Jonathan Strange (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
kingsroads) wrote2023-07-12 09:18 pm
kingsroads) wrote2023-07-12 09:18 pm
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User Name/Nick: Kates
User DW:kates
E-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact: allikateor @ plurk, allikateor @ discord
Other Characters Currently In-Game: Alexander Hilbert
Character Name: Jonathan Strange
Series: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (book)
Age: around 38 years old
From When?: circa chapter 65. Considering that he's fucking cursed at this point, it's easy enough to assume that the curse took him out.
Inmate Justification: The fun fact about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is that both of the title characters are absolutely awful people and are intensely exhausting to be around—it's usually overlooked with regards to Strange because he's simply more personable.
Strange is an arrogant, vainglorious, egotistical idiot with an astonishing lack of impulse control. He's cavalier with his magic, not thinking about how it could possibly hurt people or inconvenience everyone until the spell is already cast and the results have already happened. And honestly, why would they be so mad that he did things like drastically re-shape a city's coastline, raise people from the dead without knowing exactly how to put them back, wreck his own mental health, or bring back the entirety of English magic in order to get what he wants? He'll fix it eventually! (He will never actually fix it). People should be happy that he did those things and amazed at his magical abilities which, quite frankly, are the best. Why is everybody yelling at him???
Arrival: Brought in against his will.
Abilities/Powers: fair warning in advance, this part is gonna suuuuuck, mostly because Strange is relatively OP. At this point in canon, he's got ALL sorts of magical skills that are frankly a bit ridiculous. While he does have a ridiculous amount of innate magical talent, it's also honed through actual work and studying books about magic. Strange's magic is a mixture of combinations of already written down spells, him making up and improvising his own shit, and occasionally blood magic. Strange definitely can do more than what we've seen him do in canon, but I'm listing some of what we've seen him do in canon mostly as an example of the sort of magic he does.
His magic uses a lot of symbolism (ex: part as a whole). While he has a remarkable range in his magic (he gave the Russian king bad dreams while said king was in Russia!), he very rarely does anything larger or more impressive than manipulating the situation at hand. The more precise when naming something in magic, the better. Twice in the series spells have gone slightly off target because nicknames or descriptions were used instead of actual names. For example, a spell cast on Strange was targeted at "the English magician", so Norrell ends up dragged into it as well.
- MANIPULATION: A lot of Strange's spells are manipulating something to do or become something else: turning sand into horses of sand to upright a boat, using mud to entrap soldiers, creating ships out of rain, animating a mannequin made of pottery, turning a woman into a cat, etc. This also ranges to manipulating the environment in the area: changing weather, flattening terrain, rerouting rivers, etc.
- SPYING: He can cast location spells to scry and see where someone is or what they are doing. This can be a specific person (ex: Arabella) or someone more general (ex: my enemy). Noticeably, the scrying spells only work in the realm someone is currently in.
- TRAVELING THROUGH REALMS: Strange knows how to enter the king's roads, part of the realm of fairy crafted by the Raven King, and hidden behind all the mirrors of England.
- MAGICAL PERCEPTION: Though not the most magically perceptive, Strange can tell when people are cloaking themselves via magic and when magic is being used. He can also magically cloak himself from other's sight / notice.
- NECROMANCY: Strange brought a handful of dead soldiers back to life. When brought back to life, their condition was that of when they died (aka gross and corpsey).
- MISC: Strange can create a magical sleep, induce & enter dreams, and summon fairies. He also helped bring literally all of magic back to England which certainly counts for something. He occasionally has premonitions of the future but as he hasn't exactly realized they're premonitions, it's fairly useless.
This is not everything he can do! He could feasibly do more things! So time for nerfs because Jesus Christ my dude. Necromancy and traveling through realms are right out. Premonitions are nerfed unless there's prior plotting. Any magic that changes an area bigger than his cabin is right out (ex: Strange could make it storm in part of the hallway, he could not make it storm on the entire Barge). Any spell that could physically harm or influence another person requires consent (ex: Strange couldn't use his magic to break someone's arm or enter their dreams, he could use his magic to scry on them). I'm willing to take more nerfs as needed because quite frankly, this man and his magic are ridiculous.
