Cape And Cowl Application
[PLAYER INFO]
NAME: Cap
AGE: 35
JOURNAL: capsulecorp_tm
IM: AIM: EchoGreen2
E-MAIL: mycapsulecorp@gmail.com
RETURNING: yes! Alastair hackeralastair and Sanji notadartboard
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Geddoe
FANDOM: Suikoden III
CHRONOLOGY: approximately one month post-game, (good game ending where Hugo is the Flame Champion and Luc is defeated)
CLASS: Hero
SUPERHERO NAME: Raijin (not that he'll ever use it)
ALTER EGO: n/a
BACKGROUND:
The Suikoden world is a pre-industrialized world, with cultures that hearken to medieval and late-century, pre-industrial civilizations. Some are European-based, some are more exotic, and there are multiple non-human races all over, from elves and dwarves to Lizards and Ducks. It is a world of sword and sorcery, where wars are fought on the ground with swords and arrows and magic takes the form of Runes. Mages use runes to control elemental powers and perform other magic, and anyone with the aptitude can carry a rune. This world has its own creation story, which involves the spawning of the 27 True Runes - runes so powerful they could almost be like gods themselves. Countries start wars over these runes, and great evil is done so that men may possess a True Rune, but they come with a heavy price. A True Rune-bearer does not die naturally, but continues on in an endless life for so long as they bear the rune, but if they are killed, it finds a new host or becomes dormant in a crystal. The Rune itself is said to have a will of its own, and each True Rune will do its best to bend the will of its host to carry out that will. The weak-minded become nothing more than slaves to the Runes, while the strong-willed must endure a lifetime of constant nagging, nightmares, precognitive visions, and the torment of seeing everyone they love grow old and die while they remain stagnant. Some True Runes are even more unpredictable, and can drive the host insane or suck away their life force.
The nation of Harmonia is said to be ruled by a man with a True Rune, and as a result, its national policy is to bring all other True Runes in the world under its control, supposedly for supreme order and harmony. In the year 400 of the solar calendar, a bandit stole the True Lightning Rune from Harmonia and in an accident was forced to bear the Rune in his right hand. Pursued by bounty hunters, he fell in with another bandit who happened to take to himself the True Fire Rune, and together they launched a guerilla war to assail Harmonia by attacking its trade caravans. This eventually erupted into all-out war between the allied tribes of the Grasslands, led by the Flame Champion and his two generals who bore Lightning and Water, and Holy Harmonia, which invaded the Grasslands in order to pursue the Runes. It took nearly 15 years to finally settle this conflict, after True Fire went out of control and nearly wiped out both armies. Harmonia settled for a treaty of non-aggression, and the Rune-bearers slipped quietly into the shadows to hide and bide their time. The treaty would expire in fifty years, and they knew Harmonia would not let a little thing like time stop them in their conquest of the Grasslands.
Geddoe was the man who stole and bore True Lightning, and fought Harmonian oppression at the right hand of the Flame Champion, given the name "Fire Bringer." The Rune came upon him when he was 36, so he has lived an unchanged life looking middle-aged and rugged for almost eighty years since. When the first war ended, he disappeared into obscurity and became a mercenary to survive the long years alone. Meanwhile, his two best friends got married and settled down, and the Flame Champion actually removed and sealed his Rune using a lost Sindar method of sorcery. Shortly before the treaty was to expire, Geddoe joined up with Harmonia’s Southern Frontier Defense Force, an organized collection of mercenary teams who did the nation’s dirty work and protected their southern border where it abuts the Grasslands and Tinto. That way, he could spy on Harmonia and keep abreast of their strategies and troop movements, so that when they made their first moves into the Grasslands at the end of the fifty years, he was already one step ahead of them. There was something suspicious going on, though, and Geddoe was on the forefront to investigate it with his team, the 12th Unit of the SFDF. One of the bishops heading up the regional army was making some strange moves, and the standing orders for the mercenaries were to hunt for the True Fire Rune. Since his team knew nothing of his identity and no one at headquarters had a clue, Geddoe had to keep quiet from them that he knew exactly where it was and merely spied on the bishop, trying to figure out what his interest in the True Runes was all about. Meanwhile, a civil war was on the verge of starting between the Grasslands and the Zexen nation, and two other heroes were also investigating this True Rune thing on their own for their own reasons. They met up together in the hidden hideout where the Flame Champion lived out his days and died at some point in the last fifty years, and were informed by his widow that the Rune was sealed and it would be up to one of them to release it and bear it in order to save the Grasslands from Harmonia. Since Geddoe already had one True Rune, he couldn’t bear a second, so he let Hugo of the Karaya Clan take it instead, protesting at first that the fate of a Rune-bearer was too much for anyone to handle, let alone some teenager. But when Hugo determined to be a hero and save his people, Geddoe backed him up and agreed like in the old days to support the Flame Champion, whoever he may be. But they were attacked immediately after the Rune was unsealed - by the strange bishop and his entourage, which included a sorceress and a demon.
