Sabaton

In the last several years, I've taken to overthinking my characters that I make, for both books and rpgs and all that. So when Hodey invited me to play in his latest DnD session, I promised myself that I wouldn't get in my own way, that I would make a character like I used to, when I was young.

I remember my younger self, and the DnD characters I made were ridiculous. I always made them out to be some incredible fate-changing hero whose life had been filled with danger and misadventure, and when it came to the actual game, they were usually awful, and could be killed by an above-average-sized rat with a sharp stick.

But you know what? I really enjoyed making those sorts of characters.

Enter Sabaton, with a backstory involving evil cults, taking the place of a dead person, and intense other bits and pieces. I gave Hodey different ideas of how my past could come back and haunt me. And Schwan had mentioned he might want to be a changeling, a type of character who could change their appearance to look like someone else, so I jumped on and said "I'll be your brother!" Of course, he ended up being a half-elf, but I liked the idea, so I stayed a changeling.

So I had a paladin with a haunted past who would violently protect his current situation, who was neither good nor evil, but had dabbled in both. He wore stolen armor, he carried a cursed sword, and I was ready to play it with the drama and seriousness that I had been waiting for.

And then, in the first session, I opened my mouth, and what came out was... different.

When I spoke in Sabaton's voice, I spoke with such confident bravado that it made everyone laugh and want to punch him. He refused to let his spirits lag in the slightest, and kept everything in a meticulous schedule that he would write "break up a fight" in his agenda before running off to break up the fight.

Despite all the broad dark strokes I tried to paint him with, Sabaton was breathed into life with such vivid coloring! I rewrote his story to add his fun personality. He believes that his life is predestined, that his agenda is Fate itself, and that everyone has free will except for him. In that case, what's the point in caring about right and wrong? If he believed he had free will, it would mean he would take responsibility for the messes he had taken part of in his past.

But mostly, he's just a fun guy, who slaps people on the back and bakes them bread, heals his allies with a snarky word, and speaks with a smile you can see in his voice.

Oh, and he draws their adventures! So every session, I draw what happens! That's the fun part. Ignore all the crap I just wrote. Blog blog blog? More like blah blah blah am I right?

On Barnaby's Dime! Vaelyrian is steering with his mouth, because I refuse to give him arms. He's a wizard, what good are arms anyways?

Sabaton with color! It took some time, but there it is! And I promised myself not to care how cheesy it is. Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly.

The very first drawing I did of Sabaton. He was pitching an idea to an author, trying to get him to write a story about him.

Early on, one of his things was that he just hated dragons. But now that I've actually played as Sabaton, I'm sure he could find it in his heart to befriend them.

This was our first mission, saving someone who had been captured by slavers. And it's when I first drew Gale (Elawn's floating character) and Loratheras (Schwan's pirate character). I love that I gave them stick arms.

We had all decided to go and get Loratheras' ship back from his evil father, and hey, it's Tim's character Vaelyrian! He doesn't have arms. It's awesome.

We were attacked in the forest, and a bee illusion distracted us from the threats behind us. I think I'll continue adding things onto our characters as we continue. Small designs, patterns, new equipment, until we're all as awesome as Sabaton!

Hodey assigned us the job of coming up with our own crew to sail the high seas! I chose these five, and I had to draw them. After all, characters are more fun to talk about when you can picture what they look like. Now imagine if everyone in the group pictures my silly doodles when they picture all the characters in Hodey's world!

So that's Sabaton. He's awesome. His sword is called Grieve, his shield is called Penitence, and he's the coolest guy ever. I'm wonderful for creating him, and I love my silly drawing style.

Maybe I'll try and do a more realistic drawing of Sabaton's face? If I do, you'll see it, even if it's awful!