Voidus

Old character sheet from last time, may make some changes later depending on what everyone else goes with but for now:

Iron, Copper, Pewter... Oh, whoops. That's... a completely unrelated list of items. I meant to say chocolate chip? And er... Macademia White chocolate, double chocolate chip, pecan, raspberry and shortbread.

Of course you can, we have a wide selection available.

Not too active these days but there's a recent revival attempt you could try jumping into. Investiture: 55 + 35 Skills: 40 Weaknesses: limited cremlings (-15), lack of knowledge (-10), socially inept (-5) Total: 90 (M) + 40 (S) - 30 (W) = 100 Approved, and my appreciation for what I assume is an homage to the kobolds in a trenchcoat idea

Sorry, been a minute since I've checked here we usually use the other thread for the character and this one just if extended discussion is needed so I don't check it as much. That's a pretty big one, especially since it effectively grants invincibility. I'd probably put it at +50/-10

Well he writes both, and the two as mentioned are not mutually exclusive. He also writes YA, Sci-fi and a number of other genres that I won't mention because they're somewhat superfluous to the point. My point is that horror is not the genre he's writing. Some authors deliberately subvert tropes, which is just following them in a different way. I don't know of anyone who completely ignores tropes, to a degree they're almost impossible to write around. Brandon in particular does write to a number of typical fantasy tropes, most notably that the heroes will win, good triumphs over evil which is going to naturally subvert any sense of dread before it can truly settle because whatever the stakes are you still know the outcome to a degree. Knowing that your world is ending is definitely scary for a character but not necessarily so for a reader. Horror only truly arises when the user feels a personal stake in what is threatened, you have to want the world to survive and believe that it might not. Brandon is very good at the former, giving multiple viewpoints to flesh out a world as a real place with characters that we like, empathise with and want to survive. But the latter is more difficult because most readers are aware of the general structure of a fantasy novel and the heroes journey. It is usually far more effective to incite horror on a smaller scale, this character might die is a threat that readers may actually feel. Brandon has killed main characters before and will do so again, so those stakes feel more real than 'The entire world will end' because as a reader you are much less likely to believe that the world will actually end.

I think the crux of it lies (In part at least) with the genre, Brandon writes Epic Fantasy not horror. So while individual scenes may evoke dread that emotion is short lived because ultimately good triumphs over evil, heroes are successful even if they have to sacrifice something along the way but the sacrifice is still worth it in the end because defeat is unthinkable. So yes I felt some amount of dread in certain depictions of the Unmade but that really only lasts until you actually see one, talk to one. Then they become a character in an Epic fantasy and they're bound by the usual tropes and restrictions of that genre.

Layered on top of what Kaymyth mentioned is also that Shallan is particularly unsuited to just deal with it because she's continually thrust into situations which force her to revisit damaging behaviours and headspaces. Someone struggling with dissociative identity disorder being continually forced into new roles and to impersonate other people is kind of like asking someone with a drug addiction to overcome their addiction but still keep taking some every now and then because we really need you to. Plus she has magical abilities that reinforce her mental issues and literally make hallucinations real which is going to make untangling them significantly more difficult. I didn't kill my parents or have literal magic making my mental health worse and it still took me well into my twenties before I even started to get a grip on my own mental health.

