Simon Ashlock (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
silverhands) wrote2030-03-16 09:52 pm
silverhands) wrote2030-03-16 09:52 pm
Aefenglom App
Character Information
Name: Simon Ashlock
Canon: World of Warcraft
Canon Point: The beginning of the Battle for Azeroth expansion.
Age: 33
History:
Detailed here!
Personality:
Paladins are often stereotyped as humorless, moralizing buzzkills, and Simon doesn't always do a lot to prove that wrong. The problem is that he doesn't like his fellow paladins any more than secular folk do, and the constant game of one-upmanship and being literally holier-than-thou gets exhausting. He always has the feeling that other paladins are judging and mocking him for not being as pure and lofty a paragon as he's supposed to be--and to be fair, some of them are, though not as many as he thinks. He feels caught between two worlds, not holy enough for the paladins and too holy for the laity, and so generally keeps to himself when he can, preferring to maintain few social ties so that he can travel as he likes.
He feels smothered at the very thought of having to settle in one place for the rest of his life, or even for more than a few years at a time. His wanderlust and commitmentphobia have caused him a lot of far-reaching grief. He knows he's not the only paladin who struggles with the expectation of chaste self-discipline, but most of the others had the good sense to get married young, which didn't work out well for Simon when he tried it. He doesn't really blame his ex-fiancee anymore for choosing his brother, though, when she would have hated the traveling life, and he would have hated staying in his tiny hometown and raising a family. The thought of being a father makes him squirm, and he can't help but feel like that's another failure of morality on his part, though there's no specific "go forth and multiply" commandment in the scriptures of the Light. He likes children just fine, and adores his nieces and nephews even if they do remind him of his brother's betrayal, but all he really wants is to be free to pick up and go exploring, and he couldn't do that with a family to feed.
He wonders sometimes if he wouldn't have been happier as a secular soldier, without having to worry constantly about upholding a paladin's moral code, but he can't truly fathom what that would be like. His entire identity is wrapped up in being one of the Light's chosen warriors, and if it were to abandon him, as it does with inconstant and sinful paladins, he wouldn't know himself anymore. His devotion to his faith is unquestionable, and he takes his vows to uphold its Three Virtues--compassion, respect and tenacity--very seriously indeed. The first two are always difficult, seeing as they're meant most of all to be applied to one's enemies, and he's been fighting in one war or another for his entire adult life, like his father before him--but every paladin on Azeroth struggles with the same dilemma, so at least he knows he isn't alone in that. His evangelistic zealotry in his youth nearly got him caught up in a dangerous and violent cult, but by the time he escaped its clutches, he'd thoroughly learned his lesson. Though he still maintains that the faith of the Light is the one true religion, and all other valid religions have elements of it, he doesn't preach about it or try to convert anyone by the sword anymore. He's capable of finding beauty in religious traditions that aren't his own.
He's self-conscious about his intellect, concerned that people see him as all brawn and no brain. While he has a solid theological education and a respectable level of tactical prowess, he's a man of relatively few words and has no patience for pretension or dense philosophy. As a commander, he's practical above all else, no-nonsense and unwilling to take risks with the lives of his soldiers, always thinking from the perspective of the grunts he once numbered among. No matter how far he's promoted, or how much his brother insists that he's putting on airs, Simon still thinks of himself as a country boy who made good.
Abilities & Skills:
-- Ability to project a near-impenetrable energy shield around his body for about ten seconds at a time, with a half hour or so needed to recharge.
-- Limited ability to heal wounds by laying on hands. He is terrible at this and prefers not to try.
-- Passive resistance to poison and disease.
-- Ability to stun adversaries at some distance with Really Angry Prayers.
-- General magical ability to make people feel like they've been hit with a hammer before he has actually hit them with a real physical hammer.
-- Also good at hitting people with a real physical hammer.
Inventory/Companions:
--Well-crafted breastplate
--Blue-and-gold tabard of the 7th Legion
--Real physical hammer
Choice: Monster (Vampire)
Reason: I wasn't quite clicking with Witch, and I think the lack of internal conflict was a factor--I realized it would be more enjoyable to play him as something he wouldn't be perfectly content to accept right off the bat, and there's a ton of rich material to be explored with the idea of him becoming the specific kind of monster he's spent his life crusading against. (At the same time, however, he has undead friends and has already done some personal growth on the subject, so it wouldn't break him to the point where he would become difficult to play.)
Second Choice (if necessary): Monster (Merrow)
Reason: I think there's another fun avenue of internal conflict to be explored if I can take things he really enjoys (singing, swimming) and give him reasons to feel weird about them (e.g., singing becoming a weapon or method of deception when he's used to thinking of it as a wholesome religious thing.)
