Application for mayfield-rpg
Name: Narva
Personal LJ: whatisnarva
Contact Info: plurk: whatisnarva, email: whatisnarvaATgmailDOTcom
Other Characters Played: N/A
Preferred Housing: N/A
Character Name: Ivan Braginsky | The Russian Empire
Character Series: Axis Powers Hetalia
Character Age: early twenties
Background:
Country & Character +1
History:
Russia was born in the vast, cold lands on the European side of the Ural. It is hard to say when he first met his sisters, but he certainly knew them from a very young age and they hung out together sometimes. [The following I talked about and agreed on with Nika - this follows the Varangian theory] The first adult nation that he met was Sweden, whom he knew as "Rus" and whose name he adopted because the Viking was not only cool and strong but he also treated him relatively nicely and helped him unite some of his tribes, enough to realize that he was a nation! But then the Vikings didn't come any more, and not too long after another adult came - Tartar, as Hetalia canon calls him. That time was not easy at all and is definitely one of the early reasons why he is not really behaving ...normal. He already acts weird when he meets Lithuania for the first time, which is during the Tartar Yoke - at least Lithuania comments on his behaviour to that effect.
But the times changed, and Tartar got weaker and weaker. Russia grew and after his territory had unified (by one little territory swallowing the others more or less violently - Russia's very upbringing and formation was not particularly peaceful, but on the other hand, which nation's is...), he started to reach out for others. Since they were the closest nations, his sisters were the first one whom he tried to take territory from and add his to his lands (they had also been the main victims to his raids before he became strong enough to make them pay tributes and such) and finally, he had grown enough to start and clash with the stronger countries around him.
This did not go over very well. Poland and Lithuania were not amused, nor was Sweden (or Ottoman, or any other power around him), and the Livonian wars and the Times of Troubles were not the only backlashes that he had to endure (though the Time of Troubles was probably the closest call, with Poland and Lithuania completely destroying one of the more fertile areas of his lands, his capital being occupied, and all the false Dimitries...).
Which makes it even more amazing what Peter the Great managed to achieve: When the Great Northern War started, Russia's army was a badly organized, not at all well-trained group of men. When it ended, only 23 years later, he had managed to beat one of the strongest and most fearsome armies of the time, and all of Europe went all "Who the heck is that and how did he do this?!" - a new major power had risen from rags to glory in less than 100 years. And Peter did not stop his reforms there. He, as well as his successors, had two major goals: Strengthen the motherland and at the same time make sure that it stayed itself - Panslavism was born during this time, originally to deal with the sudden gain of the non-Slavic former Swedish territories of Estonia and (parts of) Latvia and the cultural influence that they brought - as well as the "high cultural" influence from France and to a minor extent also other countries.
The next huge project was to build a new capital: St Petersburg, proud and white, made of stone and designed to follow the newest trends. A lot of sacrifices were made for it, but then it stood there. It was a way of Russia showing the other nations how far he had risen - and his rise would continue, his territory spreading to finally "bring home" his sisters, Lithuania, Finland, Siberia, parts of Poland, and other territories. Lithuania and Poland (and much later on Finland) turned out to be big troublemakers, but that only meant that he tightened his grip on them.
By 1812, where I will take him from, France invaded him during the Napoleonic wars, and is about to realize what a bad bad bad idea it is to piss of General Winter. He really could have learned from Sweden - on the other hand, Germany later on could have learned from France... Point is, while Russia is battered right now, he is far from broken, and the war is still on...
Personality:
At first glance, Ivan looks like a nice person, friendly, happy and well-adjusted, a bit like a giant child. That is, until you have talked with him for a while and noticed that some of his habits and opinions are a bit ...unique, including his way of interacting with others. Or until you pay closer attention to his smile. It seems a bit too ever-present (he seems to have a wide variety of them, from friendly to axe crazy, but there are very very few pictures of him that do not show him smiling), and combined with his height and the way that it sometimes doesn't match the tone and subject of the conversation at all, it seems creepy. It's also kind of empty most of the time, even if it reaches his eyes. Which it usually does.