Inmate Information: Jonathan Strange is a man who was told he would never be anything, that he was absolutely useless and would serve as nothing more than a fashion plate, and then almost overnight became one of the most important people in England. To nobody's surprise, this has gone to his head. Within a few months, Strange went from languishing in his house, being verbally abused by his awful dad, to happily married, a practical magician, one of the most interesting people in society, and working directly under politicians and various other lords. After all, there are only two practical magicians in London (or at least, that's the line of the day promoted by Norrell at the start of things). Considering that Strange is one of them, of course he would be important! Of course his ego would grow to ridiculous levels!
One of the biggest highlights in Strange's life is his role in the Peninsular Campaign. He worked under Lord Wellington, doing whatever the man asked of him in order to try and turn the tide of the war. His wartime experience mimics how Strange deals with challenges in peacetime: we're going to do whatever it takes to get results, patching things together hap-hazard if needed, damn the consequences and damn what people think. This involves a lot of invasive nonsense! During wartime, Strange enters people's dreams and brings back the dead without knowing how to put them back. This also involved changing a lot of things and never really putting them back to normal! During war, Strange did things like reroute rivers, move forests, move churches, etc, and just....didn't clean up his own messes. This is also a habit that continued to the present day. What matters is solving the problem, someone else can deal with the aftermath! And anyway, isn't it best that the problem was solved in the first place?
The problem, of course, is this 'we're going to get shit done by any means necessary' mentality isn't great when you've got to do things like "work with people" and "work within the bounds of society." It really shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that Strange pushes against the boundaries of society & propriety when not in wartime. Back in London, Strange starts to chafe against his mentor's teachings, wanting to push his magic to extremes, wanting to learn more and explore more and see what his limitations are, damn what people think. He gets read the riot act by both Norrell (you're tapping into different magic and exploring things that are way beyond your limit, please learn to walk before you try to run) and Arabella (hey dipshit, I AM YOUR WIFE and I care about your well-being, please stop throwing yourself into dangerous situations because I'm absolutely terrified you'll get hurt).
It's telling that Strange dives right into the deep end of poor decisions when those two influences are removed from his life: Norrell because Strange pulls away from him after they have a professional disagreement, Arabella because she dies (not really, but he doesn't know that at the time). Left to his own devices, Strange SPIRALS. He becomes even more reckless and cares even less about his personal safety, ruining his mental health and literally driving himself mad in an attempt to see and summon fairies. When he succeeds in summoning one (who he quickly discovers has kidnapped his not-dead wife and spirited her away to his fairy kingdom), Strange gets cursed for his troubles. Also hey, fun fact, the only reason he figured out that the fairy has kidnapped his wife, is that he LITERALLY WANDERS INTO SAID FAIRY KINGDOM like he's just going to the store to buy some bread and not venturing forth into an incredibly dangerous situation that he literally knows next to nothing about. His first step to help break the curse is to basically open the metaphorical doors and help bring magic back to England...again, without really consulting with anybody or at least giving them a heads up. It's useful to England! It's what England needs! It'll help him save his wife! Of course he's going to do it!
Path to Redemption: Give this man a Ritalin prescription.
But seriously, Strange's biggest hurdle to redemption is that he needs to learn to sit down, pause, and think before doing anything. He operates almost entirely on impulse—so much of canon could have gone a different way if Strange just took a moment to pause and think things over before doing literally anything. (Hmm, maybe instead of running headfirst into the realm of fairy to find the guy you summoned, just like...take a break to think things over before doing so. Maybe swallow your pride and write to your mentor. Talk it out and just think things through instead of running headfirst in there and getting cursed.) His impulsive nature often gets in his own way but also can be harmful to other people—some of which Strange is perfectly fine overlooking in order to achieve his goals (those Neapolitans you brought back from the dead had things like 'thoughts' and 'feelings,' buddy). He needs a healthy dose of impulse control, to realize that his actions have consequences, and probably knock that ego down a few notches in order to graduate. Likewise, he needs to learn to consider the bigger picture and related things (like other people's feelings) when rushing into a problem.
A dose of humility won't hurt either. Strange is so arrogant that a prophecy called him out on it. He's a magician, after all! He's doing important work! Why are people so mad that he does things like change the coastline so much that everybody has to redraw the maps? He's fine! Humility, holding his feet to the fire, and making him deal with the consequences of his actions are all essential.