Around the same time, the Harmonian army began to invade the Grasslands, and war began anew. The knights of Zexen and the Six Clans of the Grasslands had to band together in order to repel the invaders, but it wasn’t until Hugo openly took responsibility for being a Flame Champion and leading them that they effectively held ground and stopped the advance of the army. Meanwhile, the resistance leaders retreated to a castle on the coast to build an alliance army to stop Harmonia, and also try to figure out what the bishop, Luc, was really up to. The appearance of another Harmonian bishop (Sasarai) revealed that Luc was actually a rogue, and was in the process of collecting the five True Elemental Runes in order to destroy the True Wind Rune which he carried. He was given a vision of an apocalyptic future by his rune, and decided in his own twisted way that the only means of preventing that future from happening was to destroy one of the True Runes and send the world into chaos. As the war began to spiral, he and his sorceress actually managed to rip True Lightning from Geddoe, condemning him to death within days or weeks from his soul leaking out of the void the Rune left. They had taken True Earth from Sasarai, and also got their hands on True Water and True Fire very briefly. Before their heroes could die, the allied army pursued Luc to a ritual site in the mountains and split up to attack his forces and recover the True Runes. With them all back in the hands of their rightful bearers (literally), they gathered together to take him down. He had managed to drain enough magical energy from the Runes to cause his own True Wind to manifest itself in the form of a giant bird, which the heroes had to unite in order to defeat. Doing so robbed Luc of most of his life force, and also damaged the ruins enough that he is assumed to have never made it out alive. The others did, though, and because of the allies’ assistance in getting his True Earth back, Sasarai agreed to withdraw the Harmonian army and end the war. Another treaty was signed, putting off the invasion for another fifty years. At the close, the allies all began to leave the lakeside castle and go their separate ways - home, or to new adventures. Even though his identity had been revealed through this event, Geddoe decided to return to serving in the SFDF until he could think through his options and decide what to do with his life. He still had the True Lightning Rune, and a new outlook on life - prior to this, his endless life had been a burden to him and destiny weighed heavy on him. But now, he felt like he really wanted to live, and was heading back to headquarters for a rest and to determine what to do with himself and his team.
Yes, this is as simple as I could make the game plot and backstory. :D I didn’t even get to his best friend Wyatt who bore True Water, and his daughter Chris who is one of the playable heroes - there is so much to the plot of the game that I needed to focus on Geddoe and his role. Complicated character relationships and a thick political plot make it one of the more well-rounded games.
Related links: http://gensopedia.duefiumi.com/index.php?title=Geddoe
http://gensopedia.duefiumi.com/index.php?title=Fire_Bringer_War
PERSONALITY:
Geddoe is generally taciturn, a bit of a grouch sometimes and usually not very talkative. He guards a lot of secrets closely, and is not the type to open up and share about himself or his past. However, he is slow to anger and only really gets his buttons pushed if he is attacked without provocation or finally gets fed up with someone. He did haul off and sucker-punch some peasant in a village for harassing and threatening to lynch a warrior who had sacrificed so much to rescue his fellow villagers only to have it thrown back in his face. But for the most part, he operates in quiet, veiled threats and slow, keen observation of the situation. He rarely attacks without first being provoked, and is patient enough to allow insults and petty provocation to slide right off his back - it takes a real threat to make him draw his sword. As a former captain he is skilled in tactics, and as a mercenary and one-time bandit, he knows how to use more underhanded means to accomplish goals. He has both taken orders and given them, but also spent a good chunk of time alone answering to no one but himself. As of the end of the Second Fire Bringer War, he was 112 years old, even though he appears to be in his mid-thirties. He lost his right eye during the First Fire Bringer War, simply from a mistake and a slip in combat. He had to re-train himself to use a sword with his dominant right hand, and became just as formidable if not moreso after that. He isn’t much for book-learning or the arts, but he is an expert outdoorsman and survivalist. He is quicker to use physical attacks than breaking out his runes, and is a pretty heavy hitter with his one-handed sword, Wild Geese.
Because of the defining events of his past, Geddoe is a very private man who generally dislikes people and has a few trust issues. He fled his homeland in his youth when Harmonia attacked, invaded, and took it over, erasing it from maps and memory. He lived as a bandit until after the Rune attached to him, so he has little in the way of moral objection to theft and assault as a way of life. When he and his two friends went their separate ways, he knew the Flame Champion would be sealing his Rune, and resented him for this, because he chose love and marriage and growing old with his wife and death over the power of the Rune and his destiny as the Grasslands’ hero. Geddoe did not understand this, and though in time he gradually came to forgive his friend for his choice, he still carried heavy emotional baggage from it, since he saw it as a betrayal. Seeing Hugo become the new Champion helped to change his mind about it all. His best friend in the past was Wyatt, bearer of True Water, but they grew apart during their fifty years of self-imposed exile. Attempting to unseal and use his Rune led to Wyatt’s death during the second war, meaning Geddoe is the sole living Fire Bringer and the only one not to forsake his destiny. Geddoe is not likely to let a lot of people close, since he even kept his deep secret from the members of the 12th, who he actually liked and trusted enough. He put up with Ace and Joker being loudmouths and drunkards and idiots most days, and only raised his voice or threw his weight as captain of the unit around if absolutely necessary. Queen, the only woman in the unit, once said that they all had their secrets, because they were mercenaries, but the captain seemed to hold the most. He never talked about himself around them, they didn’t even know where he was from. He isn’t friendly, necessarily, but he knows the value of alliances and has an appreciation for fellow warriors who can hold their own. He isn’t all scowls, though - he does have a slow-burning sense of humor, which manifests in modest sarcasm, battlefield quips, and occasional dry wit. He drinks as heavily as any mercenary, but he seems to hold his liquor well. Paydays and solid victories may bring a bit of a smile to his rugged face. The stoicism and sternness is not a defense mechanism so much as an ingrained part of his personality, after so many years, so when he is happy, it is genuine.
