Empatheias app

[madheroking]

⌈ CHARACTER SECTION ⌉
Character: Sion Astal
Age: 20
Canon: The Legend of the Legendary Heroes
Canon Point: End of first arc (end of anime)

Background: The bastard son of a mad king, to say Sion had a rough childhood would be a gross understatement. Somehow though, even his mother's suicide and his own mistreatment, rather than making him bitter, turned his interest towards fixing his country and removing its corruption. He spent most of his teenage years working towards this goal, searching out friends and allies... only to be taught a very hard lesson indeed in how there's much, much more at play than even a fairly perceptive seventeen-year-old may be aware of.

Luckily(?) for him, Sion fell in with some like-minded individuals who also had an interest in reforming the country, and after a series of plots, intrigues, and some questionable (if arguably effective) choices on Sion's part, they gained enough popular support to overthrow the old king and install Sion in his place. And so Sion led Roland into a new era of peace and prosperity and wouldn't it be terribly nice if the story ended there?

Unfortunately it doesn't, because some of those questionable choices Sion made? Happened to involve obtaining the power of a mad god sealed away in Roland. And learning about the true history of not just Roland, but the entire world of Menoris. And discovering that unless something is done, the world is set to end in roughly ten years.

Needless to say, Sion's not the type who's able to just sit back and do nothing after finding all that out, so on top of trying to make Roland a better place and protect his friends, he's been busy secretly carrying out dubious experiments, plotting invasions, authorizing assassinations, and even manipulating and betraying his best friend. All in the name of trying to avert an even worse fate. And all the while smiling while he inwardly suffers alone and in silence through it.

Personality: Outwardly, Sion seems charismatic and composed. A Hero King who's a champion of his people, rooting out corruption and making life better for the oppressed, who greets even the lowliest peasants with a warm and kindhearted smile. A perfectly flawless ideal king who wants nothing more than peace and prosperity for his people.

Underneath that, however, is something of a different story. Sion is in reality full of self-doubt and criticism. He blames himself for his mistakes, for each and every time someone else has come to harm thanks to having been involved with him. He hates the atrocities he already has and will have to commit in the name of the greater good, and hates himself for going through with them. What's more, he bears and suffers all this in silence, steadfastly refusing to let anyone else know how deeply he's wounded, how much anguish he's in, how much at times he feels it would be better to die than endure this. Sion doesn't believe he deserves to burden anyone else with his troubles, after all, much as he's willing to shoulder those of others. So he uses his iron self-control to keep all his pain and sorrow, grief and self-loathing, buried deeply where no one else has to see and worry. After all, he's supposed to maintain the image of a perfect king, isn't he? He can't go and mar that now, not when people are counting on him, or so Sion reasons.

That isn't quite the end of it, however. Because neither of those are really Sion's true self. That is another matter entirely, and one that generally only surfaces when he's truly at ease, such as alone with good friends. At his core, Sion is an incredibly gentle and caring person. Someone who delights in being able to make others happy, and who becomes unhappy or distressed when there's nothing he can do to help. Someone who loves reading legends of fairy-tale heroes and dreaming of happy endings. Who relishes simply being in the same room as people he cares about, and takes inordinate glee in teasing his closest friends. A stubborn and almost childish young man who's a bit of a sore loser, yet who nevertheless charms those who get to know him with the genuine, heartfelt sincerity of his kindness.

And, perhaps needless to say, someone whose very kind nature is a vulnerability, that can and has been wounded, betrayed, and trampled on, to the point that it's only his sheer stubborn force of will that's kept him from becoming completely overcome with despair. That, and convincing himself in a fit of self-loathing that he deserves whatever misery he gets, but as long as things work out for the best in the end (at least for everyone else) that's fine, right?

Needless to say, despite outward appearances, Sion's a pretty big mess. Even his seemingly workaholic attitude is part of this. Sure, he works himself nonstop partly because he's just that determined/has a good work ethic, it's true, but also because it helps distract him from the misery he's in. That he's very determined not to let show if he can help it, of course. He'll just give a flawless smile and assure you that no, really, he's fine, and here, there's this other pressing matter that needs attention...

