Patience

"Good things come to those who wait"

Patience is the concept of perseverance and the ability to endure difficult circumstances. Patience teaches mortals how to make the right decisions, and to favor a more favorable result in the long term. He pushes the idea of nurturing one's skill and worth, like a tree that would only bear fruit after years of tending. Planting seeds of hopes and dreams to those he finds worthy, to sprouting talents or those who persevere no matter what the world throws at them. He is the creator of the Mudboy race, who usually follow their creator in their human form by inertia. It is said he once planted a few of them, and then they multiplied. They are a great way to spread his teachings, as being kind and nurturing to one of these beings will sooner or later generate abundant harvests. He as well is the creator of the Mockstump.

He often test mortals, taking the form of a happy, friendly but clumsy knight with an infectious laugh. He wears in his human form multiples bells upon him and a very misplaced scabbard. On top of that, his clumsiness of a destructive nature, along with his apparent lack of skills, often push the patience of even the most imperturbable mortals to the limit. Patience is believed to be the second most benevolent fundamental towards mortals, surpassed only by Temperance. Although he often saves those he considers worthy of his attention, on the other side he turns those he punishes into trees, rooted in place, still aware of everything happening around them, but unable to do anything about it. Patience weapon of choice is that of a basic sword, something he can always improve his skills with.

Blessings

The fundamental of Patience tends to favor persistent folks, those who keep trying for a better future, knowing it would be a difficult and taxing path. He particularly holds fondness for those born without talents, sorcery or anything special, just ordinary folk with big hearts, which is why his followers tend to be laborers, men-at-arms, gardeners, farmers, cheese and winemakers.

His blessing, unlike other fundamentals, is very plain and simple. Whereas Wrath or Temperance give amazing powers, he bestows upon his chosen the gift of longevity, in order to let them grow by themselves as much as possible. Though, this does not mean that its champion is ageless, simply that they age far slower. In the same time, it's far from immortality, as it does not exempt from illness or wounds, reaffirming it only seeks to grant its bearer the necessary time to become the best version they can aspire to be, like a finely cared tree spreading its roots over time.

Patience knows that sooner or later, every mortal's determination or will can wither. As such, he will stay aside patiently, as it is not his fight to have, and will give back his favors once he deemed their worth has returned.

Domain of Patience

Patience's domain is endurance and longevity, therefore those with Patience's blessing are able to live beyond their means. They are known to be a sturdy lot as well, difficult to kill and long lived, allowing one to hone their skills longer or gain more knowledge. Patience seems to reward persistence as well, as those blessed by him seem to learn things quicker.

Path of Patience

"A man who is master of patience is a master of everything else."

"Patience is bitter, but wine is better that way."

"Knowing trees one can understand the meaning of patience, knowing grass one can appreciate true persistence."

"Hasty decisions leads to unfavorable results."

"There is no time to change old habits, instead build better ones."

"Patience is bitter, but its fruits are sweet."

"Today you struggle, so your children won't."

"But maybe, just today, we can kickback and watch a play, it will be fun!"

Opinions on other Fundamentals

From an anonymous source who claims to have asked the Fundamentals about each other:

• Authority "Heavy is the crown is it not? I wouldn't know, I am but a knight not a king. The youngest of us all but yet the strongest deserve his throne no doubt, but even still I wonder how much could he stomach? Untold amount of misery plagues the Familiar Lands, there is no shortage of crises to halt, and schemes to fell. We do not always see eye to eye, I mean look at me! Look at him! We're worlds apart in terms of goals, I am but a little humble deity compared to his magnificence, so worry not I won't cause much trouble if that's what you're worried about. I'm not his right hand woman like Humility but Authority has come to rely on me for most of his problems, ones that take a long time to resolve that is. I wish he's more fond of Alexandra though, he doesn't seem to appreciate her like I do...
• Diligence "The very definition of boring. Working hard is great and all, I'm no stranger to it, but to dedicate your entire life to it? Phew, I don't think even I could endure that! Anyways, Diligence always means business, whatever you want done chances are he could, would and definitely will see it to the end should he choose to undertake it. You have to make deals with this man, but once you strike it, he's a man of his word and at the very least you could always trust that."
• Temperance "Another boring one, but I guess he's quite necessary? We occasionally get along, he never really irk me, nor I him. We agree on many things, but thing is we're always going to eventually clash in our beliefs. I believe that through hard work and time anything can be achieved and should be achieved while he wants to keep things balanced and the same... The peasants stay as peasants, the weak stay weak...Not my style. We work pretty well together considering our differences, strangely enough we always end up crossing paths. His followers are fond of mine, and mine are generally fond of everyone so everybody plays along in the end."
• Lust
  "Nice girl, always fun in parties and simultaneously the most predictable and unpredictable of the bunch. She keeps things interesting, and loves to play around, we're like two peas in a pod, birds of a feather! Well that is until she decide to overstep from time to time. I rarely clash with anyone, but Lust? She wears her heart on her sleeves and believe me when I say she could get... Quite obsessive. Good way to handle her is to just be annoying or straightforward, she loves to play games but if you refuse to play -her- game she'll lose interest faster than snow melting in the Sacred Sands"
• Kindness "Lady Kindness is the sweetest, though probably the most crestfallen of us. Being the caretaker of death will naturally be quite depressing if I've to be honest..."
• Chastity WIP
• Humility WIP
• Wrath WIP
• Pride WIP
• Sloth WIP
• Envy WIP
• Greed WIP
• Gluttony WIP
• Hope WIP
• Fate WIP
• Curiosity WIP
• Unity WIP

Trivia

• He finds Wrath to be an interesting character, and likes to banter and tease him, but also the one able to calm him down. While Wrath is known to often change his Chosen Knights because of their fall, Patience only has had one Alexandra Athana so far.

• The character concept comes from 3 central topics. First, his design resemblance to Solaire of Astora in his human form, with his tabard, helmet and color palette. Secondly, it also takes inspiration in the Arthurian tales of the Green Knight, his green clothing commonly associated with plants and nature, in charge of testing the hearts and courage of other knights. The third and last are bonsai trees, a Japanese art about the cultivation of miniaturized trees to create small landscapes. It's a mean of meditation and patience in Japanese culture, as it can take decades of care and nurturing to grow one.