Character Development

Greetings!  Unfortunately I have been quite pressed for time these past 2 weeks so I only have time for this brief sentiment.  In our campaign that Endos is currently DMing, we came to a point where I had to confront my lawful good brother who saw me as a traitor.  In this exchange I was given the option by my evil clone to kill my brother in exchange for a wish.  I could have gone the rout of “Let’s just kill him and be done with it” and while this might have made the overall encounter easier on some level, an action like murdering my brother would not further the development of my character.  There are certainly situations where just killing stuff is the best rout, but I would encourage you to go the path of character development.  Ultimately, it is my belief that this will make your character more endearing and multifaceted.

Until Next Week!

Raz

P.S.  If you are interested, here is the back story of my character (officially his name is Seimoure Harbringer, but I use “Raz” in my posts for simplicity’s sake)

Seimoure was born with his twin brother Titus in a monk temple located in the mountains known as the Harbringer Enclave.  Everyone in this monk community adopts the last name of Harbringer as a symbol of their devotion to the principle of their clan: loyalty to each other, devotion to Heironeous, and justice.  The Enclave acted as an “incubator” for monk warriors that would either stay at the Enclave to train future monks or go out into the world to act as arbiters of Justice and spread the world of Heironeous.  However, this was not the life that Seimoure desired.

As a child and throughout his training, Seimoure showed great potential in fighting and academics, but he lacked the principles that made the Harbringer clan what it was.  Loyalty and devotion were out of the question and while he did have principles, they were far from just. This was concerning to his parents and the clan as a whole, but they were sure that the positive influence of his brother Titus would eventually rub off on him.  Titus was the shining star of the Harbringers.  His fierce devotion to Heironeous and strong sense of Justice were exemplary to say the least even though he was only a slightly above average fighter. 

Thing was, these two brothers hated each other and no amount of positive influence was going to change their relationship.  They were constantly competing with each other.  Until finally, when they both became 18 years old, it came time for them to prove that they had completed their monk training and were now men.  All they had to do was show that they could split a small boulder, which was on the altar of Heironeous, in two pieces. This feat for a normal, low level monk is not possible and can only be achieved if they are granted divine strength from Heironeous.  First to go was Titus who after a few minutes of prayer, glowed a soft yellow and with a mighty blow he split the rock in two.  Next was Seimoure.  However, with a sneer he looked at the crowd and began glowing a dark red, symbolizing that he had sided with Hextor, the rival and half brother of Heironeous.  He then chopped straight through the boulder and continued to break the altar in half as well.  The crowd looked on at him in horror.

All he did was smile at the crowd turn around and left the Enclave with the little belongings that he had.  He would travel to a nearby city of Bevel where he would work with politicians, lawyers, bankers, tax collectors, thieves, and people of similar occupation, honing his skills as a manipulator.  He would do this for 10 years until he was confident in his abilities and made the decision to move on from his live in Bevel and travel the world to spread his influence and that of Hextor.

That is, until he gets sucked into a portal in the woods….