ooc ♔ application @ realityshifted
Player Name: Mel
Player LJ: melissa_228
Email and/or AIM: melinelly228/meliorable@gmail.com
Timezone: EST
Other Characters:
brandyhabit
hostclubdaddy
shewalks_away
destinedking
suchatourist
superoptimistic
Character: Emperor Peony Upala Malkuth IX
Series/Fandom: Tales of the Abyss
Deviance: The Awesome Deviance - a.k.a.. Deviance 1
Age: Older than Jade! Or 36, depending on how you measure these things.
Gender: Male
Species: Emperorawesomus - or human. Either/or.
Canon Used: Game, anime, manga
Appearance: http://minikoalas.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/zero-raws-tales-of-the-abyss-24-raw-mx-1280x720-h264-aac_001_72281.png?w=500&h=281
Psychology: Imagine if some weird surfer guy somehow became king. That gives you a very simple glimpse at Peony.
Peony is very casual and laid back and carefree at first glance. The way he dresses, the way he sits on his thrown, the way he addresses those around him and seems to disregard formality altogether seem to be traits uncharacteristic of an Emperor. It’s hard to take him serious right away. This is in large part due to the fact that he doesn’t appear to take himself seriously. Despite this, he has a capacity for being able to make the difficult decisions that he may personally be unhappy with, but in the end will be for the good of his people. At the end of the series/game when Luke is being asked to make the ultimate sacrifice, Jade says he has the luxury of being selfish and wanting Luke to survive even if it endangers everyone. Peony doesn’t have this luxury and even if he likes Luke a lot (which he does clearly. He named a rappig after him after all!), he can’t hesitate in asking Luke to make this choice. The survival of his people trumps his own personal feelings. It’s why he’s still single.
Then again, Peony is a contradiction, and while his marital status (or lack thereof) is a testament to him putting his kingdom before his own desires (namely: Jade’s sister. She’s hot, okay, glasses and intellect are sexy), it’s also one of the instances of him putting himself first and foremost. His kingdom would be far more stable if there was an heir and a line of succession in place, yet almost twenty years on and he still refuses to marry. He’ll flirt because it’s fun, and with underage girls because there really is no potential for anything real, but he’s still stuck on Jade’s sister. So anyway, Peony can be Emperor Selfless and Emperor Selfish in contrasting ways. He’ll walk out of meetings, interrupt people at work, make important officials take care of his rappigs, troll people with costumes and basically do all kinds of childish and demanding things. It makes his long-suffering officials consider staging a revolution. And yet they haven’t, because despite all those things, when there are important decisions on the line, Peony will come through. There’s a reason all the people in Malkuth (but probably Kimlasca, too. I’d defect.) believe in him and have so much faith in him. He puts the welfare and the safety of his people as a whole above political in fighting and his own gains. He cares about his people and always has their concerns and troubles and happiness as his number one priority.
He also possesses a supreme confidence that can at times be unsettling. This is in stark contrast to Jade’s uncute and obnoxious behaviour. It’s amazing they grew up together. Jade can’t recall Peony ever growing up. He has stayed a child since birth. Jade, of course, was born old. And he’s only regressively getting younger by the day. Poor young Jade. Sucks to have Merlin’s Disease. Anyway! Peony is confident, very confident. His confidence is enough to make someone like Luke feel uneasy in fact, but again, confidence is a good thing for a leader to have, and his confidence allows his people and everyone who serves him (like Jade) to have faith in his leadership and in the future of Malkuth.
Peony’s flaws can actually be captured in his qualities and virtues. All those things that make him Emperor Awesome, the laid back surfer dude vibe and the lack of formalities and all that, they also point to a strange lifelessness and an almost Peter Pan type syndrome. He froze himself, his life, his desires and goals in those moments he was forced to become Emperor. There was a point where he had grown up dreams. He wanted to get married and have the life that goes along with that type of choice. He had to give all that up to become Emperor though, and since then he hasn’t let himself grow or mature into an adult. He’s living in an almost perpetual adolescence and he’s not really sure how (or maybe it’s just he’s unwilling) to act like an adult, since the one thing that indicated to him that type of maturity was denied him and instead he was married off to an entire kingdom. His mannerisms are adolescent, his style even more so, he refuses to marry, he spends his days surrounded by rappigs. Dist is still called Saphir and even if his four childhood friends can never be what they once were, he can pretend with his rappigs at least. He’s essentially a thirty-six year old Emperor who hasn’t moved beyond being an eighteen year old kid, and at this point he probably doesn’t even know how to do that properly. Interestingly enough (at least to me), the one thing he does show maturity for is his kingdom, which he was sort of married off to when he was left as the only heir, so in an odd way marriage has proven to be that thing that lends him some maturity despite everything else.
