*I COULD BE / MY OWN DEVASTATING GOD.
*NAME: Achillas Ramin Badi. *TITLE: King of Egypt *AGE: 37. *PINTEREST: here
»» the weight of the crown, back-breaking yet divine; an unchecked ambition that's brought your country to the forefront; people as a preferred kind of indulgence, your pretty little playthings; a cruel heart tamed only by one other; scarred hands continuing their devastation while burning eyes focus on a future still in bloom — it is your mind alone that bridges the gap, turning wreckage into legacy.
BASICS, HISTORY, SECRETS & WANTED CONNECTIONS UNDER THE CUT !!
*BASICS.
BIRTH NAME: Achillas Ramin Badi NICKNAMES: Achi (to family only), The Sunlit King TITLE: King of Egypt AGE: 37 D.O.B.: tbd (tho i'm feeling aries energy!) BIRTHPLACE: Cairo, Egypt LANGUAGES SPOKEN: French (native), Egyptian, Turkish, Arabic, English ORIENTATION: Heterosexual heteromantic (i think??) RELATIONSHIP STATUS: married (see wcs below!) CHILDREN: none (see secrets / wcs below!) POSITIVE TRAITS: forward-thinking, charismatic, eloquent NEUTRAL TRAITS: strategic, ambitious, relentless NEGATIVE TRAITS: selfish, manipulative, stubborn INSP: Michael Corleone, Hades, Macbeth, Tywin Lannister, Fitzwilliam Darcy
*TLDR. (app + some extra details)
We are so glad to see you safe, KING ACHILLAS BADI of EGYPT! It’s dangerous out in the world these days, but I hear that you are FORWARD-THINKING and STRATEGIC enough to handle it. Just don’t let your UNCHECKED AMBITION bring you down! Stay on your guard, because with your secret being at risk for exposure, you wouldn’t want everyone to find out THAT DESPITE YOUR COMMANDING PRESENCE AND SHREWD REPUTATION, YOU ARE PRIMARILY GOVERNED BY THE AMBITIONS OF YOUR WIFE. Achillas is an exploration of the grey area between imposter syndrome and unchecked ambition. Being born the King's bastard, the life of a royal was only half his birthright — and yet, he'd hungered for it in totality since birth and forced his own destiny by any means necessary. As a ruler, he's feared, envied, but also admired, and is seen as a bit of a renegade compared to his father's far more pacifist way of ruling. Achillas acts boldly, shrewdly, making political moves that may seem subversive to a common mind but are simply the tell-tale signs of a man playing chess seven steps ahead. He refuses to hide in the shadow of the great rulers of the past and aims to become his own bright spot in the history of not just Egypt, but the world. As such, he's not opposed to using underhanded tactics to make his name a permanent fixture in the history books. Achillas thoroughly embraces the fact that he's the bad guy in someone's story — likely because he knows there's a heart there that beats for the promise of a legacy, something he's eager to cement for generations to come.
*HISTORY.
[ this is so long bc idk how to edit for my life ever! also — trigger warnings for: mentions of child death, manipulation / coercion, murder, depression ]
I. THE BIRTH OF A GOD.
» It's a misconception of the human eye that the greatest secrets hide in the dark. That which is revealed by the twitch of a shadow is a mere coincidence, a byproduct of the true obscurer: the blinding, purposeful glare of the sun. The former was the manner in which Achillas' father lived the whole of his life, existing quiet and demure, sailing on the winds of ancestors who set Egypt upon the world stage. He was granted the benefit of being a peacetime king, one who answered to no greater good than the unchallenged status quo.
» Achillas was born the third child to the King of Egypt, but was not a prince upon birth. When the King's wife and eldest child died from illness, a crisis of succession arose: the second child ascended to the place of trueborn heir, but there was no trueborn spare should a twist of fate befall the family once more. And so, the boy, then no more than a Frenchwoman's fatherless son, was named Prince Achillas on the occasion of his fifth birthday, legitimized by law.
II. THE FORGING OF AN HEIRLOOM.
» In truth, he was not so much an heir to his father than an heirloom, one polished not with the example of leadership and righteous rule, but instead with feasting and hunting and wine-making, as though training to live his days out as though he were merely a country lord, rather than a King of a great nation. Then again, he wasn't to be King, was he? The notion ate away at him, feeding into the hunger that had been born innate to Achillas himself, a desire for more than just the richness of meat and other pleasures of the flesh, but the power to create and destroy as though he were his own devastating god.
» When Achillas was twelve, Egypt's allies called on the king to support war efforts, and he watched solemnly as his father wept at the sight of his older brother leading a battalion off to the training camps outside the city walls. For a moment, he and only he existed as his father's heir. To a lesser boy, solitude would have been a reassurance, but to Achillas, he saw a new crisis arise. With Egypt's resources lessened and the need to protect that which was already theirs, new alliances were the family's only option — they had but one hand to promise. A charming little boy, he played on his father's emotions, begging for their family to feel full once more.
