I have made a lot of various
characters and NPC’s over the years
Felosial is probably one of my all-time favorites. When I used to watch Deep Space Nine, I
admired the idea of a Section 31. The
thought that the supposedly perfect Federation had an ultra-secret section
within it that no one seemed to know of or at least admit to. Steven Behr, one of the main writers of Deep
Space Nine, said in the 1999 reference companion to the series, "Why is Earth
a paradise in the twenty-fourth century? Well, maybe it's because there's
someone watching over it and doing the nasty stuff that no one wants to think
about." By Starfleet Charter:
Article 14, Section 31 states: The Federation is to allow for extraordinary
measures to be taken in times of extreme threat. Such measures included
malicious sabotage of enemy installations and technology, biological warfare,
and preemptive assassination. Or as Odo
said, " Interesting, isn't it? The Federation claims to
abhor Section 31's tactics, but when they need the dirty work done, they look
the other way. It's a tidy little arrangement, wouldn't you say? " 2375 ("The Dogs of War”) Sloan, an
operative of Section 31 said this of himself, "The Federation needs men
like you, doctor. Men of conscience. Men of principle. Men who can sleep at
night… You're also the reason Section 31 exists – someone has to protect men
like you from a universe that doesn't share your sense of right and wrong." Sadler,
the actor that portrayed Sloan on Deep Space Nine, had this to say about his
character, " I thought of [Sloan] as an Ollie North character. He does
what needs to be done, what he feels needs to be done. He breaks all the rules,
all the rules of the Federation, in order to keep the Federation safe, or so he
thinks and deeply believes. It’s that same argument that went down with the
Iran-Contra affair and Ollie North. You do what needs to be done and somebody’s
got to do it. I remember thinking, 'How freaking cool is it that the
Federation, this honorable group, these honorable people for all these years,
had this little worm in there who's been changing history for decades” So, DS9 was the first time I really
thought of a Utopian society that had to do and condone evil things to keep it safe
supposedly pure. I then read Remo
Williams. If you have not seen the
movie, do not, just don’t. The movie
does not do the book justice. It even
has a white guy play as a caricature an Asian character. I
cringed while watching his scenes. But
the book series was awesome. The premise
was during Kennedy’s term as president he was being pressed by all sides of the
threat of the Russians, Cuba, the Chinese.
Drug lords and other unsavory types were running rampant in
America. Kennedy, with the help of his
staff created a secret department. The
department would only have 3 constant individuals within it. The Director, the teacher/mentor, and the
operative. The president and all his predecessors
could contact the director at any time.
They could not give him any orders except one. Disband.
The president could request that the department do something, to take
care of some clandestine activity. If the
Director agreed, then it becomes the Director’s problem. The Director would figure out how to take
care of the problem. The president would
have no more contact with the department.
If the president felt the department had overstepped its bounds, then
the only command he could issue to the department was disband. All actions would cease, and the department
would disband, never to assemble again.
This way the department could carry out missions without any governing
of the White House and the White House could at any time simply cease all
activities of its activities. In the movie Serenity, which was
based off Firefly the TV series, there was a character called simply the
Operative, he worked the Federation, he was their secret weapon that was called
forth when everything was going wrong.
Here is what he said about himself and his job, The Operative : If your quarry goes to
ground, you leave no ground to go to… Capt. Malcolm Reynolds : I
don't murder children. The Operative : I do. If I
have to. Capt. Malcolm Reynolds : Why?
Do you even know why they sent you? The Operative : It's not my
place to ask. I believe in something greater than myself. A better world. A
world without sin. Capt. Malcolm Reynolds : So,
me and mine gotta lay down and die... so you can live in your better world? The Operative : I'm not going
to live there. There's no place for me there... any more than there is for you.