This leads to the weird, but in his canon quite frequent experience that you can have completely normal (and positive) conversations with him that suddenly turn very unpleasant for Russia's conversational partner when Russia explains his words or draws logical conclusions. This does seem neither strange nor random nor creepy to him, at least not most of the time - he doesn't consider "I like them" and "They will be one with me/they'll be easy to control/etc opposites, for example. But he also tends to not realize when his actions hurt others or make them uncomfortable/unhappy if he didn't mean them to hurt the other person. Sure, he will use force and such to make people comply (and use it rather often, even for his time), but sometimes he only wants to help and it takes him a long time to realize that he did something wrong that might be fatal - like the unification of Estonia and Northern Latvia, or when he wanted to help Latvia stop shaking. His profile calls it "the cruelty of a child", which probably really describes him the best. He is like a child that holds a butterfly by its wings to be better able to look at it and see what will happen, not aware that it will severely damage and in the long run kill the creature. Additionally, he has been described to have the "simplicity of a country bumpkin" - something that, on the one hand,
Much in this line is Russia's wish to have everyone live with him. On the one hand, he doesn't want to be alone any more and if they try to leave, he will just not let them. On the other hand, having everyone stay with him, will, in his opinion, make everyone else happy as well. If he has to help them to their luck... well. All great achievements (for example the building of S. Petersburg) need to be forced. On the same note, until the other nations understand that they're happy with him, he has to make them stay. "Friendships" are about strength and domination/submission. You can only be friends with others if you are strong enough to make and keep them your friends. There is no such thing as "equal" ...later that will warp into a crude travesty of forced equality with him as the first among the equal. Communism in Russia only worked that well because it was NOT about letting people decide for themselves from the very beginning.
More generally speaking, Russia likes company... though he is rather the quiet, watching ...erm, yeah. Stalking would be the correct word here... party. It doesn't matter what kind of "lively" the others are, he seems to enjoy people yelling at each other just as much as them singing and being happy together, maybe more. As a reason he gives that he grew up in a lonely and cold place. He apparently also does not mind seeing those important to him with "troubled faces".
Russia is also a very hands-on person. He won't stop and ponder the advantages and disadvantages of something very long, or the fact that he might damage someone else's property or hurt himself or others. He also doesn't question orders when they come from someone who has the right and power to order him around.
Because he grew up in a place where he was alone, lonely, cold, constantly hurt by some invasion or another, starving, scared, and abandoned when he needed someone*, a lot of screws in his head seem to come a bit (or a bit more) loose. He had his own share of insane, overly cruel, or just ruthless and paranoid bosses, and on top of all that, he is General Winter's favourite... They have a pact, but, while nobody knows what exactly that entails, we can state two things: The General gets full reign of Russia for an extended amount of time every year (which is painful because it will always kill people and usually mean that there is not enough food), and in turn keeps his enemies at bay... as much as he sees fit (the Battle of Narva and the Winter War are two good examples of times when the General clearly sided with Russia's enemies). Russia's unhinged nature gets even worse after the point I'll be taking him from, and he gradually slips more and more into actual insanity, especially after finally snapping completely in 1905.
Abilities: He is a nation. That means that he is kind of immortal (canon has never shown a nation to be born or die. They "are found" as toddlers (for example America), and "leave" when their time is due, usually after a century or two of rapid aging (for example Rome).); this however doesn't mean that he can't get hurt - at least, canon doesn't seem to suggest that. APH has a lot of throw-away comic relief injuries, so it is hard to tell that and real injuries apart sometimes (what with incidents like Lithuania running around with an arrow in his head), but most players seem to assume that their bodies get hurt normally and just heal faster than a human's body would - and much more thoroughly.
Aside from being a nation, Ivan has a couple of abilities that he does not share with all other nations. While he loves warmth, he doesn't seem to suffer from the cold like others; centuries of living in the cold seem to have made him immune to it. But his immunity may not be limited to the cold. He dresses almost the same, no matter what the weather, despite having more than one set of clothes. That might indicate that he isn't affected by any temperature.
He walks with General Winter, they have a pact (the General is allowed to hurt Russia and invade his lands, but in return will protect him). The General is the personification of the Russian winter, and as such abuses him every year, but in return protects him from enemies. The General's abilities seem to be everything that you would expect from The Winter: Manipulating the temperature, freezing water and making it snow. (See Stalingrad)
Russia has a very high pain tolerance and, due to considering getting hurt rather normal, does not evade pain like a normal person would (the main Russian "tactic" has almost always been to use their advantage of having almost infinite human resources and a lot of land that made invading the country almost impossible. In nation-tan terms, that could be interpreted as Russia being able to take a lot without going down, and using that consciously to his advantage, not minding the getting hurt).
His whole body does not react strongly to external influences (when France groped him in the Christams strips, he just stood there and then told a baffled France that he didn't feel anything).
