2 replies to this topic

[Shfelliot]

I thought it might be interesting to submit a couple of NPC banters that have a similar theme to them, stemming from Brythe's viewpoints on religion: he completely despises it. So I give you a few initial banters I've written from a couple of NPCs I'm sure people have been interested to see interact with: Keldorn and Anomen. I give you two each. Here we go:

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Anomen 1:

Anomen: So it comes to pass this day I have had to share my company with a monster of the darkest kind who so flagrantly shows his colors in a frail attempt to hide the wickedness of his actions. I have had to stay my hand because I seek to keep <CHARNAME> on the path of righteousness, foul cur, but know this:

Helm sees all, evil one, and he is staring into your soul even now!

Brythe: ...I had this gut feeling from the moment I saw you it was going to go like this.

Anomen: I am not sure what <CHARNAME>'s intentions are, noble as they may be in some charity attempt to save some fallen soul, the eyes of a priest of the All-Seeing God do not sway so far from what is so obvious. <CHARNAME> is either blinded or simply naive. True evil does not change. Helm never ceases to watch the world and knows this for a certainty. As a most noble representative of justice, I cannot simply stand by and not let you know the hammer of judgement is but a breath away from bringing your end from this world forever. In time, I am sure your wicked nature will give such light that I will use Helm's insight to clear the veil from <CHARNAME>'s eyes. And in that moment, it shall be your end. Such is the fate of all those who would hide from the Watcher.

Brythe: ...I have a question for you, Anomen.

Anomen: Do not speak my name so bluntly as if you were even worthy to wipe my boots, child-killer.

Brythe: ...Battle-priest then. Whatever works. I'm not here to initiate some kind of epic conflict before a crowd of gawking citizens. I'm not afraid to die. If <CHARNAME> asks it, I'll handle the job for you. But until then...I'd really like to ask you this...you say, in fact, Helm, your god reknowned across this world for watching everything and seeing into everything, has watched me from the very beginning.

Anomen: Do not dare to assume you could escape the Eye of the Watcher, heathen! It shall burn through the thickest shrouds and sees your darkest thoughts.

Brythe: ...but if that's true...and Helm has seen what I've committed, what I've thought all this time, and what I am even now... and he could command you, a rightful agent of his very power, strike me down where I stand for the things I have done...WHY HAS HE MADE ME WAIT SO LONG?

Anomen: ......

Brythe: I've just...stared there in the darkness! Thinking to myself over and over and over again...why is it? Why the goddamn hell am I still here breathing? Why can't the local guard come in a just slit my throat, or the people simply HANG me for things that were obviously my fault? It would have made so many people sleep better at night, I'm sure. Parents would be happy that their little girl was still alive...a man would not weep every day bringing flowers to his wife's grave. Helm has seen me all these years just waiting to die, and YOU have seen me at my most vulnerable even now! You have watched me sleep and you have been behind me in combat with your mace by your side. It would be so easy.

SO WHY DOES HELM NOT GIVEN ME JUDGEMENT? TELL ME!!

Anomen: ...your rants only prolong the inevitable. I will end you soon for the good of the light, villain.

Brythe: ...I have no use in a god who simply watches people and their suffering. Bring your judgement or get the hell out of my way.

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Anomen 2:

Anomen: The days grow shorter and the darkness grows longer on your sins, evil one. The shadows of each and every child you killed is slowly enveloping you for the day when the Watcher's Eye comes crashing on you in a final smite of judgement. And if there is any justice, it will be by my own hand. Your time in that prison was simply a time for you to wait and watch in the darkness like the scum you are and see the cold void that you have fated yourself to.

Brythe: ...I just can't see it. I just can't understand your 'Helm.' What is so amazing about some kind of shining, armored figure that pierces the veils of so much wickedness in this world and yet has so little power over it? Or worse yet, chooses to have such little power over it? You'd think beings and other deities of light would be flocking to a god who boasts to see anything, anywhere, and brings out the truth to light. But Helm's followers aren't the most numerous anywhere. And horrible things happen and continue to happen. And jokes...just like me, right, continue to stand here and mock you when it really, REALLY doesn't make any sense.

Anomen: Dare peak one more word abou...

