Palamedes Sextus (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hellonspectacles) wrote2023-01-16 07:13 pm
hellonspectacles) wrote2023-01-16 07:13 pm
Palamedes remembered everything, That was his problem.
(Application for Well)
Character name: Palamedes Sextus
Canon: The Locked Tomb series
Canon point: near the end of Nona the Ninth (around the end of Day 4/early Day 5)
Release date: September 2022
History:
Palamedes Sextus at the Locked Tomb Wiki (through Harrow the Ninth)
Nona the Ninth summary at the Locked Tomb Wiki (for Nona the Ninth plot)
Powers: Palamedes is a necromancer, which in his universe means that he is genetically capable of manipulating thanergy (death force) and thalergy (life force). His specialty is psychometry, but he can also, with varying degrees of skill, observe and manipulate the human body on a cellular level, reanimate dead bodies and skeletons, summon ghosts, and create force fields and wards to protect himself from natural and supernatural threats. All of these skills require access to a supply of thanergy, which will be less abundant in Earth and Earth-like environments than he is used to, but not nonexistent. At the time of his arrival, he will not remember that he has these abilities. Once he realizes he has these natural powers, the process of re-learning the specific skills listed will be difficult, but not impossible.
What is your character most afraid of? How are they defined by this fear? (200-300 words)
Palamedes carries his responsibility for others like a weight—thus, he is deeply and fundamentally afraid of letting down the people he loves, or otherwise making choices that lead to harm coming to them. Starting at a very young age, he dedicated his life and soul to saving Dulcinea Septimus, a young woman dying from a cancer that no one has been able to (or has bothered to) cure, even after ten thousand years. He was driven by his adoration for her, but out of that adoration came a fundamental sense of duty towards her. When he realized she was murdered, and that the culprit was someone he had never suspected, he made the rash choice to bring the murderer down, even if it meant killing himself in the process. It’s a move made in anger and despair—directed at his own failure nearly as much as it is directed at the actual killer.
But death is not so permanent for Palamedes, and in the new version of life he clings to, he continues to carry the weight of that fear of failure. As the dangers stack up, so do his responsibilities: he must ensure that Camilla never suffers again the way she did while a prisoner of Blood of Eden; he must protect Nona, and he must do so in a way that keeps Gideon and Harrow safe; he must rescue the entire population of the Sixth House from the machinations of both the Emperor and his enemies. His drive to save everyone comes from a place of kindness, yes, but also from a fundamental fear that people might die on his watch.
What is your character's greatest desire? How are they defined by this desire? (200-300 words)
There are two driving forces steering Palamedes’ desires in life: the quest for truth and a commitment to kindness. His desire for knowledge is the most obvious of his traits; at one point the ghost of Dulcinea half-jokingly calls the two of them zealots to truth. He is effortlessly able to set aside good sense and his own health in the quest to understand something about the world, something his cavalier is keenly aware of. Though Camilla is a remarkable swordsman, her job of cavalier often becomes one of research assistant on the one hand, and babysitter who must remind Pal to eat and sleep on the other. This can lead him to get trapped in his own head, to develop unhealthy obsessions (like his quest to save Dulcinea), and even to neglect those he cares about most.
That said, Palamedes is no emotionally stunted stereotype. He might be a genius, but he’s rarely a snob about it; he might accidentally neglect those around him from time to time, but he always seeks to make amends. While hardly effusive with his affection—he has no loving goodbye for his friends at the moment of his death, only the practical and mysterious observation ‘Camilla will know what to do’—he believes in treating people with kindness and dignity, and trust. Finding a way to use the knowledge he gathers to good ends drives his desires as much as the knowledge itself; in fact, as he becomes aware of the horrors done by the knowledge of the lyctorhood theorem, and by necromancy itself, his very identity shifts. Seeking knowledge for knowledge’s sake is no longer good enough for him. The knowledge needs to be used to the right ends as well.
