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warforged
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NAME: Doc
CONTACT: ornithophobic(at)gmail(dot)com
PERSONAL JOURNAL:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
shushuteur
OTHER CHARACTERS: n/a
CHARACTER NAME: Qilby
CHARACTER SERIES: Wakfu
SPECIES: Eliatrope. They're basically space elves... With dragons! They're humanoid for all intents and purposes, but all of them hide glowy headwings made of life energy beneath their ostentatious hats. Although Eliatropes as a whole have close ties with dragons, it's only the six firstborn of the race that are bound by blood to a dragon sibling-- Qilby is one of these firstborn.
AGE: Technically only like, 52 (a guesstimate) in his current life cycle, thanks to the wonders of reincarnation! That being said, his memories span all his tens of thousands of years of lifetimes... So really, old as balls.
CANON POINT: Just after his betrayal of his people is revealed, ten thousand years before the events of the series.
CLASS/ABILITIES:
HISTORY:
The world of Wakfu was born of the union between two equal and opposing forces: a goddess of creation, and a dragon deity of destruction. Their separate spheres of influence -- wakfu and stasis respectively, the cosmic energies they represent -- permeated the entire universe. Think the light side and dark sides of the Force. While wakfu was a gently flowing, benevolent power, stasis was a volatile and turbulent energy. Shortly after the creation of the universe (known as the Krosmoz), the Great Goddess of Wakfu decided she needed some children to populate all that space, so she gave birth to the Eliatropes: the first, and arguably greatest people the Krosmoz had ever seen. Using the ability to harness wakfu and their close ties to the dragons (their father was the Great Dragon, after all) they carved out a great civilization for themselves in one corner of the newborn universe.
The first six Eliatropes and their bonded dragon siblings came to be known as the Council of Twelve. They were quite different from the others that followed in that each pair of siblings was born of a Dofus -- a dragon egg. Upon their death their wakfu didn't rejoin the universe like everyone else's did, but rather returned to their original egg. When both siblings' wakfu were in the egg, the two were reborn. So thus, the Council of Twelve were all effectively immortal, and used that blessing to help govern their people for all time as their Goddess presumably intended for them to.
Qilby was one of these six Eliatropes, and he was even more unique than the rest. Out of all his siblings, he was the only one to retain his memories from life to life. And although a perfect, undying memory had its advantages when you were the scientific pioneer of your people, its costs far outweighed its benefits. Over the centuries, the millennia, the burden of his memories eventually got to him. He'd explored every square inch of his planet, and although his experiments provided him some new experiences and knowledge to feed his starving mind, it wasn't enough. In order to keep himself sane, he believed he needed to explore the rest of the Krosmoz-- indeed, he believed that it was his privilege as someone who was immortal, and essentially a demi-god.
Of course, the rest of the Eliatropes weren't going to voluntarily leave behind their beloved home world, so Qilby did the next best thing: he secretly instigated a war against a neighboring race by stealing the heart of their youngest member, Orgonax (literally, not figuratively.) Seeing how this was a race of ten story-tall giant metal murderbots, this didn't go over so well. Still, it did basically what Qilby intended: a million Eliatrope casualties later, everyone fled into the cold recesses of space to search for a new home. Using the heart he'd stolen, Qilby had created an extremely powerful wakfu catalyst: the Eliacube. While Eliatropes were capable of great feats of wakfu manipulation on their own, the Eliacube multiplied these powers exponentially, allowing them to draw on a nigh-limitless reserve of stored power. It was this device that made space travel possible, using it to power their ship to hop from planet to planet, taking the wakfu they needed along the way.
So life was pretty good for Qilby in those decades with the entire Eliatrope race on a Krosmic road trip, exploring other worlds... Studying their native species... Taking a whole bunch of them as creepy souvenirs. But eventually the Eliatropes settled down on another planet, which would much much later come to be known as the World of Twelve. Qilby, needless to say, was not particularly happy. It was no secret that he constantly argued with the rest of the Council for a return to their old way of life, but it was to no avail. They stayed, and began to rebuild their broken civilization...
