Does Knowledge Of A Characters Past Change Your Perception Of Them?

[Optimalfriskies]

This is a question I've had gnawing at the back of my mind for almost a year.

Take for example, Saelethil.
On the surface, he seems like a major asshole. He's cold, rude, and doesn't seem to care for anyone. He actively distances himself from everybody.

He is, in short, a villain.

War veteran
He got his coldness from his time on the frontlines. Being a combat medic, he was faced with a lot of death and misery. He learned that crying over someone else's misery was useless.

The lonely father
This is what broke him. Loosing his son, being unable to save him, it broke Saelethil. He grew harsh, putting up walls between him and others, to prevent himself from getting hurt.

I'd like to know about your most horrible characters, and then I want top hear what events forged them into what they are. Do they perhaps seem less horrid if you know more about them?

 

[AtticCat]

Noelle Hath

This, rather, nice and sweet girl turned into a smart, manipulative, and all together, respected for her actions woman. What happened that changed her so bad from when she first came to Regalia?

Becoming a widow of the same man, twice.

This was a recent event but since her personality has been effected as she is slightly more drawn away from her emotions and will go to great (and sometimes horrible) lengths to protect people. Basically, many months ago, Noelle married a man named Arthur Knight. They loved each other but not long after they married he died and this destroyed her! Then just as she was getting over it, Freya Lo rose and brought the dead back- including Arthur. He then attacked his wife for saying she had moved on and didn't love a deathling. Noelle had to witness him get killed again, this time in front of her very eyes.

Right hand of Jared Kade

Noelle began working at the Golden Willow tavern shortly before her husband's (first) death. It didn't take long before it was realized that Noelle was a very bartender and Jared Kade soon enough made her his right hand. She became more drawn to money and extremely defensive of the Kade family after this. Noelle, recently, has been known to Blackmail people into giving her money and send threats to others that trash talk Jared or any of the other Kades (This includes Tristan, Astrid, and Philip) as she believes she owes them.

Death of her child

This event was probably (horrible as it was) the least important, important event that happened to her. Only two weeks after she received news of Arthur's death, Noelle (who was pregnant at the time) was attacked by a Mercenary who stabbed her and it, tragically, killed her child. While Noelle had never believed she would be a perfect mother as she had problems with her own and with the recent death of her husband (who also was her child's father), Noelle has slowly come to terms with the fact that maybe it was for the best..maybe..

 

[YouDontKnowJack]

I'm not gonna be as detailed as you guys because i'm pressed for time, but, general perception of my character Phillip is that he's a nice guy, one of the more considerate nobles, and other people matter to him, and are not merely an obstacle. Secretly, as /no one/ IC knows, he used to be in a cult/gang where he killed many innocents. He's also secretly been using potions and chemicals, but only one person knows this IC.

 

[GoodDreamer]

Nal Roh

I assume that there are a few mixed signals about him, maybe your characters hate him with a passion, and maybe others think that he's just a lovable brute. But let me put a few things out there about him.

Grew up with an Al-Allar

Nal Roh never met a Dakkar until his early teens, and actually grew up with an Al-Allar alchemist. In fact, Nal Roh isn't even his real name! For a little over a decade, he used to go by the name Juzza Dissona! Does this affect his day to day life? Actually yes! Growing up in an environment with people like the Allar made him unnaturally open-minded for a Dakkar. In a re-write I have planned for him, Nal Roh will have never spoken a single word until he found the Dakkar, due to his race being unable to speak Zasta, adding another reason for his rather broken common.

Cannibalism

This is gonna be quick, because I'm sure everyone either knows or assumed this about Nal Roh. Yes, Nal Roh is a cannibal, although its been a good minute or two since he's gotten to actually eat another Dakkar. What a few people may not know, is that he eats other races far more frequently. Wanna know his favorite food? Just ask @Nesstro


A rather...poor father

A little secret that only a few of you know, Nal Roh is actually a father! During his time with the Dakkar, he had a few kids. Frankly, his kids didn't mean too much to him, as he still left the clan to go do his own thing at some point. Bye bye kiddos!

