#Amanthos Panideios

[emathevampire]

Formal, texture, and change for Amanthos 👀

Thank youuuuu for asking about my beloved librarian... Current ask game here, if anyone else wants to hit my inbox!

formal: What's your OC's formal look? Do they like dressing up? Do they have different looks for different occasions? He absolutely does NOT like dressing up, but occasionally he has to. Since he's baaaarely an inch shorter than Arekos, he usually borrows formalwear. Always black, though the golden accessories Arekos prefers sometimes look a bit odd with his more wintery complexion. Their shared clothes don't fit him as well as they used to, since he lost a lot of weight after becoming undead, but he's handy enough with safety pins and temporary tailoring in a pinch. I actually have pictures for this, so...

texture: Does your OC favor any specific kinds of cloth or textures? Is there anything they can't wear or don't like? What sort of fabrics do they prefer? Amanthos hates velvet and corduroy, and also hates wearing the hoods of his cloaks up as they irritate his ears and mess up his hair. He likes smooth or soft textures, and is especially attached to his monk's robes, which are perfectly worn in and comfortable after hundreds of years of use. He wears silk undergarments and shirts, soft thin leather trousers, gloves, and boots, and then layers of woolen monk's robes on top along with a heavy wool scarf. In especially cold weather, a fur-lined wool cloak and coat are added to the mix. It's rare to see him less than fully dressed, as he has to hide the scars from his crucimigration that mark him as one of the undead.

change: Has your OC ever drastically changed their appearance? Significant haircuts, big tattoos, complete wardrobe swap, etc? Why? How do they feel about the change? Oh yes. When Amanthos went through the Ritual of Crucimigration, he was crucified and raised as form of undead known as a Necropolitan. This left him with scars from the cursed nails used in the ritual, for starters, his eyes gained an eerie appearance like cloudy glacial ice, and later on his poor eating habits caught up with him... he lost a good 15lbs in the intervening 300 years or so (which is a lot for anyone, much less someone 110lbs soaking wet), and being undead, he's completely unable to gain that weight back again. He does his best to keep up normal eating and drinking habits now, but the damage has already been done... Amanthos is simultaneously vain and quite self conscious, he works very hard to maintain his appearance but it's a constant struggle. It's safe to say he didn't handle the change particularly well... though you'd be hard pressed to get him to admit it. He did it for science, after all. His heart is torn, on the subject of regrets... for the price he paid to see his beloved stars up close was far more than just his life, his choices may yet cost him his soul along with everything else he holds dear before he finally truly returns home.

[emathevampire]

Amanthos: “My apologies, I lost track of the time…”

Orinn: “Aren’t you literally a monk who worships your god of time?”

Amanthos: “God of knowledge. Also of time. I should like to see you suggest someone better to pray to for remedies to my insensitivity to the passage of the hours.”

Orinn: “Have you tried a different time god? Or, I dunno, winding this one up or something? Because I don’t think it’s working.”

[emathevampire]

Amanthos loves two different people in very, very different ways.

Arekos is a hopeless romantic and Psamion is a chaotic bastard. It shows. Half of their triad reads like a romance that puts all other romances to shame and the other half reads like a shitpost that comes around once a year and makes your day every time.

(he was, in fact, Things.)

[emathevampire]

Orinn: "Alright, Amanthos, truth or dare then?" Amanthos: "Truth." Orinn: "Are you ever going to pick dare?" Amanthos: "Well I already made my choice once. Easier to just repeat it. Besides... unlike you, I am not so trusting. And come to think of it, what truth could any of you actually ask of me that would be one I could not answer for... none of you know the right questions to ask." Orinn: "Okay, then... so where do you get off making fun of me for never having kissed anyone? You act like such a damn prude all the time, have you ever kissed anyone?" Amanthos: "I already answered your question." Orinn: "That wasn't my question! Quit cheating!" Amanthos: "Fine. What is your actual question." Orinn: "So when was YOUR first kiss?" Amanthos: "Hmmmm... a long time ago... I think playing one of these silly games. I hardly remember... oh, wait, no. No, I think it was Psamion, actually. I never really had much interest in any of that, but that was probably because it was only the girls who ever showed any interest in me. And of course I was only interested in the ritual he had promised to teach me. Well. Alright, it was a convenient excuse. I knew damn well that ritual was just his best effort to entice me, because his other efforts had failed, but... you know, up until that point, no one had tried that hard to pique my interest before. Or ever offered me anything that I really wanted. So, I knew it was all just a ploy... but... it was quite impossible to be mad about it... so I allowed it. This would be, oh, about 600 years ago, by your count, 12 by mine. I was twenty-one, I believe. Had been officially working at the library for a few centuries by then. If my first was with anyone before that. Well. Suffice to say, it paled in comparison, and has long since been forgotten..."

