[PC Plotnotes] Faroul

[Faroul]

Apologies to my thread-partners: I am behind on everything. Thank you for your patience while I try to catch up with it all. To-do list: Flashbacks 86th of Winter, 488 with Malekiah: See if he's still interested in playing, and if not, turn this into a solo or modded thread. Guest Moderated Thread with Caelum: Pending Adventures in Hai with Anatoli! (Brew prison hooch! Assemble booby traps!) Spring 511 Finish Return to Ahnatep Summer 511 Reply to Tuwa's A Risky Game Write first post for Pressors of Nothing for Rak'kena (retired) Reply to Chijana's This is Not Our City Write first post for Shadows in a House of Dusk for Izdihar. Segue into job with Iz? Wait for Tarot to reply to The Night the Towers Cried What the Raven Saw can't be written until Tarot's quest is completed. Need to check if Ma'ii is still playing. Fall 511 Reply to Avari's Prisoners of the Past Winter 511 Arrange a job and do job threads. Possibly involves Izdihar and/or the Mirage trade. Have lunch with Haben the Benshira. Eyktol-wide Quest / Meditation and Water thread. Devious Future Plans Improve khopesh and observation skills. Get in trouble with the North Winds/whoever retrieved Faroul from Hai. More shenanigans with power-grabbing Rak'kena. Investigate the whereabouts of Queen Dimourla. Protect someone. Flip out and curse the heavens - denounce a god. Possible Ruv'na involvement? Visit Yahebah to encounter Faroul's birth or foster family, and try not to get stoned to death. Continue AS Melange's plot with Colombina? Meet Satu after her Nyka quest. Meet Laszlo, Summer/Fall 513. Various Bookkeeping Work out housing details with Colombina. Update my ledger/expenses for the seasons I've been playing. As mentioned above, job arrangements. Confirm North Winds involvement in Faroul's "release" from Hai with Bina, and ask for a Storyteller Secrets link. Finish Character Questions, Part 2 for my CS. Do Caelum's "Character Diamond" exercise.

[Faroul]

Character Timeline Year Age Description Summer 468 0 Born in Yahebah. 468 - 478 0 - 10 Childhood in Yahebah, some traveling. (Parents were tea traders.) 478 - Winter 488 10 - 20 Given over to the House of the West Winds in Ahnatep. Trained as a guard, eventually served Queen Dimourla as a guard and spy. He is condemned for helping Dimourla escape Ahnatep, for his rumored involvement in Pressor Teremun's death, and for placing his loyalties to the Queen over those to his House. Winter 488 - Spring 489 20 Traveling through Eyktol to reach Hai. Spring 489 - Winter 510 20 - 42 Interned in Hai. Winter 510 - Spring 511 42 His release from Hai is somehow obtained by the House of the North Winds, who hope to use him to discover Dimourla and her child. Travels back to Ahnatep. Spring 511 - Current 42 - 43 Chillin' in Ahnatep.

[Faroul]

