Vivian Manifold
Power of Imagination
(Song of Heaven)
| Aspect | 0 | 5 AMP | 0p |
| Domain | 0 | 5 DMP | 0p |
| [1] Imagination is personal - only you can affect or perceive it. | |||
| [1] Imagination whisks your mind away to its playground. | |||
| [1] Imagination plays out hypothetical scenarios. | |||
| [1] Imagination is whimsical and odd. | |||
| [1] Imagination has no limits. | |||
| [1] Imagination is an artist's greatest asset. | |||
| [1] Imagination makes a man dangerous. | |||
| Persona | 4 | 5 PMP | 12p |
| Treasure | 0 | 5 TMP | 0p |
Gift: Active Immortality 6p
Gift: Cornucopia 6p
Gift: Flight of Fancy 1p
[3] Bond: My artistic genius is unparallelled!
[1] Bond: Imagination and creativity trumps a work-ethic any day!
[1] Bond: I boss around all Imaginary Friends in creation.
[1] Affliction: True Artists demand my respect and attention. I don't have to be cheery about it, though.
[2] Affliction: I'm unpredictable. (Prophesies and battle plans alike tend to wither when facing my awesomeness…)
[5] Affliction: I am a border to infinity! - and sometimes, things cross that border without my consent…
Treasure (Wondrous Tool): The Omega Brush (artistic genius)
-> Does everything art-related - switches paints, has "undo" function, removes/adds stone while sculpting, paints with 100-year-old paint, carves beneath lacquer, etc
Treasure (Wondrous Minions): League of Imaginary Friends (imaginary friends)
-> Getting or planting information
Treasure (Wondrous Anchor): "Worthless McWhatshisface" (artistic genius)
-> Manservant
Passion: My Art shall pierce the Heavens! 4
Skill: Fast-talk 2
Skill: Improvise! 2
Shine 4
"Vivian is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside a self-centered pony-tailed git, clad in an Armani suit."
-Theodore Wainsmith, Power of Teddybears
"Vivian has the basic talent, but he doesn't follow through. His art exhibitions are mainly pretty fluff. This spoiled brat fully expects his status as genius to be a universally recognized fact; hence he doesn't bother making the effort to connect to the viewer - in whose eye beauty ultimately lies. Flawed and shallow, his work suffers throughout from lack of feeling, depth and imagination. "
-Harvey Stubb, art critic
"Harvey Stubb, I presume? The…. *Art Critic*? I just so happen to have a job for you - and I do think it's an offer you can't refuse."
-Vivian Manifold
Description
The most notable trait of Vivian Manifold, Power of Imagination, is that should he want something - a drink, a priceless diamond, a giant statue in his likeness - he waves his hand and it is there. He simply creates it out of nothingness, on the spot.
Vivian seems to act like some kind of portal to a realm of plenty - a white hole on the move, dispensing matter as it wills. Accordingly, attacks directed at him tend to just… break the surface tension, vanishing inside him without a trace. This is occasionally handy.
On the flipside, occasionally something spontaneously exits Vivian on its own accord.
Based on what kinds of weird things have popped into existence around Vivian, experts think the fair-haired Noble is connected to some part of the Lands Outside Creation. The fact that at one time a Warmain on the run spotted Vivian and escaped pursuit by diving inside him would seem to corroborate the theory.
Vivian himself claims ignorance as to his circumstances.
Personality
The Power of Imagination is a flighty, vain young man with a generally cheerful demeanor. He's spontaneous and often careless, with a tendency to leave important things unfinished, and to entirely forget about things he finds "boring" - though at several occasions these flaws has aided him, by confusing the plans of his enemies.
His most driving motivation seems to be to prove himself a great enough artist to have his artworks displayed in Heaven itself. Vivian sometimes vaguely alludes to seeking enNoblement as Power of Imagination for the sole purpose of achieving this end - though he may be lying or deceiving himself. In any case, negative criticism of his art is NOT well received - ask Mr. Stubb, former art critic - currently Vivian's anchored manservant. The beleaguered man does seem to be holding his own, though, neatly complementing Vivian's more glaring weaknesses.
