There's alot of medieval fantasy roleplay around here, and I want to dip my toes into that genre more. So I've opted to make a medieval fantasy AU version of my main OC, Apollo.
The problem I'm having is that I want to make him cursed in some way. Apollo is originally an alien who has to eat humans to survive, and he's constantly torn up over that, so I want a curse that's the same flavor of moral turmoil. I thought about vampirism or lycanthropy.. But it just doesn't feel quite right. I know I want the overall story to be he was part of some nice magic/mage academy, but perhaps he was kicked out or shunned after getting this curse.
So, dear roleplayer, do you know of any curses that could work well for my OC? It doesn't have to be something that already exists in any medieval fantasy media, feel free to help me cook up something entirely new.
The problem I'm having is that I want to make him cursed in some way. Apollo is originally an alien who has to eat humans to survive, and he's constantly torn up over that, so I want a curse that's the same flavor of moral turmoil. I thought about vampirism or lycanthropy.. But it just doesn't feel quite right. I know I want the overall story to be he was part of some nice magic/mage academy, but perhaps he was kicked out or shunned after getting this curse.
So, dear roleplayer, do you know of any curses that could work well for my OC? It doesn't have to be something that already exists in any medieval fantasy media, feel free to help me cook up something entirely new.
Hey, knowing Apollo already a tiny bit, it would be no problem if he were that same ‘alien’ that fell on earth, but that earth being still medieval. It’s like in that one TV show, where idolized gods (ancient Egyptian or Greek or even Asian) turned out to be aliens travelling through interstellar portals and misused human kind.
Still an interesting curse could be some witchcraft that forces Apollo to consume human flesh to prevent getting older, but in this case more a cursed picture, like in “The picture of Dorian Gray”. If he doesn’t eat, the picture gets older, if the portrait gets too old, Apollo dies.
Still an interesting curse could be some witchcraft that forces Apollo to consume human flesh to prevent getting older, but in this case more a cursed picture, like in “The picture of Dorian Gray”. If he doesn’t eat, the picture gets older, if the portrait gets too old, Apollo dies.
How about a mix of both, a curse per say doesn't necessarily have to mean an affliction directly tied to that person, but say Apollo's curse is something that is his strength something he prides himself in. That actually turns out to be a force of evil. I'll give a direct example of what I mean, not saying use this but hope for an easier visualization. In Brandon Sanderson Stormlight Archive, Most of the Rosharans are affected but a battle high, or berserker frenzy, they see red and kill better viciously and more effectively, this is a pride point for the men in civilization, but as you progress and learn what truly causes this effect (Without spoiling too much here) and where it's from, the realization of all the monstrous things they've done come back around to truly tear people apart.
It's kind of a round about answer but I hope a left field perspective can help those creative juices flow.
It's kind of a round about answer but I hope a left field perspective can help those creative juices flow.
I like to work with curses to my characters as working like disabilities and coming with the same societal baggage that comes with that. would something like that work?
This might end up being a long post.
You have so many options.
First up, you don't have to change anything, especially since you put "tiefling" in there (which is mostly a D&D thing, I think, but I don't think it's super restricted to it). That implies demonic ancestry. And when it comes to demons and how they work... you can pretty much do whatever you want. There are so many different sorts that work in different ways. Even the D&D ones, despite having a number of defined "types" of demons, are explicitly stated to be inherently chaotic beings in all aspects. They can have an incredibly varied range of appearances, abilities, and other baggage. It could very simply be that something in his genes activated and gave him a need/impulse to eat the flesh of fellow sapient mortals (whether a specific race, collection of races, or just anything). If you want to add something extra, maybe there's some specific deity or portfolio/concept that his demon ancestor hates in particular, so he specifically feels the need to eat followers of x god or beings with a strong association with, say, light, or blacksmithing, or whatever.
Closely related in multiple ways, I have a character who's got some food issues. Default issue is just that they're always hungry, no matter how much they eat, though meat helps the most with keeping it under control. In the game I've gotten to play them most in so far, ideas from another player about how the setting work resulted in an explanation for that in the form of a deeper issue: because the character is a cambion (half demon instead of just a little ancestry somewhere in the past), that demon half required nourishment in the form of souls. Much like Apollo, though, my character hates that and starves himself a lot. (I'm not sure if I want to keep the soul-eating thing as an inherent part of my character, though, at least in the way it has been.)
Expanding out, you could also go digging through myths and folklore. Definitely good to be mindful if you hit on something that can have pretty specific cultural significance (for example, while many people find various aspects of wendigos fascinating or cool, etc, the real-world trauma tied up in them, their history, their depictions, etc, for people of the cultures the concept comes from is pretty horrible, and it's supposed to be bad to even mention them, so that's on my personal list of things to leave alone). But there's a lot to work with out there.
