Nosferatu
Gregorio Roman gets that picture because he’s the oldest of the characters and kind of shows his age. He’s a gnome who has stayed in his lair doing experiments to the point where his eyes have trouble with candlelight. There are tinted goggles that he uses, but even those give him a problem. As you can guess, he isn’t one of the action characters since he isn’t strong, appears frail, and has no interest in getting his hands dirty. In fact, he’s only one of two characters from the main cast who were never a tabletop RPG character. So, where did he come from?
All of my close friends at the time of the initial creation ended up having a character that they either played or was based on them. Well, everyone except one friend. He did have a character for one or two games, but it was a combat, muscle character that didn’t have anything else. I already had a few of those and this is a guy who, whether he realizes it or not, can be a rather versatile template. That still didn’t make it easy since I kept changing the character around until the following incidents combined:
- I was designing the gnomes in more detail and this friend kept making jokes about them destroying things. He began sending me messages about summoning his gnome army to rule the world. This first led to me making him the inspiration for Voran the Gnome God, which made him ‘worse’. A few weeks later, I came back to War of Nytefall and made Gregorio Roman a gnomish inventor.
- We were both into DBZ for a while and one of the jokes was that one of us would grow up to be Master Roshi. He’s an old man that is fairly strong, teaches Goku and Krillin when they’re kids, and is rather lecherous. It’s a common thing in anime/manga, but Master Roshi was the first one of these characters we ran into. He also introduced us to the nosebleed reaction when a character is aroused. Gregorio isn’t nearly as bad as Roshi, but he does ask the female characters for a lot of hugs. It’s as far as I wanted to go with the ‘dirty old man’ template.
Master Roshi
- Our interest in discussing philosophy and life in general had created a lot of email chains. I liked the idea of this ancient vampire being wise without the arrogance that you normally see. Gregorio developed this sense of having seen the world and becoming a little bored with it. History hasn’t surprised him for so long that he left everything behind. This led to an occasional lack of social graces too.
- This one is hard to explain because it either came from Futurama or Jewish grandparents. My friend and I love the show, but he’s not Jewish, so it’s probably the first one. Gregorio does this weird guilt trip and sarcasm thing at times even in the test scenes. It’s fairly amusing, especially when he does it to Clyde or Mab because neither of them take it well. Then again, he doesn’t really do it with any of the others yet. He’s polite with the noble characters and the others have this fear about going to his lair because of the stories. Most of those were spread by Clyde in order to give the old gnome his privacy.
Unlike the previous entries, I have no funny story with Gregorio because he was never in a game. The only tidbit I left out is what he means to the other characters. I’m going to let people have fun and guess, but I’ll put the answer in a future profile since he has a connection to another character.
Legends of Windemere 
So he’s a gnome and a vampire, or just hangs out with the Dawnfangs? Kind of confused.
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Gnomish vampire. In fantasy, vampires can be made from more than humans. So you have vampires that began as various races.
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Got it. I thought the Dawnfangs were their own species.
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Yes and no. Original vampirism is still the disease type we’re used to. They become new creatures while retaining their original forms and abilities. Early Dawnfangs were created from original vampires as well. So, one could say it’s more of a mutation or even an evolution. This means Dawnfangs are their own species, but they still have aspects of their previous forms.
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That’s kind of cool. Lots of options for class struggles and such.
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Guess so. I wasn’t going that route with them. It’s more old species vs new. Both sides have united without the classism because they’re also hunted by outside forces. That and the Dawnfangs were founded by a guy who wasn’t from the elite class, so they follow his more ‘humble’ station.
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Them uniting is also cool.
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Also makes sense with Windemere in general. There’s been so many global threats and upheavals requiring a unified front that the races don’t treat each other as outsiders to the extent we do on Earth.
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That sounds about right.
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A vampire gnome or gnome vampire (I sound like Alice), what a splendid and unique idea, Charles.
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Thanks. It’s not as unique as one would think. Been possible in Dungeons & Dragons for a long time. I’m actually surprised it isn’t done more often in fantasy.
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I’m glad coldhandboyack asked the question, because I wondered about that as well.
It would be interesting to see what would happen if Gregorio asked Mab for a hug.
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Wow. I’m really surprised it’s that confusing considering vampirism has always been a species born from infection. In a world with multiple species at the ‘civilized’ level, such a thing wouldn’t play favorites. Especially since it’s common for their to be half-breeds like Luke, Nyx, and Mayor Highrider. Really hoping this isn’t going to be a problem in the books since giving an explanation for this wouldn’t work. Nobody would ever question vampires of other species, so it wouldn’t come up.
Mab would probably give him a hug with some eye-rolling added in. Not sure what else she would do.
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It makes sense when you explained it. I’m not used to seeing anyone other than humans turned into vampires. So it’s cool that other species can turn.
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Seems vampires and zombies aren’t as common in fantasy as I thought.
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I get lost easily. RPG? DBZ? Well anyway, I think Gregorio sounds like a great character.
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RPG= role playing game. DBZ = Dragonball Z (a manga/anime). Gregorio is a fun character to use at times. I noticed early on that he works better in a supporting role.
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Sounds like quite the winning combination to me!
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Definitely gives him one of the more eccentric personalities at times. I do enjoy writing quirky or crazy types.
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Oh, I’m sure that doesn’t reflect on you at all.
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Damn. If it doesn’t then I’m not trying hard enough.
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Yeah, you gotta apply yourself, you know.
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Just like peanut butter on bread. Apply until satiated.
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😀
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