Elric Aldaraan

You may have noticed an increasing number of blog posts as of late about a character named Elric and his companions. Chances are if you know me and are reading these posts you already know this, but Elric is the name of my character in the Dungeons and Dragons campaign which I am playing in. The posts about him and his partners are all either retellings of events that have happened in the campaign, or me attempting to establish backstory for Elric. It's not all one hundred percent accurate to what happens in the games - partially because I don't have a perfect memory - but I find them to be a good source of inspiration for writing, and I find doing the writing helps me to explore Elric and really get in his head.

It probably helps that I enjoy the character. I find that I enjoy characters that don't necessarily know a whole lot, and thanks to Elric's many years in the monastery, he really doesn't know much about the real world - or at least what he considers to be the real world. It will be determined which he prefers eventually. It's kinda funny, he spent so long living in an idealistic and religious society that he really dislikes those kinds of things, but he is very idealistic himself. He believes that everyone deserves the choice of what to do with their lives, as long as they are not stopping or hurting others in the process. Eventually he'll see how difficult that can be to maintain. We'll see how he reacts to that.

The hardest part, though, is separating him from me when we're actually playing. There are definitely ways in which I would react to situations that are not the same as Elric would, and in the heat of the moment, it can be hard to differentiate. Moments like that have already happened - having Elric steal back some money that the party was made to pay, for instance. But I also can take those as an opportunity to explore his character. He had a purpose for stealing it, after all - he believed that his partner had been swindled and taken advantage of, and that went against his beliefs. It's not something he would do often, but if any of his friends are being swindled...

Stuff like that that makes an interesting character. And potential future events, as well. Stuff like - what if his ideals made him go against the party? What if, for one reason or another, he believed that the enemy was the one who was truly fighting for the freedom of choice? To me, in my mind, Elric would turn away from his companions if that were the case. Not because he doesn't care for them, but he believes in choice above all. It's an interesting dynamic to consider, and I hope I get the chance to explore it further.