Iris Havengard Personality discussion

This thread will be for helping figure out exactly who this character is going to be. This will be a reference point for the rest of the project as to what the designers of each phase were thinking and how these pieces fit together. This will help us build a cohesive, believable 15th Man.

Here are my current interpretations of the project so far, these are by no means law, and I would love for submission winners to chime in with their personal commentary on their submissions as well as interact with other members to help work out who we, as a community, are designing.

Code:

The Implacable Experiment

This character is an individual who has had close contact with the Empire after being used for human (or esper) experimentation in the Magitek Facility and has taken on a grotesque appearance. This character is aware of their disturbing appearance and their primary drive is to seek vengeance against those who have wronged him/her and to see that they are brought to justice.

This character would work well in FF6 as they would serve to show the more cruel and inhumane side of the Gestahlian Empire, especially when you consider how much Terra's past is lacking in filling in the darker parts of the Empire's history. This character would also ideally have a somewhat strange fighting style which would vary from the other characters, they also by merit of being a Magitek experiment could have a natural magic learning list.

So as an implacable experiment, we already have a sense of something other than human, so moving forward we should make sure as many aspects of who she is are easily differentiable from the existing cast. Things like language (Mr. Thou anyone?), battle stances, reactions to events, all these things can be built to appear strange not only to the in-game cast, but also the player.

Also, this being someone that's had something done to them, I would imagine a large amount of resentment as well as regret and self-loathing (especially so being a woman). This, I think, would create someone with a very critical attitude. Devoid of hope but fighting for it all-the-same.

Code:

The Betrayed Young Citizen
Gender: Female.

Back history: This daughter of a South Figaro sailor was raised by a lonely old woman from Vector after the boat transporting her and her father sunk near the Southern Continent. She was then taken prisoner by the Empire in her teenage years after the old woman died an that Emperor Gestahl adopted a secret law to capture homeless [and unwanted] citizens for Magitek experimentations. During her captivity, she developed her hate towards the Empire that she was considering once her second home.

Possible encounters: She might have been in contact with Cid and/or Kefka and/or Celes during her captivity. She might also have been in contact with some Espers and talked with them. This all depends on how we want to develop her back story and the game events.


Pros:
- Rich backstory and relations with the actual characters of the game if we want any.
- Explain well why the character feels doubly betrayed by the Empire and explain her hatred.

Cons:
- Might require a lot of event creation, but isn't this the goal of this hack? ;)

A character that has moved around as much as THIS is someone who is unsettled and would likely be prepared to move again at a moments notice. The idea of not being prepared to pack up and leave would be uncomfortable to someone who has no stability. Also, I think the fact that she has lost so much would cause her to create walls to keep other people from truly knowing and understanding her for fear of losing them, while at the same time longing for real connections with people.

Since she was essentially abducted by the empire, there is also a sense of violation, another thing that often causes people to create walls and be generally mistrusting of the intentions of others, meaning the cast will have to work VERY hard to get her to join permanently(maybe make her missable?).

Being an abducted orphan, we can assume she has no real martial training to speak of, which will come out in her fighting style, it should be uncontrolled/untempered which goes hand-in-hand with the half-beast archtype.




Maybe its just me, but I see someone real and soft beneath the harsh reality of her circumstances. There will definitely be a duality to this character. Hoping to see more soon!


All of this stuff is open for interpretation/extrapolation. As we continue to discuss and evolve the character, I will update this thread so that everyone has as complete an idea as possible as to what we are working toward.

Let's hear it, how do you see our 15th Man? I especially want to hear from those who have had their contributions officially become a part of the project, but I want to hear from other submitters too! There is an essence to this character that everyone has a unique perspective on, and we can't have a complete picture without everyone's input.

Happy Hacking!