I wanted to share what I think about when writing about Ateius
Mainly That He's a Hardass
Being that he is a legion charr, I care a lot about what that entails. He's never had a day of comfort his entire life, just the constant cycle of: wake up, work, fight, eat, sleep, repeat. And when that's your life for what is about 60 years, all the while you breathe in the smoke and pollution, deal with the noise of a machinery bay day in and day out, it's impressive he's even lived this long. Ateius has no concept of innocence, of a childhood, or anything like that. Work is all he knows, the legion is all he knows, and the closest things he's got to stress relief are cigarettes and alcohol. Two very addictive, very dangerous substances.
So. You take someone like that, and thrust him into the world of Tyria, full of diversity and life, and people who do things differently and what do you get? A complete shitshow! When coming up with how Ateius would react to something, my number one go-to is "How do I make him sound really tired and frustrated being here?" Usually, this ends up with him just a hair away from drawing a gun ready to blast whatever is giving him a headache. Because he's not used to any sort of problem solving that involves empathy, he's used to: "here's what we need, get it done." He cares not for the long term ramifications of his actions, he cares not for squabbling politicians. He sees a problem, he's an engineer, so, he fixes problem with explosives adjusted to fit the specifications. And I greatly enjoy tie aspect of him because this asshole behaviour of his causes a lot of problems. That attitude of his will work in the legions, but most certainly not as a pact commander.
One of my favorite moments in the base story is when you choose your worst fear, and I enjoy the storyline with demolitionist Tonn the most; the heartbreak of having to tell his wife that he died, and the weight of the fact it happened on the player's order is fantastic to me.
But I'm not the commander, Ateius is, and to me nothing showcases the crippled emotional development he suffers from than how he handles that interaction. The only thing that ever mattered to him, and to the legions was results: did the job get done? He rolls his eyes being told to return the keepsakes to Tonn's wife Ceera, and he gives it to her basically without any condolences. She cries and curses his name, Ateius however, shrugs. He finds that sentimentality an obstacle to efficiency, and irritating white noise in addition to it.
Anger and frustration are the two things Ateius feels the most. If he doesn't understand something he is angry about it, if he cannot do things the way he deems most effective he gets frustrated. So a lot of his story comes down to he is forced to be empathetic by the rest of the cast, all the while being a massive piece of shit to work with. And over time, he eventually becomes... tolerable. On a good day