 

[YouDontKnowJack]

Frankly, his kids didn't mean too much to him

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rip Rama ;-;

 

[Conflee]

Conf Ladveer

Bastard

Conf was the illegitimate offspring off a Duke in Etosil. As such he spent most of his early years as a topic of rumor and ridicule, and was a bit of a loner. To make matters worse- in the eyes of the rest of the town- his best friend was a Dakkar. He initially did not take well to all of this, being fairly depressed, however he eventually learned to stop giving a crap about what they thought.

Mercenary

A little-explored or talked about period in Conf life is his years as a mercenary. He only served for three years, but in that time he participated in several small skirmishes, as well as a full fledged battle, in which he was almost crushed by a large chunk of a fort's wall. This time mostly resulted in further development of his skill with a sword, however he did also make and lose several friends through the three years. Because of this, he became very slow to make attachments to others.

Pirate

His time as a pirate, which I can safely assume is a unique experience for a noble, is hardly known to many outside of New Ceardia, where the crew was most active. This is where he experienced the most positive emotional growth, and finally conceived a solid set of morals- albeit a very Jacobinist set. The crew was 90% female, and 70% non-Ailor, which combined with his already shaky view of Unionism and Ailor-dominance, resulted in his current ideals. This is also the time when he made most of the friends that he would carry over into his time in Regalia, including his future fiance, Raven Vitae.

 

[Vivamente]

Stephen Altoro (Veridian Ester)

At first glance, Stephen looks foreign and even goes so far as to put on a Daendroc Accent, but he is always happy to chat to people.

His attitude is what would worry most, he doesn't care about the pain that others feel, nor does he care about your boring stories. Stephen has went so far as to recite this to Nobility - "If you are to bore me with fairy tales and things that go bump in the night, then you are hardly worth my time.." and of course the classic - "Speak to me when you have something interesting to share.."
Of course, as you'd expect people often think of him as a bad person, even going so far as to attack him for the small phrases that he uses to get people away.

Extensive Training

Veridian, before changing his name to Stephen almost ten years ago was quite the powerful dragon's fire mage and is now focusing on his further research into the magic as Stephen, meaning he doesn't connect with people and often ends up harming himself in new and crazy experiments.

Abused

The young, blonde pretty-boy that was Veridian was once left black and blue daily, his body is a ruin of scars not from war, but from the experience of his uncle's torture in the training yard. He was even forced to watch the death of his Mother, not shedding a single tear as her head fell without the body it belonged to.

Separation

Was the second eldest child of Maria Ester, losing his older brother in battle a long while ago and after that, losing his younger sister in a foreign city, he believes that both are dead, though he wouldn't truly care if they returned, he is a different man after all.

 

[_Grimmy_]

Cannibalism

This is gonna be quick, because I'm sure everyone either knows or assumed this about Nal Roh. Yes, Nal Roh is a cannibal, and a rather successful one at that. What a few people may not know, is that he eats other races far more frequently. Wanna know his favorite food? Just ask

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He's only a cannibal if he eats other dakkar, maybe a small one if you count all naylar as a single race which you shouldn't do.

 

[GoodDreamer]

He's only a cannibal if he eats other dakkar, maybe a small one if you count all naylar as a single race which you shouldn't do.

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he eats other races far more frequently.

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Come on bb, if Nal only ate Dakkar, he would have starved long ago XD
Although frankly, now that I think about it, I may have phrased that particular word sentence rather poorly.

 

[_Grimmy_]

Come on bb, if Nal only ate Dakkar, he would have starved long ago XD
Although frankly, now that I think about it, I may have phrased that particular word sentence rather poorly.

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Yuup, you basically said he eats dogs and apes thus he is a cannibal

 

[GoodDreamer]

Yuup, you basically said he eats dogs and apes thus he is a cannibal

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I mean...not really? It had clearly stated that he eats Dakkar. My issue was with the fact that I made it seem like he continues to eat Dakkar, and that just ain't true! Not enough Dakkar in regalia to eat them XD

 

[_Grimmy_]

I mean...not really? It had clearly stated that he eats Dakkar. My issue was with the fact that I made it seem like he continues to eat Dakkar, and that just ain't true! Not enough Dakkar in regalia to eat them XD

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Yeah.. Just the other races part was what I referenced

 

[SorryNari]

Dahae Faerveren:

Viewed as:

• Open, friendly, mild-mannered and happy.

