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ryslig
OOC INFORMATION
Name: Holo
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hologramblue
Other Characters: n/a
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Walter
Age: 18
Canon: Shin Megami Tensei IV
Canon Point: Post-game, neutral route
Character Information: Walter at the Megaten Wiki
Personality:
People who've talked to Walter would probably identify him as confident, companionable, and boisterous, sharp-tongued in his impatience but generous in his camaraderie; a troublemaker who gives voice to whatever opinion or thought crosses his mind, regardless of how it'll be received, and prefers the company of people as honest as he is. He's generally friendly unless provoked, rarely an aggressor but more than willing to end the fight on the level it came to him. Socialization comes naturally to him, whether it's effective or not - tact isn't his strong point, but shame doesn't come too easily to him either. His superiors quickly learn that he's not easy to keep under control unless his respect or agreement has been won, and he points out foolishness wherever he sees it, usually with a wry comment that cuts straight to the point. Though emotionally driven and often impulsive overall, he's used to not having the freedom to physically act out, and he expresses his impulsiveness mostly through his words and long-term decisions - Walter is something of a thrill-seeker, but has no trouble reining himself in in the short term for the sake of accomplishing a goal or keeping others safe.
His brash attitude and behavior have gotten Walter in trouble more than once; he hails from a highly religious, socially stratified country called the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, where Casualry laborers produce essential goods while educated Luxurors issue national policy from the comfort of the castle, and all youths of 18 years undergo a Rite that identifies those suited to enter the Samurai order that protects the kingdom. Walter, who was born the son of a Casualry fisherman and inducted as a Samurai, doesn't quite fit the standards that his country expects of him, valuing excitement and personal dignity in a society that worships its God as an imposer of order and keeper of peace, and refusing to bend his knee to Luxurors who would rather he affirm their natural-born superiority over him.
As a Samurai, Walter had to live in Mikado Castle amongst Luxurors, and it's in that environment that his values become clearer through contrast. Where the high-born are delicate speakers and used to speaking around a subject, Walter has little patience for indirectness and seeks honest conversation and concrete resolution of problems. He's more willing to speak openly and emotionally, but also doesn't engage with other people's angst as a routine matter, preferring to give them space to deal with their own problems instead of approaching with polite comforts - a gesture of respect for their dignity that can come off as insensitive from, admittedly, a lot of viewpoints. He puts practicality and raw empathy before rules of morality or taboos, preferring to dirty his hands with a mercy-kill if the alternative is leaving someone to suffer as they die, and tending to make situational moral judgments rather than holding onto firm rules about what is good or evil.
His lack of hard moral stance only became more pronounced after he became a Samurai. Walter isn't unintelligent, but he's extremely uneducated, his knowledge base restricted to what he's personally experienced in life; first in his 18 years growing up illiterate in a pre-industrial fishing village, then in a position of authority as a Samurai, then in the demon-infested brutality of Tokyo. Having come from a "low" place himself, rather than being repulsed by the reality of underground life in the fallen city, he quickly began to sympathize with the individuals struggling to eke out a life there, and was the first in the player's party to acknowledge that they were just as human as the people of Mikado. His acceptance of unpleasant realities and unorthodox viewpoints even grew to extend to some demons; when the human-run but authoritarian Ashura-Kai wants to drive the earth god Kuebiko from its lair, Walter questions their right to do so, suggesting that even though he doesn't mind killing demons, he doesn't believe that he is innately better for being human.
Walter's journey through the underground affected him deeply - though his core values never changed, his concept of where he stood in the world rapidly evolved. As the political situation in both Tokyo and Mikado grew dire, he and everyone around him were forced to choose their sides in a war for the future of humankind. His tendency to empathize with the people of Tokyo led him to adopt subversive beliefs - that no god or authority could assign worth or the lack of it to people, that freedom of the individual is something worth fighting to the death for, and that humanity would best flourish in a world returned to anarchy so that truly strong leaders could naturally rise to power. Though Walter's beliefs are genuine, he's swayed in ways he doesn't realize. The apocalyptic situation demanded extreme choices from him - stay quiet and be swept along with the will of Mikado's rulers, or break away from Mikado entirely to assert his own beliefs. He never wanted to do anything that would harm people, but when push came to shove, his spite against the system that had denied him a voice for so long won out, driving him to the most extreme end of his beliefs and pinning him there so he could justify to himself the actions he'd taken. Under stress, Walter will always take the "chaotic" path, often to fault - but when in full control of himself, and when he isn't forced to champion ideology, he still values human life.
