Pluviosa - Application

[chainedcerberus]

OOC Information
Name/handle: Ollie
Discord contact: snakesnakewhale
Other contact: N/A
Pronouns: they/them
Permissions link: Here
Other characters played: N/A
Do you have a reserve for this character?: I did but it expired a few days ago, whoops

IC Information
Canon: Genshin Impact
Character: Wriothesley
Canon point: Chapter 4, Act 3
Canon intensity: Medium intensity, fantasy action/violence, occasional fantasy horror, mentions of dark subject matter such as child trafficking and murder but no explicit details
World information: Teyvat is a fantasy world where the gods walk among mortals, there are monsters roaming pretty much everywhere, and certain humans are given ‘Visions’ that allow them to control elemental power.

Teyvat is divided into seven nations, each ruled by an god called an Archon that has control over one of the seven elements (Anemo [air], Geo [earth], Electro [electricity], Dendro [plants], Hydro [water], and Cryo [ice]). Although their specific element pervades each of the countries in various ways, the elements are not exclusive to their own nation - every nation has Vision wielders of various elements and monsters who wield them too.

Over the seven nations flies Celestia, the fabled realm of the gods that Vision wielders can perhaps ascend to someday, though no one is certain what that means. Celestia’s primary role seems to have been creating humans and granting power to the Archons and then occasionally punishing them when they got too rowdy.

The technology levels vary widely between countries, from more traditional medieval/renaissance fantasy in Mondstadt, Liyue, and Inazuma to solarpunk in Sumeru and steampunk in Fontaine where the relatively advanced technology (including robots, guns, and airships) primarily runs on a power source known as ‘pneumousia’ which appears to be connected to the element of Hydro in some way. Do not ask me to explain this, I do not know how it works.

The primary antagonistic factions in Teyvat are the Abyss Order and the Fatui. The Abyss Order consists of monsters from the Abyss, one of those fun alternate dimensions where time and space are messed up and it’s full of dark energy. The Abyss Order seeks to destroy humanity. The Fatui are the operatives of Snezhnaya, the nation of Cryo. They are headed by the Harbingers, individuals who have been granted great power by the Archon of Snezhnaya, the Tsaritsa. There are known to be at least eleven Harbingers, ranked in order of their power. Their goals are unclear but they seem to be intent on gathering the Gnoses, the tokens of each Archon’s power given by Celestia to fight against Celestia in some way.

Character biofacts: Wriothesley is a Fontainean human man somewhere between 35 and 45. He is between 6’2” and 6’4” and is very athletic. He has pale skin with many visible scars. His hair is black with grey streaks and his eyes are extremely pale blue.
About the character: Wriothesley hails from the Court of Fontaine, where he and other orphaned children were raised in a loving foster home. Their foster parents were ostensibly kind and generous, making the home a happy place for their children, who were adopted out to other families when they reached a certain age. With so many children in the family, they didn’t need to look outside for friends, and they were not encouraged to socialize much. It wasn’t difficult to encourage suspicion of outsiders - after all, most of the children came from unhappy backgrounds. But they didn’t need anyone else, only each other and their parents, who loved them all so much.

At least, that was what Wriothesley believed until he was a teenager, at which point he discovered that they were hiding the truth: the children who were ‘adopted’ were in fact sold to the highest bidder, and those who fought against it or found out the truth were disposed of.

Not wanting to meet the same fate but not trusting the authorities of Fontaine enough to report his parents’ crimes, Wriothesley fled and lived on the streets for a time, learning basic tinkering and lockpicking, among other skills from doing odd jobs and apprenticeships. He gained a respect and love for Melusines at this time - they were kind to him, feeding him when there was nothing else to eat.

Eventually, Wriothesley returned to his ‘home’ and fought his parents, managing to kill them both despite sustaining serious wounds and expecting - or hoping - to die himself. He woke up shackled to a hospital bed and after a significant recovery period, he faced trial for the murders. By that time he felt the weight of taking two lives and quickly pled guilty, though in the course of the trial the crimes of his “parents” were revealed. Although it was clear his own crimes weren’t unjustified, under the law he was still sentenced to exile in the Fortress of Meropide.

