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Development

We can’t really talk about the development of Jay Fletcher without talking about the development of Wren Fletcher. After all, their character only came to be cause of Wren. We knew relatively early on that he had a dead spouse, but it wasn’t until later that I really sat down and tried to make a character out of them.

I wanted to avoid an archetypal dead wife character, as a lot of tropes surrounding that such as fridging are deeply rooted in misogynistic perspectives. So the first step of avoiding any of these common pitfalls was figuring out their personality, and how they might reflect the world and greater narrative outside of just their role in Wren’s life.

I obviously wanted them to be likable, it would kind of defeat the point otherwise, and I eventually settled on making them the somewhat cynical comic they are now.

The Notebook

The notebook first came about around when Tar and I had decided to run something via messages to work out how Jay and Wren had first met. We knew Wren had learned sign because of Jay, so we needed to establish how they talked for the first time and writing was an easy solution. This scene also allowed me to flesh out Jay’s character more for my own future reference, and crucially it made it easier for my poor player to get attached to them as a character.

The decision that Jay was deaf was made much, much earlier, as I had asked the players to tell me if they think their characters would know sign (for Marthan). We agreed Wren did, and eventually decided the reason for that would be that his spouse was deaf. This shaped their character somewhat as they interacted with the world differently from pretty much all of the other characters in the campaign thus far, but the world didn’t always care to accommodate for them. As I was working on their character, I thought that would likely have to be an important angle to put a degree of emphasis on for the themes of the campaign.

Similar thoughts motivated me to make the illness that had killed them a respiratory one caused by improper ventilation in the factory they worked at. That way it didn’t just matter that they were dead, but how they died mattered too, and their story carried more weight for it.

Origins

A fair bit was figured out from before Jay ever met Wren too though. My notes aren’t too in-depth on their past, but I did note that their home life wasn’t great growing up, and they ended up getting kicked out of the house when they came out as genderfluid. They struggled for a while but were eventually able to get themself a stable enough job to keep a roof over their head for the time being, and then eventually they ended up with their job at a factory for the Commission of Science and Arcana.

The decision to have it so they’ve met Marthan — or Alice to be more accurate — was actually made after the campaign had started, during the first hiatus. I was able to quickly work it in cause the idea had interested me a great deal, and now here we are with the results of that having been revealed in-campaign now.

This decision was motivated as much by the fact that it would simply be interesting as it was by the fact that it would make Jay more connected to the world. By having this connection to Marthan, they had a more widespread influence on the world than just their impact on Wren.

Conclusion

Jay’s character was interesting to figure out, and I’m happy that I did put so much work into them. Not every character can be fleshed out entirely, characters are ultimately just tools to facilitate the story… but I do think the story of the campaign is better off for the fact that theirs was.

Not only was their loss felt more by the players for it, but they offer a lot of interesting commentary on several of the themes tackled by the campaign as a whole.

Development

Salvane's development started with the question of what if someone else survived the incident Vaida's old crew had suffered? The details of the incident had yet to be figured out, but the major characters involved were fleshed out before the specifics had been finalized.

That being said, the original concept for Salvane's character was honestly much closer to the character that Liann ended up being. The revenge aspect was always in the plans, This was well before any names or anything were figured out, but their was still the question of what the survivor's relationship to Randolf would be. The original concept didn't appeal to me, and I had the idea of Liann's character so things had to be changed. Thus, Salvane was created as Randolf's younger brother.

After that, there were several more minor adjustments made to his personality and dynamics, but these changes weren't all that noticeable outside a couple planned backstory interactions.

On a mechanical note, I always planned for him to start as a Vengeance Paladin, and change to a Rune Knight Fighter if he got the redemption arc I hoped he would have.

Appearances

As soon as a concept for him was narrowed down, I knew I wanted his design to be very simple. This simplicity had several purposes, the first of which being to contrast Vaida. His personality and tendency to be less sociable per se were also influenced by this.

The second reason was to make his brother stand out more compared to him. He struggles with the sense of existing only within his brother's shadow, so his appearance being unremarkable in comparison is a subtle way of showing that.

Ultimately he was designed to be something of an antithesis to Vaida and Randolf, and this reflects on both his behavior and his design.

His later updated design was made to stand out more to reflect his growth, and red (his color) became the dominant color in the design rather than blue (Randolf's color). Red becoming his main color was a byproduct of establishing his favorite flavor is strawberry compared to Vaida's favorite being mint and their color generally being green or teal.

Visage

The Visage identity was thought of fairly early into the design process as an explanation for what he had been up to in the eight years between the incident on the Second Chance and the events of the campaign. The exact rumors about them were therefore nailed down pretty quickly.

That being said, there was still a fair bit of thought put into the design and other aspects of Salvane's character as Visage. The mask that shielded his identity from the Spices and from the players for example, was designed to be reminiscent of an executioner's mask. The plan was for them to avoid speaking or any other sort of identifying act, while still having little hints like this.