Brythe: ...no. I...don't disagree with you. I really look at myself sometimes and just laugh. This isn't anything but some kind of mockery; whatever this is I am right now. You have every right to feel about me the way you do...everyone does. In this case, the particular individual getting the hatred probably deserves it. I just don't understand why you're waiting on some god to pass judgement on way. That god...THIS god? He doesn't care. You care. You're here, staring and seeing me in my ridiculous mockery of life. You're the one holding the weapon that could so easily bring about my end...not Helm. I don't hate you. I can't hate you. I hate what you think represents you so well when it just watches and waits.

Anomen: Isn't this truly hilarious! A convicted murderer speaking to a priest of the very nature of theology! You think you understand the intricate nature of Helm's thoughts and duties? You honestly think you have an inkling of the overriding concerns of a god who has suffered more than Ilmater himself...who held the world on his shoulders during the Time of Troubles to shelter and watch over the peoples of Faerun and keep the greatest of cosmic forces from taking this world over? You have no conception of Helm...no conception of what the cost for his true sight is...no idea of what he does on a daily basis to just keep all people alive.

Brythe: I just...

Anomen: NO. You are just blinded in the darkness. There is no more to say about it.

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Keldorn 1:

Keldorn: ......you.

Brythe: ...I think I might have liked you better in the darkness of the sewers. You know, before the whole 'I found out you're a serial killer' and I'm going to judge you because I'm a paladin and all. And why am I saying this to a paladin? I don't know. I think it's sort of like a demon saying to a celestial...hey, I killed your deva brothers, but hey, let's have a nice chat anyw...

Keldorn: ...silence.

Brythe: ...right then. *is quiet*

Keldorn: I'm going to make things very simple for you, demon.

Brythe: ...hey, I just talked about de...

Keldorn: SILENCE!

Brythe: ...RIGHT THEN! *is silent*

Keldorn: You have two options available to you at this moment. You can leave this party in peace, and I may sent a request into Ryan Trawl to hunt you down and bring you before Torm's judgement before the Halls of the Radiant Heart. Two, in the interest of temporarily co-existing until I may better shed the ridiculous nature of keeping such a despicable miscreant in <CHARNAME>'s company, you may tread alongside me in complete silence until the opportunity presents itself for me to bring you to the light's judgement forever. If I for whatever reason deem it necessary to have you speak to me I will initiate contact and you will comply. It is only in this second option that I will allow you to live for any length of time.

But try to test it, and Torm's light shall bring my blade down on your wickedness without fail. Which shall you choose?

Brythe: ....<CHARNAME>, which should I choose?

<CHARNAME>A) Just shut your trap around the paladin. Simple enough, right?
B) Go to justice, fiend! Off with the Radiant Heart with you. <Brythe leaves party forever, end talk>
C) ...I honestly hadn't anticipated the awkwardness of the situation coming to a head quite so early...

Brythe: ...wow, this is actually a lot easier than I thought it would...

Keldorn: *starts to unsheathe blade*

Brythe: RIGHT THEN! SILENCE WE ARE GOLDEN.
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Keldorn 2


Keldorn: I find it necessary, now that I have settled into this group and gotten a handle on things a bit more, to finally turn my attention you to, enemy of Torm. There is a matter we must discuss since we are to share each other's company for the time being in the interest of my holy purpose, whether it be short or not.

Brythe: ...so the speaking thing now, I can do it?

Keldorn: ...you may speak. But only to my queries. I shall lay it down in the simplest way possible. I tire over the years over a neverending battle with the forces of darkness, but in my travels I have never had the experience of actually having to spend time and travel with someone so wicked and yet so candid about their past. Torm makes it a point to give no quarter to those who have traversed in such evil and expect none in return. The things you have told are undeniably true...Torm himself has showered you in his divine light and finds nothing to dispute your claims. You are who you say you are, and you have done what you say you've done.

Having to tolerate you is something at some point I may soon no longer be able to do for my own soul. I may end you at some point, for the sake of this world.

Brythe: ...I understand.

Keldorn: But before I make this decision, there are things I must know. Women...children...you did such horrible things. And yet you hide nothing on them. Here now, after all this time, you are candid about the sick, vileness of such before a paladin of one of the most holy of judges without even flinching. Why? Does not a single tear not shed for the evil you have caused? Are you so hollow and so empty after all these years or you are trying to repent by telling of these things?

Brythe: .......

I would never be so presumptuous with such things, paladin. I am to thank you, for whatever reason you deem it necessary, to try to conceptualize and humanize me for the things that I've done. But you would be wrong. You are much more right about something else...I am hollow.

Keldorn: Elaborate, please.