Sample Entry:D_M
Personal LJ: whatisnarva
Contact Info: plurk: whatisnarva, email: whatisnarvaATgmailDOTcom
Other Characters Played: N/A
Preferred Housing: N/A
Character Name: Ivan Braginsky | The Russian Empire
Character Series: Axis Powers Hetalia
Character Age: early twenties
Background:
Country & Character +1
History:
Russia was born in the vast, cold lands on the European side of the Ural. It is hard to say when he first met his sisters, but he certainly knew them from a very young age and they hung out together sometimes. [The following I talked about and agreed on with Nika - this follows the Varangian theory] The first adult nation that he met was Sweden, whom he knew as "Rus" and whose name he adopted because the Viking was not only cool and strong but he also treated him relatively nicely and helped him unite some of his tribes, enough to realize that he was a nation! But then the Vikings didn't come any more, and not too long after another adult came - Tartar, as Hetalia canon calls him. That time was not easy at all and is definitely one of the early reasons why he is not really behaving ...normal. He already acts weird when he meets Lithuania for the first time, which is during the Tartar Yoke - at least Lithuania comments on his behaviour to that effect.
But the times changed, and Tartar got weaker and weaker. Russia grew and after his territory had unified (by one little territory swallowing the others more or less violently - Russia's very upbringing and formation was not particularly peaceful, but on the other hand, which nation's is...), he started to reach out for others. Since they were the closest nations, his sisters were the first one whom he tried to take territory from and add his to his lands (they had also been the main victims to his raids before he became strong enough to make them pay tributes and such) and finally, he had grown enough to start and clash with the stronger countries around him.
This did not go over very well. Poland and Lithuania were not amused, nor was Sweden (or Ottoman, or any other power around him), and the Livonian wars and the Times of Troubles were not the only backlashes that he had to endure (though the Time of Troubles was probably the closest call, with Poland and Lithuania completely destroying one of the more fertile areas of his lands, his capital being occupied, and all the false Dimitries...).
Which makes it even more amazing what Peter the Great managed to achieve: When the Great Northern War started, Russia's army was a badly organized, not at all well-trained group of men. When it ended, only 23 years later, he had managed to beat one of the strongest and most fearsome armies of the time, and all of Europe went all "Who the heck is that and how did he do this?!" - a new major power had risen from rags to glory in less than 100 years. And Peter did not stop his reforms there. He, as well as his successors, had two major goals: Strengthen the motherland and at the same time make sure that it stayed itself - Panslavism was born during this time, originally to deal with the sudden gain of the non-Slavic former Swedish territories of Estonia and (parts of) Latvia and the cultural influence that they brought - as well as the "high cultural" influence from France and to a minor extent also other countries.
The next huge project was to build a new capital: St Petersburg, proud and white, made of stone and designed to follow the newest trends. A lot of sacrifices were made for it, but then it stood there. It was a way of Russia showing the other nations how far he had risen - and his rise would continue, his territory spreading to finally "bring home" his sisters, Lithuania, Finland, Siberia, parts of Poland, and other territories. Lithuania and Poland (and much later on Finland) turned out to be big troublemakers, but that only meant that he tightened his grip on them.
By 1812, where I will take him from, France invaded him during the Napoleonic wars, and is about to realize what a bad bad bad idea it is to piss of General Winter. He really could have learned from Sweden - on the other hand, Germany later on could have learned from France... Point is, while Russia is battered right now, he is far from broken, and the war is still on...
Personality:
At first glance, Ivan looks like a nice person, friendly, happy and well-adjusted, a bit like a giant child. That is, until you have talked with him for a while and noticed that some of his habits and opinions are a bit ...unique, including his way of interacting with others. Or until you pay closer attention to his smile. It seems a bit too ever-present (he seems to have a wide variety of them, from friendly to axe crazy, but there are very very few pictures of him that do not show him smiling), and combined with his height and the way that it sometimes doesn't match the tone and subject of the conversation at all, it seems creepy. It's also kind of empty most of the time, even if it reaches his eyes. Which it usually does.