Modus Operandi
When Vivian hits town, it is usually to further his own interests - getting hold of rare substances for his art projects, or expanding the influence of Imagination in obscure ways. Occasionally he's also on an errand for his Familia members (Individuality, Cooperation & Teddybears). He might get side-tracked, though, should he encounter a True Artist - someone who burns with divine inspiration. Vivian will then feel pressured to solve their life problems and help them achieve greatness - grumbling all the while.
Vivian is loosely affiliated with Heaven (rather than The Wild, as his personality would suggest), and does favors for them from time to time, trying to work himself into their good graces. This may or may not have to do with his stated ambition to one day have a Heaven-situated art exhibition.
In a battle, Vivian will shower his opponents with free 4th-level miracles, while trusting his Immortality and Portal Affliction to protect him. His Cornucopia gift covers fireballs, lasers, poison gas and all kinds of deadly knick-knacks, and his Estate makes for potent Enchantments and Emulations.
Appearances
*Vivian is one of the characters in the Example of Play
*Vivian is also seen in the short stories Small World and Suspension of Disbelief
Anchor: Harvey Stubb
Harvey is a thin, dark-haired man, who perpetually looks like he's about to say something sarcastic. For his usual style of interaction with Vivian, think Rowan Atkinson Vs Hugh Laurie, and you won't be far off.
This sardonic manservant has shown uncanny ability to cope with the unexpected and absurd.
As an experiment, Vivian used a lesser Binding of Imagination on his new manservant, giving him mildly supernatural efficiency when he's doing something for the benefit of Imagination.
Passion: "Art is important!" 2
Passion: "People are stupid and predictable (even if they are fantasy creatures or spirits of toasters)." 3
Skill: Acerbic wit 3
Superior Servant of Imagination 2
| Persona Miracle Chart | Domain Miracle Chart | |
| 0: The Sight (Cost: 0 MP) *See when people have strong connections with Imagination - artists, storytellers, children etc. |
0: Warning (Cost: 0 MP) *Recognize when the Estate of Imagination is in danger. |
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| 1: Blessing/Curse (Cost: 0 MP) *Bless or curse people with the power of Imagination - make them slightly more whimsical, attention-grabbing, able to assist artists, etc. |
1: Ghost miracle (Cost: 1 MP) *Transmit an image from your imagination to someone else without the use of art as an intermediate. |
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| 2: Lesser incarnation (Cost: 0 MP) *Hold an imaginary conversation with someone. *Influence someone through their imagination, coming with suggestions. *Live the life of someone's imaginary friend. |
2: Lesser Divinations, Communications (Cost: 2 MP) *Divine the lurid details of someone's fantasy scenarios. *Perceive who someone is picturing before their inner eye. *Convince a person's imagination to play out a scenario on a general theme. |
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| 3: Lesser Emulation (Cost: 0 MP) *Taunt a mob boss while invisible, inaudible and intangible to all his cronies. *Act out a hypothetical scenario, taking the place of all characters - complete with accurate voicing and body language. *Win a pie-eating contest by transcending human limits. *Tell an irresistibly alluring horror tale, grabbing the full attention of anybody in range. |
3: Lesser Preservation (Cost: 4 MP) *Make someone's imagination hard to resist, distracting them from boring work. *Make an imagined scenario hard to dismiss and therefore more believable. *Heal someone's imaginary friend. *Make it hard for people to (convince themselves to) cross an imaginary wall. |
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| 4: Lesser Enchantment (Cost: 0 MP) *Make a TV play out a hypothetical scenario, as if playing a video recording. *Make a pen into the greatest asset of an Artist, increasing its value as a Tool. *Make a door Imaginary, letting people pass the doorway unhindered if they manage to ignore their imagination. *Make the Law of Gravity in the local area into an imaginary restriction, one which can be trivially violated. *Become a figment of imagination, and hide in someone's head. *Enchant a bag of chips to "have no limits". |
