Icarus's blog: "Somantics"

"God is dead
replace him"

"If life is getting tough
it means god is afraid of your progress"

"They want you to fail,
because they don't want to be alone"

I got a call from my brother he's read "Another Hero?" and "Thousand Year Snake".

He like Alorid >
can't say I blame him, he's technically better written.

He was surprised when I mentioned that it was a plan for an ensemble low-fantasy group.

In high fantasy that means

You've got the:
Meathead: Gimli
Scout/woodsman: Aragorn/Legolass
Thief/screwup: Pippin/Mary
Badass: Everyone over 3 feet tall
Wizard: Gandalf
Betrayer: That one guy...
Sacrificial Christ figure: Gandalf
plagued/cursed "chosen one": Frodo.

The band/quest is a formula I'm not going to abandon in fantasy writing.

Its just too fucking fun.

Quests.
Adventure...
etc!

So yeah

the original intent of that evilish possessed "mercenary" character

wasn't actually a lead-role.

He's... having his humanity and persona eaten by Enkechel, and -spoiler alert-
Enkechel wants to use him as a vessel to manifest fully instead of only being able to manifest briefly when called upon or in ideal feeding situations.

And he's with the group basically looking for an opportunity to prop them up, knock them down, and then feed on them.

Do I think this character will be redeemed, exorcised and reborn?

No.

That is not my style.

He made a pact. The pact had consequences.

Alorid
is not "the hero"
either.

Hero's still a bit of a concept. A faroff wispy form.

But my brother basically handed me a character I'm very excited about writing.

And he fills so many roles. I was pretty amazed.

An apothecary/scholar/...nerdy scholar.
My brother referred to him as a screfup arcanist
and since this is a setting without -direct- magic (as in, no wizards, no mages, no sorcerers, warlocks, casters, witches- etc casting spells and weaving reality and traversing the planes)
but plenty of spectacular and wonderous oddities (like dragons and giant snakes that think about being dragons, and "mind stealing slugs")
it made sense for there to be people that studied and collected artifacts maintained and messed with them.
I think we channeled a bit of MTG, Velma from Scooby doo, Full Metal Alchemist (but not THAT much, that shit's magic with a different name and a finite rule-set),
I channeled Tas (dragonlance- a curious and obnoxiously loveable "kinder" -type of halfling like a hobbit- that's spritely, the life of the party "thief" but that's only because Kindar have NO FUCKING CONCEPT OF OWNERSHIP!- they're kleptos without meaning to be- fun to roleplay, fun to read)
for curiosity
Velma for knowledgeability and problem solving
Every arcanist/kid playing with magic devices that probably shouldn't- and wound up with burned off eyebrows.
And that stupid kid with the magic hat of random on DnD the animated series.

Begrudgingly the kid from DnD.

I hate that kid.

But he's a good character device and setting device.
He can explain and exposit? (is there a verb for exposition? just exposition?) the magic, setting and lore in the world through years of eccentric enthusiasm without saying EXPOSITON!!!
he's an unhero in a group of burly outdoorsmen and badasses
and he has character synergy with the mercenary for being a depressed dweeb (constant snack of despair)
and as an apothecary/oddity tradesman, he's ... a tradesman and a chemist- so if you're going to kill a giant snake
just to skin it
he's going to dry and powder the liver
save the venom
and boil the eyes for a potion, salve, dust of invisibility, etc
etc
etc

But we also designed him to be the party mascot
creating a counter point for all the severity and drama in the story with some levity
and we thought the levity would make the drama and tragedy
more dramatic and tragic

He's a screwup, a hyper active willing to please brainiac with oddities that ... don't really do anything, and occasionally crack reality.
... sometimes when you don't want or expect them to.

He's a catastrophe box character *roll a 100 sided dice 1-10 gets you "screaming temporal doom!*

I like those. They can really change a scene from how YOU would write it.

Anyway, along with his big steamer trunk of wonders, this guy is an apothecary, which mean's he's got some herblore, knows anatomy and first aid.

We have the party healer!
He's not a cleric, druid, or "white mage"!

No holy powers, just chemistry.
This could also mean he has studied, experimented with, and understands weaponizing certain materials and compounds, but again-no Full metal alchemist alchemy.
No.
None.
Nada.
Zilch.

