༺═──────────────═༻Character Information Name: Aldon Adeliason Age: 23 Birthday: 30th of January, 288 AC Birthplace: City of Regalia, Crown Isles (Supposedly) Gender: Masculine Pronouns: He/Him/His Race: Asha Sexuality: Homosexual Eye Color: Heterochromatic (Gray and Cyan) ༺═──────────────═༻Core Concept Religion Disenfranchised with Unionism as a result of the recent slavery of the Asha and the treatment he received as a result of being a Brood, Aldon has since turned to Estellon as his faith, less because of the ideals and history it is built upon and more because of the covenant that has come to accept him. Identity One of the many forgotten and impoverished people of Regalia, Aldon is a vagrant, dreamer, and builder, hoping to uplift the overlooked peoples of Regalia in an almost-Jacobin way. Less obsessed with the ideas of perfection as much as he ambitiously seeks the idea of having better, Aldon believes in a Regalia where Crookback and the “undercity” live free from oppression. ༺═──────────────═༻Proficiency Information Strength: 5 Melee Point Buy: Duelist Pack, Frenzy Pack Bruiser Point Buy: Bruiser Feint Pack, Bruiser Slam Pack, Bruiser Tackle Pack Constitution: 4 Defensive Point Buy: Turtle Pack, Counterplay Pack, Ironheart Pack Training Point Buy: Resilience Pack Wisdom: 1 Artificer Point Buy: Medical Pack Technology Branch: Living Metal Artificer Specials: Medical Patent, Hacking Patent Dexterity: 2 Roguery Point Buy: Parkour Pack, Balance Pack Magic: 0 Charisma: 2 State Point Buy: Saboteur Pack, Agitator Pack Faith: 0 ༺═──────────────═༻Ability Information Non-Racial Kits Strangle Marken Languages Common (Free) Saan (Regional) ༺═──────────────═༻Appearance Information Mutations Aldon does not have any mutations (for now). Appearance Despite his name, Aldon does not appear at all like an Ailor, instead being a white-furred, hybrid Asha with predominantly husky-like traits, the only major outlier being his lion-like mane of fur, feline grace, and his saber-like incisors. Shifts N/A ༺═──────────────═༻Life Story Plot Hooks WIP ༺═──────────────═༻
@Lizehrd Everything seems to be in order, Approved. Just please swap the phrasing from 'Talent Points' to 'Hobby Points' for your proficiencies.
Updated sheet to reflect Aldon training his Unarmed and Singing skills IC, and to note the Gift of the Colossi!
Updated Aldon’s sheet to include Arken proficiency (since recognizing Broods is tied to that knowledge, and he’s had a good amount of experience now with some Arken). Removed Writing Proficiency (because it didn’t really apply to him), and updated his language in accordance with the Linguistics update. Set for Re-Review!
@sonofthestars Very small change this time: I realized there was some aging discontinuity with Aldon and decided to age him down four years, since I kinda forgot how long schooling actually was.
@sonofthestars Updated Aldon’s sheet according to the new proficiency update. Didn’t change any proficiencies save for the ones that got removed, but the prefix disappeared anyways, hence why it needs re-reviewed.
@sonofthestars Very small update this time: Changed one of Aldon’s sorceries to Vile Vine 1. Hopefully everything’s all good!
The 8 in Strength is from the Ailor Special, which if I remember correctly allows them to put the extra point in a single Stat they have 7 points in already.
@Acosmism Updated for Direct Conception Silvenism, and swapped out one of Aldon’s Cahalic packs from Space Magic to Sensor Magic.
@Volaie Updated Aldon! Shifted around his stats a bit, reduced his Strength and gave him some more funky abilities to use for RP and Progressions. Hopefully all seems good!
Cleaning up Aldon’s page a bit and getting him updated and such. Changed around his proficiencies a bit to better match both some updates to him and to some lore things, might change some stuff around again.
@Caelamus Hey! So Aldon got a complete retcon/rewrite that isn’t really a complete retcon/rewrite but is kinda one. Spirit of the character remains, but many of the details have been greatly changed. Hopefully everything is alright.
