Calder Kerian

Calder Kerian
In return, I can offer what you want most. And I don't need you to tell me what that is. I can plainly see what's at the top of your list.
Introduction First Appearance
Title	Maid of Void
Age	8 Repitonian Solar Sweeps
Gender Identity	He/Him (Cis Male)
Status	Alive
Screen Name	grandioseSaturation
Typing Style	Proper grammar and syntax, an intentional absence of a typing quirk.
Strife Specibi	Glaivekind, Halberdkind , Golfclubkind
Fetch Modus	Rolodex
Relations	Caesar Consceleratus Persolus - Ancestor Serpaz Helilo - Ex-Kismesis Occeus Coliad - Ex-Moirail
Planet	Land of Murk and Quagmire
Music	Oversaturated ♫ Tyrant ♫ Immortal ♫ Cheap (Boxed Wine) ♫ Oversaturated (Elevator Mix) ♫ Reverent ♫ Ellsee's Theme (Ft. Calder Kerian) (UF) ♫ Archon ♫ Hallowed Halls ♫ Dark Mirror ♫ VI-rulent VI-ndication ♫ Turncoat ♫ A Portrait Of Ruin ♫
	v·d·e
Chatlogs Murrit: Answer the other troll. Arcjec: Open Memo. Occeus: Seek clarification. Ellsee: Begin memo. Calder: Answer Occeus. Ellsee: Go off. Arcjec: Open new memo. Sova: Continue reading. Prince: Exhaust. Calder: Receive message from business partner. Sova: Disregard that. Lurk in the new memo instead. Calder: Answer old friend. ======>

Calder Kerian, also known by his Skorpe handle, grandioseSaturation, is one of the trolls in Vast Error. His associated alchemic sigil is Iron and his horns are pointed upwards and towards each other, with the right one resembling the light of an angler fish.  

Calder is based off of the "Disrespected Royalty" fantroll archetype.

Despite appearing as such, his blood is not the fuchsia blood of the designated ruling class of trolls. It is a similar, but ultimately distinct shade of Magenta.

He was the ninth troll introduced and the third troll introduced in Act 2, however he made several appearances throughout Act 1. He was the eleventh troll to enter the game.

Etymology

The name Calder means "rocky waters" in Celtic. The name Kerian is another variant of the name Kyrian, coming from the Greek kyrie, meaning "Lord".

Biography

Four Passes

Calder seemed to once be a rather shy boy, not speaking much to others in this stage of his life. His features are notably much less sharp at this age, having a more concerned expression rather than the sharp glares and pompous demeanor that have become a staple of his older self. Additionally, he seemed much more wary to make trouble, as young Murrit Turkin noted that he wouldn't help the children escape their sleeping quarters to go play.

Six Sweeps

In his younger years, Calder was friends with Laivan and Arcjec and used to be involved in their light-hearted pretend games. Additionally, he was in a kismessitude with Serpaz Helilo, and in a moiraillegence with Occeus Coliad. All of these relationships have been abandoned or ended for reasons unknown. It is mentioned that Occeus left Calder, leaving him rather bitter about their time together.

Pre-game

Calder's introduction is full of foreshadowing and parallels as the first full sight of him is with Calder positioned right on his ancestor's throne, wine in hand. He sits while idly musing if his teammates know what exactly they're getting into- And that soon enough, they will, as his collusions become clearer later on in the comic.

Shortly after his introduction, Calder proceeded to the Grand Fairway to play golf when he's suddenly messaged by his former moirail, demanding an explanation of his involvement in The Game, to which he replies that he had nothing to do with it and both of them are completely powerless in the situation. He abruptly ends the conversation with Occeus and continues playing golf.

Afterwards, him and Ellsee Raines come into contact, forging a tense alliance to better navigate the game, though Calder's intentions are far more selfish than the agreement would let on.

During the Game

Calder's first appearance in his land is shown in [S] Ellsee: Enter. He stands in murky waters, greeted by his swan consorts, to which he proceeds to give rather unflattering names to.

The structure of the land itself seems to have a similar landscape to Venice, Italy with most buildings waterlocked and the only reliable method of transportation being swan-led boats. The buildings themselves seem to have historical inspirations, with one specifically adorned with stone pillars reminiscent of Rome. The human parallels come to a head as the portrait of a previous void player- a human woman, much to Calder's dismay- is shown within one of the buildings, being the gateway further down into the world.

After a tense confrontation with Arcjec, Calder is revealed to be working alongside Edolon Vryche{VE|2222}.

Personality and Traits

Initially, Calder appears to be a very self-important troll with a superiority complex and a strongly-implied dislike of women. He is very aware of the social and environmental decline of Repiton, and is such very politically-minded, to the point of cynicism and humorlessness. He is particularly focused on proper conduct and presenting himself as a proper sea-dweller to establish superiority. He persistently projects these ideals onto Murrit, who had once been his picture of what a proper sea-dweller should be like. Furthermore, he sees friendships and connections to be purely transactional in nature.

Being the descendant of the troll that decimated the sea dweller population out of jealousy, Calder is considered a social pariah by association. He feels an immense obligation to do his part to undo the damage done by his ancestor's atrocities and help reestablish order. As such, Calder obsessed with the continued existence of the sea dwelling trolls, and in becoming a leading force on Repiton. He works to increase his influence by publishing the politically-charged and intentionally morally-provocative Sideline magazine, but he hasn't been personally involved in its production in some time.

Calder has a long list of strained and bitterly-ended relationships, quadrant relationships or otherwise. Judging from the old portraits of these old friends and loved ones on the walls of his hive, and the bitterness he shows when reflecting on these past relationships, Calder is unable to move on from any of it.

