Category: Characters

Learn more about the Players of the Game saga’s characters!

Players of the Game Cover Preview: The Breakers

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I’ve had this image for a couple of years. I even gave a cropped version of it to my cousin. (Hey, Nick!)

I think it looks amazing.

It shows Ashe Stelfire and Celsis Kri in the middle of a fight with a bunch of Fethelither demons. I love the sense of frantic action.

I might end up changing the titling design with my name on the bottom, instead of being squeezed at the top. But the image will stay as is. It was made by Ringasure. You can check out his stuff on DeviantArt and ArtStation.

I’m still narrowing down the launch date for it. Probably end of July or sometime in August. I might even set up preorder on the various platforms to see how that goes.

More to come in future posts.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Avril Enzali – Krian Armor

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Avril Enzali sets in motion much in the Players of the Game saga.

And it all starts when she embarks on a quest to find her biological father, Ashe Stelfire, in his remote tower on an island in Sufrinzon’s Ocean of the Lost.  With a companion who has an agenda of his own.

Svithe.  Broker of All Things Rare.

But Avril possesses much of her own resources.  She wields Nixer, a sword that leaves ethereal and everlasting harm on anyone it stabs or strikes.  Her Krian helm, symbol of her order’s leadership.  One she took on from her adoptive father.

Her most potent asset, however, is her determination.  It drives her to become the best in swordplay and myriad forms of mancy.  But despite that, she still cannot master the one thing that will free her goddess from her prison of unbreakable ice.

Channeling Flames of Tumult. She needs Ashe Stelfire for that. 

And nothing will stop her from recruiting him to her cause.

Whether they can actually return to Trojis to accomplish that goal is another matter entirely.  A goal Svithe will stand against.  Or get others to do in his stead.

Read more about Avril’s early struggles, starting in Repenter.

And check out her image below without her helmet with her forehead’s Kri’s Eyes tattoos.

Art by Moonarc.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Eric Enzali

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Eric Enzali holds no love for the Grells.

As part of the Krians, he led an invasion of Grelland in the conflict that resulted in the Eruption.  In its aftermath, Eric regrouped the sect of warriors following Celsis Kri’s imprisonment by Starm.

And time has not been kind to the immortal warrior’s organization.  The Krians have diminished.  All of his children and many others died in futile attempts to free their goddess.

Eric and those below him will never reclaim their former glory unless they can liberate Celsis Kri.  That’s the hope.

Hope that just might be kindled by the infant Avril.

Her arrival in the hands of the Peddler of All Things Rare bodes ill, however. 

The Krians remain weak.  While they are fierce warriors, they are vulnerable in their diminished state.  Even if they get help from the Grells against common enemies.

Find out Eric’s fate in Repenter and The Brigands.

Art by Moonarc.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Vick Burnhelt

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Vick Burnhelt solves problems.

He’s a Long Lived mechmancer who melds both ethereal arts and bleeding edge technology in his wares.  Be it his multi-functional pistol, his modular Battle Engine aircraft, the blood-stained power armor he can’t bear to don, or even the vast wall encircling the island of New Grelland that shields his homeland from the unnatural inferno of the Fire Well.

Bennet Burnhelt, his father, may lead the Grells.  But Vick’s many designs give the nation its edge.

But some problems are more intractable than others. The Game ruined the world, and Vick does everything he can to keep it from getting worse, knowing it’s not enough.  It’s why he and his wife imbued their sons, Ed and Matt, with hyper powers.  Hoping that the next generation can help forge a better future.

Corsis has other designs.
 
The Master of the Game has a vendetta against the Burnhelts.  He does whatever he can to ensure the women of the family meet terrible ends.  Vick’s wife died protecting Ed and Matt.  Her dried blood still covers his unused power armor. Vick keeps his long simmering romance with Een under wraps out of fear that Corsis might harm her too.

Vick also works with others outside of New Grelland and the realm of Trojis itself.  Sufrinzon in particular. He becomes a covert ally of Ashe Stelfire, Avril Enzali, and their allies.

He has minor appearances in both Repenter and The Brigands.  His presence then expands in The New Players.  

Read more about him throughout the POTG saga.

Art by Ringasure.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Benefactor

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Four thousand years ago, Bennet Burnhelt saved the world.  Smiting down the King of the Weird Ones.  Gaining a vastly extended lifespan.  Honing his considerable ethereal might.  Crafting a world order with the other victors.  The queen granted him his title, Benefactor, as a jest.  But the name stuck.

He seldom speaks about any part of his early life.

Because Corsis helped him save Trojis.  And that had a cost.

Now his world and many others suffer as part of the Game, though few know it.  Benefactor didn’t see the danger his old ally posed.  He didn’t realize Corsis had amassed the conquered Weird Ones’ vast powers until it was far too late.

