Steward Melkoth Thrikzlos - In Defiance of Fate

Started by OLD, December 23, 2019, 09:56:23 AM

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OLD

Thread best read while listening to this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXFSK0ogeg4

Quote'O Fortuna' was written in the 13th century as a medieval Latin poem, which was part of a collection known as the Carmina Burana. It literally means 'Oh Fate', and it is a complaint about the inescapable power of fate.

I came across this explanation behind the song 'O Fortuna one day and decided to make it the guiding principle behind a concept I was coming up with, also took heavy influence from Claude Frollo (Hunchback of Notre Dame) and Emperor Palpatine (Star Wars).

Backstory:

I kept Melkoth Thrikzlos' backstory simple and loose so I could draw from it stories as needed over time when inspiration struck, though I preferred to have him have forgotten most of his past life with his time in the City. He was from a society strictly ruled by religion and faith, inquisitions and accusations of sin, corruptions and darkness were commonly met and meted out with public executions. He had turned his three daughters in to these church of his home for various sins over his life, driving his wife away and to an early death by drink and eventual suicide.

Another song I drew influence from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3NoDEu7kpg

Melkoth in the City:

Early on Melkoth became obsessed with the King, he grew to believe, privately (for fear of heresy) that the King was some righteous tormentor of the wicked and that all the gods of the City were simply aspects of the King that should be observed or risk inciting the wrath of the mythical King. So Melkoth was pious in his faith of all of the City's local gods, some more than others.

He accepted this fate grudgingly but through his sorcery and search for a way to restore his youth he believed he could throw off the shackles of fate.

Many people misunderstood him and believed him monster or a secret necromancer, but he was quite serious in his devotion and righteousness. He wielded his dark sorcery with conviction and fervor, never breaking from traditions, norms and laws even if perhaps he did so only technically and not by the spirit asked of them. He never animated the dead nor had any desire to. He had interest in the immortality of undeath for himself but he was always fighting a battle with himself between the lure of it and his desire to believe himself righteous and saintly in some way still...no matter how dark some of the things he did, planned or said were.

Melkoth, being as feeble as he was for most of his career (you might not know it now but he spent a good half of his time alive dieing multiple times a day earlier on)....he was comfortable manipulating, advising and speaking from the shadows behind others, preferring to not command too much attention to himself. He purposely never bought the Veteran Badge for himself and allowed other PCs to take hold of diplomacy when available while advising and helping them as best he could.

The Quest for Youth:

His quest for youth did eventually find him drinking some Mistvale Cider traded/sold to him by his once adoptive daughter Anemone from Velstra. For that he was quite grateful to Velstra and was receptive to their political efforts. However ironically his crook he used, which was only usable by the very old, was the source of much of his power so his youth brought with it a lot of suffering and weakness for Melkoth. Eventually this youth would come to be a curse, as he kept growing younger by the day and haunted by maddening fey dreams tempting him to leave the Peerage behind and join them and be free. He very nearly did, at the moment he was to undergo ritual by Nephezar Melkoth turned violent and said he no longer wanted to be cured. If not for Nephezar forcing young Melkoth into the ritual he would have surely left them all behind. For this he became a shriveled boy, old but young at once and cursed Anemone forever, believing her an agent of the changelings (or fey) tricking him into drinking the Mistvale Gold - in truth Melkoth used her as much as his adoptive daughter used him, he would often siphon life from her for vampiric touch/ray of enfeeblement...Melkoth's love was a hard love.

[hide=The Melkoth Character Sheet]
People were always asking me my build, it wasn't anything special or even that crazy. My spell selection could have been better, but I worked with what I had.[/hide]

[hide=Early days]
A shot from his very earliest days, trying to be useful.[/hide]

[hide=Jelly keeps the joints lubed]
It took a lot of special ointments for Melkoth to get around at his age.[/hide]

[hide=The Glory of Sunpurse]
I don't know for sure but I think I'm the only Sunpurse PC to earn this helmet. It was quite the challenge and kept me coming back to the dispensary even when I lost. Not to mention spending tens of thousands of groats buying prestigious goods from Tickers ;)[/hide]

[hide=Melkoth could be romantic]
The romantic side of Melkoth[/hide]
[hide=Captain Ahab searches the swamps for his white whale]
One of the last adventures of Melkoth as he began to believe his quest to surpass the 95 swamps was some cursed purgatory he would wander for eternity. He never did do it, I chalk it up to being TOO likable for people to help him.[/hide]

[hide=Melkoth had few friends]
One of many of his conversations with one of the VERY rare friendships Melkoth cultivated. He was trying to court the innocent Penrose to join Sunpurse for no reason other than it would wound all her Velstran friends deeply, a betrayal he was more than happy to attempt to use her for.[/hide]

[hide=The Mistvale Gold]





Some shots from Melkoth's temptations by the fey who made the Mistvale Gold and his descent into near madness. If not for Nephezar forcefully dragging him to a ritual to cure him of the Mistvale Gold's influence he was going to abandon the Peerage Ward and become a Pondsman.