Geddoe fears only one thing: death. He has spent 80 years essentially defying it, and grew to desire his life more than death. He had to face his mortality in the few short days he was without True Lightning, and it scared him. He told his unit that in one sense he is a coward - he is afraid to die, and thus, afraid to really life his life to the fullest. That supposedly changed at the end of the game, as the events of the war made him realize he wanted to live for himself and not just for the Rune or for destiny. So, it’s possible that he may be a bit less grouchy and a little more amiable in the post-war environment. Yet, because of the Rune, he doesn’t allow himself to get deeply close to people - friends or lovers - because when he does, he has to deal with them growing old and dying naturally while he lives on. Still, once in a while friends get through to him, such as the members of the 12th, and Hugo. Very little ruffles him - in his time, he’s seen it all, so there’s little to be offended by. He is entirely nonchalant and not picky about a lot of things, including who warms his bed from time to time. After a hundred years, preference becomes a non-issue. But Geddoe is more likely to find comfort in a bottle or a poker game or a good battle than in physical intimacy, since he has divorced his feelings from those acts in order to protect himself from grief and hurt. Because of his background, Geddoe is rather morally gray and has no issue with killing or other illegal means of dealing with trouble. The only thing he actually believes in is freedom; despite not actually being from the Grasslands, he agreed to fight their wars because he refuses to see them fall under the tyranny of Harmonian rule. One of his personal goals in the second war was to liberate a town that had been under Harmonian occupation for the last fifty years, because he and the other Fire Bringer failed to protect it and lost it in the treaty negotiations. The people living there were no better than slaves, and Geddoe hated to see that. He despises slavery on principle and believes in the right to freedom for all living beings, regardless of what government system or nation they live in. By extension, he isn’t all that impressed with nobility or riches, and lives frugally despite raking in quite a lot of potch as a mercenary. He has had no set home since he fled his homeland - he may have temporarily resided in one village or another during the first war, and at the castle during the second war, and the SFDF calls the city of Caleria headquarters, but Geddoe is most comfortable as a nomad. His personality as well as his physical body are both tough enough to be very content with life on the road beside a campfire rather than in some cushy inn.
In short, he is gruff, stern, stoic, tight-lipped, wary, patient, shrewd, keen, "street" smart, cautious, strong, and determined. He seems to know what his destiny is, as True Lightning’s vessel, and accepts it, even if it is a very difficult life. He has the benefit of age and experience, and the gallows humor of one who has seen a lot of blood in his long lifetime. Despite his background and his true-neutral alignment, he is by rights a hero. Rather than flee to the farthest tip of the continent when Harmonia came looking for his Rune, he got right into the thick of the war in the Grasslands, for their sake rather than his.
Image for appearance: http://www.suikosource.com/chars/list/imageviewnojs.php?img=g/geddoe01.jpg&char_id=583
POWER:
Main power: lightning manipulation. Specifically, he carries both the True Lightning Rune and a standard Lightning Rune on his hands, giving him access to six levels of lightning spells. Instead of relying on the runes themselves in the City, his power will be to conjure the same six spells that the combined runes normally carry (Lightning has the bottom four spells, True Lightning has the top four). All of these spells damage his targeted enemies only, there is no collateral lightning damage to himself or allies. They are, from weakest to strongest:
Thunder Runner - a single bolt of lightning that hits the target and any other enemies in front of it in a linear attack. Minor damage to anyone in the line.
Berzerk Blow - a sudden and powerful lightning bolt that discharges at a single target. Slightly better damage to one enemy.
Soaring Bolt - conjures a spark in front of the caster, which grows in size and power until it explodes into a shower of ball lightning that hits every enemy on the field. Moderate damage to all enemies.
Furious Blow - damages not only the target but any enemies beyond it. Decent damage to all enemies in that line.
Thunderstorm - takes the form of a huge black ball of negatively-charged energy that descends from the skies and explodes over the whole field. High-level damage to all enemies.
Hammer of Raijin - conjures a swarm of black dragons from the thunderclouds of heaven which descend upon the target and blast through them. Immense damage to a single enemy.
These spells have a limit on them as well, based on Geddoe’s stamina and magic resources. If he is seriously wounded or has used up enough magic power on high-level spells, he won’t be able to cast another high-level spell until he heals and rests. He will only be able to cast 1-2 Hammer of Raijin spells in a given battle compared to up to 8 Thunder Runners - the higher the damage, the fewer times he can cast. High-level spells also take longer to build up and cast.
Secondary power: eternal life. Note, this is neither immortality nor invulnerability. Because the True Rune cannot be removed from his right hand without killing him, it remains on him in the City but is no longer a "power" source. Yet, it still has its canon ability to bestow upon the bearer an eternal life frozen at the age at which he began carrying the rune. This means he will never age, and his body remains in the prime for his fixed age, and he is not susceptible to illness and disease. However, he is still very mortal, and very vulnerable to being killed the old-fashioned way, as well as wounded.
The True Rune itself will be going dormant for the duration of his stay in the City. Geddoe will still bear it and it will be impossible to remove from him, but its inner voice and its deity-like will are going to be silenced. He will have to adjust no longer feeling its pull on his soul or hearing it whispering temptations to him.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE
[I would prefer to note that for the sake of the sample, Geddoe is more talkative than he would normally be. But short, to-the-point entries do not show his voice well, now do they? hello video post, showing Mr. Tall, Dark, and Eyepatchy.]