Part of him resents being thrown into the role of Emperor though. He was forced to give up the people he likes and the thing he likes for the good of his people. It’s a choice he wouldn’t change, and he knows it’s the right choice, but it’s also a painful one. Part of the reason why he wouldn’t want to produce an heir is because he wouldn’t want to make his own child have to submit to those choices and those pressures. If there were a way to give up being Emperor and to know that Malkuth would be left safe and peaceful, he would do it in an instant. His Sense of Duty won’t allow him to do this though, but the idea of retiring somewhere on a farm in the country with just his rappigs is tempting. As it is though, he’s stuck as Emperor, and there is a boredom and frustration that comes with the role. He can feel trapped and suffocated in it, stagnant in a way, as nothing really ever changes and it’s the same routine day in and day out. It’s why he does act so juvenile so often, it’s the only way to make things more bearable. He is happy though, and he finds ways to make himself happy, as anything less seems dull and pathetic, but he does also feel unfulfilled.
He’s outgoing and friendly and can be overly familiar with people very quickly. He’ll treat someone like he’s known them forever, even if he’s only known them for a few minutes. He’ll flirt shamelessly with someone, despite any lack of real interest, just because he can. Human interaction is something he values a lot, and living the life of a sheltered Emperor, he doesn’t get that much of a variety of interactions, so he jumps all over any new ones he can gain.
Other Skills/Abilities: Beyond being awesome and older than Jade? He’s pretty much human, he has no fonic skills. He’s awesome at finding amazing cosplay costumes for the party though! And he’s good with animals, particularly rappigs.
Other Weaknesses: He has all the usual human weaknesses.
History: Peony was born the illegitimate son of the Emperor of Malkuth. The Emperor had three other sons, so the chances of Peony becoming Emperor seemed slim to none. Nevertheless, the Emperor wasn’t very popular and had a great deal of enemies. So Peony was sent to Keterburg, a very pretty and snowy town in Auldrant to be educated in relative isolation. While living there, he befriends Jade, Nephry and Saphir and they all attend school with Nebilim as their teacher. It is a snowy idyllic childhood with fun things until one day Jade proves how stupid and uncute he is, and goes and accidentally kills Nebilim and then decides the best way to fix this is to make a replica of her. Of course, this goes horribly wrong and Nebilim is crazy and blood thirsty and dangerous, and totally not their beloved teacher. Jade, you suck.
But anyway, Peony loved his friends (even Saphir who was jealous of anyone that seemed to be friends with Jade, and especially Nephry, because she was super cute unlike her brother) and things were happy if not a bit worrisome after Jade and Saphir ran away to be mad scientists or something. So, Peony took this time to get to know Nephry better, bringing her news of her brother and Saphir and in the process falling in love with her.
Of course, it couldn’t be as happy as that, and Peony’s brothers start dying one after the other, until he is left as the lone heir to the kingdom. He is quickly told that he’s not allowed to be with Nephry due to their different social status, which he refuses to accept at first. So he keeps visiting the capital, getting training in becoming emperor, writing letters to Nephry, and hoping against hope that they will be able to be together.
These were not the most peaceful times, even aside from the death of Peony’s brothers. There was also a war going down with Kimlasca that was happening around the island of Hod, a Malkuth territory. It just so happened that Jade and Saphir and some others were conducting fomicry research on the island. A peace treaty between Kimlasca and Malkuth ending the war, but Peony’s dad who was Emperor was extra paranoid. The Emperor did not want to risk Kimlasca discovering the research that Malkuth had been conducting? So what is a person to do? Hook an eleven-year old up to a machine and destroy the entire island. In order to make people settle down in Malkuth and quiet down any anti-war sentiments in the nation, the destruction of Hod was blamed on Kimlasca.
During this time Peony is settling into his life in the Palace and Jade is living and working there as well, since his work in Hod came to such a sudden stop. Peony comes to visit Jade and awkwardly finds him in the middle of a replica experiment gone wrong, literally with blood on his hands. To say Peony isn’t pleased is an understatement. Peony asks Jade how many times he’ll have to kill Nebilim until he stops this madness. Shortly after that Jade is involved in an accident involving his work, because he’s stupid and uncute. Peony is even more displeased than he was before. He yells at Jade, telling him he is selfish and to consider what Jade’s death would do to Nebilim, Saphir, and Peony. Peony also punches Jade for good measure. Somehow, this gets through to Jade and Peony convinces Jade to stop his research. Saphir is very unhappy with this development. He concludes that Jade has been corrupted, that it’s Peony’s fault, and so he’ll bring Nebilim back and then that will bring the old Jade back, too. So Saphir runs off and starts calling himself Dist the Rose. Everyone else calls him Dist the Runny or Dist the Reaper. Peony still calls him Saphir.
So with that all taken care of, things should be somewhat easier. Of course, they’re not. Around this time Nephry has her Score read for the year, and it tells her she will marry someone that isn’t Peony. Peony is all BROOKLYN RAEG so Jade tells him to go off and say goodbye to Nephry at least. So they have a sad goodbye, Peony’s father dies while Peony is away, and when he returns Peony is made Emperor of Malkuth.
From this point on nothing really changes too much for a while. Malkuth has many tensions with Kimlasca, their rival nation. There are wars and bad feelings, but the people of Malkuth still seem to trust in Peony. This is probably due to the fact that he’s a much kinder and more rational leader than his father was, too.