Abilities:
Mundane

Sion trained at the Royal Special Military Academy and thus has reasonably good combat skills, both unarmed and armed with a knife or sword. He's definitely above-average at this, but not as good as someone who had really specialized/intense training and/or natural talent would be. He also has truly ridiculous levels of self-control and presumably high pain tolerance, given that he's dealt with being in constant agony (see below) for the last couple years without anyone being the wiser.

He also has an absurd tolerance for alcohol.

Magical

Sion is familiar with his world's magic, specifically that used by his kingdom of Roland, as he was trained as a soldier and it's standard practice for soldiers to learn such things. He doesn't know anything especially fancy, just your typical "launch a small bolt of lightning at your target" or "set things in the immediate area on fire" or "temporarily cancel all sound within a small radius" variety stuff. Again, he's above-average, but no one would mistake him for any sort of magical genius; he can use spells he knows, but has little to no talent to improvise or create new ones. Spellcasting takes a matter of seconds (the norm in his world) and draws on ambient magical energy in the atmosphere.

He also is not entirely human: about two or three years prior to his canon point, he assumed the powers of a sealed god known as the "Black Hero" or "Mad Hero", part of the price of which is to gradually lose his humanity. As a result, his physical body exists not just in the material/human world, but also the spiritual plane inhabited by the gods of his world, allowing him to both interact with forces on either side. And potentially be harmed by either. He's able to shift his focus between the two planes but cannot keep his full attention on both at once; focusing his attention on the spiritual plane means basically falling unconscious on the material plane. At best he might have a dull awareness of the one he isn't currently paying attention to. In-game, if the world of Empatheias does not have an equivalent parallel dimension/plane/world to that in Sion's canon setting, I'd assume he'd simply get the impression that the spiritual plane simply isn't there, and just perhaps a heightened sense of being able to recognize/identify other spiritual/godlike beings instead.

Additionally, he's physically changed as a result of the above to the point where his "blood" isn't normal human blood, but a glowing/shimmering golden liquid of some sort, that's presumably somewhat magical/spiritual in nature. He also feels a constant agony as part of all this, not in the conventional sense of pain felt by nerves and interpreted by the brain, but as if somehow each and every individual cell in his body were in agony. This is a constant thing and impossible to shut off short of completely cutting him off from all spiritual influences of the Hero altogether, and he feels it even when asleep/unconscious.

Oh, and the Hero himself is also in there too and constantly pushing back at Sion for control. Sion generally can keep this in check, but there are occasions when a memory will leak through, or even one instance in canon of Sion getting temporarily overwhelmed/flooded with the Hero's memories. This doesn't really give Sion any special abilities per se other than lots of practice at fighting external influences on his mind, but it's definitely a vague presence/force of will that's there should anyone try to poke around in Sion's head.

Potentially Game-Breaking

Sion's main power that he obtained from the Hero is the use of the Hero's black swords, which are a weapon created for a single purpose: killing gods. As such, they're incredibly powerful: at one point in canon Sion uses one to not just counter a spell, but wipe the spell's existence from all human memory in the world. He's able to manifest as many of these at a time as he wants, but it's very much a last-ditch option for him, as every time Sion uses the swords, he sacrifices part of his humanity. Game balance issues aside, I'd presume that most likely Arehtei would probably not want a godslaying weapon going around completely unchecked...

A slightly less obvious/immediate but nonetheless power Sion has from the Hero is his influence over humans. In his canon setting, the material/human world acts as an immense magical seal keeping the Mad Hero and Lonesome Demon imprisoned. However, the Hero has the ability to undermine it by swaying humans to himself instead, increasing his power. In canon, this essentially means that the more people are loyal to Sion, the more powerful he is in terms of spiritual influence/the strength of the black swords. Since presumably the humans of other worlds are probably not engineered as potential spell components, I'd presume this influence would normally probably not apply to anyone in-game. Unless someone has a better idea!

Alignment: Elios. While so much of Sion's life has been filled with despair and shaped by grief, what drives him is love. From wanting to make a world his mother would have been proud of, to trying to protect not just his friends, but all the people of Roland, down to the same corrupt nobles who've done him nothing but harm. Not to mention, his deep-seated self-loathing would fall into this as well, so he's hitting it from both ends.

