OOC: Tower of the Queen Application
May. 6th, 2013 09:14 pmPlayer Name: Tori
Player Journal:![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tori_angeli
OOC Contact info: mtangeli on AIM
Other Characters Currently in the Tower: N/A
Character Canon: The Vorkosigan Saga
Character Journal:vor
Who are they? The Emperor
What is their Name? Gregor Vorbarra
What is their Quest? To figure himself out, basically.
What is their favorite color? Dark blue.
What is their personality?
Gregor is an interesting study in the effects of both nature and nurture on a person’s development. He has, for example, much of his mother’s disposition and temperament. There can be little doubt that he’s a depressive, possibly depressed, man, both from his upbringing and from his family tendency toward mental illness on his father’s side. Many of his mannerisms, figures of speech, and what I like to call “Emperor Therapist” ways, however, come directly from his foster-parents. Lord and Lady Vorkosigan were his legal guardians since Princess Kareen’s death, and Miles Vorkosigan periodically comments on gestures Gregor “inherited” from Lady Vorkosigan in particular. Gregor’s catch phrase, “Let’s see what happens,” is one he picked up from her.
Gregor is a personally warm, unobtrusive person easily overlooked when he wants to be. There’s no inextricable Imperial Presence, no conditioned grandeur, to distinguish him. Still, Gregor is often described as assuming casual positions in casual company. He slumps (“compressed by the minute-by-minute box of his schedule,” notes the narrative), slings a leg over a chair arm, sits on the edge of a desk swinging one leg, you get the idea. He doesn’t buy into any sense of inborn regality, or the shiny splendor of his life (or the throne meant to receive the “Imperial ass,” as he puts it). He’s very self-contained, and his expressions are subtle—a Vorish trait very much seen in his mother, not found at all in his father. It’s not just the Vorish upbringing, though. Even Gregor’s Vor cousins remark on Gregor’s subtle expressions.
Miles, having grown up with his Emperor, can dispel a few misunderstandings many people have about him. Gregor often comes across as strict. Miles says it may look that way, but really, he’s just glum, not strict, that Gregor would be shy, but isn’t allowed. He’s not joking.
Even as a child, Gregor was very quiet. He spoke seldom and when he did, he stuck to the point. He has never been prone to long ramblings, but rather internal conflict and speculation, something those closest to him can sometimes read in him when he looks thoughtful. This quietude shouldn’t be mistaken for stiffness. Gregor has a gift for stating things very succinctly while still being diplomatic.
His depressive tendencies are evident, although it’s very possible those tendencies wouldn’t have become so full-blown if his life had been less tragic. In just over a year, little Gregor had lit funeral offerings for both parents and his grandfather, then spent his life under security so strict that Cordelia had to argue with the head of the Imperial guard just to let the kid spend fifteen minutes at a wedding party held in his own home. Miles periodically assigns nicknames, in his own head, such as Glum Gregor or Gregor the Lugubrious. Someone else describes him as “neurasthenic.” This gloomy temperament doesn’t seem to be the result of low self-esteem so much as a lack of self-identity and personal freedom and very possibly nature as well, considering his family history of mental illness. Gregor’s entire story at this moment is a result of his search for who he might be on his own merit, without having his life built for him (“I think I could be replaced at half my functions by a life-sized plastic model, and no one would notice”). Self-esteem might be the improper word anyway. Personal honor is a closer concern. Gregor isn’t devoid of pride, after all—in stressful moments, he might even use the word "peasants." Otherwise, he’s quite egalitarian. Still, in a moment of stress, it pops out, tellingly revealing that it’s impossible to be raised an Emperor and not have it stick to you.
There is a streak of an odd naivety in him—not in a sense that he doesn’t know about all the awful things in the universe, but that he’s never personally experienced many of them. Despite being commander-in-chief of his own army, he’s never seen real combat.
Gregor is intelligent to the point of being wily. He draws the line at military strategy—Miles always beat him at those games—but he’s a master of diplomatic thinking. He's perfectly capable of talking himself out of a hostage situation even as the hostage, because he is willing to become whatever he needs to become. He has been taught that his very identity is whatever the Imperium needs it to be.
Hand-in-hand with his natural intelligence is his uncanny ability to work with people. He is able to put professional paranoids at ease enough to open up. He is very good on his foreign diplomatic efforts. Gregor gets this ability partly from his foster-mother, whose understanding of the people around her makes her a better psychotherapist than a lot of psychotherapists. Flattery sends him straight up a wall, so they don't often say it, but his advisors see great promise in him.
