#arthur fenn

[philcoulsonismyhero]

Anyway. I've been playing slightly too much Baldur's Gate 3 for a week or two because I needed something new and distracting, and I made a version of my guy Arthur because I still haven't managed to get him into a DnD game, and now I can't stop thinking about original flavour Arthur because he makes me bananas.

I should talk about him and the rest of the OC hoard more often, I just need to figure out where to start

[spacecapart]

Back to DnD adjacent folks, next on my aro OCs list is the biggest disaster of the bunch, Arthur!

Arthur Fenn (he/him)

Genre: DnD/fantasy

Identity: Aromantic asexual, but hasn't quite figured that out yet, considers himself probably gay

Born Arthur Ridill, a name he doesn't use anymore because it would definitely get him arrested and probably even executed for war crimes, Arthur was once a paladin of the crown in the kingdom of Gaellidon. He was loyal, dedicated, trusted by the king and loved by the young princess he was often assigned to guard, protege to the kingdom's top general, and someone from whom great things were expected.

Gaellidon had been fighting an on and off border war with their neighbouring kingdom, Pattria, for centuries and it was during the second period of active hostilities in his lifetime (when he was in his early 30s) that everything changed for Arthur. A tragic accident wiped out not just the military high command but killed the king, leaving 16y/o Princess Rhona in charge of a country at war, and Arthur the only one left to take command of the army. Inexperienced and still unprepared for command, and handed responsibility for a war his side was losing, he found himself making more and more desperate, and more and more ruthless, decisions in pursuit of not even victory but simply survival.

Eventually, it all came to a head when his capital city was besieged, and in a moment of true desperation he tried to unleash a shadowy magical weapon on the occupying army. Rhona, increasingly disillusioned by her parents' war and in the drastic actions of her old friend, reluctantly had him stopped and imprisoned while she sought a diplomatic solution. But they were betrayed and the shadow creature was unleashed on the city anyway.

Arthur awoke in the rubble of everything he had been trying to save, his arm crushed under the debris, and with the shadow creature watching him with cold curiosity. Realising that if this creature wasn't contained it would continue to do awful things, he made a desperate deal with it, partially binding it to his shoulder in place of his damaged arm. Escaping from the ruins of his old life, he went on the run, changed his name and took up the life of a sellsword in Pattria, where he hoped a local accent, a beard and his rapidly whitening hair would be enough to keep him from being recognised.

Jump forward a decade and his shadowy passenger is starting to get restless, bored of only killing bandits and murderers, but Arthur has just about found a life he can live with. There's even talk of lasting peace between the kingdoms, but that peace is threatened from all sides by those who would benefit from further war. Finding himself working for a man who is trying to protect that fledgling peace, Arthur ends up travelling with a doctor from Gaellidon and an ex-soldier from Pattria, the first people he has even considered getting close to for years. But can the tentative friendships survive under the weight of all of his secrets and the baggage of who he used to be? And what happens when Cornelius Fenn, the man whose name he borrowed and who he once considered the love of his life, discovers that Arthur is still alive?

In terms of personality, these days Arthur is well-mannered but short-tempered, prone to catastrophising, darkly sarcastic, more comfortable being intimidating than friendly, and tends to freeze up if put on the spot and expected to take charge. Once upon a time he was intense but quietly warm, one of nature's older brothers, confident if still prone to worrying, and a little awkward with emotions in an endearing sort of way. His relationship with Cor was a complicated one, loving but also deeply influenced by the expectations of those around them as they tried to force it into a romantic shape that neither of them really wanted. But maybe now, decades on and away from all those pressures, they can finally work out what it is they want from each other...

Mini playlist, for extra vibes:

Heel Turn 2 - The Mountain Goats - Spent too much of my life now trying to play fair / Throw my better self overboard / Shoot at him when he comes up for air

Lost It All - Black Veil Brides - I'm just trying to breathe / Just trying to figure it out / Because I built these walls to watch them crumbling down / I said, then I lost it all / And who can save me now?

Wolf Within - Jonathan Young - There is a war inside me / My soul against my mind / My shadows always find me / Every step they're close behind

[frenchcurious]

Arthur Fenn - Taxi New-Yorkais, 1942. Source  Facebook.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

🔳

So Google tells me that emoji is officially 'white square button' despite being mostly black, so you learn something new every day!

