References for Empire characters

We like to play memorable characters and Stephanie asked me today to write a little with my knowledge of history and personalities and give a few ideas. We don't need to play them as such, but we can use as a reference, taking a bit of each to mould our characters with interesting personalities.

Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus

Eccentric megalomaniac given to capricious cruelty and unbelievable schemes. Although some headway can be made in disentangling truth from embellishment, the true character of the youthful emperor will forever elude us.
Godlike Behavior: In 40, Caligula began implementing very controversial policies that introduced religion into his political role. Caligula began appearing in public dressed as various gods. He implemented the rules of living Emperors to be worshipped as divine. The eccentric charisma I think Revan uses very well.

Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli


Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli (May 3, 1469 – June 21, 1527) was an Italian diplomat, political philosopher, musician, poet and playwright. Machiavelli was a figure of the Italian Renaissance, and a servant of the Florentine republic. In June of 1498, following the ouster and execution of Savonarola, the Great Council elected Machiavelli as the Secretary to the second Chancery of the Republic of Florence.

From him, is born the term Machiavellianism: the term that some social and personality psychologists use to describe a person's tendency to deceive and manipulate others for personal gain.
Also, Machiavellian intelligence: also known as political intelligence or social intelligence, is the capacity of an entity to be in a successful political engagement with social groups. "Social manoeuvring" another fitting characteristic that our Sovereign explores with elegance.

I have many more to all players too and will post here, now it's very late.

Edward Alexander Crowley

Aleister Crowley (Edward Alexander Crowley) was born 12 October in the same year as the foundation of the Theosophical Society (1875). A review in Cambridge University magazine Granta of 1904 provides some guidance on the pronunciation of the great man's name: 'Oh, Crowley, name for future fame!/(Do you pronounce it Croully?)/Whate'er the worth of this your mirth/It reads a trifle foully.'
The myth of the magus has grown to prodigious proportions in the half century or more since the old man's death. Crowley is now firmly established in the popular mind as a folk hero (or anti hero?), transmogrified to an icon on a spectrum somewhere between 'the sandman' (Clive Barker version) and 'the gringe'.
Crowley spent all of his moderately long life exploring countless dramatic astral and mundane landscapes in search of gnosis.
He was a multi role man: chess player, mountain climber, poet, painter, astrologer, hedonist, drug experimenter, and social critic.
Crowley gained much notoriety during his lifetime, and was famously dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World."

A base role that could fit well any male officer around Revan

The Count Saint Germain

In 1745, one of the most intriguing people in history visited London; a man who was said to be over two thousand years old! Some said he was in league with the Devil, others thought he was a Himalayan yogi of the highest order; all that we know is that, according to written historical references, a Count St Germain was apparently on the European scene from 1651 to 1896 - a period of 245 years.

One day in the year 1740, a mysterious man dressed in black arrived in Paris.
The gaudily-dressed fashion-conscious Parisians instantly noticed the sinister stranger, and admired the dazzling collection of diamond rings on each of his fingers. The man in Black also wore diamond-encrusted shoe-buckles, a display of wealth that obviously suggested that he was an aristocrat, yet nobody in Paris could identify him.
The man of mystery later identified himself as the Count of St. Germain, and he was quickly welcomed by the nobility into the fashionable circles of Parisian life.
In the distinguished company of writers, philosophers, scientists, freemasons and aristocrats, the Count displayed a veritable plethora of talents. He was an accomplished pianist, a gifted singer and violinist, a linguist who spoke fluent Spanish, Greek, Italian, Russian, Portugese, Chinese, Arabic, Sanskrit, English, and of courese, French. The Count of St Germain was also a fine artist, an historian, and a brilliant alchemist. He maintained that he had travelled widely, and recounted his many visits to the court of the Shah of Persia, where he had learned the closely-guarded science of improving and enlarging gemstones. The Count also hinted that he had learned many other arcane lessons of the occult.

Nice references Ludvig, keep them coming!
Do you have any sort of psychotic flamboyant style so I can add on Levian?

Marcus, you could always try the Marquis de Sad.

J.T.J wrote:

Marcus, you could always try the Marquis de Sad.

Hell yes, absolutely. And Marcus is the right player to make it good!

Revan Neferis wrote:

J.T.J wrote:

Marcus, you could always try the Marquis de Sad.

Hell yes, absolutely. And Marcus is the right player to make it good!

I must most definitely agree here.

