COVID Character: The Peacemaker

Since the start of the pandemic, I have played more role-playing games than I ever have before. I thought I'd use my space to introduce you to my characters, and give you a little background about the system they're in, what they're like, and what they're doing.

The Peacemaker

Aliases: Tretyak Chudin (his real name), The Nameless One
Pronouns: He/him
Character Concept: Skovlan criminal who joined a cult
Character Stats: Spider, member of the Cult of the Want
Campaign: Blades in the Dark
System: Blades in the Dark
Campaign Status: Completed!

Peacemaker started out as The Nameless One, a street preacher and criminal who had an army of urchins at his command. He joined up with a fellows Skovlander named Wraith and a non-Skovlander (but still sympathetic to the cause) merchant named Iris. Together, they started the Cult of the Want, which was a new religion that Wraith found when he was fleeing Skovland and randomly shouted out to the universe for help.

The Want, it turned out, was part of the original Skovlander pantheon of gods, each of whom is dual aspected. Some are straightforward, some are tricky, all of them are downright dangerous.

The Want, true to their name, gives its followers what they Want. Was this a good idea? No one knows, but probably not! But if you live in Duskvol and you are not one of the very rare, very privileged few, you definitely Want things. And thus, we had a lot of converts.

The Nameless One became Peacemaker when he used his street preaching and Spider abilities to stop a riot from breaking out in the streets of Duskvol between rival Skovlander factions. This was the beginning of his becoming not just a cultist of a god of a lost pantheon, but a speaker for the refugees of Skovland as a whole.

Peacemaker was very, very good at the physical world, at maneuvering through society, and getting information about people. He was almost completely dead to the spiritual aspects of the setting, which was interesting for a person who decided that he wanted to elevate not only the Want, but the entire lost Skovlander pantheon, back to their places in the heavens.

It helped that he was part of a Triumvirate: Wraith (who I think was a Lurk) had some magical abilities, as well as unorthodox means of getting to people and places, as well as a love of big explosions, and Iris, who was a Whisper and became so ungodly powerful in the mystical arts that she routinely did things that were supposed to be impossible. Like summoning LEVIATHANS (or, if you're Iris, "sea kitties") to eat the docks, devouring the life energies of lesser deities, and having a demon basically on speed-dial.

Peacemaker was often overwhelmed by his self-imposed responsibilities and by the actions of his own teammates. Oh, Lord Scurlock is in our kitchen making tea? And you told him we'd do what? And you blew up which building? And you tore out all of their blood? And put it in this jar? 

Our GM did a great job running the game and orchestrating an epic and satisfying conclusion. We explored a lot of themes relating to colonialism (which is present in the game, but not given as much of a focus as my GM gave it). The end game involved us getting all the artifacts of the Skovlander gods (including the Mask of the Teller, which Peacemaker is holding in his picture up there). As a result of our quest to hunt down the artifacts, we wound up discovering the Immortal Emperor's deepest secret.

And then we killed him. And brought the sun back.

So, what I'm saying is that the last thing the Triumvirate broke in their heyday was Blades in the Dark itself. We won! Everyone can go home and wait for John Harper's next game. Hoorah!