Contact Information

User ◘ Al | LJ | DW
Plurk ◘ Crotalus
Other characters ◘ Muselist
Timezone ◘ GTM+1


Keep in mind I'd like to know who am I talking to first, though! So tell me who you are if you add me anywhere.

------

Feel free to crit away too. Anon should be on and IP logging off.

Please be constructive, otherwise it doesn't help anybody :)

Player Information
Name: Al
Age: 28
Contact: crotalus
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information
Name: Somnus Lucis Caelum
Canon: FFXV
Canon Point: After imprisoning Ardyn in Angelgard
Age: 30
History: His wikia

Personality:

This section contains spoilers of Episode Ardyn

Somnus would be described by most people as an asshole.

...And he is, though he’d probably never think of himself as one. The thing is, Somnus is extremely practical, sometimes to a fault, and he’s a big believer of doing things “for the bigger good”, even if it hurts. Family, people who are close to him, people he loves... they matter less to him than doing the right thing. Or, what he thinks is the right thing anyway. And that usually makes him come across as a little uncaring.

And the story makes sure that we know that from the very beginning. We meet Somnus when he’s, literally, burning some people because they show signs of the Starscourge, the plague-like illness in his world. His brother was doing his best to be the healer people needed him to be, to save people and take the illness into himself, but Somnus thought he was being too optimistic and sacrificing himself for people that were doomed anyway. He really thought that he was helping everyone, that burning the victims was the safest way for everyone to survive. And he seems to feel… absolutely no guilt about it.

Because Somnus thinks that the end-goal is what’s important. A few lives lost, a few families broken matter less than saving the entire kingdom, and that’s what he focuses on. It’s not that he has no feelings, he does seem guilt-ridden when he talks to Ardyn later on. He’s just incredibly good at compartmentalizing and focusing on what he thinks is important.

He seems to feel right at home commanding an army, and those who follow him seem to be really loyal to him. War, pain, suffering- you name it, it doesn’t seem to faze him, he just makes a mental note of it and keeps on going, focusing on how to fix it instead of letting pesky things like empathy or frustration or feelings get the best of him. He seems to enjoy leading an army, and it’s pretty clear by the way we see him fight that he would not just order around and let the others fight his fights- he’d be right there with his soldiers, fighting alongside them.

Somnus has never lacked love in his life. From what he know of his parents they loved him, and so did his big brother- Somnus’ hero when they were growing up. But eventually the idea that hope would prevail, that humanity and their world could be saved by healing people without sacrificing anyone, the idea that every single life was more important than saving everyone… they all started seeming far too naive to him. He started focusing on the bigger picture, and that kind of pulled him away from his family bit by bit.

The last straw seems to be the moment his parents died. Somnus and Ardyn were given twin swords, and their parents made it clear they hoped they would rule together- but Somnus turned against his brother, thinking him far too idealistic and naive.

Somnus may claim he takes the throne for the sake of his people, but his actions make it pretty clear there’s layers of pride, jealousy and hunger for power underneath it. That, and the belief that he can do better, the belief that he is always right. He doesn’t like being told he’s wrong- he will admit to it, eventually, we see him apologize to Ardyn for what he did to him. But considering how long he kept his own brother imprisoned (and how he was willing to sacrifice him if Ardyn hadn’t been basically turned into an immortal being) it’s safe to say that it took a while for him to admit to his mistakes and recklessness. It’s clear he’d rather just pretend those mistakes do not exist.

So Somnus’ biggest weakness is probably his hubris. He’s quite arrogant, and even though he will probably never admit it or even say it out loud he definitely looks at people over their shoulder- you can see that in the way he treats servants, in the way he even dares interrupt Aera’s ritual to talk with the gods just to be the first one to hear the news (and possibly manipulate whatever they said). So he doesn’t seem to think much of people- he loves helping them, he loves being the saviour king that everyone looks up to, but that’s because he loves being admired. He loves people looking up to him, and he will go to great lengths to protect his public image, to keep being the person people think he is so they keep admiring him. So he can be plenty charming when he has to be.

But it’s not like Somnus doesn’t care, or that he has no feelings whatsoever. He does care about his brother, very much so. He would not have done everything he did if there had been another way to deal with it- he just truly, honestly believed that his brother was turning into a monster (a self-fulfilling prophecy, it seems, since he basically caused his transformation). He seemed in friendly enough terms with the oracle Aera, as well, and his parents. And his Shield Gilgamesh seems to be extremely loyal towards him, as well, and has been taking care of him since he was a boy.

But showing weaknesses would just not fit the image of a strong, caring person and future king that he wants to project to the world. He has to be strong, he has to make the hard decisions because nobody else will. So it’s like there’s two Somnus- but the practical, strict and uncaring one has taken over the one that actually cares about people because he’s buried his feelings deep, deep inside and considering what he’s gone through, considering what he’s done it would take a lot for that part of him to come out.

Abilities & Skills:

Somnus is a skilled fighter and seems to be a good military leader. He favours his sword, and while he’s used to fighting alongside his Shield Gilgamesh and trusts he has his back he can fight on his own if needed. He’s pretty good at chess, too.

He’s also a Lucis Caelum, which comes with some nice magical perks thanks to being favored by the Astrals:

Elemental magic: Your typical Ice, Fire, and Lighting spells, though Somnus seems to favour his sword over them. I’m fine nerfing them as much as you need me to, he will probably not be using them much.
Armiger: Somnus has access to it, which allows him to wield various weapons at once, and wield them without using his arms. He only has the one blade, though, but Noctis also uses it to stash his fishing gear sooo it’s safe to say it’s like having a multidimensional pocket where to stash things.
Warp: He can teleport to wherever his weapon is. This is usually done by throwing said weapon to wherever they want to teleport then warping towards it.

(here’s a video of Noctis using the Armiger and warping)

Inventory/Companions: Just the the Blade of the Mystic (non-magical), because it’s important to him.

Choice: Monster - Naga
Reason: Somnus is a magic user back home, and his main motivation was to keep people from turning into monsters so I thought it would be pretty challenging for him to turn into a monster. And he’s already a proud prince who loves to nap in warm places, so he’s got that part down. I just feel like the black and white morality he already tends to could make for an interesting Naga. The snake he'd transform into would be the Eastern diamondback.

Sample:

Test Drive threads
Another one