Isaiah ibn Hazr
Isaiah began with a base idea: exploring the Lawful Good alignment, which I think is too often portrayed through variants of “righteous asshole”. He’d be someone good to others but terrible to himself, trying to live up to unattainable standards.
Because I got inspired for his background by strict religious communities, and because I do not play heterosexual PCs (regardless of whether ever becomes relevant or not), shame and repression emerged as good themes. Early on, I decided to make him manipulative and evasive… Because, while fitting very much (shame and repression have a lot to do with hiding stuff, both from others and from oneself), it was also a great contrast with what is usually expected of Lawful Good alignment. Also, it was a fun challenge to manipulate for good causes and without lying (which was against his Lawfulness).
Through play, he developed his own, strict code, and followed it to the letter (I think more than one PC must have heard him babbling about kindness, the “three mercies”, his feeling that all non-evil religions must be protected, and the brokenness of the world), even while respecting and/or trying to change the laws of the peerage. Biggest regret: adding the "no relic must left behind" to said code. So. Much. Weight... All for the roleplay I guess.
To top it all up, his way of speaking, polite, distant and measured, would hide someone extremely EXTRA with his emotions, and who really wore his heart on his sleeve. He would struggle to accept himself, and to embrace his feelings, eventually succeeding.
Iakovos, reading Isaiah for filth XDAll in all, I think it worked, as far as making a PC with a distinct personality and voice goes.
It is difficult to summarize so many months of playing, truth be told. A lot of his first adventures can be found in A Ledger of Shames (and should anyone want to read it in another format, feel free to contact me on discord for a pdf version). My original agenda (to explore how a person emerged from represesion and self-hatred through the love of others) was certainly fulfilled by the end of the Ledger. But even after that Isaiah did, basically, a lot of stuff.
He joined the Guild of Metalworkers. He managed to reject Adrian’s endless proposals of retainership. He began ringrunning on the side, and ended up one of the most veteran ringrunners out there. He fell in love after no small amount of trouble. He made friends. He had a lot of deep, lovely, dramatic and/or all of the above conversations. He got a bit over his own issues (and got new ones!). He had a hand in a million pies, some of them surprising, always trying to do what seemed less harmful (and not always succeeding). He set up a cleric-and-relic smuggling operation. He aided the dwarves. He fought the mongrels. He helped bring an end to the curse of the Sunpurse line. He had a plan to kill the Patriarch (though Oliver got ahead lol). He did his best to stop fights, make alliances and move things towards peacefulness and cooperation. He saved quite a few lives through bribery, persuasion or just being there with his unreasonable amounts of ash and hoard of potions, which he would distrbute as needed. He gave a shit-ton to charities. He crossed the Smoulderpeaks… TWICE!! For LOVE!! (Why yes, I’m corny!) Heck, he was even
REDACTED!
One of the rules I had with him was that he was very focused on keeping people alive and minimizing violence. This got him into a lot of trouble, quite often. Seeing a melee break out after a duel, (and admittedly, unaware that people were set to FD directly), he jumped in, to keep someone alive and hopefully make the Recondites run away. A spell was cast, a save failed (by 2! Should’ve worn saves equipment!), a pack taken (he was certainly a pinata), and a long funeral held.
While he might not have slayed any ancient dragon (in fact, he slayed very little), I think Isaiah was possibly the most complete character I have ever roleplayed. I put a lot of creativity into him, as evidenced by the 25k words of the Ledger alone. Heck, I even wrote and held a huge number of notes (many of which I wish I had screenshotted before his untimely death) for flavor.
Evidently, I am both sad and surprised to see Isaiah go. The death feels, considering the end I was working towards and all I was preparing and saving supplies for, both sad and narratively dissatisfying.
That’s, I think, one of the things of EFU: you can end up, easily, crushed as a secondary character in the story of someone else. The threat is what gives the server such a heart-wrecking flavor: I don’t think I’ve cried as much in any other server, nor been so stressed, or so satisfied when surviving difficult odds.
It is also the main reason why I feel like it might be best to take a bit of a break.
Now, before I go, my many thanks to a million excellent players who have provided a million excellent experiences. (And please forgive me if you’re not mentioned. The list is already long as is, and I feel like I could probably extend it for quite a while still...)
-Numerous iterations of
SN (But very specially Sorcha. We’ll always have the deep rings…)
-Diverse iterations of
RwG (thanks for all the letters. The chat with Isaiah’s homunculus is probably in my top 10 of emotional moments, and I hate that my connection destroyed all record of it)
-
Oliver (best frenemy one could have, so much “I bet this time I can change him!”)
-The various incarnations of
Runic (I am still not over how much effort we put on Marcella’s suicide bombing, for it to never pan out…)
-So many
Karpie PCs (each a goof that ends up breaking your heart)
-
Elie and
Danny (it was such a pleasure to show you the server and initiate you into ringrunning. I think my best experience in the rings is, without doubt, when we did Guild expeditions)
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Bristol (wish Isaiah had managed to earn forgiveness, but I’ll forever be destroyed by your diary entries. And poems. Such great work!)
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Mebril (so much conspiring, so much being sad, tired and/or hopeful. A nice sneaky friend to have)
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Rin (best changeling friend, and one of the people Isaiah had most in common. I wish our schedules had worked together more often)
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Adrian (it was always a joy to mess around in the Vale and find reasons to NOT join the House)
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Diethard and
Lalena (wish we had had more time together, but I’m glad for all we managed to share)
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Daphne (wish we had chatted more religion: you made the faith of the Triune really deep and interesting, and I don’t think you get enough credit for that)
-
Liv (the friendship was great, the breaking up, even better)
-
Wyn (such sweet talks… And such an understated, excellent portrayal of a person)
-My various
ringrunner groups (both where Isaiah ran and where he was a guest star), from the Companions to the Misers: we got far! If only Isaiah hadn’t felt so attached to the people he left behind. In the end, all those who told him to never return, to let go, were right…
-Houses
Greywood,
“Not Sunpurse” and
Blackhearth in general… What great hopes Isaiah put in each, at different times…
-The villains Isaiah worked against, but specially
Rhowan, who was really cool for Lawful Good on Lawful Good rivalry.
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Bearic, who, despite not being in my timezone, has been always extremely helpful.
-And of course,
Caleb! I loved all the personal developments, loved the silliness and adventuring, loved the emotions! Not that I need a lot of encouragement to remain open to roleplaying big feelings on my PCs, but Caleb+Isa only makes me double down on the conviction that romances can be another flavor to make a great story.
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