Shattered Kingdoms

HOLY CRAP IT'S GANDALF

Max str/dex/con/cha, something like 13 int/wis, no HP trains at all. I've had people yell at me for not maxing int naturally, and I've had people yell at me for not maxing HP naturally. Screw you guys; don't make me steal your underwears.

Not even Hagrel remembers where he was born. His huge stature and fiery red hair might have marked him as a man of the mountains, but as far as he could tell you he was found by a farmer of Taslamar, who together with his kindly wife raised the boy as their own. His dearest friend was his adopted sister, for whom he felt a boyish love. As he grew into a young man, that love turned to lust, and one dark day he forced himself upon her. When their parents discovered his crime they were horrified, but instead of shame Hagrel flew into an uncontrollable rage and killed the three of them in their own home.

For the rest of his life, he could never understand the reason behind his murderous frenzy, and that doubt plagued him constantly. He feared that he was a lunatic, or demon-possessed, or that his heart was simply evil. Whatever the reasons, he burned the farm to the ground and wandered aimlessly in a state of shock across the land for weeks until he finally came upon the shining city of Exile. As the walls grew larger before him, he slowly came out of his delirium, and realized the full and horrible extent of what he had done. He sank to his knees and wept.

He begged himself for death, but a deeper part of him replied that death was too good for such a sinner as he had become. He had to earn the stillness of the grave. He looked at himself and saw a killer, so with grim determination he made it his task to kill in the name of his own redemption. He became a student of the Taslamaran Academy and trained relentlessly to harness what he saw as his own affinity for destruction. Tales of the hammer of light had entertained him for years when he was a boy, and the determination grew in him to seek out the castle Morea for himself. He did, and his polished demeanor and quiet dedication soon earned him a place therein.

I won't document Hagrel's growing friendship with Seago, nor the way in which his stoic politeness slowly changed over the years into a grim obsession with his assigned task. Suffice it to say that by the time Seago passed on and Hagrel was the commander of Morea, he was a hardened, emotionless and implacable force of a man. At first this relentless determination earned him the respect of his men, but as the extent of that determination became clear, that respect turned to dismay. Hagrel felt no scruple about accepting the help of the darkest of forces in order to accomplish his goals. His soul was already damned, he told himself. He was and always had been a killer; what right did he have to choose his tools?

Eventually, Hagrel sank so far into the mire of his own self-loathing that Queen Serena decided that his old captain, Estobar, would replace him as commander, and that he should be ejected entirely from the hammer of light. Hagrel argued furiously against the decision, going so far as to threaten Estobar to his face, but the deed had already been done, and he found the gates of Morea closed to him. Deprived of purpose, he slowly made his way back to Exile, once more in a state of shock. When he arrived, he found that he could no longer stand the sight of the city that had once been his home, and resolved to leave for the great tree Sith'a'niel.

It was then that his friendship with the priestess Yukiko truly served him best. Hagrel contemplated the task he had given himself, and slowly decided that his years of selfless sacrifice and suffering had repaid his debt to the dead. He was ready to take his own life and join them, but as he spoke with Yukiko, he realized that something was staying his hand. He and Yukiko had always been fast friends, the elven lady providing the single spark of brightness in his life, but the mere thought of touching a woman again sent him into episodes of horrific flashbacks.

I won't bore you with another story about "and then they fell in LOOOOVE." It's enough to say that Yukiko's presence was enough to keep Hagrel alive, and determined to seek some happiness for himself. They eventually got hitched, which worked out ridiculously well from an OOC standpoint; Yukiko had taken a vow of chastity, and Hagrel was completely incapable of having sex without being traumatized by his memories. He eventually grew confident enough in himself to make his case before the hammer of light again to be re-admitted into Morea's walls--and to his surprise, he was accepted. He fought evil and yelled at youngsters like a grumpy old man and sat on his fat behind in a tree and was generally about as happy as he was capable of being. And then, you know, he totally retired to sit in the tree with his wife to talk about WHEN I WAS A KID WE HAD TO WALK FIVE MILES IN THE SNOW UPHILL BOTH WAYS JUST TO GO TO SCHOOL WHAT'S WITH THESE KIDS TODAY AND THEIR FANCY LAPTOPS AND INTERNET.

Okay, so. Hagrel was principled. Uh...oops?

I prefer to start with a relatively simple character and let the backstory go from there. Unfortunately, I started with a principled alignment and ended up with something closer to dogmatic or something. Oh well, curse me or something. If I can't have a mutable alignment system, I'll make one instead!

Hagrel was never supposed to succeed. That was another mistake. I seriously intended to delete him after he got the boot from the HoL, not out of resentment but because I thought his story was finished. Turns out he managed to get himself some redemption or something, because he kept going. I can't tell you whether that was the right decision or not, but I sure had a lot of fun either way.

Frankly, I'm just too impatient as a player to be all that hot at ze PK. I'm just not willing to spend hours preparing for a game. I'll get some armor, I'll buy some potions and wheedle a priest into brewing some heals for me, and if I'm feeling particularly productive I'll get someone to do a liiiiiiiittle bit of enchanting for me, but overall I just don't care enough to get serious about it. I think I got some pretty good results for the amount of effort I put into it. This was my first character who cared about PK at all, so I consider him a moderate success.

Thanks to everyone. That's, like, Seago, Yukiko, Estobar, Tyrr, Turon, Gliknok, Veret, Dago, Ealuriel, Eabn, Nico, Baba, etc.

Hagrel was awesome. I swear to god I was grinning like a madman every second I played him.

Hagrel was indeed awesome. God, Eal and Dago messed with him so much, it was hilarious.

Thanks for all the fun. :p

Teasing Hagrel about hating himself was epic.

I'm mad at myself for having never gotten back at him after he charged Veret in the scout tourney.
He was fun to fight with all the time, he'll be missed.

Turon never understood Hagrel's depth, and he never cared to, but he definitely respected him the most of all Hammer warriors that he knew in Hagrel's time. When Hagrel and Seago decided to use a necromancer to take the MC's relic, that was Turon's proudest moment as he felt he had caused the Hammer of Light to strike a blow to itself that was far more devastating than anything Turon could have done from the outside.

Hagrel was awesome, though definitely not principled if you ask me. Hey, who's counting though, right? Props for keeping the game interesting and being willing to step out and fight.

it was enjoyable to participate in hagrel's dynamic change. Made yukiko feel like she truly helped someone!

Hagrel was a very complex character, I remember inducting him before Estobar left the Hammer the first time. He was great then and continued to be great throughout his life. Though he didn't seem to be played much toward the end of it.

From the length of your afterlife post it's clear that you had a great time playing Hagrel, and that's what really counts.

There's a few negative things I would like to put in here, but they would just seem spiteful considering what you had to say about Estobar in his afterlife and numerous times on other forums. Judging from the length of your afterlife post and the enthusiasm you seem to have wrote it with any harsh words about Hagrel here would really be crappy.

If you like SK so much please come back with another character the mud could use players like you.

I don't particularly care for your online persona--we both know what our differences are--but I've always enjoyed your characters and the way you play them. I should actually thank you for your contribution with Estobar. He did more than any other character in terms of accomplishing what I wanted to with Hagrel, however brief the actual interactions were in-game. I think I know what you aren't saying, but it's very gracious of you to hold back, and I appreciate it.

Thanks to everyone else. ^_^ You made playing Hagrel fun.

You actually did thank me



As I said though Hagrel was a great char come back with another. We can fight more on the forums too!

This character was exponentially more interesting than the majority of other Hammer characters, and I enjoyed the back story. thanks.

The white rider eh? I knew a girl who had earned that title.