While a relatively enlightened man for his age (he's got friends who are ladies!), Strange is still a very Regency era Englishman (aka he will absolutely disparage some teenagers, hasn't yet gotten the 'colonialism is bad' message, and will 100% start stupid fights with any French people on board). The best sort of warden for him would be someone who can be a bit patient with those aspects of his personality—being a product of his time isn't the real problem here. Likewise, he needs a warden who can hold their own against him and hold his feet to the fire. There is a very real danger of Strange just running roughshod over any warden who's too quiet, too passive, too hands-off compared to someone who's in his business a lot of the time. As arguing is one of his love languages, firecracker type wardens are highly desired.
History: it's a wiki!
Sample Network Entry: ( ooc: set a few days after the fantasyland breach )
[ Normally, Strange prefers to leave the network alone. If there is someone he wants to talk to, he will simply bother them! Isn't that better than pressing all those tiny buttons and worrying about things like 'audio quality' or 'typos'? He's perfectly eloquent in a letter, those shall work well instead.
But he's got beef with the latest breach! And what better way to explain that beef than by forcing everybody to listen to him. ]
I do hope that last round of nonsense hasn't colored the way you think of magic. Magic is hardly waving your hands and casting a spell solely for commercial gain—ah, and a proper magician doesn't wear those starry robes or have a long white beard. Norrell and I disagreed on matters of propriety, but on that matter, even we would agree.
[ Strange says the name 'Norrell' like he expects everyone to know who that man is. ]
Anyway! Magic! It's hardly powders and conjurers tricks and putting on a show. Magic is more of a force. It surrounds us the way that air does, the way that sunlight and music and clouds do. It can vanish for a while—magic can be stronger or weaker in some areas, just as a July day is always brighter than a December one. But it is hardly the conjurer's tricks like it was in that disruption. It is more. It is intrinsic. Magic runs through England's veins—and I'm sure that it runs through the blood of other nations as well.
[ He sighs, a bit dramatically but still meaning this 100%. It's obvious that breach has pissed Strange off more than he wants to let on, though the irritation has slipped to more of a Byronic brooding—there will be some staring off into the distance on the deck later. ]
As always, I am happy to answer any questions one might have. I simply felt I needed to say my peace on the matter of that...disgrace.
Sample RP: tdm thread, babyyyy
Special Notes: while Strange is primarily from the book series, I will happily crib various details from the TV adaptation for flavor (his PB, a minor tremor Strange gets post-Waterloo, the fact that he will never shut up about the goddamn peninsula.)
User DW:
katesE-mail/Plurk/Discord/PM to a character journal/alternate method of contact: allikateor @ plurk, allikateor @ discord
Other Characters Currently In-Game: Alexander Hilbert
Character Name: Jonathan Strange
Series: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (book)
Age: around 38 years old
From When?: circa chapter 65. Considering that he's fucking cursed at this point, it's easy enough to assume that the curse took him out.
Inmate Justification: The fun fact about Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is that both of the title characters are absolutely awful people and are intensely exhausting to be around—it's usually overlooked with regards to Strange because he's simply more personable.
Strange is an arrogant, vainglorious, egotistical idiot with an astonishing lack of impulse control. He's cavalier with his magic, not thinking about how it could possibly hurt people or inconvenience everyone until the spell is already cast and the results have already happened. And honestly, why would they be so mad that he did things like drastically re-shape a city's coastline, raise people from the dead without knowing exactly how to put them back, wreck his own mental health, or bring back the entirety of English magic in order to get what he wants? He'll fix it eventually! (He will never actually fix it). People should be happy that he did those things and amazed at his magical abilities which, quite frankly, are the best. Why is everybody yelling at him???
Arrival: Brought in against his will.
Abilities/Powers: fair warning in advance, this part is gonna suuuuuck, mostly because Strange is relatively OP. At this point in canon, he's got ALL sorts of magical skills that are frankly a bit ridiculous. While he does have a ridiculous amount of innate magical talent, it's also honed through actual work and studying books about magic. Strange's magic is a mixture of combinations of already written down spells, him making up and improvising his own shit, and occasionally blood magic. Strange definitely can do more than what we've seen him do in canon, but I'm listing some of what we've seen him do in canon mostly as an example of the sort of magic he does.
His magic uses a lot of symbolism (ex: part as a whole). While he has a remarkable range in his magic (he gave the Russian king bad dreams while said king was in Russia!), he very rarely does anything larger or more impressive than manipulating the situation at hand. The more precise when naming something in magic, the better. Twice in the series spells have gone slightly off target because nicknames or descriptions were used instead of actual names. For example, a spell cast on Strange was targeted at "the English magician", so Norrell ends up dragged into it as well.
