Reapps are awesome.
Your character's name (last, first): Silverberg, Odessa
Series your character's from: Genso Suikoden I
Background info on your character: Odessa was born a young noblewoman in the Scarlet Moon Empire, a daughter of the influential Silverberg family. Her family is famous for producing expert strategists, and Odessa was raised to follow in the footsteps of her elder brother Mathiu as an Imperial strategist. A sheltered and studious young woman, Odessa's rank insulated her from the hardships that the common people suffered under the Empire's harsh rule. Her uncle Leon tutored both her and Mathiu to ignore their softer human emotions, for his philosophy was that a strategist should act on logic alone, but both the siblings proved too large-hearted to follow in Leon's footsteps. Mathiu retired from war entirely, sickened by guilt after helping the Emperor orchestrate an offensive that utterly razed a small northern country, slaughtering nearly everyone there, burning the villages and trampling the fields. Odessa, on the other hand, acknowleged her feelings for the first time after meeting and falling in love with a young nobleman named Achilles.
Achilles was a brilliant and fiery idealist, a fellow student at the elite academy where Odessa was studying. Although also noble, he saw the suffering that the Empire's rule caused to the lower classes, and wa determined to end their oppression. Odessa was inspired by his zeal and his compassion -- inspired both to love and to action. She became part of a group of students under Achilles' leadership who protested the Empire's cruelty. However, their actions did not go unnoticed. Achilles was accused of treason and arrested, placed under sentence of death. Odessa begged to be allowed to marry her fiance before his execution, and when her request was granted, organized an escape attempt to take place during the ceremony. The plan took everyone by surprise, and almost achieved success. However, as they were escaping, Achilles was killed by the guardsmen.
Heartbroken, Odessa swore to carry on her fiance's cause. She was now convinced that the Empire's cruelty could not be defeated by words alone, nor by appeals to the human decency of its leaders. She organized the nonviolent student group into a genuine revolutionary army, called the Liberation Army. Her charisma and determination drew recruits wherever she went. With her tactical skills, and the help of her lieutenants Flik, Sanchez and Humphrey, she carried out multiple successful raids against the Empire's corrupt local lords and tax collectors. Flik, a young warrior from the Warrior's Village, fell deeply in love with his beautiful redheaded commander, and as the pain of Achilles' death faded Odessa began to return his feelings.
Then, Flik's comrade in arms Viktor arrived at the Liberation Army's hidden underground base with three fugitives from the Empire's forces: Tir McDohl, the only son of one of the Empire's four famous generals, and his companions and servants Cleo and Gremio. The young master McDohl bore the Soul Eater, a True Rune, one of the 27 True Runes that are the remnants of the magic that created their world. He was on the run from Windy, the Emperor's lover, an evil sorceress who wanted to collect the power of the Runes. Odessa brought Tir and his companions with her on a journey to Sarady, a small mountain village where she passed along plans for an advanced weapon, the Fire Spear, that would help her small army fight against the much larger and better-equipped imperial army. While there, she confessed to Tir that she doubted her own strength and ability to live up to the expectations that the populace placed on her -- they thought of her as a star of hope, but she was only human. She said that she sometimes even wanted to run away under the pressure, but that she would go on fighting, because there really wasn't anything else she could do. Her cause was more important than her feelings of inadequacy.
The group returned to the Liberation Army's headquarters to find that, in their absence, the Imperial forces had discovered its location and attacked. Odessa ran ahead of the others into the underground base, where she encountered a child from the town about to be killed by the Imperial soldiers. She attacked them to save the child, but she was gravely outnumbered, and by the time that the rest of the group caught up she had been mortally wounded. The child, who she had protected with her own body, was unhurt. Odessa apologized to Viktor for her folly, asking them to throw her body into the underground stream flowing through the base and conceal her death with a story about her having gone on a secret mission elsewhere. She gave her earring, a unique piece of jewelry, to Tir to convey to her brother Mathiu, begging him to return to the battlefield and take her place as the Liberation Army's strategist. And then, finally, asking Viktor to convey her love to Flik, she died.
