Traejan: Let's Talk Body Runes and Ghouls

[prettyredeyes]

(( cross-posted by request from tumblr ))

THAT TITLE SOUNDS SEXY RIGHT?

Okay.

While the runes in question were mentioned in the Character Meme, writing their specifics got much more detailed than I really wanted to cover within the meme. I tend to do memes half for myself and half for the people I roleplay with who will have the opportunity to read this stuff. It's a reference for all of us. If I mess up and change something, someone has a reference to remind me or I have something I can point to if someone is new or if a concept is ever confusing. I like that! So rather than making someone sift through the meme I decided to make a highlight post.

None of this is anything I would consider character spoilers. He doesn't go around showing them off or talking about them, but the effects of their presence are a part of his day-to-day and that appears in RP and often (you probably just didn't know it!). So if you read this, don't worry that there might be something that you OOCly would have preferred to learn ICly. A lot of this is explained on the OOC side of things because as I just said, Traejan lives with this everyday. He doesn't think too hard about how it works, it just is. He's probably not going to write your character a song about this, so it is a 99.9% chance it will never be explained to most people ICly.

That being said, this is OOC information. I have notated within the text itself situations where your character might catch on and I will say here (and reiterate at least once more) that you can always ask if you think your character might know something or be interested or anything. This all generates RP! This is all good! I am confident anyway that everyone who follows this blog is an awesome and trustworthy RPer who doesn't meta-game so no worries. :D

Traejan's runes and everything those entail:

• They are rather small and numerous and found just about everywhere at regular intervals on his body. Ten form a vertical line that begins at the back of his neck and runs down his spine to his tail bone. He has three on the top of either forearm and three more along his upper arms and ending at the shoulder. Ten more on either leg travel from thigh to ankle along the sides of his legs. Each is a active rune, behaving much like the runes inscribed on a weapon, dimming and brightening rhythmically as if they had their own shared pulse

• In armour, these are difficult if not impossible to see. The exception would be that the one on the back of his neck is high enough above his collar that i could e seen if his hair is pulled away or otherwise shifts. The strength of their presence in any other type of clothing depends of course on how the clothing is cut and how thick the material is. Light cloth has a definite possibility of letting things shine through, similar to the 'arc reactor effect' Tony Stark has in a t-shirt in Iron Man. The intensity of their glow is also directly related to his strength. If he is tired, injured, or just generally spent they will dim noticeably. Obviously just the opposite would apply if he somehow received some form of a power boost. These can be a nifty little barometer for his condition. This is the sort of thing where if you're curious, it doesn't hurt to ask. In fact, I might even refer to them if there's a likelihood that they will appear.

• They do not enhancehis offensive spell-generating power as a runeblade does, being an entirely different set of runes altogether. Let us make this abundantly clear right now. In a RP fight they will not magically make the spells he needs his runeblade runes for stronger than anyone else's. Period

• What constructs and minions he has brought under his control are similarly marked, though in fewer number than his own, indicating the runes' true purpose. His 'bond' is far stronger with his ghoul than most Knights are able to conventionally achieve on their own because he is essentially always "plugged in" to his ghoul, which is as much a weakness as it is a strength. While the ghoul is capable of independent actions and thoughts and even possesses a separate personality they are strongly entwined. Over time Traejan has adapted to processing input from the ghoul's senses as he might his own. The obvious advantages of this -- a greater field of vision, a sense of smell heightened even more than usual, an extra set of ears, etc. -- come with a risk. He relies on that extension of his senses perhaps more than he should, as removing the ghoul from the equation leaves him confused and impaired despite the fact that his own senses were not at all affected.

• No, master and ghoul cannot perform an amazing Dragonball Z-style fusion and pool their strength. They are no stronger than the average Knight-ghoul team, the only difference is their connection and by extension their fighting style

• Additionally, it can also be incredibly distracting. This is less of a weakness than an annoyance and an embarrassment as it can be frustrating to have your attention snap to something completely inconsequential (think "SQUIRREL!").