Gregor is a young man with many self-doubts, most of them revolving around his genetics. “Try it alone in bed at midnight, wondering when your genes are going to start generating monsters in your mind. Like Great Uncle Mad Yuri. Or Prince Serg.” Gregor’s shattered illusions about a man he doesn’t really remember aren’t at all the point, and don’t seem to upset him. “I’m afraid I might enjoy it. The hurting. Like him.” No one who knows him is convinced by this, but it plagues him constantly.
Gregor’s paranoia about his bloodline will not get better with time. Too afraid to marry a Vor lady and further compound the inbreeding, he frustrates his entire court with his refusal of every potential bride. It has affected even his taste in women, and he prefers petite, curvy blondes to tall, willowy brunettes like the Vor ladies. The attempts to find him a wife among Vor women are met with as much indifference as if Gregor wasn’t attracted to women at all, to the point where some suggest his social handlers start trying men. Gregor never explains things in order to make things easier on them all—they eventually will have to figure out on their own that he will never fall in love with a Vor woman.
Gregor is not a naturally selfish person. His recent actions are an exception, not the rule. Gregor allows himself few things that make him happy, having been raised to believe the Imperium is greater than its Emperor. He is a slave to it. But even his ill-advised attempt to run away is met with horror even by himself, as he knows it’s a bad idea even before the hangover sets in. Even then, he revels in the fantasy of being something else. With moments like this, it’s hard to blame him for his desire to have something for himself, or for his impulsive escape. He’s someone without a life of his own, who feels very keenly the enforced sacrifice of his own self for the sake of his entire society. He can’t change anything, and he can’t resent those who brought him up to be a good Emperor, but his longing, his hunger for his own identity is there throughout his entire life. Maybe one day he will make the role of Emperor into his own.
What are they? Emperor of Krieva.
What are their powers? Class Infinity Diplomatic Immunity, Impassive Face of Doom, Tranquil Fury, Signing of Execution Papers, Word of Power Against Chaos Gods, Thorough Self-Defense Training, The Talking of Sense Into (Almost) Anyone, Cream Cake Consumption
What are their flaws, their fears? Crappy inbred genetics, fear of going batshit crazy, really not very assertive at all but getting slightly better about that, fear of losing more people he loves, fear of causing the deaths of the people he loves, being kidnapped, being assassinated, being disappointing, extremely kidnappable, clinically depressed
What makes them weak? Daddy Issues, Mommy Issues, Orphan Issues, depressed as hell, insecure as hell, all his friends either serve him or want to kill him
What is their history?
To make things a little easier for the uninitiated, the Vor of the country Krieva are a military caste serving essentially as a feudal aristocracy. Krieva's government is feudal, more or less, with no written constitution and one very powerful Emperor uniting all the various Counties.
Gregor was born to Prince Serg and Princess Kareen Vorbarra. At the time, his grandfather Ezar was Emperor. There is little to say about Gregor’s childhood until the death of his father in a foreign conflict, a war secretly engineered by Ezar solely to place his own son among the casualties. Serg, like much of the family, was a product of generations of Vor inbreeding, but worse than usual. He was a psychopathic and sadistic monster even the rest of his screwed-up family was relieved to be rid of, lest he inherit the throne (in which case he might have been worse than the infamous Mad Emperor Yuri, who attempted to slaughter all his cousins to preserve his reign). Old Ezar passed away in his sleep, establishing Lord Aral Vorkosigan as his regent until Gregor should come of age. Shortly after came the War of Vordarian’s Pretendership, during which Gregor survived his first-ever assassination attempt. He went into hiding under the protection of Lord Aral and Lady Cordelia Vorkosigan. His mother, Princess Kareen, was told he was dead, and quietly submitted to allowing Vordarian’s usurpation not only of her son’s future power but of herself. Only when Cordelia presented Kareen with one of Gregor’s shoes as proof that he was alive did Kareen resist, and in doing so, died attempting to assassinate the man who tried to kill her son. Cordelia herself ordered the beheading of the Pretender, clearing the way for Gregor’s inheritance.
He was five years old.
There being questionable wisdom in granting the reign over an entire country to small child, Aral Vorkosigan continued as Regent throughout Gregor’s childhood. Moreover, he and Cordelia raised Gregor alongside their own son, Miles. Aral groomed him to be a wise Emperor. Cordelia groomed him to be a good man, and hopefully a happy one as well. Still, they couldn’t do anything about the intense security following the child Emperor around everywhere, watching his every move, crouched in anticipation of attempts to dispose of the last Vorbarra. He grew up hearing of his parents only as near-mythical figures, his father Barrayar’s greatest hero, his mother a martyr. No one spoke a word to him of Serg’s disastrous and violent mental illnesses that caused his own father to plot his death.