Long story short, generations passed in peace and prosperity but soon enough their past enemies came back to haunt them. Orgonax, searching for the heart that was taken from him, found the World of Twelve and war came to the Eliatropes once more. This time the adult Eliatropes were forced to sacrifice their wakfu and their lives, opening a portal to a sanctuary dimension where the children were sealed away until the Krosmoz were safe for them once more. It was during this time that Qilby's original treachery was revealed (explaining a lot about his desire to go back to wandering the stars, in retrospect) and he was forced to fight his brothers face to face. It didn't end well. He lost the battle (and an arm) and as punishment, the king at the time sentenced him to an eternity of total isolation in the Blank Dimension, where he would presumably never be able to cause trouble for the Eliatrope people ever again.OR SO HE THOUGHT.
And so that's how the first and greatest civilization the Krosmoz has ever seen was put in near-extinction by a guy who was literally bored out of his mind. It's shortly before this, just as a dragon's picking Qilby's arm out of his teeth and the king's getting ready to put him in the time-out to rule all time-outs, that another dragon whisks him away to Azeroth.
PERSONALITY:
Qilby is, first and foremost, a scientist. Described as "a brilliant but fragile mind," he is inquisitive, thorough, and skeptical. Gifted with great intelligence, he's used his talents to invent devices to better the lives of his people. His immortal status also grants him a unique foresight, knowing that he'll always have more time to improve his work during lives upon lives for all eternity.
There's one caveat to his immortality, however, and it's one unique to him: he's the only one out of the Council of Twelve who can remember his past lives. This means he's also got millennia upon millennia of experience under his belt (or giant hat, if you will.) While this may sound like a gift, it's truly a burden: although there are the good moments and memories, he also has the responsibility of carrying the knowledge of all his people's past mistakes while watching them repeat them in the present. For a man who has deep pride and a strong sense of cultural identity, this is undoubtedly frustrating. It's enough to make any self-respecting egomaniac say he'll just take things into his own hands!
And so, it was after thousands of years of this that he took it upon himself to learn the "true way of Wakfu." A dissident, he challenged conceived notions of Eliatrope life. Lack of faith in the Goddess eventually became a lack of faith in his own fellow rulers; he grew to detest "the secrets, the taboos." Knowing that outright confrontation rarely got the results he wanted, he resorted to subtler methods of rebellion. He even conducted forbidden research on stasis: pure destructive energy that was believed to be the antithesis of wakfu. These were all likely reasons he was passed over for a position as king -- which happened to be an extremely sore point for him. As mentioned before, he took great pride in his capabilities, and craved recognition for it. Recognition he never felt he got, apparently. He grew very angry after being left out of the former king Chibi's will -- all his worldly possessions went to Chibi's lover, Mina, and the throne went to Yugo. It was really no secret how buttmad he was over this.
In any case, imagine that happening century after century after century since the beginning of time with no end in sight: seeing what he considered weaknesses bringing down his people, attempting to call them out, quarreling with his family, and ultimately failing to do anything of note. Over and over and over again. Bill Murray in Groundhog Day hell.
Qilby eventually came to the realization that the way of Wakfu was to remain in motion, "feeding on other systems, and progressing forever and ever." This is a belief influenced not only by his unique memory and the foresight he liked to think it granted him, but also by the original teachings of the prophet-king Chibi who he rather admired. He loathed the sedentary lifestyle his people had adopted once more following their excommunication to the World of Twelve, especially after all the effort he'd put into making sure they never settled down like that ever again. He saw a potential for greatness that was just being tossed away, wasted. And most importantly, ennui threatened to drive him mad. He was desperate for something new and different -- as he says, his planet had simply become too small for him.
Qilby's ultimate motivations and goals revolve around bringing his people back to their former glory and convincing them to follow his "real way of the Wakfu": to hop from planet to planet, draining them dry of wakfu and forever progressing ever further into the endless Krosmoz. His belief in this philosophy is so strong, that he'd even start wars and sacrifice millions of his people to get them off their planet. In the end, it's all worth it.