[emathevampire]

on today’s episode of “things Kassia has stolen that she probably shouldn’t have,” we have a very old page out of Amanthos’... ahem... private notes. Because writing this put an image in my head I just couldn’t shake.

“Usually quiet, and soft, rarely more than a smile and a brief exhalation of breath. It’s easy enough to make him smile, but it takes a lot to make him crack up all the way. A sincere fit of laughter from Arekos sees him blushing and teary-eyed, it’s high, warm and light, would sound like it belongs somewhere in the wild, in the sun, it’s very much a full and hearty outdoors laugh not meant for loudly echoing off marble walls and long shelves before receiving a snickering shushing from the librarian who started it.”

Translation: “Stacks Maintenance” AR: “Quiet, love, or they AR: will know we are here.” AP: “You are the one who is AP: breaking the rules... AP: Will you behave, AP: or must I silence you AP: myself?”

[emathevampire]

Amanthos: Okay, so I see here that other characters have gotten bits of personality from you like... loving cats, musical talents, fashion sense... what traits do I get?

Me: you get the vicious cycle of forgetting about your soup and microwaving it until there is no soup left but you never ate any of it

Amanthos: oh. I... see. Anything else..?

Me: you’re also a huge astrophysics nerd and very gay for the man who got the loving cats trait

Amanthos: Oh! I guess that would be nice.

Me: But you’re also undead and have anxiety about it.

Amanthos: So let me get this straight—

Me: You’re not, but continue

Amanthos: —you made me all these great things, but unable to enjoy any of them.

Me: and what are you gonna do about it, book boy? fight me? you’re also a pacifist.

Amanthos: ...I will write you a strongly worded letter and petition for an alternate universe fix-it fic like the rest of them.

Me: I’m working on it. I swear.

[emathevampire]

came to the sudden realisation recently that Amanthos would be absolutely insufferable if he ever got access to the internet. Sure, you say. He’s obsessed with learning things. He would get sucked into the most insane wikipedia rabbitholes and he would never leave, because he’s undead, and doesn’t have to. And that’s a valid point! It’s absolutely true!

But no, the reason that struck me with a cold shiver of horror at its discovery was actually the realisation that Amanthos would print. every. page. of. it. Every single page of his browser history he would print and bind into journals and index for later, because the second he encounters a “404 page not found” error is the second he stops trusting technology forever and insists on cataloguing everything manually. And he would be incapable of resting until he had done this to the ENTIRE INTERNET. In other words, he would discover the internet, and no one would ever see or hear from him again, except perhaps to be sent on a quest by his friends who hope maybe you’ll be the one capable of staging an intervention and dragging him out of the labyrinth of paper stacks that he sits at the center of, scrolling endlessly in the dim blue glow, as the sounds of a printer inking page after page in the dark echo through these leather-bound halls of apocrypha.

If you give a lich the wifi password... what was that book about mice and cookies? I’m sure he’s got a copy in there somewhere.

[emathevampire]

Amanthos, prior to becoming an adventurer: I fail to understand the appeal of intentionally poisoning oneself for fun. Humans are absolutely bizarre. Sure, I suppose alcohol tastes interesting, but you can achieve interesting taste sensations without doing yourself severe bodily harm and risking debilitating addiction, disease, and a shortened lifespan, not to mention the short term effects of acting a fool, passing out, and suffering the next day? Why???