...so, this is the means of contact. So far removed from writing on paper, it’s almost mind-boggling. But when in Harmonia, as they say, so I’ll give it a shot.
I have done my best to investigate on my own, but the writing system here is unfamiliar to me and the, uh...talking heads in the pictures dish out so much information that is completely useless. I simply want to know who is the president or sovereign of this city-state and what kind of system of government rules it. Also, who is the local authority, and where can a mercenary pick up jobs? I’ve already figured out that you frown on simply living off the land, even if a man is capable of it, so I’ll play by the rules and earn money for inns the old fashioned way. *dryly* I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself.
That said. People seem to give me strange looks wherever I go. I gather that swords are not worn openly here...? I wondered if this nation was at peace for so many civilians to be unarmed. Someone even asked me if I was in a play...that’s ridiculous. I have never been in a theatrical production in my life. What I honestly don’t understand is why people continually say "yarr" to me. Is that some kind of special word in the local language? I would appreciate an explanation.
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
A day, a night, and another day, and still there seemed to be no end to the stone and street and tall, tall buildings. Geddoe had traveled far and wide in the world, but a city this size astonished even him, though he wouldn’t show it on his face to anyone who looked. This place had to easily be ten times the size of any capital he had visited - larger than Gregminster, larger even than Crystal Valley itself. Without the ability to discern an inn from a home in any of the monumental edifices, he walked in search of open ground to camp on, but even that was hard to come by. Night was no better, for when he looked up to find stars to guide him in a single direction, all he could see was a dim, sickly-orange glow painting over the whole sky. The newspaper vendor he finally asked for information gave him a deeply suspicious look before rattling off the apparent names of hotels and streets that offered Geddoe no assistance at all.
Throughout his search, the only inner voice that guided him was his own mental ramblings. It had been apparent from the first moment he found himself in that dark laboratory, but now as another night drew on, Geddoe was beginning to feel the weight of the silence. The True Rune in his right hand was no longer speaking to him. Its constant presence seemed muted, as if far, far away, but at least he knew it was still there. It wasn’t like...that time.
Fortunately for the people passing him on the sidewalk, avoiding being in the path of someone so obviously foreign and dark-looking, Geddoe could easily walk and think at the same time.
It was only a month ago, give or take a week. For those few short days, Geddoe had worn his authoritative mask to hide the grim truth that he had only days or weeks to live. He heard whispers among the unit and around the castle, people proclaiming him to be so heroic and brave to have had a True Rune ripped out of him and still be able to go on fighting the war and taking charge of his forces. He appeared to them not to flinch or grow weak from the loss. It covered the truth that he missed the Rune terribly, and not having its heavy presence nor its constant inner mumblings more than bothered him. Removing a True Rune with that kind of sorcery was the equivalent of ripping out one of his internal organs and waiting for him to die. The void it left was worse than his missing eye - at least he got used to that. If they hadn’t recovered the Runes, he would have died before he could get used to living a mortal life again. The irony was not lost on him.
At least now, he could tell that it was still there. In private moments stolen here and there throughout the city, Geddoe would remove his right glove to reassure himself that the faint lines marking out the figure of the Rune were actually there. Yet, he couldn’t hear it in his soul. It wasn’t nagging him, and he had slept the first completely dreamless, untroubled sleep in almost eighty years last night, even though it was on the cold, hard ground with no blanket or bedroll. It was as if going through whatever gate between worlds took him here had cast a permanent Silence spell on True Lightning. The only way to know for sure, he mused to himself, would be to attempt to use it. He had to find a place where he wouldn’t hurt anyone, or possibly a target of some kind, and try to cast a basic Soaring Bolt. If it didn’t work, well.... He frowned to himself. Losing the ability to use rune magic would not be a tragic blow. He had gone fifty years without using True Lightning once, and managed just fine with sword and fist and the weaker Lightning rune. If that didn’t work either, the former two would be weapon enough for him in this strange world. All he needed now was the chance to test it out.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
Unlike the other games in the Suikoden series, III featured three playable heroes, and the player gets to pick which one of them will be the Flame Champion and carry the True Fire Rune. Yet, from cues in the game and character profiles, one is led to assume that Hugo is the “canon” Flame Champion. As much as I did enjoy playing Geddoe as Flame Champion once, he already has True Lightning at the start of the game, so I much prefer leaving him with his destiny as the bearer of that rune. He is a much better Lightning mage anyway. Since I’m pulling him from the end of the game, he will have the general stats of a level 60 character and not a level one game-starter - he’ll have main-character level strength and stamina, and a high-grade sword. He’ll be carrying his sword Wild Geese, about 50,000 potch (which is useless unless I assume it’s gold coinage), and a lightning amulet (also useless), but no "special" game-armor upgrades. Just what he’s wearing in his picture.
I also plan to introduce him via logs and run-ins on the street with other characters until someone can teach him what the comm is for and how to use it, because in the Suikoden world, lol how does I computer. Their most advanced technology is the gear mechanism to control elevators - machinery and electronics are a mystery. Also, the game uses some un-translated set of glyphs to represent their universal writing system, so I’m going to assume it means Geddoe can understand English speech just fine, but can’t read anything despite being literate in his world. It may hamper his CR a bit not being able to read text, but I prefer the realism and will find a way to teach him the Roman alphabet if it gets crippling.
