KARTERIA APP

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Karteria Application

GALE OF WATERDEEP

"Be a moon unto yourself. Even the waves of fate can break upon the shores of will."

OOC INFORMATION

Name: Churl
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact: PM or churlwhirl
Other characters: N/A
Permissions & opt-out: Permissions, Opt-out

IC INFORMATION

Name: Gale Dekarios, AKA Gale of Waterdeep (Note: his surname is not commonly known, even to canonmates)
Canon: Baldur's Gate 3
Age: 35
Gender: Male, he/him
Species: Human
Appearance: Here
Canon point: Early Act 3, after entering Baldur's Gate proper.

History: Here

Personality answers:

• Who in your character's canon influenced the most growth in your character? What do they think about this character?

  Gale met Elminster Aumar, one of the most famous wizards in the known world, when he was only eight. Though he was just a little boy, he was already very gifted in magic, though he had little control over it. Elminster taught him, mentored him, and set him on his life's path. He was Gale's hero and even a replacement father figure. When Elminster showed up to tell him to kill himself? That hurt. Sure, it was a demand from the goddess of magic to sacrifice himself to save the world, but it made things… complicated. He wondered for the first time whether Elminster might be wrong. He still hasn't decided.

• What is your character most afraid of?

  Dying alone and forgotten. He's not actually so afraid of the dying itself, at least no more than the primitive part of anyone else's brain fights against dying. What really terrifies him is the prospect of reaching the last chapter of his life and finding that it all meant nothing, that none of his hard work, his talent, his suffering meant anything to anyone. Gale was always completely certain that he was meant for greatness, and while he has begun to redefine what greatness means to him, he still can't bear not to reach it. He's perfectly willing to die, so long as it's in the pursuit of something greater than him. If he can save people he cares about and the world at large, that will have been enough.

• What would your character say is their best trait? What is truly their best trait?

  He would say his best trait is his magic and his intelligence, which go hand in hand. It is his greatest talent and his greatest source of power. It's how he can be most useful. Naturally, isn't that the best thing about him? On the contrary, it's less his brains and more his heart. Gale is a good person who cares about other people and genuinely wants to do good. When he goes astray, it's usually because he let his head get the better of his heart.

• What would be your character's lowest, darkest moment they've lived through? How did they respond to their troubles and face their demons?

  When Gale absorbed the Netherese Orb, he lost nearly everything that had mattered to him up until that point. He lost his position as Mystra's chosen, lost Mystra herself in her entirety. He lost his position in the wizarding hierarchy, lost the respect of his colleagues. Then, the orb started to eat away at his magic too, greatly diminishing his powers, the kills he was most proud of. He discovered that he could consume the magic from magical items to stave off the orb, but it was only a stopgap. How did he cope with this? Well, he isolated himself for a year, doing only as much as it took to continue to survive. He kept right on doing that until a Nautiloid snatched him up and began the events of the game.

Inventory: Spellbook, staff, pouch,
Powers/Abilities:
Wizard Class, School of Evocation: As an Evocation Wizard, Gale is a magic user that specializes in offensive elemental magic spells such as fire ball and chain lightning. In the new world he finds himself in, his powers are greatly reduced - more like fire (base)ball and chain static shock.
Netherese Orb: Gale has a piece of forbidden magic lodged in his chest. If he is stabbed in this location, he will explode with enough force to level a midsized city. If he dies, his body will emit necrotic damage to those nearby. If not revived, after three days, he will explode the same way he would if stabbed.
Mindflayer Tadpole: Gale is afflicted with a Mindflayer tadpole in his head. It allows telepathic communication with others who share the same affliction.

Samples: Here & Here

Goals:

In his source material, Gale either dies sacrificing himself to save the world or survives as a hero. Karteria presents him with another chance to save a world, only now there are consequences that he has to face in the form of corruption. Additionally, Gale has found himself with a carnivore soul, which is at odds with his intellectual personality and long range fighting strategy. I hope to examine how this grows and changes him as a character.

Soul Choice: Owlbear, Carnivora

CORRUPTION

SHIFT

HALF SHIFT

Taller and bulkier than his natural form. Hair is threaded through with feathers, which spread down his chest and shoulders. Eyes have turned gold, and seem proportionally larger on his face than before. From the shoulders down, he is furry. His palms and the soles of his feet remain without fur, though the skin seems thicker and more leathery. His fingers and toes are tipped in long claws/talons. The undersides of his arms have some feathers, like vestigial wings, though they can't fly at all.

FULL SHIFT

In this form, Gale is about the size and weight of a kodiak bear. He exhibits facultative bipedalism (can walk on two or four limbs, like a bear or gorilla). His head and face are fully feathered and he has a beak, though his face shape is still more human (not as flat as an owl's) and his feathers are still longer where his "hair" would be. He has two ear tufts that look like horns. His eyes are gold and reflect in the darkness. They illuminate gold in full dark. His chest is feathered everywhere except the center, where a purple circle glows. Purple glowing tendrils like veins snake out from the circle, up his neck, to meet his left eye. From the shoulders down, he is fully covered in thick brown fur. His palms and the soles of his feet are covered in thick black leathery skin. His feet are fully ursine, but his hands retain a vaguely human shape and opposable thumbs, though he would struggle to operate all but the most simple items (doorknob yes, keyboard no). Both his hands and feet are tipped in claws that can tear rock as easily as flesh.

CORRUPTION TIMELINE

APRIL

Gale spent the first month refusing to shift when at all possible, only half shifting once to ask for help determining what his shift was. As such, he showed very few physical changes other than a few brown feathers growing in his hair and his eyes sometimes appearing yellow.

MAY

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JUNE

Over the course of the month, the lines that extend from the circular mark on Gale's chest extend and thicken, looking like necrotic veins. Once the lines reach his left eye, it's as if it becomes infected, and the iris becomes purple with a feline slitted pupil.

After the horrific event on the evening of the summer solstice, when people grew hundreds of new eyes and much of the population went blind, Gale found that one of these growths didn't recede for him. The circle on his chest now contains an icy blue eye, ever staring.

JULY

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