Glad you figured yourself out

Laurelai strode towards the reception to the hospital, a confident stride though she continued to mentally monitor herself to ensure it wasn't a departure from normal. A lifetime of watching people and trying to divine their nature and history from simple clues had given her an acute awareness of how she herself behaved. And the events of the last few days had certainly been enough to shift her usual personality quite substantially, which was to say nothing for the presence of several small pieces of sharpened metal that had been embedded in her flesh, enough to throw off anyone's normal gait. "Morning." Laurelai said as she arrived, pleased to note that the receptionist seemed to register no obvious difference in her behaviour. "Morning." The receptionist said, sounding professional until she had to suppress a momentary yawn. "Were you on earlies? I'd thought you were usually lucky enough to get the day shifts." "Usually." Laurelai said, returning the jealous glance with a sympathetic smile. "I swapped yesterday, after the festival my sleep cycle has gone to damnation so might as well try and be useful if I'm awake anyway." "Oh yes, staying up all night will do that. But shouldn't you know better?" The receptionist smirked as she gave Laurelai a faked glare of disapproval. "Oh you know us, do as I say not as I do." Laurelai finished with a smile. "But I'd best be getting to it, I'll do the rounds first unless there's anything urgent?" "Don't think anyone's in critical that you can help with." Laurelai gave an understanding nod and straightened herself back into her usual professional posture, pulling a coat onto herself to hide the slightly less practical dress underneath. A hastily chosen Nalthian dress with a sash so bright it hurt the eye to look at. Not one of her favourites and hardly something she'd usually wear at work, but the recent... distractions hadn't allowed her to clear her thoughts enough to pick anything more appropriate. "Well I'm off then. Sing out if anything comes up." Laurelai said, giving a casual wave goodbye as she waded into the corridors of the hospital and the familiar battle of life that was waged there every day. But unlike every other day Laurelai looked not towards the nurses in the halls or the patients in their rooms, instead she looked directly forwards at the station where records were held. Lita had been able to find enough information to get some ideas of where to look, but the patient files themselves would be far more useful in what they were looking for. As long as she wasn't needed urgently, Laurelai should be able to find what Lita had asked her to look for. Strange patterns, increased cognitive ward patients. Memory loss. "And if we're lucky, perhaps a peek behind the curtain as to what's really going on." Laurelai muttered, hand raising to the piece of cord around her neck with the coin around it. The coin was heavier than normal today, heavier than any of the thousands of times that Laurelai had weighed it to try and understand where it had come from. But this weight had little to do with material or gravity, it was the weight of mystery. And perhaps now she could lighten that load just a little bit.

Actually going to lock this one down for now. If anyone needs this to be active again please PM myself or one of the other AV mods.

Yeah, I mean in universe I suppose she's pretty old, among that group of nebulously aged entities who predate creation. Outside of that one of the more recent characters.

What?!? This is why I've been dealing with HR all morning? You have no idea how many civilizations I had to harvest to get them off my back.

Always happy to help out and just started getting a little time back in my day so the timing works out nicely.

Yeah not too bad, much better in the past week or so than the preceding 12 months. Yeah would love some help if you've got the time for it.

Hey Mac! How are things going? Being an Elantrian carries the implication of some ability to use AonDor in the standard ways for combat/creation I'd say, like any super detailed handiwork that is sort of independent of the Dor would need its own skills but in terms of just like drawing Aons onto surfaces yeah that'd be included. 2. I think we'd probably need to adjust the Elantrian rankings before we could judge how much to take off here. I'm gonna take a look around cause I thought we'd upgraded the Elantrian section at some point.

Much clearer thanks. Yeah total amnesia is a much bigger weakness. This pretty much cleanly opposes the benefits of the copper and then a little more on top of that so actually this is one of the bigger weaknesses that we've seen. -40 Zinc Compounder - 150 (90 +30 +30) Feruchemical copper spike 27 Skilled melee combat: 40 (-10 from amnesia) Weaknesses: Amnesia / lack of awareness of copper (-40) Socially awkward (-10) Total 177 (M) + 40 (S) - 50(W) = 162 Technically a little over the limit but compounding makes things awkward. I'm happy to approve this one. I'll add it to the list.

I'm offended that you would even ask that question.

Zinc Compounder - 150 (90 +30 +30) Feruchemical copper spike 27 Skilled melee combat: 50 Weaknesses: Probably need something else here, habitual usage of copper isn't something I'd call a weakness unless it affects their life in a notable way. Total 177 (M) + 50 (S) - 5?(W) = 222 Fair bit over the point limit here, compounding is always a lot to put in a character and often needs a particularly fatal flaw to counterbalance it. Dustbringer 90 Melee weapon training 35 Intelligent: 10 Thievery: 40 Larkin: 40 Weakness: Temper (-5), truthful (-5) (Potentially could go quite a bit higher depending on how truthful you mean) Kind to cremlings (-5), 1st oath -5 Total: 90 (M) + 40 (M) + 10 (S) +35 (S) + 40 (S) -20 (W) 130 (M) + 75 (S) -20 (W) =185 Also a bit over here, possibly just clarifying/expanding upon the listed weaknesses (Specifics are much more helpful than general personality traits like 'temper', that could range anywhere from pouts when they don't get their way to immediately trying to murder everyone in sight when they trip on a rock)

You'll probably need to share the private one with one of the subforum's mods to ensure there aren't any issues but that should be okay.

Ooh, may I steal for a D&D game?

We hadn't actually discussed what happened to it this era. I mean for the purposes of plot I'm happy to change it around if needed so that it's hidden in a different way, the Stranger is the one who came up with the original idea for it so he'd definitely be capable of shifting it with his Forgery.