Application for Haven

[ogrepowered]

Name: Sumiyoshi
Contact Info: Sumiyoshi @ Plurk
Other Characters Played: Formerly Bowser and Nyx Assassin
Preferred Apartment: None

Character Name: Aggron Stonebreak (aka Ogre Magi)
Canon: DOTA 2
Canon Point: Present day, post-Cosmology and after a number of skirmishes between Radiant and Dire.
Background/History: Ogre Magi's wiki page, a list of his in-game responses, and the dev-posted setting information thread; the dev thread predates the official "release" of DOTA 2, but the lore remains the same.

Also pulling from this ogre lore analysis, along with an analysis of the in-game world's lore so far; they're unofficial write-ups, but very comprehensive examinations/compilations of the lore we get from the in-game tutorial, maps, and character bios.

Personality:
Ogres are infamous for their lack of hygiene, their brutishness, and (most of all) their mind-boggling lack of smarts. Most ogres live in the wilderness or on the very outskirts of civilization, clad in whatever they happen to find or kill, and most of them probably don't have any motivation beyond eating, hitting things, and making more ogres. Since they only gather in small groups, it's honestly unknown if they have any sort of culture or societal structure; in short, the ogres in this setting are the archetypical monstrous brutes.

The only ogre legend that's widely known is that once every generation or so, an ogre is born gifted with magic AND two heads instead of one. This ogre is always given the name Aggron Stonebreak, the Ogre Magi, who's blessed with the power of Dumb Luck and traditionally wanders the world in search of adventure and/or shiny things. It's common knowledge among the ogres that Aggron Stonebreak very literally has twice the brainpower of your average ogre, and that he's a genius who's the smartest ogre in the whole entire world.

It's really too bad, then, that the last bit isn't quite true: the Ogre Magi IS smarter than your average ogre, but he certainly doesn't have twice the brainpower; he just takes twice as long to come to a decision AND he has to think out loud.

Surprisingly, though, Ogre Magi doesn't bicker with himself too much- both heads make up the same person, after all, which goes some way to explaining why Ogre Magi hasn't strangled himself to death yet. It's likely that the two heads of Aggron Stonebreak can't survive without the other; judging by his in-game quips, the heads split control of their body between them, and it's not clear whether one head is capable of controlling the WHOLE body by itself. Another side effect of having two heads is that Ogre Magi is much chattier than most ogres are; he doesn't have as much trouble socializing as most of his brethren, and is really quite happy-go-lucky. Granted, Ogre Magi rarely takes anything too seriously, treating almost everything like a game, from combat to spellcasting to the worldwide battle between Radiant and Dire. As a result, he's got something of a flippant attitude toward the concept of death.

He also isn't a very inhibited individual; when he's hungry, he'll go find something to eat, no matter what's going on. When he's bored, he'll try to find something to smash with his club. And so on and so forth- Ogre Magi usually won't hesitate to act on an idea, despite how ill-advised it is, unless it'll directly hurt him in some way. Also, Ogre Magi is remarkably willing to hear people out and listen to what they have to say. This also means that it's usually pretty easy to convince Ogre Magi to help someone out or to do something ill-advised, as long as there's something in it for the ogre himself (i.e. food, money, and/or the chance to hit things). Thankfully, even he has his limits: having no real ambitions beyond eating, traveling, and hitting things also means that from his point of view, any truly horrible acts (i.e. murder, sacrificing peasants to summon demons, etc) aren't really WORTH it, since the things he enjoys in life are so easily obtained.

Despite all of the above, there's some evidence that despite his aimless wandering through the world, Ogre Magi can at least function on the outskirts of society; he's capable of managing his own finances (despite having trouble counting higher than two), and is passingly familiar with the concept of buying, selling, and bartering. He also hasn't landed himself into trouble with bounty hunters, guardsmen, or other public authorities, which is almost a miracle in and of itself. Ogre Magi doesn't have very many worries; despite being one of the most famous ogres, and a once-every-generation phenomenon, he's not really responsible for much of anything. As a result, he's remarkably free of any existential crises, even assuming that he has the brainpower to think that far ahead.

Finally, Ogre Magi sees himself as a damn good spellcaster- which probably gets on other mages' nerves, since Ogre Magi's use of magic is primitive, at best. There's no finesse or skillful manipulation involved; what basically happens is that he grabs his mana with both hands and hurls it as hard as he can at his target, and it's a miracle that he hasn't killed himself yet. To make things weirder, some unknown property of Ogre Magi's magic occasionally causes it to repeat itself at no cost, meaning that he gets anywhere between one to three extra casts at no extra cost. While this is nothing but dumb luck, Ogre Magi tends to attribute such incidents to pure skill, and will occasionally lord it over other spellcasters.


Abilities/Powers:
First and foremost, Ogre Magi is a big, bulky ogre; despite being a magic-reliant spellcaster, he's got way more strength than he does intelligence and focus. While he won't be able to out-cast a dedicated mage, unlike MOST mages, he's got the muscle and mass to soak up much more damage and smash things with his club. And unlike the rare lesser ogre mage, who are only known to focus on minor ice spells, Ogre Magi's magic revolves almost entirely around fire, and his grasp of the element is instinctive, not learned. The downside is that if someone silences him or otherwise disables his spellcasting ability, Ogre Magi isn't much more than a slow, lumbering ogre; also, his repetoire of actual combat spells are sort of limited, despite his knowledge of magical fire.

