More Godly Than A Peasant, Less Godly Than A God

"Calm, my dear, a frown doesn’t look nice on such a pretty face as yours,"

Crystalfaunt #500 Saturday

Though he is currently traveling across Griffia with a ragtag group of weirdos, Saturn is a conman who previously made a living by impersonating deities and powerful people. Most notably, he had recently taken over a long abandoned temple that used to belong to an old god and was pretending to be said god, who was an angry, hateful deity, in order to form his own group of worshippers. It was mainly just a scheme for attention, power, and money. Many people who believe in the god he was impersonating and the associated deities, thought that they had long since disappeared, as there hasn't been any sign of them in ages, and the records of their appearance, powers, and temperament were just vague enough for Saturn to convince others that he himself was the deity.

The seemingly monumental task of making himself appear to be a godly being was greatly helped by the fact that he inherited extremely potent illusion magic from his ancestors, a rare and bountiful ability that, while it did not make him a god in actuality, could make him appear as anyone and appear to be doing anything. Seeing is believing, after all, and though he could not conjure fire or summon great beasts, he sure could make most common folk believe that he could. Over the years he had trained his illusions to be so realistic, so pure of clarity, that they could fool even the most cynical of mortals. There are limits to his magic and his illusions would wither and fade if passed through, but he remains tactical in his usage and limits himself in order to remain unfatigued. How convincing his illusions are relies solely on his study of the world and how it works. He has diligently studied the structure and lifestyle of beasts great and small and the movement of elements and how they affect the world and each other in order to conjure compelling images. It is quite like how an artist must study their subject to draw it, Saturn’s illusions are only as strong as his understanding of the subject. His favorite illusions are those of a great, white stag, of which are nearly impossible to distinguish from reality, though he struggles greatly with insects and plantlife, which can look very disjointed and fuzzy if summoned.

Saturn may look pretty and kind but he is actually quite cruel and attention seeking. He has the desire for all eyes to be on him and he doesn't care what he has to do to get it. He's not evil, per say, and has never gotten to the point of harming people physically but he is very manipulative and gets very angry when he doesn't get what he wants. He holds a convincing good guy façade, but would definitely not be considered a good guy by most people who see past his cons. Deep down, he hates how loathsome he acts but doesn't really know how to get people to notice him other than to act out or pretend to be something that he's not. Over his lifetime he has found that nobody has ever really liked him for himself so he's opted to mimic and impersonate other people instead. He likes pretending to be people who are important and who have worth because, truthfully, despite the boasting and smug attitude he exudes, he has a vitriolic hatred for himself and is cripplingly insecure. He craves love and affection to a dangerous degree but is too scared to let anyone in and too outwardly toxic for anyone to want to try. This loop of pulling people in with manipulation and burning any potentially meaningful bridge before it gets built has left him in a lonely, depressing spiral that he doesn’t know how to get out of. It’s much easier for him to keep seeing others as pawns than for them to genuinely get to know him and end up hating him anyways. He does not want to go through any more rejection in his life ever again.

Currently, he has found a small group of griffolk to travel with. His old antics of impersonating deities got the attention of the God Slayers and with nowhere else to turn he ended up tagging along with Tybalt, Orion, and Steve. Him and Orion have forged a bond of mutual respect, though she pushes every single one of Saturn’s buttons, and Tybalt and Steve seem immune to his schemes and ego, which annoyed him at first but now has become a relief, as they ignore his vies for attention while acknowledging his good behavior. Whether or not they do this on purpose, Saturn does not know, but it’s a form of validation and positive reinforcement that he has not experienced in so long and so he has begun to relish in the group’s praise, though he often feels like a stupid child when he acknowledges that he does so.