Role-playing Rants: My favorite player character: Part Four

Those of you with eyes of a hawk no doubt noticed that I used the singular term "character", in the title of this post. That's because it's going to be about a single hero - one that I've RP'ed almost 12 years ago.

If you're reading my blog for some time now, you know that I'm not particulary fond of participating in roleplaying games as a player. I'm the forever GM-kind of guy. I like the creative control, the world building possibilites and, of course, the power of life and death over my players... Errrr... I mean, the chance to see them evolve and become the heroes that they were always destined to be!

What I want to say is that I'm not too fond of playing RPGs. The last time that I was a regular player, was in 2017, back when I've participated in a Vampire: The Masquerade game as a Brujah DJ with a thing for baseball bats. Since then it was only a couple of one-shots, but nothing too serious. That said, back in 2008 when I've started playing RPGs "for real", I got introduced to a group of fantastic people who took me in, and made me participate in a playthrough of "The Enemy Within" campaign.

It was a magical time. Our GM was a hardass who brook no argument, was able to masterfully craft any fictional world for us to enjoy, and utilized music to create a truly unique atmosphere during the game. I can safely say that thanks to Maciej I've begun GMing in the first place. We haven't spoken in almost a decade, but I am and always will be very grateful for his tutelage, patience and willingness to teach me the ropes and basics of this fantastic craft.

Anyway, I've had 3 player characters, but only the second one remained a truly memorable one, both for me and my friends. I don't remember his name anymore, and I've sadly lost the character sheet a long, long time ago, but all of the other details are still fresh in my mind, as if I've RP'ed him yesterday. He was High Elf mage from Ulthuan, brother to my previous character who ended up paralyzed, after a close encounter with an animated skeleton. While my first elven hero (I had a thing for elves back then) was generally a very nice and friendly chap, his sibling was a total asshole and a douchebag. You see, in my mind Warhammer elves are not nice, and aren't supposed to be. They're not just humans with pointy ears - for all intents and purposes they're completely alien beings with minds, desires and goals which, for a normal human, should be impossible to fathom. Dwarves are much more closer to mankind than elves, same with halflings. I wanted to really hammer this foreignness home, to portray this "hero" as a being who doesn't like and understand humans, doesn't want to live amongst them, and who would rather be back on Ulthuan, studying the "pure" magic of Qhaysh, instead of watered down, mongrel spells of men.

Basically that's how my character looked, except for the smile (he almost never smiled) and the crazy eyebrows (artwork by Dezzer)

Needless to say the other characters hated him. The dwarf Slayer, before his demise at the hands of Etelka Herzen, knocked a couple of his teeth and often threatened to kill him. The priest of Morr ignored his rants about human gods being just pale shadows of the elven pantheon, and the party's shadow mage threatening more than once to waste the foolish pointy-eared bastard, whom the entire party nicknamed "pine eater".

That said, he did have his uses. He was certainly the strongest magic users in the whole squad, learning pyromancy and blasting foes with fireballs and flame breath. He could summon the wind of Aqshy to create a flaming sword, and was versed in a couple of languages, as well as unique skills which both the dwarf, and the humans did not possessed. He appreciated culture, literature and fine wine, and was able to act a voice of reason, albeit only from time to time. He was a Bright Wizard in the making, after all, and an elven one at that!

Sadly the many miscasts and combat encounters took its toll on the poor, misguided elf. He went insane, being cursed by the Great Changer himself with manic depression and hoplessness. In the end he was mercy killed by the priest of Morr, after touching a piece of warpstone, found on the body of a slain Skaven Grey Seer, deep in the Barren Hills. His entire brain turned into a huge chunk of the infernal mineral, and effectively lobotomized him. While the shadow mage played with the idea of using him as a mule of sorts, since he retained the ability follow some rudimentary commands, the rest of the party agreed to give him peace. They didn't liked this strange, fey creature, but agreed than no living thing deserved this kind of fate. Perhaps, right before the blade ended his misery, the elf felt something akin to gratitude towards his unlikely comrades...

After this character met his end, I've never quite managed to create another one, whom I would enjoy RPing nearly as much. Only when I've took part in the aformentioned VTM chronicle, did I felt a similar sense of enjoyment and satisfaction, as when I've RPed that arrogant, self-righteous and irritating Asur. I guess a truly memorable heroes are hard to create, and even harder to roleplay. I was very lucky being able to do so, mainly because of the fantastic people with whom I had the pleasure to enjoy this hobby.

Anyway, that's it for my favorite Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay player characters. Next time I will write about other heroes from other, fictional worlds. That said, I'm not going to divulge any more info, at least for now. You will have to see this for yourselves, when the time comes.

Until next time!

Xathrodox86