Peleps Illibe

Peleps Illibe is a character played by Harsh Grim Con in Bound Devil Chambers Conspiracy Exalted PbP game in RPG.net

Peleps Illibe

• Aspect: Water
• Concept: Ascendant Admiral, hound-dog Deliberator, scorned lost egg. A cross between Pompey Magnus and Boss Tweed
• Motivation: Inspire fear of the Empress wherever it may be lacking.
• Anima:
• Anima power: "PS: Do you ever wish you could breathe under water Mr. Zissou?"

-Attributes (3rd) Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2 (1st) Charisma 4, Manipulation 4, Appearance 2 (2nd) Perception 3, Intelligence 2, Wits 4

-Aspect Abilities (7.5 bonus points) Bureaucracy 5 Specialty: Push motions through the Deliberative, Investigation 2, Larceny 4, Martial Arts 4, Sail 4

-Favored Abilities (12.5 bonus points) Performance 5 Specialty: address the troops, Specialty: Address the Deliberative, Specialty: Address the Hoi Polloi, War 5 Specialty: Sea battles, Socialize 5 Specialty: Learn Deliberators’ Dirty Laundry

-Other Abilities Presence 3, Awareness 2, Integrity 3, Linguistics 3 (Low Realm, Wavespeak, Western tribal tongues) Athletics 1, Archery 1, Lore 3, Melee 1, Ride 1

-Backgrounds (25 bonus points)

Allies 3: Three one point allies, his Captains. Over his long service and time spent in the West Illibe has collected a goodly number of Lost Eggs. He likes to scrape together enough coin to personally sponsor the ones he finds at Pasiap’s stair, and dotes over his prospects quite a bit. As such, a few have taken him as a leader. It's not a bad deal: they get good pay, command of ships, and carte-blanch to do what they please so long as the appropriate cut is tithed to the Empress. (something like Queequeg, Tashtego, and Daggoo maybe)

Arsenal 5: “His fleet” (question forthcoming)

Backing 5: “Imperial Navy” (again, question forthcoming)

Command 5: “His sailors” (yet again, question forthcoming)

Connections, Deliberative 4

Reputation 4: Feared more than respected by his peers, but beloved by the low people for his generosity and his tall tales of victory at sea.

Resources 3: conspicuous silver

-Charms (3)Bureaucracy: First Excellence, Thrashing Carp Serenade, Testing the Water

(2)Larceny: First Mastery, Observer Awareness

(1)Martial Arts: First Excellency

(1)Sail: First Excellency

(3)Performance: First Excellency, Hidden Petal Aria, Soul Stirring (method? technique? whichever)

(3)Socialize: First Excellency, Third Excellency, Brother against Brother Insinuation

(1)War: First Excellency

(1)Integrity: First Excellency

-Virtues Compassion 2, Conviction 4, Temperance 2, Valor 3

Willpower 7, Essence 3, essence pools: 13, 31 (don’t have the book at hand), Health levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/Incap

-Intimacies

Chip on his shoulder. Illibe has always feels slighted by the Dynasty, because he’s a lost egg. Sometimes the slights are real, sometimes imagined. But always Illibe feels he is competing with those fair-haired native-born princes. He is perpetually trying to out do them, punish them, embarrass them, and rub their noses in it all the while that he’s a lost egg.

Wants to be accepted. Simultaneous with his feelings of animosity towards the dynastic Princes of the Earth for being treated as an outcaste, Illibe wants to be accepted by them. The empress actively manipulates this desire of his by carefully stringing him along with her approval. He could be easily bribed in this way, if he were gifted with a Daiklave, or with an Exalted bride. Illibe is constantly jumping through hoops to hide this desire as though it were a weakness; as a result he’s not a very happy man.

The Four Questions

1) Why are you more loyal to the Empress and/or the Realm than the average Dynast?

Illibe is loyal to the Empress because both he and she want him to be under the illusion that they have a kind of chivalric, romantic love for each other.

As a poor child whose father was killed in the wars, Illibe was very close to his mother. When he exalted he constructed a fantasy in his head that he was a man (though he was only thirteen) and that he'd be able to protect and provide for his mother, with a 'happily ever after' at the end. Then the Arbiters of Purpose arrived and purchased him-so much for fantasy. In the realm, rather than being special he was an unwanted creature on the bottom rung of exalted society, and in direct competition with other like him to screw everyone else over and get ahead. In the process a bunch of strangers tried to kill him in his sleep.

By contrast when Illibe was noticed by the Empress it activated the 'Momma's boy' in him and he invoked his old childhood fantasy. The Empress is aware of this wierd fixation he has for her and uses it to her advantage. Illibe may be aware of it. If he knew he was being manipulated, he would try very hard to ignore it. Illusion is the first of life’s pleasures, after all.

