Orpheus (AU)

Orpheus was a legendary musician, poet, and prophet in ancient Greek religion and myth. The major stories about him are centered on his ability to charm all living things and even stones with his music, his attempt to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, from the underworld, and his death at the hands of those who could not hear his divine music.

=Pre-game History=

Orpheus is the son of the muse Calliope and King Ogreas of Thrace. He grew up in the shadow of Mount Olympus with his mother and her sisters. When he was very young, Apollo, who occasionally spent time among the muses, came down from Olympus and gifted Orpheus with a golden lyre. Calliope (muse of epic poetry) taught him verses for singing, and Apollo taught him to play.

His earliest days were spent among his mother and her sisters, learning music and poetry and being generally enamored of life and Apollo.

When he was a bit older, he was sent to live with his father, to be raised as a prince of Thrace. In Ogreas’ court, he and his brother Linus learned to conduct themselves as royalty, to fight and to play. Linus became an expert in meter, and Orpheus took that knowledge—along with the skills he’d learned from Apollo and his mother—and used it to craft the most beautiful songs anyone had ever heard. His talent was so great that he could charm rocks and trees to move and his music could divert the course of rivers.

When he was older still, he was invited by Jason on his quest for the Golden Fleece, and he traveled with the Argonauts on their voyage. While there, he used his talents to get them out of a few sticky situations, including playing and singing a song more beautiful than that of the sirens to prevent them from crashing their ship on the rocks.

After his voyage with the Argonauts, his life changed when he met the nymph Eurydice. He fell in love immediately, and they were inseparable. She inspired his music as no one else ever had, and her dancing was the one thing in the world that could induce him to be silent. On the day that they were meant to marry, she took a wrong step and trod on a viper that bit her heel, killing her with its poison. (Whether she simply stumbled or was being chased is a mystery Orpheus has yet to solve.) After mourning for quite some time and failing to recover from his grief, he followed her into the underworld, using his music again to gain entrance and to beg a favor of Hades. He was granted the opportunity to bring her back to the living world on the condition that he not look back to see if she followed until she made it to the light. This being a Greek story, of course, he looked back at the last minute, and saw her one last time as she was taken back to the underworld.

After this loss, he swore he'd never love another woman, taking only men as lovers.

For quite a while, he traveled the country, singing and playing and occasionally spreading what mysteries of the gods he knew. On one very unfortunate day, he encountered a group of maenads who invited him to join in their revels (or possibly to name one of them the most beautiful, the stories vary). He refused, and they were enraged. At first they attempted to kill him by throwing spears and rocks, but Orpheus sang and the missiles refused to strike him. Eventually the maenads attacked him directly, tearing him apart with their hands and tossing his head into the river.

Even after this, he continued to sing until he was picked up by some nymphs and placed safely in a cave. He stayed there for several years, but since he was mostly entertaining himself by making prophecies that were rather more precise and accurate than those of Apollo’s oracle at Delphi, the god came down and asked him to stop, after which he stayed silent.

One of the nymphs who had rescued him and remembered his music was terribly upset at the thought of no one ever hearing it again. She pleaded with the gods to restore him, and since they were rather enamored of the idea of having his music again, they agreed. After that the only physical reminder of the incident with the maenads was a thin, jagged scar running around his neck.

Since then, Orpheus has spent his time doing what he has always done: traveling the world and making money off his music. He has not slept with a woman since Eurydice, and he has only rarely formed relationships that lasted longer than a night. He can count the number of people he’s genuinely fallen in love with in 3000 years on two hands.

=Personality=

Orpheus is the quintessential 'lover not fighter'. He can usually avoid fights by using his music, and he prefers to do so. He is legendarily devout in his belief in the gods, even if he understands that they can be cruel and are rarely to be trusted.

Having successfully screwed up his own life, he feels a sort of obligation to help others with theirs whenever he can. He has a tendency toward melancholy, and he is very much a man of his word. (In the end of his story, it ends up getting him killed.) He is used to being loved of the gods, and that can go to his head at times, but he's a decent person at heart. His ego is massive, but with good reason, and he cannot stand it when people don’t appreciate, or worse denigrate, his music

For the most part, he's a friendly, helpful, laid back person, generally willing to cheer up those around him with a song or two. On occasion, he dips into melancholy, and when he plays, that can extend to those around him. He can really bring down a party when he gets into a mood. He's ostensibly trusting, but he knows enough of the gods to be wary of strangers and gifts unlooked for. He can't help loving some of the gods he's met, though, Apollo and Demeter foremost among those.

Above all else, possibly even above his devotion to the gods, Orpheus believes in love and that it is worth fighting for. He doesn't think he'll ever find it again, and he's actually sworn never to love another woman, but he always wants to help other people find their love or at least to believe in the possibility of it.

=Sexual Preferences/Orientation=

Orpheus is bisexual, but he doesn’t sleep with women by choice and hasn’t for quite some time. Keeping his word is massively important to him, so it would take a lot for him to break this one. Over time the city may get to him enough that he might skirt this issue a bit, but so long as he maintains control, he won’t have any sexual encounters with women.

=Powers=

Orpheus music has the ability to affect the mood of those around him. (Also that of inanimate objects.) Just how much effect it will have depends on the person and how much effort Orpheus is putting into it, though sometimes when he feels something particularly strongly, it creeps into his music whether he wants it to or not. Some of the power is in his voice, but it’s magnified with the instrument Apollo gave him (once a lyre, now a guitar, having been several other stringed instruments throughout the centuries).

He also has the gift of prophecy, though this comes out only rarely, and he can't see anything that touches on his own future.

=Game history=

Orpheus arrived in Bete Noire in July of 2012. He spoke with Cassandra on his first day, who told him of Apollo's presence in the city. Upon contacting the god, he was taken under Apollo's wing and moved in with him. Although he didn't need the money, he continued his work as a busker, since it gave him something to do with his days and allowed him the opportunity to play. He also occasionally participated in open mic nights at some of the bars around.

Eventually, Orpheus grew frustrated with Apollo's refusal to act on his desire for the musician and his continued obsession with Cassandra. This led to Orpheus making the decision to move out of Apollo's home and into the Delta Chi Pi House.