Amanthos, after becoming an adventurer: I get it. I get it now. Pass me the fucking paint thinner. I would like to become unconscious please.

[emathevampire]

4, 8, and 13 for amanthos

4. How easy is it to earn their trust? VERY difficult. You know that post about how many hours it takes to become friends with someone? I did the math. You want to be his friend, you’d best submit that application, put in your time, and he’ll get back to you in 5 to 10 business years. And you’ll be LUCKY if they’re human years, not his years. Actually earning his trust? That’s even harder. Try 1 to 5 centuries. Very few people have the time to go the long way ‘round, and most get frustrated with him long before he actually starts warming up to them. Arekos and his everlasting patience for Amanthos’ excruciatingly slow pace are what makes him the one he trusts the most.

8. What were they told to stop/start doing most often as a child? “Put the book down and listen to me,” was probably something his parents often had to say. Not that they weren’t supportive of his interests, but his tendency to hyperfocus at the expense of his health (which was incredibly poor to begin with) stressed them the hell out. And Amanthos would often do things like hide in the library to stay after hours, become so engrossed in his studies that he would forget to eat and his mother would find him passed out at his desk with a pile of stale food untouched next to him, stay awake to sneak outside in the dead of winter even when he was sick just for a chance to see the stars... it’s a miracle he survived to adulthood, honestly.

13. What color do they think they look best in? Do they actually look best in that color? The monastic order he belongs to has a general colour scheme of “dusty grey,” and he keeps to it. Every monk starts with one set of white robes, and the more saturated with dust they become from time spent working in the library (basically dying them over time), the more knowledgeable you are said to be, so he’s quite proud of the shade he wears, regardless of how good it looks. Grey, black, silver, blue accents are what he prefers. I would say he looks quite nice in it, and could do with a bit more variety. He would say I should leave him and his wardrobe well enough alone. So, he has no real opinion on whether or not it “looks the best,” other than refusing to wear anything else (except on very special occasions). Partly because he says it “clashes with my aesthetics,” and he is terribly vain for someone who only owns one set of clothes, partly because his favourite colour is blue and he really doesn’t much care for any of the others. As for whether or not he actually looks best in it... I’ll leave that for you to judge.

[emathevampire]

I fired up the ol’ skyrim machine since he experienced a brief wardrobe change for a party scene the other day, and fortunately Amanthos decided to be an exceptionally cooperative muse for once...

[emathevampire]

6, 17, 22, 47, and 100 for Amanthos?

6. What is your character’s opinion on nobility? On authority? Amanthos is lawful neutral, heavy emphasis on lawful. Knowing this, you’d probably expect him to be a spineless bootlicking coward who blindly obeys whatever authority happens to be in front of him... but he specifically holds himself to the laws of his own people, which demand that he serve and protect the living, and that means fighting evil and righting unjust systems where he finds them. He also serves a god of knowledge, who demands that knowledge be free to those who are willing and able to seek it. So for an incredibly lawful librarian, he finds himself hanging out with an awful lot of rebel scum and starting an awful lot of revolutions... and getting kicked out of a surprising number of libraries. He’s tried to turn himself in after accidentally kidnapping someone while breaking and entering into the secret lair of an untouchable noble to get to the bottom of a missing persons conspiracy. Basically, he respects the law, the enforcers of it, and the nobility... unless they’ve done something to make him feel obligated to do something about it. Then he’ll absolutely tear it all down.

17. What is your character’s favorite season? Like most astronomers, Amanthos has a love-hate relationship with winter, because while the night is longer, freezing your face off with your eye pressed to a telescope for 12+ hours trying to take notes with heavy gloves on in a tower on top of a mountain above the clouds at midnight in December is absolutely miserable.

22. What animal best represents your character? Hmmmmmmm. Probably moths, honestly. Nocturnal, soft and dusty, look fragile, eat paper, attracted to light... yeah. moths.