Post mind trip with the fey he spent some time wandering the Ponds going a bit mad.[/hide]


[hide=An Oath given by a new retainer]
An oath given when joining the house, I was impressed by the effort given so here it stays for posterity.[/hide]

[hide=Fashion]
Fashion sense was important to young Melkoth[/hide]

[hide=Melkoth and Anette trading barbs]
Young Melkoth was a bit of a snarky bastard kid and somehow always found ways to get into petty insults with the females of Velstra.[/hide]

[hide=Castigation]
Melkoth early on hated wizards and was planning to start a movement to use the "finger shackles" of Aethelwine upon all wizards of the City not directly in service of a house. He eventually shelved the idea and focused upon other pursuits but he still didn't like them very much. This is one such occasion.[/hide]

[hide=Reginald Campwood]

The short lived squiring to Reginald Campwood had some secrets[/hide]

[hide=Matching voicesets are fun]
Just a meme, but this is what happens when you get two guys with the same voiceset trying to greet each other[/hide]

[hide=The Flower Club]
Even reduced to a 14 year old boy Melkoth had a thirst to surround himself with the vital and young. He bought membership here early on as it was so perfectly fitting to the PC and was never shy about bringing people there to show off.[/hide]

[hide=A chat with Sean]
Just one of many frenemy chats with Sean about his youth.[/hide]

[hide=Sick burn]
One of the most hilarious quips young Melkoth ever made to make fun of Velstra. I could not have timed this unsightly blob of a PC wandering up better if I wanted.[/hide]

[hide=A Neighborly Knave]
One of the many hints Melkoth would drop that he was a Knave.[/hide]


[hide=The Death, a tragedy in several acts]
His final moments, I thought I got all of the text in the shot but unfortunately not. The milk was laced with Iron Golem Fumes and I had in my inventory for months waiting for an opportunity to either trick someone who had beaten me or to use it to kill myself in some epic moment of bitter defeat.[/hide]

I was very bad at taking screenshots of many other parts of his life and many parts of who and what Melkoth was will unfortunately have to remain a secret for a long time. Many other PCs shaped the course of Melkoth's schemes, plans and attempts to gain power. This is without doubt my favorite PC I have ever played in EFU from RP to mechanics to faction to enemies to friends. He was an utter joy to play and I couldn't have asked for more out of his ending.

Party on.




pretty princess of party

Fantastic PC, I love all the moments we shared together and have probably a dozen screenshots to add to this thread when I return home!

Stranger

It's difficult to imagine House Sunpurse without him. He lived and died, I think, embodying the spirit of his faction...

In more ways than anyone can know.

Aethereal

I remember seeing Melkoth's eyes when the Royal Castigator entered the Sunpurse Mansion with his horribly rattling finger chains, Aethelwine knew exactly what the old sorcerer was thinking. With that said, one of my most memorable and delightful moments of not just Melkoth but in general so far was when young Melkoth and Aethelwine had their very private conversation in the Sunpurse meeting room which was eventually followed up with a knowing smile at a much later point after Melkoth was restored to his old old self - that moment of unspoken secret understanding between the two was just perfect and so very memorable. Such a rare bit of nuanced RP that was.

Edit, this was the moment, somewhat out of context it loses its poignancy except perhaps for the players who were there to remember it:

Melkoth Thrikzlos: How could I possibly best you in a contest of prose? It is rather unthinkable.
Baffling to think he thought he could get away with it.
But I was but a child, afflicted with fey magics, my mind was not together.

Aethelwine Silver: [A faint barely-there smile began to crease at his ilips upon Melkoth's words.]

Melkoth Thrikzlos: [Gives Silver a faint wan smile through his weariness and bearded face in return]
---
'Even life eternal is not time enough to see, all the folly and despair of poor Humanity.' - To Life - A Shoggoth on the Roof

It is through Art, and through Art only, that we can realise our perfection.

Last Cold Tome

 :'(

Extremely well played, EfU needs more of this! Keep it up!


cmenden

Melkoth <3

Surprisingly, pretty spot on with his assessment of Anemone's goals in giving him the Mistvale. It was a combination of love for a man who'd come to be more of a father than she'd ever had, coupled with her desires to study its results, regardless of the outcome.

I'm also bad at screenshots, so I don't have much to add, but the dynamic between Melkoth and Anemone was one that I absolutely adored.

Thank you for such an amazing PC!

Cat

Even Melkoth tried to warn her...



I very much enjoyed the barbs back and forth we shared when he was young, and it has been great to see all what has happened involving him after my death.

Wakefield

I wish I could've had more chances to chat with Melkoth, but watching the youthful version chuck rotten fruit at the Groundskeeper was classic. I liked seeing the contrast to his old, doddering self afterwards. Really fantastic character. :D

Richørd

Some of my most favorite Peerage conversations on Sean Gorick happened with Melkoth. It was always a fun balance to strike between open disrespect and disbelief at the sheer rudeness of the old man-child

Sem


Quarterdragon

Being prepared for months with poisoned milk is insane!  Great PC!

MonsterMoose

What a fun character!  Party on Young Elder Melkoth!