Sample: Here!
Name: Simon Ashlock
Canon: World of Warcraft
Canon Point: The beginning of the Battle for Azeroth expansion.
Age: 33
History:
Detailed here!
Personality:
Paladins are often stereotyped as humorless, moralizing buzzkills, and Simon doesn't always do a lot to prove that wrong. The problem is that he doesn't like his fellow paladins any more than secular folk do, and the constant game of one-upmanship and being literally holier-than-thou gets exhausting. He always has the feeling that other paladins are judging and mocking him for not being as pure and lofty a paragon as he's supposed to be--and to be fair, some of them are, though not as many as he thinks. He feels caught between two worlds, not holy enough for the paladins and too holy for the laity, and so generally keeps to himself when he can, preferring to maintain few social ties so that he can travel as he likes.
He feels smothered at the very thought of having to settle in one place for the rest of his life, or even for more than a few years at a time. His wanderlust and commitmentphobia have caused him a lot of far-reaching grief. He knows he's not the only paladin who struggles with the expectation of chaste self-discipline, but most of the others had the good sense to get married young, which didn't work out well for Simon when he tried it. He doesn't really blame his ex-fiancee anymore for choosing his brother, though, when she would have hated the traveling life, and he would have hated staying in his tiny hometown and raising a family. The thought of being a father makes him squirm, and he can't help but feel like that's another failure of morality on his part, though there's no specific "go forth and multiply" commandment in the scriptures of the Light. He likes children just fine, and adores his nieces and nephews even if they do remind him of his brother's betrayal, but all he really wants is to be free to pick up and go exploring, and he couldn't do that with a family to feed.
He wonders sometimes if he wouldn't have been happier as a secular soldier, without having to worry constantly about upholding a paladin's moral code, but he can't truly fathom what that would be like. His entire identity is wrapped up in being one of the Light's chosen warriors, and if it were to abandon him, as it does with inconstant and sinful paladins, he wouldn't know himself anymore. His devotion to his faith is unquestionable, and he takes his vows to uphold its Three Virtues--compassion, respect and tenacity--very seriously indeed. The first two are always difficult, seeing as they're meant most of all to be applied to one's enemies, and he's been fighting in one war or another for his entire adult life, like his father before him--but every paladin on Azeroth struggles with the same dilemma, so at least he knows he isn't alone in that. His evangelistic zealotry in his youth nearly got him caught up in a dangerous and violent cult, but by the time he escaped its clutches, he'd thoroughly learned his lesson. Though he still maintains that the faith of the Light is the one true religion, and all other valid religions have elements of it, he doesn't preach about it or try to convert anyone by the sword anymore. He's capable of finding beauty in religious traditions that aren't his own.
He's self-conscious about his intellect, concerned that people see him as all brawn and no brain. While he has a solid theological education and a respectable level of tactical prowess, he's a man of relatively few words and has no patience for pretension or dense philosophy. As a commander, he's practical above all else, no-nonsense and unwilling to take risks with the lives of his soldiers, always thinking from the perspective of the grunts he once numbered among. No matter how far he's promoted, or how much his brother insists that he's putting on airs, Simon still thinks of himself as a country boy who made good.
Abilities & Skills:
-- Ability to project a near-impenetrable energy shield around his body for about ten seconds at a time, with a half hour or so needed to recharge.
-- Limited ability to heal wounds by laying on hands. He is terrible at this and prefers not to try.
-- Passive resistance to poison and disease.
-- Ability to stun adversaries at some distance with Really Angry Prayers.
-- General magical ability to make people feel like they've been hit with a hammer before he has actually hit them with a real physical hammer.
-- Also good at hitting people with a real physical hammer.
Inventory/Companions:
--Well-crafted breastplate
--Blue-and-gold tabard of the 7th Legion
--Real physical hammer
Choice: Monster (Vampire)
Reason: I wasn't quite clicking with Witch, and I think the lack of internal conflict was a factor--I realized it would be more enjoyable to play him as something he wouldn't be perfectly content to accept right off the bat, and there's a ton of rich material to be explored with the idea of him becoming the specific kind of monster he's spent his life crusading against. (At the same time, however, he has undead friends and has already done some personal growth on the subject, so it wouldn't break him to the point where he would become difficult to play.)
Second Choice (if necessary): Monster (Merrow)
Reason: I think there's another fun avenue of internal conflict to be explored if I can take things he really enjoys (singing, swimming) and give him reasons to feel weird about them (e.g., singing becoming a weapon or method of deception when he's used to thinking of it as a wholesome religious thing.)
Sample: Here!