It's good for him that all his lives and experiences have given him plenty of practice lying. You kind of need to be a good actor when you've become such a creep: otherwise, how would he fool his family life after life? By all appearances, he's wise, charming, and well-spoken: the very picture of the king he always wanted to be. A great, charismatic storyteller, able to impress many people with his vast experience and knowledge-- and yet, he's endlessly, endearingly curious about the world around him. He's the kind of guy you couldn't ever imagine being angry or vindictive or at all manipulative.
Beneath, however, is a man who's seen too much and been let down far too often, and who has become needlessly cruel and selfish in his search for power. A once-great mind has been twisted into a cunning, ruthless manipulator who can spit the most bald-faced lies without even batting an eye. Entire planets, lives, and civilizations are merely stepping stones towards greater Eliatrope power. Limits are for people who haven't lived for millennia and whose technology and magic aren't way beyond what anyone else has ever accomplished. He's shamelessly arrogant about it too: he doesn't even have any trouble laughing at himself and his own screw-ups when he knows he's ultimately the one in control.
But even as he sets himself above, apart from everyone else, what he fears most is solitude. He could easily go off exploring the universe on his own, but he needs his family (especially his beloved dragon sister) by his side. Even while he claims he's prepared to fight and even personally murder his kin for standing in his way, it's like he does every little thing he can to make sure that doesn't happen. Even more important than his hunger for knowledge -- his need to advance the Eliatrope civilization ever further -- is his desire for his people's acceptance. So much so, that he deludes himself into believing he can still win that acceptance even after every crime he's committed against them, after every orphan he's made.
Qilby is a contradiction. He may be his people's greatest ally, or their worst enemy. He's worthy of pity or fright, of admiration or disgust. There are still many questions about him left unanswered, but one thing's for certain: while once he had noble intentions, he's gone awry and is now willing to do anything to restore his people to their former glory. Because as far as he's concerned, he's the only one that can.
NAME: Doc
CONTACT: ornithophobic(at)gmail(dot)com
PERSONAL JOURNAL:
shushuteurOTHER CHARACTERS: n/a
CHARACTER NAME: Qilby
CHARACTER SERIES: Wakfu
SPECIES: Eliatrope. They're basically space elves... With dragons! They're humanoid for all intents and purposes, but all of them hide glowy headwings made of life energy beneath their ostentatious hats. Although Eliatropes as a whole have close ties with dragons, it's only the six firstborn of the race that are bound by blood to a dragon sibling-- Qilby is one of these firstborn.
AGE: Technically only like, 52 (a guesstimate) in his current life cycle, thanks to the wonders of reincarnation! That being said, his memories span all his tens of thousands of years of lifetimes... So really, old as balls.
CANON POINT: Just after his betrayal of his people is revealed, ten thousand years before the events of the series.
CLASS/ABILITIES:
- IMMORTALITY Functional immortality, anyway. The six firstborn Eliatropes aren't like the rest of their people-- they were born of a Dofus (dragon egg) and possess a dragon sibling. When one sibling dies, rather than passing away forever, their wakfu (life force) returns to their Dofus. When both siblings' wakfu is in their egg, they're reborn once again... Rinse and repeat!
- NO, I MEAN IMMORTALITY Qilby's not the only Eliatrope that enjoy the benefits of reincarnation... But he is the only one that suffers its worst drawbacks. Unlike the others, he retains the memories of his previous lives (and deaths) when he reincarnates. While it means he possesses the knowledge and experience of his people going all the way back to his civilization's nascence, the advantages of such a vast, enduring memory don't make it any easier a burden to bear. In fact, it kind of made him totally batshit insane.
