Grumbler (prime)

Grumbler Grumper

Some call him the nastiest empath in the lands, others call him adorable. A private man, he's actually been known to sing, dance, joke, and carouse with his housemates in Brigatta, when he feels safe. In order to meet his approval of this biography, many things about him are kept private.

He possesses a gentle, albeit tortured soul. He worships the goddess Imaera, and seeks the peace and comfort that he can grasp in nature for brief moments before the reality of his curse slaps him in the face. He needs to go out and "clobber" things until he works out enough aggression to be around people again.

The first thirteen trainings of his life and before are still shrouded in mystery to him, although Grumbler remembers a god laughing at him as fell, soiled himself and cried , while the god called him "dummy" and "corrupt". Little Grumbler foolishly gave up all that he loved to just to hit things harder. His self-portrait may shed some light on some of the nature of his problems and the source of his tattoo. His poor verbalization of Elanthian Common is also a result of this trauma, since he lost all memory of his native language as a reference. While he has a good vocabulary, he has a difficult time putting words together. Nevertheless, there is a pattern, as can be found in the Loose Guide to Understanding Grumblerese.

People that have problems with Grumbler are empaths who don't think, and those who treat empaths and others as NPCs, and not as individuals. It doesn't take a catapult-scientist to see that Grumbler's a touch-phobic, and in any stable society, only the cruelest of sociopaths would force touch on someone such as that. People like that are not really welcome in Elanthia, by the laws of the gods.

Once upon a time, before his curse, Grumbler did like touch, but not when he had open wounds on his body, and especially not when he didn't know and like the person and felt the touch was insincere. Though he'd call it crazytalk to use the word, actions without consequence isn't good roleplay. Someone with broken ribs and exposed bits of intestine is going to hurt like hell getting squeezed. And that's before any psychological trauma inflicted by life.

Stop and think -- a person's body belongs to them; it's the one thing they don't have to be polite about how you treat it. It's a lesson I've learned from playing Grumbler that's made me a better person in real life. I hope as Grumbler gets better about tolerating unwanted touch, someone else comes along to take up the slack. And who better than an empath...

Signed...

  Grumbler