What is your character's most defining memory or relationship? How are they defined by this relationship? (200-300 words)
Two relationships in his life have defined him above all others: his relationship to Camilla Hect and his relationship to Dulcinea Septimus. Camilla is Palamedes Cavalier Primary, a sort of knight sworn to protect the necromatic leader of a House. Relationships between necromancers and cavaliers are almost always deep and complex, but Cam and Pal have a bond that plenty of people would call extreme. Palamedes thinks those people are stupid. Their feelings for each other don't adhere to any kind of traditional platonic/romantic divide: they are devoted to each other body and soul. As a result, Palamedes has spent nearly his whole life with a partner by his side, someone to share his ideas and his heart with, someone to protect and be protected by in turn, someone he trusts completely.
Pal’s relationship to Dulcinea is, in some ways, much more straightforward. She is his first crush, his first love, his grand romance that never was. Though he would have been talented and ambitious no matter what, Dulcinea gave his young life shape and direction, both his interest in medicine and his desire to become House heir inspired by her. She affected him in more subtle ways, too. Over a decade of letters, they honed arguments about the nature of necromancy and strengthened each other’s sense of morality. We were zealots, Dulcinea eventually says, and their shared commitment to truth and fairness sticks with Pal even after she is gone from his life.
How will not having memories change your character? What core personality traits, if any, will change? How? (200-300 words)
Though Palamedes is a kind and thoughtful person at heart, his society has taught him to play his cards close to the chest. When the House heirs and their cavaliers arrive at Canaan House to conduct a set of mysterious trials, it’s immediately clear that these are people who instinctively do not trust one another—with a few notable exceptions, the characters do not express affection for one another, or even polite curiosity. Palamedes and Camilla are barely seen for the first third of Gideon the Ninth because they are acting wholly on their own, and once they do come in contact with the others, it’s clear that they have kept much about themselves a secret—the others underestimate Camilla’s fighting skills and Palamedes’ intelligence, much to their own peril. Even as he grows close to Harrow and Gideon, Palamedes holds back. He insists on bargaining for the information he has gathered, and never actually reveals some of the most significant facts about himself.
Pulled away from the memories of a culture where suspicion and deceit are expected and secrets are currency, Palamedes’ openness is sure to leap to the fore. Not only will he be more honest about his experiences (both in the game and what he remembers of his earlier life), but he will also be more open with his emotions. No longer forced to continually consider how he is perceived as the leader of a city-state in a dying empire, he can admit when he is afraid, and even when he doesn’t know the answers. While he is unlikely to become a dramatically emotive person, the fundamental nature of his walls will come down.
Thread samples:
One
Two
You have 10 memory points. How will you use them?
Relationship Core: 3 Points.
Remembers the core of his relationship with Camilla Hect, including his deep devotion to her, enough quiet, everyday moments that he knows that they have known each other a long time and have rarely been apart for very long, and the sense that they swore an oath to each other.
Minor Memory: 1 point
An everyday memory of inhabiting Camilla’s body and looking in the mirror to see her face looking back at him.
Minor Memory: 1 point
Studying for an exam. It would have seemed Very Important at the time, but in the grand scheme of things, it was a fairly mundane exam.
Minor Memory: 1 point
A meeting with We Suffer to report on the activity of Troia Cell. While emotionally fraught, in the period this meeting occurs, the conversation itself would have been relatively mundane. Would have included:
-Palamedes giving a report on Nona’s progress
-discussions of a prisoner exchange of some kind
-watching a “proof of life” video featuring Juno Zeta
Major Memory: 2 points
Receiving the letter from the Emperor inviting him to come to Canaan House.
Major memory: 2 points
A significant portion of the lyctorhood theorem.
Name: Becca
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 30+
Contact:
Plurk:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
historein
Email: revolution.mais.civilisation (at) gmail.com
Journal DM: historein.dreamwidth.org or this one.