- ENERGY MANIPULATION Wakfu is the energy of life and creation -- kind of like the Force in Star Wars. Most races in the World of Twelve have the ability to channel their own intrinsic wakfu and turn it into powerful attacks, but thousands of years prior to that Eliatropes took the control of wakfu and turned it into an art form. They can draw the life force from other living beings or objects and use it for their own ends: as fuel for their own abilities, as a weapon, or even for simple, mundane uses. With training, they can even see it, using a kind of wakfu vision. Qilby, being an adult Eliatrope and master in his own right, can accomplish particularly difficult feats of wakfu manipulation, such as drawing enough energy to open portals to entire other dimensions. (In the context of the game, the universe-specific wakfu is just treated as a generic life force!)
- PORTALS All Eliatropes can make portals. They can be big! They can be small! They can transport you, your friends, or even redirect your enemies' attacks! There really are too many imaginative uses of portal magic to list. But in general: portals require free hands and wakfu. More wakfu, and usually outside aid, is required for portals over especially long distances. The user needs no line of sight to create a portal any distance away from himself nor -- in the case of portals created very far away -- does he need to have seen or been to the site before. A mere location on a map seems to suffice. (In-game, this is brought more in line with the mage portals and he's only able to make a long-distance portal to places he's already explored.)
- FIGHTING Specifically in Wakfung, the portal-aided martial arts style unique to the Eliatrope people. Basically just your standard kicky-punchy, but taking complete advantage of the ability to be anywhere on the battlefield in a split-second. Although you wouldn't know it just by looking at him, Qilby was allegedly a Grand Master of Wakfung (though his strength lay mostly in his ability to not get hit rather than his ability to hit people.)
- FLIGHT Little flight-capable dragon head-wings made of wakfu -- that's the secret of what's under Eliatrope hats. It's not an ability that anyone frequently takes advantage of (why would they, when they've got portals) but it's there.
- SCIENCE! Qilby was the scientist of his people and he and Eliatrope inventor/prophet/king Chibi performed the bulk of innovation that the race is known for. He created the Wik-Fi network which allowed Eliatropes to communicate over long distances through special plants (i.e. the internet.) He fashioned the Eliacube, a sort of combination wakfu battery and catalyst, which eventually became the Eliatropes' iconic artifact of near-omnipotent power. He invented the zaap gates, capable of instantly transporting people over vast distances. He performed plenty of dangerous, forbidden research on the volatile counterpart to wakfu known as stasis. He cured dozens of diseases. Basically, if it can be scienced, he'll be there to science it.
- SOME WEIRD SORT OF METAMORPHOSIS? Upon a merger with the Eliacube (or perhaps just a great amount of wakfu) he takes on a sinister appearance, quits shirts, gains a new arm made of wakfu, and has his capabilities multiply exponentially. He can create many portals at once and shoot beams of wakfu out of his scary arm. He can form a scythe capable of cutting flesh or an opponent's wakfu itself. He becomes a frickin acrobat and suddenly gets the worst laugh in the world. Walking around looking like this basically screams "I'M EVIL," so needless to say he uses this particular ability only when he needs to. Or when basically screaming "I'M EVIL" is no longer a liability.
HISTORY:
The world of Wakfu was born of the union between two equal and opposing forces: a goddess of creation, and a dragon deity of destruction. Their separate spheres of influence -- wakfu and stasis respectively, the cosmic energies they represent -- permeated the entire universe. Think the light side and dark sides of the Force. While wakfu was a gently flowing, benevolent power, stasis was a volatile and turbulent energy. Shortly after the creation of the universe (known as the Krosmoz), the Great Goddess of Wakfu decided she needed some children to populate all that space, so she gave birth to the Eliatropes: the first, and arguably greatest people the Krosmoz had ever seen. Using the ability to harness wakfu and their close ties to the dragons (their father was the Great Dragon, after all) they carved out a great civilization for themselves in one corner of the newborn universe.
The first six Eliatropes and their bonded dragon siblings came to be known as the Council of Twelve. They were quite different from the others that followed in that each pair of siblings was born of a Dofus -- a dragon egg. Upon their death their wakfu didn't rejoin the universe like everyone else's did, but rather returned to their original egg. When both siblings' wakfu were in the egg, the two were reborn. So thus, the Council of Twelve were all effectively immortal, and used that blessing to help govern their people for all time as their Goddess presumably intended for them to.
