Kataphrakte (WIP)

[Shofet]

Player Name: Shofet
Character Name: Basilissa Roxanē XXI
Power Level: 7 (105/105PP)
Trade-Offs: None
Unspent PP:


In Brief: Teen queen out to make a good impression.

Alternate Identity: Kataphrakte
Identity: Open
Birthplace: Alkeidon, Antichthonia.
Affiliations: Antichthonian government.
Family: Basileus Odysseus III (father, deceased), Phrenē (mother), Orion II (brother)

Description
Age: 17 (DOB: December 22, 1996)
Gender: Female
Ethnicity: Helleno-Iranian
Height: 5'05"
Weight: 155lb
Eyes: Ice blue
Hair: Curly black

Roxy is a striking looking woman, with pronounced features including a prominent chin, high cheekbones, a well-defined mouth and arced eyebrows. She's a bit pudgy, largely from a life of general luxury, but she carries it well. She has a very straight posture, and walks in an a pronounced, dramatic fashion, as befitting her station. Roxy wears her hair long, down to her shoulders, and it is a wild tangle of black curls.

Power Descriptions
Kataphrakte utilises magic arms and armour alongside minor magical powers.

History

The tale begins in 330 BC, after Alexander defeated a last stand of the Persian Empire's forces in modern day Iran, in the Battle of the Persian Gate. Alexander, in his drunken glee over his success, burnt down the city of Persepolis.

Gennadios, a minor officer serving under Alexander at the time, had finally had enough when he saw such a beautiful city burn at the hands of a drunken lout. Rounding up as many men as he could, from both defecting Alexandrian forces and Achaemenid rebels, Gennadios simply deserted the army, hoping to carve out an empire for himself more worthy than Alexander's, and perhaps to one day defeat the power mad king.

The forces were pursued by a small contingent to Armenia, where the forces hid in the caves of the nation's many mountains. There, they escaped into a small unmarked pass to avoid detection and give them time to rally more forces. Strangely, though, the pass went on longer than it should - a faint light drew them further through the caves, to the opposite side, to find themselves in a completely alien location.

The climate of the world they exited on was nothing like the cold, mountainous Armenia. The land was lush and green, the air warm and strong. Attempts to exit through the same pass lead to Gennadios' forces discovering that somehow, they had been transported to another world, for walking out the other side of the pass only lead them to the opposite side of the mountain, and not back to Armenia, where they entered from. Further observations confirmed it, the most important being that the sun seemed to rise and set in the opposite direction of Earth.

This lead to Gennadios dubbing the strange land "Antichthonia", referring to an old Greek legend of a "counter-Earth" that hid behind the sun, always opposite the planet Earth.

The forces soon encountered natives of the world. The natives were a magical sort, strange creatures capable of strong sorcery, who called themselves the "Kalaney". The natives were mystified by Gennadios and his apparent "regal bearing", and much to the officer's surprise, he was offered an "alliance" with the Kalaney. The alliance started out, initially, fairly slow, simply being taught how to survive in the land, but over time, the people of the army began to blend with the Kalaney, and Gennadios was chosen as the "Kakalaneyyir", or "king" by a predecessor who lead the tribes of the Kalaney.

Now, fast forward to today. Suddenly, the portal is re-opened, discovered after a young shepherd chased his sheep through. The reigning family is notified immediately. Wanting to make an impression upon the people of the world they left behind, the reigning King, Odysseus II, went through the portal with a contingency of people. He expected to be treated as a demigod, for his people had innate powers brought on by interbreeding with the Kalaney. Instead, he found that the world was more than used to people such as himself, and the sheer shock of all the technology... Well, it scared him literally to death.

 

Suddenly, the young Roxane, his daughter, was left reigning Basilissa of Antichthonia. However, a curiosity was set in her heart when she heard descriptions of this strange world on the other side of the cave. After a few months, she could bear to hear it no longer, and needed to experience it. Leaving her mother, Phrene, as regent, Roxane insistently pushed out into the new world with her advisor, Solon. After talks with the United States and some very confused Hellenologists, Roxane was able to get herself placement within this new world as a sort of "good will" ambassador to the USA from her home dimension. Immediately, she was infatuated with the idea of superheroes, whom she took to be demigods like in her people's legends.

 

Immediately, she moved to Freedom City, the hub of her fascination. There, she found her sources of inspiration. She decided that she would mimic them; rise to their level and prove herself the equals of the men who inhabited a world that her father's mind could not comprehend. Donning artefacts from her people, Roxane adopted the moniker of "Kataphrakte", and has ever since attempted to emulate the people of Freedom City. In her own civilian life, she had enrolled herself in Claremont in an attempt to understand the culture better, while remaining close to people who have the powers that fascinate her.

 

Personality and Motivation: Basilissa Roxanē fits the idea of a Hellenic queen at most times, being driven to dramatics, large scale consumption and just a bit of brattiness. However, she's a genuinely good person despite her faults, and is compassionate if poor at showing it at times. Her haughtiness and high opinion of herself hide the fact that she genuinely holds the world she is in with awe, and that she sincerely wishes to help people. She's a loving, affectionate soul at her core, and she tends to treat any friends she makes as family fairly quickly, as is custom amongst her people. She's perhaps a little too trusting with her friends, however, and when she is let down she often takes it exceptionally hard. Thankfully, she forgives and forgets fairly quickly.

