Songerein App

[beshackled]

Player: Valour
Age: 30s
Contact: Valour#5531 on Discord, BornToBury on Plurk

Character: Erichthonios
Canon: Final Fantasy 14, at the end of Patch 6.2 quest "Truth Imperfect"
Age: Young adult for a race that can live a long, long, long time. He could easily be over 100.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
The son of Lahabrea of the Convocation of Fourteen and the now-deceased Athena, former chief keyward of Pandæmonium, Erichthonios has spent his life as the dutiful son to his mother, while resenting his father for his cold demeanor following her demise. Despite his parentage, his skill in magicks appear to be somewhat limited. However, this does not stop him from doing his utmost to save his fellow warders of Pandæmonium when the creations imprisoned in its halls break loose under mysterious circumstances. After being broken free of an insidious spell's influence by the intervention of two new faces seeking to investigate the unsettling events happening at the facility, he accepts their help in a bid to rescue his coworkers and return the creations to their confinement.

Little does he know, his colleagues have become part of the problem. As Erichthonios, Themis, and their cohort, Azem's 'familiar', progress through the halls of the facility, their work is interrupted by none other than the keyward of Asphodelos, Hesperos, under whom Erichthonios worked. The man changed -- having shed his very humanity to become a hemitheos, he presents as an adversary to the group, showing nothing but scorn towards Erichthonios, whom he once mentored. The three work to confront the keyward. However, once bested, instead of providing answers, Hesperos takes his own life.

Furthermore, a warding sigil appears, barring the way into Abyssos. Their advance temporarily halted, the 'familiar' departs.

In time, Themis is able to undo the warding sigil, after which he departs to search the archives of Peripeteia Krystalline, leaving Erichthonios to watch over Asphodelos in the absence of the others. To fill the time, Erichthonios practices the magick known as internment, a spell that freezes both a subject target and the area around it, in the hopes that he might better aid his new companions in returning the dangerous creations to their confinement.

However, Erichthonios was not as alone as he thought. Watching him is the source of all the trouble. Speaking through a familiar of the phoinix, the villain mocks Erichthonios before attempting to coax him into complying with his plans, moving to abduct him via magicks. Yet as Erichthonios nearly succumbs, Themis and Azem's 'familiar' appear on the scene, intervening, prompting the would-be abductor to withdraw to safety.

Safe for the moment, Erichthonios shares with his rescuers his suspicions - that the one causing trouble in Pandæmonium is none other than his own father. Unable to convince Themis, the three resolve to investigate deeper, with Themis guarding Erichthonios while Azem's familiar and Themis' phantom warriors fight against the unruly creations of Abyssos.

After the proto-carbuncle is captured and returned to confinement, the villain appears again, proclaiming himself Lahabrea, and once again seeking to gain Erichthonios' cooperation, offering a chance for him to reunite with his mother, Athena. Yet still, Themis is skeptical, challenging the assertions, until yet another intervenes -- the true Lahabrea, who reveals Themis to be Elidibus of the Convocation of Fourteen.

The impostor speaks once more, declaring Lahabrea the murderer of his own wife, before turning to Erichthonios and proclaiming himself Hephaistos, the one whom Erichthonios should truly call his father, before leaving once more.

The four remaining return to the gates of Pandæmonium, where they question Lahabrea about his knowledge of the matter, and Erichthonios confronts him over Hephaistos' accusation, which Lahabrea claims to be the ramblings of a tortured mind. Lahabrea resolves that, in order to prevent Hephaistos from escaping and inviting disaster unto the star, the research and facility are to be abandoned and destroyed. Erichthonios, wishing to save the remaining warders, vehemently disagrees.

Themis, in his position as Elidibus, weighs the options, and it is with his judgment that Erichthonios gains the opportunity to save more of his colleagues, Lahabrea granting them the chance to prove the merits of their approach. Erichthonios, Themis, and the Azem's 'familiar' press forward, and with the familiar's success in combat and Erichthonios and Themis' success in using internment magicks, they are able to capture Hegemone, the keyward of Abyssos.