Peony isn’t too happy with the constant fighting and friction though, and as the game begins he sends Jade out to go talk to the Fon Master Ion, hoping that Ion will help bring a peace treaty between Malkuth and Kimlasca. They almost have a peace treaty when Kimlasca agrees to rescue the people in the Malkuth mining town of Akzeriuth, but that turns bad when Master Van tricks Luke into destroying the town instead of saving it.
Everyone assumes the party died in the destruction of the town. While most of his advisors say that Jade is dead, Peony refuses to believe it’s true. Kimlasca assumes Natalia and Luke died as well. This leads to a formal declaration of war from Kimlasca to Malkuth. Both countries believe the destruction of the Alkzeriuth was a deliberate way to start a war.
But! Jade comes home again. He’s alive, which is awesome, as it would be super sad if Jade died. Peony is just whatever about it though, as he knew Jade would live just because. Jade also infodumps at Peony and tells him all about the party’s adventures in the planet’s core. This is also around the time that news comes of St. Binah sinking. Because of the declaration of war by Kimlasca, Malkuth can do nothing to save its people. This bums Peony out a lot. Luke volunteers to go save everyone though, and Jade and the rest of the party agree, so off to St. Binah they go. They rescue most of the people, but the town still sinks.
After the St. Binah rescue the party does some more questing as they do. In the course of the parties questing to save the planet and stuff, they keep lowering Peony’s territories which is a downer. His poor people and their poor lands. And thus the Outer Lands were being lowered down into the Lower Lands. To add insult to injury, during ths time Eldrant appears, floating up above for all of Auldrant to see. This isn’t good at all. The New Order of Lorelei is glad for this though, as they are all SUBMIT OR ELSE, WE HAVE A GIANT FLYING THING IN THE SKY!!! So that kind of gets the peace movement going again. Luke, Guy, Tear and Natalia go off to talk to Ingobert. Jade, Ion, and Anise come to Peony wanting to try for peace again. Peony is all up for that, because war is such a hassle. So Jade and company are off again to get a flightstone off of Saphir that they’ll need to talk to fly down to the city of Yulia.
The party is successful and they return with the flightstone. The nations sit down for peace talks, but Guy is wary, since the last time there was a peace treaty, Kimlasca broke it by destroying Hod. At this point, Peony speaks up and tells Guy that the destruction of Hod was actually Malkuth’s fault, as Peony’s dad destroyed the city in order to cover up fonic research the Malkuth empire was conducting. Things are awkward for a bit, but then Guy relents and peace talks continue until a peace treaty is signed. Finally.
Oh! But then something nice happens! Jade finds Saphir and brings him home, so now Peony can visit him in prison. He even lets Saphir keep his chair, because yay, it’s Saphir. Even if Saphir is less than happy to have to spend time with Peony. Jade also has some epic battle that Peony doesn’t even get to watch or anything, but he does bring Guy home with him! Which is fun, because Guy is so good at walking the rappigs, so Peony is happy.
Around this time too both kingdoms decide to disregard the Score and start living life freely. This is hard for people to adjust to, but they do start coming around. What is more difficult for people to adjust to are all the replicas now in the world. They are not being treated terribly kindly and are being used for, well, untoward purposes. It’s not very fun being a replica anywhere on Auldrant.
Some other stuff happened during this time of relative peace. Someone was silly enough to try to kill Peony. Jade overreacted in a stupid way, even though Peony TOTALLY had it under control. Sigh, the uncute Jade. And then Saphir escapes from prison! This is sad, and kind of bad. Oh and Mohs escapes, too, but whatever.
Still, escaping prisoners isn’t to be taken too lightly. The core vibrations also started being wonky again during all this. Peony sends Guy to talk to Ion about the prisoners and the core vibrations, since he knows that Guy knows Ion personally. So the old gang is getting back together, sort of.
BUT! The worst happens. Aslan dies in what appears at first to be an attack by the Kimlascan military. It quickly becomes clear though that it was Mohs sending in replicas dressed in Kimlascan military uniforms to attack Malkuth in hopes of starting war between the two nations. Peony and Ingobert don’t fall for it this time.
As if this string of bad luck weren’t enough, Peony loses his rappigs. Fortunately the party is good for something, and Peony rewards them for finding his rappigs (Jade, Nephry, Saphir, Aslan, Nebilim, and Luke) by giving them costumes. Peony is awesome at cosplay and Jade needs all the help he can get.
So the kids go off again to do stuff, and they only bring back more bad news. Peony wonders if this is all Jade is good for, le sigh. Jade tells Peony that there needs to be another summit with all the nations, Peony is cool with that Jade goes back to do stuff with his young friends, Peony chills in the meantime as he does. Of course when he comes back, Jade has to bring more bad news, like the fact that Saphir is dead now, too. This is a really bad year. Really, really bad. Peony doesn’t like to believe his friends are dead when there is no body, mostly because his friends are suspicious and crafty, so he doesn’t truly accept this fact.