NAME: Cap
AGE: 35
JOURNAL: capsulecorp_tm
IM: AIM: EchoGreen2
E-MAIL: mycapsulecorp@gmail.com
RETURNING: yes! Alastair hackeralastair and Sanji notadartboard
[CHARACTER INFO]
CHARACTER NAME: Geddoe
FANDOM: Suikoden III
CHRONOLOGY: approximately one month post-game, (good game ending where Hugo is the Flame Champion and Luc is defeated)
CLASS: Hero
SUPERHERO NAME: Raijin (not that he'll ever use it)
ALTER EGO: n/a
BACKGROUND:
The Suikoden world is a pre-industrialized world, with cultures that hearken to medieval and late-century, pre-industrial civilizations. Some are European-based, some are more exotic, and there are multiple non-human races all over, from elves and dwarves to Lizards and Ducks. It is a world of sword and sorcery, where wars are fought on the ground with swords and arrows and magic takes the form of Runes. Mages use runes to control elemental powers and perform other magic, and anyone with the aptitude can carry a rune. This world has its own creation story, which involves the spawning of the 27 True Runes - runes so powerful they could almost be like gods themselves. Countries start wars over these runes, and great evil is done so that men may possess a True Rune, but they come with a heavy price. A True Rune-bearer does not die naturally, but continues on in an endless life for so long as they bear the rune, but if they are killed, it finds a new host or becomes dormant in a crystal. The Rune itself is said to have a will of its own, and each True Rune will do its best to bend the will of its host to carry out that will. The weak-minded become nothing more than slaves to the Runes, while the strong-willed must endure a lifetime of constant nagging, nightmares, precognitive visions, and the torment of seeing everyone they love grow old and die while they remain stagnant. Some True Runes are even more unpredictable, and can drive the host insane or suck away their life force.
The nation of Harmonia is said to be ruled by a man with a True Rune, and as a result, its national policy is to bring all other True Runes in the world under its control, supposedly for supreme order and harmony. In the year 400 of the solar calendar, a bandit stole the True Lightning Rune from Harmonia and in an accident was forced to bear the Rune in his right hand. Pursued by bounty hunters, he fell in with another bandit who happened to take to himself the True Fire Rune, and together they launched a guerilla war to assail Harmonia by attacking its trade caravans. This eventually erupted into all-out war between the allied tribes of the Grasslands, led by the Flame Champion and his two generals who bore Lightning and Water, and Holy Harmonia, which invaded the Grasslands in order to pursue the Runes. It took nearly 15 years to finally settle this conflict, after True Fire went out of control and nearly wiped out both armies. Harmonia settled for a treaty of non-aggression, and the Rune-bearers slipped quietly into the shadows to hide and bide their time. The treaty would expire in fifty years, and they knew Harmonia would not let a little thing like time stop them in their conquest of the Grasslands.
Geddoe was the man who stole and bore True Lightning, and fought Harmonian oppression at the right hand of the Flame Champion, given the name "Fire Bringer." The Rune came upon him when he was 36, so he has lived an unchanged life looking middle-aged and rugged for almost eighty years since. When the first war ended, he disappeared into obscurity and became a mercenary to survive the long years alone. Meanwhile, his two best friends got married and settled down, and the Flame Champion actually removed and sealed his Rune using a lost Sindar method of sorcery. Shortly before the treaty was to expire, Geddoe joined up with Harmonia’s Southern Frontier Defense Force, an organized collection of mercenary teams who did the nation’s dirty work and protected their southern border where it abuts the Grasslands and Tinto. That way, he could spy on Harmonia and keep abreast of their strategies and troop movements, so that when they made their first moves into the Grasslands at the end of the fifty years, he was already one step ahead of them. There was something suspicious going on, though, and Geddoe was on the forefront to investigate it with his team, the 12th Unit of the SFDF. One of the bishops heading up the regional army was making some strange moves, and the standing orders for the mercenaries were to hunt for the True Fire Rune. Since his team knew nothing of his identity and no one at headquarters had a clue, Geddoe had to keep quiet from them that he knew exactly where it was and merely spied on the bishop, trying to figure out what his interest in the True Runes was all about. Meanwhile, a civil war was on the verge of starting between the Grasslands and the Zexen nation, and two other heroes were also investigating this True Rune thing on their own for their own reasons. They met up together in the hidden hideout where the Flame Champion lived out his days and died at some point in the last fifty years, and were informed by his widow that the Rune was sealed and it would be up to one of them to release it and bear it in order to save the Grasslands from Harmonia. Since Geddoe already had one True Rune, he couldn’t bear a second, so he let Hugo of the Karaya Clan take it instead, protesting at first that the fate of a Rune-bearer was too much for anyone to handle, let alone some teenager. But when Hugo determined to be a hero and save his people, Geddoe backed him up and agreed like in the old days to support the Flame Champion, whoever he may be. But they were attacked immediately after the Rune was unsealed - by the strange bishop and his entourage, which included a sorceress and a demon.