- MANIPULATION: A lot of Strange's spells are manipulating something to do or become something else: turning sand into horses of sand to upright a boat, using mud to entrap soldiers, creating ships out of rain, animating a mannequin made of pottery, turning a woman into a cat, etc. This also ranges to manipulating the environment in the area: changing weather, flattening terrain, rerouting rivers, etc.
- SPYING: He can cast location spells to scry and see where someone is or what they are doing. This can be a specific person (ex: Arabella) or someone more general (ex: my enemy). Noticeably, the scrying spells only work in the realm someone is currently in.
- TRAVELING THROUGH REALMS: Strange knows how to enter the king's roads, part of the realm of fairy crafted by the Raven King, and hidden behind all the mirrors of England.
- MAGICAL PERCEPTION: Though not the most magically perceptive, Strange can tell when people are cloaking themselves via magic and when magic is being used. He can also magically cloak himself from other's sight / notice.
- NECROMANCY: Strange brought a handful of dead soldiers back to life. When brought back to life, their condition was that of when they died (aka gross and corpsey).
- MISC: Strange can create a magical sleep, induce & enter dreams, and summon fairies. He also helped bring literally all of magic back to England which certainly counts for something. He occasionally has premonitions of the future but as he hasn't exactly realized they're premonitions, it's fairly useless.
This is not everything he can do! He could feasibly do more things! So time for nerfs because Jesus Christ my dude. Necromancy and traveling through realms are right out. Premonitions are nerfed unless there's prior plotting. Any magic that changes an area bigger than his cabin is right out (ex: Strange could make it storm in part of the hallway, he could not make it storm on the entire Barge). Any spell that could physically harm or influence another person requires consent (ex: Strange couldn't use his magic to break someone's arm or enter their dreams, he could use his magic to scry on them). I'm willing to take more nerfs as needed because quite frankly, this man and his magic are ridiculous.
Inmate Information: Jonathan Strange is a man who was told he would never be anything, that he was absolutely useless and would serve as nothing more than a fashion plate, and then almost overnight became one of the most important people in England. To nobody's surprise, this has gone to his head. Within a few months, Strange went from languishing in his house, being verbally abused by his awful dad, to happily married, a practical magician, one of the most interesting people in society, and working directly under politicians and various other lords. After all, there are only two practical magicians in London (or at least, that's the line of the day promoted by Norrell at the start of things). Considering that Strange is one of them, of course he would be important! Of course his ego would grow to ridiculous levels!
One of the biggest highlights in Strange's life is his role in the Peninsular Campaign. He worked under Lord Wellington, doing whatever the man asked of him in order to try and turn the tide of the war. His wartime experience mimics how Strange deals with challenges in peacetime: we're going to do whatever it takes to get results, patching things together hap-hazard if needed, damn the consequences and damn what people think. This involves a lot of invasive nonsense! During wartime, Strange enters people's dreams and brings back the dead without knowing how to put them back. This also involved changing a lot of things and never really putting them back to normal! During war, Strange did things like reroute rivers, move forests, move churches, etc, and just....didn't clean up his own messes. This is also a habit that continued to the present day. What matters is solving the problem, someone else can deal with the aftermath! And anyway, isn't it best that the problem was solved in the first place?
The problem, of course, is this 'we're going to get shit done by any means necessary' mentality isn't great when you've got to do things like "work with people" and "work within the bounds of society." It really shouldn't come as a surprise to anybody that Strange pushes against the boundaries of society & propriety when not in wartime. Back in London, Strange starts to chafe against his mentor's teachings, wanting to push his magic to extremes, wanting to learn more and explore more and see what his limitations are, damn what people think. He gets read the riot act by both Norrell (you're tapping into different magic and exploring things that are way beyond your limit, please learn to walk before you try to run) and Arabella (hey dipshit, I AM YOUR WIFE and I care about your well-being, please stop throwing yourself into dangerous situations because I'm absolutely terrified you'll get hurt).