Approved. Although I don't think I am going to approve any further edits without an argumentation for why. You'll probably be happy with them as an Asha, I agree the change is good and you'll have more fun with them that way but you should try to settle on everything else and try to get comfortable with them as they are now. Stick to Aldon for awhile as they are and see where it goes.
Understood, thank you. I don’t have any intention to really edit anything else about Aldon right now, since my only worry was in the continuity of his backstory. I’ll be more clear on my argumentation for any edits I do make in the future.
@Caelamus I have updated Aldon according to the new Magic revamp. I’ve only given him three out of potentially nine specials for now, just keeping the core ones that are really important for him IRP. I have also shifted Aldon’s Constitution and Wisdom a bit, since I never used his Exist Avatar from Soulrend and Aldon’s combat profile has always had a focus on “outlasting” his opponent and taking them down with him. I felt like it was a waste that he didn’t have both Ironheart and Counterplay, so I updated his sheet with that. Hopefully all is in order.
@Caelamus Hi! I’ve kinda rehashed Aldon entirely (again). To keep it short, Aldon was stuck between “violent protector mindless beast Cahal” and “anti-state quirky freedom fighter,” which he really wasn’t either anymore. I wanted to actually make him somebody that people could genuinely identify as a Change Silven whilst also making him somebody that feels like an Asha. So I scrapped him being a fistfighter (for the most part, since big mech and Asha class still exist), replaced his magic with magitech, and also just took a look at his personality. Kinda changed everything about him while also keeping him recognizably him, and hopefully that’s okay. I also finally specified what he’s a hybrid between, that too. He’s mostly a dog with part sabercat.
I'm of the opinion that if you really want to stand out as a Silven more then you are going to need to choose between being a Silven and having that be the core aspect of his identity or being a Cahal. You play the character as if you want them to be a relevant silven in the eyes of others but also kind of keep tacking on peripheral things like Cahalism that dilute that identity. Whenever I personally think of the character I only ever see that iteration of Aldon that was a Cahal Brood who manned a bar and did a lot of Cahal things. That was Aldon at their peak to me, it's difficult to determine what or who the character is these days because of all the changes you have imposed over time and hard pivoting out of what made the character so popular in the day to begin with. Also the thing about Change is that it's one thing to talk about a character's motives, ideas and desire to impose change and acting upon it to see it through. I don't interact that much with the Exist crowd these days and it's still more apparent to me on the outside that Aldon is a Cahal but I have to go on your application to see the visibility of them being a change silven and that to a degree says something about the character. A good tl;dr of that is you need to pick an identity and stick with it and be more proactive in what you're doing than talking about what you're doing in OOC channels like the Cahal discord. If you really want to hard pursue Silven and going that route, you are going to need to consider dropping those peripheral things. Especially Cahalism because higher entities don't really regard afflictions like vampirism/cahalism very highly, they are basically cannon fodder. Ultimately though, I'm not gonna stop you if you want to continue the status quo of the character. Everything is fine with him. But if you want to pursue higher relevance with Aldon, you are going to have to make some decisions. My personal opinion would be to stop hard pivoting and go back to what made the character relevant (in my eyes) to begin with.