Malcolm... I'm a monster. What I do is evil. I have no illusions about it, but
it must be done. Finally, there was Jack Nicholson’s
character from A Few Good Men, “You can’t handle the truth! …Son,
we live in a world that has walls, and those walls have to be guarded by men
with guns. Who’s gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinburg? I have a greater
responsibility than you could possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago, and you
curse the marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing
what I know. That Santiago’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives. And my
existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives. You don’t
want the truth because deep down in places you don’t talk about at parties, you
want me on that wall, you need me on that wall. We use words like honor, code,
loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending
something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination
to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very
freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I
would rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest
you pick up a weapon and stand a post. Either way, I don’t give a damn what you
think you are entitled to.” When I first bought Complete Divine
and I saw they created The Shadowbane Inquisitor and the Church Inquisitor, I
was ecstatic. I thought that
Dungeon and Dragon was finally catching on the idea that placing everything
into Good and Evil alignments did not really work. Then I looked at the alignment qualifications
for the Inquisitor and saw it was Lawful Good or Lawful Neutral. I felt it was a rip off. Then I saw that DnD was also putting in some
stupid wannabe made up organization that the Shadowbanes had to belong. I tossed out this stuff and settled that all
religious organizations would have operatives that would root out corruption from
within and throughout their flock. Then
the idea for Felosial came to me. She was born and raised before the
Great War (also known as the War of Demons) and fought for her homeland. While defending her village with the other
clerics and warriors, her countrymen fled their homes. What the demons left of her homeland was
nothing but scorched earth. Felosial was
devastated. She saw the atrocities firsthand
of what the demons and their human soldiers were capable of. She
stared for a long time into that abyss she saw the world turning into by
Demogorgon’s armies and that abyss stared back into her. She relented her god and swore allegiance to
another god. Set, god of Destruction and
Death. Set’s soul name by Egyptian
mythology is Bad Day, because it was a bad day when Set was created. Felosial
felt it was bad day when her home was destroyed, it was a bad day when her friends
and family was killed. It was bad day when
she saw and understood the truth that world is not all good and that evil
exists and must be destroyed no matter what.
Felosial using the power of her new
religion went forth and spent the rest of war as a constant threat to Demogorgon’s
forces on earth. Though Morgan Foulbane
and his party traveled to the abyss to face Demogorgon himself, Felosial was
just as important on earth fighting the demonic forces. Her ways were ruthless and not everyone
agreed to them. But she always had
positive results. Where she traveled,
the forces of Demogorgon fell. Where the
armies of the demon lord slept, soon plague and destruction visited. After the war, suspicion and distrust
from the various churches and kings arose over Felosial. They did not feel safe with such a loose
cannon running around the countryside, on the other hand, with the new threat
of Vaprak on the horizon, could they afford not to keep her? They called her to meet with the heads of
state. An agreement was met, Felosial
would not pursue evil unless she was called forth by either the heads of the
church or by one of the kings. She
would bide her time. The council could
not command her, they could only ask her to take up their cause. If they did not call for her, she would
remain at rest, in prolonged vacation.
She would not interfere with local laws, politics, or matters. She would only act if she were requested by
the council. If she agreed to whatever
matter caused them to summon her, then the matter would be taken care of how
ever she saw fit. She would not be a delicate
scalpel of the council. She would be a
sledgehammer against the evil in the world.
She would be a loose cannon that would be aimed at corruption. Years would pass and no one would
call for her. She would spend the time
at a monastery or within some ancient library reading and studying. She would often stare deeply into a
fireplace and know that when she died, she would be condemned to an eternity of
flame. A day would come, and she would be summoned. She would go, sit and over a glass of wine,
she would listen to the request of the council.
If she felt it had merit, she would agree to their mission. Then the hunt would begin. The hunt would end when she determined all
the evil that she had been brought forth to destroy was killed. Where she traveled many were guaranteed to
die. During one of the times that she
was not being called forth, she was called back to her mother. Her mother had remarried and had her
sister. The childbirth was not an easy
one as the child was an Aasimar and it other worldly being made the birth exceedingly
difficult. Felosial’s mother never
fully recovered from the birth and therefore needed Felosial to help her and to
help raise her younger sister. Felosial agreed,
as the Qtocplyx’s father had died the previous year fighting against a
skirmishing party of orcs. Felosial
stayed with her mother until her mother died.
She then took her sister with her to the monastery that she had been
staying at. Qtocplyx, Felosial’s little sister,
was raised in a monastery along with her older sister doting over her. As Qtocplyx got older, she became more
interested in the way of the church.
She eventually became a follower of the faith and a devoted paladin of the
church. In game, Qtocplyx is a Rogue,
Paladin, Shadowbane Inquisitor. I did
this because it makes the two sisters a formidable pair. The Shadowbane having the abilities of a
rogue and paladin gives both the abilities of a strong front-line fighter and a
functional rogue to their party. It
also makes Qtocplyx one of the few character builds that has both evasion and
mettle. If she makes a save versus
reflex, will, or fortitude she takes not damage instead of half or
partial. Felosial being a cleric, War Priest, Church
Inquisitor adds a lot of healing and divine ability and has the added benefit
of giving her character 2 bonus domains, Inquisitor and Glory. Using Domain Spontaneity multiple time
Felosial has a large selection of spells at her disposal. She can swap out her memorized spells for
various spells from her multiple domains.
This makes her highly versatile in her spell ability. Between the two of them, they are basically a
full party. Rogue, Fighter,
Cleric. Even arcane they can do somewhat
with Qtocplyx’s use magical device.
Okay, so now you guys know the
background of two of my favorite NPC’s and their inspiration.
