On The Nature of the Unclean Legacy
Canon writeup time. This will probably contain spoilers for Unclean Legacy, though I'll try to avoid them when possible.
To imagine Francescu's world, the following steps are advised.
Begin with the world of the Smurfs, hazy and distorted as though seen through a child's memories. Add equal parts of mythology, theology, philosophy and fantasy. Darken it with the fear of helplessness and the abuse of power, lighten it with absurdist humor, add the bitterness of a broken family and sweeten with a dash of surreal and epic madness. Let all the ingredients mix thoroughly, until they become unrecognizeable yet coherent, and comsume with a bellow of "ARE YOU INSANE?!"
...on second thought, that wasn't nearly as helpful as I thought it would be.
Abandoning Master Li's wine-cup metaphor, Unclean Legacy is a vision of the world of the Smurfs after Gargamel's eventual triumph. It further assumes that the Smurfs were beings known as "blue essentials," spirits of harmony comparable to angels, and that when slain their bodies hold the raw power of miracles.
The world of Unclean Legacy has a God, who is similar in many respects to the creator-deity of Christian myth. Similarly, it has a Devil, who was once an angel of the highest rank and who rules a realm of burning red agony. In addition to this, the mortal realm and the realm called Heaven, there also exists a purple realm of life, a blue realm of harmony (the blue essentials are foci for the power of this realm) and an onyx realm which dreams of stillness and the dark. Most of these realms actively affect the mortal world, the Devil and the onyx realm in particular.
When Montechristian Gargamel came into his power, he bound the Devil between five mountain peaks to escape his own damnation. (He was not damned for his own sins, but for the sins of his brother Balthasar, who attempted to bind God himself with the spell called the Wheel of Enoch.) Ten years later, the unicorn Santrieste freed the Devil from his bonds, and forever after the latter became an enemy of the house of Gargamel.
In addition to humanity, Unclean Legacy is populated by a number of fantastic creatures, including spinach-spiders, talking frogs, unicorns, Lovecraftian elder races, dragons, elementals, and of course angels and devils. Unicorns in particular are worthy of note, as they are creatures of the onyx realm, and have an alien and untrustworthy morality. (In discussions with Filia ul Copt, Francescu has canonized dragons as being somewhere between D&D and standard fantasy; they would probably be native to the purple realm or the onyx.) General weirdness happens a lot, and the people who live there are pretty used to the occasional inexplicable event.
Since the story of Unclean Legacy focuses so closely on the Gargamel siblings, we don't really get much of a picture of ordinary life in the world. We know that there are pure knights and fair maidens, villages and bandits and other trappings of medieval life; it's logical to assume that the world is a standard medieval fantasy. Sorcerers exist who do not display the transcendent mastery of Francescu or even the lesser mastery of Christine, in various walks of life (including the aforementioned bandits.) Priests also exist, but their doctrine and powers (if any) are unknown.
Montechristian Gargamel had seven children in total; to save time, I'll repeat the author's descriptions of all seven here (from late in the series, so contains a few spoilers):
Violet, his eldest and most dear, who had betrayed him before she was even half-grown.
Francescu, the deathless sorcerer, who had turned his back on the affairs of the world.
Manfred, the fallen knight, whose strength was legend and whose spear was magic’s bane.
Tomas the cruel, who had looked in his tenth year upon the face of God.
Christine, the mad sorceress, who wandered the world in her living house.
Sophie the skinchanger, soulless and Devil-tainted, and once the one Montechristien loved best.
Elisabet the ninja, the Devil’s child, a creature as much of shadow as of life.
(The family Gargamel is not exactly known for being normal. Or particularly harmonious, come to think of it.)
So, what does this mean for Francescu?
For starters, most of the camp weirdness isn't going to phase him for long; he might startle briefly, but he'll get his composure back quickly. He'll have (and is having) more trouble dealing with the sheer number of different people and cultures here than he will with the lake monster or the amorous vegetation. He'll also be a little bit twitchy around religious people because of his brother Tomas, and Big Evils (equivalent to the Devil, like Evil King Stan) will make him very uncomfortable. He's canonically topped by kindness, which in his family has in very short supply; Violet can order her siblings around despite her lack of awesome power because she genuinely loves them, and they know it.
In his canon, Francescu has turned his back on the affairs of the world; he basically devotes himself to living a comfortable life (easy to do with his level of power) and ignores everything happening outside his home. It's pretty clear at this point that this won't be the case in CFUD; first, because it would be unplayable (Yay! I hide in the forest and do nothing, ever!) and second, because once he's started interacting he can't really stop. He's stated in canon that if he intervenes once in the world, he'll be drawn back into it, and once he decided to announce his presence to the rest of camp, that was pretty much it for him. The fact that people are kind and helpful here (with one or two exceptions) can only help, really.
A brief canon note: Unclean Legacy is split into three plot areas, each ten years apart. I'm taking Francescu from right before the second one of these, so he doesn't know about Manfred's fall, and he hasn't refused to help Sophie. The latter is a major decision that nails his indifference down and makes him harder to play; the former is so that if we ever get a Manfred in camp (HINT, HINT), Francescu won't try to obliterate him on sight.