Other: Just as a note, regarding the Mad Hero, while he technically is a separate entity, he's also at least partially merged with Sion, in that Sion's already started to absorb some of the Hero's memories and such, and given the chance, the Hero would gladly devour Sion's consciousness and subsume it into his own. The Hero doesn't have much of a "personality" of his own, however, as he's pretty much wholly defined by his purpose (i.e. killing gods) and doesn't really care about anything else (unless it's, say, breaking the seal holding him captive so that he can go kill gods) and it's only the influence of being incarnated as a human that introduces any sort of feelings into that mix. Basically the Hero is almost entirely one-dimensional when it comes to personality. Or to put it in Freudian terms, the Hero alone (as in, not combined with the Lonesome Demon nor incarnated as a human) is almost entirely Id, with only very limited Ego. As such, despite the partial merging of the two, Sion's personality and behaviors generally aren't really influenced by the Hero's, it's more a question of Sion gradually losing his humanity in general.


⌈ SAMPLE SECTION ⌉
Remember that we ask for samples that show 1) core character portrayal and 2) some use of emotions, such as environmental effect. You can also use the same sample source for both, just make sure to directly link or quote the emotion portion. We highly encourage using the Test Drive, and you can use prompts from the Test Drives, Intro Logs, and the Task board if you need them. Refer to the main application page for links and more suggestions.

General Sample: "Let me guess, you'd just been in the middle of a nap when you found yourself rudely awakened here?"

At the time, Sion had almost immediately regretted asking the question, though he hadn't let his expression waver, had forcefully kept his thoughts--and more importantly, his feelings--as calm and clear as he could manage. Even so, hearing the answer a part of him had already been half-expecting had been a blow that left him mentally reeling, momentarily stunned as the implications sank home. Too stunned to even properly react, that would come undoubtedly come later, once the shock had worn off a bit.

He'd smiled and lied when the question was turned back on him, of course, then came up with an excuse as to some matter he had to attend to elsewhere that sounded enough like work to ensure Ryner would have no interest in trying to tag along anyway. Then another smile and a wave and a promise to meet up later, and now Sion strode through the streets alone, deeply occupied with his own thoughts.

He doesn't know. Ryner doesn't know. The thought ran round and round in Sion's head as he walked. Not what happened, what's happening. Not...

"Not what I did to him," Sion muttered quietly to himself, unconsciously clenching his fist at the thought.

So preoccupied was he that he almost didn't realize someone was addressing him.

"Excuse me, are you all right?" the woman asked. It wasn't anyone Sion recognized, probably one of this world's native inhabitants, if he didn't miss his guess. As he paused and turned to face her, a quick, discreet glance told him that he hadn't been nearly as careful as he'd thought, to judge by the increasing pattern of cracks in the street's paving stones, neatly marking path he'd just traversed. Immediately, Sion clamped down on his thoughts, forcing his troubled musings aside as he gave the women an apologetic smile.

"I'm fine, thank you," he said politely. "My apologies for causing you concern."

The woman didn't look entirely convinced. "You sure?" she asked, not nearly so subtly glancing down at the marred road surface, herself.

Sion nodded, his smile never faltering. "Of course. I merely got a little lost in thought," he lied. No need to add to her worries, Sion thought, forcing himself to focus on another topic. Ah, this city is so peaceful, isn't it? And so straightforward...

"Well, if you say so..." the woman said, a little skeptical.

"I am," Sion reassured her. "I truly hope I didn't cause you any inconvenience." His earnestness was unfeigned; he truly had no desire to cause harm to, well, anyone, whether directly or indirectly. That sincerity seemed to finally get through to the woman, and she nodded.

"All right," she said. "Have a good day, then!"

"You as well," Sion replied with a gentle smile, then as soon as he was sure the woman was on her way, turned and continued on with a quickened stride. While his concern and care were genuine, they warred with the feelings his earlier conversation had stirred, and it would be best, he decided, if he were to be somewhere that didn't risk causing... problems, for others here. Fortunately, if he recalled correctly, there were woods outside the city bordering the lake; something like that ought to suffice.

Somehow, through sheer willpower and carefully guarding what he allowed himself to even think about, Sion made it outside the city without further incident. He even managed to get some distance into the woods, the trees and distance muffling any sound of the city behind him, before he just couldn't take it any longer.