 

Roxane does have some immediate cultural issues that she hasn't resolved, yet. The body image of the people on Earth is drastically different than Antichthonia's, a fact which still makes her uncomfortable. Additionally, democracy is still something that confuses her highly, and while she'd never impune on someone's right to do it, she considers an aspect of barbaroi. Her largest issue is that royalty is legitimately seen as divine in Antichthonia (she holds that she is a descendant of Apollo), and as such disrespect to her tends to upset her gravely, as she's highly unused to being insulted by anyone.  Thankfully, her immediate response to insult is not violence, but instead to get huffy and mostly just try to make the insulter feel bad for doing so.

 

Roxane's motivations are varied: the one that got her started was a desire to emulate the "demigods" of the world, ergo, mimicking the superheroes. She's spurred on to not give up by a compassionate heart and a fairly strong sense of what is right and what is wrong. She also wishes to make a good impression on the Earthers about her people.

 

Powers and Tactics: Kataphrakte makes good use of her winged sandals to give her optimum mobility, while using her bow to take long-distance shots at her opponents. If she's forced into a close fight, she'll use her magical powers to separate herself from her opponents.

 

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Conflicted Loyalties: When it comes down to it, Roxy has two loyalties: One to Freedom City, her new home, and Antichthonia, her birthplace. Usually, she finds herself prioritising the latter over the former, unless given sufficient reason to do the former.

Spoiled: Roxy lived in a lifestyle of sheer luxury before coming to Earth, and while she's definitely trimmed back, one is moulded by the environment they are born into. She finds dealing with hunger and tiredness very difficult, and is happiest when she is eating something. This makes her come off as a bit gluttonous, as well as frivolous with her finances to the point of detriment. She's also given to trusting people who provide her that sort of luxury.

Fish out of Water: Roxy comes from a political system that is near dead on Earth, and her culture is fairly backwards to the modern American, and as such she occasionally has trouble intermeshing. Additionally, she simply does not grasp concepts such as race, instead coming from a culture where one was defined by whom they were ruled by. She can be a bit culturally snobby, though she's more clueless than malicious.

New to Technology: Roxy is certainly fascinated by technology and understands it as separate from magic, but sometimes it simply overwhelms her. Making her ride in a car has a chance of putting her in a fit, while putting her in front of a computer will have her fiddling with it for hours.

Trusting: Roxy innately assumes people have good intentions, and is often too quick to trust people in that regard.

[Cubist]

"the sun seemed to rise and set in the opposite direction of Earth."

This point could use a little more explanation, IMAO. Wherever the Sun comes up, that direction is clearly East, right? What other observations did they make which might indicate otherwise -- did they have any lodestones to point North, for instance?

 

It seems like the Autochthonian culture has been completely stagnant for more than 2000 years, based on the fact that they attacked modern Earth with friggin' spears! Which strongly implies that the Autochthonians haven't learned anything, haven't discovered anything, haven't invented anything, in the past two millennia. This, even though they know that magic works (see also: Kalaney). I think this, too, is a point that could use some more explanation.

[Shofet]

Oh, I actually had to edit that some since, well, it seemed some of the ideas I had didn't work, but yes, I should explain the stagnation a little more. I'll also think on other examples to prove how it couldn't be Earth.

[Ari]

So far pretty interesting Shofet! Reminds me a little of Adamas, seeing as Kataphrakte is also high-born rather than the more usual middle or lower-class underdog students. We could definitely use a few of those as PCs to provide some contrast.

 

As for the History, I have a few questions: is this an actual Antichthonia, another Earth like Anti-Earth or Earth-Ape, or what? I'm guessing it's a place somewhat like the Lost World, which brings me to another question: why not have her be from the Lost World, just in a region that had escaped notice(say by virtue of the Kalaney's magic hiding them from the Atoms)? Not saying you have to obviously, I'm just curious for the reason!

 

Personality & Motivation I have a couple slight issues: one is the body image thing, which while definitely a real thing and makes sense to have, seems to me like it's pretty fertile ground for stereotypical girl troubles. You know, where the seemingly confident and secure young woman actually has a deep undercurrent of insecurity and inner anxiety around others. That could work and is a thing that happens all the time, but still. Secondly, how do you plan to use the 'unused to democracy' aspect?

 

Looking forward to seeing her in play!

Edited March 10, 2013 by Arichamus

[Shofet]

The Lost World suggestion makes a good deal of sense, and I do think that is something that could be worked with. The only issue I see is that this is a fairly advanced society compared to most of the Lost World, being Alexandrian in technology level.

 

I get what you're saying about the stereotypical girl troubles, but I think her main issue is more that everything down to the body image in the USA is different than what her homeland is. She wouldn't take well to criticism on her appearance based on that criteria, not because she secretly doubts herself, but because she so strongly believes the opposite. Her insecurities would come from, if anywhere, the conflict between maintaining her own cultural standards and allowing the modern world's to affect her. The lack of understanding how the political system works in the USA is just an extension of that, since it also illustrates a vastly different viewpoint: Right now, Kataphrakte's main understanding of the world is that people are born into positions, social mobility isn't a major thing, and social order is maintained through a largely static society. Really, it would play out more socially than politically - Someone is the leader because they are the leader and that is just how things are, not because they are the most well-reasoned or the like.

[Ari]

Well that's easy: they're on a different continent than the other three nations, and thus have had no contact or trade with them! A fairly insular society would also explain their high tech level, at least a little.

 

Glad to hear that was on your mind too! So it will be a cultural/societal friction point? Alrighty then. And her stance on leadership will certainly lead to interesting things. Ahem.