Character
The Protagonist
Player character
- Player chooses male or female.
- Starts as an ordinary villager or farmer, unaligned with any side or faction, possibly an orphan with no attachments.
- Born with immense, limitless magical potential (Anakin-like).
- The player decides who to join, or can stay unaligned from the start.
- The ideal (Linghu Chong) path: a player who embraces and masters techniques from both sides.
From section 4: the player picks male or female; an ordinary farmer or villager, unaligned, possibly an orphan, born with limitless potential; may join a side or stay unaligned.
- (Idea) Home: a farm at Sallowbank, a village on the Sallow river where Evane land meets the Shardfield. Parents dead; lives alone; Aske the ferry keeper is the nearest neighbour.
- (Idea) The farm: one goat, nine hens, and a roof that leaks over the good chair. The protagonist's mother painted the door-mark on the doorposts; their father taught the nightly tracing, one thumb on each post.
- (Idea) Warm thumbs: the door-mark has always felt warm under the protagonist's thumbs, and they have never asked anyone whether that is usual. After tracing Coil at the Drowned Steps, Aske hears this and says: "Warm. Huh. Mine never were." A recurring motif for the even pair.
- (Idea) Why the potential: the protagonist's hands mirror each other almost perfectly. Casters call it an even pair and see one a generation. The Evane want them because an even pair draws flawless reflections; the Facets want them because an even pair can hold two different shapes without drifting.
- (Idea) Motivation, in order: keep Sallowbank safe from the warp upstream; find out what they are; later, help Aske undo what Aske did.
- (Idea) Arc: a farmer who wants home safe, courted by both sides, finds each side hiding something, and learns that good or bad comes down to the person, not the side (section 2). The player can still end aligned; the "enlightened" path is the one where both sides come to trust them.
Hook
A farmer with an even pair of hands whose first spell rang the Glass across Velan.
Concept art
Prompt
Character concept sheet for a mobile fantasy RPG protagonist, a young orphan farmhand from a small village, shown as a young man and a young woman side by side, simple homespun linen tunic, rolled sleeves, long woven scarf, patched trousers, worn leather boots, both hands faintly glowing with two mirrored white-gold glyphs, hopeful determined expression, full body, front view, plain warm grey background, stylized hand-painted 3D JRPG game art, soft cel shading, clean readable silhouettes --ar 3:2 --sref https://cdn.midjourney.com/e1cbf51f-e14d-47a5-878b-299fa466e41a/0_1.png`,
Midjourney job dcd6142f-f689-4104-be03-f962cd707b9d / 1, 0
Prompt
Character concept sheet for a mobile fantasy RPG protagonist, a young orphan farmhand from a small village, shown as a young man and a young woman side by side, simple homespun linen tunic, rolled sleeves, long woven scarf, patched trousers, worn leather boots, both hands faintly glowing with two mirrored white-gold glyphs, hopeful determined expression, full body, front view, plain warm grey background, stylized hand-painted 3D JRPG game art, soft cel shading, clean readable silhouettes --ar 3:2 --sref https://cdn.midjourney.com/e1cbf51f-e14d-47a5-878b-299fa466e41a/0_1.png`,
Midjourney job dcd6142f-f689-4104-be03-f962cd707b9d / 1, 0
Elsewhere in the Codex
The truth at the heart of the game: no side is right. Whether someone is good or bad comes down to the individual, not their side. The protagonist can only become truly enlightened by realizing this.
As a child the protagonist traced their family's door-marks with both hands every night, a habit their father taught them. Those years of tracing are why Repel starts learned (as it does in the game data).
From Story Bible › Protagonist and Mentor › The first cast: Repel
Glints pour out of the river. Cornered at the farmhouse door, the protagonist puts a thumb on each mark and draws. The tutorial prompt shows the mirrored Ls.
From Story Bible › Protagonist and Mentor › The first cast: Repel
Aske saw it. That night, in Aske's barn, the protagonist fights an old Warden training golem. This is the prototype's existing battle.
From Story Bible › Protagonist and Mentor › The first cast: Repel
(Idea) Voice: short, practical sentences. Distrusts speeches from either side, including the protagonist's.
Every name below is (Idea). Only the protagonist and the mentor's role come from the Codex.
- Name
- Marra Hesk
- Side
- Unaligned
- Role
- Keeps the Sallowbank bakehouse
- Hook
- Feeds everyone whether they're hungry or not, and believes very little. Minds the protagonist's hens after the send-off.
Villages, fields and roads belong to neither side: meadow green
#7FA650, earth brown#A9744A, thatch and timber. The protagonist dresses in these earth tones. The mentor's coat carries half of each emblem, a white-gold sigil and a broken shard, stitched together.
The protagonist, both versions: homespun linen, a long scarf that will read well in motion, patched boots. The only magic on them is the pair of mirrored glyphs in their hands, the Repel they cast by accident.
Who: the protagonist.
From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Prologue: The Door-Mark (as built) › Scenes
What happens: Grey morning; the Sallow has been loud for three days with no rain. Narration sets up the farm (one goat, nine hens, the leaking roof) and the door-mark the protagonist's mother painted and their father taught them to trace. The ferry bell rings: Aske is up. Something silver flicks through the reeds.
From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Prologue: The Door-Mark (as built) › Scenes
Art and audio: Built: Sallowbank dressed with the village kit (VEL-47),
music_sallowbank_loop. Still to come: the ferry bell sound; the protagonist model.From Walkthrough: Prologue and Act 1 › Prologue: The Door-Mark (as built) › Scenes