Judging by his previous interactions with Arcjec and Laivan, and his involvement in their games, Calder may have been less uptight in his youth.

Relationships

Murrit Turkin

Murrit does not like Calder at all. Murrit makes a huge point of annoying or ignoring Calder whenever possible, even basing his persistent "love" of hentai to mock his male-centric ideals and hoity toity attitude. Calder is frustrated with Murrit's refusal to behave like a proper sea dweller, and regularly tries to boss Murrit around. Calder at one point deeply respected Murrit, back when he acted more in line with the expectations of a sea-dweller, and Calder tries to make Murrit behave in his old manner, to no avail.

Occeus Coliad

It has been shown that Calder and Occeus have had a, now-ended, pale relationship with one another. Currently, their relationship is very tense and strained. Calder shows a lot of bitterness towards Occeus, and is visibly upset when Occeus tries to contact him. From Calder's perspective, it appears that Occeus had at some point abruptly ended their moiraillegence. Calder still keeps old pictures of Occeus on the walls of his hive.

Serpaz Helilo

Calder and Serpaz were previously in a kismessitude. Prior to the end of their relationship, she used to push Calder to try new hobbies to get out of his own head. Calder still keeps pictures of Serpaz on the walls of his hive, as well as the model ship she had him make.

Arcjec Voorat

Calder and Arcjec were once friends in their youth, but that doesn't appear to be the case anymore. Even as Arcjec attempted to reach out, his advances were swiftly rejected, suggesting some lingering bad blood on Calder's end.

Laivan Ferroo

Similarly, Calder was once friends with Laivan Ferroo.

Ellsee Raines

Calder is generally dismissive and disrespectful towards Ellsee, as he is with most of the female cast of Vast Error. He constantly talks down to her and treats her like an incompetent stooge, unwilling to let her prove otherwise. His dislike for Ellsee may be related to his similar dislike of their red lover, Occeus.

Ellsee simply sees him as a chauvinistic prick, but isn't petty enough to leave him out of the loop when she has important, life-saving information.

In the Pre-Game, the two had reached into an agreement with Ellsee providing any means of information that can help them win the Game and in exchange, Calder will make sure that Ellsee is included and wanted in any situation the trolls are in.

Sestro Enthal & Secily Iopara

At the beginning of Snowbound Blood Volume 1, Calder is ranting to Sestro over the phone about late shipments, causing Sestro to signal Secily to shoot the window as an excuse to get off the phone.

In Occeus's route, Secily quickly recognizes grandioseSaturation as Calder from his Skorpe conversations with Occeus.

In her thoughts, Secily expresses surprise at the fact that Calder is not a part of her provided suspect list.

Edolon Vryche

Edolon and Calder, at the time of writing, appear to have a secretive alliance brewing behind the scenes. Calder appears to have full knowledge of- and very little care for- the events of [S] Incursion, and merely remarks that the coup d'etat could have had more 'class' in regards to the execution.

As Calder seems to view friendships as mere transactions more than anyone, he seems to be putting this alliance above the lives of the people he once called friends in exchange for power and recognition that he believes he deserves.

On the other hand, Edolon gains inside knowledge to the events of the game, and through Calder can attempt to manipulate events as he pleases. Time will tell if this alliance will continue to be mutually beneficial.

Trivia

• Calder is somewhat similar to Equius Zahhak, Eridan Ampora and Cronus Ampora of Homestuck. Like Equius and Eridan, Calder is a highblood who is obsessed with the pecking order and ruling over the lower castes.
  • Like Equius, Calder often concerns himself on whether other people are acting properly within their caste.
  • Like Cronus, Calder picked up a supposed vice to add to a certain image, but ultimately misses the point of actually partaking in that vice. Calder likes to hold and swirl wine but despises the taste, whereas Cronus started "smoking cigarettes" (actually pieces of his old wands that he sticks in his mouth), but never actually lights them since he feels like it would be a waste.
• Calder is a Violetblood, a Derse dreamer, and a Hero of Void, meaning on Alternia his sign would be Aquittarius, Sign of the Enigma.
• Calder's Skorpe handle is 'grandioseSaturation'
  • Grandiosity is another term for narcissism.
  • The word saturation means "the state or process that occurs when no more of something can be absorbed"
  • 'grandioseSaturation' may mean "over absorbed narcissism".
• Calder appears to be loosely based on a number of chauvinistic, misogynistic and bigoted male archetypes and tropes, and is most frequently associated with the Men's Rights Activists group when discussed.
• Calder has an admiration for Winston Churchill. On Repiton, instead of being a famed military leader, Troll Churchill was instead a yellowblood alchemist, who learned the secret of transmuting gold and went on to turn his own skin into gold. However he accomplished this just shortly before gold rendered obsolete on Repiton, which left Troll Churchill to live in pain and misery before his death, as he was unable to change himself back to normal.
• Calder runs a Filler account under the username Sideline for his magazine of the same name.
• Calder's lusus resembles a female anglerfish. This seems to be an exception to the trend of charges having the same gender as their lusus.
  • His original lusus might have been a male anglerfish that get absorbed into a female anglerfish during mating.
• In Snowbound Blood, he is described as having a "sandpaper-harsh, salty voice" during a phone call with Sestro Enthal in Chapter 1.
• Calder finds replacing lightbulbs annoying.
• Calder lands as a cat on the cat-to-dog spectrum.

Gallery

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  Young Calder

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  Calder pre-game

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  Calder preparing to enter

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  Calder's Filler account

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  4 pass old Calder

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  Calder's trollodex card

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  Pure Self Calder from an alternate probability

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  Calder looking at a picture of a woman