INFOPOST: Owen Corley

[cypher_can_fly]

Hello, everyone! Meet my new student, who will hopefully actually be out and about, and hails from the one Bioware game I did not expect myself to app from, except then I did because of course I did I'm me. Ahem.

Anthem came out earlier this year. It's not a fantastic game. There's a few things about it that are compelling, however-- Owen being one of them, for me.




To keep a long story as short as possible, Anthem takes place on a planet abandoned by its creators, the Shapers. Those Shapers once channeled a powerful, creative psychokinetic force called the Anthem through special relics to create the flora and fauna, the geography, probably even the weather of this world. But when they left, they also left their relics - and the Anthem.

Without anything to steer it, the Anthem wreaked havoc on this planet for a long time. Then General Helena Tarsis stood up five centuries ago and crafted the first Javelin armor, a massive flying robo-suit fueled by technology that uses the Anthem, in a way, to function. Soon, she had an army, the Legion of Dawn, and together they silenced relics and built great walled cities to protect humanity from the chaos.

"ANTHEM Final Trailer (2019)" (Watch on YouTube)

Over time, Javelin pilots became known as Freelancers, and they were embraced as heroes. Until a few years before Anthem starts, when an evil force called the Dominion sets off a relic in the heart of the city of Freemark, destroying it. Only a few survive, including a remarkably customizable Freelancer whose name may or may not rhyme with 'Layer Arakter'. Said Freelancer limps away and spends several years toiling in a world that no longer believes Lancers are as great as advertised.

But Freelancers can't do their work alone. They need a guide, a set of eyes and ears that can do research in an instant, that can sense and predict relics and how to silence them, who can look through their eyes and process the paths of incoming missiles - and speak in their ears to warn them. Those guides are called cyphers, humans gifted with the ability to hear the Anthem, trained to process information at overwhelming speed.

Not all cyphers are teamed with Freelancers. Many choose the more peaceful life of a city cypher, using special amplifier chairs to telepathically communicate with cyphers in other cities. In a world that hasn't been at peace for long enough to invent long-range communication more sophisticated than radio, cyphers are basically the human, telepathic equivalent of a computer with an internet connection.

They were oppressed and enslaved once, much like the mages of Dragon Age; but the cypher liberation came a long time ago, and now they can freely choose what to do with their powers.

Benwick Xan, a brilliant cypher in his day, thought he could pilot a javelin whilst ignoring his own heightened awareness. [...] He hired a Freelancer to escort him into the wild; they hadn't gone three step when they were attacked by skorpions. In the heat of battle, Benwick could not focus. He found when one of the beasts attacked, his attention was split: sensing a rise in Shaper energy to the East, picking up Arcanist distress signals, noting the rise in humidity due to recent rain, and dozens of other things that did not help at this moment. He tried to fly, but accidentally fired his cannon. He tried to fire his cannon, but instead punched a nearby rock. -- 'The Cypher Who Wanted To Fly', from In the Chair: Interviews with Negan Dell

Owen Corley never got to choose what he wanted to do with his life. He was the sixth child born to a poor family, and a difficult, emotional boy at that; when the local Satomi - cypher school - discovered he could hear the Anthem, his parents were glad both for the pay and to have one less mouth to feed. Owen was given to the Satomi at age eight, and never saw his family again.

He's fine, though. Like, that is a thing that that is completely cool with him. Ha, who needs them, right?

After leaving Bronelyn Satomi - for the intents of Fandom, I'm going to say he ran away - Owen wandered around the cities of Bastion for some time. Along the way, he met a young Freelancer-in-training and tried to steal something of hers. She caught him, but instead of turning him in, they became quick friends.

But she left for Freelancer training - and a date with a certain relic underneath Freemark - and left Owen to fend for himself again. So... Owen's gone wandering and found himself at Fandom. In time, he'll return to his homeworld and help the Freelancer attempt to set things right, among other things. But for now, he's attending Fandom. Woo!

Owen has tanned skin and deep blue eyes, a face with a vaguely Middle Eastern quality to it for some reason, and he's perpetually in motion.

He likes a spot of mischief, and he dreams of being more than just another message-relaying cypher. He wants to know what it would be like to see the world through the eyes of a Freelancer, flying into battle, going on great adventures... maybe some day. Big dreams, and, well. He's talented. The world could be his oyster! If he works and studies hard, he'll make a great cypher to a Freelancer some day, and maybe... maybe something more than that.



He tries to stay optimistic, to see the bright side of everything, sometimes to a desperate degree. He talks a lot, probably partly because his cypher abilities give him a lot of input at any one time, but mostly because he's just a sociable guy who likes people and having fun and everything is going to be great.

They say all cyphers are a little bit broken. But not Owen. Owen is fine.


A NOTE ABOUT POWERS:
In the world of Anthem, the really impressive feats of telepathy - talking at great distance, seeing through another's eyes, etcetera - are only really possible via the use of an amplifier chair, which connects a cypher more thoroughly to the Anthem. And the Anthem isn't even really present at Fandom.

I'm going to handwave and says he still feels it a little bit, and that feats of Fandom weird set off his senses, much like it does for the Jedi. And the ability to rapidly process information to an inhuman extent - not going anywhere either. But Owen's powers are going to be weak at Fandom compared to other telepaths.


Tamsin (fjordicswagger) is the mayor of Fandom town, hailing from Lost Girl. She's a mean, sarcastic ancient Valkyrie fae who does not truck with any of you go away.
Cable (dubstepthanos) is still around, I swear. He's from the Deadpool movies and he runs Wellspring Arms in town in typical cryptic, grumpy soldier fashion.
Atton Rand (suitably_heroic) is Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2's favorite deconstruction of Han Solo, a damaged, traumatized Sith-gone-Jedi with a bloody history and a best friend (myownface) he'd die for in a heartbeat.
Ender Wiggin (endsthegame) is returning to Fandom for the first time in a few years. He's the main protagonist of the Ender's Game series. He murdered almost all of an entire alien race when he was eleven years old and most of his life since then has been about dealing with that. Now has two adorable kids with his partner momslilassassin.

ALUMS:

Dante Sparda (rebelseekspizza), the rebellious-and-secretly-campy child of an angel and a demon, currently living in his home of Limbo City with his partners spin_kick_snap and not_every_mage. DmC: Devil May Cry.
Edward Kenway (doesnotkneel) is an opportunistic young pirate with some strange powers he doesn't quite understand. Will be an assassin one day. Assassin's Creed: Black Flag.
Peter Wiggin (lockestheway), brother of Ender, Hegemon of the world, boyfriend to whenshewasnice. He's calmed down a lot from his narcissistic, sociopathic days. Achieving everything you wanted in life helps.