47. How did your character spend their childhood? Where did they grow up/who were their childhood friends? He had a pretty happy childhood, all things considered. He grew up in Ka’ama, the capital city of his homeland, which... best easy description I have is think aesthetically the city of Gondor, only it’s full of ancient elves, older magic, and legalized necromancy. When he says he spent his entire life in the biggest library in the world, he’s not lying, he was actually born there and even died and became undead there, dedicated himself to the order of monks that live there, he’s spent more time lost in those halls than some of the scholars who run the place. Most of his childhood he was either by himself or with his sister, Nikiti, until he went off to school, at which point he and Arekos became absolutely inseparable until it came time for them to decide on their careers. He has always been rather aloof, and didn’t have many friends, mostly seeing them as distractions from his studies... whenever people call him a friend, he usually tells them not to, as it takes him a very, VERY long time (like 15+ years) to consider anyone more than an acquaintance, and the level of familiarity others have for him after only a few days or weeks makes him uncomfortable. It’s a trait many of his people have, being extraordinarily long-lived compared to the rest of the world, though he is even less understanding of humans and their quick attachments than most.

100. What, currently, is your character the most curious about? Currently, he’s very curious to see whether or not the party can actually succeed at redeeming Maalik, the devil bound to Shiro, their sorcerer. In the multiverse of our campaign setting, my universe is the only one where ANYTHING has the potential for change, anything can atone, anything can choose to stop being evil and be redeemed... even demons, devils, and chromatic dragons. Asmodeus himself could be a good guy, if he ever felt like quitting as a villain. Now, this is a good enough thing to be curious about testing on its own, but Amanthos has a personal stake in the matter. When I played him as a PC, at the end of a long campaign he ended up having to take the throne as an Archdevil on the Council of Nine. Because he couldn’t leave the task to someone else, but also knows it’s only a matter of time before the power corrupts him and their plan to destroy evil forever by playing the long game from within fails because of him... he sent an avatar of himself to search for someone who could take his place. Someone good enough to resist corruption. Someone like Shiro, who’s spent his whole life with a devil bound to him and still manages to be stubbornly Chaotic Good. And if the party can redeem this devil... maybe there’s hope for the devil that the true Amanthos will have become by the time all is right again with this world. Because time is running out for him, and he can only keep his soul for so long, delay doing what needs to be done for so long, before he slips and falls right down that slippery slope of good intentions.

I the DM am VERY curious to see how this all resolves in the end. It’s all very elaborate, and 100% behind the scenes still, the party has no idea what he truly is, though I have begun dropping hints that he’s not quite what he seems there’s not going to be any way for them to start putting things together for at least another year probably. It’s an extremely long con... but I’m excited to see it pay off in the end.

[emathevampire]

1, 4, 9, 17, and 22 for the romance ask!

1. What drew your character to their LI and vice versa?      Amanthos and Arekos were childhood friends, when Arekos was sent away to the arcane academy Amanthos was his first friend there. Arekos saw him sitting alone in a corner reading and not eating, sat next to him and shared some of the lunch he made, and the rest is history.      For Psamion to the other two, purely physical attraction. Arekos was, at the time he met Psamion, performing as a stripper to pay for his necromancy education. Amanthos was working the front desk at the library when Psamion offered to teach him a secret fey sex ritual that could make his body stronger (a very appealing thing to Amanthos, who before becoming undead struggled with all manner of ailments related to his poor constitution).

4. Their favorite physical feature on each other?      Amanthos loves Psamion’s smile and the way his grey eyes always seem to have a glimmer of mischief to them, and Arekos’ figure in general, though he has a particular fascination with his hands (likely because, when Amanthos was alive, Arekos could not touch him without risking harming him with negative energy and thus never removed his gloves out of concern for his safety).      Arekos’ favourite physical thing about Psamion would probably be his strength, as Psamion’s muscles are functional as well as decorative, which is not something one sees much of when one’s time is spent surrounded by wizards and other scholarly types. About Amanthos, his face, just in general, particularly now that he can touch it without fear.      If you think Psamion can decide on just one feature to call his favourite, you’re wrong. He’s been a pansexual disaster for 2,775 years and isn’t about to start picking just one of anything now. Truthfully, I don’t think he even knows, and would just say “I dunno, everything?”

