167 lines
7.7 KiB
Markdown
167 lines
7.7 KiB
Markdown
## Quick ID
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- **Name:** Soren Silversong
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- **Race:** **Changeling** (retcon / decided later; big reveal planned)
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- Early presentation: “Drow Bard” vibe (Dark Urge energy), but that is no longer the truth in-world.
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- **Class/Level (current):** PC, **Level 6** (campaign state). (Class was described as Bard early; later details focus more on character than mechanics.)
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- **Core Theme:** *Intrusive violence + identity instability + “am I real?”*
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- **Tone Role in Party:** the dark counterweight to Ben’s social performance and Joe’s suburban normalcy.
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---
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## Core Backstory (Player-established)
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- **Family dynamic:** Soren is the “lesser” child in her own home.
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- Parents: **Lirael** and **Rael**
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- Sister: **Elise** (golden child / gets all the attention)
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- **Soren’s resentment:** she hates Elise for the attention imbalance and carries that bitterness constantly.
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- **Key rumor:** last year she was **out of school for a few days**, and when she returned she “wasn’t the same.”
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- The table/setting rumor mill speculated:
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- “maybe she’s a changeling”
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- “something happened during those days”
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- You later *canonized* changeling, but the cause is still an open mystery.
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---
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## The Body / The Friend / The Voices (Primary Hook)
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### The corpse “friend”
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- **Secret:** Soren found a **dead body near the river**.
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- Soren treats it as her **only friend**.
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- She has **not reported it**.
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- This corpse is intended as a slow-burn reveal:
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- At first: Soren is delusional / projecting.
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- Later: the “friend” **knows things it shouldn’t** (hint: Root/leyline/Coherence entanglement).
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### Voices & hallucination frame (your current intent)
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- Soren believes the voice is coming from the **river / riverbank**.
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- You wanted the voice to respond **more at the river**, and **not speak outside the riverbank yet** (early constraint).
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- Twist structure:
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- Phase 1: it’s “just in her head” (or seems that way).
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- Phase 2: the voice displays impossible knowledge.
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- Phase 3: you reveal the leyline / Coherence has been “listening” through her.
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### “Dark Urge” energy
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- You described her as “Practically the Dark Urge.”
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- Mechanically represented in play as:
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- **Wisdom saves** to control violent urges.
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- Even on a success, the player may choose violence anyway (this has happened).
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---
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## Personal Objects / Secrets / Props
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- **Important item carried:** **Diary** (most important personal object)
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- **Thing she is hiding:** **Jar of Fingernails** (signature creepy prop)
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- **Night-before-school scene:** sitting by the river, muttering to herself, kicking stuff into the water, then walking home.
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---
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## Family / Home (Tone + Conflict Engine)
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- Desired tone: suburban realism with cruelty, not “crack den melodrama.”
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- Your intent for home scenes:
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- Mother and sister are **condescending / superior / cruel** “for no reason,”
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- Any attempt to defend herself triggers more contempt.
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- This family dynamic is her main “ground-level” conflict (like Ben’s identity lie, Joe’s legacy).
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---
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## Key Behavioral Traits (How Soren plays at the table)
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- **Predatory curiosity:** likes to test boundaries and see what she can get away with.
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- **Fixation behavior:** will pick a target and spiral (Millie became that target).
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- **Disguise + manipulation:** uses deception as a weapon (Disguise Self + impersonation).
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---
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## Major Relationships / Targets
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### Party
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- **Ben:** ally by convenience; she has shown willingness to respond to crisis (e.g., arrived at Ben’s house after Circle explosion).
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- **Joe:** ally; can act as “witness” to Soren going too far (and moral friction tool).
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### NPC Fixation: Millie Fairweather
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- Soren’s player explicitly wants a stalking/torture vibe (“Thanos and the birthday guy” reference).
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- You have stated a hard boundary: you don’t want the campaign to become “murder porn” or derail due to violence.
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- This is the single biggest table-management pressure point right now.
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---
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## Major Events Soren Was Involved In (Chronological, high-signal)
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### Session 1 hooks
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- River scene established:
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- corpse friend
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- voices believed to be river-based
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- family hostility at home
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### Detention-era and early school chaos
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- Soren gets detention early (one of the first-day hooks).
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- You wanted her detention hook originally different; later:
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- she “gets lost in music,” can’t hear teachers calling her to move on (instruments soothe urges).
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### The Lunch Incident (recent major escalation)
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Soren’s actions (as you clarified):
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1) Tried to lure Millie into a bathroom to stab her — failed Persuasion.
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2) After lunch, hid near Millie’s classroom.
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3) Got spotted by a security guard and **ran**.
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4) Hid around a corner and cast **Disguise Self** to become **Estrada**.
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5) Entered Millie’s class impersonating Estrada.
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6) Lured Millie to the parking lot (Millie failed Investigation/Insight).
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7) Used **Prestidigitation** to make Millie’s face look “fucked up.”
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8) Millie screamed and ran.
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9) You denied an opportunity attack to avoid severe consequences the player didn’t want.
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Outcome:
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- Soren successfully escalated to psychological terror.
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- You flagged the need for an out-of-character discussion about violence boundaries.
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### Post Circle explosion involvement
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- After Ben/Joe blew up the gas station and Pip threatened Ben, Soren was called and **arrived at Ben’s house**.
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---
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## DM Levers (what reliably moves Soren)
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1) **The river / corpse** (pulls her into solo scenes and gives you horror tone control)
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2) **Jealousy / resentment** (especially toward “effortless” people like Millie)
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3) **Identity insecurity** (changeling reveal pressure, “who am I?”)
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4) **Authority humiliation** (Estrada/guards/teachers; she loves to subvert)
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5) **Seduction by Coherence** (Coherence’s “love + dissolve pain” pitch is a perfect temptation)
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---
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## How Soren Connects to the Main Arc (Leyline / Coherence / Instrumentality)
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- Soren is a natural “receiver”:
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- porous identity (changeling)
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- history of illness / missing days
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- voice phenomena anchored to a location (river / leyline proximity)
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- Her violent urges can be framed as:
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- intrusive thoughts,
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- Coherence “steering tests,”
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- or a predatory “echo” seeking to reduce separation by force.
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- Her corpse friend is a perfect *Root dead-drop*:
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- it’s physically real evidence of something wrong,
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- it can later become “impossible knowledge” without immediately proving anything.
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---
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## Table-Management Risk Notes (Important)
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- Current tension:
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- Player feels “unfairly constrained” because Soren was told “no stabbing innocents,” but the next session the party caused collateral deaths at The Circle.
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- Your stated principle (good rule):
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- **Collateral consequences can happen.**
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- **Deliberate, intimate harm to innocents (especially torture/murder) is disallowed** because it derails tone and creates unwanted content.
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- Soren’s content needs a lane:
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- “horror” via **psychological dread, identity erosion, supernatural compulsion**
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- not extended torture or explicit murder scenes.
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- Practical tool:
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- Give Soren alternate “predation outlets” that are campaign-relevant:
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- stalking the *Coherence cult*,
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- hunting Root anomalies,
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- sabotaging villains,
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- social dominance games that don’t require blood.
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---
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## Current Status (start-of-next-session snapshot)
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- Soren has just executed a major intimidation stunt on Millie using Disguise Self and Prestidigitation.
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- Soren is physically at Ben’s house following the Circle explosion fallout.
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- The river/corpse thread has been left untouched for “weeks” in-fiction at one point:
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- “the river is dry; you feel it calling; your friend misses you.”
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- Changeling identity is now canonical; reveal is pending.
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---
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