Characters
Here's a collection of major characters. Minor characters can be found throughout the galleries and various Noddules.
Please excuse small inconsistencies in the beginning, and expect minor changes. I'm still working out details.
FILO ROOKE - ILLA PHASMERE - MERCIAN VETCH - MORDECAI BAALKOR - THE MOTHERTOAD - ORPUS BYLE - PNURA - QUIN AVEN - TREECHUR KRILES
Filo Rooke
Species: Ravel
House: Psilysium
Role: Citygod
Age: ??
Height: Varies
Weight: Varies
Gender: Male
Sex: Male
Pronouns: He/him
Sexuality: Pansexual
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Appearance
Filo is a corrupted ravel, and his appearance varies to those who perceive him. He usually appears as an enormous avian beast with a mystical palette of teals, purples and blues. It is said he has a third eye, but this isn’t usually open unless he’s cityspeaking or casting a spell. His tail is long and serpentine, sometimes ending in an eye or toothy maw. The scales of his arms and legs are said to be slightly iridescent.
He’s almost always smoking from an elaborate hookah, and the exhaled smoke seems to carry faint visions of his thoughts.
The creature itself is hard to tell apart from the illusions that surround him, his position and details constantly shifting.
Personality
Filo’s behavior is unpredictable. The bird comes unhinged at random, and often behaves as an animal, destroying his chamber’s furnishings, killing Council attendants, and tormenting any prisoners he’s been given as a treat.
At other times he’s collected, empathetic, and introspective, and will brood in silence for days on unknown matters.
Backstory
Filo competed agaisnt Mercian Vetch in the original GodGrinder tournament.
After the council made Mercian a citygod for her victory, they then resurrected Filo and made him a citygod as well.
While both are members of the Council, Filo and Mercian remain at odds, as do their followings.
Illa Phasmere
Species: Slyne
House: Umbrasia
Role: Citygod
Age: ??
Height: Varies
Weight: Varies
Gender: Female
Sex: Female
Pronouns: She/her
Sexuality: Pansexual
Alignment: Neutral Good
Appearance
Illa is a corrupted slyne, and her appearance varies to those who perceive her. She usually appears as a ghostly, skeletal creature with a deathly palette of blue and gray, with translucent tendrils that extend from her back. Her eyes appear to be hollow sockets, and often she wears a long black veil that covers her face.
Personality
Illa is said to be softspoken, complex, somber, and kind. She cares greatly about the City and its citizens, as well as her role as a citygod. While her stance on the Council itself is unclear, she seems content in her position.
Backstory
Illa was once considered the most powerful mage in Nodd. She was employed by the Council to eradicate the Mothertoad; to do so, she had to undergo corruption.
Mercian Vetch
Species: Lehlt
House: Vorn
Role: Citygod
Age: ??
Height: Varies
Weight: Varies
Gender: Female
Sex: Bigenital
Pronouns: She/her
Sexuality: Pansexual
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Appearance
Mercian is a corrupted lehlt. She has reddish fur, claws and hooves, and coal-black hair.
As a citygod, her appearance varies. She’s often seen with fiery red eyes, and long, arachnid-like spines curling from her back like a pair of skeletal wings. She may have a number of flail-like tails, and multiple breasts. As Mercian is a citygod of pain and pleasure, she tends to manifest with a mix of details both thorny and supple.
Personality
Mercian is manipulative, shallow, and cruel. She’s very concerned with aesthetics - often at the cost of comfort, health, or lives of others. While she’s passionate about her role as a citygod, most of her followers fear her wrath.
Backstory
Seeking to be made a citygod, Mercian competed against Filo Rooke in the original GodGrinder tournament. Mercian won - at the cost of her face, mutilated in an arcane explosion. Lehlts are known for being resistant to cosmetic magics, a condition thought to offset their tendency to grow more beautiful, the more they're envied.
As promised, the Council then made Mercian a citygod. To her horror, they then resurrected Filo and made him a citygod as well.
Mercian remains vengeful towards Filo for permanently disfiguring her, and is said to openly plot his undoing. House Vorn tends to be rather hostile towards those of house Psilysium.
Mordecai Baalkor
Species: Lehlt
House: Vorn
Role: Ringleader
Age: 56
Height: 7’ 4”
Weight: 180 lbs
Gender: Male
Sex: Male
Pronouns: He/him
Sexuality: Pansexual
Alignment: Neutral evil
Appearance
Mordecai is a lehlt. He stands about 7 feet tall, not counting the tufted tips of his ears. He has a mauve pelt with wine colored hair and tufts, and fiery yellow eyes. His hooves and nails are a dark mahogany, and his genitalia is gray.
He’s very slender, and tends to be graceful in his movements. He takes great care in his personal appearance, and is usually overdressed for the occasion.
Personality
Those who have dealt with Mordecai in any personal sense tend to describe him as fussy, histrionic and self-absorbed; to strangers whose approval is meaningful to him, he is aggressively charming. At his worst, he's known for violent tantrums and passionate outbursts, often while intoxicated.
Backstory
Mordecai Baalkor was Mercian Vetch's personal apprentice in his youth, by whom he was severely mistreated in a variety of ways, physically and otherwise.