Nira Westover wrote:

Revan Neferis wrote:

J.T.J wrote:

Marcus, you could always try the Marquis de Sad.

Hell yes, absolutely. And Marcus is the right player to make it good!

I must most definitely agree here.

Would you dare to join us in our chambre séparée / Come a little closer, oh yeah, so very enchanté

Réspondent, réspondent, réspondent s'il vous plait ...

"Well behaved women rarely make history." - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Queens
I am wondering where our female references are...surely there were a few notorious women out there.
I am not the historian, so I don't know for sure, but...what about these?
Cleopatra
Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester
Emma Goldman
Marozia
Iva Ikuko Toguri d'Aquino aka Tokyo Rose
or these female pirates: Anne Bonney, Mary Read, Grace O'Malley, Alvida, Ching Shih, Charlotte de Berry, Rachel Wall, Jane de Belleville.

Any intelligent, infamous, and of course scandalous women in those history books of yours Lud?

M Levian wrote:

Nira Westover wrote:

Revan Neferis wrote:

J.T.J wrote:

Marcus, you could always try the Marquis de Sad.

Hell yes, absolutely. And Marcus is the right player to make it good!

I must most definitely agree here.

Would you dare to join us in our chambre séparée / Come a little closer, oh yeah, so very enchanté

Réspondent, réspondent, réspondent s'il vous plait ...

Here is your response, dear sir. Of course, I would love to enjoy your company.

I'd like to have your opinions about having my character as a Seer for the Empire.

About the Seers:

The Seer

The Hebrew terms hozeh and ro’eh are both properly translated "seer." Both terms appear in contexts suggesting some parallel in function with the prophet. In II Kings 17:13 prophet and seer are together to warn Israel and Judah. In Isa. 29:10 the characteristic Hebrew poetic parallelism of members puts prophet and seer again in the same essential function:

For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes, the prophets,
and covered your heads, the seers.

If, now, we recall again the statement of I Sam. 9:9 that "he who is now called a prophet [nabi’] was formerly called a seer [ro’eh]" we must conclude that prophet and seer were understood as exercising in common the function of seeing - i.e., apprehending that which is not in the normal course accessible -- and speaking forth, proclaiming, that which is thus seen and apprehended.

The seer-prophet apprehends not necessarily that which is smooth, but emphatically that which is right. His function, prophetism, is never reception alone, but reception-articulation: To see is to prophesy!
This is not to say that ecstasy in the sense of supra normal concentration plays no role. Words have come to the prophet in ecstasy, in ecstatic concentration. The prophet’s own extended speech represents his considered application, timing. and interpretation of the Word which he hears, sees, or, involving all the senses directed totally inward, perceives. Psychologically, of course, this is the most important part of the prophetic utterance.

In the relationship between these two primary and inseparable parts of prophetic preaching the controversy over the role and nature of ecstasy is resolved. The prophet receives his words in ecstatic concentration. This is a primary form. The Word thus received is not always precisely intelligible, however, in a process of recall which requires its appropriation in the rational mode. The prophet, in consequence, feels himself called upon by means of the speech of invective to interpret and direct, to point and apply the word of judgement. This he does, in most glaring contrast with the ecstatic state of the Word’s reception, in a process of deliberation. The compact and, certainly on occasion, enigmatic divine Word is mulled over, reflected upon, wrestled with. This process, which involves the full range of the prophet’s best rational powers, becomes his prophetic work, his ministerial task, his professional exercise. It is his prophetic obligation to determine how, in what context, when and to whom, and in what way most effectively this word of judgement is to be delivered.

What do you think?

Semra Oshun wrote:

"Well behaved women rarely make history." - Laurel Thatcher Ulrich Queens
I am wondering where our female references are...surely there were a few notorious women out there.
I am not the historian, so I don't know for sure, but...what about these?
Cleopatra
Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester
Emma Goldman
Marozia
Iva Ikuko Toguri d'Aquino aka Tokyo Rose
or these female pirates: Anne Bonney, Mary Read, Grace O'Malley, Alvida, Ching Shih, Charlotte de Berry, Rachel Wall, Jane de Belleville.

Any intelligent, infamous, and of course scandalous women in those history books of yours Lud?

Many good names and infamous too Semra, I'll post about them individually.

Jadyn wrote:

I'd like to have your opinions about having my character as a Seer for the Empire.