Wriothesley took the opportunity to start a new life - when he woke up after the murders, he gave the authorities his chosen name, ‘Wriothesley’, and on his prison paperwork he put the day of his imprisonment as his birthday. He left everything about his old life behind and never attempted to contact any of the children who had been his erstwhile foster siblings.

His imprisonment also saw him get his Vision, which he promptly hid on the advice of the clerk registering him in Meropide. A Vision was a valuable object and as a child among the prisoners he could expect to have it stolen unless he hid it away. He sewed it into his clothes and never even attempted to use it for many years.

Growing up in the Fortress of Meropide can’t have been easy, but Wriothesley rarely discusses the details. Honestly, it’s astonishing that he is as well-adjusted as he appears to be - while Meropide isn’t such a bad place to be in the current timeline, under its previous administrator it was a far less regulated place. Those with credit coupons (the fortress currency) and connections could get anything they wanted, while those without were barely able to purchase food and water and were constantly overworked in the fortress factories.

Although Wriothesley was young when he arrived at the fortress, he could see that the way it was run wasn’t right. He could - and did - adjust to the environment as it was, but he also formed his own plans to improve things. He became a regular in the fighting rings using his technological gauntlets, which he was constantly upgrading and improving, even learning mechanics and engineering from disgraced researchers of the Fontaine Research Institute that were imprisoned in Meropide.

Wriothesley earned many credit coupons in the ring, which he invested into other sources of income. It turned out that he had a real knack for business and between that and his ability to observe and connect with other people, he quickly built up the largest credit account in the prison - more than the rest of the Fortress’s population combined - and had a good reputation among the prisoners. He cultivated a friendly personality, easygoing and quick with a joke, with enough steel inside to command respect as well.

Wriothesley’s growing influence attracted the attention of Meropide’s then-administrator, who pre-emptively struck against him by draining his credit coupon account. Wriothesley had been expecting something like this, and he didn’t take it lying down. Although he probably could have started a riot, instead he spread the word of what had happened to him and how it could happen to anyone else, rich or poor, influential or weak. And when he had persuaded the prison to his side, he publicly challenged the Fortress administrator to a duel in the ring.

Normally there would have been no reason for the administrator to accept such a match, but with so many witnesses and no one speaking up on his behalf - not even the staff or the guards - he felt forced to accept. Unsurprisingly, he disappeared in the night, leaving the prison without a warden and Wriothesley without anyone to sign his release papers - because, ironically, the day the duel had been supposed to take place was the day of Wriothesley’s release.

And with that, Wriothesley simply walked into the administrator’s office and sat down behind the desk, claiming the role and initiating a new era in the history of Meropide.

Wriothesley’s philosophy of administration was considerably more enlightened than the previous administrator. As far as he could tell, most of the inmates wanted nothing more than a calm place to work out their sentences and he aimed to provide that, cracking down on the trade of illegal substances and violence, improving relations between the prisoners and guards and working to ensure less corruption among said guards, and sorting out the Fortress’s manufacturing of Meka and arkhium (an energy source used by the Fontaine Research Institute up until its abrupt transformation into a floating tourist attraction). His primary goal was to make a place that was not ruled by fear but rather by reason and even, to some degree, mercy. He knew all too well what being powerless and under the thumb of cruel people felt like.

Of course, Meropide was still a prison. All sorts of people committed crimes and earned themselves a stay under the sea, which meant that some of the inhabitants of Meropide were not cooperative with Wriothesley’s philosophy. While he would make every effort to resolve the disruptive elements in other ways… sometimes there was no other way than disposing of the troublemakers, a task he would take care of personally. This was not something he would delegate to a guard. He didn’t want anyone else to have to bear that burden - and if they wouldn’t find it a burden, all the more reason not to give them an excuse.