Around the same time, the Harmonian army began to invade the Grasslands, and war began anew. The knights of Zexen and the Six Clans of the Grasslands had to band together in order to repel the invaders, but it wasn’t until Hugo openly took responsibility for being a Flame Champion and leading them that they effectively held ground and stopped the advance of the army. Meanwhile, the resistance leaders retreated to a castle on the coast to build an alliance army to stop Harmonia, and also try to figure out what the bishop, Luc, was really up to. The appearance of another Harmonian bishop (Sasarai) revealed that Luc was actually a rogue, and was in the process of collecting the five True Elemental Runes in order to destroy the True Wind Rune which he carried. He was given a vision of an apocalyptic future by his rune, and decided in his own twisted way that the only means of preventing that future from happening was to destroy one of the True Runes and send the world into chaos. As the war began to spiral, he and his sorceress actually managed to rip True Lightning from Geddoe, condemning him to death within days or weeks from his soul leaking out of the void the Rune left. They had taken True Earth from Sasarai, and also got their hands on True Water and True Fire very briefly. Before their heroes could die, the allied army pursued Luc to a ritual site in the mountains and split up to attack his forces and recover the True Runes. With them all back in the hands of their rightful bearers (literally), they gathered together to take him down. He had managed to drain enough magical energy from the Runes to cause his own True Wind to manifest itself in the form of a giant bird, which the heroes had to unite in order to defeat. Doing so robbed Luc of most of his life force, and also damaged the ruins enough that he is assumed to have never made it out alive. The others did, though, and because of the allies’ assistance in getting his True Earth back, Sasarai agreed to withdraw the Harmonian army and end the war. Another treaty was signed, putting off the invasion for another fifty years. At the close, the allies all began to leave the lakeside castle and go their separate ways - home, or to new adventures. Even though his identity had been revealed through this event, Geddoe decided to return to serving in the SFDF until he could think through his options and decide what to do with his life. He still had the True Lightning Rune, and a new outlook on life - prior to this, his endless life had been a burden to him and destiny weighed heavy on him. But now, he felt like he really wanted to live, and was heading back to headquarters for a rest and to determine what to do with himself and his team.
Yes, this is as simple as I could make the game plot and backstory. :D I didn’t even get to his best friend Wyatt who bore True Water, and his daughter Chris who is one of the playable heroes - there is so much to the plot of the game that I needed to focus on Geddoe and his role. Complicated character relationships and a thick political plot make it one of the more well-rounded games.
Related links: http://gensopedia.duefiumi.com/index.php?title=Geddoe
http://gensopedia.duefiumi.com/index.php?title=Fire_Bringer_War
PERSONALITY:
Geddoe is generally taciturn, a bit of a grouch sometimes and usually not very talkative. He guards a lot of secrets closely, and is not the type to open up and share about himself or his past. However, he is slow to anger and only really gets his buttons pushed if he is attacked without provocation or finally gets fed up with someone. He did haul off and sucker-punch some peasant in a village for harassing and threatening to lynch a warrior who had sacrificed so much to rescue his fellow villagers only to have it thrown back in his face. But for the most part, he operates in quiet, veiled threats and slow, keen observation of the situation. He rarely attacks without first being provoked, and is patient enough to allow insults and petty provocation to slide right off his back - it takes a real threat to make him draw his sword. As a former captain he is skilled in tactics, and as a mercenary and one-time bandit, he knows how to use more underhanded means to accomplish goals. He has both taken orders and given them, but also spent a good chunk of time alone answering to no one but himself. As of the end of the Second Fire Bringer War, he was 112 years old, even though he appears to be in his mid-thirties. He lost his right eye during the First Fire Bringer War, simply from a mistake and a slip in combat. He had to re-train himself to use a sword with his dominant right hand, and became just as formidable if not moreso after that. He isn’t much for book-learning or the arts, but he is an expert outdoorsman and survivalist. He is quicker to use physical attacks than breaking out his runes, and is a pretty heavy hitter with his one-handed sword, Wild Geese.
Because of the defining events of his past, Geddoe is a very private man who generally dislikes people and has a few trust issues. He fled his homeland in his youth when Harmonia attacked, invaded, and took it over, erasing it from maps and memory. He lived as a bandit until after the Rune attached to him, so he has little in the way of moral objection to theft and assault as a way of life. When he and his two friends went their separate ways, he knew the Flame Champion would be sealing his Rune, and resented him for this, because he chose love and marriage and growing old with his wife and death over the power of the Rune and his destiny as the Grasslands’ hero. Geddoe did not understand this, and though in time he gradually came to forgive his friend for his choice, he still carried heavy emotional baggage from it, since he saw it as a betrayal. Seeing Hugo become the new Champion helped to change his mind about it all. His best friend in the past was Wyatt, bearer of True Water, but they grew apart during their fifty years of self-imposed exile. Attempting to unseal and use his Rune led to Wyatt’s death during the second war, meaning Geddoe is the sole living Fire Bringer and the only one not to forsake his destiny. Geddoe is not likely to let a lot of people close, since he even kept his deep secret from the members of the 12th, who he actually liked and trusted enough. He put up with Ace and Joker being loudmouths and drunkards and idiots most days, and only raised his voice or threw his weight as captain of the unit around if absolutely necessary. Queen, the only woman in the unit, once said that they all had their secrets, because they were mercenaries, but the captain seemed to hold the most. He never talked about himself around them, they didn’t even know where he was from. He isn’t friendly, necessarily, but he knows the value of alliances and has an appreciation for fellow warriors who can hold their own. He isn’t all scowls, though - he does have a slow-burning sense of humor, which manifests in modest sarcasm, battlefield quips, and occasional dry wit. He drinks as heavily as any mercenary, but he seems to hold his liquor well. Paydays and solid victories may bring a bit of a smile to his rugged face. The stoicism and sternness is not a defense mechanism so much as an ingrained part of his personality, after so many years, so when he is happy, it is genuine.