Ogre Magi's signature ability is what most people call the Multicast, which is a mixture of dumb luck and some strange property of his magic. As explained in his personality section, Ogre Magi's crude way of spellcasting makes it amazingly unstable. Luckily enough, this instability doesn't cause backlashes that explode Ogre Magi into messy chunks; instead, it sometimes causes Ogre Magi's spells to sustain themselves for another few repetitions without any additional effort on his part. This strange property means that Ogre Magi's spells sometimes repeat themselves. Multicast is never a sure thing, which makes it unreliable, but when it occurs, the results can be absolutely terrifying for his opponents.

Ogre Magi's main ability is Fireblast, which (unsurprisingly) involves a very large blast of fire. It's not a guided projectile that flies from his hand toward the target. Fireblast is basically the Ogre Magi punching someone, in the face, at a relatively long range, with a spontaneous fiery explosion. It's both ridiculously crude and an amazingly pinpointed feat of magic, which is what makes it a pain to deal with AND difficult to dodge. On the other hand, Ogre Magi can only hit one target at a time with this, and the focused nature of Fireblast makes it a huge drain on Ogre Magi's already-lacking stores of mana and willpower; unless boosted by some outside source, he can't cast it that many times in one battle without draining himself completely. However, when Fireblast triggers a round of Multicasting, Ogre Magi's unfortunate target will find itself getting hammered in the face with multiple explosions in the space of a few seconds, which more than a lot of people can reasonably deal with.

The only other fire spell carried by Ogre Magi is simply called Ignite, in which he conjures up a ball of magical fire and uses his club to grand-slams toward his opponents, burning them over time. The flames aren't particularly strong, causing irritating and bad burns instead of instant immolation and death, but they have a nasty habit of clinging onto people. Furthermore, the flames are difficult to douse in the usual fashion, though most things that nullify magic will put them out. Multicast occasionally causes the radius of Ignite's flames to range much wider than usual, but not much else. Like Fireblast, Ignite carries a hefty mana cost, meaning that Ogre Magi can't cast it willy-nilly.

Ogre Magi's Bloodlust is the one non-fire-related spell that he carries, though it's unclear whether it's a traditional Aggron Stonebreak thing, a spell from his ogre heritage, or something that Ogre Magi came up with on his own. Whatever the case may be, Bloodlust acts as a superhuman adrenaline shot that lasts for a good few minutes, giving the target a massive boost to his or her reflexes, reaction time, and overall speed, all without any lingering side-effects or horrible aftereffects (aside from having to adjust to being normal again). This is the one spell that Ogre Magi can cast pretty frequently, so he'll often throw it onto his allies, friends, and/or people he wants to see flip out without too much thought. What makes things even more chaotic is that Multicast can trigger off of this too, leading to multiple casts of Bloodlust on non-enemy individuals OTHER than Ogre Magi's intended target.


Items/Weapons: Aside from their clothes (loincloth?) and their club, Ogre Magi carries a pair of Arcane Boots. The gaudy blue shoes don't fit him too well, but Arcane Boots allow their wearer to create a jolting boost of mana that sharpen any nearby spellcasters' senses, allowing them to fling out one or two more spells than they normally would. Of course, this is only effective if Ogre Magi doesn't completely forget that he has these boots, as he's wont to do.


Sample Entry: Post in Haven Test Drive

Sample Entry Two:
When they actually bother to stop and think things through, the two heads of Aggron Stonebreak have always thought it strange that they work together the best when they're right in the thick of battle. Working together like this is no easy task; each head separately controls half of their body, and normally, they're trying to go in different directions, or one head gets distracted by a butterfly or something and forgets what they originally set out to do.

Fighting is different. Fighting demands excellent coordination, and spellcasting requires the ability to concentrate no matter what's going on. And the Ogre Magi is capable of both.

""You should put that out!""

Both heads roar as one, slamming a ball of fire straight into the middle of the pack of monsters. Panicking at the sudden conflagration, monsters yelp and screech as the flames cling and burn, and the pack all but falls apart. The heads of Aggron Stonebreak chortle merrily as they wade into the fray, laying about them with their strangely-shaped club and cracking skulls like nobody's business. For a few long moments, they lose themselves in the thrill of battle (or, as they put it, "hitting stuff IS fun!")- but it's the hooded head that looks up first, frowning in puzzlement.

"Oi, hold up, now. Where'd everybody else get off to?"

The thicker-looking head doesn't look up as he starts smashing the last remaining monster to go. "Where'd the who go now?"

"You know," the hooded head growls in exasperation. "The little guys who came with us. We were supposed to be fighting /together/."

THAT gets the other head's attention. "What, are they dead already?"

"No, of COURSE not. We're supposed to keep them-"

There's a strangled yell in the distance, and the Ogre Magi immediately stops arguing with himself- the heads exchange a quick glance before they start lumbering over toward the noise, club held at the ready. Around the next bend, another trapped resident of Haven lies prone, facing down yet another monster just about to pounce-

- there's no arguing, no hesitation, and no verbal confirmation between them- with a roar of ""Fireblast!"", the two minds of Aggron Stonebreak immediately channel their mana as one, knocking the monster to its knees with an explosive spell. The magic doesn't stop there, however; all four of the Ogre Magi's eyes flash angrily as a rush of power suddenly surges through him, dumb luck turning this one spell into a Multicast.

"And another!" "And again!"

The monster's pained screech is abruptly cut off by two more Fireblasts slamming into its broken form, cracking the ground beneath it. Once the explosions finally die off, all that's left to break the silence is a sizzling noise and the unsettling scent of charred flesh; Aggron Stonebreak and the person they helped out both stare at the monster's remains, shocked at how quickly the battle ended and at that strange, amazingly lucky feat of spellcasting.

It's the Ogre Magi who speaks up first, both heads grinning broadly at the other person.

"See, that's how it's done! You should work on your skill!" "Like /us/."