KARTERIA APP

[techmaturgy]

OOC INFORMATION

Name: Whit
Are you over 18?: Yes
Contact: whitticus OR discord at whitticus
Other characters: N/A
Permissions & opt-out: Permissions, Opt-out

IC INFORMATION

Name: Viktor
Canon: Arcane
Age: 32
Gender: M
Species: Human (mostly)
Appearance: Here he is; Viktor is a slight man of average height and terrible posture, with unruly brown hair and striking yellow eyes. He is visibly disabled, using a crutch and leg brace, and is underweight and haggard in a way that suggests chronic illness.
Canon point: Season 1, Episode 9, after speaking with Jayce on the overlook, but before the council meeting.

General Content Warning: This app contains discussion of terminal illness and reference to suicidal ideation.

History: Here

Personality answers:

Who in your character's canon influenced the most growth in your character? What do they think about this character?
Viktor’s trajectory is set in motion when he meets Jayce Talis and collaborates with him to create Hextech. Upon first introduction, Viktor is generally unassuming; a soft-spoken person with a reserved temperament who actively avoids attention. Much of this outward demeanor is a function of being an outsider; he is well aware of his tenuous position within Piltover’s rigid social structure, and he conducts himself accordingly.

This obfuscates a quiet ambition that is brought to light upon meeting Jayce. Viktor is drawn to his research, first, but ultimately it’s Jayce’s passion and desire to improve lives that solidifies his decision to intervene. In actively seeking a like-minded individual who shares his convictions, Viktor secures himself a place at the forefront of a technological revolution that has wide-reaching consequences for both Piltover and Zaun.

The two men become best friends and science partners, and Viktor considers Jayce the only person who truly knows him, even as they are pulled apart by his own illness and various political entanglements. When Viktor is warned that his increasingly transgressive pursuits will destroy his legacy and ensure his rejection from Piltovan society, his only response is that "Jayce will understand". Ultimately, he trusts him to carry out his dying request to destroy the Hexcore, a testament to their bond.

Explain which event in canon is most pivotal to your character's development, and who they are today.
Viktor's scientific philosophy, and therefore much of who he is as a person, is shaped when he is a child. Shown to be withdrawn and isolated from other children, Viktor stumbles upon the laboratory of a disgraced Piltovan scientist and asks if he can help with his research. He secures his first mentorship, which lasts as long it takes Viktor to realize that his new teacher is forcibly keeping an experiment alive through torturous methods. He walks out, finding this to be an unethical vision of progress and rejecting an amoral approach to science, a conviction that carries over into his adulthood--at least, until he is the one who is dying.

His morals are not the only thing he learned from his time with Singed. Through his mentor, he internalizes the idea that to have a "gifted mind" is to be lonely. Viktor self-isolates, having learned from an early age that he is the only person on which he can depend. If nobody is going to believe in him, whether that’s due to his Undercity origins, his disability, or both, then he’s just going to have to believe in himself. When he meets a like-minded individual in Jayce, he allows himself to share in a partnership, but Viktor continues to internalize the belief that his value as a person is intrinsically tied to his work.

What is your character most afraid of?
Viktor is living his worst fear: his own impending death. After years of watching progress hindered by a ruling council only interested in enriching themselves, he despairs about his lack of legacy and what he perceives to be fleeting contributions that will eventually be rendered meaningless by the status quo. As selfless as he believes himself to be, he wants to be remembered and is afraid to die, and as a result conflates curing his illness with his larger vision of societal betterment in order to justify desperate, dangerous actions.

This brings out the worst in him: under duress, Viktor is an obsessive workaholic with no patience for a cautious approach and little thought for his personal needs, chasing after advancement at any cost once he’s run out his clock. Faced with a premature death brought about by the very living conditions he once hoped to change, Viktor’s reckless tendencies only compound as he withdraws into his research, disregards basic safeguards, and tampers with unknown powers. Unable to cope with his failure to fix the system from within it, Viktor accidentally takes a life in pursuit of his own survival. Despite his fears, he considers this an unacceptable price to pay and prepares to succumb to his illness.

What is justice to your character? How important is it to them?
Viktor, born disabled and part of an oppressed underclass, understands more than most that the world is not fair. A version of "justice", where those who passively and actively commit harm are kept from power and duly punished, does not meaningfully exist in Piltover, something of which he is acutely aware.

