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Serpentine88 Writer of Overly Long Character Sheets
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Doux Belisar II of Syrome
His Excellency, Chancellor of the Kingdom of Baltia, Protector of the Sea of Tears and Despot of the Isles of Syrome, Hallowed Trueborn Son of the Most Immaculate House of Aetius of the Heavenly Celeseans, Praise be god and the eternal delights of his garden.
Kingdom Allegiance: He serves the Kingdom of Baltia and its incompetent King Orso, Praise be god and the eternal delights and so forth.
Tribe: Tribe? Tribe!? A true son of the Heavenly Celeseans is of no mere tribe! (Syromean Celesean)
Character Overview:
Belisar Aetius II is the ruthless, calculating and, to his detractors, scheming Doux (Duke) of Syrome. A supposed genius and cultured man in an age of barbarism, he is a man possessed by an all consuming passion, even obsession, for the nostalgia of the times of the Heavenly Kingdom of Antiquity. He looks down on the lawless degeneracy of Tautum in shame. Shame, for what the true heirs of the Celeseans and even the unwashed Viigoc king Odovakre once were. Yet still, as Chancellor of the Kingdom that very same city is the capital of, he must endeavour to conspire in its interests at all costs - in service of that incompetent fool, Orso Baltia.
He is a renaissance man of many talents, from political rhetoric to mathematics, architecture and alchemy. He is an inventor of trinkets and devices, imitations of the glories of the Heavenly Kingdom. From a very young age his genius was detected and then shaped personally by the great Philosopher Mananaimo of the Mirrors, and under his tutelage was given a proper Celesean education in the numbers and the arts. He is well-versed in military theories and history, and is competent strategist… however for the most part delegates actual military matters to tacticians and warriors of greater calibre than himself. For all this, he is a man of grandiose and phantasmal delusions. He, so obsessed with the glory of the ancient and long-lost past refuses to admit that the age of the Celeseans is over. He truly believes that the impossible can be performed and the Heavenly Kingdom of God restored to its full glory, and the barbarians swept away. So absorbed by his own genius, he ignores the sheer impossibility of his actual success, and is overly stubbornly assured of his own superiority over all others.
Inventor:
Belisar since early childhood was blessed (cursed?) with feverish obsession with Heavenly Kingdom architecture, an obsession which when combined with Mananimo’s education and his artistic talents led to him drawing thousands of admittedly grandiose and highly impractical designs for warships, castles, palaces and reconstructed wonders, from public baths to coliseums. This never stopped and actually intensified as he reached adulthood, and his once childish drawings became intricate architectural blueprints for a restored empire, outstanding yet still grandiose and highly impractical. This obsession transferred to cultural and historical nostalgia and ambitions to actually attempt to restore the Heavenly Kingdom, something his mentor Mananimo bizarrely supported despite all his apparent wisdom otherwise. His other works include the conception of ‘flame-spitting contraptions’ and other alchemical devices, as well as the infinitely less useful contraptions that King Orso commissions, such as the bronze golden-coated lion-mechanisms which roars and the twittering of bronze birds beside his throne in Tautom.
Political Animal:
He may quietly despise Orso for his incompetence, negligence and obliviousness, and look down on Tautom as a dying city, but he is ruthless in obtaining and then holding as much power as he can in this dying state nonetheless. Orso, a strange and infinitely infuriating creature, both simultaneously entrusts Belisar with positions of significant power and access to counsel him, while also entirely disregarding or ignoring said counsel and warnings. It is of some relief at least that Belisar’s greatest political rivals in the Tautam court have similar frustrations when dealing with the Baltian king. Orso, a patron for all conflicting rival factions under his domain has bestowed them all with favours and penalties, often with little foresight if any - perhaps in a misguided attempt to ‘balance out’ his subordinates powerbases. Belisar’s Chancellorship, his marriage to one of Orso’s numerous sisters and even the guardianship of one of Orso’s many children and heir, Icaeas, are all useful boons in Belisar’s camp, and the combination of greater power but continued inability to influence decision making has only bred resentment.
Populist Demagogue:
His influence over the people of Syrome has only grown as the Kingdom of Baltia has declined, and as the days of the Heavenly Empire and the glory of the Celesean people grows ever further away, those very same people become more and more eager to hear of Belisar's grandiose ambitions and ideals. Belisar wields a dark charisma, capable of transforming the fears and insecurities of the Celesean people, and even the Viigocs, into a weapon. A weapon which they are more than willing to become, so long as he delivers the outlandish promises. Part visionary genius, part opportunist riding Syrome’s counter-cultural backlash against Tautoms degeneration, while he may not be some great warrior of legend or tactical genius of the Ancient days, he is a revolutionary politician and orator, the kind that only societal collapse and wide-spread suffering and war can spawn.