It's telling that Strange dives right into the deep end of poor decisions when those two influences are removed from his life: Norrell because Strange pulls away from him after they have a professional disagreement, Arabella because she dies (not really, but he doesn't know that at the time). Left to his own devices, Strange SPIRALS. He becomes even more reckless and cares even less about his personal safety, ruining his mental health and literally driving himself mad in an attempt to see and summon fairies. When he succeeds in summoning one (who he quickly discovers has kidnapped his not-dead wife and spirited her away to his fairy kingdom), Strange gets cursed for his troubles. Also hey, fun fact, the only reason he figured out that the fairy has kidnapped his wife, is that he LITERALLY WANDERS INTO SAID FAIRY KINGDOM like he's just going to the store to buy some bread and not venturing forth into an incredibly dangerous situation that he literally knows next to nothing about. His first step to help break the curse is to basically open the metaphorical doors and help bring magic back to England...again, without really consulting with anybody or at least giving them a heads up. It's useful to England! It's what England needs! It'll help him save his wife! Of course he's going to do it!
Path to Redemption: Give this man a Ritalin prescription.
But seriously, Strange's biggest hurdle to redemption is that he needs to learn to sit down, pause, and think before doing anything. He operates almost entirely on impulse—so much of canon could have gone a different way if Strange just took a moment to pause and think things over before doing literally anything. (Hmm, maybe instead of running headfirst into the realm of fairy to find the guy you summoned, just like...take a break to think things over before doing so. Maybe swallow your pride and write to your mentor. Talk it out and just think things through instead of running headfirst in there and getting cursed.) His impulsive nature often gets in his own way but also can be harmful to other people—some of which Strange is perfectly fine overlooking in order to achieve his goals (those Neapolitans you brought back from the dead had things like 'thoughts' and 'feelings,' buddy). He needs a healthy dose of impulse control, to realize that his actions have consequences, and probably knock that ego down a few notches in order to graduate. Likewise, he needs to learn to consider the bigger picture and related things (like other people's feelings) when rushing into a problem.
A dose of humility won't hurt either. Strange is so arrogant that a prophecy called him out on it. He's a magician, after all! He's doing important work! Why are people so mad that he does things like change the coastline so much that everybody has to redraw the maps? He's fine! Humility, holding his feet to the fire, and making him deal with the consequences of his actions are all essential.
While a relatively enlightened man for his age (he's got friends who are ladies!), Strange is still a very Regency era Englishman (aka he will absolutely disparage some teenagers, hasn't yet gotten the 'colonialism is bad' message, and will 100% start stupid fights with any French people on board). The best sort of warden for him would be someone who can be a bit patient with those aspects of his personality—being a product of his time isn't the real problem here. Likewise, he needs a warden who can hold their own against him and hold his feet to the fire. There is a very real danger of Strange just running roughshod over any warden who's too quiet, too passive, too hands-off compared to someone who's in his business a lot of the time. As arguing is one of his love languages, firecracker type wardens are highly desired.
History: it's a wiki!
Sample Network Entry: ( ooc: set a few days after the fantasyland breach )
[ Normally, Strange prefers to leave the network alone. If there is someone he wants to talk to, he will simply bother them! Isn't that better than pressing all those tiny buttons and worrying about things like 'audio quality' or 'typos'? He's perfectly eloquent in a letter, those shall work well instead.
But he's got beef with the latest breach! And what better way to explain that beef than by forcing everybody to listen to him. ]
I do hope that last round of nonsense hasn't colored the way you think of magic. Magic is hardly waving your hands and casting a spell solely for commercial gain—ah, and a proper magician doesn't wear those starry robes or have a long white beard. Norrell and I disagreed on matters of propriety, but on that matter, even we would agree.
[ Strange says the name 'Norrell' like he expects everyone to know who that man is. ]
Anyway! Magic! It's hardly powders and conjurers tricks and putting on a show. Magic is more of a force. It surrounds us the way that air does, the way that sunlight and music and clouds do. It can vanish for a while—magic can be stronger or weaker in some areas, just as a July day is always brighter than a December one. But it is hardly the conjurer's tricks like it was in that disruption. It is more. It is intrinsic. Magic runs through England's veins—and I'm sure that it runs through the blood of other nations as well.
[ He sighs, a bit dramatically but still meaning this 100%. It's obvious that breach has pissed Strange off more than he wants to let on, though the irritation has slipped to more of a Byronic brooding—there will be some staring off into the distance on the deck later. ]
As always, I am happy to answer any questions one might have. I simply felt I needed to say my peace on the matter of that...disgrace.
Sample RP: tdm thread, babyyyy
Special Notes: while Strange is primarily from the book series, I will happily crib various details from the TV adaptation for flavor (his PB, a minor tremor Strange gets post-Waterloo, the fact that he will never shut up about the goddamn peninsula.)