Geddoe fears only one thing: death. He has spent 80 years essentially defying it, and grew to desire his life more than death. He had to face his mortality in the few short days he was without True Lightning, and it scared him. He told his unit that in one sense he is a coward - he is afraid to die, and thus, afraid to really life his life to the fullest. That supposedly changed at the end of the game, as the events of the war made him realize he wanted to live for himself and not just for the Rune or for destiny. So, it’s possible that he may be a bit less grouchy and a little more amiable in the post-war environment. Yet, because of the Rune, he doesn’t allow himself to get deeply close to people - friends or lovers - because when he does, he has to deal with them growing old and dying naturally while he lives on. Still, once in a while friends get through to him, such as the members of the 12th, and Hugo. Very little ruffles him - in his time, he’s seen it all, so there’s little to be offended by. He is entirely nonchalant and not picky about a lot of things, including who warms his bed from time to time. After a hundred years, preference becomes a non-issue. But Geddoe is more likely to find comfort in a bottle or a poker game or a good battle than in physical intimacy, since he has divorced his feelings from those acts in order to protect himself from grief and hurt. Because of his background, Geddoe is rather morally gray and has no issue with killing or other illegal means of dealing with trouble. The only thing he actually believes in is freedom; despite not actually being from the Grasslands, he agreed to fight their wars because he refuses to see them fall under the tyranny of Harmonian rule. One of his personal goals in the second war was to liberate a town that had been under Harmonian occupation for the last fifty years, because he and the other Fire Bringer failed to protect it and lost it in the treaty negotiations. The people living there were no better than slaves, and Geddoe hated to see that. He despises slavery on principle and believes in the right to freedom for all living beings, regardless of what government system or nation they live in. By extension, he isn’t all that impressed with nobility or riches, and lives frugally despite raking in quite a lot of potch as a mercenary. He has had no set home since he fled his homeland - he may have temporarily resided in one village or another during the first war, and at the castle during the second war, and the SFDF calls the city of Caleria headquarters, but Geddoe is most comfortable as a nomad. His personality as well as his physical body are both tough enough to be very content with life on the road beside a campfire rather than in some cushy inn.
In short, he is gruff, stern, stoic, tight-lipped, wary, patient, shrewd, keen, "street" smart, cautious, strong, and determined. He seems to know what his destiny is, as True Lightning’s vessel, and accepts it, even if it is a very difficult life. He has the benefit of age and experience, and the gallows humor of one who has seen a lot of blood in his long lifetime. Despite his background and his true-neutral alignment, he is by rights a hero. Rather than flee to the farthest tip of the continent when Harmonia came looking for his Rune, he got right into the thick of the war in the Grasslands, for their sake rather than his.
Image for appearance: http://www.suikosource.com/chars/list/imageviewnojs.php?img=g/geddoe01.jpg&char_id=583
POWER:
Main power: lightning manipulation. Specifically, he carries both the True Lightning Rune and a standard Lightning Rune on his hands, giving him access to six levels of lightning spells. Instead of relying on the runes themselves in the City, his power will be to conjure the same six spells that the combined runes normally carry (Lightning has the bottom four spells, True Lightning has the top four). All of these spells damage his targeted enemies only, there is no collateral lightning damage to himself or allies. They are, from weakest to strongest:
Thunder Runner - a single bolt of lightning that hits the target and any other enemies in front of it in a linear attack. Minor damage to anyone in the line.
Berzerk Blow - a sudden and powerful lightning bolt that discharges at a single target. Slightly better damage to one enemy.
Soaring Bolt - conjures a spark in front of the caster, which grows in size and power until it explodes into a shower of ball lightning that hits every enemy on the field. Moderate damage to all enemies.
Furious Blow - damages not only the target but any enemies beyond it. Decent damage to all enemies in that line.
Thunderstorm - takes the form of a huge black ball of negatively-charged energy that descends from the skies and explodes over the whole field. High-level damage to all enemies.
Hammer of Raijin - conjures a swarm of black dragons from the thunderclouds of heaven which descend upon the target and blast through them. Immense damage to a single enemy.
These spells have a limit on them as well, based on Geddoe’s stamina and magic resources. If he is seriously wounded or has used up enough magic power on high-level spells, he won’t be able to cast another high-level spell until he heals and rests. He will only be able to cast 1-2 Hammer of Raijin spells in a given battle compared to up to 8 Thunder Runners - the higher the damage, the fewer times he can cast. High-level spells also take longer to build up and cast.
Secondary power: eternal life. Note, this is neither immortality nor invulnerability. Because the True Rune cannot be removed from his right hand without killing him, it remains on him in the City but is no longer a "power" source. Yet, it still has its canon ability to bestow upon the bearer an eternal life frozen at the age at which he began carrying the rune. This means he will never age, and his body remains in the prime for his fixed age, and he is not susceptible to illness and disease. However, he is still very mortal, and very vulnerable to being killed the old-fashioned way, as well as wounded.
The True Rune itself will be going dormant for the duration of his stay in the City. Geddoe will still bear it and it will be impossible to remove from him, but its inner voice and its deity-like will are going to be silenced. He will have to adjust no longer feeling its pull on his soul or hearing it whispering temptations to him.
[CHARACTER SAMPLES]
COMMUNITY POST (FIRST PERSON) SAMPLE
[I would prefer to note that for the sake of the sample, Geddoe is more talkative than he would normally be. But short, to-the-point entries do not show his voice well, now do they? hello video post, showing Mr. Tall, Dark, and Eyepatchy.]