"Dammit..." he murmured, squeezing his eyes shut and leaning against a tree, not yet aware how the moss at his feet begin to shrivel, his sense of despair starting to spread like a creeping miasma. Why did it have to be this way? He'd been prepared for the consequences of his decision, of what he'd done, he'd known there was no turning back from the moment he'd realized he had to betray his best friend in such a manner. But this... Somehow, impossibly, Ryner and Ferris had no idea what happened. As if not only had they all been whisked away across dimensions from one world to another, but from one time as well. It explained why something had seemed off to Sion when he'd run into them here, but the truth of the situation was hard to fully wrap his mind around.

Sion clenched a fist and pounded it against the tree's trunk in frustration; preoccupied as he was he didn't yet notice how the bark cracked and sloughed off as though rotted. "Ryner, you idiot...." he muttered, though he wasn't really Ryner's fault at all, he knew. If anything, Sion only had himself to blame for winding up in a situation like this, and blaming himself came all too naturally. But what was he to do? He couldn't possibly tell Ryner, not now... Even if it somehow didn't break Ryner's heart, Sion simply couldn't put himself through that. Not when he already knew how badly he'd fail, how he'd already failed.

"I'm just a coward after all, aren't I? A coward they'd be better off without..." Before he could finish the thought, there was a cracking sound from above, followed shortly by the crash of a tree branch hitting the ground nearby. Startled out of his train of thought, Sion finally took in his surroundings, noticing the small circle of dead and dying plants around him. Immediately, he felt a pang of guilt--he hadn't meant to do anything of the sort, he'd been trying to avoid this sort of thing--but almost as quickly realized that sort of thinking was just making it worse, wasn't it?

So once again he clamped down on those feelings, the self-loathing, the guilt, the sense of despair, trying to shove them out of the forefront of his mind through sheer force of will. It was hardly the first time he'd had to set his feelings aside, and given the peculiar nature of this place, it clearly wouldn't be the last. Still though... Sion looked around again, a bit calmer now (for the moment, at least) and couldn't help grimacing a little as he realized this was the best he could do, he simply couldn't summon the right state of mind to reverse the damage. The thought sent another tug of guilt, though he was on guard now and purposefully brushed it aside.

He'd just have to guard his thoughts even more carefully than before, is all. Especially around Ryner. There was no reason to let Ryner know, to even suspect, that anything was wrong. So, Sion just had to take care to keep his own thoughts in check as long as he was in this world. It would be the best for everyone that way.

Emotion Sample: Taken from the sample above:

"Dammit..." he murmured, squeezing his eyes shut and leaning against a tree, not yet aware how the moss at his feet begin to shrivel, his sense of despair starting to spread like a creeping miasma. Why did it have to be this way? He'd been prepared for the consequences of his decision, of what he'd done, he'd known there was no turning back from the moment he'd realized he had to betray his best friend in such a manner. But this... Somehow, impossibly, Ryner and Ferris had no idea what happened. As if not only had they all been whisked away across dimensions from one world to another, but from one time as well. It explained why something had seemed off to Sion when he'd run into them here, but the truth of the situation was hard to fully wrap his mind around.

Sion clenched a fist and pounded it against the tree's trunk in frustration; preoccupied as he was he didn't yet notice how the bark cracked and sloughed off as though rotted. "Ryner, you idiot...." he muttered, though he wasn't really Ryner's fault at all, he knew. If anything, Sion only had himself to blame for winding up in a situation like this, and blaming himself came all too naturally. But what was he to do? He couldn't possibly tell Ryner, not now... Even if it somehow didn't break Ryner's heart, Sion simply couldn't put himself through that. Not when he already knew how badly he'd fail, how he'd already failed.

"I'm just a coward after all, aren't I? A coward they'd be better off without..." Before he could finish the thought, there was a cracking sound from above, followed shortly by the crash of a tree branch hitting the ground nearby. Startled out of his train of thought, Sion finally took in his surroundings, noticing the small circle of dead and dying plants around him. Immediately, he felt a pang of guilt--he hadn't meant to do anything of the sort, he'd been trying to avoid this sort of thing--but almost as quickly realized that sort of thinking was just making it worse, wasn't it?


Original app and mod notes on powers here