(no subject)

[storyofdeception]

Name(s) - Gerian

Sphere - Expanse

Age - About 40, looks 20 or so. Technically may be the incarnation of an eternal concept; it's difficult to tell.

Physical Description - Slender build, black hair, and looks young. His eyes are pitch black voids, and if you look into them you can see falling stars. :) He tends to dress preppy-casual and doesn't have any particularly unusual physical tells under most circumstances, otherwise. He's more coordinated and graceful than he looks -- very controlled -- but not more so than, say, a champion athlete or martial artist. He's pretty formal in his language, like he's from a century or two back (though it's mostly being from a game written by Dr. Moran.)

Other - Gerian is Not From Around Here; he pings as Outside and Other and Void for those sensitive enough to see. He may, possibly, also ping spiritually like other people at times.

Gerian has narrative timing and physics as an outgrowth of what he is, so he can and will show up at just the right moment -- when his name is called, when it's time to dramatically rescue one of his protoges, just when you think you've escaped, et cetera. The more dramatic the moment, the better his physical skills get (even before he exerts himself). (Mechanically, he mugs his narrative physics Affliction for extra effective Aspect levels, which will make no sense unless you play Nobilis.)

Patronage - Gerian isn’t looking to patron a large number of people; he’d prefer to focus his attention on a few. In general, he’s going to be sincerely interested in their well-being and happiness, and pay particular attention to ensuring that their narrative arc goes well. His hope is that his proteges will take this opportunity to see past the illusion of the world, but if they don’t, he still gets to watch them put themselves back together, and that will give him insight into the Lie.

This isn’t to say that he will always be gentle -- at least, not in the way humans are. His idea of help can be to give someone a traumatic memory (because it’s the right time in their narrative arc, or to see if they’re strong enough to handle it) or have them undergo a gruelling task (because the reward will be sweeter for it). What he wants -- what he most desires -- is to watch the process of someone rebuilding their innermost self after being stripped down to their very core, the story they tell with their deeds, and sometimes that means throwing challenges in their way (as long as it suits their narrative; he won’t traumatize someone fluffy unless they truly seem to need it). He will expect a certain degree of introspection from his proteges, and frivolous or flighty ghosts aren't likely to do well under him, but otherwise he won’t interfere much; that would defeat the purpose, in a way. In most ways, despite being a horror from beyond the world, he’ll be a supportive mentor to the ghosts he claims.

Permissions - In general, I'm good with most things, but I like to be in contact during heavy threads. Normally I'd say there are things I'd prefer to fade to black but Gerian's unlikely to enter those situations (Excrucians are extremely hard targets). He won't tend to inflict suffering on anyone else either, at least not without purpose. On the other hand, attacking him is a very bad idea (and occasionally a swift route to nonexistence) and he will be somewhat protective of his proteges as regards other gods. (He feels responsible for them, and he wants to watch them grow; he won't interfere in their squabbles with other ghosts, if they have them, but if a god messes with them, he'll step in.)

He does have a power I'd like to note -- the Rite of Two Skins. With 24 hours of preparation, he can convince the universe that he is someone else he's met, and thereby gain their powers in addition to his own. I will ask before I make use of this, and it is opt-in! But it is definitely something he's capable of, and in his home canon he can do it to pretty much anyone. (The downside is that if you command him in the name of someone whose "skin" he's wearing, you can force him to obey a command or lose the skin. This might be fun to play with someday.)