Yet, though Lahabrea must concede in the soundness of their approach, he steadfastly objects to Erichthonios' involvement, seeing him as a hindrance. He interrogates Erichthonios about his motivations, upon which Erichthonios admits to also being curious about how Hephaistos intends to resurrect his mother. Their conversation deteriorates into an argument. Angered by Lahabrea's continued scorn, his composure frayed by the accusations, Erichthonios succumbs to Hephaistos' mind-altering spell, which has been in place all this time.

Ensnared by the spell, Erichthonios does not respond to the distant voice warning him not to listen. He teleports away, into the clutches of Hephaistos, in the Stygian Insenescence Cells where he is kept in aetherial shackles, sedated by magicks until the 'familiar', Themis, and Lahabrea arrive, the former two at last having been enlightened as to the reasons behind Athena's death, and why Lahabrea has kept them from his son.

The three confront Hephaistos; the memories and part of Lahabrea's soul that Lahabrea cut away after killing Athena. Still under the spell, Erichthonios half-hears the exchange between them, but he hears enough; his mother did not love him, but only sought to use him for her own purposes.

Erichthonios is shaken. Speaking out, his words are a combination of hurt and confusion. The familiar calls out to him. The haze over Erichthonios' mind begins to lift, resolve strengthening even as he grapples with the information revealed. He speaks to the familiar, saying that he owes them and Themis an apology, before breaking out of the aetherial shackles on his own.

He will have his say.

Emboldened, Erichthonios casts the internment spell over Hephaistos, Lahabrea supplying the last bit of energy needed to seal his essence away into a crystal.

With Hephaistos interned, the assault on Pandæmonium's defenses ceases. Face to face with his son, Lahabrea at last reveals the secrets of the past to Erichthonios, showing him and others present a memory of that day; a younger Lahabrea interrupts Athena in the middle of experimenting on their unconscious son, the unresponsive boy held aloft in aetherial shackles, the boy nothing more to her than an ideal test subject in her quest to shatter and transcend the limitations of mankind. The young Lahabrea gives her an ultimatum -- cease her experiments on their son, or else. She refuses to stop, but offers to him to bond souls, that he may know the truth of her, her feelings, her reasons, all that she is. Consumed by the desire to know if his wife ever loved him, Lahabrea agrees. They merge, Lahabrea feeling all her desires as though they were his own -- a limitless quest for knowledge, and the desire to bleed into a higher plane of existence, with not a thought spared for their star. Horrified, Lahabrea separates from her, but Athena smugly declares that the seed of desire has already been planted in him, and that in time he will become like her, consumed by it. Defiant, Lahabrea tears it out of him; the memory of what he has learned, and the now tainted portion of his soul, declaring that from then on he would live only as Lahabrea -- the discarded, sealed-away portion of his soul taking on his name of birth -- Hephaistos.

Father and son come to an understanding that, while uneasy, is much improved over before. Azem's 'familiar' departing, the remaining trio set about freeing the remaining warders, Erichthonios and Lahabrea working to mend the wounds of both warders and creations alike.

PERSONALITY:
Erichthonios is someone who does not hide his feelings or his thoughts; upfront, honest, and earnest are words that can describe him. He is loyal to his colleagues, and brave enough that he was willing to go back in to Pandæmonium alone if need be to save them from the dangers unleashed in the facilities halls. He is a serious individual, not prone to jokes or lightheartedness. He is likewise serious about his duties, not shirking off responsibilities when they are inconvenient, even if that inconvenience places him in harm’s way. For good or for ill, he is headstrong, both for the sake of others, and when being confronted himself. This sometimes leads him to be resentful, and when pushed he can even be a little vengeful, as he contemplated fighting Hesperos after the man-turned-hemitheos revealed himself to be an enemy. Yet, he is merciful, disinclined to push things to violence over a mere argument -- even against his father, with whom he finds himself routinely in conflict with --, and willing to save and heal the creations that once sought to harm him.

In general, when not flustered or riled, he is somewhat soft-spoken. Introspective, he at times narrates his thoughts, which churn slowly, though are often sound in their logic. However, a lifetime of being berated have left him insecure, full of self-doubt, and he is all-too-readily self-depreciating. Only recently has he gained ground in developing confidence in himself, all thanks to his new friends—the two people who helped him save his colleagues, and who then saved him.