Odessa is a strong, commanding, fiery woman, confident in her own decisions and skilled at both strategy and the more delicate arts of propaganda and image that have made her and the Liberation Army folk heroes throughout the Empire. However, she suffers from doubts of her own ability to live up to the reputation she has built; she took her uncle's condemnation of softer emotions to heart, and considers her own selfless compassion a serious flaw. She is driven, always pushing towards her goals regardless of her own state or feelings; she's the last to admit to exhaustion when traversing a treacherous mountain path in the falling gloom, no matter how long she may have felt tired. However, she also is too trusting, willing to take on the protection of anyone in need, inviting them into her army's secret base even if they claim aloud that their loyalties are with the Empire. Odessa's idealism, although it is part of the charismatic spark that draws people to her, is also a fatal flaw; her trust that everyone can see the cruelty of the Empire's actions and will act against it if only they understand leads her to put her faith in people who may not deserve such trust. In fact, her death was due to the betrayal of her trusted lieutenant Sanchez, who had been working for the Empire and leaking information to them since the beginning.
In terms of fighting ability, Odessa's main strength is her tactical genius. She plans well, precisely, and far in advance; the strategies that she had put in place for the Liberation Army's future continue to play out and aid them for months after her death. Second to that, as a leader, her charisma and determination draw people to her. Physically, she is a skilled fighter as well, a deadly shot with her bow and able to wield a Wind Rune. In fact, she is the only one of the Suikoden strategists who can join the main party (to my knowledge.) Using her Wind Rune, she can cast Wind of Sleep (chance of enemies falling asleep), Healing Wind (cures injury), and The Shredding (causes a lot of damage to all enemies). Each spell can be cast a limited number of times per day, and she must rest to refresh herself before casting them again.
Her closest relationships are with her subordinates: Flik, Sanchez, and Humphrey. She likes Viktor, as well, but it's clear that all of the Liberation Army's leadership considers Viktor a bit of a flake. (He is.) The closest living person to Odessa is Flik, her lover; however, the fact that she is his commander as well means that she does not feel able to tell Flik about her self-doubts and weaknesses. Although she is as human and fallible as anyone, and she knows it herself, she feels unable to admit her fallibility in the face of the devotion and trust with which her followers regard her. In fact, Tir is the only one she has told about her self-doubt; as an outside observer, an intelligent and compassionate young man who is not yet loyal to her, he is a safe person with whom she can speak candidly. Odessa's family is much less close than the leadership of the Liberation Army. Although she and her brother Mathiu clearly love each other, they have been estranged for years over Mathiu's renunciation of war and his refusal to take up the position of a strategist again, even for a worthy cause. Odessa believes that she must fight to change the world for the better; Mathiu, with the blood of thousands on his hands, does not want to cause more bloodshed no matter the goal. Odessa and Mathiu's uncle Leon considers both of them to be failures, as their emotion trumped their undeniable talent for strategy. Their parents are unknown, and don't seem to have been as important in their life as their uncle and tutor was. Last, Achilles is probably the central figure in Odessa's life. As her first love, the one who opened her eyes to the world's injustice, and her role model -- the man whose idealized place she is currently struggling to fill -- Achilles' influence remains strong even years after his death.
I will be taking Odessa from before her death because after didn't really work out last time. She will be taken from the return to the Liberation Army's headquarters from Sarady, before they discover the Imperial attack, and after the delivery of the Fire Spear plans.
Sample Post: No, Viktor, we aren’t going to stop at a tavern for lunch. With all of the trail food we have, there’s no need, even if you do want a beer-
…Viktor? Tir? What- I was not here a moment ago. What is this place? I demand an explanation! You, there in the bushes. Tell me what has happened! Don’t think that running away will help… you… Well. Hello there! I suppose that a monkey can’t answer any of my questions. And you don’t seem nearly as likely to attack as the beasts I’m used to back home. Would you like a bit of food?
I offered you some food, not my entire purse! Get back here at once! I - I … can’t move quite that fast, I’m afraid. Perhaps I could lure it down with something. But what? It has all my food. I’ve heard that music can calm animals… not my singing voice, though. If it happens to be an intelligent beast, maybe I can appeal to its better nature-
Now, monkey, I understand that you are driven to theft by privation, but you need to understand the situation that we are all living in! Rather than turning on your fellow man, we should work together to gather fruit or hunt for food. Return my purse, and I’ll help you to gather a better meal for both of us!
Throwing coconuts is not the right answer.
What your character has: The clothes on her back, some potions, limited travelling supplies (food, water for about a day), a bow and arrows, a Wind Rune on her hand.