...so, this is the means of contact. So far removed from writing on paper, it’s almost mind-boggling. But when in Harmonia, as they say, so I’ll give it a shot.
I have done my best to investigate on my own, but the writing system here is unfamiliar to me and the, uh...talking heads in the pictures dish out so much information that is completely useless. I simply want to know who is the president or sovereign of this city-state and what kind of system of government rules it. Also, who is the local authority, and where can a mercenary pick up jobs? I’ve already figured out that you frown on simply living off the land, even if a man is capable of it, so I’ll play by the rules and earn money for inns the old fashioned way. *dryly* I’m a big boy, I can take care of myself.
That said. People seem to give me strange looks wherever I go. I gather that swords are not worn openly here...? I wondered if this nation was at peace for so many civilians to be unarmed. Someone even asked me if I was in a play...that’s ridiculous. I have never been in a theatrical production in my life. What I honestly don’t understand is why people continually say "yarr" to me. Is that some kind of special word in the local language? I would appreciate an explanation.
LOGS POST (THIRD PERSON) SAMPLE:
A day, a night, and another day, and still there seemed to be no end to the stone and street and tall, tall buildings. Geddoe had traveled far and wide in the world, but a city this size astonished even him, though he wouldn’t show it on his face to anyone who looked. This place had to easily be ten times the size of any capital he had visited - larger than Gregminster, larger even than Crystal Valley itself. Without the ability to discern an inn from a home in any of the monumental edifices, he walked in search of open ground to camp on, but even that was hard to come by. Night was no better, for when he looked up to find stars to guide him in a single direction, all he could see was a dim, sickly-orange glow painting over the whole sky. The newspaper vendor he finally asked for information gave him a deeply suspicious look before rattling off the apparent names of hotels and streets that offered Geddoe no assistance at all.
Throughout his search, the only inner voice that guided him was his own mental ramblings. It had been apparent from the first moment he found himself in that dark laboratory, but now as another night drew on, Geddoe was beginning to feel the weight of the silence. The True Rune in his right hand was no longer speaking to him. Its constant presence seemed muted, as if far, far away, but at least he knew it was still there. It wasn’t like...that time.
Fortunately for the people passing him on the sidewalk, avoiding being in the path of someone so obviously foreign and dark-looking, Geddoe could easily walk and think at the same time.
It was only a month ago, give or take a week. For those few short days, Geddoe had worn his authoritative mask to hide the grim truth that he had only days or weeks to live. He heard whispers among the unit and around the castle, people proclaiming him to be so heroic and brave to have had a True Rune ripped out of him and still be able to go on fighting the war and taking charge of his forces. He appeared to them not to flinch or grow weak from the loss. It covered the truth that he missed the Rune terribly, and not having its heavy presence nor its constant inner mumblings more than bothered him. Removing a True Rune with that kind of sorcery was the equivalent of ripping out one of his internal organs and waiting for him to die. The void it left was worse than his missing eye - at least he got used to that. If they hadn’t recovered the Runes, he would have died before he could get used to living a mortal life again. The irony was not lost on him.
At least now, he could tell that it was still there. In private moments stolen here and there throughout the city, Geddoe would remove his right glove to reassure himself that the faint lines marking out the figure of the Rune were actually there. Yet, he couldn’t hear it in his soul. It wasn’t nagging him, and he had slept the first completely dreamless, untroubled sleep in almost eighty years last night, even though it was on the cold, hard ground with no blanket or bedroll. It was as if going through whatever gate between worlds took him here had cast a permanent Silence spell on True Lightning. The only way to know for sure, he mused to himself, would be to attempt to use it. He had to find a place where he wouldn’t hurt anyone, or possibly a target of some kind, and try to cast a basic Soaring Bolt. If it didn’t work, well.... He frowned to himself. Losing the ability to use rune magic would not be a tragic blow. He had gone fifty years without using True Lightning once, and managed just fine with sword and fist and the weaker Lightning rune. If that didn’t work either, the former two would be weapon enough for him in this strange world. All he needed now was the chance to test it out.
FINAL NOTES ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER:
Unlike the other games in the Suikoden series, III featured three playable heroes, and the player gets to pick which one of them will be the Flame Champion and carry the True Fire Rune. Yet, from cues in the game and character profiles, one is led to assume that Hugo is the “canon” Flame Champion. As much as I did enjoy playing Geddoe as Flame Champion once, he already has True Lightning at the start of the game, so I much prefer leaving him with his destiny as the bearer of that rune. He is a much better Lightning mage anyway. Since I’m pulling him from the end of the game, he will have the general stats of a level 60 character and not a level one game-starter - he’ll have main-character level strength and stamina, and a high-grade sword. He’ll be carrying his sword Wild Geese, about 50,000 potch (which is useless unless I assume it’s gold coinage), and a lightning amulet (also useless), but no "special" game-armor upgrades. Just what he’s wearing in his picture.
I also plan to introduce him via logs and run-ins on the street with other characters until someone can teach him what the comm is for and how to use it, because in the Suikoden world, lol how does I computer. Their most advanced technology is the gear mechanism to control elevators - machinery and electronics are a mystery. Also, the game uses some un-translated set of glyphs to represent their universal writing system, so I’m going to assume it means Geddoe can understand English speech just fine, but can’t read anything despite being literate in his world. It may hamper his CR a bit not being able to read text, but I prefer the realism and will find a way to teach him the Roman alphabet if it gets crippling.