• His constructs tend to lack a filter, so a carefully controlled and yet seething rage may barely register in his expression but manifest in the ghoul's behaviour. It is all a matter of his level of control at a given time, as it is possible to block the reaction, but that is generally the first thing to go when emotions start running high.

• Fun Factoid: All of this contributes to an occasional slip of the tongue resulting in him referring to himself in the plural. It is not madness (at least not entirely), but simply a personal identification of self. While he obviousl know that he was born alone and as a singular person (and so referring to himself as 'I' makes most people comfortable) he was reborn to unlife under new circumstances that altered his perception of what fully encompasses his identity. Thus "I, Traejan" became "We, Traejan". But for the sake of most people (and an increased likelihood that those people will take him more seriously), he tries very hard to remember to keep his terms in line. Naturally, being tired or impaired increases the likelihood for slip-ups.

• He also cannot name his ghoul. It's weird, man. There is nothing physically stopping him, but when asked he compares it to trying to give your left arm its own name and identity (sock puppets don't count). He also finds it very difficult to explain how exactly it all works for him. As a master of Unholy he knows the necromantic theory and the procedures and how to replicate it in others or apply it to a new ghoul he has built or re-purposed to replace the old. To explain the technical aspects would be like explaining the exact surgical procedure involved in reattaching a limb, but asking 'how to drive' so to speak when it comes to the ghoul is like trying to explain how to move your finger. To think on it you eventually arrive at "just think about moving your finger, duh!" but there are so many complex, underlying, and uncontrollable neurological, muscular, and skeletal activities involved in fractions of a second zipping back and forth between thought and brain and finger that trying to explain that to someone else so they can use it is completely impossible. You can ask him to try, but don't expect award-winning content.

• Where the runes appear on Nysus or Olafur (his Frostbrood drake and whelp respectively) they are there for the purpose of light contact and communication while also reinforcing submission and control.

• The same applies to Pierce and Sovereign, his two Deathchargers. However, the nature of Deathchargers are such that he need not exert as much control over them, if at all.

• This concept was born of the idea that the Scourge did a whole lot of experimenting. It spices up RP and isn't meant to score more points with anyone, it's just the end result of an extended 'what if?' scenario I concocted on my old realm. If for some reason you disagree with things you're always welcome not to acknowledge it as it is. It is not so pivotal to the character that i must be mentioned. The goal here, I hope, was to illustrate how this is meant to in no way make the character over powered or cheap. As a responsible RPer I will always ask before assuming he gets to buy his own advantages

• By that I mean that if a group of people happened to be out searching for someone who had been kidnapped I wouldn't assume that his more advanced ability to track by scent would automatically lead him to the goal.

• Or that just because your character is a rogue you will be automatically seen because of a better visual radius.

• 99% of the time I will always choose what gives my characters a harder time, so 99% of the time we will find a mutually fun middle ground. That 1% of the time is me rounding up the few successes that my characters have had in like 12 years of roleplaying that I think about at night and it makes me feel badass.

• So the secret's out: he can't really telepathically communicate with his ghoul and other minions after all!

IN CONCLUSION:

• You may always ask for clarification.

• You may always choose to ignore this (just tell me so I don't bring it up again)

• You are not automatically in a losing position. EVER. See above what I said about asking.

• I tried to make this more of an inconvenience when you get right down to it than a special power because the Scourge is not known for its consideration.

• Why am I so paranoid about asking and downplaying things and giving the opt out? Because roleplaying is hard. Roleplaying is hard and I don't like drama. So if you're happy, I'm happy. And I'd rather people opt out of my whackadoo concept than opt out of RPing with me altogether. Writing my own concepts, even ones based entirely in established lore, makes me nervous because I've dealt with one too many lore nazis in my time. So my goal is never to be OP, never to force anyone into a RP headlock (RL headlocks don't fall under this heading), and FOR PEOPLE NOT TO FACE PALM AT MY CHARACTER'S MRP. Unless I make them facepalm on purpose. Then please do.

• Unless we're in-game or RPing in a messenger, my ask is always open and I answer most RP-related questions privately unless it's something that has FAQ all over it and then I hope you don't mind me publishing it.