Series your character's from: Genso Suikoden I
Background info on your character: Odessa was born a young noblewoman in the Scarlet Moon Empire, a daughter of the influential Silverberg family. Her family is famous for producing expert strategists, and Odessa was raised to follow in the footsteps of her elder brother Mathiu as an Imperial strategist. A sheltered and studious young woman, Odessa's rank insulated her from the hardships that the common people suffered under the Empire's harsh rule. Her uncle Leon tutored both her and Mathiu to ignore their softer human emotions, for his philosophy was that a strategist should act on logic alone, but both the siblings proved too large-hearted to follow in Leon's footsteps. Mathiu retired from war entirely, sickened by guilt after helping the Emperor orchestrate an offensive that utterly razed a small northern country, slaughtering nearly everyone there, burning the villages and trampling the fields. Odessa, on the other hand, acknowleged her feelings for the first time after meeting and falling in love with a young nobleman named Achilles.
Achilles was a brilliant and fiery idealist, a fellow student at the elite academy where Odessa was studying. Although also noble, he saw the suffering that the Empire's rule caused to the lower classes, and wa determined to end their oppression. Odessa was inspired by his zeal and his compassion -- inspired both to love and to action. She became part of a group of students under Achilles' leadership who protested the Empire's cruelty. However, their actions did not go unnoticed. Achilles was accused of treason and arrested, placed under sentence of death. Odessa begged to be allowed to marry her fiance before his execution, and when her request was granted, organized an escape attempt to take place during the ceremony. The plan took everyone by surprise, and almost achieved success. However, as they were escaping, Achilles was killed by the guardsmen.
Heartbroken, Odessa swore to carry on her fiance's cause. She was now convinced that the Empire's cruelty could not be defeated by words alone, nor by appeals to the human decency of its leaders. She organized the nonviolent student group into a genuine revolutionary army, called the Liberation Army. Her charisma and determination drew recruits wherever she went. With her tactical skills, and the help of her lieutenants Flik, Sanchez and Humphrey, she carried out multiple successful raids against the Empire's corrupt local lords and tax collectors. Flik, a young warrior from the Warrior's Village, fell deeply in love with his beautiful redheaded commander, and as the pain of Achilles' death faded Odessa began to return his feelings.
Then, Flik's comrade in arms Viktor arrived at the Liberation Army's hidden underground base with three fugitives from the Empire's forces: Tir McDohl, the only son of one of the Empire's four famous generals, and his companions and servants Cleo and Gremio. The young master McDohl bore the Soul Eater, a True Rune, one of the 27 True Runes that are the remnants of the magic that created their world. He was on the run from Windy, the Emperor's lover, an evil sorceress who wanted to collect the power of the Runes. Odessa brought Tir and his companions with her on a journey to Sarady, a small mountain village where she passed along plans for an advanced weapon, the Fire Spear, that would help her small army fight against the much larger and better-equipped imperial army. While there, she confessed to Tir that she doubted her own strength and ability to live up to the expectations that the populace placed on her -- they thought of her as a star of hope, but she was only human. She said that she sometimes even wanted to run away under the pressure, but that she would go on fighting, because there really wasn't anything else she could do. Her cause was more important than her feelings of inadequacy.
The group returned to the Liberation Army's headquarters to find that, in their absence, the Imperial forces had discovered its location and attacked. Odessa ran ahead of the others into the underground base, where she encountered a child from the town about to be killed by the Imperial soldiers. She attacked them to save the child, but she was gravely outnumbered, and by the time that the rest of the group caught up she had been mortally wounded. The child, who she had protected with her own body, was unhurt. Odessa apologized to Viktor for her folly, asking them to throw her body into the underground stream flowing through the base and conceal her death with a story about her having gone on a secret mission elsewhere. She gave her earring, a unique piece of jewelry, to Tir to convey to her brother Mathiu, begging him to return to the battlefield and take her place as the Liberation Army's strategist. And then, finally, asking Viktor to convey her love to Flik, she died.
