Namdrin

[Vardaen]

Namdrin is a topic it seems we should bring up on the OOC.


A quicky timeline:

Last Year - Namdri, Tess and friends are in the Darkmoon Wood hunting Worgs.

They encounter the Cold Rider and other Frostlings. Some are killed, Tessa's soul is trapped, Namdrin believes she's dead.

* He returns to Falcon's Hollow and joins the carnival that is in town. They nurse his soul back to health at the loss of his wife.

* Eventually he takes over the carnival making it really good, bringing real magic to it, and becomes the Carnival Master.

* The carnival returns to FH.

* The Cold Rider bends the Fey to his will turning them into Dark Ice Fey, taking them from Syntira.

* Cold Rider dangles Tessa's soul in front of Namdrim and torments him, saying if he just stays out of things he will return her to him.

* Namdrin does not interfere with the fey. But he begins to watch your party as you kill the fey.

* You kill Prig, he joins you, breaks the shard and begins the hunt for the Cold Rider now.

[Trogdor]

So as I see it, the worst he did was, in a moment of incredible emotion (joy in finding out that his wife is still alive, horror in learning that she's in the control of the Cold Rider, and terror at the thought of losing her once again), he agrees to stay out of the Cold Rider's way. Worse yet, the Cold Rider gets him to swear an unbreakable oath to that effect.

Now, the tales are filled with people who make oaths in haste and repent at leisure, or who are tricked into making oaths and then have to live with the consequences. I see Namdrin as being in the latter category. The Cold Rider hit him with this doozy of a revelation and then immediately demands that he swear to not interfere or his wife dies. Not thinking at all clearly, Namdrin agrees to save his wife, only to find later on that he's bound by this terrible oath. Now, even when he sees the nightmare that the carnival has become, he can't oppose the Cold Rider, even though he wants to. The oath made in his moment of greatest weakness prevents him from doing what he so dearly wishes.

So he does the best be can. He watches us and waits until we've freed his wife. Now the Cold Rider no longer has power over Tessa and the oath is rendered null.

In any case, that's my take on things.

[Muskrat]

My take isn't any different really. Nor is Dreams in character. She just feels that, because he has been complicit in evil by allowing the Cold Rider to attack the carnival, he should do some sort of penance to make up for it. She recognized that he acted under duress, which is why she isn't advocating anything harsher. She's talking about penance, not punishment--something like an oath to do good deeds of a certain sort for so long to make up for the evil. I can see how Namdrin was outraged at the suggestion, especially given its poor timing, but it is not an unreasonable position in and of itself. Indeed, it seems like Namdrin feels guilty about letting the Cold Rider attack the carnival--some sort of penance to make up for it might make him feel better. In real life, my own position would probably be similar to Dreams', though I'd lean more towards letting him decide his own penance than sending him to some authority figure to have it set for him.

[Vardaen]

Yeah your take on things isn't bad Muskrat, but Dreams came at him rather single minded and at a very bad moment. Accusing him of actively at fault when all he did was try and save someone.

I find it interesting too that Dreams' attitude is such, considering her history and where her name came from. Is Dreams herself on a penance of sorts for failing to act on her dreams when her Haven was attacked and all? I love the IC RP going on, don't confuse that with OOC. I have no OOC issues at all, I just wanted to clear up things a bit.

I'm a bit surprise too hat no one said anything to Syntira. Her Fey were corrupted, and were doing the murdering, and then when the spell was broke they fled back to her, no longer evil, but many of them had killed innocents but no one suggested they be punished.

Anyhow Its one of those non-black and white situations that makes RP that much more fun.

[Muskrat]

Yeah, Dreams definitely came at him at a bad moment, because she assumed he would be leaving as rapidly as possible. Yes, I suppose Dreams does sort of see herself as doing penance--she certainly did not become a paladin willingly. And she empathizes with why Namdrin did what he did, having lost her betrothed herself. She might be tempted to do the same thing. But that does not make it right to sacrifice 87 people's lives to save one.

As for Syntira, I guess Dreams feels like she's in a position to push Namdrin to take responsibility for his actions, but there's not much she can do about the Syntira and the fey. Syntira is pretty powerful and the fey can be pretty alien creatures anyway.

[Vardaen]

He had no way to stop it however. Do you think Namdrin could have stopped the Cold Rider and all his Dark Fey alone? NO WAY. you assume he COULD have stopped it. He could not have.

[Muskrat]

Yeah, I suppose that's true, and he acted under duress, but he made the deal nonetheless. Dreams thinks he should do some sort of penance. Not harsh penance, just something to make up for agreeing to the deal. I think any character will have trouble changing her mind on that.