Character development survey of DOOM: Part 1
Personal Questions
1. What is your real, birth name? What name do you use? Oriseus Lastdawn. It's the only name that I actively use.
2. Do you have a nickname? What is it, and where did you get it? Most people call me Ori. It's kind of a no-brainer. Certain circles call me "that ginger bastard" but it's an affectionate sort of thing.
3. What do you look like? (Include height, weight, hair, eyes, skin, apparent age, and distinguishing features) On the short side of average height. I...don't eat enough, don't sleep enough, young adult, ginger. Pierced tongue, tattooed wrists, right arm scarred to hell and back.
4. How do you dress most of the time? Robes. Gloves. Finely-made and tailored. A good long cloak for the cold. Undercity tabard, since the compass has been retired, but I still sneak in a compass brooch or such in somewhere.
5. How do you "dress up?" Fancier robes. If it's a formal affair there's a certain set I have from a while ago that I earned from some short-term military contracts.
6. How do you "dress down?"Pants, loose shirts, or better yet - a kilt, belt, and hat, maybe bracers. If I can go about barefoot and topless in a kilt I'm a damned happy man.
7. What do you wear when you go to sleep? People wear clothes to bed?
8. Do you wear any jewelry? My right earlobe's pierced: largeish gold loop with a clever little mana crystal on it. Handy thing. I can't even tell you how many times it's kept me from losing my mind. My tongue's pierced (oh yes it hurt) with a truesilver barbell; both nipples with custom rings.
9. In your opinion, what is your best feature? As I heard an orc put it once, booty don't stop.
10. What's your real birth date? 5 May 76 BDP. Oh Light I'm about to turn a hundred nine.
11. Where do you live? Describe it: Is it messy, neat, avant-garde, sparse, etc.? I rent a house in the upper ruins of the Undercity east of the courtyard, and share a home with Khaavren and Kae over Oshu'gun in Nagrand. The former has a sort of rustic charm to it, being primarily human architecture with a lot of renovation and redecoration. The latter is rather grand and fairly traditional. We keep both fairly tidy.
13. What is your most prized mundane possession? Why do you value it so much? Assuming that "mundane" means something not used in campaigning - I've a model ship as long as my hand carved from a single amethyst; its masts, sails, and rigging are all illusions. It's an heirloom given to me after my elder brother went MIA in the Second War. The story is that my ancestor Si'inar carved it during the third watch on the Highborn's last night on Kalimdor, watching the final sunrise for which he was given the name Lastdawn. How could such a thing be anything less than priceless?
14. What one word best describes you? Unstable.
Familial Questions
1. What was your family like? Typical, I suppose.
2. Who was your father, and what was he like? Oropheius Lastdawn. A hopeless romantic who kept the family well-off and out of the crosshairs of more powerful houses my knowing bleeding everybody. Completely outgoing, adventurous, genial, generous. Father was the kind of man you wouldn't think twice to give sizeable donations given all he's done for you and everyone else, whom you'd trust with the keys to your coffers knowing not a copper would be out of place.
3. Who was your mother, and what was she like? Lydia Lastdawn. A proper lady in every sense. Strong, reserved, with an incredible memory, a smashing sense of fashion, and the same talent for networking my father had. She was a bit quieter about things but that's really just in comparison to Father; she was just as gregarious as he.
4. What was your parents marriage like? Were they married? Did they remain married? I've always felt it was built on Father's romanticism and Mother's patience. They remained married until they died their deaths the end
5. What were your siblings names? What were they like? Tharestes, my brother, elder by fifteen years; and Scinylla, my sister, younger by six. Tharestes was my idol growing up: brave and outgoing and athletic and popular, all the things I wish I could be, especially once he joined the Farstriders. Scynilla was a damned brat whose life goal was to marry the richest pretty-boy she could find and live in the lap of luxury.
6. What's the worst thing one of your siblings ever did to you? What's the worst thing you've done to one of your siblings? The list of terrible things Sinny and I did to each other is a long one; we never got along. The worst of it was her introducing certain friends of hers to me. I'd rather not go into detail.
7. When's the last time you saw any member of your family? Where are they now? The only other member of House Lastdawn that survived the Third War was Thare, who only lived because he was a prisoner of war far from home. I last visited him about a month ago. He's living in Silvermoon again now.
8. Did you ever meet any other family members? Who were they? What did you think of them? Well of course. We had a fairly large extended family, as is true of any house. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins. Good folk for the most part.
Childhood Questions
1. What is your first memory? Catching a spider that had come up into the foyer from the gardens and toddling back outside with it. I tried to build a little "house" for it in the dirt complete with a few leaves for "rugs." That was...I was somewhere in the vicinity of twenty, I believe.
2. What was your favorite toy? A stuffed dragonhawk. It spat illusory flame when squeezed. ...Shut up that was an awesome toy.
3. What was your favorite game? Hide-and-seek. I was a cracking good seeker.
4. Any non-family member adults stick out in your mind? Who were they, and how did you know them? Why do they stick out? The first one to come to mind is Vilaiseth Bladefalcon, a friend of my mother's who visisted often for tea. Her bitter monologues formed the basis of my anti-marriage stance.
5. Who was your best friend when you were growing up? Rennisael Tidesinger. I wonder sometimes whatever became of him.
6. What is your fondest, childhood memory? Age fifty, finding out that my apprenticeship to Thaldarin Summerlight had been approved.
7. What is your worst childhood memory? I'd rather not go into it.
Adolescent Questions
1. How old were you when you went on your first date? Oh fel. Um. Fifty-one. We were both rather bufuddled over how things were supposed to go. Awkward and amusing.
2. It is common for one's view of authority to develop in their adolescent years. What is your view of authority, and what event most affected it? Those who earn my respect have my submission; those I respect most deeply, I'll follow into Hell. It's just a general sense of rightness rather than any one catalysing moment.
[some questions skipped due to setting]
5. Who was your idol when you were growing up? Who did you first fantasize about in your life? As noted previously, my older brother Thare was my hero growing up. As for fantasising...can we skip that one? I'm gonna skip that one.
6. What is your favorite memory from adolescence? Any number of long summer evenings spend with Thaldarian in the gardens.
7. What is your worst memory from adolescence? Oh Light. One of Sinny's friends again. The strumpet practically threw herself at me, and when I rebuffed her repeatedly she told her (much bigger than me) boyfriend I'd felt her up or some ridiculous crap, and he summarily beat the daylights out of me.
Occupational Questions
1. Do you have a job? What is it? Do you like it? If no job, where does your money come from? I'm a botanist. It's my calling, what I was meant to do, and I love it. I also work with alchemy, skinning, tanning, leatherworking, and various short-term campaign contracts.
2. What is your boss or employer like? (Or publisher, or agent, or whatever.) Officially I'm self-employed now, but I still answer to the Dark Lady when She has need of my service. She's...well...the Queen.
3. What are your co-workers like? Do you get along with them? Any in particular? Which ones don't you get along with? No longer really an issue.
4. What is something you had to learn that you hated? Orcish.
5. Do you tend to save or spend your money? Why? Save save save save SPEND. I like having a large cushion of funds on hand in case something big catches my eye...such as a mammoth.
[[ Part 2 ]]