#orli

2. The Emotional

There is a considerable amount of variance in how most death knights are played, particularly in relation to how their mental state is effected postmortem.  My opinion on the subject is that it can and should vary as greatly in range as the human response to PTSD is.  Some will remain very cold and hardened, some will have varying degrees of residual anger and hostility, and some will even begin to heal emotionally over time. Orli has been through a range of reactions that began with a period of blind rage and withdrawal from society and has now evolved to the point where he is mostly functional as a normal elf.  When he was first turned and subsequently released, his surviving brothers and good friend Lars took to the task of attempting to return him to some semblance of his former self.  The process actually took a few years, but eventually (and after several long stints of disappearing into a black out rage to quell the blood lust) he began to find a bit of balance. Although he struggles still with the paradox of being a former paladin who is now obliged to cause damage and destruction as a matter of course, he is at least now a rational controlled personality capable of a full range of emotions.  He carries with him an emotional shroud similar to chronic depression, but despite of that fact he does find joy and love in the world.  There are always those that argue that death knights are incapable of these lighter emotions, but as they possess free will and the intelligence of their former lives, it seems a very limited interpretation to think that they won’t continue to be complex emotionally. 

3.  The Practical

Orli no longer needs to perform sustaining activities such as eating, drinking, and sleeping.  Undeath is an enchantment and his body will continue to function without the aid of such earthly means of sustenance.  Typically he will only sleep when he is with Levyn, and as such he is prone to going several days at a time without if the two are not together.  

While he CAN eat, he typically does not, mostly because he no longer derives any real pleasure from the act as it is useless to him.  He actually lacks a sense of smell (and the accompanying sense of taste) but this is from traumatic brain injury sustained during one (or several) of his many encounters in the brawling arena and not necessarily a symptom of undeath.  He does still drink alcohol though (and frequently to excess) because he can still feel the effects from most intoxicants even though they might be somewhat lessened.

Orli is a blood DK, which means that he specifically has refined powers of regeneration.  If and when he does get injured, he has the ability to heal himself over time. Most normal methods of healing will either be ineffective or actually harmful to a death knight, though some will say that shadow healing can be of some benefit.  If he is grievously injured, he will need to inflict pain or draw energy from another living soul in order to do it, which is something he does try to avoid at all costs.  

4.  What Remains of the Living

Similar to the variance of thoughts on emotional state are the ideas on whether or not a death knight retains much or anything of their former selves.  Several DKs will claim full or partial amnesia of the events that filled their lives before they were turned.  Originally Orli did suffer with fairly severe amnesia to the point that it was several months before he could fully recognize his two older brothers without prompting.  Eventually though, most of his memory recovered and he now has very few issues.  His short term memory is still fairly poor, though that can also be attributed to the numerous knocks in the head that he’s endured over the recent years.

When confronted about the circumstances surrounding his turning, including the actually physical process, Orli will claim full amnesia of the event.  It’s a topic he fights to avoid at all costs and usually will simply dismiss it quickly as having no recollection of what occurred.  This statement however is actually a lie, and one he’s only ever admitted to his current husband, Levyn.  He does recall his captivity, death, and subsequent rebirth quite vividly and still frequently has nightmares about it, which is another reason that he often avoids sleeping.

5.  His Love Affair with the Light

Like many of his kind (and the rest of the men in his family), Orlando was originally a paladin.  Though he wasn’t the particularly devoutly religious kind, he was a dutiful follower of the Light and a passionate soldier.  If it hadn’t been for his brothers’ vigilance and persistence with him after his death, he may have joined the ranks of former-paladins-turned-death-knights who sought out their own ends rather than continue on as such a grievous perversion.

Continuing on with his existence after the fact has come with its share of challenges, and reconciling the constant need to inflict suffering while essentially still being lawfully aligned is one of the hardest for him.  Orli is still very much drawn to the Light even though it has the potential to be fatally damaging to him, so much so that he has actually been married to 2 priests.  His current husband is acutely aware of the conflict that their relationship presents simply by existing, and although the love is very strong between them, it is constant struggle to find balance.

Holy Light is also one of the few things that can cause Orli significant damage that is difficult for him to self-heal.  It has a burn-like effect and will sear the undead flesh and eventually anything beneath it.  As a regenerative death knight, it is one of the few things that will cause lasting scars on his body, and he has a few that are easily visible.  One is scarring on his jaw and neck from an incident in which his brother had to subdue him with Light and the other is a brand and hand-print that was intentionally given to him by his husband.

6.  The Generational Divide

Orli is a Third Generation DK, so he was risen by Arthas during his reign as the Lich King.  Although they are certainly more powerful in the presence of their rune weapons, 3rd Gen Dks are not necessarily bound to them.  Orli does have a halberd that serves as his runic weapon, and he is frequently (if not always) near it, though he can and will fight without it.  Typically he will only carry the stave if he is in full armor and expecting to be in battle, though it’s bond to him is constantly palpable to him.  Most of the fighting he does at present is actually bare-knuckle boxing, and although he is weaker without the runes, he is still very strong.

7.  Bloodlust

As a Third Generation DK, Orli is bound by the need to inflict suffering onto others in order to satisfy the dark calling (something Orli and his familiars refer to as blood lust) .  If he ignores the pull, he will suffer from symptoms that are much like mana or drug addiction, though they can potentially increase to much greater effect than either.  In order to sate the lust, he has to inflict pain on others, and the degree of pain that he inflicts will correlate to the degree that his lust is sated.  For Orli, the symptoms of the addiction are frequently more mental than physical, although there is a degree of physical pain that grows in association with the increasing lust.

Typically Orli will turn to fist fighting first in attempt to satisfy the calling, though depending on how long he’s waited and allowed it to grow, the action may not be sufficient.  In addition to his sensory deprivation, the constant guilt also weighs heavily into his masochistic tendencies and he will often actually seek to lose a fight just to endure the personal damage from it.  If the fighting doesn’t satisfy his lust, he will eventually be forced to take a life completely, and the longer he waits, the less control he will have over the physical action of it.  

Before his engagement to Levyn, Orli remained reluctant to fully address his dark calling and had a particularly bad habit of waiting until the blood lust grew so strong that it would overtake his mind and essentially send him into blackout rage in which he would indiscriminately kill.  It was during one of these episodes that he returned home to his then wife, viciously beat and eventually murdered her, a fact that he is currently aware of although he his memory of the event is hazy.  

8.  His Mysterious Companions

When Orli finally realized that he could no longer ignore the control that his blood lust has over him, he left to sequester himself in isolation for a rather lengthy period of time in order to gain some kind of control over it.  What he managed to do was fracture it outside of his unconscious brain and create a method of visually keeping tabs on what he now refers to as his Val’kyr, a creation that is very palpable, always in his presence, but appears only to him.

When Orli is fully sated, the visage will appear as a small, albino mouse which usually finds her way into his pocket or will ride on his shoulder.  If he ever seems to be looking specifically at nothing, especially in the immediately surrounding area, he is usually communicating with her.  As the calling grows, so does his companion, and she will take the form of several different creatures throughout the process.  A white raven and albino python are also frequent visitors and they begin to signal a more urgent need to slake his lust.