Weird IN Character

[pyrephox]

...or, why Amber shouldn't read internet conspiracy theories.

Melchizedek
Balseraph of the Game

Corporeal Forces: 2
Strength: 4 Agility: 4

Ethereal Forces: 3
Intelligence: 8 Precision: 4

Celestial Forces: 4
Will: 10 Perception: 6

Vessel/2 (Human Male, Charisma +2, "Authoritative")
Role/6 Status/2 ("Adrian Thurgood", Cult Leader)

Skills: Fast Talk/6, Knowledge (History/1, Religion/1, Psychology/1), Dodge/1, Detect Lies/2

Songs: Opening (Ethereal/4, Celestial/3), Charm (Corporeal/3, Ethereal/3, Celestial/4)

Discord: Paranoia/3

Mel is a demon on a mission. He knows the power of a rumor, the way that humans make patterns out of objectively random or coincidental events, and turn it into a grand, overarching theory on how the world must work. It's the only thing about the whole species of jumped-up monkeys that he finds remotely worth admiration. And certainly the most useful thing about them. A relatively young demon, he's already aiming for the Word of Conspiracies...and doesn't particularly care if he has to kill anyone who might already be holding it. He's particularly fond of the postmillenial dispositionists, those who are convinced that the world is coming to an end, and who are determined to prove their 'purity' for the afterlife...largely by blaming everyone else for everything that could possibly go wrong. In his current Role, Mel has gathered a small band of deluded souls around him, and with the help of certain Songs and his resonance, has convinced them that he, and only he, knows the secret enemy that has ensured that they cannot succeed in today's corrupt world. The group roams around the nation at Mel's whims, travelling in a caravan of old cars and one battered RV (White, with "HEAR THE TRUTH, KNOW THE TRUTH" emblazoned in red on both sides), seeking out and killing those that Mel has targeted as the "servants of the Anti-Christ". These targets have the happy coincidence of usually being Renegade demons that Mel has been ordered to give a long taste of Limbo, with the occassional meddling angel or Soldier thrown in for fun. While his cultists are not formal Servants (Mel doesn't find any individual one of them useful enough to seek that binding), Charm, Ethereal Opening, and the Balseraph resonance are usually sufficient to keep them in line, and by now his 'seconds' are so Bal-brainwashed that even when he has to leave on a solitary mission, or to return to Hell for other duties, the cult can manage to stick together. Quite often, they even manage it without killing each other.

Personality: Mel is outwardly cool, calm, and in control. He has the authoritative manner of a well-respected father...if your father talked, in perfect seriousness, about the Zionist plot to pollute the world's bacon supply with hallucinogens that will force human minds to envision the One World Government and birth the Anti-Christ from the collective anima. Except when his Discord (gained in his first Role by becoming obsessed with trying to convert a group of Soldiers of Lightning to Hell's cause, and /still/ not removed by Asmodeus, since it doesn't seem to interfere overmuch with his actual duties) or resonance interferes, Mel does not believe his own conspiracies. He considers those Gamesters who play the lesser games of odds and cards and playing boards to be inferior to his game, that is played across the entire imagination of humanity, with history as the pieces and belief as the scorecard. Luckily for his hide, he's never actually /expressed/ that feeling of superiority to anyone, but simply avoids the usual gaming activities of his Wordmates, instead hanging out in fringe bookstores, where he amuses himself by seeing just how convoluted and contradictory a conspiracy can get, while simultaneously being /completely/ believed by the human professing it. His high score is currently ten logical contradictions in a five-minute speech, with 25 humans all professing complete agreement.

Comments

[siadea.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting! I like the Discord not, er, being removed. *laughs* And the arrogance regarding 'traditional' Gamester paraphenalia. A bit more detail about how he can manage to be a cult leader and a Bal without believing what he's saying might be nice, though. Not to say it's implausible - God knows it's certainly not impossible for Seraphim and (especially) Bals to imply a looot more than they say - but a sentence or so more might be cool.

[pyrephox.livejournal.com]

He does believe what he says! ...when he's saying it. Afterwards, of course, is another matter entirely. Balseraphs don't have to /continue/ to believe their own lies after their resonance wears off. They just changed their minds. Or it was true /then/, but it's not now. 'Truth' is like that, doncha know...it's only those pitiful Seraphim who think that 'truth' is some great constant.

And they /are/ (usually) hunting demons.

[archangelbeth]

*cackle*

I am not coherent at the moment, but am amused.