Just... okay maybe some exploding gas bombs and ... speed potions that might make you go blind >>

:D

Starting to get him?

So
Surgeon: Scholar: Otaku: Inferiority complex: Mascot: Comic relief: Group synergy.

And ... all of my characters so far are
effing SMART.

We have a small-group/squad military tactician

a prudent hunter (and I pointed out that if Alorid had a "plan B" to killing the snake in his sleep- he probably would've implemented it and used it- like... rigging a landslide to blow, or an ellaborate trap)

Chemist/scholar/scientist/arcanist.

Three characters in the ensemble, and none of which I'd particularly like to contend with in a battle of wits.
*sigh* that's gonna be some tough writing.

I'd also like to write it where the chemist isn't completely useless without knick-knacks
but he thinks he is.

I'm probably gonna have to put in some intentional flaws on these characters.
Like gambling debts or something >>

Oh
and Alorid has some "wonderous items" as we'd call them in DnD. I told my brother the one I came up with before I wrote thousand year snake.
He laughed.

I call it the pelt of unspeakable evil.
And it has consequences.
Oh GOD the consequences.
Even just for being made.

And you don't get a particularly powerful and cursed item from killing and skinning something EVIL. You get something run of the mill evil with that.
For best results
kill an innocent.

Let's put it this way: that rich dark vermillion finish on the leather?
Unicorn blooood~

Only operate under the supervision of trained professionals.
And lunatics.

I don't feel that the ensemble is complete.
Everyone needs a lunatic.

We've got the possessed and progressively less human, more evil tactician/soldier

The tinker scholar surgeon chemist

The hunter, skinner, trapper, planner

Man, all my characters are old
and badass.

But things to note
I don't want the soldier to be "the berserker"
I don't want the chemist to be "the apprentice screwup mage"
or
the hunter to be the "party leader".

Because the ranger is often party leader.
I think it started with Aragorn.
And all those Norse legends about woodsmen and manly hunting.

Oh
and no fucking treasure hungry betrayal happy thief.
And NOBODY is coming back from the dead.

... at least not the same as when they went in.

In Final Fantasy 1
groups were four man teams.

you had a damage and dodge specialist (thief)

an equipment needy meathead that shrugged damage and dished it out (fighter)

a heavy damage dealer glass cannon with limited ammo (black mage)

A balanced character with moderate harm/heal magic, good equip and okay damage (Red mage)

a frail healing specialist/undead killer (white mage)

and ... (blackbelt) which was kind of the middle road of damage and dodge but ... almost requiring no equipment to be badass

If you were smart:
and I'm guessing you weren't.

You'd go with a good balance of might and magic.

My favorite group (and incidentally the main cast of Nuklearpower.com)
was
Fighter
Thief
Redmage
Blackmage

High survivability
low healing
HIGH damage
And some magic damage (its a video game thing and a paper rpg thing for only magic to hurt certain enemies)

From this spawned a great myriad of jobs, hybrids, "advanced classes" and so on

What I'd say we have right now (in FF parlance and DnD terms)

A chaotic evil Dark Knight.
(black magic, heavy offense, loses his own health to do more damage a "magic berserker" or "magic barbarian" or "demon knight")

A chaotic good Chemist.
(mixes items for added effect, better than normal effects from used items due to knowledge of their components and application- in FF Tactics, they use guns XD, but they're not nearly as effective with items and they don't even have the "mix items" ability in FFT)

A chaotic neutral Ranger.
(traditionally bow+arrow+traps=badass outdoorsman, survivalist)

Thar be holes in my party construction...
I'd call that:

heavy offense
light healing/support
damage/dodge specialist

Brood
Laugh
Plan

The hero has to be the X factor for it...
and then you have to ask tragic or byronic?

In FFXI me and chris had a term the "expendable sixth"
every party had core members
healer
damage dealer
damage taker
magic damage

We'd usually try to get a "support character" that makes everyone "recharge" faster and fight longer, whenever we could but everyone wants one for their party, not NEEDS one.

and then there was
Blank:
basically anyone we could find.

When you get the core filled- you can grab anyone and you're good to go.

I'm gonna think some more about group dynamics.
After a well deserved nap.