4: Lesser Creation, Summoning and Animation (Cost: 4 MP) *Create and Preserve an imaginary wall, making people tend to avoid crossing it. *Summon someone's Imaginary Friend for interrogation. *Give someone a greatly increased imagination. *Control and preserve someone's imagination, causing them to continually imagine inappropriate scenarios. *Control someone's imagination, causing them to be stuck in a make-believe scenario. *Create an Imaginary Friend to spec. *Give irresistable orders to Spirits of Imagination. |
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| 5: Lesser Sacrifice, Greater Incarnation (Cost: 1 MP) *Take an imaginary object and make it real. *Remove the "makes a man dangerous" aspect from a gun, presumably sabotaging it. *Make someone's imaginary friend into a real-life person. *Removing the "Whimsical and Odd" property from a madman, leaving him slightly less insane. *Incarnate into imaginations all over the world at once, or into Imaginations in Hell or Heaven. |
5: Lesser Destructions, Greater Divinations (Cost: 8 MP) *Destroy someone's capacity for imagination. *Destroy an instance of Imagination, such as a specific hallucination. *Keep someone from imagining the possibility of them being lied to. *Create an imaginary bicycle and delete its "intangible"-property, thus gaining an Invisible Bike. *Interrogate Imagination itself regarding current events. |
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| 6: Greater Emulation, Lesser Binding (Cost: 2 MP) *Make someone into a protector of all things Imaginary. *Make someone's imagination affect the real world. *Trap someone's mind in a chosen 'playground'. *Make someone dangerous with high-level miracles and personally supervised training from hell. |
6: Greater Preservations, Lesser Motions (Cost: 8 MP) *Make an imaginary wall impossible to cross. *Trap a mime inside an invisible, unbreakable cube. *Make an Imaginary Friend destined to bring its client good luck. *Change the destiny of a child sorted under the estate of imagination (a majority of small children are). |
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| 7: Greater Enchantment (Cost: 4 MP) *Turn a sky-scraper invisible - not directly perceivable by others - permanently. *Make Arabia into an imaginary country. *Enchant a ring so it makes its wearer Dangerous. *Compel everyone in a large radius to act out a hypothetical scenario. |
7: Greater Creation, Summoning and Animation (Cost: 8 MP) *Give someone the kind of imagination that outclasses a computer's calculation capacity. *Create a major spirit of Imagination or the sort of Imaginary Friend who can actually interact with the physical world. *Overwhelm a city with a shared make-believe fantasy, making everybody spontaneously LARP. |
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| 8: Greater Sacrifice (Cost: 4 MP) *Make peoples' private thoughts directly perceivable by others all over New York. *Impose well-defined (though arbitrarily high) limits on infinite things, such as Pi. *Imagining a thing and making it reality by Sacrificing its Imagination-ness (thus crafting things the Cornucopia Gift doesn't cover, such as magical brushes and flying carpets). |
8: Greater Destruction (Cost: 8 MP) *Erase a major spirit of Imagination. *Withdraw Imagination's services from the Cammora, making its agents unimaginative and predisposed to doing things by rote. *Remove some other Noble's ham-fisted modification of Imagination |
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| 9: Greater Binding (Cost: 8 MP) *Declare that Las Vegas should become a place celebrating and promoting fantasies. *Make Imagination the most sought-after quality in CEOs. |
9: Greater Motion (Impossible with Domain 0) *Manipulate RPG:s, Art or Fear as instances of Imagination. *Declare that the imagination of a particular child will inspire millions and change the world. |