ABILITIES & INVENTORY:
Teleportation: Spatial teleportation involving the manifestation of a dark portal
Aetherial shackles: Binds a single target.
Internment: Binds the target as would aetherial shackles, but additionally freezes the space around them.
Creation Magicks: Though we have yet to see Erichthonios use them yet, those of his kind are able to wield creation magicks, and are able to make any concept they can understand and picture, save for that of a human soul. None are thus far stated to be without this ability, though some need to pull aether from other sources to manipulate. As Erichthonios is canonly deficient in capacity at his present canon point, it stands to reason he cannot achieve great feats of creation using only his aether.

Transformation: Allows Erichthonios to form a second, larger body around himself. He is shown to be able to use fire, ice, light/holy, and magicks tinged with dark-aspected aether.

Spells able to be used while transformed:
Heavy Hand: A tank-buster; likely a gravity/darkness-aspected spell to increase the damage of a backhanded strike.
Gaoler's Flail: Extracting a bladed flail from his chest, Erichthonios cleaves one side of the room; he can do this with both arms.
Warder's Wrath: A room-wide AOE; he strikes the floor of the room, chains lashing out and striking those in the area.
Pitiless Flail: A line AOE + knockback; he throws a large, spiked mace on a chain forward after extracting it from his own chest, knocking back any who are struck.
True holy: A split-damage AOE; orbs of light fall in two circles around the target, causing them to be engulfed in a column of holy light (he habitually casts this following Pitiless Flail).
Intemperance: Marks those in the area with a fire or ice debuff (making them excessively hot or cold), and spreads a spell over the room that is split into four quadrants of effects, with a cross AOE separating each quadrant, and each quadrant containing pillars of three crystals each, each of which may have a fire or ice aspect to them.
Intemperant Torment: Building up energy, he activates the spell laid out with intemperance; the crystals in each quadrant begin to vibrate before exploding, starting with those on the bottoms of their pillar, unleashing fire or ice spells over their quadrant; this can either worsen or counteract the debuff from the Intemperance cast. Getting hit with the cross AOE (which appears to be comprised of dark-aspected aether) is an instant KO.
Shining Cells: Creates a barrier reducing the navigable area in the fight to a circle, which is patterned with fire and light aspected 'tiles', which have corresponding spells that trigger when he casts aether-aspected spells.
Aetherchain: Upon activation, he is surrounded by orbs of fire or light; when the cast finishes, the corresponding sections laid out with his Shining Cells spell trigger, unleashing either fire or light-aspected aether immediately above them.
Aetherflail: Combines the traits of the aetherchain spell with gaoler's flail.
Slam Shut: Room-wide AOE; dissolves the Shining Cells spell and returns the area to normal.

THE NERFS: Because his transformed form is enormous, it will likely have to be nerfed to be much smaller in the physical setting, although large enough to fit his reduced size into it if it is allowed. It is not a form he shifts into unless severe danger is involved. Corresponding spells used in this size will be weaker. Furthermore, access to this form will be limited to only when intense emotions are in play.

INVENTORY: Erichthonios will only have the clothes upon his person, including his mask and the crystals he wears about his waist on a chain. One of the two bears the full sigil of Lahabrea, and is a gift from his father, given to him in hopes to spark growth in his aptitude for magic.

SUITABILITY & PLANS:
Erichthonios is a new character for me. I got to play him for a little while in Jikan, which is now closing, and I enjoyed it so much that I wanted to find a new game to play him in.

While Erichthonios is like to be more bold socially when certain castmates are present, he is still able to come out of his shell. He will be curious about the world of Songerein and how it develops; he is a warder of Pandæmonium, and Pandæmonium is a place of research, filled with inquisitive minds, and Erichthonios is no exception. This will give him opportunities for CR, which will in turn allow him to grow bolder over time.

As for ideas to start with, I am tempted to throw him at the Percy Jackson cast as well as his own cast. The usage of Greek mythos in both canons is bound to cause some amusing misunderstandings at some point.

TEST DRIVE SAMPLE: Sample

QUESTIONS: None just yet, but please let me know if there are any other nerfs are needed!