aion teleos application

[galdorleod]

PLAYER

NAME: Lazdo
CONTACT: lazdo, OddLazdo#2470
OVER 18? yes
CURRENT CHARACTER: N/A

CHARACTER

NAME: Howl
CANON: Howl's Moving Castle (film)
CANON POINT: After Sophie's dream, following his third return to the castle
AGE: 25
SPECIES: Human
INFORMATION: Since Howl's wiki pages are bad, it's better to just reference my own long info page for Howl on his journal. The background section tracks the canon events of the movie, while incorporating details from the books that do not conflict. If that page is insufficient just let me know!

CHARACTER PITCH: Himbo wizard who gave his heart away to a demon when he was ten years old, because it was about to die and he felt sorry for it. Because that was an enormously stupid thing to do, the official story nowadays is that he traded it in exchange for enormous magical power - but this is assuming you could get Howl to tell you that story in the first place. In his home world, he's a bohemian draft dodger who hates the local magical bureaucracy because they ruin his vibe with their stupid rules. He will spend two hours in the bathroom every morning casting spells on himself to make sure he's stunningly beautiful. Despite how ridiculous he can be, he has a bleeding heart when it comes to people in need and will put himself at great risk to protect the things he cares about. Secretly extremely emo because the curse made him incapable of falling in love and is eventually going to kill him.

POWERS: Howl is an incredibly powerful wizard, thanks to his contract with the demon Calcifer. He's seen using a wide variety of magic abilities and spells in the movie, but it's likely he can do much more than what we see (as is the case in the original novel). (Mod's Response: Howl's more miscellaneous, minor spells are controlled by the Aion Power tiers and will fall under "basic cantrips" of Tier 1. He will lose these powers if he reverts to Untouched.) So... sorry ahead of time for how long this section is! But his major powers include:

※Shapeshifting - The main focus of Howl's magic is transformations, whether of himself or objects. Most prominently featured in the film is his ability to transform himself into a large sparrow-like creature. Howl can fly while in this form and engage in air combat with other flying beings. However, there is a risk of this form overpowering Howl's mind and making him unable to transform back into a human. After being in the form for an extended period of time, transforming back can be painful and exhausting on its own. In the movie, s the form begins to overtake him, it becomes more and more monstrous in appearance, sometimes causing his human face buried in feathers or being replaced with a monstrous bird face entirely. Howl's powers of shapeshifting apply to more than just himself, however; in the movie he can do something as simple as removing a burn mark from a table, to completely change the inside of his castle in a matter of seconds with the help of Calcifer.
※Illusions/Disguises - Howl's shapeshifting power is blurred somewhat with his ability to alter appearances in other various ways. He can use magic to disguise himself or others as another human, blurring the line between illusion and transformation. The spell Markl uses to disguise himself as an old man is a creation of Howl's. On a more day to day basis, he casts spells on himself to change his hair color, eye color, or complexion, for the sake of making himself more beautiful and alluring towards women.
※Potions and spells - Howl's main method of supporting himself financially is to sell spells and potions as a wizard for hire. Neither the movie nor the book go into the limits of these spells, but an example would be a spell that that influences the winds to be more favorable for a sailor about to leave on a voyage. In the book, some of Howl's spells depend on something akin to a placebo effect, i.e., the purchaser's belief that it will work - but they're never entirely without some magical component. (Mod Response: Howl's potions will not work in Aion Teleos, but he may learn the game's native alchemy.)
※Portals and conjuring - These are related, but not the same. Howl has the ability to create rooted portals that lead to places they are not actually connected to, namely his castle's door front door, which is connected to numerous cities at the same time. Relatedly, Howl can also conjure objects from elsewhere (not from nothing), although this is only seen in the book. For example, in a scene where he discovers he's out of firewood, he conjures some logs from the storage of someone who owes him money. I'd lump these two powers together since they relate to the manipulation of space and distance. (Mod Response: Howl's ability to teleport or create portals is limited according to the game's overall general limitations on teleportation.)
※Telekinesis - A pretty basic thing for a wizard of Howl's power to be able to do, but worth mentioning. Not only does this work on people (for example, forcing a person to involuntarily walk away) but he can also influence objects from a very large distance (for example, turning the engines off in a warship while standing on the ground). Using this magic in excess has the same negative effects on Howl as exploiting his bird form too intensely. (Mod's Response: Howl's telekinesis abilities are diminished to be less overpowered and more reasonable.)
※Demon Handling - This is more of a knowledge base than a power, but as a person who knew how to find a demon, much less contract with it, Howl has some degree of familiarity with dark creatures and spirits. (He even tries summoning some during a temper tantrum over Sophie touching his stuff.)

Having read the FAQ, I am pretty sure that a lot of these abilities have to be nerfed, especially those that would fall under the rule against "reality bending" powers. So, I'm guessing Howl would completely lose his ability to alter the inside of a building to the point of being able to rearrange rooms. It's depicted as a pretty difficult spell in canon anyway, so I'm happy with limiting his "reality bending" abilities to those that would only affect himself.

Aside from that, I think his other powers are okay to keep, as long as they're dampened by needing to rest or needing an extra source of magic to do them? Please let me know if there's any specific nerf that will have to be implemented on his powers, or if you need more information about how any of his powers work! (Mod Response: Nerf accepted along with the others mentioned above.

QUESTIONNAIRE

What is the worst or most malicious thing your character has ever done? How do they feel about it now? Was this sort of action typical of them?