But now it’s time for the nation’s to have their summit. There is huge miasma that is going to destroy the planet, and they need to make the destruction of the planet not happen if at all possible. Ingobert doesn’t want to send Asch to die, so Peony asks Jade for an alternative. The only alternative Jade can come up with is Luke, which blows.
So the party goes off to save the planet, which will most likely come at the cost of Luke. The party goes off and fights some God Generals, but they have not yet completed their task of getting rid of the miasma.
So Jade and company head off for to take care of the miasma. They manage to get rid of the excess miasma and save the planet. This also comes at the cost of the the lives of 10,000 replicas. Luke seems to survive though, but his fonons are actually disappearing. With the planet safe again, there is the issue of all the replicas that weren’t sacrificed. The ones who did lost their lives did it on the basis that the remaining replicas would be taken care of and not mistreated as they were in the past. Peony agrees that the replicas will have a home with equal rights in Malkuth.
Thus the party returns needing Stuff. Peony decides to make them work for it, but then Jade is all disgusting and polite and Peony can’t take it, so he gives them whatever they want. Peony also decides to bug Jade while he researches, because that’s fun, and they find some records are missing. Obviously this is Saphir’s doing.
So the party once again leaves, going questing and things for missing Stuff. Along the way they found Saphir again! He was totally alive! This is awesome and stuff. Peony plays the party line and says they’ll have to catch Saphir, but really why would he want to cage up his dear friend? Of course, Saphir is Saphir and he’s quickly and easily caught despite the way his friends bend the rules.
The city of Eldrant is rising though and Lorelei is still trapped in the core. For the safety of Auldrant, Eldrent needs to be destroyed and Lorelei will be freed. The party takes off for their last quest. They succeed in their mission, but this also comes at the cost of the lives of both Luke and Asch.
Canon Point: After the destruction of Eldrant but before LukeAsch person returns.
Reality:
Our setting is the planet Auldrant. There are three major powers here: Malkuth, Kimlasca, and Daath. Peony, being emperor, lives a pretty sheltered life and doesn’t see much outside of Malkuth.
He grew up in Ketersburg, which is a snowy town in the north of Malkuth. It’s very pretty and used to have a school before Jade blew it up. There probably is another school house there now though. There’s also a mansionhouse where Peony lived and was locked away in for a while. Fortunately young Jade and young Saphir broke in out of curiosity and Peony was able to threaten them into being his friends. There are also snowmen and sleds and everything you imagine in a winter wonderland. There’s a pub that Jade frequents a lot in his adult form, because he is a burgeoning alcoholic or something. There’s also the mayor’s house where Nephry lives with her husband, the Mayor, but Peony doesn’t enjoy talking about that very much.
Our major setting is Grand Chokmah, though, the capitol of Malkuth and the location of the Emperial Palace. The place is HUGE. There are waterfalls and large rooms and lots of pathways and barns and bridges and just...it’s a really nice palace. The throne room is large and pretty empty except for Peony’s throne. It’s about the size of an car showroom. This is where people encounter Peony most of the time.
The palace is pretty large though and easily accessible, since he allows the party to explore it at their leisure.
There’s also Jade’s office. Peony has his own pile of books in the corner, as well as rubble littering the room from when Peony literally drops in on Jade. Peony enjoys annoying Jade keeping Jade company, so he’ll chill in there while Jade is supposedly working.
There are conference rooms as well, used for peace treaty meetings and council meetings. When these are standard daily meetings with advisors, Peony is known to walk out in the middle of them just because he’s bored. There are also libraries and studies and places for research.
There’s also a prison in Grand Chokmah. Peony goes there to visit whenever one of his old friends has found themselves arrested for something silly. It’s surprisingly easy for Peony’s friends to escape, too. It just goes to show how clever Peony’s friends are.
Peony also has a sword collection. People bring him swords back from wherever, so he has a ton of them. He is horrible at keeping things in order though, so the sword collection basically consists of a room with swords lying haphazardously around the place.
Walking through any town in Malkuth, it’s apparent from talking to the people that Peony is a well-loved ruler. Every citizen seems to have faith in his choices and believe things will turn out okay, because Emperor Peony says so.
There is also Kimlasca, where Luke and Natalia and Guy lived. It’s a very nice place too, although the citizens don’t seem to have as much faith in their ruler.
The world of Auldrant was once ruled by the Score. The Score was a book that predicted the future, and the people of Auldrant followed it religiously. Eventually the Score was abolished, although this has proven difficult for some people. The world is also filled with replicas now. It has been hard for them to adjust, although the rulers of all nations are now doing their best to support and help the new replicas, despite some hostilities from the non-replica population.
The world of Auldrant is also run by fonons. Fonons are the basis for everything. They are the equivalent of atoms on earth. A person is made of fonons, and what might be called magic, is controlled by the absorption and release of fonons. Too many fonons can be dangerous and lead to the destruction of the planet, but too few would be bad as well since fonons are needed in order for the planet to survive.