As an example, the cambion I mentioned - the word was just something someone suggested awhile back when I was doing an overhaul because that character was already half-demon, but that term brought up a number of more specific influences throughout history and pop culture to further influence the character (that's why they have their food issue, for example).
As another example, another character of mine was originally just a cardboard charming, psycho killer sort, but I eventually wanted to overhaul him. When I did, I started looking through cryptids, folklore creatures, etc, and very quickly found something that, between existing lore, certain discrepancies within the lore, and closely-related lore, was able to fit the character well enough that he only needed a few minor adjustments to get a bunch of extra fantasy flavoring and become able to be labelled as a specific thing.
You have so many options.
First up, you don't have to change anything, especially since you put "tiefling" in there (which is mostly a D&D thing, I think, but I don't think it's super restricted to it). That implies demonic ancestry. And when it comes to demons and how they work... you can pretty much do whatever you want. There are so many different sorts that work in different ways. Even the D&D ones, despite having a number of defined "types" of demons, are explicitly stated to be inherently chaotic beings in all aspects. They can have an incredibly varied range of appearances, abilities, and other baggage. It could very simply be that something in his genes activated and gave him a need/impulse to eat the flesh of fellow sapient mortals (whether a specific race, collection of races, or just anything). If you want to add something extra, maybe there's some specific deity or portfolio/concept that his demon ancestor hates in particular, so he specifically feels the need to eat followers of x god or beings with a strong association with, say, light, or blacksmithing, or whatever.
Closely related in multiple ways, I have a character who's got some food issues. Default issue is just that they're always hungry, no matter how much they eat, though meat helps the most with keeping it under control. In the game I've gotten to play them most in so far, ideas from another player about how the setting work resulted in an explanation for that in the form of a deeper issue: because the character is a cambion (half demon instead of just a little ancestry somewhere in the past), that demon half required nourishment in the form of souls. Much like Apollo, though, my character hates that and starves himself a lot. (I'm not sure if I want to keep the soul-eating thing as an inherent part of my character, though, at least in the way it has been.)
Expanding out, you could also go digging through myths and folklore. Definitely good to be mindful if you hit on something that can have pretty specific cultural significance (for example, while many people find various aspects of wendigos fascinating or cool, etc, the real-world trauma tied up in them, their history, their depictions, etc, for people of the cultures the concept comes from is pretty horrible, and it's supposed to be bad to even mention them, so that's on my personal list of things to leave alone). But there's a lot to work with out there.
As an example, the cambion I mentioned - the word was just something someone suggested awhile back when I was doing an overhaul because that character was already half-demon, but that term brought up a number of more specific influences throughout history and pop culture to further influence the character (that's why they have their food issue, for example).
As another example, another character of mine was originally just a cardboard charming, psycho killer sort, but I eventually wanted to overhaul him. When I did, I started looking through cryptids, folklore creatures, etc, and very quickly found something that, between existing lore, certain discrepancies within the lore, and closely-related lore, was able to fit the character well enough that he only needed a few minor adjustments to get a bunch of extra fantasy flavoring and become able to be labelled as a specific thing.
Curses are fun and there is a lot of story potential to be had. Here are a few suggestions.
1. It's a curse curse. As in, he crossed or offended some powerful mage or spellcaster, perhaps a warlock or a hag in disguise, and a curse was placed on him in retribution. Maybe it was not even his fault, but alas, such magicians are seldom sane or reasonable enough to care.
2. Perhaps he read a forbidden tome or a scroll of evil magicks--maybe he was tricked into doing so, absorbing the triggered curse for someone else?--and it afflicted him with an ancient horror.
You can flavor curses all sorts of ways: infernal and hellish, abyssal and lovecraftian, fleshy and gruesome, to name a few, depending on the nature of the thing that cursed him. Let it be a mark or a brand he bears and cannot be rid of. As the curse progresses, it drains more of his energy, and the more he denies the horrible appetite it has awakened in him, the more the curse torments him: cracking his skin and boiling his blood without permitting him to die from it, hollowing his features and blackening his eyes and tongue with shadowy slime, growing teeth and mouthy seams in places they shouldn't be. Then, when he is fed, if he is fed, the symptoms leave him again.
You could even give the curse a personality of its own. Let it be a thing that scratches in his mind, or one that squeezes a tiny avatar of itself out of his mouth or his veins to speak to and mock him directly in the voice of the mage who cast it. Let its brand shiver and dig psychic claws into the skin it sits upon. Let it tell him when it is hungry.