Permissions: Here.
Link to invite: Invite
Character in game: NA
Character info
Character name: Palamedes Sextus
Canon: The Locked Tomb series
Canon point: near the end of Nona the Ninth (around the end of Day 4/early Day 5)
Release date: September 2022
History:
Palamedes Sextus at the Locked Tomb Wiki (through Harrow the Ninth)
Nona the Ninth summary at the Locked Tomb Wiki (for Nona the Ninth plot)
Powers: Palamedes is a necromancer, which in his universe means that he is genetically capable of manipulating thanergy (death force) and thalergy (life force). His specialty is psychometry, but he can also, with varying degrees of skill, observe and manipulate the human body on a cellular level, reanimate dead bodies and skeletons, summon ghosts, and create force fields and wards to protect himself from natural and supernatural threats. All of these skills require access to a supply of thanergy, which will be less abundant in Earth and Earth-like environments than he is used to, but not nonexistent. At the time of his arrival, he will not remember that he has these abilities. Once he realizes he has these natural powers, the process of re-learning the specific skills listed will be difficult, but not impossible.
Personality
What is your character most afraid of? How are they defined by this fear? (200-300 words)
Palamedes carries his responsibility for others like a weight—thus, he is deeply and fundamentally afraid of letting down the people he loves, or otherwise making choices that lead to harm coming to them. Starting at a very young age, he dedicated his life and soul to saving Dulcinea Septimus, a young woman dying from a cancer that no one has been able to (or has bothered to) cure, even after ten thousand years. He was driven by his adoration for her, but out of that adoration came a fundamental sense of duty towards her. When he realized she was murdered, and that the culprit was someone he had never suspected, he made the rash choice to bring the murderer down, even if it meant killing himself in the process. It’s a move made in anger and despair—directed at his own failure nearly as much as it is directed at the actual killer.
But death is not so permanent for Palamedes, and in the new version of life he clings to, he continues to carry the weight of that fear of failure. As the dangers stack up, so do his responsibilities: he must ensure that Camilla never suffers again the way she did while a prisoner of Blood of Eden; he must protect Nona, and he must do so in a way that keeps Gideon and Harrow safe; he must rescue the entire population of the Sixth House from the machinations of both the Emperor and his enemies. His drive to save everyone comes from a place of kindness, yes, but also from a fundamental fear that people might die on his watch.
What is your character's greatest desire? How are they defined by this desire? (200-300 words)
There are two driving forces steering Palamedes’ desires in life: the quest for truth and a commitment to kindness. His desire for knowledge is the most obvious of his traits; at one point the ghost of Dulcinea half-jokingly calls the two of them zealots to truth. He is effortlessly able to set aside good sense and his own health in the quest to understand something about the world, something his cavalier is keenly aware of. Though Camilla is a remarkable swordsman, her job of cavalier often becomes one of research assistant on the one hand, and babysitter who must remind Pal to eat and sleep on the other. This can lead him to get trapped in his own head, to develop unhealthy obsessions (like his quest to save Dulcinea), and even to neglect those he cares about most.
That said, Palamedes is no emotionally stunted stereotype. He might be a genius, but he’s rarely a snob about it; he might accidentally neglect those around him from time to time, but he always seeks to make amends. While hardly effusive with his affection—he has no loving goodbye for his friends at the moment of his death, only the practical and mysterious observation ‘Camilla will know what to do’—he believes in treating people with kindness and dignity, and trust. Finding a way to use the knowledge he gathers to good ends drives his desires as much as the knowledge itself; in fact, as he becomes aware of the horrors done by the knowledge of the lyctorhood theorem, and by necromancy itself, his very identity shifts. Seeking knowledge for knowledge’s sake is no longer good enough for him. The knowledge needs to be used to the right ends as well.