@Caelamus That’s what I’m finally trying to do here, is to decide between being a Silven and being a Cahal, because for too long I’ve tried to straddle the line. I took a while to sit down and think on where Aldon was at and which part of him to ultimately remove. I know his initial concept was as a Cahal, but playing him as being more of a Silven has been, personally, a lot more satisfying for me. I don’t think I wish for Aldon to be a violent, zealous cultist, because the parts of Cahalism that he initial focused on was an aspect of the Cahalic identity that was removed: being a werewolf that’s hidden in plain sight. That’s not really part of the Cahalic identity anymore as much as it was, and so it’d be really hard for me to go back to that, I feel. With every update I have been on the trend of removing more and more of that part of Aldon without really thinking about it. I think there has been a natural trend towards Aldon becoming more Silven and less Cahal, since I don’t know if I want to try and re-capture that old identity of “werewolf hunter fighting for a homeland that doesn’t wholly accept him.” I think I can hold onto the idea of Aldon fighting for Regalia in his own way, and that’s what each update has been drawing him towards. Ultimately, I think what I want Aldon to be is this: a “child of the Exist” who is also a “child of Regalia,” trying to help Regalia grow towards his view of paradise. That was Aldon’s original concept, and the naivety of that is what I want to return to. I want him to be a naive, stubborn, scrappy, out-of-place dreamer, and I don’t think that really fits with him being a full-on Cahal. I think that fits with him being a Cahalic Brood and I think that fits with him being a Silven, but not a true Cahal as they are now. In essence, I want to have Aldon return to how he acted when he was still “Aldon the Brood,” and I think that involves him being less a true Cahal, if that makes sense. So, this is my attempt at saying, “I’m not just going to have Aldon be caught in an identity crisis between an identity that isn’t valid anymore due to the changes in lore, and an identity that I haven’t held to at all.” I’m going to have him start doing, and try to bring him back to his roots when he was a Brood: protective, naive, a dreamer, and something of, potentially, a big brother to other characters that he connects with. I think this is the best way I can do that, whilst also acknowledging that he’s an Asha and not an Ailor anymore. So, yes, this is a hard pivot, but I also think this is a hard pivot back to who Aldon was originally when him being a Brood was the major point of his identity, and it’s my hope to return him back to those vibes.
You can still do this. Even more so now actually. We need more werewolf Cahal. Although after reading through your response. I think another issue is highlighted in that you think way too much about these things, talk too much about these things when you should just be doing. This may sound harsh, but I want to clarify I'm only offering you this criticism as your reviewer and I do genuinely want to see you improve and do things with the character and have fun. But I think the energy you spend thinking about the character and their motives, their design and where to go, would be much better spent doing something with them instead. A Change Silven should be radiating strong top energy. You should go out and do things with them. I should be going into this review knowing who, what and exactly what Aldon is, it shouldn't be much of a debate. The actions of a character speak a lot more than what you tell me on paper, and I haven't heard a lot about the character and that fact itself is of immediate detriment to the identity of what they should be doing and you don't have to necessarily be active to do that. I'm going to use Drulailmon as an example here because Bahm only ever gets like two or three days a week to do things and his character is incredibly notable in the wider community for various reasons. He goes out and does things and has strong character identity. There's a lot of factors at play but it's a good example. When Drulailmon is mentioned, you think Cahal. That same logic should be applicable to Aldon because Silvenism is meant to be a foundational aspect of the character. You need to stop hard pivoting and changing this character and settle upon a design and start acting on it. Like us sitting here talking about is great and all but the energy spent here can be better spent doing things. Like if the character was still a Cahal/Brood you could just log on right now, turn into a werewolf and start attacking people in the street and become the talk of the town for the day rather than sitting here thinking about xyz thing and where you wanna go or what you wanna do. Go stab people dude. Go encourage change. Actions speak a lot louder than words. Talking to someone about change isn't going to make them change.
Aldon does need a bit of a rework/update, and I think that him being a Cahal might have been part of the issue of why he needed to be sorta rehashed and looked at again. Maybe I’m wrong and it was the Cahalic part of him and the conflict derived specifically from that was overall positive, but my worry is that it wasn’t. I do have intentions to go out and encourage change and provoke conflict through that, but I don’t want to do so in a way that isn’t fun for others, and I don’t think the way I’ve played Aldon as a Cahal-influenced individual attacking others has been fun for said others. But I don’t want to just keep thinking and rethinking things. I want to go out and just do, and I’m trying to find the best way to do that whilst also not playing a character that is unpleasant for others to experience. With that said, I suppose I could just change Aldon’s magic to tech, clarify his personality, and then move forward with that and just start doing.
@Caelamus I took some time to think, and I guess I don’t think I can really envision a version of Aldon that isn’t, in some way, a Cahal. I think I need to actually try and learn the balance of playing a werewolf-creature and playing the person on the other side, and challenge myself to keep them separate, as was the original identity divide of OG Aldon. So, I made another revision. Not a rehash, but a revision. And, pending IC interaction, I’m going to make him a Cahal again. I think you’re right, and I needed to sit down and see that. My apologies for changing the sheet again so soon.