The protagonist is Erzi (Gehrman Erkengisel), a human hunter who has ascended to godhood.
Flaw
Core Urge
(In order to survive/get my needs met) I need to be the most useful person to the people I love, no matter the toll on myself.
Erzi cannot stop doubting his decisions, always wondering if he could’ve done something different to make the present better for others. He is a perfectionist, needing to resolve every issue, including those of his friends. His identity is tied up with Laurence, so he finds it hard to make decisions that doesn’t include him.
Stated Belief - internal justification
I just want to do the right thing and return the favour for all the good deeds that’s done for me.
Backstory (as related to flaw)
Growing up, Erzi was treated as the disposable child. His family were famous playwrights, actors and musicians, Gehrman himself but did not have any aptitude for the arts. No matter how hard he tried, he was the disappointment in the family.
He was the child sent to fetch equipment, clean the studio, and mend the holes. However, he became intimate with the mechanisms behind props, instruments, and other things his family members thought they were above. He found a place in his home as a stagehand, where he was tolerated as long as he was quiet and helpfully. He only ever earned love by becoming Laurence’s handyman, and the two quickly became codependent.
He fixes others’ problems because he’s spent his whole life trying to earn a seat at the table by being indispensable.
Manifestations of the Flaw
Lifestyle
Erzi is a craftsman and has a knack for making useful things from what people throw away; for example, his famous “trick” weapons are made from spare parts. Just because he’s lacking in resources (see childhood) doesn’t stop him from making his own opportunities. His core urge makes him strive to find alternatives.
Relationships
Erzi has a complicated relationship with Laurence. They have a form of codependence, like Erzi depends on Laurence for his self-esteem, and Laurence on Erzi to help him deal with the consequences of his own actions.
Laurence shows him respect and love, but is more than happy to use and manipulate Erzi. It’s easy for Gehrman to only see the positive parts of their relationship as he had never experienced love before.
Personality
In-game Dialogue
“It always comes down to the hunters’ helper to clean up after these sorts of messes.” — Gehrman, the First Hunter
Erzi is quick to offer his help to his friends. He’s often giving thoughtful advice, after he’s considered as many possibilities as he can. On the positive side, Erzi is a selfless man. On the negative, he can become obsessed with a project, unable to jump ship until it’s too late. In the past, it was Laurence who helped him move onto new goals, but when Laurence becomes his goal, Erzi is hopelessly trapped.
Erzi was raised to not draw attention to himself as he’s literally the stagehand while his siblings were taking up all the spotlight. As a result, he’s a quiet man who has no desire to take charge or grasp for power, but ends up in the edge of the spotlight thanks to his usefulness.
Character arc
- Inner lie: ^bcdae2
- Erzi’s actions are dictated by the belief that he is only worthy if he can fix every mess. If he fails, it’s because he wasn’t clever enough. He needs to learn to accept his limitations.
- Result: Erzi is unable to control his power, and his city is in ruins; reality is distorted and the people who live there are suffering.
- Trigger: Erzi sets out to find Laurence. He’s guided by the Dream Demon, who represents his darkest desires and wants him to keep the time loop going indefinitely.
- Quest: Part of Erzi’s plan succeeds (finding Laurence and his friends?).
- That his plans succeeds at all despite the insane odds strengthens his conviction that he’s capable.
- But he has to confront that his friends do not want to reset time as they’ve suffered from it, such as reliving traumatic events, a loss of identity, and pervasive hopelessness. Erzi insists that it will be different when he does it, refusing to believe that his friends in past timelines had turned into monsters in previous timelines — he adds new goals to his quest: saving Laurence (from himself), fixing the Anchor, fixing the city, finding his other friends.
- Erzi adds more and more goals to his impossible quest.
- Erzi doesn’t try to understand Laurence; he sees Laurence’s current action as a mistake that Erzi must fix, as usual. Makes Laurence angrier that Erzi thinks he’s better than him.
- Bolt: Stuck in a Soul Echo, Erzi learns that he had used the Anchor before; in fact, the fragments of the timelines he’s run into were the “solutions” he’d planned in his head. He has reset time countless times and finally he doubts his own abilities — and feels guilt for putting everyone through traumatic events over and over. To him, it’s a clean slate, but they carry the trauma of each loop. He’s even tried to take their free will from them before. It finally sinks in that he’s not human anymore and he can’t have the cake and eat it too.
- Shift
- The Great One answers Erzi’s call for help and pulls him from his own Dream, in an attempt to remove him from his human past. He watches from the outside and realises that life continues for the people in the Dream, finding contentment despite the fact that they cannot reset time. However, Erzi fights the Great One and returns to the Dream.
- Defeat: Laurence traps Erzi in a trap and tries to kill him. Erzi panics and reset the timeline, but the Anchor is so damaged that it breaks down the barrier of the Dream. The Great One breaks into his realm and answers Laurence’s pleas — to erase him from reality. He is gone for good. There’s literally no parts left for Erzi to fix. At the Great One’s coaxing (like an animal licking amniotic sac of its newborn), he loses his human shell, taking on his eldritch form.
- Power: Erzi feels a yearning towards the stars and remembers that Laurence had always been fascinated by the stars. His Dream seems so tiny compared to the cosmos. Erzi decides that he will move on and fights the Dream Demon for the Anchor. It’s a difficult fight as the Demon has become incredibly powerful thanks to the endless cycles of suffering. As the fight ends, the demon claims it’s able to reconstruct Laurence, but its temptations no longer work on Erzi. He defeats the Demon and regains control of the Dream.
- Resolution: Erzi fixes the Anchor, but does not reset the timeline. He says goodbye and provide a few gifts, but ultimately leaves the Dream to join the Great One swimming in the cosmos amongst the stars. With the Anchor intact, the Dream can continue to exist without Erzi’s interference; it begins to stabilise and its survivors will decide their own destiny, resulting in a timeline that was closest to what he had desired — even if he’s not a part of it. ^ee72df
- Erzi realises that he cannot fix everything and he shouldn’t agonise over lost moments. He has accepted his limitations.