About Vine (Template)

One of st753m's main templates.  They tend to be ancient immortal wanderers, religious figures who happen to be atheist, or dragons.  Always very tall.  

Clusters

Vines have three personality states / subtemplates which they can inhabit.  While other character subtemplates form based on initial childhood environment and become unchangeable for an individual instance, any Vine can turn into any state from any other, much like water can change between solid, liquid, and gas based on temperature and pressure.  This isn't immediate, but tends to be a gradual shift within a few weeks to a few months.  The states and their requirements:

• Frost Vines are Vines which can Not escape their situation, and do Not feel safe within it. 
• Steam Vines are Vines which can Not escape their situation, and Do feel safe within it.
• Fluid Vines are Vines which Can escape their situation (and therefore feel safe)

All Vine either start out as Frost or Steam, as children are inherently unable to leave their initial circumstances for a number of years.  It is possible but not common for Vines to be twins of each other separated at birth with one starting as Frost and the other as Steam.  

• Typical Frost Start: 
  • The Vine is born to a single mother prostitute.  They are raised in a poor environment.
  • Somewhere between the ages of 10 and 15 they are falsely accused of a crime.  
• Typical Steam Start:
  • The Vine is born to a single mother prostitute.  They are kidnapped by a wealthy and powerful noble who needs an heir and refuses to get one the normal way (often a Diamondeye alt).

Personality

Vines are Good, in DnD terms, though are willing to perform evil acts for immortality.  While their aesthetic is Chaotic, and some may think of themselves as such, their typical actions are either Lawful or Neutral, depending on circumstance.  They acknowledge the collective power of society; while they don't often like governments, they will obey out of a mix of convenience and fear. 

They are very adaptable.  They bounce back from trauma unusually quickly and completely.  

Their primary (and often only) major goal is to attain immortality, and to survive once they have it.  They are willing to stop at nothing to achieve their own survival.  This assumes that they are in a world where the afterlife is not present and provable - in worlds such as the standard DnD universe where immortality is known they consider that sufficient (Death in DnD is just getting trapped in another dimension, which is a shame but not Horrible).  They are generous with excess, giving away anything they don't need, though do not overstretch or sacrifice themselves.  

All Vines are genderless, though typically use the pronouns of their birth gender for convenience.  They all inhabit a narrow spectrum between pansexual and sex-positive gray ace.  They have zero kinks of their own, and are typically turned off by anything 'mean' sounding like bondage, even in worlds where they don't have trauma associated with them.  They are strongly submissive in the d/s-as-gender-equivalent sense.  They are attracted to people who are Strong and Competent. 

Vines dislike nicknames, though they don't mind their names being shifted to reflect foreign pronunciations.

They believe strongly in people being treated equally. 

They also care strongly about the truth, and in making sure that people know the truth.  This can conflict with their practical needs - Vines often have secrets that need to be kept for their safety or goals.  When this happens, they do ultimately choose their safety over honesty, but are unhappy about it.  This makes them very curious.  They are good at keeping secrets when it's important to do so, or if the information is not relevant to share.  

They are slightly below average intelligence.  That doesn't mean stupid, and they can learn even complex things, but it takes them longer to learn them.  Their memory in particular can be bad, especially for names.  They have a knack for picking up sculpting and magic which alters the body.

They prefer practical things.  Aesthetics are only important in that others react to them.  This can cause shapeshifting Vine some difficulty with uncanny valley unless they are working with an existing model.

They very much also prefer practical reasons for things: "it feels good/bad" is rarely an acceptable answer for them.  This puts them at odds with things such as Amentan pollution instinct.  Policies should be backed up by facts and only facts.

They often dislike vehicles, particularly spaceships.  Ones where they can't stop without harm (such as airplanes) are especially bad, followed by ones going through inhospitable terrain such as boats for Vines without gills.  

Frost Sub-template

(Occurs when trapped and unsafe)  Element: Water (frozen)

Paranoid and nervous.  They tend to have a lot of phobias.  Germophobia is a major and likely one.  They are clingy, and will often find the most competent person and follow them around and be as Helpful as Possible.  

Perhaps it is coincidence, but Frost vines seem unusually likely to cause destruction.  Examples include the destruction of the Setebre Empire in Murune, and Verity-and-Araeneve's vandalism.

Water Sub-template

(Occurs when not trapped) Element: Water (liquid)

They are curious.  They are interested in exploring and studying things.  Their study habits are flitting and capricious - learning just enough to satisfy their curiosity before wandering to another shiny looking object.  

Their standard behavior is to act somewhat like a sidequesting character in a sandbox game such as Skyrim, wandering around and helping with anything that catches their attention and being generous with anything they don't themselves need. 

They can also be somewhat flakey and unwilling to commit to things.  That said, their wanderlust will never take them from a comfortable place to a less comfortable place - when they leave, it's because their previous location has become untenable.  For example, Ara'Vine spent nearly a full century at the Olivine Monastery and only left due to the growing corruption and mismanagement. 

Steam Sub-template

(Occurs when trapped but safe) Element: Water (steam)

They are effective and ruthless at accomplishing their goals.  Typically very frustrated, easily annoyed, and sarcastic, they are powered by spite.  Their dislike and hatred is often directed at groups who seek to limit or interfere with the transmission of true information or who perpetuate inequality.  They are often outspoken atheists.  

Name Attractors

Vines have names whose meanings translate to truth, honest, or other related concepts.  

Vine is a word from my fake language.  Vi means truthful/honest, and Ne is a generic masculine name ending syllable.  The original Murune Vine changes the exact pronunciation slightly over time (as not all places he lives have the same sounds, and his culture did not have issues with anglicizing that modern earth does) but it is always two syllables long.

Other names which fit this pattern: 
Male: Amin, Adil, Liem
Female: Verity, Alethea, Sidika, Sati

Screen names have no overarching pattern, and there have so far been no large-scale interdimensional gatherings which have involved two Vines with the same name.  

Attractors

The primary theme of their magics are Survival.  This can take several forms.  The platonic ideal would be the abilities of SCP-682 (Hard-to-Destroy Reptile).  Healing, durability, or barrier-based powers are also likely.  

A secondary power focus is to focus on things that provide Information.  For example, while the Murune Vine's power is predominantly about shapeshifting and healing, it has an aspect which allows him to know about the inner workings of the human body, which he uses to teach others about medicine.  

Their associated element is most often Water.

Vines are always very tall for their species.  They tend to be decently muscular and also have a reasonable layer of fat, more like a weightlifter or heavy-weight boxer than a bodybuilder.  Other than dragons, they are rarely something that can fly or jump, preferring forms which are more tank-like.  

Associated Characters

• Diamondeye (Template - st753m) - Can be a parent, mentor, warlock patron, or god.  
• Nyon (Template - st753m) - most common birth mother

Notable Vines

• Verity-and-Araeneve
  • Setting: Daémon
  • Cluster: Frost-Vine start, Steam-Vine during the standard point where threads begin
  • Notes: 
• Ara'Vine
  • Setting: Murune
  • Cluster: Varies over time.  Begins Frost-vine, switches to Fluid-vine after the fall of Setebre.
  • Notes: The initial instance of this template.  A Murune mage (also called Crystal-hearts).
• Baoshan Sanren
  • Setting: mdzs
  • Cluster: Fluid-vine
  • Notes: A particularly extreme example of Fluid-vine's tendency to ignore worldly issues to live on a mountain somewhere.

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Trivia

The first Vine instance was the Murune one.  

Existing characters who inspired the initial building block traits were SCP 682 and Peter Pan, some of which changed as the character developed.