I'm going to go with Arthur for that one, since he wears a white glove to cover up an arm made of shadows, and a related fun (not hugely fun for him) fact is that he still has about a third of a biological arm left under there. It's pretty withered and the bone is all splintered from the blunt trauma that severed it in the first place, and it's going to give him a Bad time if he ever manages to tell his shadowy passenger to get lost and it's no longer technically existing in a pocket dimension.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

‼️‼️

Ooh, that's two, so you're getting a duo. (One of whom I've talked about over on the art blog, but the other is one I haven't mentioned before.)

So this ^ is Arthur Fenn, he's one of those characters that could exist in his own story but also may end up being a DnD character, whichever one I get around to first. He's another one that spun out of a mashup of tropes from characters I like, in this case my guy Ironwood (as usual) and Percy de Rolo. So he's a disaster, as you could probably imagine.

Arthur's whole deal is that he was a general in a kingdom under siege, and he eventually got desperate enough to meddle with dark forces that he probably shouldn't have in order to try and save his kingdom. He was going to release this shadow entity that they captured on the besieging army, but his subordinates refused because they wanted to win The Right Way and he ended up locked up in his own cells. And then his kingdom fell anyway.

He wakes up in the rubble, with basically everyone he knew either dead or missing, and stumbles across the same shadow entity he was planning to release before. It offers him a chance at revenge, and he's got nothing left so he takes the deal. His right arm was badly crushed and he left most of it behind when he dug himself out of the rubble, so this entity attaches itself to him at the shoulder, replacing his arm and giving him the ability to summon weapons made of shadow (like the sword in the picture), along with a bunch of other magical abilities. Mechanically, he'd be a vengeance paladin at this point, but after level 3 he gets spookier and takes a detour into blood hunter (Order of the Profane Soul, Hexblade pact).

And that's the point at which he'd end up joining an adventuring party, keeping his past a secret beyond the fact that he was a soldier, and certainly never showing anyone what the deal is with his arm. And with one hell of a grudge against anyone allied with the enemy that destroyed his kingdom. (And also no knowledge of the fact that the very same entity he's now relying on for power played its own part in that destruction after it was secretly released by the enemy...)

Personality-wise, he's quite restrained and proper, very An Officer And A Gentleman, and the sort of guy who very politely never actually tells you anything about himself. (It's the trauma.) But he's clearly got a lot of bottled up rage, which tends to come out when he's fighting, and he's Brutal in combat. A lot of the spells I'd be going for with him are based around a Fuck This Guy In Particular approach, and he's pretty intimidating without really trying. He's got a kinder side in there somewhere, though, and a very sly sense of humour.

And I did say duo, so here's #2, who'd be a backstory NPC in a campaign:

I haven't properly drawn him yet (although the plan is to use Alexander Siddig as a face reference), but the other guy is Cornelius Fenn, better known to everyone as Cor. And yes, that's the same surname as Arthur - Arthur's original surname was Ridill, but he dropped it after his kingdom fell and has been using Cor's surname as an alias ever since.

Cor and Arthur are ex-somethings, I haven't quite decided on the specifics of their relationship history but tbh they probably don't even know what to call each other. They've known each other for 30 years and been a couple on and off, and worked together in an official capacity the whole time. Cor was initially a scout for their kingdom, and ended up rising in prominence until he was essentially the crown's spymaster to Arthur's military general. Where Arthur is direct and uncompromising, Cor is diplomatic and very good at using words to get what he wants or needs. (But not so good at talking about his own feelings, obviously.) Mechanically, he's a mastermind rogue.

Cor was away on a mission when their kingdom fell, and neither he not Arthur know what happened to the other one in the aftermath of all that. Cor suspects that Arthur probably died, but he doesn't know for sure, and Arthur hopes that Cor had the good sense to stay away and save himself but also kinda resents that he had the opportunity to do that and sees it as a bit of a betrayal. (Like I said, they're messy.) And Cor did in fact have the sense to stay away, and has managed to get himself in with a different court doing the same sort of spy work but also using that power and freedom to try and find out what really happened that fateful day. He's also working towards revenge, but in a much quieter (and tbh probably more effective) way. That second outfit in the design sketch is his travelling clothes, without any obvious allegiance to anyone, although he's still kept the red necktie as a tragic keepsake.

