app to diadem

[foretells]

Player Information

Player: Kal
Contact: PM is best!
Invitation OR characters played: Jay provided my invite!
Are you over 18?: Y


Character Information

Character: Sciel
Canon: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 / close to the end of Act 2, just before the final Renoir fight and before The Paintress.
Age: 31-32
History: Link - PLEASE MIND THE SPOILERS. If you have not played the game, there's spoilers allll in here.
Possessions: Clothes on her back and her weapon, which are her summoned cards.
Weapon: Sciel will be bringing her tarot cards. It's...not entirely clear if these are LITERAL tarot cards, but they are magic given form. She essentially channels her Astromancy into summoning cards, and she chooses to utilize these to buff herself or allies. These cards can appear and disappear at will (it's magic), they're flashy, and she can throw them at enemies for minor damage. They're...better off being used for buffs.

Powers/Abilities: TAKES A DEEP BREATH...

Sciel is a normal human woman who has been a farmer all of her life, but who has also been training (for some length of time, undetermined) for this Expedition. She also uses magic as per the mechanics of the world, which is using Pictos (a kind of grafted rune) to utilize ambient Chroma (energy/life) to cast. Sciel's magic is implied to be Dark-based (as most of her damage is Dark or Physical, like a Pokemon!), and while she has chest tattoos that may be grafted Pictos into her skin, this isn't confirmed.

In terms of game mechanics, Sciel's overall mechanic in game is that she uses abilities that make use of a Foretell and a Sun/Moon mechanic, which utilizes her cards, essentially. Skills that apply Foretell allow her to gain a Sun charge; skills that consume Foretell allow her to gain a Moon charge. The name of the game is to mix and match in order to combine Sun and Moon, which gives her Twilight mode, and allows her damage to be MUCH HIGHER (by 50%).

ALL SET: Applies Shell (protect), Powerful (buff to strength) and Rush (speed) to applies.
BAD OMEN: Deals low Dark damage to enemies for 2 hits. Applies 2 Foretell per hit.
CARD WEAVER: Low single target Physical (regular) damage for 1 hit. Takes the target's Foretell stacks and applies to all enemies. Plays a second turn.
DARK CLEANSING: Cleanses allies of Status Effects and adds target's buff to all allies.
DARK WAVE: High Dark damage to all enemies for 3 hits. Consumes all Foretell stacks for additional damage.
DELAYING SLASH: Deals medium single target damage for 2 hits and uses her weapon's element. Consumes Foretell to increase damage and delay target's next turn.
FINAL PATH: Deal extreme single target Dark damage and applies 10 Foretell stacks on a single hit. Can Break (stun) target.
FIRING SHADOW: Deals low Dark damage to all enemies for 3 hits. Consumes 1 Foretell per hit for increased damage.
FOCUSED FORETELL: Deals medium single target Physical damage for 1 hit. Applies 2 Foretell. Can apply 3 additional Foretell if the target currently has no Foretell stacks.
FORTUNE'S FURY: Targeted ally deals double damage for 1 turn.
GRIM HARVEST: Deals medium single target Dark damage for 1 hit. Heals all allies by 30% of their health. Consumes Foretell to increase Heal by 5% per Foretell stack.
HARVEST: Deals medium single target damage for 1 hit. Uses weapon's element. Heals self by 40% of health. Consumes all Foretell to increase Heal by 4% per Foretell.
INTERVENTION: Targeted ally plays immediately and gains 4 AP (attack points, which is spent to perform abilities)
MARKING CARD: Deals medium single target Dark damage for 2 hits. Applies Mark (target, opens up chance for extra damage depending on ability) to the enemy. Applies 3 Foretell.
OUR SACRIFICE: Deals extreme Dark damage to all enemies for 1 hit. Absorbs allies' Health and enemies' Foretell to deal increased damage.
PHANTOM BLADE: Deals high single target Dark damage for 1 hit. Consumes all Foretell to deal additional damage. Can possibly Break (stun).
PLENTIFUL HARVEST: Deals medium single target Physical damage for 2 hits. Consumes all Foretell on a target and gives 1 AP to a party member for each Foretell consumed.
RUSH: Applies Rush to 1-3 allies, increasing their speed for 3 turns.
SEALED FATE: Deals high single target damage for 5-7 hits, using weapon's element. Each hit can consume 1 Foretell to deal 200% more damage.
SEARING BOND: Deals medium single target Dark damage for 1 hit, applies 5 Foretell. Also deals damage and applies Foretell to every other Burning (on fire) enemies.
SPECTRAL SWEEP: Deals medium single target damage for 2 to 6 hits. Uses weapon's element. Applies 1 Foretell per hit and if Critical, applies an extra 1 Foretell per hit.
TWILIGHT DANCE: Deals extreme single target Dark damage. 4 hits. During Twilight (extra damage phase), it extends Twilight duration by 1 turn. Consumes all Foretell to deal additional damage.
TWILIGHT SLASH: Deals low single target Dark damage for 1 hit. Consumes all Foretell to deal additional damage.