Qilby was one of these six Eliatropes, and he was even more unique than the rest. Out of all his siblings, he was the only one to retain his memories from life to life. And although a perfect, undying memory had its advantages when you were the scientific pioneer of your people, its costs far outweighed its benefits. Over the centuries, the millennia, the burden of his memories eventually got to him. He'd explored every square inch of his planet, and although his experiments provided him some new experiences and knowledge to feed his starving mind, it wasn't enough. In order to keep himself sane, he believed he needed to explore the rest of the Krosmoz-- indeed, he believed that it was his privilege as someone who was immortal, and essentially a demi-god.
Of course, the rest of the Eliatropes weren't going to voluntarily leave behind their beloved home world, so Qilby did the next best thing: he secretly instigated a war against a neighboring race by stealing the heart of their youngest member, Orgonax (literally, not figuratively.) Seeing how this was a race of ten story-tall giant metal murderbots, this didn't go over so well. Still, it did basically what Qilby intended: a million Eliatrope casualties later, everyone fled into the cold recesses of space to search for a new home. Using the heart he'd stolen, Qilby had created an extremely powerful wakfu catalyst: the Eliacube. While Eliatropes were capable of great feats of wakfu manipulation on their own, the Eliacube multiplied these powers exponentially, allowing them to draw on a nigh-limitless reserve of stored power. It was this device that made space travel possible, using it to power their ship to hop from planet to planet, taking the wakfu they needed along the way.
So life was pretty good for Qilby in those decades with the entire Eliatrope race on a Krosmic road trip, exploring other worlds... Studying their native species... Taking a whole bunch of them as creepy souvenirs. But eventually the Eliatropes settled down on another planet, which would much much later come to be known as the World of Twelve. Qilby, needless to say, was not particularly happy. It was no secret that he constantly argued with the rest of the Council for a return to their old way of life, but it was to no avail. They stayed, and began to rebuild their broken civilization...
Long story short, generations passed in peace and prosperity but soon enough their past enemies came back to haunt them. Orgonax, searching for the heart that was taken from him, found the World of Twelve and war came to the Eliatropes once more. This time the adult Eliatropes were forced to sacrifice their wakfu and their lives, opening a portal to a sanctuary dimension where the children were sealed away until the Krosmoz were safe for them once more. It was during this time that Qilby's original treachery was revealed (explaining a lot about his desire to go back to wandering the stars, in retrospect) and he was forced to fight his brothers face to face. It didn't end well. He lost the battle (and an arm) and as punishment, the king at the time sentenced him to an eternity of total isolation in the Blank Dimension, where he would presumably never be able to cause trouble for the Eliatrope people ever again.
And so that's how the first and greatest civilization the Krosmoz has ever seen was put in near-extinction by a guy who was literally bored out of his mind. It's shortly before this, just as a dragon's picking Qilby's arm out of his teeth and the king's getting ready to put him in the time-out to rule all time-outs, that another dragon whisks him away to Azeroth.
PERSONALITY:
Qilby is, first and foremost, a scientist. Described as "a brilliant but fragile mind," he is inquisitive, thorough, and skeptical. Gifted with great intelligence, he's used his talents to invent devices to better the lives of his people. His immortal status also grants him a unique foresight, knowing that he'll always have more time to improve his work during lives upon lives for all eternity.
There's one caveat to his immortality, however, and it's one unique to him: he's the only one out of the Council of Twelve who can remember his past lives. This means he's also got millennia upon millennia of experience under his belt (or giant hat, if you will.) While this may sound like a gift, it's truly a burden: although there are the good moments and memories, he also has the responsibility of carrying the knowledge of all his people's past mistakes while watching them repeat them in the present. For a man who has deep pride and a strong sense of cultural identity, this is undoubtedly frustrating. It's enough to make any self-respecting egomaniac say he'll just take things into his own hands!