Recently in Walter's memory, as the conflict and his life come to an end, he's decided that he doesn't want to grow old and sentimental enough to renege on his extreme decisions - he wants to "die now, while his life is at its peak", as he puts it in the chaos route ending. The shift in his attitude towards life happened after he met and fought someone who had once championed similar ideas to his own, but had become power-hungry and tyrannical after those ideas had been realized. In a supreme twist of irony, that person is one of several past reincarnations of a "great spirit of spite" that now resides in Walter himself. Though he's not aware of that fact, that he saw the flaws in Kenji and immediately feared those flaws surfacing in himself is a strong indication that he regrets having gone to such extreme ends despite not seeing any other option. In the neutral route (my canonpoint), Walter dies not long after the encounter with Kenji, but he expresses similar sentiments - asking the protagonist not to waste his life fighting him, saying he'd weep over his death, not fully prepared for the negative consequences of his actions but ultimately resigned to the path he's set himself on and the future he envisions for mankind.
Through it all, Walter was an eighteen-year-old trying to affirm his identity, in the face of a society that wanted to stamp out individualism and a quickly-descending war that left him no choice but to choose one of two very frightening futures for humankind as he knew it. He made decisions that look horrific when viewed from the outside, with the luxury of seeing the third option, but which were motivated by fear of what seemed the only alternative and driven by no amount of cruelty. He knows exactly how appalling his values can seem, too, but chooses to follow his own best judgment anyways, because he dreads losing his newly-found freedom of the mind far more than he fears pain, injury, or death. His journey is over, his mission failed, and he's now dead or worse for it - but he doesn't regret a thing, because he was finally able to fight for what he believed in, and that's what mattered (and will continue to matter) most to him.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
- values companionship and treats friends well
- daring/thrill-seeking
- sarcastic
- pragmatic
- sincere
- sympathetic to the abnormal and ignoble
- suspicious of established tradition and authority
- nonconformist
- indelicate
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Either
Opt-Outs: Nymph, Fairy, Vampire, Goblin, Wendigo
Roleplay Sample: TDM thread
Name: Holo
Contact:
holographica | Other Characters: n/a
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Walter
Age: 18
Canon: Shin Megami Tensei IV
Canon Point: Post-game, neutral route
Character Information: Walter at the Megaten Wiki
Personality:
People who've talked to Walter would probably identify him as confident, companionable, and boisterous, sharp-tongued in his impatience but generous in his camaraderie; a troublemaker who gives voice to whatever opinion or thought crosses his mind, regardless of how it'll be received, and prefers the company of people as honest as he is. He's generally friendly unless provoked, rarely an aggressor but more than willing to end the fight on the level it came to him. Socialization comes naturally to him, whether it's effective or not - tact isn't his strong point, but shame doesn't come too easily to him either. His superiors quickly learn that he's not easy to keep under control unless his respect or agreement has been won, and he points out foolishness wherever he sees it, usually with a wry comment that cuts straight to the point. Though emotionally driven and often impulsive overall, he's used to not having the freedom to physically act out, and he expresses his impulsiveness mostly through his words and long-term decisions - Walter is something of a thrill-seeker, but has no trouble reining himself in in the short term for the sake of accomplishing a goal or keeping others safe.
His brash attitude and behavior have gotten Walter in trouble more than once; he hails from a highly religious, socially stratified country called the Eastern Kingdom of Mikado, where Casualry laborers produce essential goods while educated Luxurors issue national policy from the comfort of the castle, and all youths of 18 years undergo a Rite that identifies those suited to enter the Samurai order that protects the kingdom. Walter, who was born the son of a Casualry fisherman and inducted as a Samurai, doesn't quite fit the standards that his country expects of him, valuing excitement and personal dignity in a society that worships its God as an imposer of order and keeper of peace, and refusing to bend his knee to Luxurors who would rather he affirm their natural-born superiority over him.
As a Samurai, Walter had to live in Mikado Castle amongst Luxurors, and it's in that environment that his values become clearer through contrast. Where the high-born are delicate speakers and used to speaking around a subject, Walter has little patience for indirectness and seeks honest conversation and concrete resolution of problems. He's more willing to speak openly and emotionally, but also doesn't engage with other people's angst as a routine matter, preferring to give them space to deal with their own problems instead of approaching with polite comforts - a gesture of respect for their dignity that can come off as insensitive from, admittedly, a lot of viewpoints. He puts practicality and raw empathy before rules of morality or taboos, preferring to dirty his hands with a mercy-kill if the alternative is leaving someone to suffer as they die, and tending to make situational moral judgments rather than holding onto firm rules about what is good or evil.