Odessa is a strong, commanding, fiery woman, confident in her own decisions and skilled at both strategy and the more delicate arts of propaganda and image that have made her and the Liberation Army folk heroes throughout the Empire. However, she suffers from doubts of her own ability to live up to the reputation she has built; she took her uncle's condemnation of softer emotions to heart, and considers her own selfless compassion a serious flaw. She is driven, always pushing towards her goals regardless of her own state or feelings; she's the last to admit to exhaustion when traversing a treacherous mountain path in the falling gloom, no matter how long she may have felt tired. However, she also is too trusting, willing to take on the protection of anyone in need, inviting them into her army's secret base even if they claim aloud that their loyalties are with the Empire. Odessa's idealism, although it is part of the charismatic spark that draws people to her, is also a fatal flaw; her trust that everyone can see the cruelty of the Empire's actions and will act against it if only they understand leads her to put her faith in people who may not deserve such trust. In fact, her death was due to the betrayal of her trusted lieutenant Sanchez, who had been working for the Empire and leaking information to them since the beginning.
In terms of fighting ability, Odessa's main strength is her tactical genius. She plans well, precisely, and far in advance; the strategies that she had put in place for the Liberation Army's future continue to play out and aid them for months after her death. Second to that, as a leader, her charisma and determination draw people to her. Physically, she is a skilled fighter as well, a deadly shot with her bow and able to wield a Wind Rune. In fact, she is the only one of the Suikoden strategists who can join the main party (to my knowledge.) Using her Wind Rune, she can cast Wind of Sleep (chance of enemies falling asleep), Healing Wind (cures injury), and The Shredding (causes a lot of damage to all enemies). Each spell can be cast a limited number of times per day, and she must rest to refresh herself before casting them again.
Her closest relationships are with her subordinates: Flik, Sanchez, and Humphrey. She likes Viktor, as well, but it's clear that all of the Liberation Army's leadership considers Viktor a bit of a flake. (He is.) The closest living person to Odessa is Flik, her lover; however, the fact that she is his commander as well means that she does not feel able to tell Flik about her self-doubts and weaknesses. Although she is as human and fallible as anyone, and she knows it herself, she feels unable to admit her fallibility in the face of the devotion and trust with which her followers regard her. In fact, Tir is the only one she has told about her self-doubt; as an outside observer, an intelligent and compassionate young man who is not yet loyal to her, he is a safe person with whom she can speak candidly. Odessa's family is much less close than the leadership of the Liberation Army. Although she and her brother Mathiu clearly love each other, they have been estranged for years over Mathiu's renunciation of war and his refusal to take up the position of a strategist again, even for a worthy cause. Odessa believes that she must fight to change the world for the better; Mathiu, with the blood of thousands on his hands, does not want to cause more bloodshed no matter the goal. Odessa and Mathiu's uncle Leon considers both of them to be failures, as their emotion trumped their undeniable talent for strategy. Their parents are unknown, and don't seem to have been as important in their life as their uncle and tutor was. Last, Achilles is probably the central figure in Odessa's life. As her first love, the one who opened her eyes to the world's injustice, and her role model -- the man whose idealized place she is currently struggling to fill -- Achilles' influence remains strong even years after his death.
I will be taking Odessa from before her death because after didn't really work out last time. She will be taken from the return to the Liberation Army's headquarters from Sarady, before they discover the Imperial attack, and after the delivery of the Fire Spear plans.
Sample Post: No, Viktor, we aren’t going to stop at a tavern for lunch. With all of the trail food we have, there’s no need, even if you do want a beer-
…Viktor? Tir? What- I was not here a moment ago. What is this place? I demand an explanation! You, there in the bushes. Tell me what has happened! Don’t think that running away will help… you… Well. Hello there! I suppose that a monkey can’t answer any of my questions. And you don’t seem nearly as likely to attack as the beasts I’m used to back home. Would you like a bit of food?
I offered you some food, not my entire purse! Get back here at once! I - I … can’t move quite that fast, I’m afraid. Perhaps I could lure it down with something. But what? It has all my food. I’ve heard that music can calm animals… not my singing voice, though. If it happens to be an intelligent beast, maybe I can appeal to its better nature-
Now, monkey, I understand that you are driven to theft by privation, but you need to understand the situation that we are all living in! Rather than turning on your fellow man, we should work together to gather fruit or hunt for food. Return my purse, and I’ll help you to gather a better meal for both of us!
Throwing coconuts is not the right answer.
What your character has: The clothes on her back, some potions, limited travelling supplies (food, water for about a day), a bow and arrows, a Wind Rune on her hand.