About the Seers:

The Seer

The Hebrew terms hozeh and ro’eh are both properly translated "seer." Both terms appear in contexts suggesting some parallel in function with the prophet. In II Kings 17:13 prophet and seer are together to warn Israel and Judah. In Isa. 29:10 the characteristic Hebrew poetic parallelism of members puts prophet and seer again in the same essential function:

For the Lord has poured out upon you
a spirit of deep sleep,
and has closed your eyes, the prophets,
and covered your heads, the seers.

If, now, we recall again the statement of I Sam. 9:9 that "he who is now called a prophet [nabi’] was formerly called a seer [ro’eh]" we must conclude that prophet and seer were understood as exercising in common the function of seeing - i.e., apprehending that which is not in the normal course accessible -- and speaking forth, proclaiming, that which is thus seen and apprehended.

The seer-prophet apprehends not necessarily that which is smooth, but emphatically that which is right. His function, prophetism, is never reception alone, but reception-articulation: To see is to prophesy!
This is not to say that ecstasy in the sense of supra normal concentration plays no role. Words have come to the prophet in ecstasy, in ecstatic concentration. The prophet’s own extended speech represents his considered application, timing. and interpretation of the Word which he hears, sees, or, involving all the senses directed totally inward, perceives. Psychologically, of course, this is the most important part of the prophetic utterance.

In the relationship between these two primary and inseparable parts of prophetic preaching the controversy over the role and nature of ecstasy is resolved. The prophet receives his words in ecstatic concentration. This is a primary form. The Word thus received is not always precisely intelligible, however, in a process of recall which requires its appropriation in the rational mode. The prophet, in consequence, feels himself called upon by means of the speech of invective to interpret and direct, to point and apply the word of judgement. This he does, in most glaring contrast with the ecstatic state of the Word’s reception, in a process of deliberation. The compact and, certainly on occasion, enigmatic divine Word is mulled over, reflected upon, wrestled with. This process, which involves the full range of the prophet’s best rational powers, becomes his prophetic work, his ministerial task, his professional exercise. It is his prophetic obligation to determine how, in what context, when and to whom, and in what way most effectively this word of judgement is to be delivered.

What do you think?

My humble opinion, I think that you could explore and have more fun if you use the Celtic visions of Seers or even the approach of Chaldean priests and their occult lore and magic, the Persia Magi, or even the India Rishis.

I can't help but give you my favourite model for a character like this:




Morgan le Fay, alternatively known as Morgane, Morgain, Morgana and other variants, is a powerful sorceress and antagonist of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere in the Arthurian legend.

The early works featuring Morgan do not elaborate her character beyond her role as a fay or magician. She became much more prominent in the later cyclical prose works such as the Lancelot-Grail and the Post-Vulgate Cycle, in which she is said to be the daughter of Arthur's mother, the Lady Igraine, and her first husband, Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall; Arthur is her half brother by Igraine and Uther Pendragon. Morgan has at least two older sisters, Elaine and Morgause, the latter of whom is the mother of Gawain and the traitor Mordred. In Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur and elsewhere, she is married, unhappily, to King Urien of Gore and Ywain is her son. Though she becomes an adversary of the Round Table when Guinevere discovers her adultery with one of her husband's knights, she eventually reconciles with her brother, and even serves as one of the four enchantresses who carry the king to Avalon after his final battle at Camlann.
As her name indicates, the figure of Morgan appears to have been originally a fairy (Le Fey) rather than a human woman. Later transformed into a woman, and King Arthur's half sister, she became an enchantress to continue her powers

Morgan Le Fay's paradoxical nature is reflected in her dual role as both healer and dark magician, as Arthur's thorn in life, yet also his guardian in death. Although educated at a convent, she managed to emerge as a gifted magician.

Ludvig Von S wrote:

...
For all her looks were full of spells,
And all her words, of sorcery;
And in some way they seemed to say,
"Oh, come with me!
...

Enticing reference for a Seer, specially if the player can explore it in a sort of way maximally arousing or filling up the senses creating a true voluptuousness through poetry, imagination, eroticism, sexuality, trance, hallucination and exaltation. Also quite dangerous position to be too, as obviously Revan will just hear what she wants to hear and the way she wants. Basically she believes that the whole future is already written at the Apocrypha so it would be more a matter to role play an interpretation of it than creating new visions and prophesies.
I think it could be delicious to have a whole set of prophesies within a certain Bok of Revelations, written by a " seer "