#askchamp

Question 1: As I said before, this is hard to measure, so take these numbers with a grain of salt:

Human: 16

Dworf: 16

Roshava: 16

Troll: 13

Ogre: 13

Elf: 20

Goblin: 20

Gnome: 35

Sirene: 20

Cecaelia: 45

Satyr: 13

Faun: 15

Minotaur: 13

Centaur: 16

Gorgon: 16

Question 2: Sovereign has hundreds of offspring, but has chosen a small handful of his most capable children to be his heirs, lackeys, and goons.

First in line for heir is his chadly son, Champion of Aquaria (nickname "Champ"). There will be more info about him and his family in an upcoming concept, but I can say a few things about him here.

Champ is the strongest, smartest, and most handsome of all Sovereign's offspring, which is why he was chosen to lead the Aquarian Alliance after his father's death. The pressure has been on this guy since his birth to be perfect in every way, as Sovereign holds him to an impossible standard. On the outside, Champ seems like a cool and confident guy. But on the inside, he's a hair away from a nervous breakdown at any given moment. His public persona is very different from the person he is in private.

In public, he projects a dignified and collected presence, as if he's ready to take on anything with the utmost professionalism. But as soon as he comes home and closes the door behind him, he's on the floor having a big, fat panic attack and crying for his mommy.

Champ is trying to stick it out and be the perfect scyllo his crazy father wants him to be, but is is certainly not easy. Sovereign is very hard on him, but also spoils him and parades him around with pride. Because truly, Champ does exceed expectations in almost everything he does...but it's not just luck, it's because he works his fucking ass off 24/7 to be the best. This dude grinds like a belt sander, day in, day out.

Champ's intense daily grind is not exactly sustainable though. There will probably come a day when he comes unglued and falls apart, mentally or physically--or both. And I'm willing to bet it will be at the worst possible moment too...

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Good question! I think Champ loves his mom, as most kids do. He is her child, and I think despite his age, he will always kind of see Jewel from a child's perspective. Her flaws are not as pronounced to him, he assumes she knows best because she is his elder.

Yeah she might be a bit of a Karen, to put it lightly...but Champ still looks to her for guidance and love, and she provides those things the best way she knows how. He sees her doing her fussy Karen thing and assumes she must have good reasons for it, because in his mind she is older and wiser than him.

Tekeetian culture places heavy reverence upon elders. This was true even when Sovereign was little, as he always obeyed and respected his parents, even if he disagreed with them. (Mr. Ocean obeyed them less so--not because he didn't love or respect them, but because he is neurodivergent and genuinely struggles to follow directions...)

Champ has certainly met Vex...in fact, he's probably spent more time with her than any of his other kids. But this isn't exactly "quality time", it's more like Vex constantly gets herself into serious trouble and Queen Machine says, "JUST WAIT UNTIL YOUR FATHER HEARS ABOUT THIS!"

So Champ has to drag his ass into the nursery like every other day to scold this kid, hoping she will respect him enough to obey him.

Spoiler art: she doesn't. Because she is smarter than him and she knows it.

Champ is a busy guy, his babymommas know he doesn't have time for nursery business and try to do all the child-rearing themselves. But Vex is his most exceptional child, that entitles her to a little more attention, and the trouble she causes is so above-and-beyond what a normal child does that gets Queen Machine squawking for Dad and even Grandpa to come fix it, because she is totally overwhelmed with this shit.

Most cecaelian children get punished for roughhousing or sneaking desserts. Vex gets punished for blabbing confidential information about her government and starting diplomatic incidents.

One time she trespassed into hostile territory and was eaten by a sacred orca, forcing her father's troops to kill it and free her from its stomach. This deeply offended the enemy tribe, and Sovereign was forced to war with them before he was prepared, losing thousands of troops and hemorrhaging millions of GP in the process.

You know, just average kid shenanigans.

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

God, could you imagine Sovereign's reaction to that?

Dude's blood pressure would shoot up like a missile and he'd stroke out on the spot lmao

And just like that, Champ inherits the throne!

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

I think everyone on Looming Gaia wishes he wasn't evil too...

Just a theory, but I feel like once his daddy dies, Champ is going to burn the hell out and just let everything go. Like a huge sigh of relief. He'll stop working out, hold feasts all the time and get really fat. Not because he's greedy like Sovereign, but because he just learned what it's like to enjoy living and he's going to go full hedonism-mode. He will also hone his curative spells and help the sick like his father did before he went insane.

Basically what I'm saying is, Champ will become the big cuddly guy Sovereign should have been. Like Aquarian Santa Claus!

A crap politician, but a nice dude at least...

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Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost