Community post #5: Cato, through the years

Diamante: Hi yeah it's me, I rarely do these posts but here I am today!

If you've been following me for a while, since 2018 at least, it's likely you know my DnD OCs, including Cato which was the first one that I started posting about in fall 2018.

My boyfriend wanted to DM a long DnD 5e homebrew campaign set in the realm of Tal'Dorei; since I know little next to nothing about Critical Role, I was given the chance to invent a character from another nationality. So, Cato isn't from Tal'Dorei but comes from an island somewhere near Tal'Dorei. 

His original DnD story isn't the happiest, quite the contrary. Born in a noble family from two humans, his mother was infertile and made a contract with an Infernal to get pregnant. However she died in childbirth and Cato was born a tiefling; he grew up "discriminated between the privileged" walking on a very thin line. Later in life, his father remarried to a woman from a neighbouring kingdom, from whom he had three sons. One of them was Ethor, Cato's oldest younger brother: the two never got along, with Ethor "The Mad" attempting to kill Cato many, many times. Ethor was, however, just a pawn in his mother's hands: she, being the real enemy, poisoned Cato's father and framed Cato for his death. 

Cato was imprisoned and sentenced to death by beheading: however, his Patron (yes, homeboy is a tiefling AND a warlock: shocking!) came to the rescue, granting him a new life someplace far away, in exchange of "fixing something your ancestor has done". 

When I first started playing I wasn't new to DnD but that was my first ever roleplay-heavy campaign. Adjusting the Cato in my head to the Cato I was supposed to play at the table was hard, I wanna be honest. There were times when I, sadly, was the player going full "my guy" syndrome. I had no idea how to play a noble, so I kinda stuck to the idea of noblemen I had in my mind. Cato was annoyingly arrogant. a know-it-all and absolutely a pain in the ass to be around. 

Some time later I started questioning Cato: I asked him what he liked, why he liked partying so much, and what was his outlook on life in general; did he really want to take back the throne, was he looking for justice? I started "talking" more to the character and I discovered how his arrogant and seductive attitude was a mask, how he actually is a super-positive kind of person, ready to give a honest compliment and easy to get along with, absolutely wild party animal unable to accept responsibilities and with that pinch of dumb that just makes him more endearing. 

I accepted this side of Cato and since then, playing him just became the light of my Thursdays (up until the 2020's plague). When Alice created Iulius, then, it wasn't long until we realized... They were best friends, separated by the multiverse of DnD!! We kept thinking more and more about them as best friends and it was absolute magic. They're such opposites and that's why their duo is soooo dynamic.

Keeping Cato in our story wasn't only a wise thing to do. It was mandatory, there's no Cato without Iulius. ♥

There are other characters from our DnD games that we might be "importing" in our story, with some adjustments.. Stay tuned to know more! And I hope this long post was an interesting read. Are you curious to know more about this older, but maybe none the wiser, Cato?