Eventually, he and Arthur are going to run into each other again, and I haven't decided on the exact circumstances in the not-DnD version of the story, but I do know it's going to be highly entertaining. Cor's a lot more charming and friendly than Arthur, but he's also got a sharper side and imagining the reunion between these two prickly assholes who unfortunately still care about each other is very good fun.

(Yes, they're my daft RWBY ship but a little to the left, leave me alone)

[philcoulsonismyhero]

tell me about ocs 27, 33, and 49!!

27 - Kid Werewolf

Okay so this is kind of a twofer, because it's pretty much impossible to talk about Kid Werewolf without also talking about Dr Werewolf, otherwise known as one version of Tarrick Shar (who's a side character in the Sam comic but actually originated in this context and got reused there).

Kid Werewolf, as the placeholder name might suggest, is a young werewolf girl, somewhere in the 8-10 years old range. Both of her parents were werewolves, so she was born a werewolf rather than becoming one. It's her natural state, but the way lycanthropy works in her world is that it's also something that can be passed along by bite so you get born werewolves and infected werewolves.

Something bad happened to her parents, that she won't talk about, and one full moon she got herself stuck in a wolf trap near a major road. Tarrick, a travelling doctor, was passing by and, recognising her as a werewolf and also just a kid, he gets her out of the trap. But she's frightened and in pain, and she bites him in the process. And there's nothing you can do about a werewolf bite sustained at the full moon.

She legs it into the woods, but feeling guilty for biting the person that helped her, she shadows him along the road, and she's not so sneaky that he doesn't notice. Eventually, he's able to persuade her to join him at the campfire, and Tarrick realises that oh shit, this is an abandoned kid. And obviously he's freaking out a bit about the fact that he's been infected, but he's not going to take that out on some scared kid. So he's like 'well, guess I have a daughter now'.

They get caught up in a larger mystery story, of course, but their personal arc involves Tarrick initially trying to find a cure for his own lycanthropy, but realising what it's doing to this kid he's now looking after to see him trying to cure himself of being something that she naturally is. And eventually of course he ends up accepting his new situation and they become a tiny little werewolf family. They're cute, and I need to spend some more time fleshing them out as personalities but I am very fond of them.

33 - Arthur Fenn

I've already talked about Arthur [here], so here's some bonus extra art.

Initial design doodles, although some of this is now non-canon to the the current version:

And the first drawing I did to figure out his face, which admittedly is largely stolen from one particular actor (Peter Wingfield, who I know as Watson from Sanctuary):

49 - Orc Doctor

This one is another side character in No Place For A Doctor, otherwise known as the Sam comic, in which Sam Harnendil gets conscripted as a military surgeon in a fantasy war. I needed to populate Sam's hospital camp, and one of the fun concepts for another doctor that I settled on was a large orcish individual whose gender is muscles, but who's also an expert surgeon and something of a warrior poet type. In the actual comic proper, they're just a background character, but I've been thinking about the hypothetical medical drama set in the hospital camp that these folks would all be characters in for a while now.

Orc Doctor (name pending) is one of the doctors who wasn't conscripted and was already serving with the army, probably because they had trouble finding acceptance in civilian medical spheres due to orcish stereotypes and assumptions based on their size and stature. Which makes them an interesting foil to Sam, who's decidedly a civilian doctor and does not want to be here but doesn't see himself as having a choice. (There isn't a huge orc population in this country, most orcs are from colder, northern countries across the sea, but there's a lot of half orcs and orcish influences due to centuries of cultural exchange with those countries.)

Personality-wise, they're a big personality, loud and boisterous but also sharp and thoughtful, and very community-oriented. They're the one who takes the less experienced doctors under their wing and checks in on them emotionally, and is probably one of the more well-adjusted and emotionally healthy doctors in the camp, with some interesting philosophical views on war and violence and the medic's role in all that. And they're also the one most likely to take up a weapon in defense of their patients, because some problems you can solve with a scalpel, but some require an axe.

[philcoulsonismyhero]

33, 42, and 47 :)

33 - Arthur Fenn

Arthur is a travesty, and he's deeply beloved to me. He's one of half a dozen characters that have come into existence thanks to me bouncing James Ironwood from RWBY off of another character, in this case Percy de Rolo from Critical Role, and he's by far the biggest disaster of the bunch.