This leads to the weird, but in his canon quite frequent experience that you can have completely normal (and positive) conversations with him that suddenly turn very unpleasant for Russia's conversational partner when Russia explains his words or draws logical conclusions. This does seem neither strange nor random nor creepy to him, at least not most of the time - he doesn't consider "I like them" and "They will be one with me/they'll be easy to control/etc opposites, for example. But he also tends to not realize when his actions hurt others or make them uncomfortable/unhappy if he didn't mean them to hurt the other person. Sure, he will use force and such to make people comply (and use it rather often, even for his time), but sometimes he only wants to help and it takes him a long time to realize that he did something wrong that might be fatal - like the unification of Estonia and Northern Latvia, or when he wanted to help Latvia stop shaking. His profile calls it "the cruelty of a child", which probably really describes him the best. He is like a child that holds a butterfly by its wings to be better able to look at it and see what will happen, not aware that it will severely damage and in the long run kill the creature. Additionally, he has been described to have the "simplicity of a country bumpkin" - something that, on the one hand,
Much in this line is Russia's wish to have everyone live with him. On the one hand, he doesn't want to be alone any more and if they try to leave, he will just not let them. On the other hand, having everyone stay with him, will, in his opinion, make everyone else happy as well. If he has to help them to their luck... well. All great achievements (for example the building of S. Petersburg) need to be forced. On the same note, until the other nations understand that they're happy with him, he has to make them stay. "Friendships" are about strength and domination/submission. You can only be friends with others if you are strong enough to make and keep them your friends. There is no such thing as "equal" ...later that will warp into a crude travesty of forced equality with him as the first among the equal. Communism in Russia only worked that well because it was NOT about letting people decide for themselves from the very beginning.
More generally speaking, Russia likes company... though he is rather the quiet, watching ...erm, yeah. Stalking would be the correct word here... party. It doesn't matter what kind of "lively" the others are, he seems to enjoy people yelling at each other just as much as them singing and being happy together, maybe more. As a reason he gives that he grew up in a lonely and cold place. He apparently also does not mind seeing those important to him with "troubled faces".
Russia is also a very hands-on person. He won't stop and ponder the advantages and disadvantages of something very long, or the fact that he might damage someone else's property or hurt himself or others. He also doesn't question orders when they come from someone who has the right and power to order him around.
Because he grew up in a place where he was alone, lonely, cold, constantly hurt by some invasion or another, starving, scared, and abandoned when he needed someone*, a lot of screws in his head seem to come a bit (or a bit more) loose. He had his own share of insane, overly cruel, or just ruthless and paranoid bosses, and on top of all that, he is General Winter's favourite... They have a pact, but, while nobody knows what exactly that entails, we can state two things: The General gets full reign of Russia for an extended amount of time every year (which is painful because it will always kill people and usually mean that there is not enough food), and in turn keeps his enemies at bay... as much as he sees fit (the Battle of Narva and the Winter War are two good examples of times when the General clearly sided with Russia's enemies). Russia's unhinged nature gets even worse after the point I'll be taking him from, and he gradually slips more and more into actual insanity, especially after finally snapping completely in 1905.
Abilities: He is a nation. That means that he is kind of immortal (canon has never shown a nation to be born or die. They "are found" as toddlers (for example America), and "leave" when their time is due, usually after a century or two of rapid aging (for example Rome).); this however doesn't mean that he can't get hurt - at least, canon doesn't seem to suggest that. APH has a lot of throw-away comic relief injuries, so it is hard to tell that and real injuries apart sometimes (what with incidents like Lithuania running around with an arrow in his head), but most players seem to assume that their bodies get hurt normally and just heal faster than a human's body would - and much more thoroughly.
Aside from being a nation, Ivan has a couple of abilities that he does not share with all other nations. While he loves warmth, he doesn't seem to suffer from the cold like others; centuries of living in the cold seem to have made him immune to it. But his immunity may not be limited to the cold. He dresses almost the same, no matter what the weather, despite having more than one set of clothes. That might indicate that he isn't affected by any temperature.
He walks with General Winter, they have a pact (the General is allowed to hurt Russia and invade his lands, but in return will protect him). The General is the personification of the Russian winter, and as such abuses him every year, but in return protects him from enemies. The General's abilities seem to be everything that you would expect from The Winter: Manipulating the temperature, freezing water and making it snow. (See Stalingrad)
Russia has a very high pain tolerance and, due to considering getting hurt rather normal, does not evade pain like a normal person would (the main Russian "tactic" has almost always been to use their advantage of having almost infinite human resources and a lot of land that made invading the country almost impossible. In nation-tan terms, that could be interpreted as Russia being able to take a lot without going down, and using that consciously to his advantage, not minding the getting hurt).
His whole body does not react strongly to external influences (when France groped him in the Christams strips, he just stood there and then told a baffled France that he didn't feel anything).
Sample Entry:D_M