Blades in the Dark Character Concept: A Fishy Journalist Whisper
First thought for a Blades in the Dark character, and I’m going to do the wholly expected thing and make a Tycherosi Whisper. Because, well. Demonic occultist in a haunted dieselpunk city. I have types?
Starting from the heritage, because if you’re going to make a Whisper, naturally you look at the demon-blooded inhabitants of a mysterious semi-mythical land far beyond the northern Void Sea. So Tycheros. And. If you’re Tycherosi, you choose a ‘demonic telltale’ like black shark eyes to mark your character. So I bounced down to the section on devils to look at demon features, and there’s some cool stuff down there, but those are for full-blown demons. So wings, tentacles, tails. I could have gone something milder, like the scales or the eyes, but …
Tentacles. I do want the tentacles. But full-blown tentacles is too much. But. What about tattoos of tentacles? Or ‘tattoos’ of tentacles, inky marks that shift and undulate and move beneath the surface of her skin? Because Tycheros is far beyond the Void Sea, Tycherosi are strangers from ‘beyond the Void Sea’. So lets bring some Void Sea into the proceedings here. A traveller who arrived in Doskvol on a ship from the Void Sea.
And. With that thought. Moving to background. There is a landmark in the Docks called Ink Lane, a twisting back street full of tattooists and journalists, because ink slingers. And maybe when she arrived she hung around there, because her demon marks fit in at least a little bit better among the tattoo artists, and while she was rubbing shoulders with the other sorts of ink slingers, the journalists, maybe she took a shine for the career. So maybe she’s been in Doskvol for a few years now, and maybe she tried her hand at the press. So we’ll go Academic, a journalist.
For my action dots, Whisper automatically puts a dot in Study and two in Attune. My background dot I’ll put in Consort, because journalists have contacts. My heritage dot … I’m not sure. I might put it in Wreck? Just for the demonic angle. Maybe she channels something a little bit dark sometimes. And my two free dots I think I might put in Survey. She’s got her eyes open, this one. So she’ll have two in Attune, two in Survey, and one each in Study, Consort and Wreck.
For the special ability. I was tempted by Ghost Mind, by Occultist, by Ritual. For a journalist, they all make sense. But. I think I’m still going back to the Void Sea, to demon blood, to tentacles. I think I’m going to pick Tempest. Because the leviathans are demons, and, a little bit, so is she. So storms and lightning. So tentacles and void ink and drowning. Yeah. I think it’s definitely Tempest.
My friend and my rival … Are we going to side with the demon, Setarra? Are we that wild and that tempestuous, that full of sympathy for the devil? Possibly. I think we just might. And then the enemy … I mean, we could go Scurlock. That might be a bit too neat. But it would also make sense. Heh.
(In terms of factions, I suspect she’s nursing some antipathy for the Leviathan Hunters. And, obviously, Lord Scurlock. Gets on fine with the Ink Rakers, though).
My vice, naturally, is Weird. Because she enjoys oddities, flotsam and jetsam. And for the purveyor, there is apparently a hooded proprietor of a half-flooded grotto tavern near the docks, which folds so neatly into everything else.
For our name, look, and alias … She’s a tall, bony woman, with cheekbones like knives, dark brown eyes, and dark brown hair in a reporter’s bob cut. She wears tired three-piece suits with high collared shirts, but as high as they are you can still sometimes glimpse the inked darkness of a tentacle slither along her neck just above them. I definitely also want her to have one of those caped greatcoats. Her name …
Indira Sevoy. Alias Undine. She’s got a watery sort of reputation.
One final detail, Whispers get a ‘Fine Spirit Mask’ among their equipment, which enables them to see supernatural energies in detail, and somewhat protects them against possession. Each mask is unique, and strange, and disturbing. So what does her mask look like? It looks like the Void Sea. It’s carved of a slick, smooth black stone, carved with faint ripples and wavelets, and faint lights appear to glimmer beneath the surface of the stone as faint stars appear to glimmer beneath the sea.
So here we are. A very fishy journalist, a stranger from across the sea, a long-time inhabitant of Ink Lane, a connoisseur of the strange and the delightful and the oceanic. A Tycherosi Whisper.
