Path To Grandmastery - Imogen Ward
Please note: Imogen is currently participating in the Western Tower thread, and as per the note in this thread application, this application should probably be held pending that thread's outcome in case she dies or is eaten by cosmic wildebeests therein. I previously received a note from Aegis at the end of this thread which endorses this particular skill for Grandmastery for Imogen, but I thought it best to submit a full application in order to serve as a long-form explanation of what I have in mind and why.
Is this a skill that defines the character? Is it something you can imagine them without?
- Imogen has sought to join the Sunsingers since birth; much of her pre-play history was defined by that singular goal, and her first appearances are flashbacks seeking acceptance to the Coven (The Student of Impulse / It Forced Her Along / Her Conduct Still Right) and her successful initiation into the Rune of Reaving (With Her Argument Wrong / Still Aiming At Honor). Admittedly, she hasn't been a great credit to the Sunsingers since then, but they remain one of the largest factors tying her to Karnor.
- History aside, Imogen is an enthusiast and connoisseur of many kinds of swordsmanship and cultural approaches to Reaving, and while she clearly likes magic like Animus or Traversion, she incorporates Reaving specifically into her philosophy, her understanding of the metaphysics of the world, and it is the only magic where she actively gets judgy about practitioners who are, in her view, "doing it wrong." (e.g. - Hope's Legacy / Think Of These Thoughts As Limitless Light / The Orkhan Patient). She also gets like this about cleaning, which made her a horrible coworker, but I'll think about Grandmaster Janitor later.
How often do they use the skill?
- Most threads in which Imogen appears feature some use of Reaving. It is certainly her favored approach to violent conflict resolution exercises (ex: Unelected Lizard King / Wrae'Vexenari), but she has also used Pact Weapons simply for light (Part Of You Wants To Believe Me), in a failed attempt at crab-fishing (A Boy Named Mr. Me), as a perch for conversation (Breaking The Surface), or as a focus for other magics entirely (Animal Magnetism). It is her first and last resort for combat, and in fact many of her quirks in other magics are designed entirely to either augment Reaving or incorporate Reaving techniques in those magics. (e.g.: All Wills As One / All Weapons As One / All Worlds As One)
What efforts has the character put into developing their own perspective and unique approach to using the skill? What is their trademark use of it?
- A lot of Imogen's perspective on Reaving comes, obviously, from the Sunsingers- she associates the Rune heavily with the coven quirk, and the entire package very strongly with Raxen, to whom she prays very infrequently. In early years she associated the nova-fire with protection, practically hiding behind it as the symbol of her order (I Armed Myself Against Justice), then came to see it as a symbol of the duty she owed the various witches of Zaichaer (Gods Of The Theater, Smile On Us), and then to view it as her own soul (The Liar). She was humbled when she confronted a greater fire which dwarfed her (Not Strong Enough To Fail), and was haunted by nightmares and fears of her own inadequacy until she overcame those fears through meditation and soul-searching in the jungles of Southern Ecith (A Pointless Battle).
Her philosophy draws heavily on Ecithian swordsmanship, which was taught to her by her uncle, and she always viewed the Rune of Reaving as a magic which would join the sword and wielder; a power reducing the space between both and perfecting that swordsmanship. In her journey to mastery, however, Imogen came to understand this as a limiting abstraction. To imagine Reaving as making two different things into one is to misunderstand oneself and one's Pact Weapons as having been different things. In Encountering an Ork and Some Ants, she tells Norani:
"Now I have cut this rock, and I feel nothing. But my sword felt that hurt, that violence of steel upon stone. And that sword, as you now know, is my spirit. The separation between it and myself is mere artifice- a lie. When my spell is done and the sword vanishes, I will feel that hurt. As soon as I dealt those blows, it became inevitable that I would know them."
And later:
"But here is the strange thing, Norani; many of those men do survive. There is no magic which can postpone the ruin they fear, yet they survive it. How?"
"The reason is obvious, really: they already bore that pain, didn't they? Those swords weren't holding it from them, they were simply holding it within themselves. It is the same with truth. To hold someone apart from the world to keep them safe is not possible, because they are already in the world."
- In recent times, she had even this understanding of Reaving challenged by her encounter with an ancient and corrupt Palarae, who had attempted to pervert the Rune to grant a particular wish (Riddle of Steel [Pt III]). The moment which I see as pushing her beyond this understanding is in the Western Tower thread, when one of her Pact Weapons was shattered and recreated by an outside force (Into The Wild Blue), the experience of which has caused her to realize that even seeing your own soul as something distinct and apart from the rest of the world is a limiting perspective. Through Grandmastery, I intend for her to follow this line of thought further in development of a technique which draws on the existing spells Varnish and Transmute to explore the unification of sword and the world around it.
- As for more practical techniques, Imogen is a big fan of focusing the nova-fire to an intense point to more effectively break spells (Some Say The World Will End In Fire / Some Say Ice) or curses (Trial By Fire). Other than that, Imogen's approach to combat is to lead with overwhelming force, and therefore she is pretty trigger-happy about using her Arsenal (Because You've Missed The Plot / Economies Of Scale II.
Is this a skill that others immediately attribute to the character?
- I'd say so- her membership in the Sunsingers is one of the founding pillars in her relationship with Carina (Gods Of The Theater, Smile On Us) and Aurin (The Prodigal Sunsinger). It left a completely unwarranted impression on Norani, who mistook her for an ancient and powerful witch (You Have My Sword...) and was her primary tool when she fought both the fire-monkeys and crab legions with Destyn (Birdhouse In Your Soul). Hector (through Vergil) knew her by reputation for her skill at Reaving among the covens (Economies of Scale), and her approach to problem-solving via Reaving clearly left an... impression... on Laveriel (Enter The Dragon). It was also the magic she first presented to both Rickter (Whistling In The Dark) and Jae (Only One Thing That I Know How To Do Well). She's displayed the magic to most characters on this site, but I think those are the ones who would attest to her proficiency.
How have you used the skill in your writing to impact not just your own character but others?
- I think the examples above illustrate that the use and growth of Reaving have been pivotal to Imogen's life and personal philosophy in a lot of different ways. For the most part, of course, her use of the skill has mostly impacted others in terms of how effectively she's been able to murder various monsters, shadow-beasts, giant birds, mutants, zombies, ghosts and so forth; pretty effectively, though seldom without incident. However, I think the development of more sophisticated applications of Reaving I have in mind will let me broaden the application of the skill somewhat, and hopefully let me more effectively develop and expound on Imogen's philosophy.
- Specifically, as part of the grandmastery, I am hoping to have her spend some time training new students in the art of Reaving, which I think will be a useful and entertaining arc.
Please let me know if I can provide any additional information. Thanks!