| Treasure Miracle Chart |
| 0: Claiming An Anchor, Communication (Cost: 0 MP) *Taking a temporary Anchor from a wound. *Receiving reports from the Counsil of Imaginary Friends *Nagging at Harvey Stubb without having to bother with unduly stressing vocal chords. |
| 1: Possession (Cost: 1 MP) *Taking over the body of Harvey Stubb, in order to watch the latest soap opera even while abroad. *Spying on someone through the brush that just "happened" to be left behind. Taking over the body of an Imaginary Friend, to work Miracles in a far location. |
| 2: Guidance (Cost: 2 MP) *Using the Omega Brush to make art with increased Tool value. *Using the Omega Brush to work art-related magic with an Obstacle of 3 (because 4 MP is a lot to spend just to paint crude stone mustaches on a statue). *Micro-managing Harvey's dinner preparations. |
| 3: Unleashing Wonders (Cost: 4 MP) *Unleashing The Omega Brush so it can provide extra Edge in an art contest. *Wielding the Council of Imaginary Friends in conjunction with the Fast-talk skill, to spread rumors through the playgrounds of the entire western hemisphere. *Upgrade Harvey Stubb to a Wondrous Anchor. |
| 4: Getting Some Help (Cost: 4 MP) *Summon the Omega Brush without having to dig around for it in the luggage for like five minutes. *Have Harvey show up with the key for that pesky cell door. *Bolster your psychic defenses with a cadre of Imaginary friends standing guard. |
| 5: Weaponizing Anchors (Cost: 8 MP) *Throw the Omega Brush and make it paint someone blue from a distance. *Have Harvey show up behind a ghost and put it in a vicious arm hold, even though ghosts are ostensibly immune to physical attacks. *Make the Council of Imaginary Friends organize a campaign to make every child in the city make fun of Hammy the Hamster, in a roundabout attack on the profit margins on Hamster Soda Pop. |
| 6: Weaving Destiny, Unleashing Miracles (Cost: 8 MP) *Destine the Omega Brush to make an artist famous (slipping it into his other brushes to make things go a bit faster). *Destine the Council of Imaginary Friends to save Christmas from the Grinch. *Pester Harvey until he finally gets his lazy ass up and conquers Guatemala. *Upgrade Harvey to a Miraculous Anchor. |
| 7: Getting Miraculous Help (Cost: 8 MP) *Make Harvey appear to help - anywhere in the world or beyond it. |
| 8: Communion (Cost: 8 MP) *Use the Omega Brush to subtly sculpt the Moon's surface so that people imagine it forms a face (upgrading it to a miraculous anchor in the process). |
| 9: Imperial Miracle (Impossible with Domain 0) *Declare that (newly upgraded) Harvey Stubb will defeat an Excrucian in mortal combat, just to see what will happen. |
Bonus Story
"Harv, your suffering is important to me."
"Really", said the former art critic. Sarcasm came easy to him, as always.
"Really, and I don't mean it in just a personal sense, mind you." The fair-haired Lord of Imagination raised his finger in dramatic fashion. "My continual mistreatment of you, my own Anchored manservant, is a blemish on a perfect record, the dark side of a sunny personality; something that cause people to re-evaluate what they think they know about me - in other words, it provides me a much-needed personal and emotional depth.
"…but?"
"Well, frankly, it's a bit of a drag. Also, it takes time. And this week we've got the convention of lesser gods, and someone's gonna have to go pick the Fruits of Honest Labor, AND tomorrow’s the day the teddy-bears have their Picnic. Not to mention that 'informal' inspection by Hugh Rosewood. So I simply can't be expected to come up with gems like your name change NOW of all times."
"And so…?", said the man legally named "Worthless McWhatshisface".
"All I'm asking is, could you handle it yourself for the duration? Slam your hand in a door or two, look haggard whenever we've got visitors, that kinda thing?"
A pause as the sardonic man fixed his lord and master with a none-to-kind gaze, Then:
"Vivian, this? The intellectual laziness and sloppy follow-up? Is exactly the reason why I used to slam your art exhibitions in the first place."
"Hmf. Everyone's a critic."