Player LJ: melissa_228
Email and/or AIM: melinelly228/meliorable@gmail.com
Timezone: EST
Other Characters:
brandyhabit
hostclubdaddy
shewalks_away
destinedking
suchatourist
superoptimistic
Character: Emperor Peony Upala Malkuth IX
Series/Fandom: Tales of the Abyss
Deviance: The Awesome Deviance - a.k.a.. Deviance 1
Age: Older than Jade! Or 36, depending on how you measure these things.
Gender: Male
Species: Emperorawesomus - or human. Either/or.
Canon Used: Game, anime, manga
Appearance: http://minikoalas.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/zero-raws-tales-of-the-abyss-24-raw-mx-1280x720-h264-aac_001_72281.png?w=500&h=281
Psychology: Imagine if some weird surfer guy somehow became king. That gives you a very simple glimpse at Peony.
Peony is very casual and laid back and carefree at first glance. The way he dresses, the way he sits on his thrown, the way he addresses those around him and seems to disregard formality altogether seem to be traits uncharacteristic of an Emperor. It’s hard to take him serious right away. This is in large part due to the fact that he doesn’t appear to take himself seriously. Despite this, he has a capacity for being able to make the difficult decisions that he may personally be unhappy with, but in the end will be for the good of his people. At the end of the series/game when Luke is being asked to make the ultimate sacrifice, Jade says he has the luxury of being selfish and wanting Luke to survive even if it endangers everyone. Peony doesn’t have this luxury and even if he likes Luke a lot (which he does clearly. He named a rappig after him after all!), he can’t hesitate in asking Luke to make this choice. The survival of his people trumps his own personal feelings. It’s why he’s still single.
Then again, Peony is a contradiction, and while his marital status (or lack thereof) is a testament to him putting his kingdom before his own desires (namely: Jade’s sister. She’s hot, okay, glasses and intellect are sexy), it’s also one of the instances of him putting himself first and foremost. His kingdom would be far more stable if there was an heir and a line of succession in place, yet almost twenty years on and he still refuses to marry. He’ll flirt because it’s fun, and with underage girls because there really is no potential for anything real, but he’s still stuck on Jade’s sister. So anyway, Peony can be Emperor Selfless and Emperor Selfish in contrasting ways. He’ll walk out of meetings, interrupt people at work, make important officials take care of his rappigs, troll people with costumes and basically do all kinds of childish and demanding things. It makes his long-suffering officials consider staging a revolution. And yet they haven’t, because despite all those things, when there are important decisions on the line, Peony will come through. There’s a reason all the people in Malkuth (but probably Kimlasca, too. I’d defect.) believe in him and have so much faith in him. He puts the welfare and the safety of his people as a whole above political in fighting and his own gains. He cares about his people and always has their concerns and troubles and happiness as his number one priority.
He also possesses a supreme confidence that can at times be unsettling. This is in stark contrast to Jade’s uncute and obnoxious behaviour. It’s amazing they grew up together. Jade can’t recall Peony ever growing up. He has stayed a child since birth. Jade, of course, was born old. And he’s only regressively getting younger by the day. Poor young Jade. Sucks to have Merlin’s Disease. Anyway! Peony is confident, very confident. His confidence is enough to make someone like Luke feel uneasy in fact, but again, confidence is a good thing for a leader to have, and his confidence allows his people and everyone who serves him (like Jade) to have faith in his leadership and in the future of Malkuth.
Peony’s flaws can actually be captured in his qualities and virtues. All those things that make him Emperor Awesome, the laid back surfer dude vibe and the lack of formalities and all that, they also point to a strange lifelessness and an almost Peter Pan type syndrome. He froze himself, his life, his desires and goals in those moments he was forced to become Emperor. There was a point where he had grown up dreams. He wanted to get married and have the life that goes along with that type of choice. He had to give all that up to become Emperor though, and since then he hasn’t let himself grow or mature into an adult. He’s living in an almost perpetual adolescence and he’s not really sure how (or maybe it’s just he’s unwilling) to act like an adult, since the one thing that indicated to him that type of maturity was denied him and instead he was married off to an entire kingdom. His mannerisms are adolescent, his style even more so, he refuses to marry, he spends his days surrounded by rappigs. Dist is still called Saphir and even if his four childhood friends can never be what they once were, he can pretend with his rappigs at least. He’s essentially a thirty-six year old Emperor who hasn’t moved beyond being an eighteen year old kid, and at this point he probably doesn’t even know how to do that properly. Interestingly enough (at least to me), the one thing he does show maturity for is his kingdom, which he was sort of married off to when he was left as the only heir, so in an odd way marriage has proven to be that thing that lends him some maturity despite everything else.