His lack of hard moral stance only became more pronounced after he became a Samurai. Walter isn't unintelligent, but he's extremely uneducated, his knowledge base restricted to what he's personally experienced in life; first in his 18 years growing up illiterate in a pre-industrial fishing village, then in a position of authority as a Samurai, then in the demon-infested brutality of Tokyo. Having come from a "low" place himself, rather than being repulsed by the reality of underground life in the fallen city, he quickly began to sympathize with the individuals struggling to eke out a life there, and was the first in the player's party to acknowledge that they were just as human as the people of Mikado. His acceptance of unpleasant realities and unorthodox viewpoints even grew to extend to some demons; when the human-run but authoritarian Ashura-Kai wants to drive the earth god Kuebiko from its lair, Walter questions their right to do so, suggesting that even though he doesn't mind killing demons, he doesn't believe that he is innately better for being human.
Walter's journey through the underground affected him deeply - though his core values never changed, his concept of where he stood in the world rapidly evolved. As the political situation in both Tokyo and Mikado grew dire, he and everyone around him were forced to choose their sides in a war for the future of humankind. His tendency to empathize with the people of Tokyo led him to adopt subversive beliefs - that no god or authority could assign worth or the lack of it to people, that freedom of the individual is something worth fighting to the death for, and that humanity would best flourish in a world returned to anarchy so that truly strong leaders could naturally rise to power. Though Walter's beliefs are genuine, he's swayed in ways he doesn't realize. The apocalyptic situation demanded extreme choices from him - stay quiet and be swept along with the will of Mikado's rulers, or break away from Mikado entirely to assert his own beliefs. He never wanted to do anything that would harm people, but when push came to shove, his spite against the system that had denied him a voice for so long won out, driving him to the most extreme end of his beliefs and pinning him there so he could justify to himself the actions he'd taken. Under stress, Walter will always take the "chaotic" path, often to fault - but when in full control of himself, and when he isn't forced to champion ideology, he still values human life.
Recently in Walter's memory, as the conflict and his life come to an end, he's decided that he doesn't want to grow old and sentimental enough to renege on his extreme decisions - he wants to "die now, while his life is at its peak", as he puts it in the chaos route ending. The shift in his attitude towards life happened after he met and fought someone who had once championed similar ideas to his own, but had become power-hungry and tyrannical after those ideas had been realized. In a supreme twist of irony, that person is one of several past reincarnations of a "great spirit of spite" that now resides in Walter himself. Though he's not aware of that fact, that he saw the flaws in Kenji and immediately feared those flaws surfacing in himself is a strong indication that he regrets having gone to such extreme ends despite not seeing any other option. In the neutral route (my canonpoint), Walter dies not long after the encounter with Kenji, but he expresses similar sentiments - asking the protagonist not to waste his life fighting him, saying he'd weep over his death, not fully prepared for the negative consequences of his actions but ultimately resigned to the path he's set himself on and the future he envisions for mankind.
Through it all, Walter was an eighteen-year-old trying to affirm his identity, in the face of a society that wanted to stamp out individualism and a quickly-descending war that left him no choice but to choose one of two very frightening futures for humankind as he knew it. He made decisions that look horrific when viewed from the outside, with the luxury of seeing the third option, but which were motivated by fear of what seemed the only alternative and driven by no amount of cruelty. He knows exactly how appalling his values can seem, too, but chooses to follow his own best judgment anyways, because he dreads losing his newly-found freedom of the mind far more than he fears pain, injury, or death. His journey is over, his mission failed, and he's now dead or worse for it - but he doesn't regret a thing, because he was finally able to fight for what he believed in, and that's what mattered (and will continue to matter) most to him.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
- values companionship and treats friends well
- daring/thrill-seeking
- sarcastic
- pragmatic
- sincere
- sympathetic to the abnormal and ignoble
- suspicious of established tradition and authority
- nonconformist
- indelicate
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Either
Opt-Outs: Nymph, Fairy, Vampire, Goblin, Wendigo
Roleplay Sample: TDM thread