Becoming the administrator of the Fortress meant official recognition from the government of Fontaine. It was customary for the administrator to have an honorary title, and so Wriothesley became Duke of Meropide. He worked fairly closely with the Palais Mermonia and Iudex Neuvillette, becoming well-acquainted with the judge. They never discussed the fact that Neuvillette had been the one to sentence him to Meropide all those years ago. Wriothesley always preferred to move forward rather than linger on the past.

When the waters in Fontaine began to rise and a prophecy about the waters dissolving the people of Fontaine to cleanse their original sin and the Hydro Archon being left weeping on her throne began to circulate, Wriothesley knew that preparations had to be made. He did not want people to live in fear for any reason, and that meant that he had to find a solution that would keep people out of danger.

Wriothesley recruited some of the prison inmates who had once been scholars at the Fontaine Research Institute and began to work in secret on a great ship. They did this in what was known as the “Forbidden Zone” - a section of the Fortress hidden by a secret passage in Wriothesley’s office. Not only did it have an area he could use as a drydock, on an even more secret level it had a strange room filled with monitoring equipment, all centred around the sluice gate set into the floor.

For a long time, the gauge on the sluice gate remained stable. However, as the water around Fontaine began to rise, the gauge’s needle began to move, slowly indicating an increase in pressure, though Wriothesley didn’t know what lay under the gate, since he lacked information about the Primordial Sea.

The sentencing of a Fatui Harbinger to imprisonment in the Fortress of Meropide signalled the beginning of a series of events that would bring Wriothesley the answers he was so curious about. The Harbinger Tartaglia (aka Childe) was not actually a difficult prisoner - he didn’t attempt to stir up trouble, though he did try to get Wriothesley to fight with him. He worked hard (perhaps too hard) and acquired a small and devout following.

And then he disappeared. Although he wasn’t surprised - the prison hadn’t been designed to hold Harbingers and it was known that Tartaglia had a Hydro vision (though it hadn’t been seen during his stay) and they were underwater - Wriothesley did put some effort into searching for him, as well as dealing with the Fatui spies who had been inserted into Meropide to keep an eye on Childe. The Fourth Harbinger, Arlecchino, sent a group of younger operatives from the House of the Hearth (Lyney, Lynette, and Freminet) into Meropide to accomplish her goals, which Wriothesley wasn’t pleased about. He kept an eye on them, soon realizing that they were more interested in accessing the Forbidden Zone than in locating Childe.

Shortly after the arrival of the House of the Hearth group, Neuvillette sent the Traveller and their companion Paimon to Meropide under false charges to investigate Tartaglia’s disappearance so that Neuvillette could provide a diplomatic report to Arlecchino, who had demanded proof of Childe’s wellbeing as a move to gain leverage on the Fontaine government. Wriothesley welcomed the Traveller and Paimon to the Fortress and treated them in a friendly way because they were sent by Neuvillette. He had no intentions of interfering in their investigation, though he was still keeping an eye on their friends the Fatui agents. Ever pragmatic, it occurred to him that if Arlecchino was interested in the prophecy crisis, she might be a helpful ally. He just had to find a way to get her to come to Meropide…

Abilities: Wriothesley has a Cryo Vision which allows him to manipulate the power of ice. He primarily uses it to enhance his boxing skills, which are impressive. He normally deals a fair amount of ice damage but can supplement that with his own life force, putting himself on the line to force his opponent into a vulnerable position where he can steal their health with a strong uppercut. He is also able to shoot shards of ice and freeze fairly large objects solid.

He is also pretty good with numbers and finances and is definitely the guy you want doing your taxes. If that’s ever relevant. He also created and upgrades his own magitech gauntlet and has a working knowledge of engineering and mechanics.
Noteworthy items: Fontainian Ousia-aligned Cryo vision, magitech gauntlet that empowers punching, cool outfit
Mixed gender room ok?: Yes
Player content notes/squicks: N/A
Anything else: I am very sorry for the word count
Voice samples: ice ice baby