What is your character's most defining memory or relationship? How are they defined by this relationship? (200-300 words)
Two relationships in his life have defined him above all others: his relationship to Camilla Hect and his relationship to Dulcinea Septimus. Camilla is Palamedes Cavalier Primary, a sort of knight sworn to protect the necromatic leader of a House. Relationships between necromancers and cavaliers are almost always deep and complex, but Cam and Pal have a bond that plenty of people would call extreme. Palamedes thinks those people are stupid. Their feelings for each other don't adhere to any kind of traditional platonic/romantic divide: they are devoted to each other body and soul. As a result, Palamedes has spent nearly his whole life with a partner by his side, someone to share his ideas and his heart with, someone to protect and be protected by in turn, someone he trusts completely.
Pal’s relationship to Dulcinea is, in some ways, much more straightforward. She is his first crush, his first love, his grand romance that never was. Though he would have been talented and ambitious no matter what, Dulcinea gave his young life shape and direction, both his interest in medicine and his desire to become House heir inspired by her. She affected him in more subtle ways, too. Over a decade of letters, they honed arguments about the nature of necromancy and strengthened each other’s sense of morality. We were zealots, Dulcinea eventually says, and their shared commitment to truth and fairness sticks with Pal even after she is gone from his life.
How will not having memories change your character? What core personality traits, if any, will change? How? (200-300 words)
Though Palamedes is a kind and thoughtful person at heart, his society has taught him to play his cards close to the chest. When the House heirs and their cavaliers arrive at Canaan House to conduct a set of mysterious trials, it’s immediately clear that these are people who instinctively do not trust one another—with a few notable exceptions, the characters do not express affection for one another, or even polite curiosity. Palamedes and Camilla are barely seen for the first third of Gideon the Ninth because they are acting wholly on their own, and once they do come in contact with the others, it’s clear that they have kept much about themselves a secret—the others underestimate Camilla’s fighting skills and Palamedes’ intelligence, much to their own peril. Even as he grows close to Harrow and Gideon, Palamedes holds back. He insists on bargaining for the information he has gathered, and never actually reveals some of the most significant facts about himself.
Pulled away from the memories of a culture where suspicion and deceit are expected and secrets are currency, Palamedes’ openness is sure to leap to the fore. Not only will he be more honest about his experiences (both in the game and what he remembers of his earlier life), but he will also be more open with his emotions. No longer forced to continually consider how he is perceived as the leader of a city-state in a dying empire, he can admit when he is afraid, and even when he doesn’t know the answers. While he is unlikely to become a dramatically emotive person, the fundamental nature of his walls will come down.
Thread samples:
One
Two
Memories
You have 10 memory points. How will you use them?
Relationship Core: 3 Points.
Remembers the core of his relationship with Camilla Hect, including his deep devotion to her, enough quiet, everyday moments that he knows that they have known each other a long time and have rarely been apart for very long, and the sense that they swore an oath to each other.
Minor Memory: 1 point
An everyday memory of inhabiting Camilla’s body and looking in the mirror to see her face looking back at him.
Minor Memory: 1 point
Studying for an exam. It would have seemed Very Important at the time, but in the grand scheme of things, it was a fairly mundane exam.
Minor Memory: 1 point
A meeting with We Suffer to report on the activity of Troia Cell. While emotionally fraught, in the period this meeting occurs, the conversation itself would have been relatively mundane. Would have included:
-Palamedes giving a report on Nona’s progress
-discussions of a prisoner exchange of some kind
-watching a “proof of life” video featuring Juno Zeta
Major Memory: 2 points
Receiving the letter from the Emperor inviting him to come to Canaan House.
Major memory: 2 points
A significant portion of the lyctorhood theorem.
Player info
Name: Becca
Pronouns: She/her
Age: 30+
Contact:
Plurk:
Email: revolution.mais.civilisation (at) gmail.com
Journal DM: historein.dreamwidth.org or this one.
Permissions: Here.
Link to invite: Invite
Character in game: NA