My Dragons
They Sit Around and Wonder What Royal Folk Would Do
This is mostly a compliation of thoughts I've been having about Cordelia Naismith1, my character in Marc's current Dragonstar campaign.
Aside from the fact that Cordelia's having some issues right now2, there are some very important things about her character that I'm just now realizing consciously.
To sum it up as succinctly as I can, Cordelia is an aristocrat4. Despite her parents' exceptionally bad example5, she has rather thoroughly internalized the concept of noblesse oblige--she really believes that it's her duty to use her power to help those who are less fortunate, and specifically those she considers "hers". Hence an incident in our most recent session.
One of our players is going to be in another country for several months, which will put a crimp in his character's interaction with the party. Therefore, it's been decided to send A'rance off on a Quest for the Magic Dinglehopper, which will last until Dave's back from Germany. The problem is the in-game reason that he has to go on the quest: the people who have the Magic Dinglehopper think that he's no longer sufficiently close to their mutual god, Zora'ath, and have sent him off to essentially go reconnect with his roots. And when the party first met A'rance, he was pretty much a naïve, unsophisticated barbarian whose answer to most things was "I kill it"6.
Anyway, Cordelia's aware that meeting one's god is a pretty brain-bending thing. She isn't so worried that A'rance might have to regress in order to get the Magic Dinglehopper; if that's the way it is, that's the way it is and she knows she can't do anything about it. What worries her is that Zora'ath, being a god and therefore (presumedly) wise, will be OK with how A'rance has turned out--but A'rance, under the influence of such an overwhelming experience, won't, and will decide of his own accord that he needs to forget all this silly civilization stuff.
Cordelia's not OK with that, not so much on her own behalf but because she's pretty sure A'rance as he is now is satisfied with the way things have turned out. She thinks he'll want to keep his current self if such is an option, but worries that he might have a hard time remembering what his current self is like under the influence of Zora'ath, even if Zora'ath isn't trying for that effect.
So she gave him her signet ring. It's an item strongly connected with her, through her with the party, and through the party to his current self. And it has the extra added bonus of looking like a love-token.
Oh, yeah--did I not mention that A'rance thinks Cordelia doesn't know he's in love with her? He's also convinced that she returns his feelings but is refusing to admit it to herself. Cordelia, meanwhile, is just as much a manipulative shit as her inspiration, and is quite willing to use A'rance's feelings as a lever to save him if she has to; it gives her more to work with. One of her people is faced with a problem, so she looked around at her resources and used everything she could come up with to help him fix it. But she's good enough with people7 that she knows most of them resent this sort of thing; hence, she didn't tell him directly what she's up to.
Cordelia doesn't often give her word, but when she does she keeps it or dies trying8. She's Neutral, but it's against her code of honor to be completely blind to the suffering of the less fortunate; she's not in the adventuring gig purely for the money. If someone's one of hers, you screw with them at the risk of watching her dismantle your life completely.
Of course, she's also arrogant as all get-out, extremely stubborn, rather vindictive, and she will manipulate her friends without a qualm if she thinks it's for their own good. And often enough, they don't know as well as she does what's good for them, because she is the aristocrat...
1: Yes, the name is a blatant ripoff of Lois McMaster Bujold. That's because the character was originally a blatant ripoff3, but there's no easy feminine equivalent for "Miles". So I punted to his mother. Her most common alias, "Ekaterin Vorvayne", is the name of another woman who is important in Miles's life.
2: She tortured a man to death. He was not a nice man, but that's not making her feel any better about herself, let me assure you.
3: The dice even obliged me by giving me a 6 I could put in Con. And she's a halfling.
4: By which I do not mean "has levels in the aristocrat class".
5: They were tyrants, and a lot like what your average Galactic citizen thinks Aral Vorkosigan is like.
6: Technically, that's still his answer to most things, but these days it's slightly easier to talk him down.
7: Most of the time. She spent a few weeks there sweating over the extremely bad decisions she made with Krellit, hoping desperately that he wasn't going to decide to leave the party over it.
8: Not, admittedly, as much of a threat in a D&D universe as it is in the real world.