Hekatomb, Reaper of Their End

[Walrus Warwagon]

I don't like writing obits, but figured Heka deserves one.

Idea of him, his concept, was in my mind even before I came to EFU in the beginning of v5.
Initially, it was jump-started by the widespread community idea about silliness of the scythe weapon. "Reaper-guy" was always my counterargument to such. It's my believe that anything could look fine and cohesive if it finds a proper place.

I thought about playing such from time to time, and with each nearing of this idea more details has been fleshed out. I'm a bit of an overthinker. Well, no, I am a total overthinker. Could just take an idea and sit for hours, toying with it, and doing nothing else. And so, we come to the current time of v6.

Maqam. Martyrs. That was a perfect opportunity to finally breathe some life into this character. Hekatomb is an app character as well. Honestly, I'm quite surprised this application has been approved. But it was, and Heka saw the light of the wretched Pra'raj.

The rest is a history.
Him setting candles just felt appropriate. It was funny to invent the reasons for him doing so.
His Board of Remembrance was inspired by the Sverri's(Vlaid) Book of Bones. "Hey, with player-set notice boards we can now have the Book of Bones in game!"
Him, pushing the idea that the faith should not be taken at a surface value and should involve the philosophical contemplation and search for deeper meaning was just my own opinion that faithful should not take basic descriptions of their deities as aтundeniable truth and instructions for action.

I had such a dreams about him. Of achieving the baelnorn - impossible, of course. Of finding a successor and passing down time of a Reaper, along with his mask. Well, we have what we have. Overall it was a fine chapter in my EFU story, and I am truly, very, very sad to let this character go.

Now the next part is a bit of a rant. It's mostly self-targeted, but still.

Mechanically... I love playing monks. And dex rogues. Very fun classes in certain circumstances. But to get them going you need to put in a lot of effort.
It's a trap I keep walking into. I call it "high maintenance characters" - characters requiring careful planning of resources and rationing. Truth is, I do not currently have enough time to drive such a high maintenance persona. He perpetually was poor. He had quite a long life, I'd say, but in a way of questing didn't complete a lot. Finding a group two times in a week, during my playtime, was lucky. Hekatomb has never reached level 8.

Conceptually... I expected faiths of the Wheel to be more important in a field of politics and intrigues of the v6. Truth is, despite having an amazing pantheon, their current influence on the game world is felt less than faith influence was felt in v5. At some point you just feel like an ambience decoration.
Faith cannot be a main purpose at a time. At least not without mixing it up with a plot and... Well, I'm not a good player, despite what some of you might think. I try to bring in thoughtful concepts, my characters is weirdos, but when it comes to plots - I'm not a leader. More of a follower, and even then, failing to insert myself into ongoing events even by directly asking and providing a reason to... Sometimes is felt that, despite being liked, nobody is otherwise interested in him. But I know this isn't true. It's clear that problem is in my approach.
I would like to try and address it with my next characters.

As for Hekatomb - I didn't want him to become a pale imitation of what he was supposed to be. Once again, I am very sad to lose such an amazing character. But at the same time I do not feel regret by letting him go. In time it'd become worse, ruining him in your eyes. Which is the thing I was afraid of.

Hail the dead.

His EFUSL:

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Spent a few hours in Stable Diff and Photoshop to make this:

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His creepy wax seal, I kept showing this image to people who saw him RP using it:

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[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Hekatomb was very cool, and interacting with him was always fun! Wish I could've done so more, but there were was a lot of stuff going on.

[Haroshia]

Hek was pretty cool.  Don't be so down on yourself.  There are two sides to "Being important" in the setting.  First is your own personal engagement and concept, which seemed great.  Hek was a great concept, and the interactions I had with the character were interesting, if limited.  The other side comes down to the setting reacting to what you do, and that is largely out of your control. 

Constant poverty is a real issue right now for most people that aren't Ashfolk unless they can solo bounties consistently or have an OOC premade questing group.  Pick up questing groups can form, but they take quite a bit of time and effort.   It's not just a "you" problem. 

Basically, you did great, Hek was great.  Look forward to seeing what you make next. 

[Moonlighter]

I liked Hekatomb a lot.

As far as relevance goes, I wouldn't get into my own head about it as much. So long as you did what you wanted to do on the character when you logged in, and you had fun, and you helped other people have fun you played a part in telling the collective story of the server. Nothing to be ashamed of there, IMO.

Characters like Hek especially help keep things contiguous and grounded! Someone has to record a history of who's died in the Well and how, see to their final arrangements, organize funerals, host vigils and more. It's important stuff! He really reminded me of the Scriveners from v4 in a good way. Maybe not a main character type, but the sort of guy who helps make the world feel real for other people, which is just as important IMO. Sometimes you're invisible and operating in the background, sometimes you get to take center stage.

[AsheandCinders]

Hekatomb was a great character.

He wasn't the most important, the most powerful, the most influential, But he felt so perfectly and totally part of the setting. Like he absolutely belonged.

The Skull masked, penniless preacher of the Martyrs, keeping the list of names and holding the well to account in giving the due to the dead. The simple existence of characters like that makes the setting that much more alive and fun to be a part of.

Gonna miss seeing him around, because him being there just felt right.

Can't wait to see the weirdo you come up with next.

[Fortuna Imperatrix Mundi]

I loved him! Well done.

[Erudiche]

Hekatomb was awesome and will be missed

[Don Nadie]

You know my general, baseline opinion of you and your PCs, Solipso, and Heka was no exception.

I found him tremendously cool and interesting. I did my best to help - within the bounds of RP - with the issues of poverty and so on, but ultimately I can perfectly understand that some out of your control issues made playing him a bit wearisome. I would only reiterate all that Haroshia has said.

Also, I hope that people keep adding to your Board :)

[Anthee]

Hekatomb was cool and definitely one of a kind! With all his contradictions, he was a strangely plausible type too as a follower of the Martyrs. When I first realised that this grim reaper was actually a paladin, and oh wait, not just a paladin but also a monk, but... but with all that death paraphernalia... it felt like something of an enlightenment. 'Of course. Makes perfect sense!'

I echo the sentiment that some characters by their nature tend to be more of the silent behind-the-scenes type and not at the forefront of plotting and scheming. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, and those characters are needed too. More so than the leader types, in fact. And when you can consistently roleplay that with someone who is still as distinctive and flavourful as Hekatomb was, well... that really is one kind of cool to me.

Finally, as I mentioned on Discord: Kudos for the thous and thees. I wish more players had the courage to use King James English when it's appropriate for the character.

[Xenoboskion]

Very cool!

[LoveLess]

Hekatomb was a great character and you could tell everyone enjoyed him. RIP to your board.

[parthenos]

Don't sell yourself short bro, let other people do that for you. You are a good player, stop fretting so much.