable, even welcoming and kind, there is always something ....'off' about this. The way he holds himself is often effortless and collected (at least until he is confronted with someone who can rile him up), and it just gives off the vibe he knows something most others don't, or that he has secret intentions that he is carefully hiding under that smooth charisma. Because he often does.
Another character inspiration is Fenris from the fantasy video game 'Dragon Age'. They share a similar conflict of being former slaves of cruel masters who ended to use them for their own profane purposes, now trying to find freedom and autonomy in a world that so often denies it to them. Both are living weapons, both are victims of a corrupt magocracy, and both fought for their freedom at great cost to themselves.
However, the paths they took are obviously very different ones. Fenris left the life and people that tried so desperately to contain him, creating a new family and purpose for himself outside of being simply a living weapon and magical battery. In contrast, Valeriu tries to become one of them, in the hopes that he might never suffer in the same way, and perhaps (and this shows Vali's lower wisdom stat, lol) do some good with his station.
(WIP)
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Stats
STR 15 INT 21 DEX 10 WIS 13 CON 17 CHA 20 -
Tropes
Magnificent Bastard Affably Evil Beware The Nice Ones Gilded Cage Broken Ace Deal With The Devil Faustian Rebellion Bad Powers, Good People Creepy Good Dark Is Not Evil Horror Hates A Rulebreaker Inhuman Beauty Rags to Riches Friend to Bugs Mind Screw Helpful Hallucinations Nice Job Breaking It, Hero! The Corruption The Troublemaker Magically Binding Contract I Just Want To Be Free The Archmage Blue and Orange Morality Self Made Man Lonely At The Top Nouvaeu Riche The Red Mage From Nobody To Nightmare Pretty Boy Claimed By The Supernatural Took A Level In Jerk-Ass Hidden Sweetheart Big Beautiful Man Deal With The Devil Gentleman Wizard Glamour/Glamour Failure Eccentric Mentor Agent Peacock Born Into Slavery Dream Walker Playing with Fire Our Fairies Are Different The Magocracy Are We The Baddies? Pint-Sized Powerhouse