Part of him resents being thrown into the role of Emperor though. He was forced to give up the people he likes and the thing he likes for the good of his people. It’s a choice he wouldn’t change, and he knows it’s the right choice, but it’s also a painful one. Part of the reason why he wouldn’t want to produce an heir is because he wouldn’t want to make his own child have to submit to those choices and those pressures. If there were a way to give up being Emperor and to know that Malkuth would be left safe and peaceful, he would do it in an instant. His Sense of Duty won’t allow him to do this though, but the idea of retiring somewhere on a farm in the country with just his rappigs is tempting. As it is though, he’s stuck as Emperor, and there is a boredom and frustration that comes with the role. He can feel trapped and suffocated in it, stagnant in a way, as nothing really ever changes and it’s the same routine day in and day out. It’s why he does act so juvenile so often, it’s the only way to make things more bearable. He is happy though, and he finds ways to make himself happy, as anything less seems dull and pathetic, but he does also feel unfulfilled.
He’s outgoing and friendly and can be overly familiar with people very quickly. He’ll treat someone like he’s known them forever, even if he’s only known them for a few minutes. He’ll flirt shamelessly with someone, despite any lack of real interest, just because he can. Human interaction is something he values a lot, and living the life of a sheltered Emperor, he doesn’t get that much of a variety of interactions, so he jumps all over any new ones he can gain.
Other Skills/Abilities: Beyond being awesome and older than Jade? He’s pretty much human, he has no fonic skills. He’s awesome at finding amazing cosplay costumes for the party though! And he’s good with animals, particularly rappigs.
Other Weaknesses: He has all the usual human weaknesses.
History: Peony was born the illegitimate son of the Emperor of Malkuth. The Emperor had three other sons, so the chances of Peony becoming Emperor seemed slim to none. Nevertheless, the Emperor wasn’t very popular and had a great deal of enemies. So Peony was sent to Keterburg, a very pretty and snowy town in Auldrant to be educated in relative isolation. While living there, he befriends Jade, Nephry and Saphir and they all attend school with Nebilim as their teacher. It is a snowy idyllic childhood with fun things until one day Jade proves how stupid and uncute he is, and goes and accidentally kills Nebilim and then decides the best way to fix this is to make a replica of her. Of course, this goes horribly wrong and Nebilim is crazy and blood thirsty and dangerous, and totally not their beloved teacher. Jade, you suck.
But anyway, Peony loved his friends (even Saphir who was jealous of anyone that seemed to be friends with Jade, and especially Nephry, because she was super cute unlike her brother) and things were happy if not a bit worrisome after Jade and Saphir ran away to be mad scientists or something. So, Peony took this time to get to know Nephry better, bringing her news of her brother and Saphir and in the process falling in love with her.
Of course, it couldn’t be as happy as that, and Peony’s brothers start dying one after the other, until he is left as the lone heir to the kingdom. He is quickly told that he’s not allowed to be with Nephry due to their different social status, which he refuses to accept at first. So he keeps visiting the capital, getting training in becoming emperor, writing letters to Nephry, and hoping against hope that they will be able to be together.
These were not the most peaceful times, even aside from the death of Peony’s brothers. There was also a war going down with Kimlasca that was happening around the island of Hod, a Malkuth territory. It just so happened that Jade and Saphir and some others were conducting fomicry research on the island. A peace treaty between Kimlasca and Malkuth ending the war, but Peony’s dad who was Emperor was extra paranoid. The Emperor did not want to risk Kimlasca discovering the research that Malkuth had been conducting? So what is a person to do? Hook an eleven-year old up to a machine and destroy the entire island. In order to make people settle down in Malkuth and quiet down any anti-war sentiments in the nation, the destruction of Hod was blamed on Kimlasca.
During this time Peony is settling into his life in the Palace and Jade is living and working there as well, since his work in Hod came to such a sudden stop. Peony comes to visit Jade and awkwardly finds him in the middle of a replica experiment gone wrong, literally with blood on his hands. To say Peony isn’t pleased is an understatement. Peony asks Jade how many times he’ll have to kill Nebilim until he stops this madness. Shortly after that Jade is involved in an accident involving his work, because he’s stupid and uncute. Peony is even more displeased than he was before. He yells at Jade, telling him he is selfish and to consider what Jade’s death would do to Nebilim, Saphir, and Peony. Peony also punches Jade for good measure. Somehow, this gets through to Jade and Peony convinces Jade to stop his research. Saphir is very unhappy with this development. He concludes that Jade has been corrupted, that it’s Peony’s fault, and so he’ll bring Nebilim back and then that will bring the old Jade back, too. So Saphir runs off and starts calling himself Dist the Rose. Everyone else calls him Dist the Runny or Dist the Reaper. Peony still calls him Saphir.
So with that all taken care of, things should be somewhat easier. Of course, they’re not. Around this time Nephry has her Score read for the year, and it tells her she will marry someone that isn’t Peony. Peony is all BROOKLYN RAEG so Jade tells him to go off and say goodbye to Nephry at least. So they have a sad goodbye, Peony’s father dies while Peony is away, and when he returns Peony is made Emperor of Malkuth.
From this point on nothing really changes too much for a while. Malkuth has many tensions with Kimlasca, their rival nation. There are wars and bad feelings, but the people of Malkuth still seem to trust in Peony. This is probably due to the fact that he’s a much kinder and more rational leader than his father was, too.