And so, it was after thousands of years of this that he took it upon himself to learn the "true way of Wakfu." A dissident, he challenged conceived notions of Eliatrope life. Lack of faith in the Goddess eventually became a lack of faith in his own fellow rulers; he grew to detest "the secrets, the taboos." Knowing that outright confrontation rarely got the results he wanted, he resorted to subtler methods of rebellion. He even conducted forbidden research on stasis: pure destructive energy that was believed to be the antithesis of wakfu. These were all likely reasons he was passed over for a position as king -- which happened to be an extremely sore point for him. As mentioned before, he took great pride in his capabilities, and craved recognition for it. Recognition he never felt he got, apparently. He grew very angry after being left out of the former king Chibi's will -- all his worldly possessions went to Chibi's lover, Mina, and the throne went to Yugo. It was really no secret how buttmad he was over this.
In any case, imagine that happening century after century after century since the beginning of time with no end in sight: seeing what he considered weaknesses bringing down his people, attempting to call them out, quarreling with his family, and ultimately failing to do anything of note. Over and over and over again. Bill Murray in Groundhog Day hell.
Qilby eventually came to the realization that the way of Wakfu was to remain in motion, "feeding on other systems, and progressing forever and ever." This is a belief influenced not only by his unique memory and the foresight he liked to think it granted him, but also by the original teachings of the prophet-king Chibi who he rather admired. He loathed the sedentary lifestyle his people had adopted once more following their excommunication to the World of Twelve, especially after all the effort he'd put into making sure they never settled down like that ever again. He saw a potential for greatness that was just being tossed away, wasted. And most importantly, ennui threatened to drive him mad. He was desperate for something new and different -- as he says, his planet had simply become too small for him.
Qilby's ultimate motivations and goals revolve around bringing his people back to their former glory and convincing them to follow his "real way of the Wakfu": to hop from planet to planet, draining them dry of wakfu and forever progressing ever further into the endless Krosmoz. His belief in this philosophy is so strong, that he'd even start wars and sacrifice millions of his people to get them off their planet. In the end, it's all worth it.
It's good for him that all his lives and experiences have given him plenty of practice lying. You kind of need to be a good actor when you've become such a creep: otherwise, how would he fool his family life after life? By all appearances, he's wise, charming, and well-spoken: the very picture of the king he always wanted to be. A great, charismatic storyteller, able to impress many people with his vast experience and knowledge-- and yet, he's endlessly, endearingly curious about the world around him. He's the kind of guy you couldn't ever imagine being angry or vindictive or at all manipulative.
Beneath, however, is a man who's seen too much and been let down far too often, and who has become needlessly cruel and selfish in his search for power. A once-great mind has been twisted into a cunning, ruthless manipulator who can spit the most bald-faced lies without even batting an eye. Entire planets, lives, and civilizations are merely stepping stones towards greater Eliatrope power. Limits are for people who haven't lived for millennia and whose technology and magic aren't way beyond what anyone else has ever accomplished. He's shamelessly arrogant about it too: he doesn't even have any trouble laughing at himself and his own screw-ups when he knows he's ultimately the one in control.
But even as he sets himself above, apart from everyone else, what he fears most is solitude. He could easily go off exploring the universe on his own, but he needs his family (especially his beloved dragon sister) by his side. Even while he claims he's prepared to fight and even personally murder his kin for standing in his way, it's like he does every little thing he can to make sure that doesn't happen. Even more important than his hunger for knowledge -- his need to advance the Eliatrope civilization ever further -- is his desire for his people's acceptance. So much so, that he deludes himself into believing he can still win that acceptance even after every crime he's committed against them, after every orphan he's made.
Qilby is a contradiction. He may be his people's greatest ally, or their worst enemy. He's worthy of pity or fright, of admiration or disgust. There are still many questions about him left unanswered, but one thing's for certain: while once he had noble intentions, he's gone awry and is now willing to do anything to restore his people to their former glory. Because as far as he's concerned, he's the only one that can.