Character Goals and Traits Faroul, circa 498 AV (30 years old) [Character Goals] Primary Goal: Survival Simply put, Faroul's personal goal is to survive. His greatest wish is to keep living - to secure the minimum amount of resources and safety needed to sustain the functioning of his body. His idea of survival is primarily short-term (securing food now or eliminating threats immediately at hand), but he also understands and desires long-term survival, which entails accumulating a surplus of resources and establishing a secure place in a social order. However, given Mizahar's dangers and Faroul's own situation, simply surviving is a tall order. Both Hai and Ahnatep are perilous places, always poised to devour the weak, disadvantaged, and unlucky. To survive there requires he overcome the following conflicts: Man vs. Nature: Eyktol's climate is brutal, and its extreme heat and cold and excoriating sandstorms can easily kill a person without proper shelter. Disease could also strike at any time, especially given Faroul's history of malnutrition. Man vs. Himself: Faroul has lived in extremely violent and impoverished conditions for over two decades. His experiences in Hai weigh on him heavily, and managing his emotions and psychological damage is a large part of his daily existence. (OOCly, I am trying to portray post-traumatic stress disorder, though obviously that term doesn't exist in the game world.) Sheer will to live has carried him this far, but he finds it increasingly difficult to cope. He fears he might break down or snap one day, that he will die because his mind fails him. There is also the distinct chance he may murder someone out of instinct or expedience, leading to consequences he does not desire or cannot handle. As such, it is an urge he must constantly fight. Man vs. Man/Society: Faroul currently lives on the underside of Ahnatep society due to his race (Benshira in an Eypharian city), his past (a traitor accused of conspiracy and regicide, somehow free of a place where he should still be imprisoned), his trade (he has precious few "polite" skills with which to elevate himself), and his trauma (he cannot imagine a different future for himself, only continuing to live the same way he did in Hai.) As a result, assault, robbery, retaliation, imprisonment, and unwanted attention from powerful people are all threats to his life and well-being. Unfortunately, Faroul's second goal (discussed below) throws him right into these kinds of situations. Secondary Goal: Revenge Though matters of survival take precedence, Faroul pursues a second goal when he is able: revenge. He believes the House of the West Winds acted unforgiveably in the past, wrongfully dooming him and mortally endangering the queen he served. He'd love nothing more than to deal them even a portion of the ruin and agony he knew in Hai, and to punish a normally untouchable institution for its injustices. This goal both furthers and hinders his primary goal of survival. In seeking revenge, he must establish himself in Ahnatep and cultivate relationships with powerful patrons (like Rak'kena and Izdihar), which offers him greater access to the financial and social resources he needs to live. On the other hand, it comes at the expense of greater visibility among dangerous people and an increased likelihood of violence against his person. He assumes the emotional satisfaction of retribution and the attendant closure will make it worth the risks. Tertiary Goal: Peace Beyond surviving and exacting revenge, Faroul also desires peace. Safety, tranquility, rest, emotional well-being, freedom of movement and agency, and freedom from pain, grief, violence, and control are all aspects of his conception of peace. However, he feels it is impossible to attain, and that suffering and oppression are inescapable facts of existence. As such, it is a wish he hardly ever examines or articulates, despite its omnipresence in his mind. His unconscious perception is that fulfilling his first two goals will at least lessen his pain, if not eradicate it. It remains to be seen if seeking revenge and exacerbating his negative traits in pursuit of it will actually preclude him from this goal of peace entirely. [Character Diamond] Constant Traits Analytical (+): Faroul is highly analytical by nature. He is prone to thinking and examination, often breaking situations or ideas apart in order to understand them more completely. This process of dissection has helped him immensely in assessing risk and problem-solving, which in turn made it possible for him to survive in one of Mizahar's most bleak and dangerous places: the prison city of Hai. Though he now walks in Ahnatep, his keen mind and insight are his best chances for blending into society and securing both his continued survival and his revenge. Psychologically, this aspect of his personality is also key to managing his emotions and trauma, though contemplating the ugly sides of society and the world has embittered him greatly. Traumatized (-): One loose definition of trauma is "a disordered psychic or behavioral state resulting from mental or emotional stress or physical injury." I am therefore using "traumatized" as a catch-all category for everything Faroul does or experiences as a result of psychological damage. These symptoms are all-encompassing, touching every part of his life, but they share a common source - his time in Hai - and make the character diamond too complicated if they aren't grouped together. Contained in this category are Faroul's