He grew up a preternaturally quiet and melancholy child. His playmates (Miles, his distant cousin Ivan Vorpatril, and Elena Bothari) were all at least five years younger than he, and Miles later recalled him tolerating the play he had outgrown simply because there wasn’t anything else to do. He was, nevertheless, very close to his foster parents and foster brother.
He, unlike the vast majority of the Vor, never had real military experience, and this made him feel like a very unqualified commander-in-chief. When he reached the age of twenty, the Regency was cast aside and Gregor became Emperor of Krieva in deed as well as in name. Aral Vorkosigan remained as his Prime Minister, one of the few men in all the world he could trust.
Three years passed, Gregor performing the motions of attending social functions, signing things, kissing babies, etc., but never feeling like anything more than a mascot. It was enough to drive a young man already prone to melancholy into depression. What really did the trick, however, was finally learning the truth about his father. This revelation was entirely unauthorized, of course, out of the control of Aral Vorkosigan and his Council, so no one could control Gregor’s response. He was attending a diplomatic function in Nefreldia. The night he found out, he got himself very drunk and stood on the balcony of the house he stayed in, pondering the history of madness in his family and spurred to terror over if and when such a madness would manifest in himself, and if not in himself, in his children. Self-doubts about his own interest in torture (a grotesque fascination which has nothing to do with actual sadistic inclination, as Gregor historically reacted very badly even to hunting, especially when he half-missed and had to chase down some wounded beast) and far too much alcohol inspired him to tip himself over the edge of the balcony. At the last instant, he caught himself.
Then, he realized he could climb down more easily than up. For the first time in perhaps his entire life, no one was around. His guards were nowhere to be seen. He climbed down to the ground and began to walk. He hasn't stopped walking since, except to sleep.
How does this interact with the wild magic whirling around the Valley? Krieva is pretty far away and hasn't been touched too much by the excess magic. At best, it's a far-off rumor.
How did they end up in the Valley? Gregor might have had a drunk freakout and run away from a diplomatic retreat. Running across the Valley was complete happenstance after he lost his way.
Are they a member of the Collection, The Loyal, The Nobility, or the Lost? Collection
Who are they loyal to? (On the surface or secretly or both) His own country because...yeah. No choice.
Link to test drive thread or other thread with this character as a sample, please: In which silly and pathetic things are afoot
Additional Comments:
Player Journal:
tori_angeliOOC Contact info: mtangeli on AIM
Other Characters Currently in the Tower: N/A
Character Canon: The Vorkosigan Saga
Character Journal:
vorWho are they? The Emperor
What is their Name? Gregor Vorbarra
What is their Quest? To figure himself out, basically.
What is their favorite color? Dark blue.
What is their personality?
Gregor is an interesting study in the effects of both nature and nurture on a person’s development. He has, for example, much of his mother’s disposition and temperament. There can be little doubt that he’s a depressive, possibly depressed, man, both from his upbringing and from his family tendency toward mental illness on his father’s side. Many of his mannerisms, figures of speech, and what I like to call “Emperor Therapist” ways, however, come directly from his foster-parents. Lord and Lady Vorkosigan were his legal guardians since Princess Kareen’s death, and Miles Vorkosigan periodically comments on gestures Gregor “inherited” from Lady Vorkosigan in particular. Gregor’s catch phrase, “Let’s see what happens,” is one he picked up from her.
Gregor is a personally warm, unobtrusive person easily overlooked when he wants to be. There’s no inextricable Imperial Presence, no conditioned grandeur, to distinguish him. Still, Gregor is often described as assuming casual positions in casual company. He slumps (“compressed by the minute-by-minute box of his schedule,” notes the narrative), slings a leg over a chair arm, sits on the edge of a desk swinging one leg, you get the idea. He doesn’t buy into any sense of inborn regality, or the shiny splendor of his life (or the throne meant to receive the “Imperial ass,” as he puts it). He’s very self-contained, and his expressions are subtle—a Vorish trait very much seen in his mother, not found at all in his father. It’s not just the Vorish upbringing, though. Even Gregor’s Vor cousins remark on Gregor’s subtle expressions.
Miles, having grown up with his Emperor, can dispel a few misunderstandings many people have about him. Gregor often comes across as strict. Miles says it may look that way, but really, he’s just glum, not strict, that Gregor would be shy, but isn’t allowed. He’s not joking.
Even as a child, Gregor was very quiet. He spoke seldom and when he did, he stuck to the point. He has never been prone to long ramblings, but rather internal conflict and speculation, something those closest to him can sometimes read in him when he looks thoughtful. This quietude shouldn’t be mistaken for stiffness. Gregor has a gift for stating things very succinctly while still being diplomatic.