Brythe: Your god, your noble Torm who struck down Bane in the Time of Troubles? He was there watching me along with Helm when I committed those acts. And I sat in that dungeon. And I sat, and I waited. And I cried, and I wept, and I tried to repent. And you know what I heard?...

Brythe: NOTHING. I heard nothing. I sat and I demanded to die, I sat and waited and asked to be punished and killed or forgotten. At least there, in that cell, in my own mind, I was being punished for my actions. I waited. I waited for so long. I wanted to die.

But here I am now. Out of prison. Staring at you, a noble patriot of Torm, in the face. Telling you after the first forty or so years, you really stop caring. You stop caring because you realize no one is watching at all. There's no one watching. There's no Torm. There IS no Torm, Keldorn.

Keldorn: Be careful with your words...

Brythe: But I speak the truth. If Torm is there, he doesn't give a shit about you or me. He just wants to watch me in limbo. I am a living contradiction. All my tears have been wept and all my hate and anger and rage has subsided. I make no sense still being here. I am, as you say, hollow...filled with just questions.

Keldorn: ...questions?

Brythe: All you can really do in a dungeon is start to question things. It's the reason I'm here now. I have questions. And why Torm or Helm or Tyr wasn't there...is just the least of them. And if I have to tell you or anyone else everything about me to get to the bottom of what the hell it is that's still keeping me alive...whether it's a sick joke or just a fluke, I don't mind anymore. I don't care. I'm just...hollow.

Edited by Shfelliot, 20 March 2009 - 02:52 PM.

[Cal Jones]

I'm really glad this mod is coming along. It's one of the ones I'm really looking forward to playing.

The basis of the talks are good but are long compared to Bioware banters - obviously this is a subject Brythe is passionate about so you want to give him plenty of room to air his feelings, but some might consider these a bit too lengthy. Obviously, do what you think is right - there are mods like the Edwin romance that have huge reams of text but have a lot of fans (me included!).

Also, I'd just watch your tendency to pepper your sentences with ellipses.

[Hecate]

Now that was interesting.

I was itching to read something Brythe/Anomen, because, really, I saw that coming. Brythe just isn't the type of person who would regard religion as something that would help him --or, at least, that was my take on him; I'm glad I was right. What I encountered, though, was deeper than I thought.

Religion in D&D was something that I never liked very much. For my, faith is the basic of every religion anywhere, not knowledge. In Faerûn you know there are gods; they give you powers, and you can travel to their realms if you really put your mind into it. Hell, they are even mortal. You can kill them. With a lot of effort, but you can. Myrkul is death, Bhaal is death. For me, that's not a god, that's just another being that has too much power and too much free time in their hands. I would not kneel and put my absolute faith in something that is, in essence, like me.
What Brythe thinks about it is very close at what I think, too. In real life you can "forgive" god for not listen to your prayers because, well, you can't know he's there. You can only hope, and believe. But in Faerûn you know they are there, and when something happens and they don't step in you can only wonder "Why the hell do I bother in first place?". I don't know if I'm explaining.

That's why people like Anomen irk me so much, especially in a setting like D&D. And that's why I enjoyed this like a five year old child in a candy shop. I really hope there are more discussions like these between the two of them, because Brythe is, in a way, telling him what I always want to tell him every time I play the game. He just exasperate me. Well, any fanatic does that, but him more than any. It's not that I hate him (I actually find a lot of amusement in his obnoxiousness), he just frustrates me.

Keldorn is kinda different. I actually like the guy, and the second conversation is really very interesting, because he actually listens. He doesn't let himself be affected by his words, like, "you're-right-and-you-are-making-me-doubt" type of influence, but he listens anyway. That's something I can respect of him.

Anomen: ...your rants only prolong the inevitable. I will end you soon for the good of the light, villain.

Brythe: ...I have no use in a god who simply watches people and their suffering. Bring your judgement or get the hell out of my way.

Hmmm... Does it makes me look like a weirdo if I say that I'm developing a crush in a fictional guy that's not even finished and I did not even "meet" yet? XD He's also more entertaining than I thought. He's actually surprising me! GASP!

Oh, and concerning Cal Jones's post: it's true that the conversations are very long in Bioware standarts but, personally, that make it all the better ;P I don't know if some people would be throw back by the flood of words, though, but I would say: don't worry about it.

I can't offer constructive criticism because I can't see nothing wrong (seriously *headdesk*), but you have approval for my part, and a new reborned craving to play BGII again with Brythe in it. Oh goddammit.