I've decided that, for now, I'll only have the one NPC. If people end up dropping out, I'll likely increase the number. Sorry for the wait on this, all.
Name: Elena Maksimov
Age: 62
Gender: Female
Occupation: Acting Mayor (Former Seamstress)
Personality: At first glance, a cynical woman with an acerbic wit. To Elena, one's value as a person is delineated by the sort of impression they make upon others. However, at the same time, Elena consciously makes an effort to not give the first impression any sort of precedence; rather, she is in a constant state of evaluating and re-evaluating anyone and everyone around her. While this ordinarily takes the form of her denouncing the actions of others, this is simply because her standards are absurdly high, to the point where even Elena herself rarely meets them, which results in her scolding others for failing to scold her.
In actuality, Elena's ideology is based off of a set of a priori standards that she applies to all aspects of life. In her eyes, something has "failed" when it does not meet those standards, and nothing is exempt from being required to meet those standards. She can be called an absolutist of the highest order, someone who considers these standards inviolable, but at the same time is rarely thought of as a tyrant due to the nature of her standards.
Do not lose sight of why you act, and become trapped in that set way of acting. Do not disrespect others without due cause. Forgetfulness is spawned from carelessness; if you are a forgetful person, then work hard to overcome that weakness. Do not settle for something; strive to be your ideal person. Do not give up when there are others depending on you.
Each of her standards is fostered from an innate love of people and an innate belief in human potential. Elena truly finds people to be wonderful, terrible, amazing things, and her standards are her way of driving people to be the best that they can be. Of course, the number of people who understand this ideal to the core are few, even among her fellow townspeople; to many, she is simply a crotchety old woman.
Following the assumed death of her husband, she seems to have only grown harsher as an individual, quicker to reprimand, quicker to deride, quicker to enrage. However, that is...
History: Born in Haven, raised in Haven, Elena has been steeped in the town's nature from her first precept. Her father was a coal miner, her mother the town seamstress. In her youth, Elena was an idealist, perhaps too much so. Bright-eyed and finding beauty in everything, from the stitches her mother crafted to a lump of coal in a cart, all things had a sort of innate quality that could be drawn out. Of course, as she grew and developed, playing with the other village kids, she realized one thing with a beauty that trumped all others: human beings.
Elena came to the conclusion that people were something to be treasured, but as she reached this conclusion, she also came to the realization that people squandered their potential. Dylan from across the street wasted his days away. Samantha, the orphan that the Father looked after, worshipped God solely to worship God, rather than to uphold the ideals such a being represented. Frederick was a born leader and could motivate people amazingly, but was too afraid to do anything but stay in the background.
As such, a young Elena took it upon herself to be the one to help drive the people she knew. Her mind created idea after idea, ways of helping people that worked to make them the best version of themselves, rather than an unpolished diamond or worse, someone else's idea of who they should be. This was a considerable undertaking for a little girl, but she devoted much of her formative years to this endeavor, improving and scrapping standard after standard. Some were too controlling, they made it so that Elena was telling someone who they should be instead of letting them decide for themselves. Some were too light, some were too harsh. Over the years, she polished away at this, and became known among the town children as a sort of lecturer for how often she would try to advise them.
Nevertheless, it worked. Elena continued this endeavor even into adulthood, after taking the position of seamstress from her aging mother. She had incidentally began dating the boy Frederick, who had grown into a wonderfully charismatic individual. The years flowed on, interest became romance, romance became love, and Elena and Frederick were eventually wed. It was not many years later that, after the retirement of the previous mayor, Frederick was instated as the new one; put simply, he was the most obvious choice for the position. Elena, of course, didn't hesitate to use her husband's new position of authority to help out her efforts to drive people. While those who didn't grow up with her largely regarded her as a crotchety woman, Elena didn't mind; she simply enjoyed being at her husband's side, helping the townspeople become the best they could be.
All until the beginning of the month, when the representatives from the coal company that Haven trades with failed to arrive to pick up the previous month's supply. There was some worry about what had happened; after all, they had occasionally been unable to come immediately, but had always sent a message of some sort. A few days passed before the mayor chose to take matters into his own hands, and with two able-bodied young men set off towards the nearest city, to visit with the company and inquire about what was happening. In Frederick's absence, Elena had taken the temporary position of mayor, stepping down as seamstress until he was to return.
The weeks passed, and the party did not return. Worry rippled through the community, worry for what had happened to them, to Frederick.
And then the darkness became visible. That all-consuming darkness on the horizon. At first it was thought to be a mirage, then a slow-moving storm. It was only when it was noticed that the darkness seemed to be impenetrable that they began to panic. It was when they sent out a townsperson to investigate the darkness that they began to cry, when he never returned. From all directions, that darkness crept in, drawing closer each day. There was no escape, no hope to be found. On that day of realization, the day where it was understood by all that this was, in all likelihood, their time coming to an end, Elena Maksimov was inside her home, seated in front of a faded photograph.
"You idiot, Frederick. You colossal idiot. What did I always say about being careless?"
"...I'm scared, you know. Why did you have to leave me here like this? I can't...it hurts, it's too much for this flawed old woman to bear."
"...yes...yes, I suppose I have that one last thing to give. I can push against that current one more time, try and push them all to reach their ideal selves. That's what you'd want, isn't it, Frederick?"
"And if I do that...if I manage that, it's okay for me to die, isn't it?"
