Comments
Given the universe from which Nathan was drawn, I was debating posting this over at the other world; however, the format itself can be misleading about the character, and I was planning a little something more true-to-nature. Bare facts can be very useful, but you only get the right information if you ask the right questions. So this sheet and monologue ends up as a look at the Druid through frosted glass, and I'll reserve other material for the other location.
I'm also not too terribly pleased with the monologue. It's jaded-sounding, yes, but less a monologue and more one half of a conversation, which is all I could hear from him at the time I wrote it. I also question the language syntax; although I'll be using what amounts to English as a Common tongue for that era (ha ha, how convenient, no?), I'm still a bit shaky on the nuances and common phrasings that will pervade the dialogue, and I'm not sure how well modern sarcasm would fit in this context. I don't want to go standard "high fantasy" jargon reminiscent of the Renaissance or earlier, but neither do I want to use metaphors, idioms and colloquialisms that only came into being in this culture. This is not Earth, which simultaneously gives me great freedom and lines my barriers with electric fencing. Blarg.
Right, so, getting out of the Eeyore vein of thought.
Nathan is a character from my tangent universe, developed to explain certain elements of my main fascination and tie in other visions I've had and liked. (For the record, I can't stand what D&D did to the anthropomorphic scene. Pure puerile drivel.) He is the only character to date who can be classified as a protagonist (at some points) and also uses magic, and he is the only person whose hair color is unnatural. The coloring, cobalt blue, is a side-effect of his transformation (for lack of a better word), and matches the hue of the visible discharge when he uses magic for force. I mean, let's face it. Manipulation of wind or water would not really leave any residual sparkles or what.
His magic also sustains him, healing any and all injuries after a certain period of time, and sustains and even preserves his life when necessary—which includes any attempts at suicide, of which there have been several. To wit, Nathan cannot abide what he currently is, and the fact that he is denied even natural death is a constant bitter thorn in his side. Over the decades he has become more and more vitriolic, and though he may at one time have been a pleasant gentle soul, he is not known any longer for his diplomacy. To put it mildly, of course.
The witch hunts I mentioned happen periodically, usually whenever he passes through a town and something foul and unnatural has either happened before he shows up or after he leaves. They are tiresome to him now; he fled from them at first, but in the time before his introduction he has begun to allow himself to be captured and bears whatever 'punishments' are thrown at him, then kills the entire hunting party. He thinks this might deter the hunts from happening at all, but I haven't seen either branch in that regard yet.
The film over his eyes is significant. Once again I draw from Jim Butcher's universe for the explanation of a concept, though I can't remember if I came up with it before I began reading his series or not. >_> In The Dresden Files, Butcher's wizards have the ability to soulgaze others, which is essentially an exchange of views of the other party's core being; you see exactly who they are, and they see the same of you.
In my instance, the experience is pretty much the same except that a good deal of emotional response is transferred as well. Not only does the person see who you are during a soulgaze, but feels what you feel or felt. In Nathan's case, the scene displayed for the other is the trauma he went through at the hands of the mysterious wizards, and the impact of that trauma in the space of a millisecond at best renders the victim a gibbering terrified heap of jelly, usually inspires a persistent vegetative state, and has been known to outright kill. As Nathan grows accustomed to using it, I see him gradually developing the ability to add a slight touch of magic to the gaze, and he regularly uses it as a weapon.
Any other irregularities you'd like me to explain? It would probably do me a world of good to think about it with my fingers.
–A
