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[palamedes]

PLAYER INFO

Name: Dee
Age: 37
Contact: waftingcurtains on plurk
Current Characters: None

CHARACTER INFO

Name: Palamedes Sextus
Journal: palamedes
Age: 20
Appearance: Fan image, pb I've chosen.

Canon: The Locked Tomb Trilogy
Canon Point: Right before his death.

History: Wiki link.

Abilities: Palamedes is an extremely skilled Necromancer from the Sixth House. Necromancers can perceive and influence life and death energy. Ambient death energy is something that necromancers can feed off of. They can siphon off the life energy of their cavaliers although Palamedes refused to. They can alter flesh, blood, and bone, and animate skeletons, but this is not Palamedes' strength so he doesn't lean on it much. Palamedes' specialty is in Psychometry, the ability to read thalergy/thanergy into objects and track them to their source. So he can read energy off of items and usually find out who they belong to/where they come from.

The Sixth House is the center of academic study in the system, with their people known for their learning and research into necromancy and other areas of study. Palamedes is considered the top of the line from his House in terms of intelligence and knowledge. He's dabbled in many different fields of study, and he has an eidetic memory. Palamedes in his teen years researched medicines in order to help Dulcinea Septimus extend her life with her illness, so he has skill in first aid and generalized medical knowledge.

Questionnaire:

1. What do they care deeply about? What kind of loyalties, commitments, moral codes, life philosophies, passions, callings or spirituality and faith do they have? How do these tend to be expressed?

Palamedes is the ideal leader of Sixth House and because of that, his number one instinct is reason, logic, and understanding. As the academic members of society, he's been studying from childhood to know everything he possibly can. This may make some people distant from morality or emotions, but Palamedes manages to walk that fine line because he is also caring and kind. Many times in Gideon the Ninth, Palamedes was faced with having to make hard choices that his logical mind would tell him he could do, but his heart told him he couldn't. He wasn't capable of using his cavalier Camilla or siphoning off her, the idea of taking any life force for him was simply impossible. He is a moral person in an immoral situation since to become a Lyctor, one has to ascend past loyalty or love, and he would not do it.

He has a good heart but his mind is where he excels. He's curious, loves puzzles, can easily see the big picture, and cannot resist trying to poke at something until he gets the answer. He was at Canaan House for some time before Gideon ever ran into him, because he threw himself immediately into the mystery of why they were there. He is obsessed with getting answers and somewhat egotistical in that his gifted mind has always managed to solve problems in the end. Even if the end includes his suicide as a last-ditch effort to save the day.

2. What kind of person could they become in the future? What are some developmental paths that they could take: best, worst, most likely?

Palamedes was never going to become a Lyctor. Especially not when he realized what it would cost to become one. Which meant his only real future was to keep being the intellectual Warden of Sixth, so his ambitions were all work and mind related. Nothing for himself, outside of his love for Dulcinea, knowing she'd die soon. But he never expected to die at twenty, by his own choice, so there will be a very 'what now' mindset. Worst would be him deciding he wants to live or stay with his friends/loved ones and doing what it takes to stay there or find a way to a different world/timeline. No matter the cost. Best would be becoming someone everyone can count on and share all of himself with and making friends without strings attached. Most likely is somewhere in between these two things.

3. How do they behave within a group? What role(s) do they take? Does this differ if they know and trust the group, versus finding themselves in a group of strangers? Why?

Palamedes is a leader of Sixth, but he otherwise doesn't act as one when other stronger personalities are around, he prefers to be the brains behind an operation. He is more comfortable stepping back and seeing everything at once. He and Camilla went straight to the mystery alone, but Palamedes was willing to share what he knew when making alliances, like with Ninth. He is diplomatic when he needs to be and likes to be useful. Don't let that fool you into thinking he trusts anyone, though. Palamedes is skeptical of other people's motives and while he will help the greater whole, it doesn't mean he will give everything away. He still holds certain truths to himself, either because he is waiting to learn more, or because he doesn't want to give all the cards in his hand away.

He does care about people and if someone is in trouble, he will help them, but not at great risk to others. If it's one person vs. a whole group of people, he'll pick the group, unless it's one of his loved ones and then that changes entirely. He won't sacrifice his friends for strangers, but if he can help a group without that high price, he will. While he did sacrifice himself, that doesn't make him a martyr and he is not suicidal. He values his life and won't put it on the line for no good reason.

4. What do they need and want out of relationships, and how do they go about getting it?

Unsurprisingly, intellectual challenge is one of the primary interests Palamedes has. He likes people who can keep up with him, even if they don't always catch up to wherever he is right away. Curiosity is big for him, people questioning what's going on in their life rather than just accepting it. He doesn't need to be surrounded by geniuses, he's content to be surrounded by competent and level-headed minds that have something to add. He likes partnership, feeling a give and take, true friendships or relationships have to be made of equals, and he really does want that out of others.

He doesn't really seek them out though. He is content with his one best friend and his intellectual partners in Sixth House. He is not shy in the least, but he doesn't need other people to get by. It would be good for him to make friendships just because, not due to having something to get out of it. Sometimes his heart makes him put himself more out there, like proposing marriage to Dulcinea despite it being frowned upon in their culture. She felt to him like she embodied all of these things and he wanted to take care of her. She kindly turned him down, and he understood intellectually, but it still hurt his heart.

5. How do they understand the world–what kind of worldview and thought processes do they have? Why?

Palamedes understands his world as complicated. They're dealing with ancient beasts trying to kill everything. The Lyctors and God are struggling to keep them at bay. It may be very well they are on the verge of extinction. His mind can only go so far, Sixth spends its time studying the past and current, but not solutions to the future. He can only live in the world as presented to him. So he does what he's expected to do, he studies, he learns, he comes up with inventions and ideas for living in the now. He isn't giving up but he is pragmatic and willing to accept when there's no more fighting to be done. The why is this is just how he was raised. Intellectually, realistically, sometimes pessimistically.

6. How much do they rely on their minds and intellect, versus other approaches like relying on instinct, intuition, faith and spirituality, or emotions?

Palamedes relies entirely on his mind and intellect over anything else. Even if his emotions are hurt and he feels terrible, he will pick thought and reason. To a point. This is his natural inclination, so 95% of the time he will think through problems and rationalize the way to approach it. Except when his emotions are so intense that he'll kill himself in order to get revenge on the person who killed a woman he loved. And also to help stop her before she killed everyone else, but a lot of it was for Dulcinea and her memory. So when it counted, his emotion was more powerful than his logic, but it made him a very dangerous foe as he thought through how to murder the Lyctor in their midst.

That being said, he was smart enough to have a plan B where his soul could live on after death in a revenant, something that people thought was impossible but he proved otherwise.

7. What is something others might find intolerable about them?

Palamedes is highly intelligent and he can be a know-it-all. He has plans A, B, and C, not that he tells people about most or all of them. Even people who know him best can be surprised by his actions or the leaps his mind takes. He usually thinks his intellect can get him through everything, and he's often wrong about that! So he only acts like he's the best of the best, he's made a lot of mistakes or been short-sighted because of his feelings or his assumptions. He can be very withholding of information he gets and if he's already figured something out, it's a 50% chance he'll share it, which can be frustrating to others who want to count on him. He is dismissive of people he finds stupid and/or ignorant.

Samples: Thread with Camilla, Thread with Dulcie, Network with Nulo

Why are you interested in this game? I love the exploration aspects, the interesting new worlds you come up with each time, and the fact it has an on-month and off-month. Palamedes is someone who died young. His life has been very mapped out and the idea of 'now what?' will hang over him every step of the way.