9. How open are they with their feelings?      Amanthos and Arekos spent the better part of a millenium mutually pining for each other until Psamion elected to do something about it, so you tell me.      Psamion wears his heart on his sleeve, the other two are more reserved. Arekos is simply anxious and a hopeless romantic who can’t express himself, Amanthos is more of a Spock type where you think he’s a cold and heartless bastard unless you know what you’re looking for.

17. Their ways of expressing their love.      Psamion is very physically affectionate, mostly, but he’s also a wealthy adventurer and likes to spread that wealth around. Arekos is a mom-friend, he shows he cares by taking care of them, making them food, healing their wounds, he’s less enthusiastic about PDA than Psamion but he can be very charismatic and romantic when he wants to be. Amanthos prefers to keep things private, but like Psamion he likes to give gifts, which could be anything from cute cat socks or books to a dozen dragon corpses donated to Arekos’ research.

22. From the outside looking in, what is their dynamic like?      Just plain weird, probably. We have a perpetually-sunburned sailor, a fashion-savvy necromancer, and an undead librarian monk, all of whom by all rights seem to have nothing in common outside all being the same race of elf. One of them seems so aloof as to be cold towards the other two, yet at the same time is willing to let a whole universe fall to ruin if it meant he could come home to them. One of them seems so hopelessly in love with the other than he’s willing to defy the gods and all their laws just to kiss him one last time. And the third, who philanders all across the world and only sees them maybe once every few years, who never expected to catch feelings but here he is, just wants them to be happy together when he’s not around. You don’t keep a relationship going for 300 years unless it’s built of some pretty sturdy stuff, though, and the more time you spend watching them together the more it becomes clear that despite their differences, the foundation there is rock solid, and if they’ve survived everything that’s tried to break them up thus far you’d be pretty foolish to think you could succeed where all the powers that be of the multiverse could not.

[emathevampire]

i was tagged by @alduinsbanes​ to post 5 songs that remind me of my oc! Thank you! I’ll tag @druidcraftfern​​ and @arathergrimreaper​​

I don’t have playlists for everyone, but I DO have a pretty extensive one for Amanthos. So here are a few of my favourites from that... if anyone wants the whole playlist, it’s on spotify, message me and I’ll send you a link.

1. Crucified, Ghost 2. Paint The Sky With Stars, Enya 3. The Most Cursed Of Hands, The Dear Hunter 4. Anything For You, Ludo 5. The Balancer’s Eye, Lord Huron

[emathevampire]

Amanthos, constantly: I miss being alive so much sometimes. I just want to feel something again without it being a concentrated effort.

Amanthos, after getting his soul shoved into a living body by a magic trap: Oh No that’s too much feeling put me back right now immediately

[emathevampire]

Orinn: "That whole 'refusing to admit you did your best' when someone ended up dead shit is how we get necromancers. Do you want necromancers??" Amanthos: "Not physically." Alexis: "Can you two not be normal? For five minutes?"

[emathevampire]

Gelwyn: I know you’re... you and all... but did you really HAVE to tie up the assassins we captured... like... that?

Amanthos: Like what?

Gelwyn: You know what.

Amanthos: These are the most secure bindings I know how to tie? When one is attempting to hold a member of a notably dexterous race hostage, one should ensure that escape is impossible.

Gelwyn: WHY do you know how to tie them like this.

Amanthos: I took a class in Advanced Rope Use one year because Lore of the Occult was full...

Gelwyn: They TEACH this? At SCHOOL?

Shiro: Well I mean isn’t college usually where people learn this sort of thing?

Amanthos: What sort of thing??

Gelwyn: Ugh... never mind... anyway now that we know they’re not hostile, I’ll just cut em loose—

Amanthos: WAIT! That’s really expensive rope! Let me untie them!

Gelwyn: Oh, of course it is. Of course you have fancy rope for this. Why do I expect anything else.

Amanthos: Well you never know when you might need it... not like I go around tying people up for sport... honestly...

Gelwyn: Are you sure about that? Because I’m not convinced!