If he was attending a magic academy at the time, those in charge would probably be able to tell immediately that a powerful dark magic had been laid upon him, and would reasonably send him away for the safety of the students and faculty once they find that they are unable to remove it. He may even be banished from the town or city altogether, forced to wander the wildernesses, where he may meet other people with conditions like but ultimately different from his own: the aforementioned vampires and lycanthropes, who may seek to use him as a pawn in their schemes.
Since it is a curse, it sets up potential character goals and story arcs that are a little different from your usual vampire or werewolf tale. Maybe he wants to look for a cure in the beginning. Maybe someone who depends on him needs him to find the cure. Maybe he has traveled to every temple of every god and found all of them unable to break the magic, only name it, and having now lost hope, all he can do is try to manage the ailment and die in a secluded place before it drives him to do something horrible--again, or for the first time.
And maybe, once he finds the perfect place to seal himself up so that he can safely starve to death, the curse itself tells him something terrible: if he does die, it will not go with him. Instead, it will transfer itself immediately to the person he loves the most...
Or, you know. Something like that. Curses are great, narratively speaking. Have fun with it!
1. It's a curse curse. As in, he crossed or offended some powerful mage or spellcaster, perhaps a warlock or a hag in disguise, and a curse was placed on him in retribution. Maybe it was not even his fault, but alas, such magicians are seldom sane or reasonable enough to care.
2. Perhaps he read a forbidden tome or a scroll of evil magicks--maybe he was tricked into doing so, absorbing the triggered curse for someone else?--and it afflicted him with an ancient horror.
You can flavor curses all sorts of ways: infernal and hellish, abyssal and lovecraftian, fleshy and gruesome, to name a few, depending on the nature of the thing that cursed him. Let it be a mark or a brand he bears and cannot be rid of. As the curse progresses, it drains more of his energy, and the more he denies the horrible appetite it has awakened in him, the more the curse torments him: cracking his skin and boiling his blood without permitting him to die from it, hollowing his features and blackening his eyes and tongue with shadowy slime, growing teeth and mouthy seams in places they shouldn't be. Then, when he is fed, if he is fed, the symptoms leave him again.
You could even give the curse a personality of its own. Let it be a thing that scratches in his mind, or one that squeezes a tiny avatar of itself out of his mouth or his veins to speak to and mock him directly in the voice of the mage who cast it. Let its brand shiver and dig psychic claws into the skin it sits upon. Let it tell him when it is hungry.
If he was attending a magic academy at the time, those in charge would probably be able to tell immediately that a powerful dark magic had been laid upon him, and would reasonably send him away for the safety of the students and faculty once they find that they are unable to remove it. He may even be banished from the town or city altogether, forced to wander the wildernesses, where he may meet other people with conditions like but ultimately different from his own: the aforementioned vampires and lycanthropes, who may seek to use him as a pawn in their schemes.
Since it is a curse, it sets up potential character goals and story arcs that are a little different from your usual vampire or werewolf tale. Maybe he wants to look for a cure in the beginning. Maybe someone who depends on him needs him to find the cure. Maybe he has traveled to every temple of every god and found all of them unable to break the magic, only name it, and having now lost hope, all he can do is try to manage the ailment and die in a secluded place before it drives him to do something horrible--again, or for the first time.
And maybe, once he finds the perfect place to seal himself up so that he can safely starve to death, the curse itself tells him something terrible: if he does die, it will not go with him. Instead, it will transfer itself immediately to the person he loves the most...
Or, you know. Something like that. Curses are great, narratively speaking. Have fun with it!
OMG you guys are all so helpful... I was so lost with figuring out this backstory but all your suggestions have tickled my brain and sparked some more creativity. Thank you so much! (also I love the long posts, Zelphyr)
I kinda like the idea that he was tricked into the curse. Maybe a classmate he mistook as being a friend sent him on a mission to get a restricted book from the library. Then again.. probably reckless for a magic academy to have a book capable of giving the students an unbreakable curse.
Maybe.. I could mix up these ideas. Maybe the particularly demonic book awoke something evil in Apollo. Something that was always there, but is now impossible to repress anymore.
I kinda like the idea that he was tricked into the curse. Maybe a classmate he mistook as being a friend sent him on a mission to get a restricted book from the library. Then again.. probably reckless for a magic academy to have a book capable of giving the students an unbreakable curse.
Maybe.. I could mix up these ideas. Maybe the particularly demonic book awoke something evil in Apollo. Something that was always there, but is now impossible to repress anymore.
You are on: Forums » RP Discussion » Need advice for a fantasy character