Noble Family Man:
Belisar, being a well-entrenched noble and statesmen of the Celesean peoples has a pedigree many centuries long and as expected of any noble was given an arranged marriage early on in his life to one of King Orso's sisters; said sister would end up being the Princess Anaceaia Balting. Despite his seemingly sociopathic qualities, he is relatively close to his family, even a family man, particularly since all three of them (his wife and children) are bestowed by the providence of god (by virtue of their Balting descent), that either he needs to contest power with Orso, protect himself from Orso's mind-distorting powers, or he himself is under the influence of his family's auras, subtetly corrupted by them.
Syromean Utilitarian Hedonism, Ritual Observance: As a proud member of the Celesean people and the Syromean counter-culture, Belisar partakes in and observes the ideals, rituals and traditions of its people. As Syromeans believe that the 'pleasures of gods garden in the mortal realm' must not be devalued by wanton overuse or under appreciation, the hedonistic values and practices of Baltian society are regulated by cultural traditions and rituals here rather than displayed so libertine as in Tautom. Rather than alcoholism, Belisar is a wine connoisseur who regularly cultivates and enhances the quality of his wines. Rather than exhibitionism, Belisar is a patron of arts of the human form, funding artists and sculptures and idealising the 'perfect human form'. As part of his populist (and some may say, bread and circus) agenda, he has furthermore taken this popular Syromean philosophy to the public, funding public baths, official arenas, artworks and statues, festivals, 'adulthood ceremonies' and other seedier establishments such as brothels and taverns, he has even found avenues for this who express pleasure through violence, by making connections and organising mercenaries, assassins and pirates. Belisar is of the opinion that the human condition can be moderated and controlled with sufficient power.
Cascade of Auras: Belisar has surrounded himself with the powers of providence, with his wife, twin children and his ward (the son and heir of King Orso) all having powerful auras overlapping around him. While this gives him incredible protection from assassins and misfortune... the costs are perhaps far too high, for the auras corrupt and influence his mind like any other non-god splinter. His wife's aura of superiority creates artificial feelings of jealously in Belisar towards his wife for no reason. His children's auras of appeasement warp his mind towards excessive leniency and laxness towards his children - the primary source of his blindness towards their warped minds and disturbed actions. Even his ward, the shy and weak-willed Prince Icaeas, a mere political tool can warp Belisar's mind accidentally with his aura of benevolence, bestowing feelings of empathy and guilt in Belisar artificially, feelings of regrets and guilt towards enemies that he (being near sociopathic) would otherwise never feel. Icaeas' aura in particular above all else unsettles Belisar, and because of this tries to avoid actually interacting with his own ward - often restricting his access to certain parts of the palace Belisar often frequents, and burdening Icaeas' with a rigid schedule and curfews. In contrast, he ignores his children's corruptive influence over him to his own peril.
Dishonourable: While Celeasans may see him as a visionary that will reclaim their people's lost glory and the Syrovigocs are bound to him due to a combination of respect for his ideals and ambitions as well as their own pragmaticism, the rest of the world have a notably different look on things. Belisar may be a 'strongman' in the political arena, but his methods of ruthless and pragmatic Machiavellianism and scheming and general avoidance of muscle flexing competitions and one on one duels of honour in exchange for having people off’ed in secret with poisons and arrows disgust many a barbarian. Even sects of Tautoms warriors look at Belisar as a dishonourable 'milksop'. While Belisar may be an intimidating figure, he lacks the hyper-masculinity necessary to truly be respected by the people of this post-Celeasan world, and is far too prideful and stubborn to adapt.
Douxaina Anaceaia Aetius (nee Balting)
Kingdom Allegiance: Kingdom of Baltia, Syrome
Tribe: Tautom-bred princess
Background: The wife of Belisar and younger sister of King Orso, Princess Anaceaia along with the rest of her siblings were used as political bargaining chips through political marriages by her father, before Orso was king. While Belisar since early childhood also had an arranged marriage set up by his father, the late Doux Justinius, Anaceaia was not originally his selected fiancée. Anaceaia's marriage to Belisar came about due to Orso, who took Belisar's betrothed and his own sister for himself and so, in compensation allowed Belisar to pick his wife from a line-up of others. Belisar picked Anaceaia, and so she became the Douxaina Anaceaia Aetius of Syrome.
Anaceaia and Belisar are a power couple of sorts, both having ruthless and vengeful personalities, though whilst Belisar resents Orso for his incompetence and arbitrary rule, Anaceaia holds personal grudges against her siblings for underestimating and arbitrarily altering her life. Anaceaia grew up with an intense superiority-inferiority complex, and prides herself as being the best, smartest and most beautiful of the Balting siblings. Suitably, her providence and aura is a corruption of awe, with all those around her magically influenced to see her as superior to themselves, either causing jealousy and resentment or respect and worship, regardless if she deserves it or not. Though a weaker aura than her brother the king or even her twin children, her aura has totally dominated her life and left her with resentment from others and resentment in turn towards them, as well as a fragile ego.
