Profile
An Edeia representing the idea of Karma.
He is capable of fission into the fragments Merit and Tavarious.
Age: Born during the Age of Magic, specifically sometime during the Roman Empire days
Personality
As a whole, Karma is a very whimsical person. He likes to be around people, he likes to interact with others, he likes to listen to what people have been up to, and he likes to talk. In general, Karma is fairly impulsive and curious, often seeking out different pursuits only to drop them later once the fixation fades. However, at the same time, he’s very self-aware and generally knows what they should and shouldn’t do, and acts accordingly. Boundaries are to be respected, after all, and it’s highly disrespectful and harmful to cross the lines drawn in the sand.
This is where the split is — Merit is much more light hearted and cheerful as he enjoys showering people with gifts and praise for jobs well done. This side emphasizes the impulsivity and spontaneity and often indulges in whatever comes across his mind, whether that be a certain activity, a passing interest, or a hypothetical that “should” be realized. It’s not necessarily that he wants to cause problems; it’s just that he ironically doesn’t normally think too much about the consequences until something happens.
Meanwhile, Tavarious is much more composed and centered. This side leans more towards having a sense of control and to respect others. He’s much more reflective and cautious, preferring to be the listener rather than the speaker. He’s also still a very curious individual, but prefers to observe than to directly interact.
Otherwise, he’s honestly just here to have a good time and meet new people, because new faces mean new experiences. And, bottom line, he wants to make sure everyone gets their dues. Merit and Tavarious are still deeply connected and consider themselves to be the same person. They also still think the same way; it’s just that their viewpoints and perspectives differ.
Abilities
Karmic Sight | Karma is able to see people’s accumulated karma, which often takes the form of different ghostly visions surrounding the person. Only he can see these visions, and if he focuses long enough, he can get a pretty comprehensive idea of the person’s major decisions and how they’ve affected others.
Retribution | Based on what Karma sees of a person’s accumulated actions, they can grant “blessings” or “curses”, though the severity of these things are directly tied to how much good or bad a person has done. For example, someone who has racked up a lot of good karma could be granted a “miracle” (eg the sudden recovery of a sick loved one, lots of good luck and fortune, problems seeming to solve themselves, etc), while someone who has racked up a lot of bad karma would be “cursed” (eg the sudden death of a loved one, lots of bad luck and misfortune, disastrous problems come out of nowhere). Offensively, I’d imagine this to be something like how much damage/healing they do to another Edeia is linked to how much good/bad the Edeia has witnessed and caused.
Since most people are somewhere within the moral gray zone, Karma’s effects tend to be mundane and fairly inconsequential (eg a minor blessing would be someone found something they were missing for some time, while a minor curse would be traffic got bad right when they had an important meeting to attend).
Fission | Karma’s views on themself is very dichotomous — on one hand, they see themselves as the brilliant hero who brings good to those deserving, and one the other, they see themselves as the reasonable villain who serves just punishment. Because of this, once they actualized, they gained the ability to split themself into two entities — Merit and Tavarious. As mentioned before, the two still consider themselves to be parts of the same whole, though they act and speak in different ways.
History
Karma, human name Sage, grew up as part of a small rural town under the rule of the Roman empire. The townspeople were considered to be sub-citizens; they had very few rights, but so long as they did as they were told, there would be no issue. Their town was dedicated to agriculture and agriculture alone since they could afford to do nothing else, and as such, everyone worked in the fields.
Well, Sage no exception… For the most part. He wasn’t a bad child, but he certainly was a wild child, and preferred playing with the other kids and exploring the forests nearby than to slave away in the fields. At some point, an idea popped into his head:
The people here deserve better. We all work so hard, yet we barely ever have enough food on our own tables. I want to make things better.
Thus, whether intentional or not, the quality of life started to improve for his village; the crops became more fertile, people lived generally healthier lives, and there was more to go around. Likewise, theft and other misdeeds largely came to a stop, as those with more selfish intentions would find themselves lacking in some way. Rewards are much more appealing than punishments, after all.
At some point, a Roman general and his army came by this small town as part of their patrol route. Sage was now known to be the “golden” child, and most of the townspeople believed him to be divine in some way. He was well beloved and well treated, and as a person, he couldn’t have been happier. This was about to change, however, as when the general heard about him, he was effectively “confiscated” from his family to serve as a token blessing-giver for the general’s campaign. After all, if this child was related to the gods in some way, then surely having him by his side would bring good fortune to the battles yet to come.
This proved to not be the case, as only a string of misfortunes and curses followed that general. The general was a pretty bad person, all things considered -- he wasted the lives of his troops through carelessness and callous strategies, he treated those around him as sub-people as if they were only pawns in his pursuit of glory, and he treated Sage as an object rather than a person. This is where Sage’s personality started to split, and his sense of self with it -- he fought to retain his happier, more cheerful and bubbly outlook he had while in his original hometown, but now he was becoming much more tempered and vindictive of those around him. He managed to reconcile these two parts of himself, but fundamentally he felt like he became two different people while still being the same person. Sage had also developed a strong affinity with the idea that good things should happen to good people, and bad things should happen to good people; as he was often fairly close to the fighting, he did everything he could to make sure the soldiers who were selfless and compassionate got the comfort and rest they deserved, while the soldiers who were brutal and uncaring suffered the consequences of their malice.
In whatever case, the general eventually got fed up with Sage — he was supposed to be divine, and he was supposed to bring miracles, so why wasn’t the general experiencing any success? Were the gods angry at him? Was Sage withholding these blessings? How dare he! The general owned him!
The confrontation between the two turned violent very quickly. Sage was hurt, badly hurt, but he didn’t know what to say. He felt something rising within him, something like the coalescing of resolve, of power, but he was terrified for his life. The general kept screaming at him, demanding to know why Sage wasn’t giving him what he wanted, tearing the young child down for being the cause of so many deaths (when it was really the general’s fault). Sage didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know why things were happening the way they were, or what he even was, but as he felt a sword tear through his side, there was only one thought in his head.
I want bad things to happen to bad people. I want good things to happen to good people. I want this bad person to get what’s coming.
And so Karma actualized.
Abstraction
Their Abstraction is a place of rolling fields, with a gentle breeze slowly sweeping through the expanse. There are two suns, but the temperature is always pleasantly chill. A variety of flowers and plant life flourish here — some of which originate from their former rural home, and some of which Karma has made themselves. In the middle of his Abstraction is a bare tree, though it vaguely resembles a scale of sorts. From the branches hang bits and bobbles Karma has collected over the years, while others hold small crystals that contain memories — some of which belong to Karma, and some of which belong to those close to him. There are also golden apples growing there that don’t really do anything other than taste like pure happiness.