paranoia, hypervigilance, fear and panic, exaggerated startle response, anger and rage, bitterness, cynicism and disillusionment, compassion fatigue, coldness, detachment, exhaustion, instrusive flashbacks, and sleep disturbances. In short, he exhibits symptoms from all three categories of PTSD effects. He basically perceives himself as constantly under siege by the world, and reacts to his surroundings and others accordingly. Though he is no longer in Hai, his mind and instincts still tell him that he is; in many ways, he carries the pit within him. In addition, Faroul's mind has three distinct modes, two of which were born from his life in Hai. They aren't separate personalities, but rather a group of bodily and mental changes that he has personified in order to better deal with them. His basic state is his analytic, thinking mode, the part of his mind that functions when he is untouched by trauma or distress. However, when he encounters certain triggers - threat displays from others, intimations of danger, or the risk of bodily harm - "the jackal" takes over. This mode is comprised of Faroul's self-preservation instincts, including his adrenal and fight or flight responses, muscle memory, and habituation to violence. Entering his jackal brain is directly responsible for his survival on countless occasions, but if it is triggered and flares up at an inappropriate time, it may well lead him to commit extreme acts disproportionate to the actual risk or threat he faces. In contrast to jackal mode, "the fits" or "the flood" is the part of Faroul's mind that contains all of his emotional disturbances. Irrational fears, nightmares, unwanted flashbacks, sudden anger, nausea, and shaking are all parts of his fits. This mode is the product of his trauma, and the cost incurred by entering jackal mode, witnessing or enduring suffering, and committing violence. The more Faroul enters life or death situations, the more this mode is fed, and the more frequently it overwhelms him. It is also triggered not just by the aforementioned stimuli, but by anything that recalls negative experiences of his past as well. (Living in Ahnatep is very dangerous for him for this reason.) Therefore his life in the "lit world" revolves around managing this trauma and the recurrence of this mode, and working to accomplish his goals before it finally overcomes him completely. Situational Traits Idealistic (+): Given Faroul's negative qualities, this seems like an odd trait for him to have, but it is actually crucial for understanding his past, his current predicament, and his goals. By "idealism," I don't mean that Faroul is a naive crusader for happiness, freedom, truth, justice, or any of the other traditional hallmarks of goodness. On the contrary: he doesn't believe these ideals are actually attainable or present in the world, and he often acts contrarily to them, violating them frequently and in awful ways. However, he still believes in them strongly and desires them regardless. He wishes profoundly that hope, beauty, peace, and love were part of his life and others' lives, and feels that people should not have to suffer in places like Hai or the Pillars of Dust. He considers himself - and everyone in the world - to be victims of nature, circumstance, and society. Likewise, the gods are not sources of goodness, but rather entities always at war with each other who only regard humans as tools in their divine conflicts. As such, Faroul feels fundamentally alienated from all the things that matter to his heart, and due to his traumas and warped perception of danger, he cannot conceive of making these ideals real through his own behavior. As a side-effect of both his idealistic and ruthless traits, he does not feel ashamed for any of the choices he has made in life. While he regrets having to commit violent acts and harm others, he acknowledges that he had no other options, and has lived his life making the best decisions possible given his circumstances. This applies both to his choice to help his queen escape death in Ahnatep, and his resolution in Hai to live as long as possible. Ruthless (-): The definition of ruthless is "without pity or compassion; cruel; merciless." However, to me, it also implies that someone is willing to use whatever means necessary to accomplish a goal, regardless of the human cost. This amended definition fits Faroul perfectly. While he is not naturally violent, and does not seek to harm others out of personal enjoyment, he has nonetheless sworn to do whatever it takes to live. And this does mean whatever it takes - murder, brutality, and outright lying included. Nothing is sacred, no one immune, if they prove a threat and stand between him and survival. Paired with his analytical trait, it makes him incredibly dangerous; Faroul can logically pick apart a problem, decide on a course of action, and carry it out with a cold exactitude unfettered by moral quandaries. Of course, this has its cost (see flood mode above), but it is how Hai has taught him to live. He will always choose a course of action that maximizes his personal gain, mitigates the most risk to himself, and resolves the issue as finally as possible. Sometimes violence is the tool that accomplishes that best. [Misc. Character Resources] Relevant Tropes: Determinator Shell-Shocked Veteran Anti-villain, Type II (Your interpretation may vary) Perspectives on Violence, Conflict, and Criminal Psychology: No Nonsense Self-Defense A must-read for anyone writing a character engaging in violence.