Peony isn’t too happy with the constant fighting and friction though, and as the game begins he sends Jade out to go talk to the Fon Master Ion, hoping that Ion will help bring a peace treaty between Malkuth and Kimlasca. They almost have a peace treaty when Kimlasca agrees to rescue the people in the Malkuth mining town of Akzeriuth, but that turns bad when Master Van tricks Luke into destroying the town instead of saving it.
Everyone assumes the party died in the destruction of the town. While most of his advisors say that Jade is dead, Peony refuses to believe it’s true. Kimlasca assumes Natalia and Luke died as well. This leads to a formal declaration of war from Kimlasca to Malkuth. Both countries believe the destruction of the Alkzeriuth was a deliberate way to start a war.
But! Jade comes home again. He’s alive, which is awesome, as it would be super sad if Jade died. Peony is just whatever about it though, as he knew Jade would live just because. Jade also infodumps at Peony and tells him all about the party’s adventures in the planet’s core. This is also around the time that news comes of St. Binah sinking. Because of the declaration of war by Kimlasca, Malkuth can do nothing to save its people. This bums Peony out a lot. Luke volunteers to go save everyone though, and Jade and the rest of the party agree, so off to St. Binah they go. They rescue most of the people, but the town still sinks.
After the St. Binah rescue the party does some more questing as they do. In the course of the parties questing to save the planet and stuff, they keep lowering Peony’s territories which is a downer. His poor people and their poor lands. And thus the Outer Lands were being lowered down into the Lower Lands. To add insult to injury, during ths time Eldrant appears, floating up above for all of Auldrant to see. This isn’t good at all. The New Order of Lorelei is glad for this though, as they are all SUBMIT OR ELSE, WE HAVE A GIANT FLYING THING IN THE SKY!!! So that kind of gets the peace movement going again. Luke, Guy, Tear and Natalia go off to talk to Ingobert. Jade, Ion, and Anise come to Peony wanting to try for peace again. Peony is all up for that, because war is such a hassle. So Jade and company are off again to get a flightstone off of Saphir that they’ll need to talk to fly down to the city of Yulia.
The party is successful and they return with the flightstone. The nations sit down for peace talks, but Guy is wary, since the last time there was a peace treaty, Kimlasca broke it by destroying Hod. At this point, Peony speaks up and tells Guy that the destruction of Hod was actually Malkuth’s fault, as Peony’s dad destroyed the city in order to cover up fonic research the Malkuth empire was conducting. Things are awkward for a bit, but then Guy relents and peace talks continue until a peace treaty is signed. Finally.
Oh! But then something nice happens! Jade finds Saphir and brings him home, so now Peony can visit him in prison. He even lets Saphir keep his chair, because yay, it’s Saphir. Even if Saphir is less than happy to have to spend time with Peony. Jade also has some epic battle that Peony doesn’t even get to watch or anything, but he does bring Guy home with him! Which is fun, because Guy is so good at walking the rappigs, so Peony is happy.
Around this time too both kingdoms decide to disregard the Score and start living life freely. This is hard for people to adjust to, but they do start coming around. What is more difficult for people to adjust to are all the replicas now in the world. They are not being treated terribly kindly and are being used for, well, untoward purposes. It’s not very fun being a replica anywhere on Auldrant.
Some other stuff happened during this time of relative peace. Someone was silly enough to try to kill Peony. Jade overreacted in a stupid way, even though Peony TOTALLY had it under control. Sigh, the uncute Jade. And then Saphir escapes from prison! This is sad, and kind of bad. Oh and Mohs escapes, too, but whatever.
Still, escaping prisoners isn’t to be taken too lightly. The core vibrations also started being wonky again during all this. Peony sends Guy to talk to Ion about the prisoners and the core vibrations, since he knows that Guy knows Ion personally. So the old gang is getting back together, sort of.
BUT! The worst happens. Aslan dies in what appears at first to be an attack by the Kimlascan military. It quickly becomes clear though that it was Mohs sending in replicas dressed in Kimlascan military uniforms to attack Malkuth in hopes of starting war between the two nations. Peony and Ingobert don’t fall for it this time.
As if this string of bad luck weren’t enough, Peony loses his rappigs. Fortunately the party is good for something, and Peony rewards them for finding his rappigs (Jade, Nephry, Saphir, Aslan, Nebilim, and Luke) by giving them costumes. Peony is awesome at cosplay and Jade needs all the help he can get.
So the kids go off again to do stuff, and they only bring back more bad news. Peony wonders if this is all Jade is good for, le sigh. Jade tells Peony that there needs to be another summit with all the nations, Peony is cool with that Jade goes back to do stuff with his young friends, Peony chills in the meantime as he does. Of course when he comes back, Jade has to bring more bad news, like the fact that Saphir is dead now, too. This is a really bad year. Really, really bad. Peony doesn’t like to believe his friends are dead when there is no body, mostly because his friends are suspicious and crafty, so he doesn’t truly accept this fact.