Benefactor now strives to end Corsis’s reign in the background as he publicly leads New Grelland.  A role that burdens him.

But he isn’t alone in standing against the Game.  His son, Vick.  His grandsons, Ed and Matt.  And even that group of Brigands in Sufrinzon.  He will guide them as best he can.

Benefactor Plays the Game because he must.  And he intends to win.

Find out more about Benefactor’s plans starting in The New Players.

Art by Moonarc.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Nirva Iniv – Drandfiev Armor

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This version of Nirva Iniv appears in Repenter and The Brigands as she amasses power in Sufrinzon.  From marrying into the Iniv family, to becoming the Baroness of Palle, to conquering Alagar as the Empress of the Palle Empire.

She reclaimed the Drandfiev armor from the tomb of the long dead empress of Sufrinzon.  The dark-red attire amplifies her ethereal might and further cements her claim to legitimacy as the ruler of the dark world.

She schemes to reclaim her daughter, Avril, whether she wants it or not.  Nirva has a bad history with Avril’s father, Ashe Stelfire, and deeply craves to wreak suffering on him.  She will inflict her unhinged desires on anyone close to them.

Desires dictated by the abstract painting that she created.  Her masterwork drives her to dominate the super continent.  Originally, she did it to prevent a worse disaster from coming to pass.  As Corsis whispered in her ear to do it.

But she has long since lost sight of that altruistic motivation.  Nirva’s ambition has consumed her in a fugue of cruelty.

Find out if her ambition also consumes Ashe, Avril, and their friends in Repenter and The Brigands.

Art by Moonarc.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Meve Harlander

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Meve Harlander has seen a thing or two in his long career. 

As a Javelin pilot of the Holy Alliance, he was one of the few who survived the War of No Hope.  He and Harry Mang met during its final bimonths and became good friends.  He later got promoted to shipmaster of an airship and quickly ran afoul of his superiors when he questioned unwise or unethical orders.

This got him assigned to the frontier city of Findenton, with the other problematic people.  Like Shelocke.  Like Harry.

Meve’s acerbic and earnest conduct makes him one of the people Harry trusts most to tell him when something isn’t right.

Something like the horrors skulking about Findenton’s streets at night.

Find out how Meve and Harry deal with the horrors in The New Players.

Art by Moonarc.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Ashe Stelfire vs. Svithe

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Svithe is the peddler of all things rare.  He is connected to virtually all the struggles faced by Ashe, Avril, and the rest of the Brigands.

Bandages cover his face and arms.  The Peddler wields vast power that he focuses through his glassy, glowing staff.  He prefers to influence the events of the many realms indirectly.  Lurking at the periphery.

But sometimes circumstances bring him out in the open.  He can’t resist the vicarious allure of directly interacting with the strife he foments.

Such as a brutal battle with the man called Repenter.  One that leads to the cliffs of a hellscape.

Read more about this struggle in The Brigands.

Art by Moonarc.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Shelocke

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Shelocke is about a foot shorter than Harry Mang.

Except when she’s one hundred feet tall.

She’s a Titan, a race of size-changing Post Humans that are among the ruling elite of the Holy Alliance along with Dragons and Arch Demons.  But unlike many of her kin, the petite giant doesn’t look down on weaker beings.  She strives to protect them.  To advocate for them among the leadership of the Alliance.

And that’s how she ended up in the backwater frontier city of Findenton.  Which suits her just fine.  She likes her cranky but lovable commanding officer, Harry.  And she’s happy to provide the threat of violence when trouble shows up at the walls.

Trouble like the Grell with hyper speed and burning blue flames in his eyes.

Trouble like the whispers of people transforming into horrors inside the city.

Learn more about Shelocke starting in The New Players.

Art by Moonarc.

Players of the Game Character Spotlight: Tempes

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Tempes is not the favorite child of Corsis.

He’s neither brave nor charismatic. He’s been known to sabotage his other family members’ interests to further his own pursuits. And he makes no secret of doing so, which earns him no allies within the ambitious and treacherous clan. However, Corsis abides all these shortcomings because his son can do something no one else can.

Manipulate time.

Tempes greedily guards his knowledge of chronomancy. Actively furthering his own mastery. Though its side effect has made his skin jaundiced. Which he accentuates with his garish yellow attire.

He murders those who attempt to learn the temporal art. Or sabotages others’ efforts to explore other avenues of the ethereal discipline, including even his father. Though Corsis has never proved that suspicion. Not yet.

In the meantime, Corsis leverages his son’s power in Dread Corps. Inflicting Tempes’s hateful knowledge on those who oppose his father. Others like Ashe Stelfire. Like Avril Enzali.

Learn more about Tempes’s spite in Repenter and The Brigands.

Art by Moonarc.