His depressive tendencies are evident, although it’s very possible those tendencies wouldn’t have become so full-blown if his life had been less tragic. In just over a year, little Gregor had lit funeral offerings for both parents and his grandfather, then spent his life under security so strict that Cordelia had to argue with the head of the Imperial guard just to let the kid spend fifteen minutes at a wedding party held in his own home. Miles periodically assigns nicknames, in his own head, such as Glum Gregor or Gregor the Lugubrious. Someone else describes him as “neurasthenic.” This gloomy temperament doesn’t seem to be the result of low self-esteem so much as a lack of self-identity and personal freedom and very possibly nature as well, considering his family history of mental illness. Gregor’s entire story at this moment is a result of his search for who he might be on his own merit, without having his life built for him (“I think I could be replaced at half my functions by a life-sized plastic model, and no one would notice”). Self-esteem might be the improper word anyway. Personal honor is a closer concern. Gregor isn’t devoid of pride, after all—in stressful moments, he might even use the word "peasants." Otherwise, he’s quite egalitarian. Still, in a moment of stress, it pops out, tellingly revealing that it’s impossible to be raised an Emperor and not have it stick to you.
There is a streak of an odd naivety in him—not in a sense that he doesn’t know about all the awful things in the universe, but that he’s never personally experienced many of them. Despite being commander-in-chief of his own army, he’s never seen real combat.
Gregor is intelligent to the point of being wily. He draws the line at military strategy—Miles always beat him at those games—but he’s a master of diplomatic thinking. He's perfectly capable of talking himself out of a hostage situation even as the hostage, because he is willing to become whatever he needs to become. He has been taught that his very identity is whatever the Imperium needs it to be.
Hand-in-hand with his natural intelligence is his uncanny ability to work with people. He is able to put professional paranoids at ease enough to open up. He is very good on his foreign diplomatic efforts. Gregor gets this ability partly from his foster-mother, whose understanding of the people around her makes her a better psychotherapist than a lot of psychotherapists. Flattery sends him straight up a wall, so they don't often say it, but his advisors see great promise in him.
Gregor is a young man with many self-doubts, most of them revolving around his genetics. “Try it alone in bed at midnight, wondering when your genes are going to start generating monsters in your mind. Like Great Uncle Mad Yuri. Or Prince Serg.” Gregor’s shattered illusions about a man he doesn’t really remember aren’t at all the point, and don’t seem to upset him. “I’m afraid I might enjoy it. The hurting. Like him.” No one who knows him is convinced by this, but it plagues him constantly.
Gregor’s paranoia about his bloodline will not get better with time. Too afraid to marry a Vor lady and further compound the inbreeding, he frustrates his entire court with his refusal of every potential bride. It has affected even his taste in women, and he prefers petite, curvy blondes to tall, willowy brunettes like the Vor ladies. The attempts to find him a wife among Vor women are met with as much indifference as if Gregor wasn’t attracted to women at all, to the point where some suggest his social handlers start trying men. Gregor never explains things in order to make things easier on them all—they eventually will have to figure out on their own that he will never fall in love with a Vor woman.
Gregor is not a naturally selfish person. His recent actions are an exception, not the rule. Gregor allows himself few things that make him happy, having been raised to believe the Imperium is greater than its Emperor. He is a slave to it. But even his ill-advised attempt to run away is met with horror even by himself, as he knows it’s a bad idea even before the hangover sets in. Even then, he revels in the fantasy of being something else. With moments like this, it’s hard to blame him for his desire to have something for himself, or for his impulsive escape. He’s someone without a life of his own, who feels very keenly the enforced sacrifice of his own self for the sake of his entire society. He can’t change anything, and he can’t resent those who brought him up to be a good Emperor, but his longing, his hunger for his own identity is there throughout his entire life. Maybe one day he will make the role of Emperor into his own.
What are they? Emperor of Krieva.
What are their powers? Class Infinity Diplomatic Immunity, Impassive Face of Doom, Tranquil Fury, Signing of Execution Papers, Word of Power Against Chaos Gods, Thorough Self-Defense Training, The Talking of Sense Into (Almost) Anyone, Cream Cake Consumption
What are their flaws, their fears? Crappy inbred genetics, fear of going batshit crazy, really not very assertive at all but getting slightly better about that, fear of losing more people he loves, fear of causing the deaths of the people he loves, being kidnapped, being assassinated, being disappointing, extremely kidnappable, clinically depressed
What makes them weak? Daddy Issues, Mommy Issues, Orphan Issues, depressed as hell, insecure as hell, all his friends either serve him or want to kill him
What is their history?