What made her:

• She has many insecurities of herself that stems from her poor father figure, and her lack of motherly love (since her mother was practically non existent in her childhood). Her father literally beat her because she didn't smile in front of guests or his friends. Her father loved her, but showed his affection poorly. Unfortunately, Dahae is unable to realize this and is just bitter in the inside towards her father.

• Dahae knows that her father isn't actually her dad. She knows that her true parents abandoned her off to an inn. The effect of this abandonment is completely outstanding, intense and troubling for her.

• Accidental murder of her ex-lover, Suzume. The fact that others actually hounded her for murdering her friend brought her into a worse situation. The words she wanted to hear, and feel, were not said.

• The fact that she couldn't resolve with her ill father only left feelings of guilt and remorse inside of her heart.

I'm going to go into more detail about Dahae, because I like exploring her a bit more. Her bad father figure leads directly to her struggles with holding relationships with males. She's bad at asking questions. She's been taught to be obedient and to shut up, which also leads her to being a bit of a pushover and unable to stand up for herself. Dahae constantly seeks for others attentions and affection to fill in the mother/father roll she didn't receive/had a bad time with.

Dahae's actually quite manipulative with other people. Apathy is her specialty. She's able to feign emotions, and enjoys toying with others because it makes her feel superior and better about herself. Her apathy has only popped up with one character so far, but she doesn't show it to others. Dahae's relationships tends to go unsteady because she's completely disloyal to others. She is a bit of a ho.
​

So what is she?/TLDR:

• Purely apathetic towards others. She enjoys toying with others that she is able to get her hands on. She abuses others for emotional and physical affection.

• Struggles with feelings of sadness, anger, fear and anxiety on a deeper level. Her affect was somewhat flat. Dahae is guarded in what she will say and will only open to with people she trusts. Her stream of though was organized and logical. Her thought content was mixed but primarily depressed, angry, worried, fearful and anxious. She tends to mask many of these feelings with a soft, compliant demeanor

• When presented with difficult tasks and failure, she is able to persist and rebound without giving up. Dahae overall is oriented to person, place and time. When confronted with time, Dahae's behavior become significantly more tense and anxious. She's more likely to make mistakes and have her performance deteriorate.

• Probably a sociopath. Maybe even a psychopath.

(I think I went way off topic, but hey, I liked exploring her.)

 

[_Grimmy_]

@NariTheKamikaze you made me do this.

Airlift, my turn aka Aerlyth Nythern.

Viewed as:

• Eccentric elven douchebag.

Ze story:

• Born into a a tribe of mostly unstable voidsick avanthar, though most of them are managing.
• At around 14 most of them are getting a bit unstable to say the least.
• And finally possessed at 27
• Starts wandering around for like 6 years starting trouble.
• Exorcised and left broken roaming the streets of regalia
• And this is the part where she's a barely functioning doc with a habbit the size of the Vatican while barely remembering the last 10 or so years as a blur.

 

[Legoclub22]

Adrian the evil scients that tests relentlessly on Lampar against their will, infecting them with fatal disseases.
He is/was a docter who was great at curing people of their illnesses, until his wife contracted Qui'Quilli, and died two weeks later despite his best efforts. His young daughter then became infected, and he had her placed in a chrysalis while he worked tirelessly to cure her, nothing to lose.


Orist the heartless, cold Drowdar who slices people up for fun.
Fought demons in Drowda, watched all his companions and childhood friends die beside him, then went home injured to find that his mother and love interest had died. Left Drowda and became absorbed by everything, mostly retreating into a shell of disinterest.


Alfonso the Pyromaniac. Nuf said.
Was abused in multiple ways as a child, and ended up abandoned in a house fire when he was very very young. Somehow he survived, only to have a sick, twisted affinity for fire.

Benedict The selfish, racist baron jerk.
Grew up isolated from the world. Was a rich, spoiled brat. Then his father and tons of his family workers were killed, he was maimed, and his brother ran and hid. Turned into a ruthless family leader.