This is the story of a broken woman seeking a final sliver of meaning.
Name: Elena Maksimov
Age: 62
Gender: Female
Occupation: Acting Mayor (Former Seamstress)
Personality: At first glance, a cynical woman with an acerbic wit. To Elena, one's value as a person is delineated by the sort of impression they make upon others. However, at the same time, Elena consciously makes an effort to not give the first impression any sort of precedence; rather, she is in a constant state of evaluating and re-evaluating anyone and everyone around her. While this ordinarily takes the form of her denouncing the actions of others, this is simply because her standards are absurdly high, to the point where even Elena herself rarely meets them, which results in her scolding others for failing to scold her.
In actuality, Elena's ideology is based off of a set of a priori standards that she applies to all aspects of life. In her eyes, something has "failed" when it does not meet those standards, and nothing is exempt from being required to meet those standards. She can be called an absolutist of the highest order, someone who considers these standards inviolable, but at the same time is rarely thought of as a tyrant due to the nature of her standards.
Do not lose sight of why you act, and become trapped in that set way of acting. Do not disrespect others without due cause. Forgetfulness is spawned from carelessness; if you are a forgetful person, then work hard to overcome that weakness. Do not settle for something; strive to be your ideal person. Do not give up when there are others depending on you.
Each of her standards is fostered from an innate love of people and an innate belief in human potential. Elena truly finds people to be wonderful, terrible, amazing things, and her standards are her way of driving people to be the best that they can be. Of course, the number of people who understand this ideal to the core are few, even among her fellow townspeople; to many, she is simply a crotchety old woman.
Following the assumed death of her husband, she seems to have only grown harsher as an individual, quicker to reprimand, quicker to deride, quicker to enrage. However, that is...
History: Born in Haven, raised in Haven, Elena has been steeped in the town's nature from her first precept. Her father was a coal miner, her mother the town seamstress. In her youth, Elena was an idealist, perhaps too much so. Bright-eyed and finding beauty in everything, from the stitches her mother crafted to a lump of coal in a cart, all things had a sort of innate quality that could be drawn out. Of course, as she grew and developed, playing with the other village kids, she realized one thing with a beauty that trumped all others: human beings.
Elena came to the conclusion that people were something to be treasured, but as she reached this conclusion, she also came to the realization that people squandered their potential. Dylan from across the street wasted his days away. Samantha, the orphan that the Father looked after, worshipped God solely to worship God, rather than to uphold the ideals such a being represented. Frederick was a born leader and could motivate people amazingly, but was too afraid to do anything but stay in the background.
As such, a young Elena took it upon herself to be the one to help drive the people she knew. Her mind created idea after idea, ways of helping people that worked to make them the best version of themselves, rather than an unpolished diamond or worse, someone else's idea of who they should be. This was a considerable undertaking for a little girl, but she devoted much of her formative years to this endeavor, improving and scrapping standard after standard. Some were too controlling, they made it so that Elena was telling someone who they should be instead of letting them decide for themselves. Some were too light, some were too harsh. Over the years, she polished away at this, and became known among the town children as a sort of lecturer for how often she would try to advise them.
Nevertheless, it worked. Elena continued this endeavor even into adulthood, after taking the position of seamstress from her aging mother. She had incidentally began dating the boy Frederick, who had grown into a wonderfully charismatic individual. The years flowed on, interest became romance, romance became love, and Elena and Frederick were eventually wed. It was not many years later that, after the retirement of the previous mayor, Frederick was instated as the new one; put simply, he was the most obvious choice for the position. Elena, of course, didn't hesitate to use her husband's new position of authority to help out her efforts to drive people. While those who didn't grow up with her largely regarded her as a crotchety woman, Elena didn't mind; she simply enjoyed being at her husband's side, helping the townspeople become the best they could be.
All until the beginning of the month, when the representatives from the coal company that Haven trades with failed to arrive to pick up the previous month's supply. There was some worry about what had happened; after all, they had occasionally been unable to come immediately, but had always sent a message of some sort. A few days passed before the mayor chose to take matters into his own hands, and with two able-bodied young men set off towards the nearest city, to visit with the company and inquire about what was happening. In Frederick's absence, Elena had taken the temporary position of mayor, stepping down as seamstress until he was to return.
The weeks passed, and the party did not return. Worry rippled through the community, worry for what had happened to them, to Frederick.
And then the darkness became visible. That all-consuming darkness on the horizon. At first it was thought to be a mirage, then a slow-moving storm. It was only when it was noticed that the darkness seemed to be impenetrable that they began to panic. It was when they sent out a townsperson to investigate the darkness that they began to cry, when he never returned. From all directions, that darkness crept in, drawing closer each day. There was no escape, no hope to be found. On that day of realization, the day where it was understood by all that this was, in all likelihood, their time coming to an end, Elena Maksimov was inside her home, seated in front of a faded photograph.
"You idiot, Frederick. You colossal idiot. What did I always say about being careless?"
"...I'm scared, you know. Why did you have to leave me here like this? I can't...it hurts, it's too much for this flawed old woman to bear."
"...yes...yes, I suppose I have that one last thing to give. I can push against that current one more time, try and push them all to reach their ideal selves. That's what you'd want, isn't it, Frederick?"
"And if I do that...if I manage that, it's okay for me to die, isn't it?"
This is the story of a broken woman seeking a final sliver of meaning.
N/A