Questions and comments are welcomed.
To imagine Francescu's world, the following steps are advised.
Begin with the world of the Smurfs, hazy and distorted as though seen through a child's memories. Add equal parts of mythology, theology, philosophy and fantasy. Darken it with the fear of helplessness and the abuse of power, lighten it with absurdist humor, add the bitterness of a broken family and sweeten with a dash of surreal and epic madness. Let all the ingredients mix thoroughly, until they become unrecognizeable yet coherent, and comsume with a bellow of "ARE YOU INSANE?!"
...on second thought, that wasn't nearly as helpful as I thought it would be.
Abandoning Master Li's wine-cup metaphor, Unclean Legacy is a vision of the world of the Smurfs after Gargamel's eventual triumph. It further assumes that the Smurfs were beings known as "blue essentials," spirits of harmony comparable to angels, and that when slain their bodies hold the raw power of miracles.
The world of Unclean Legacy has a God, who is similar in many respects to the creator-deity of Christian myth. Similarly, it has a Devil, who was once an angel of the highest rank and who rules a realm of burning red agony. In addition to this, the mortal realm and the realm called Heaven, there also exists a purple realm of life, a blue realm of harmony (the blue essentials are foci for the power of this realm) and an onyx realm which dreams of stillness and the dark. Most of these realms actively affect the mortal world, the Devil and the onyx realm in particular.
When Montechristian Gargamel came into his power, he bound the Devil between five mountain peaks to escape his own damnation. (He was not damned for his own sins, but for the sins of his brother Balthasar, who attempted to bind God himself with the spell called the Wheel of Enoch.) Ten years later, the unicorn Santrieste freed the Devil from his bonds, and forever after the latter became an enemy of the house of Gargamel.
In addition to humanity, Unclean Legacy is populated by a number of fantastic creatures, including spinach-spiders, talking frogs, unicorns, Lovecraftian elder races, dragons, elementals, and of course angels and devils. Unicorns in particular are worthy of note, as they are creatures of the onyx realm, and have an alien and untrustworthy morality. (In discussions with Filia ul Copt, Francescu has canonized dragons as being somewhere between D&D and standard fantasy; they would probably be native to the purple realm or the onyx.) General weirdness happens a lot, and the people who live there are pretty used to the occasional inexplicable event.
Since the story of Unclean Legacy focuses so closely on the Gargamel siblings, we don't really get much of a picture of ordinary life in the world. We know that there are pure knights and fair maidens, villages and bandits and other trappings of medieval life; it's logical to assume that the world is a standard medieval fantasy. Sorcerers exist who do not display the transcendent mastery of Francescu or even the lesser mastery of Christine, in various walks of life (including the aforementioned bandits.) Priests also exist, but their doctrine and powers (if any) are unknown.
Montechristian Gargamel had seven children in total; to save time, I'll repeat the author's descriptions of all seven here (from late in the series, so contains a few spoilers):
Violet, his eldest and most dear, who had betrayed him before she was even half-grown.
Francescu, the deathless sorcerer, who had turned his back on the affairs of the world.
Manfred, the fallen knight, whose strength was legend and whose spear was magic’s bane.
Tomas the cruel, who had looked in his tenth year upon the face of God.
Christine, the mad sorceress, who wandered the world in her living house.
Sophie the skinchanger, soulless and Devil-tainted, and once the one Montechristien loved best.
Elisabet the ninja, the Devil’s child, a creature as much of shadow as of life.
(The family Gargamel is not exactly known for being normal. Or particularly harmonious, come to think of it.)
So, what does this mean for Francescu?
For starters, most of the camp weirdness isn't going to phase him for long; he might startle briefly, but he'll get his composure back quickly. He'll have (and is having) more trouble dealing with the sheer number of different people and cultures here than he will with the lake monster or the amorous vegetation. He'll also be a little bit twitchy around religious people because of his brother Tomas, and Big Evils (equivalent to the Devil, like Evil King Stan) will make him very uncomfortable. He's canonically topped by kindness, which in his family has in very short supply; Violet can order her siblings around despite her lack of awesome power because she genuinely loves them, and they know it.
In his canon, Francescu has turned his back on the affairs of the world; he basically devotes himself to living a comfortable life (easy to do with his level of power) and ignores everything happening outside his home. It's pretty clear at this point that this won't be the case in CFUD; first, because it would be unplayable (Yay! I hide in the forest and do nothing, ever!) and second, because once he's started interacting he can't really stop. He's stated in canon that if he intervenes once in the world, he'll be drawn back into it, and once he decided to announce his presence to the rest of camp, that was pretty much it for him. The fact that people are kind and helpful here (with one or two exceptions) can only help, really.
A brief canon note: Unclean Legacy is split into three plot areas, each ten years apart. I'm taking Francescu from right before the second one of these, so he doesn't know about Manfred's fall, and he hasn't refused to help Sophie. The latter is a major decision that nails his indifference down and makes him harder to play; the former is so that if we ever get a Manfred in camp (HINT, HINT), Francescu won't try to obliterate him on sight.
Questions and comments are welcomed.