"Justice", then, is less important than his own moral imperative to improve lives. Viktor is highly empathetic and firmly believes that the purpose of scientific advancement is to end (or at least mitigate) human suffering. Though this is, of course, somewhat personal (he’s actively succumbing to a degenerative illness brought about by the polluted living conditions of his childhood), he wants to ensure that his work prevents his kind of tragedy in the future. An idealist and staunch pacifist, he speaks out against the potential weaponization of technology while others around him waver. Viktor holds fast to the precept that his work is meant to “improve lives, not take them”, insisting that “there is always a choice” when it comes to enacting violence or otherwise causing harm. Even when crossing the lines of scientific ethics, he only ever intends to risk himself.

Inventory:

✵ The clothes he is wearing, including his orthoses--leg brace and back brace.
✵ His crutch, which has a hollow handle for convenient smuggling.
✵ His dead assistant’s notebook, in his possession at time of displacement, containing notes on using plants to purify the air and water in the Undercity.
✵ One blood-stained handkerchief, for coughing into 8))))

Powers/Abilities:

✵ Academics - What Viktor lacks in physical ability, he makes up for in genius-level intellect. Though this is, of course, a fantasy setting where all scientists are unrealistically multidisciplinary, he’s primarily a mathematician and physicist, with some knowledge of biology and chemistry. Having attended Piltover’s academy and served as dean’s assistant, he has a well-rounded education and is a quick study, able to complete Jayce's research solely from reading his notes.

✵ Engineering - He’s shown to be a resourceful tinkerer and inventor from a young age, and over the course of the series helps develop, design, and execute a variety of magitech devices, ranging from a stable power source for portable equipment to tools for miners and artisans to what is essentially a large-scale fast travel mechanism. Viktor is a mechanically-minded individual with an eye for detail and can puzzle out the workings of most devices, successfully defusing a bomb that stumped another engineer.

✵ The Arcane - The bulk of his work in the series involves harnessing arcane powers via technological methods (Hextech). In developing this technology he gains an understanding of a rune-based magic system and creates an evolving magical conduit that responds to and transmutes organic matter, which he uses to physically augment himself. It’s entirely likely that given time and resources he would be able to decipher and possibly utilize similar magic systems.

✵ Augmentation - Viktor’s right leg and hand (and eventually his entire body but not yet shh) are made of living metal, the results of his experimentation with the Hexcore. Though he has no inherent magical ability of his own, he develops some kind of psychic connection to the Hexcore over the course of his time working on it–by the last episode of the series he’s unable to destroy the device, apparently because it is compelling him not to. In the absence of the Hexcore this connection is gone, but there's no un-transmuting those limbs.

Samples: Here & Here

Goals:
Viktor will be arriving in this game at his arguably lowest moment, after accidentally killing his assistant in an experiment intended to cure his terminal illness. Having caused harm in the pursuit of his own survival, Viktor halts his research and insists that it must be destroyed. At his current canon point, he has already contemplated suicide and is fully prepared to succumb to his disease after presenting a bid for the Undercity's independence to Piltover's Council. It is not the legacy he imagined for himself, but it's something he can do to atone.

A sudden displacement to Karteria will upend nearly everything he knows. For a time, he may not be able to determine whether this is some kind of cosmic punishment or a second chance, but it will be difficult for him to resist the opportunity to help. Viktor will be deeply interested in the apparent existence of the multiverse and inter-dimensional travel, but he'll be most invested in the problem of arcane radiation, and potentially finding a solution or cure. Even in despair, he will will seek innovation, with a particular focus on that which has potential humanitarian applications. During his time here, I plan to have him work through his recent Hexcore trauma and learn to trust himself not only as a scientist, but as someone who can do good.

I do not intend to fully cure him of his illness, and hope to have him work towards that in the game. Viktor's larger arc in Arcane explores themes of identity, sacrificing humanity for progress, and the lengths one might go to end suffering. I enjoy the idea of him walking a similar road in Karteria, exploring his natural soul both as a potential cure and a way to surpass his own limitations. Maybe he will improve, and not die! Maybe he will continue to do bad things to himself with forces unknown.

Soul Choice:
Terra; Viktor is heavily associated with plants and plant life throughout the series and I am looking to capitalize on this motif. In addition to themes of growth and decay, I’m interested in having Viktor explore his full shift as temporary relief from his illness slash exploration of the transformation as a potential cure. This means, naturally, that I hope to explore the parasitic sub-type, because cursing an terminally ill altruist who desperately wants to cause no harm with these abilities is very spicy to me.