All characters (besides Gustave) unlock a Gradient Attack later in the game, which allows them to deal a special attack once the gauge is filled from using Skills. This is shared by the whole party. You unlock more as you level up in Relationship with characters. As Sciel is coming from almost end of Act 2, she only has two unlocked:

SHADOWBRINGER: Deals high single target Dark damage to random enemies for 10 hits. Applies 1 Foretell per hit.
DOOM: Deals very high single target Dark damage for 3 hits. Applies Powerless (weak), Defenseless (no shield), and Slow for 3 turns. Can possibly Break (stun) enemy.

As a complete aside in terms of "abilities" that may or may not impact gameplay, what actually works and what does not, etc.
- Sciel is implied to use Astromancy. She talks about speaking to the stars about her problems, she uses some kind of tarot-ish cards, all of her abilities are aligned towards sun/moon/celestial body motifs, she uses language like, "I saw your future" in her battles. All that being said, I think it's more that Sciel draws magic and energy through celestial bodies as a medium (in the same way that Lune uses light-based Pictos on her body to draw in ambient chroma/energy and cast elemental magic). I don't think she's psychic, she's not literally channeling moon and sun things, she's more just utilizing a certain aligned chroma/energy.

- Sciel was previously a farmer, so she is physically quite tough. She uses a scythe (which won't be coming with her; she'll just buy/craft another one) and is exceedingly acrobatic and dexterous.

- Sciel also was a volunteer teacher for kids after her husband died, so she has some teaching ability for littles.


Application Questions

Who is the most important person in their life and why? What might be different if this person hadn't been around?
Years ago, Sciel was married to a man named Pierre, and he died in an unfortunate accident. The game doesn't explain how this happened or why, but his body was never recovered. In an event that happened afterward (that will be explained in the next question, sorry!), Sciel nearly died by being out at sea. She was saved, irreparably, by Esquie - who is basically this giant stuffed marshmallow creature of immense power. She doesn't remember him saving her but later in the game, in meeting Esquie, he acknowledges he met her. So it's implied in general that Esquie found and saved her, and she has no memory of it.

I bring up both of these characters because Sciel (if you choose to level up her friendship/relationship) admits to the immense grief she had in losing Pierre. She describes how much she longs to be with him and all the places where his absence lingers, haunting her. She became a teacher because he was a teacher, and she had to fill in for him. Sciel shows a great deal of emotional resilience and intense understanding of Verso's struggles because of Pierre, because of the love and the loss of him, and without his influence in her life, she would likely be very changed. Sciel is a woman who smiles but has so much grief in her, and while she is hopeful for the future of Lumiere, there is also a quiet understanding that she may not make it back alive...and she is okay with that, having been someone who has walked alongside death.

For Esquie, quite literally...if he hadn't been there, she would have died by drowning. And in the game, whether Sciel knows the truth or not, she shows closeness and open fondness towards Esquie because he is a comforter, kind of like how she is. When they discuss a particular loss in the game, she chooses to go to Esquie and lean her hand against him. She has a lot of talks with him, so she's obviously seeking out his friendship and comfort too (and why wouldn't she? Esquie's great).

Is there an event in your character's life that they'd do differently? How so and why?
cw: suicide attempt, suicidal ideation, loss, miscarriage (sorry, mods)

I would, again, say the circumstances after Pierre's death. So, the actual event that occurred is this: when Pierre died, the loss was so great and stifling that Sciel chose to head into the water and to swim as far as she could until she couldn't swim anymore. She passed out at one point (and Esquie saved her) and ended up back on the docks of Lumiere. While she survived, she discovered her unborn child (that she didn't realize she was pregnant with) did not. This is devastating to Sciel, and she discusses with Verso later in the game how she doesn't know how she can face her husband knowing her actions caused the death of her child and her only remaining piece of her husband. And while it's worth noting that Sciel doesn't seem to have tried to take her life again, she does live life with abandon, and is acutely aware of how being an expeditioner will harm her.

What would she do differently? She wouldn't have tried to kill herself, if she knew. She'd have stayed alive and been able to have her child, and to have a few years with the child before Expedition 33. Hell, she might even never go on the expedition if she had her child, so we just...don't know how much it would've changed her. But at a baseline level, she would not have tried to hurt herself if she knew, and she would at least have someone else to love in her absence of her husband.

What's the greatest challenge you foresee your character facing in the setting?
Two things, mostly:

The first is the usual DWRP jamjar problem, which is wanting to go home. It's not even about the desire to go home but the ticking clock on her lifespan, and that they were close enough to the end and fixing things (in her mind) that to come to the game will shake her up and make her restless. Especially if she has several castmates also there.

The second is the general feeling of helplessness around what's going on in game. Sciel has a great deal of empathy and can put on a brave face - and she will! - but seeing people in bad situations, people struggling, and knowing her stay must be temporary can put a real damper on how much change she can affect.

What's the easiest thing you foresee your character adapting to in the setting?
Easy! Sciel is just adaptable and can really cope with a lot of things. She's gone through so much awful in her life that she can kind of pick herself up and keep moving. Her knowledge of farming and cultivating may help in general, her prowess in battle can help protect people, and she is great at emotional support. Just in general, she has a lot to offer the setting, but also to the other characters and NPCs. She's no stranger to weirdness either, because the biomes of the game are all vastly different (like technically being underwater without needing to breathe in some biomes, etc.) and so she's not likely to be rattled by things. She does her best work caring for others as well.


Samples

Sample: Link