There's a lot of what Visage has done that is mostly up to interpretation. I know scattered details like their bargain with Saffron and the like, but specifics were never necessary for the story of the campaign itself. In another world there's a spin-off story about his adventures as Visage during those eight years.

Miscellaneous Thoughts

Salvane is an NPC that was quite well-liked by Eira, the one playing Vaida, so a lot of little characterization details were talked about over the course of the months leading up to the start of the campaign. Those thoughts don't really fit anywhere else in this post, so I figured I'd make a miscellaneous section in lieu of a more traditional conclusion.

To start, Salvane isn't aware of this, but he likely has dyslexia, which has contributed to his handwriting being somewhat difficult to read for people who haven't read it before, and has also likely influenced his general career path. He struggled a fair bit in school, and ended up dropping out to train for a trade job instead.

In regards to his eyesight, years of improper sleep and therefore straining to keep his eyes open and adjust for working at night I suspect would lead to him needing glasses later in life.

He didn't spend every sleepless night working though, as he would actually occasionally stay up and stargaze. The stars aren't usually visible where he grew up in Mistellao, both due to the fog and living on a much lower layer of the city. When he first saw them, he was mystified, and they remain a source of comfort for him to this day. Talking about them also helped bring him and Penelope closer together when otherwise she didn't see him as often.

I'll conclude this post with a few notes on Clubspade as the ship was thought of well before the campaign started, though it was initially just a joke. One I said 'there wasn't much else to say about' and well... that proved untrue. In fact most of this section is thanks to the fact that this proved untrue. It haunts me to this day.

Development

A lot of the duo's development occurred simultaneously, so things like how they met and where were figured out before their individual stories were. Their relation to the Scarlet Tempest and roles as part of her 'legendary crew' were fleshed out pretty early on, even before the Tempest's character had been properly established. Little details like Gria's red sash were incorporated in their designs to reflect this. Marthan has a smaller one too, though they don't really wear it nowadays. If they did wear it, it would be around their right arm.

When it came to their participation in the main plot of the campaign, Gria was the one properly invited to be apart of the crew of the Bracer. She had refused to be apart of it if Marthan were not hired along with her, though.

They were always a duo, through and through.

To move onto some aspects of their individual characters though, let's talk about Gria.

Gria Thund

In campaign, we discussed Gria's history with her old crew and the disaster she faced at the Axise, but what we didn't discuss was her childhood. She was raised by her grandmother in Vintecel, and this is a major reason why she knew sign before joining the Tempest's crew. Her grandmother was deaf, so she learned it at an early age. This was pretty crucial to her getting to know Marthan as well as she did, too.

Before that though, as we established, Gria was a boxer before she did anything related to sky sailing. It was the kind of thing she was encouraged to get into by old friends due to her general physical prowess, and since she was good at it and could make money from it, she poured herself into it. A lot of the bandages she wears in the present are covering injuries from those days that never quite healed properly. Whether that's due to repeated exertion, or just bad luck varies.

After her initial incident at the Axise, she went back to boxing to return to something she was already good at. Eventually, the call to the sky grew too strong and she returned though, and the rest is history.

On a mechanical note, Gria is an Ancestral Guardian Barbarian with the unarmed fighting style. Amelia says I'm allergic to monks but I digress.

Marthan Valle

Marthan was the first NPC properly thought up for this campaign, and thus they were also the subject of the first art drawn for it.

Which would be this.

The concept of 'Thanatos' were cooked up before Marthan was properly established as a character, and a lot of their personality was built off of this. This lead to their name becoming what it is now, as I knew I wanted 'than' to be apart of it based on the rumors that would be given to the players. I changed the pronunciation of the vowel in Marthan's name compared to in Thanatos to be clever (debatable) and established 'Mar' as their primary nickname to call attention away from it.

It had also been decided even before their backstory was properly established that, despite being fully capable of talking for short periods of time or using message for communication, they would prefer nonverbal means of communication. They find it more comfortable, and less exhausting. This helped in allowing them to grow more comfortable with Gria in particular, but in general they tend to be pretty picky with who they're willing to speak with for long. This is part of why they were pretty dismissive to Colt early on in the campaign.

Their childhood as 'Alice' was actually fleshed out much later on in development, though them owning a teddy bear still as a remnant of it was an earlier fact. The bear's name is Bearnard, by the way. It was eventually decided that, based on how things happened to them, they would end up being mechanically classified as undead.

On a final mechanical note, Marthan is an Assassin Rogue/Clockwork Soul Sorcerer. I wonder how long it will take for anyone to realize they're collectively 15th level.

Concluding Thoughts

There are a lot of NPCs in this campaign with a lot going on, but as the first NPCs, these two definitely deserved the first spotlight post. It's not easy to talk about them apart from each other. They both influenced each other's actions behind the scenes pretty significantly, so it just made sense to talk about them in relation to each other.

Marthan very clearly plays a major part in the main plot of the campaign, and Gria relates to a lot of its major themes of self forgiveness and struggling under corrupt systems. The two make a solid pair, and their development only reinforces that.