2) Who do you serve, apart from the Empress? Who else constitutes a superior?

The primary bunch of Illibe's superiors are the masters of House Peleps. It's an unfortunate paradox that as he has become more powerful he's had to comply with the rules more rather than less. Illibe has to answer to the Head of Peleps and the Lord High Admiral of the Imperial Navy, who's also a Peleps big-wig, and neither of them are very fond of the man's overzealous loyalty to the Empress.

When he's given orders about what to do with his fleet, or how to vote in the deliberative, which galas to attend, who to be seen with and who to shun, he has to follow those orders for several reasons. A) No matter how far he climbs he's always a Lost Egg, and Peleps holds it over him that they paid for him. Under tradition he 'owes' them a debt greater than money. B) The Empress wants him to have a strong reputation and disloyal men are rarely revered. C) No matter how big and powerful Illibe is, his house could crush him if they put their minds to it, without a doubt.

3) What did you openly achieve in the past century that makes you a worthy subject for historians of the next Age to investigate thoroughly?

Despite his glittering reputation, Peleps Illibe has a somewhat dubious record. There are very few, virtually no naval powers that can hold a candle to the Empire. So when he says he's a great Admiral you have to take his word for it. He's been in sea battles and won them all-but he has no 'signature' victory: no Jutland, no Trafalgar, no Midway.

But what he has done is make the West pay tribute. The Archipelagoes, the Northern islands, the Southern islands, all of them: he's brought back cargo after cargo of everything those lands have to offer. If you see the women of the Imperial City going around in new Pearl necklaces, new whalebone combs in their hair, and fresh perfumes, you can guess that Illibe has recently come to port. Illibe is very showy about this: he likes to put all the wealth he steals on display and give away whatever he can, and to make as big a spectacle as possible. The people of the Imperial City enjoy when he holds these triumphant parades, too, because they often come away with a few coins in their pockets.

4) What weaknesses do you possess that aren't just personal failings, but could be exploited by your enemies to cost you the Game of Thrones? What are the fields of engagement where you can't just apply Game Theory analysis, but instead will act against your interests?

Illibe has stolen Imperial treasure. Once he was protecting a shipment of several hundred talents of silver from one of the Southwestern Satrapies. It was an area with a lot of little wooded islands. On the way, there was a terrible storm and the vessel carrying the cargo was lost. Months were spent combing the area looking for that silver. Officially it was never found, the navy can’t control the weather so it was a non-issue. Just some bad luck for everyone.

The truth is that Illibe found where the cargo vessel had run ashore. Some of the crew had mutinied after the storm and carried off as much of the silver as they could carry in the single remaining boat. Illibe could never find the mutineers and the stolen silver. The mutiny and theft would be laid on his head; instead of coming clean he drowned the remaining survivors and reported the search a failure. He hid the silver on that small island and has been spending it for decades, though slowly enough that nobody would ask questions.

You remember how I said he’s eliminated his old enemies from Pasiap’s stair? That’s been something of a secret. At the time of the stabbing Illibe never named his attackers. So when they disappeared he didn’t look like he had any motive. If it came out that he was an assassin, it something else that would end him. Despite how stupid and petty it is, Illibe is still a hideously vengeful man and will eventually find someone else against which he can revenge himself. He’s kind like Jason Voorhees in that respect. Only without the hockey mask.

He will take the fall for the Empress. Illibe would probably do anything the Empress asked of him. If she told him to break the law, commit intrigues, murder someone in his own house, he’d do it. And if he got caught he would take the guilt all upon himself. It’s no secret to him, either: he’s seen people with his exact job take the fall for the Empress. He deludes himself that he doesn’t think it’ll happen to him.

Backstory

Peleps Illibe is a lost egg. He was sponsored by Peleps for the sole reason that they could afford it, and he was from the islands-they otherwise had no interest in him. The formative moment of his life came at Pasiap's Stair, where he showed great military acumen but couldn't handle the physical exertion. Falling behind, his classmates decided not to be dragged down with him and planned to kill him in his sleep. Illibe was held down and stabbed fourteen times in an assassination attempt, but survived. He graduated the Stair. After that he moved up the ranks fast, sometimes by virtue and sometimes by careful machinations against his superiors. He was handpicked by the Empress to serve as an Admiral in the Imperial Navy, and has become hopelessly devoted to her. When he became powerful enough, he began to seek out his classmates from The Stair. Over the decades he has had his revenge upon them each of them.

In the realm Illibe serves as a public face for the Empress when she doesn't wish to use her own. He proposes motions in the Deliberative, berates and blackmails anyone who opposes the Empress's hidden or public agendas. Because of his military renown he's very hard to assail in the public forum. And when it's called for he can produce hundreds of soldiers in the guise of civilians to make political points. (protests, demonstrations, even the rare small and purposeful riot)