While Anaceaia and Belisar in quite a number of ways are birds of a feather and at times are even genuine 'lovers' as it were, their issues mostly derive from them both having domineering and egoistical personalities that often compete, particularly since Belisar too is subject to Anaceaia's aura of awe. Other issues include their contrasting backgrounds, with Belisar adhering to Syromean values while Anaceaia grew up a Balting under the constant bombardment of her father and her brother Orso's corruptive auras, as well as the degenerate culture of Tautom's palace. As such, while not as far-gone as her brother’s court, she is still a hedonist like all the other Balting dynasty.
Lord Seneca Aetius and Lady Nicaea of Syrome
Kingdom Allegiance: Kingdom of Baltia, Syrome
Tribe: Syromean
Background:
The twin children of Doux Belisar, Seneca and Nicaea are mere ten year olds. Adorned with sharp and precocious intelligence, Belisar recognises the same genius in his children as he himself possesses. Unfortunately, this has led to Belisar being blind to his twin children’s most unusual... eccentricities, as well as the full scope of their Balting bloodline powers.
Belisar's twins as the nephew and niece of King Orso are blessed with the Balting sphere of Benevolence. How this manifests itself though is different to their uncle, as they instead radiate an aura of appeasement - that is, the desire to appease them, drawn from their innate demanding nature. When separated from his twin, Seneca creates a weaker aura of warping people’s minds so they progressively desire to make peace and acquiesce, to surrender or pullback for the sake of peacemaking. When separated from her twin, Nicaea creates a weaker aura, warping minds so that they progressively desire to appease her wants and satisfy her wishes. Together, their powers are amplified and fused together, forming said 'aura of appeasement'... and are a terror to behold.
These powers have been the source of much fear and concern from those under its influence, particularly the staff, pages and guards of the palace, who often worry about their unnatural need to surrender to the twins desires and partake in even the most childish of activities. The twins bend the wills of the guards to allow them entry to wherever they wish, their tutors were repeatedly fired by Belisar after being unable to teach them, only the great Mananimo seemingly having the endurance of will to teach them anything (as the tutor of Orso, he is perhaps used to those of great auras). Even their father's pet Ostropathian Cobra, Illuya, a mere animal is twisted into obeying and following the twins.
However, beyond all others in the palace, it is the children of other nobles and courtiers in the palace that are aware of the twins pervasive corrupting influence, as they are often forced to feel they need to join in to whatever sick game or activity the twins come up with - only later realising with shock and fear and what they had been compelled to do or want to do. Even Belisar himself is influenced by his own children's powers, being made blind to their excesses and never punishing them.
Suitably for their influence over the court and fitting for the nephew and niece of Orso, the twins are themselves warped and disturbed children. While they are not deliberately malevolent and hateful and in fact their intent in their eyes is friendly, they are obliviously cruel and abusive. They are capable of deviancy unsettling even among adults, having no respect for personal space and often partaking in harassment of other children. To them, they are merely 'playing' with their friends and cohorts, and since their powers enable them to twist the minds and wills of those around them... to them everyone is perfectly fine with what they are doing too! As such, they are somewhat naive, even innocent monsters, genuinely unaware of what they do is wrong (though admittedly, some of the things they do are in fact a matter of course in the city of Tautom).
Among their favourite exploits includes Prince Icaeas, their 'willing' plaything. While he may be resilient to the worst of their influence, the peer pressure caused by the twin's aura and his own weak will has lead to him becoming their favourite friend to take part in 'experiments'.
The Twins outside of their harassment of others are extremely close to each other, exemplifying the archetype of mystical and extremely creepy twins. They giggle together, finish each other’s sentences, mimic each other’s voices, seem to have an instinctual awareness of the others presence and thoughts, and their extreme closeness is further implying a relationship of unnatural intimacy beyond what most children outside of Tautom's palace court would even consider. On the bright side, their depravity has mostly be restrained to non-lethal activities, and they seem to restrain from actually killing anyone, except an early childhood maid they accidentally cursed into suicide in rage.
Locations of Interest
- Nova Syome: Built partially on top of part of the ruins of Old Syrome, partially built adjacent to them, Nova Syrome is a city built very much in the image of Celesean culture and architectual senses. Concrete here is a common sight in buildings, a substance that is yet another holdout of the fallen Heavenly Kingdom. Besides concrete, marble and stone are favoured for the wealthier or more important constructs. The city has numerous major canals running through the city, the water flowing through the submerged streets of Old into Nova Syrome. Bridges criss-cross over the canals while boats pass underneath them. The city is positioned beside the Sea of Tears and as such has a large dock often filled with merchant ships.
- Aetius Palace: The palace of the Doux, an old villa-esque estate
- Viigoc Quarter:
- Old Syrome:
- Vineyard Countryside:
Cultural Notes:
Philosopher Mananimo of the Mirrors
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