Seems kinda interesting, SO. Here's my take on it.


Write out the names of your characters and explain
1) how you thought of their name
2) what made you create the character in the first place
3) how the character has changed over time (if they have changed)
4) any random fun fact about that character


Character: Johan Krasen

1) Krasen is a real weird one. I created the name initially because the human races in my setting, Nocturne, all are based upon a form of mythos and a type of people. Krasen happened to fall under a group of russian-german-anglosaxon-whitesupremacist offshoot of humanity, and so I went looking for Russian names. I found the name Krasen (originally pronounced cray-sen, but when Em mentioned the pronunciation cross-an, I fell in love) among the list of names, and decided it was great; but it wasn't a first name, it was definitely a surname. To add a little characterization to the... er, character, I decided to give him a funny name. Johan is what I landed on. In the world and in speaking he is referred to as Krasen; initially I needed an intimidating name to fill out his title, and got just that: Grand Inquisitor Krasen.

2) Well, one of the story arcs in Nocturne deals a lot with the church and their different sects and branches. The military in the world is mostly hired grunts with a few select members of the church's elite leading them, so Paladins are a rank that is achieved through work with the clergy; they are a commodity. However, I love the concept of a zealot in power, and Krasen was just that. Inspired by the Spanish Inquisition (as denoted from his being an inquisitor), I decided to create a sect of red-wearing sneaky former-paladins named Justiciars, whose purpose is to root out heresy in the Church that would cause unrest and dissent, effectively quelling any attempts to be different from what the Theocracy said was proper. Enter Grand Inquisitor Krasen, a man in his late thirties with a taste for blood and a hunger to hunt and kill heretics, and you have exactly what he was created to be: a villain among villains.

3) Krasen, fortunately, underwent a lot of character growth when he got involved. After murdering one of the PCs and nearly murdering a second, he moved on to lead the war against the Empire to the north at the front lines, intermixing his Inquisitors with the Paladins and mercenaries by merit of deposing the High Paladin and assuming command of the entire Holy Army. However, his motives became clear when a spy entered his ranks: though he slaughtered his enemies without regard, he acted as an attack hound for the church while seeking a way to change the natural order. The spy he knew about the entire time, and (omg spoilers) the spy ended up being a higher-up in the Empire to the north, who, despite rage at the way he killed her people, expressed remorse for the position he was in and the burden he bore. Thanks to their eventual collaboration, an armistice between nations was signed and the war, spanning nearly eighty years, was ended. Shift forward to the second arc, Krasen was in his fifties and had a son. Long story short, through the events of that arc, he ended up forced into the position as head of the Empire they had fought against so hard two decades past, forced to resign his position as Inquisitor to be a true and faithful leader to them; ironically, though he sows discord and condones bloodshed, under Krasen's rule both the Theocracy of Erania and the Empire of Gaud have had their longest time of prosperity and peace.

4) Originally, Krasen was intended to be in league with the main villain of the first arc and to be killed off. However, once he was created and I got to playing him, I fell in love with the concept and wrote feverishly to find a way to keep him in the story and expand upon his role. His bloodline has become one of the most intricate webs in the three arcs and he still reigns, in my eyes, as quite possibly my favorite character of the three arcs.