To make things a little easier for the uninitiated, the Vor of the country Krieva are a military caste serving essentially as a feudal aristocracy. Krieva's government is feudal, more or less, with no written constitution and one very powerful Emperor uniting all the various Counties.
Gregor was born to Prince Serg and Princess Kareen Vorbarra. At the time, his grandfather Ezar was Emperor. There is little to say about Gregor’s childhood until the death of his father in a foreign conflict, a war secretly engineered by Ezar solely to place his own son among the casualties. Serg, like much of the family, was a product of generations of Vor inbreeding, but worse than usual. He was a psychopathic and sadistic monster even the rest of his screwed-up family was relieved to be rid of, lest he inherit the throne (in which case he might have been worse than the infamous Mad Emperor Yuri, who attempted to slaughter all his cousins to preserve his reign). Old Ezar passed away in his sleep, establishing Lord Aral Vorkosigan as his regent until Gregor should come of age. Shortly after came the War of Vordarian’s Pretendership, during which Gregor survived his first-ever assassination attempt. He went into hiding under the protection of Lord Aral and Lady Cordelia Vorkosigan. His mother, Princess Kareen, was told he was dead, and quietly submitted to allowing Vordarian’s usurpation not only of her son’s future power but of herself. Only when Cordelia presented Kareen with one of Gregor’s shoes as proof that he was alive did Kareen resist, and in doing so, died attempting to assassinate the man who tried to kill her son. Cordelia herself ordered the beheading of the Pretender, clearing the way for Gregor’s inheritance.
He was five years old.
There being questionable wisdom in granting the reign over an entire country to small child, Aral Vorkosigan continued as Regent throughout Gregor’s childhood. Moreover, he and Cordelia raised Gregor alongside their own son, Miles. Aral groomed him to be a wise Emperor. Cordelia groomed him to be a good man, and hopefully a happy one as well. Still, they couldn’t do anything about the intense security following the child Emperor around everywhere, watching his every move, crouched in anticipation of attempts to dispose of the last Vorbarra. He grew up hearing of his parents only as near-mythical figures, his father Barrayar’s greatest hero, his mother a martyr. No one spoke a word to him of Serg’s disastrous and violent mental illnesses that caused his own father to plot his death.
He grew up a preternaturally quiet and melancholy child. His playmates (Miles, his distant cousin Ivan Vorpatril, and Elena Bothari) were all at least five years younger than he, and Miles later recalled him tolerating the play he had outgrown simply because there wasn’t anything else to do. He was, nevertheless, very close to his foster parents and foster brother.
He, unlike the vast majority of the Vor, never had real military experience, and this made him feel like a very unqualified commander-in-chief. When he reached the age of twenty, the Regency was cast aside and Gregor became Emperor of Krieva in deed as well as in name. Aral Vorkosigan remained as his Prime Minister, one of the few men in all the world he could trust.
Three years passed, Gregor performing the motions of attending social functions, signing things, kissing babies, etc., but never feeling like anything more than a mascot. It was enough to drive a young man already prone to melancholy into depression. What really did the trick, however, was finally learning the truth about his father. This revelation was entirely unauthorized, of course, out of the control of Aral Vorkosigan and his Council, so no one could control Gregor’s response. He was attending a diplomatic function in Nefreldia. The night he found out, he got himself very drunk and stood on the balcony of the house he stayed in, pondering the history of madness in his family and spurred to terror over if and when such a madness would manifest in himself, and if not in himself, in his children. Self-doubts about his own interest in torture (a grotesque fascination which has nothing to do with actual sadistic inclination, as Gregor historically reacted very badly even to hunting, especially when he half-missed and had to chase down some wounded beast) and far too much alcohol inspired him to tip himself over the edge of the balcony. At the last instant, he caught himself.
Then, he realized he could climb down more easily than up. For the first time in perhaps his entire life, no one was around. His guards were nowhere to be seen. He climbed down to the ground and began to walk. He hasn't stopped walking since, except to sleep.
How does this interact with the wild magic whirling around the Valley? Krieva is pretty far away and hasn't been touched too much by the excess magic. At best, it's a far-off rumor.
How did they end up in the Valley? Gregor might have had a drunk freakout and run away from a diplomatic retreat. Running across the Valley was complete happenstance after he lost his way.
Are they a member of the Collection, The Loyal, The Nobility, or the Lost? Collection
Who are they loyal to? (On the surface or secretly or both) His own country because...yeah. No choice.
Link to test drive thread or other thread with this character as a sample, please: In which silly and pathetic things are afoot
Additional Comments:
