Name: Pyrite
Origin: Birthed
Parents: Black Carapace, Telen
Miracles Per Turn: 2
Interactions Per Turn: 2
Boons: -
Appearance: A rather handsome, athletic-looking young man with short dark hair and a goatee. He has two inhuman characteristics- firstly, his eyes are a blank white. Secondly, his mouth, while normal-looking at rest, is capable of stretching entirely too wide, revealing needle-teeth and a long, forked tongue.
Personality: Pyrite has a sort of laid-back arrogance to him. He's by no means high-strung, but does feel he and everyone else has a duty to be performing. He's accordingly annoyed by those who faff about excessively, or who interfere with others' works in a way that he feels is counterproductive. He indulges regularly in his father's tastes when available, but is quite willing to go without cannibalism or physical pleasures out of politeness or practicality.
Goals/Beliefs: Pyrite wants to become a god of improvement, knowledge, and pleasure. He seeks to make his followers even better than they are, which includes both making sure they're happy and knowledgeable, and warping them beyond their current attributes.
Backstory: Once upon a time, the goddess Telen declared that she knew more than anyone else, and that none had the ability to teach her. As proof of this irrefutable truth, she offered any who could do so a boon of their choice.
Many attempted to meet her conditions, mortal and immortal. Glaciana lectured her on the true meaning of loss and the desperate glories of chasing scraps. Abbey chided her on lacking knowledge of which man to submit to. Sarah even pleaded with her to know humility and cooperation with her fellow deities. Mortals, gods, and monsters of all stripes and kinds came to her with knowledge of things trivial and great, hidden secrets of the earth and poorly-worded ditties, but in her arrogance she brushed them aside, declaring them trivial, quibbling chaff. None, she claimed, had anything approaching true knowledge.
Black Carapace was one such entity that desired a boon, for he preferred Bellian flesh to their coarser neighbors, and Telen looked much like one of her fair followers. He could not, however, think of what to offer her, and so resumed hunting barbarians while he thought. Gradually, it occurred to him that the movements of his prey was much a game of sorts- he with one goal, they with another- and so his plan was set.
He challenged Telen to come to his barren domain, gloating that he had true knowledge not even she had. She arrived, arrogant and disdainful, demanding to see what he meant. He answered that his knowledge was very particular, and would only become apparent when the sun rose- still several hours away. He said that meanwhile, were she bored, they could play a game he had just invented.
Being innately a creature of curiosity, and without the hubris of her challenge shackling her, she agreed to demolish the stupid beast in whatever worthless game it had invented. To her surprise, however, the game was surprisingly intricate, possessing a certain depth and flow she was unfamiliar with. She lost the first round, and the scorpion informed her that the traditional penalty for losing was to submit to the pleasures of the winner. Telen asked what would happen if she refused, to which Black Carapace replied that her disinterest in the game would be apparent, and that there would be no sense in playing a second round.
Telen laughed, thought about it, and consented. They played several more rounds, until the sun rose and Black Carapace revealed his knowledge: How to lay with the Goddess of Knowledge. Or, he admitted, that he had no knowledge to give; he had not particularly cared about the boon once he figured out how to get what he wanted without it. Telen was dumbstruck, but eventually thanked Black Carapace for the knowledge that even the least of beings sometimes has something to offer the greatest. For his boon, she kissed the child she bore from their union and told him to be good to his father, before depositing him in the great scorpion's claws.
///
Pyrite grew up with his father at the edge of Bellian territory, emulating and serving his sire in many things. He assumed his father's tastes in flesh, in hunting and sowing terror, and in always being cunning and perceptive.
One day, a thought occurred to him, and so he asked his father:
"Father, why is Bellian flesh better than barbarian flesh?"
To which his father replied:
"It simply is, my son. Why don't you ask your mother if you care, or go find the answer for yourself?"
And so Pyrite sought the answer for himself. But though he examined and tasted the flesh of Bellians and barbarians in several ways, he could not fathom where the difference lay. Finally, he asked his mother, but she simply replied:
"Because, my son, Bellians come of Bellians, and barbarians come of barbarians."
Deciding that his mother's answer was not helpful at all, Pyrite took his sword and vowed to look deeper. He cut the skin from a Bellian and a barbarian, and wrapped each other in them; these he presented to his father, who commented that they tasted strange. He cut the bones out of one and placed them in the other, butchered and stitched together several barbarians into a single man, toyed with eyes and noses and stomachs and tendons. And while he never did learn the deeper secrets of what made a Bellian and Bellian and a barbarian a barbarian, he learned much of the differences between and secrets within the two... and most importantly, he learned what he wished to know.
"Father," he said, this time bringing no strange person to taste, "I wish to make even better people for us to enjoy."
"I'm sure you will, my son," his father replied enthusiastically, "I look forward to it."
Feedback would be much appreciated. Personality/goals might be a bit flat at the moment; for some reason I found those harder to write than I did the motivation in his backstory.
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Topic: Isle of the Young Gods: OOC Thread (If you want on Waitlist, Please Check!) (Read 30560 times)