B. Dylan Hollis is one of the inspirations for my Human OC, Hendrick (aka Saladbowld before he died and became the Mad Realm Reaper), in that the unhinged recipes Dylan tries out are dishes I think Hendrick would have had to make to amuse Mad King Thorn back when he was alive.
This recent video esp makes me laugh and grimace so much and go "Yeah, nightmare dishes King Oswald Thorn would've had Hendrick cook" 😂
So first poll, Saladbowld won. Congrats to the stinky scarecrow!
I'll now be showing off this cryptid creechur
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For those who don’t have the time to read a huge wall of text and would like to read later (I get it, happens to me too), here’s a tl;dr version for Saladbowld:
Saladbowld started off as a joke/parody toon based off of Caladbolg. He was supposed to get deleted, but I got attached and now he’s got a story connecting to the Mad King’s Realm
For everyone else who’s interested, lemme introduce to you the Drowned Reaper of the Mad Realm (aka Saladbowld)!
Creation Origin
I created Saladbowld on November 20th, 2015. I don’t remember exactly the thought process other than “I like this Trahearne dude, I wanna make Caladbolg into a gijinka!” That and I wanted to try out Necromancer for the first time.
And so, this thing was made.
This joke toon was my test run for the Necro class and he was supposed to get deleted/remade or something. However, he grew on me when I got him to become a Reaper when HoT dropped.
Now, it wasn’t until around 2019 did I start joking about him being a scarecrow from the Mad Realm. That slowly snowballed into him being some kind of sailor/pirate in life, then a pirate cook, then the Royal Chef, and then finally this thing he is today.
I had planned to change his name while making his backstory, but I couldn’t think of anything to call him and eventually just kept his name as is. So in story, he remains nameless. Out of story tho, he’s Saladbowld.
Unfortunately, I don’t have him completely fleshed out, but! I will share what I’ve got for him so far. Keep in mind this is all a work-in-progress AU, and none of this is canon.
Storywise
This mysterious being hails from the Mad King’s Realm. When the Shadow of the Mad King arrives to Tyria, this Drowned Reaper can be found roaming the Mad King’s Labyrinth taking down the many beings of bone and brim and sweet sweet candycorn, oftentimes ignoring exploring adventurers. The Drowned Reaper endlessly mows down the Mad King’s subjects, yearning to get to the Mad King himself.
Before he was brought back within the Mad King’s Realm, he was once a human man by the name of Hendrick “Dreck” Henderson. He was a cook for a wayfaring ship (that may or may have not been a pirate ship) and a sea merchant, and he had two drake pets named Chompy and Mr. Vile. He met a noblewoman named Maelyne during one of his ventures. He would visit this woman whenever the ship would resupply, and eventually ended up marrying her. They had two sons and one daughter.
Dreck’s cooking became renown, and he ended up being King Thorn’s Royal Chef. He did not have a good time as he was often requested to make the most bewildering of meals. He was passionate about his cooking, but he hated his position.
When King Thorn’s reign ended, Dreck and his wife were not lucky. Dreck was thrown into the ocean, chained up with a rock holding him down, and he drowned. It was the end of Dreck and his wife (fortunately their three kids had already grown up and left the nest several years before this tragic event)
Fast forward to the Mad Realm
Dreck and Maelyne were brought back as twisted versions of their former selves. The ol’ cook was a monstrous being filled with rotting vegetation and dead sea life (most notably tentacles growing out of him). With hardly a memory retained of his human life, the Drowned Reaper was only filled with rage, determined to cut down anything relating to the Mad King himself.
When the Mad King’s Realm receded back to the Mists, an odd scarecrow was left behind in the fields of Shaemoor. The farmers were at first frightened of this thing, as it reeked of rotting fish, and they tried to get rid of it. However it would always reappear days later, no matter if the farmers broke it, burned it, or anything else they could do to destroy it.
Eventually they left it alone in the field. It would only vanish when the Mad King’s Realm returned each year. Strangely enough, when this scarecrow is present, anything planted around it will flourish and thrive. Pumpkins in general would grow big and healthy year-round around this stinky scarecrow.
In-Game Role
Saladbowld becoming a Reaper was actually really awesome, cus I didn’t like core Necro back in 2015-2016. Saladbowld’s build was “Shout Reaper” that I got back in 2016 (which I think is gone now I’m not sure) and pretty much kept it all these years with little change.
I mainly use him for Fractals and for the Mad King’s festival (kinda phasing him out of this cus I find Shortbow Thief best at farming to the max).
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There you have it. He's still being worked on storywise. He has no real connections to the canon story and is considered a cryptid around and during the Shadow of the Mad King.
My drafts on tumblr are full of OC rambling and musings, and that’s not even counting all the docs I have in my google drive -.-
I’ve got the problem of “I really wanna yell about my OCs to others!” mixed with “I am protective of my OCs and only a select few will know their secrets” so yeah *puts on clown nose* :o)