But now it’s time for the nation’s to have their summit. There is huge miasma that is going to destroy the planet, and they need to make the destruction of the planet not happen if at all possible. Ingobert doesn’t want to send Asch to die, so Peony asks Jade for an alternative. The only alternative Jade can come up with is Luke, which blows.
So the party goes off to save the planet, which will most likely come at the cost of Luke. The party goes off and fights some God Generals, but they have not yet completed their task of getting rid of the miasma.
So Jade and company head off for to take care of the miasma. They manage to get rid of the excess miasma and save the planet. This also comes at the cost of the the lives of 10,000 replicas. Luke seems to survive though, but his fonons are actually disappearing. With the planet safe again, there is the issue of all the replicas that weren’t sacrificed. The ones who did lost their lives did it on the basis that the remaining replicas would be taken care of and not mistreated as they were in the past. Peony agrees that the replicas will have a home with equal rights in Malkuth.
Thus the party returns needing Stuff. Peony decides to make them work for it, but then Jade is all disgusting and polite and Peony can’t take it, so he gives them whatever they want. Peony also decides to bug Jade while he researches, because that’s fun, and they find some records are missing. Obviously this is Saphir’s doing.
So the party once again leaves, going questing and things for missing Stuff. Along the way they found Saphir again! He was totally alive! This is awesome and stuff. Peony plays the party line and says they’ll have to catch Saphir, but really why would he want to cage up his dear friend? Of course, Saphir is Saphir and he’s quickly and easily caught despite the way his friends bend the rules.
The city of Eldrant is rising though and Lorelei is still trapped in the core. For the safety of Auldrant, Eldrent needs to be destroyed and Lorelei will be freed. The party takes off for their last quest. They succeed in their mission, but this also comes at the cost of the lives of both Luke and Asch.
Canon Point: After the destruction of Eldrant but before LukeAsch person returns.
Reality:
Our setting is the planet Auldrant. There are three major powers here: Malkuth, Kimlasca, and Daath. Peony, being emperor, lives a pretty sheltered life and doesn’t see much outside of Malkuth.
He grew up in Ketersburg, which is a snowy town in the north of Malkuth. It’s very pretty and used to have a school before Jade blew it up. There probably is another school house there now though. There’s also a mansionhouse where Peony lived and was locked away in for a while. Fortunately young Jade and young Saphir broke in out of curiosity and Peony was able to threaten them into being his friends. There are also snowmen and sleds and everything you imagine in a winter wonderland. There’s a pub that Jade frequents a lot in his adult form, because he is a burgeoning alcoholic or something. There’s also the mayor’s house where Nephry lives with her husband, the Mayor, but Peony doesn’t enjoy talking about that very much.
Our major setting is Grand Chokmah, though, the capitol of Malkuth and the location of the Emperial Palace. The place is HUGE. There are waterfalls and large rooms and lots of pathways and barns and bridges and just...it’s a really nice palace. The throne room is large and pretty empty except for Peony’s throne. It’s about the size of an car showroom. This is where people encounter Peony most of the time.
The palace is pretty large though and easily accessible, since he allows the party to explore it at their leisure.
There’s also Jade’s office. Peony has his own pile of books in the corner, as well as rubble littering the room from when Peony literally drops in on Jade. Peony enjoys annoying Jade keeping Jade company, so he’ll chill in there while Jade is supposedly working.
There are conference rooms as well, used for peace treaty meetings and council meetings. When these are standard daily meetings with advisors, Peony is known to walk out in the middle of them just because he’s bored. There are also libraries and studies and places for research.
There’s also a prison in Grand Chokmah. Peony goes there to visit whenever one of his old friends has found themselves arrested for something silly. It’s surprisingly easy for Peony’s friends to escape, too. It just goes to show how clever Peony’s friends are.
Peony also has a sword collection. People bring him swords back from wherever, so he has a ton of them. He is horrible at keeping things in order though, so the sword collection basically consists of a room with swords lying haphazardously around the place.
Walking through any town in Malkuth, it’s apparent from talking to the people that Peony is a well-loved ruler. Every citizen seems to have faith in his choices and believe things will turn out okay, because Emperor Peony says so.
There is also Kimlasca, where Luke and Natalia and Guy lived. It’s a very nice place too, although the citizens don’t seem to have as much faith in their ruler.
The world of Auldrant was once ruled by the Score. The Score was a book that predicted the future, and the people of Auldrant followed it religiously. Eventually the Score was abolished, although this has proven difficult for some people. The world is also filled with replicas now. It has been hard for them to adjust, although the rulers of all nations are now doing their best to support and help the new replicas, despite some hostilities from the non-replica population.
The world of Auldrant is also run by fonons. Fonons are the basis for everything. They are the equivalent of atoms on earth. A person is made of fonons, and what might be called magic, is controlled by the absorption and release of fonons. Too many fonons can be dangerous and lead to the destruction of the planet, but too few would be bad as well since fonons are needed in order for the planet to survive.