I'm in the process of rejigging his backstory slightly so that I can slot him into a shared universe with some of my other DnD characters, but the basic beats are still the same. He's a vengeance paladin/hexblade warlock multiclass, who made an ill-advised deal with an entity from the Shadowfell after spectacularly losing a war between his kingdom and their immediate neighbours. Arthur, born Arthur Ridill, was promoted to general when he was too young and woefully unprepared thanks to an incident that wiped out the military high command, and Did His Best in horrible circumstances, but ended up pushed into more and more awful decisions trying to win a war that his side was already losing. In the process, he got tangled up in the machinations of that Shadowfell entity, which was encouraging the war for its own dark ends, and when he eventually makes a deal with it it's in a desperate last attempt to contain it and stop it from doing any more harm.

With the war over and his capital city annexed and now with this shadow thing riding along with him as a replacement right arm (his was crushed by debris during the final siege), Arthur disappears, dropping his surname and taking the first one he can think of - that of his on-again-off-again ex, Cornelius Fenn (usually known as Cor), who's also gone missing in the aftermath of all that. He spends the next decade or so as a sellsword, trying not to be noticed or recognised and also to navigate his new warlock pact without becoming any more of the monster that the war had already turned him into.

And that's all by way of backstory - Arthur Fenn, who claims when asked to be just a vengeance paladin with nothing weird going on, thank you very much, ignore the gloves and the fact that his sword sometimes seems to be made of shadows, ends up caught up in adventuring with a group of other people who were fucked up by the same war - Sam, conscripted as a military doctor, and Benjamin, a war wizard from the other side whose whole unit was wiped out. For the first time in years, he finds himself reluctantly making friends, but the whole time the truth of who he is and what he's done is following him like a second shadow and eventually it all comes out...

Personality-wise, he's very stiff and proper and courteous, falling back on formal manners to maintain a distance from other people. He's got a nasty temper, no problem at all in intimidating people into cooperating, and he'll take charge of a situation if he thinks he has to but if people look to him for leadership he's got a bad tendency to freak out and freeze up. He's stubborn, he's arrogant, his self esteem is rock bottom, he can be surprisingly kind in an awkward sort of way, he's essentially the sunk cost fallacy personified, and really he's just utterly desperate to be loved but has no idea how to have any sort of relationship on a equal footing because he spent his early life saddled with Responsibilities and put up on the pedestal of leadership. Like I said, absolute disaster, I love him dearly.

The man himself:

42 - [redacted]

Okay, I know I said I'd taken out the characters I couldn't talk about without major story spoilers, but I'm far too fond of this one to leave them out. This is the main antagonist of Red Shift Blue Shift (more here: @redshiftblueshiftcomic), and this is them in full 'no, you don't get any hints about my identity' mode:

What are they up to? What are they trying to achieve? What's their interest in Dan and their team? I'm not saying! But honestly I think they may be one of my all-time favourite OCs, so it is absolutely murder to have to keep their whole deal secret to preserve the reveal.

47 - Anwara Siddiq

Anwara is from the same story as Charlie, one of my oldest little groups of OCs. She's an exploration pilot, best friend of the protagonist Alastair Hayashi, and started out as a combination of character traits from two of my favourite Marvel comics characters - Carol Danvers (Captain Marvel) and Faiza Hussain (various, including Excalibur and briefly Captain Britain).

Anwara is a bit of a thrill seeker, competitive, and opinionated, but she's also an extremely loyal friend and a very principled person. She grew up with two mums on a gas giant mining station, and became an exploration pilot for the challenge, but quickly got just as invested in the science. She's second in command in their group of pilots, a decisive counterbalance to Alastair's more thoughtful approach, and also the team's designated medic.

After Alastair goes missing on a mission, seemingly taken by an alien ship, she ends up being the one who proves he's still alive and takes on the conspiracy of silence that doesn't want to acknowledge that they just made first contact. She's a lot of fun, and a major driving force in one side of the plot, sharing secondary protagonist duties with Alastair's partner Charlie and their mutual friend Flynn.

This is old art that I really should redraw, but here's present day Anwara and also her and Alastair as tiny trainee pilots:

[guvnor69]

Summer’s coming