Howl is not a malicious person, but he is very insecure, irresponsible and self-centered. He has a tendency to throw temper tantrums over small slights, especially those that break through his carefully curated veneer of competence and independence. It's during these tantrums that he becomes the most "malicious," lashing out at whoever he feels has wrong him with cruel insults and dangerous spells. For example, after Sophie cleaned the inside of the castle, which included the beautification spells in Howl's bathroom, he lost his mind and blurted out that there's no point in living if you're not beautiful. Sophie, considering herself a very plain-looking and unbeautiful person, was deeply hurt by this and stormed outside to cry. Howl did not follow her to comfort her and instead kept on with that temper tantrum, requiring Sophie to clean up after him yet again afterwards. If asked, Howl would likely admit that these are not his best moments, but he's the kind of person who will not make any serious effort to control his frivolous antics in the future or watch his mouth more closely.

What is the most altruistic or selfless thing your character has ever done? How do they feel about it now? Was this sort of action typical of them?

Howl's childhood agreement to make a contract with Calcifer was not done out of any benefit to himself, but because Howl felt sorry for Calcifer. Howl had managed to catch him while he fell from the sky, most likely out of curiosity, but once he'd caught him he couldn't let go of Calcifer without killing him. Not wanting to send the demon to his death, he agreed to give him his literal and metaphorical heart in order to allow him to keep living. From that point on he was cursed by their contract and grew up with all its side effects, eventually turning into an emotionally stunted and selfish adult. In the book, his lack of a heart explicitly makes him unable to fall in love or find joy in life no matter how hard he tries - two things that make Howl especially miserable, as he tries harder and harder to make himself happy with shallow pleasures, only to get nothing out of it.

On top of becoming heartless, the curse made him literally incapable of telling others about his contract or how to break it (which is, convincing the demon to give his heart back - a seemingly impossible task). This further contributes to his isolation and loneliness. Although Howl probably didn't know the extent of the curse he'd bring onto himself by contracting with Calcifer, there's no way he didn't know that it would be dangerous or detrimental to himself, and yet he agreed to it anyway.

But, selfless acts of self-destruction are pretty normal for Howl - he later uses his immense powers to single-handedly sabotage the military of his country and frustrate their war efforts. Becoming doomed by the curse only makes it easier for him to rationalize harming himself as he overuses magic. Assuming Howl could have a conversation with someone about the contract, he would probably not admit to regretting it, but deep down his feelings are much more conflicted.

What do they desire above all else? How far would they go to accomplish their goals or fulfill those desires? Do they have lines they wouldn't cross?

There is nothing Howl values more than his own freedom. He abandoned his privileges and duties as a graduate of the Sorcerer's Academy because he did not want to honor his oath to obey the king unconditionally. He ran away from an extremely prestigious apprenticeship to the Royal Sorcerer Madame Suliman because of her overbearing opinions on the proper way to practice magic and the proper way to behave.

This does not mean he is entirely avoidant of responsibility; he took in Markl off the street when the child had nowhere else to go and swiftly accepts the addition of new people that Sophie brings to his household. Rather, Howl needs to always feel that he is living his life on his own terms. "Living life on his own terms" does include taking care of the people he loves and sticking to his convictions, but others need to keep in mind that Howl is more likely to follow his whims than to keep promises.

GAME DETAILS

LEGACY: The Celebrant. There are a few others that would definitely also work with him (Wanderer and Firebrand to name two), Howl's vanity and his hedonism are the two elements of his personality that are most prominently on display. They're things he does not feel any guilt over. These aspects of Howl are not only the first things most people will notice about him, but if Howl remains nothing more than an acquaintance, they could be the only things. He does have a noble heart and a willingness to help others, but in moments of weakness, these can be overridden by a need to self-soothe. Finally, the irresponsibility and lack of direction facets of Celebrant pretty much fit Howl perfectly.
INTRODUCTORY SECT: I think it's really a toss-up when it comes to which sect Howl will ultimately end up with. There's a case to be made that his inherently heroic nature would make him gravitate to Pleroma on his own. That being said, I think I'd actually like to put him in Kenoma, because I never get a chance to explore the darker side of his character. He'd probably be an early victim of brainwashing after failing to comply with orders, and either constantly need additional brainwashing to reinforce his loyalty, or always be teetering on switching sides.
SUITABILITY: As mentioned above, Aion Teleos caught my attention because of the potential to explore more of Howl's character flaws and the downsides of his demon contract. In other games I've played him at, his good nature makes him float towards being a force of good, and this game has the mechanics I'd need to get him to totally drown in all the bad things going on with him, lol. His deep need for freedom admittedly doesn't fit Kleroma's strong requirements for obedience, but a) the brainwashing can take care of that, and b) the misanthropic and fatalistic perspective of Kleroma perfectly matches Howl's mindset at the canon point I'm taking him from, where he's rapidly running out of hope for saving himself and intentionally harming and destroying himself by using too much magic. As far as his personal arc at the game, I would rather see how it plays out naturally - Howl's salvation in canon depends on the people around him not giving up on him, despite his many flaws. That being said, I can see it going a number of different ways - changing sides numerous times as different influences pull on him, or becoming completely absorbed by his overuse of magic and being stuck in monster bird form, or managing to meet that one person or persons who care enough to try to save him.

SAMPLES: all threads from the TDM!
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