Aleph
Princess of Stabbity
- Location
- The sixth circle of Hell (second on weekends)
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Aha! Adorjan. My favourite topic. Or one of them, anyway. You're not incorrect with that construct, but you're not quite right either. Let's unpack her.
Adorjan is undoubtedly the killiest of the canon Yozis, and should in all probability have taken the Dawn-caste Solars for her Scourges. She was born from the fetich-death of Adrian, the River of All Torments, who dried up and became a killing wind when her fetich soul Lilike was slain. The death-scream of Lilike was the last sound that Adrian heard, and led to the eternal silence of Adorjan as well as her aversion to noise - sound reminds her of the trauma she suffered in the War.
Adorjan is also, to be perfectly honest, the "happiest" of the Yozis. Alone among them as described, she doesn't really mind her imprisonment all that much, simply because she's left the resentment behind so it won't slow her down. One of the four fundamental truths that Adorjan teaches is that attachment is suffering, and much like Cecelyne's Might Makes Might rule, she has a point. If you care about something, it can hurt you. If you care about nothing, you're free from harm - at least emotionally speaking. Adorjan is compassionate, and tries to enlighten others to these truths by freeing them from the chains that bind them - unhappy relationships, grief or guilt over deaths, shame and fear and hatred; all part of a cycle of suffering that spins on attachment to things outside yourself. She's not actually a nihilist insomuch as she's carefree - nihilism is a philosophy too rooted in caring about the point of the world for her to really buy into. A lot of Adorjan's social charmset revolves around this principle.
That's not all there is to her, though! Where Adrian was sadistic and enjoyed tormenting those who fell into her waters of fire, ice, razors and uncountable other horrors (most notably the trillions of raksha that threw themselves at her in the Age of Glories when she encircled Creation and died in untold agony), Adorjan is perversely innocent in her slaughter. She kills because it is in her nature to hurt everything she touches - a manifestation of the suffering brought by attachment, perhaps - and her attempts to teach and help the lesser demons of Malfeas more often kill them. She would probably grieve about that, but she lets go of caring and remembering them and rushes ever-onward before she has time to. Looked at from a certain point of view, Adorjan is a hypocrite in this part of her nature; she runs because she's fleeing her past; the memory of Lilike and the trauma of her birth. Despite her philosophy of carelessness, she avoids anything that reminds her of that pain, precisely because she still does care about it. Adorjan's physical Charms have a lot of "keep moving, never stop, never look back" in them, as well as Charmtech to do away with the things that force you to stop - getting tired, getting hungry, finding terrain you can't pass through.
Finally, Adorjan has her "love" stuff, because she is indeed a massive hypocrite and has no problem with forming attachments so long as they're short-lived. She'll love someone, and it's from her that the third unwritten rule of the Demon City stems; that there is no love without pain. Her love is worse than her hatred in some ways, because she's brimming with compassion and will try to help you, which... well, see above. Her hypocrisy is compounded by the fact that sometimes she doesn't let go of such attachments - see her daughter-winds, who she still cares for. Adorjan's love tree is actually pretty powerful; it starts out by letting you fall in love at a whim but gives you pretty good bonuses to helping, teaching or hurting those you love. Keris had a, uh, rather creepy bit where she used TLA on Makoa Kasseni in the Return to Nexus arc just before An Teng; something I didn't actually plan on doing until it happened.
Hmm. That's most of what I can think of off the top of my head. I'll add more if I think of it.
Adorjan is undoubtedly the killiest of the canon Yozis, and should in all probability have taken the Dawn-caste Solars for her Scourges. She was born from the fetich-death of Adrian, the River of All Torments, who dried up and became a killing wind when her fetich soul Lilike was slain. The death-scream of Lilike was the last sound that Adrian heard, and led to the eternal silence of Adorjan as well as her aversion to noise - sound reminds her of the trauma she suffered in the War.
Adorjan is also, to be perfectly honest, the "happiest" of the Yozis. Alone among them as described, she doesn't really mind her imprisonment all that much, simply because she's left the resentment behind so it won't slow her down. One of the four fundamental truths that Adorjan teaches is that attachment is suffering, and much like Cecelyne's Might Makes Might rule, she has a point. If you care about something, it can hurt you. If you care about nothing, you're free from harm - at least emotionally speaking. Adorjan is compassionate, and tries to enlighten others to these truths by freeing them from the chains that bind them - unhappy relationships, grief or guilt over deaths, shame and fear and hatred; all part of a cycle of suffering that spins on attachment to things outside yourself. She's not actually a nihilist insomuch as she's carefree - nihilism is a philosophy too rooted in caring about the point of the world for her to really buy into. A lot of Adorjan's social charmset revolves around this principle.
That's not all there is to her, though! Where Adrian was sadistic and enjoyed tormenting those who fell into her waters of fire, ice, razors and uncountable other horrors (most notably the trillions of raksha that threw themselves at her in the Age of Glories when she encircled Creation and died in untold agony), Adorjan is perversely innocent in her slaughter. She kills because it is in her nature to hurt everything she touches - a manifestation of the suffering brought by attachment, perhaps - and her attempts to teach and help the lesser demons of Malfeas more often kill them. She would probably grieve about that, but she lets go of caring and remembering them and rushes ever-onward before she has time to. Looked at from a certain point of view, Adorjan is a hypocrite in this part of her nature; she runs because she's fleeing her past; the memory of Lilike and the trauma of her birth. Despite her philosophy of carelessness, she avoids anything that reminds her of that pain, precisely because she still does care about it. Adorjan's physical Charms have a lot of "keep moving, never stop, never look back" in them, as well as Charmtech to do away with the things that force you to stop - getting tired, getting hungry, finding terrain you can't pass through.
Finally, Adorjan has her "love" stuff, because she is indeed a massive hypocrite and has no problem with forming attachments so long as they're short-lived. She'll love someone, and it's from her that the third unwritten rule of the Demon City stems; that there is no love without pain. Her love is worse than her hatred in some ways, because she's brimming with compassion and will try to help you, which... well, see above. Her hypocrisy is compounded by the fact that sometimes she doesn't let go of such attachments - see her daughter-winds, who she still cares for. Adorjan's love tree is actually pretty powerful; it starts out by letting you fall in love at a whim but gives you pretty good bonuses to helping, teaching or hurting those you love. Keris had a, uh, rather creepy bit where she used TLA on Makoa Kasseni in the Return to Nexus arc just before An Teng; something I didn't actually plan on doing until it happened.
... yeah, "yandere" is probably the right word to use here. But Keris's only current TLA is towards Sasi, and that one is phrased as "Sincere Love". You don't have to use the buffs towards hurting them - as with Cecelyne, you can just focus on the positive uses and ignore the negative ones. But yes, that branch supports falling into creepy love/obsession with people and finding them wherever they run and loving them even as you kill them, just as much as it does being... well, the Keris to their Sasi.
Hmm. That's most of what I can think of off the top of my head. I'll add more if I think of it.