» The years passed and he gained a younger sibling from his father's marriage, and when the war efforts finally subsided, his older brother was set to return with a grand feast. Eyes forever focused on opportunity, Achillas identified someone willing to do anything for money — even something as far as treason. They acted as cupbearer to his brother at the feast, slipping him the potion that slipped him into a quick death in the middle of the night.
III. THE HEAVINESS OF SUNLIGHT.
» All the joy of his brother's return shifted rapidly to mourning, but one alone privately celebrated, his dreams of his future not just attainable, but actualized. His poor father, King only in name, fell deeply into a depression from which he never recovered, wearing the crown but bearing none of the weight. As young as eighteen, he took on his father's burdens, gaining the love of the Egyptian court for his 'self-sacrifice', and they gave him the nickname of The Sunlit Prince: the bright spot amidst his father's dark shadows.
» Prosperity, unlike what his father the King displayed, was not found in meat and wine, but in loans to poorer countries in exchange for their indentured loyalty and service, in marriage alliances, in the hosting of feuding parties on neutral territory for a marginal fee. Although Egypt had not suffered as severe losses as its allies, Achillas took on the task of rebuilding — and building up even greater. He arranged marriages for his siblings, though he refused marriage for himself, desiring not to be held back by the constraints of marriage.
» Like any tragic figure hoping to escape their fate, his efforts to stave off the threat of marriage were subverted when he met someone who captivated him like no other, body and soul — she and only she held this power over him, soothing his soul not like a balm but like tinder to the fire, allowing it to roar on in his political pursuits.
» At the present, Achillas has cemented himself on the world stage as a formidable player. But, The Sunlit King longs to see the success hold fast for the generations of his lineage to come.
*SECRETS.
Despite his commanding presence and shrewd reputation, he is primarily governed by the ambitions of his wife. That's not to say he's incapable of making decisions, but in a similar vein as Macbeth - Lady Macbeth's sort of dynamic, his wife's personality is often what pushes him towards more cutthroat decisions. The love between them is not toxic, but it has undoubtedly led to toxicity for others. Simply put, his wife is his ultimate soft spot — the sun around which he centers his universe, but ultimately could be ruined by it. (WC)
He fears not being able to have a child, and so ingests a number of curative / medicinal tonics, some of which might be slightly mind or health-altering at times — possibly on purpose... (WC)
Achillas ordered the death of his older brother during the feast celebrating his triumphant return home from the war efforts abroad, but has long acted as though he's convinced it was at the hands of an enemy territory. (WC)
*WANTED CONNECTIONS.
i. NO BETTER LOVE » Someone, anyone, pls give me the macbeth x lady macbeth with a tinge of hozier's nfwmb that is Achillas and his wife!! I don't want to determine her personality so much and definitely want to play this out over chemistry and incorporate another writer's own ideas — but I do think that Lady Macbeth is an excellent starting point for the sort of woman Achillas would fall so hard for. She fans the flames of Achillas' ambitions not through pandering and subservience, but through her own ambitions and possibly viperous nature. I don't envision the love between them being toxic, but it would certainly be interesting to play around with Achillas' wife manipulating him into actions that might not actually serve him well in the long run.
ii. A TONIC BOMB » He's a man who's intent on building a legacy, but at 37 years old with no successors to his name, Achillas has taken to drinking tonics, potions, etc., to ideally ensure his success in having a child. I imagine that some of these may have a mind / health-altering effect, possibly on purpose depending on who's procuring them for him.
iii. EAT YOUR YOUNG » Sort of an off-shoot of the previous WC, I'd love to play around with Achillas, a man who longs so eagerly for a trueborn heir, to be hit with the surprise of a child he fathered in his younger years, pre-marriage. This could definitely go in lots of different directions — forged family, antagonistic rivals, a protege — and would undoubtedly cause him to go into a bit of a crisis.
iv. DAMAGE GETS DONE » Though he knows the truth of his older brother's demise, Achillas has publicly upheld the belief that a rival country was responsible for the action. This connect is for a bitterly antagonistic dynamic, but I'd love to add in an aspect of one of the countries needing the assistance (money, resources, public support, etc.) of the other — very much thinking of a dynamic similar to the Lannisters and Martells from Game of Thrones!
*GENERIC WCS.
spies!!
advisors / confidantes
non-royal half-siblings (at least half-French, as his mother was French)
broken-off betrothals from his youth
artists and similar sorts for whom he's a patron / benefactor
anything and everything!! i'm down to clown :)