The two founded Cirque du Sadique, though at the time Mercian was the face of the production, and took full credit for the show's inventive and spectacular feats - all of which were actually devised by Mordecai, offstage.
The circus quickly grew in infamy, and soon hordes of fans choked the stands, each hoping to be selected as a volunteer for Mercian's next grisly trick. All the attention caused Mercian to grow in power, while Mordecai remained as he was.
After Mercian competed in GodGrinder and was made a citygod, the circus was left to Mordecai to run; he now received the belief and chaos generated by the show's spectacles, which helped him grow in power, and the circus in infamy. It eventually came to include a carnival, in which the rides and attractions all presented deadly delights for Nodd’s unquenchable bloodthirst.
To this day, Mordecai continues to run the sadistic circus and carnival, which takes place every turn during The Darkening phase.
The Mothertoad
Species: Mephitoad
House: Viviria
Role: Citygod
Age: ??
Height:
Weight:
Gender: n/a
Sex: n/a
Pronouns: It/its
Sexuality: Asexual
Alignment: True neutral
Appearance
The mothertoad is a massive aggregation of corrupted mephitoads. It’s hard to describe exactly what it looks like, as it depends on the angle from which you’re looking at it, as well as when - the thing appears to constantly change and evolve. Mephitoad heads, toothy maws, eyes, and tentacles make up its boiling mass, among other various nodules, tendrils, and orifices. It tends to be a variety of swampy colors like olive and ochre, but these seem to shift with temperature and humidity.
Personality
The mothertoad is protective, aggressive, and mostly concerned with spreading its influence. When in its presence, one tends to feel oddly doting of the creature, and is at great risk of being assimilated.
Backstory
The mothertoad was once an ordinary mephitoad that was corrupted in an experiment long ago. The details of this experiment are not known to those outside the Council, but it was thought to have been related to Nodd’s chaos and order theories.
Orpus Byle
Species: Oggorus
House: Cult of Byle
Role: Cult Leader
Age: 88
Height:
Weight:
Gender: Male
Sex: Male
Pronouns: He/him
Sexuality: Pansexual
Alignment: Chaotic evil
Appearance
Orpus Byle is an oggorus. He has yellow and olive skin, and orange teeth, claws and eyes. His venomous secretions are a yellowish orange. Orpus' venom in particular induces a growing fixation with things of a disgusting nature.
Personality
Orpus is said to be manipulative, indulgent, selfish, and cruel. His only interest seems to be gaining followers and growing more powerful and corrupted, and has caused much pain and suffering among his most devoted disciples.
Backstory
Orpus was an agnostic mage who hoped to be noticed by the Council and made a citygod. To achieve this, he gradually amassed an enormous following to empower him with their belief. This is easily achieved for an oggorus, whose venom is highly addictive.
While Orpus still hasn’t been taken into the Council as a citygod, he continues to lead one of the most powerful and feared cults in Nodd - the Cult of Byle. The cult is centered around the concepts of filth and disgust.
Pnura
Species: ??
House: Morphoria
Role: Citygod
Age: ??
Height:
Weight:
Gender: n/a
Sex: varies
Pronouns: It/its
Sexuality: ??
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Appearance
Pnura is a shapeshifter, but usually appears as a white serpent with black insides. It’s also occasionally seen as an ambiguous quadruped or biped, a flying creature, an aquatic creature, an amorphous blob, or some hard-to-define mass of tentacles. It’s sometimes a single creature, sometimes multiple creatures, and sometimes a thing that looks exactly like you.
Personality
Pnura is mischievous, deceitful, playful, destructive, and unpredictable in every way. Whenever Pnura senses change, it spawns orolisks - small black serpents that turn others into objects to sustain themselves.
Backstory
No one seems to agree on when Pnura came into existence, or where it came from.
Quin Aven
Species: Petrid
House: Omnillian
Role: Citygod
Age: ??
Height: Varies
Weight: Varies
Gender: Male
Sex: n/a
Pronouns: He/him
Sexuality: ??
Alignment: Neutral Good
Appearance
Quin is a petrid doorknocker whose body is the Omnillian citadel itself. He controls everything in the building with his thoughts, and his awareness can travel throughout.
Personality
Quin is said to be an intellectual and a brilliant teacher who cares greatly about sharing knowledge and helping others - that is, before he was abducted by the Council, who restricts what information can be shared.
These days, Quin is said to be a bit more reserved and cold.
Backstory
Quin designed the Conduit - a device which is still the centerpiece of Nodd today. For this, he was abducted by the Council, and his brilliance enslaved to develop new arcane technology.
Treechur Kriles
Species: Chimera
House: n/a
Role: Warden of The Underchambers
Age: 65
Height: 7’1”
Weight: 560lbs
Gender: Female
Sex: Female
Pronouns: She/her
Sexuality: Lesbian, asexual
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Appearance
Treechur is a hefty reptilian creature with four eyes and a beaked snout.
Personality
Treechur is said to be sharp-witted, stern, and merciless. As the warden of The Underchambers, she employs these traits to tend to countless imprisoned citizens. She strives to be professional above all else, and isn’t easily bribed or swayed by emotion.
Outside of The Underchambers, she is said to be loving, warm, and protective of her partners.
Backstory
Little is known about Treechur’s history, and she doesn’t seem inclined to talk about her past.