Volkonir Moroti (Eccentriaverse)

Prince Volkonir Moroti of Cortascius / Vincent "Vinny" Amadeus Mason is a superhero in the Eccentriaverse of Dozerfleet Comics. A Cortascian by birth, he is slightly enhanced over the average human being by his bond to the EccentriaCore of his birth planet. In spite a since-broken spell having kept him preserved to being physiologically hardly a day over 30, he is technically over 400 years old when he begins protecting Bozeman, Montana from the Gwirdons.

He was originally portrayed by John DeBruyn in the promotional materials for the canceled 2008 film Volkonir, and his toy form was first depicted in the trailer for that film.

Immediately before

 * 1587 - Silnya gives birth to Editrab.


 * 1589 - February 23rd, Wontisha gives birth to Volkonir. 5:45 AM MST.


 * 1600 - Wontisha first begins showing signs of illness.


 * 1601 - Marzwhatti starts the war by murdering Princess Gwantina. Morlikus learns weaving from Grinodos.  The Stone of Bovinil Peril goes missing.


 * 1602 - Crimazol becomes the Red Serpent. Editrab captured by Gwirmalesh, at behest of his father, and groomed to become Tarantrum.


 * 1603 - Rumastik becomes the Silver Ferret. Silnya becomes the Crystal Swan, after the powers reject Vantina.

Prince and squire

 * January 16th, 1604 - Death of Queen Wontisha.
 * March 23rd, 1604 - At age 15, Vinny goes to work for Silnya.

Fall of the early Knights

 * April of 1606 - Crimazol falls in battle to Diabloq.
 * July of 1607 - Rumastik falls in battle.

Defeat on Cortascius

 * May 1608 - At age 19, Vinny is turned into a stuffed toy by Swivertik.

Adventures in Big Rapids

 * February 7th, 2008 - Vinny learns of the vortex's location.
 * February 12th, 2008 - Vinny mistreated by hair salon staff.
 * February 15th, 2008 - Vinny finds lodging on a shelf inside Biggby.

Attempt #43

 * April 12th, 2008 - Katie Averes refuses to help Vinny
 * April 13th, 2008 - Vinny finds a way to return north.

Breaking the spell

 * April 14th, 2008 - Vinny returns to Big Rapids.
 * April 15th, 2008 - Vinny befriends Dereck
 * April 16th, 2008 - Dereck is exposed to the Gwirdons. Must go into hiding.  Vinny reveals that Cassie has a crush on him.  Dereck urges Vinny to seek Cassie's help.
 * April 17th, 2008 - Dereck leaves town for a day. Makes connections with Hanom.  Hanom, intrigued by Dereck's claims, asks for evidence of the prince.  And will provide the prince with transportation to Montana.
 * April 18th, 2008 - Vinny is about 419 when the spell is broken, with Cassie's help.
 * April 19th, 2007 - Vinny learns secretly how to ride a motorcycle.

First journey to Texas

 * April 21st, 2008 - Kayla, almost 16, abducted.
 * April 22nd, 2008 - Distress call. Kayla's situation makes it to Hanom's radar.
 * April 23rd, 2008 - Vinny uses motorcycle and other tools Hanom gave him. Buys a storage bag from Wal-Mart and a helmet.  Buys a Biggby mug.
 * April 24th, 2008 - Vinny leaves for Texas.

Cyber warrior

 * April 27th, 2008 - Percolation Wave storm sends a clone of Vinny to a cyberpunk dimension.

Meeting Kayla

 * April 28th, 2008 - Kayla and friends try to escape from Gwirdon captors. Get help form Volkonir.  Kayla and Vinny first lay eyes on each other; and are instantly enamored.  But don't speak, and are soon concerned again with the tasks at hand for each.
 * May 3rd, 2008 - Kayla threatened by judge over her having missed a week of school. Kayla argues she was kidnapped.  Judge doesn't care.

Joining HanomCorp officially

 * May 5th, 2008 - Vinny goes to work for Hanom full time.
 * May 7th, 2008 - Kayla's bus attacked by Gwirdon Treaders. Kayla flees to draw the Gwirdons away from her classmates.  As they give pursuit throughout town, Kayla gets creative about how to take them down.  Police catch her fighting the Gwirdons.  She's arrested, and the Gwirdons that don't flee are put down on the scene.
 * May 8th, 2008 - Judge sentences Kayla to ten days at Tom Green County Jail.
 * May 9th, 2008 - Kayla moved to protective custody section, because she won't stop talking about the Gwirdons.
 * June 8th, 2008 - Hanom proposes eventually enrolling Vinny in classes at Montana State University.

Vinny's first apartment

 * August 4th, 2008 - Vinny moves in to Kagy Village Apartments, so he can have some sense of normalcy in his life, and not feel like a lab rat. His work, plus Hanom's kindness, allow him to pay the rent.

Enrolling at Montana State University

 * August 22nd, 2013 - Vinny, after five years of working for Hanom and monitoring Gwirmalesh and Hiktomoph's activities around town, enrolls at Montana State University. Goes into a political science degree, with a goal to minor in language studies.  Hanom realizes that Vinny must be a 3/4-time student rather than a full-time student, as this allows him time to work shifts, defend Bozeman as the Golden Lion Knight, and still sleep.
 * Hanom also rents out a room for Vanessa, and one for two of his scientists.


 * February 23rd, 2016 - Vinny turns 427 at 5:45 AM MST.

Saving Kayla

 * May 2016 - Vinny helps break Kayla out of prison.

Tracking down lost Cortascians and relics

 * May - August 2016 - Majority of season 1 of Volkonir


 * August 2016 - Kayla goes into mechanical engineering, given her past experience with auto parts smuggling and with race cars. Carlos chooses a history program with a museum studies minor, to validate his love of archeology.  Vinny continuing his education.  As the two scientists sharing an apartment are ready to get homes, and one is getting married, Hanom rents out the room so that Kayla can live there.  He puts her name on the lease, so she can make partial rent payments.  Carlos gets Vanessa's old apartment, as Vanessa rents a small home in town.

Sorisenshi buys HanomCorp

 * September 2016 - April 2017: Season 2 of Volkonir

Defeating Gwirmalesh

 * June 2017: Volkonir: Rise of Semaphry

The new Knights of Cortascius

 * August 2017 - May 2019: Knights of Cortascius and Percolation Warriors.

Percolation Warriors

 * August 2017 - May 2019: Knights of Cortascius and Percolation Warriors.

Personality
Volkonir is a generally optimistic soul; but has grown to understand that a universe where Gwirmalesh's influence can still be felt will always be a dangerous place. He does tend to wallow in self-pity in his toy form, as he grows frustrated with his 400 years of imprisonment and with so few willing to help him. After being restored, however, he becomes very driven to discover the Trinket of Morlikus and take it to the Pool of Healing, believing that restoring his father to the throne will restore Cortascius itself.

He was an eager understudy to Lady Semaphry, and even came to view her as a surrogate mother after the death of Queen Wontisha. As a result, he came to view Editrab as a brother, even after Editrab was transformed by Gwirmalesh into the monstrosity Tarantrum. This leads to Volkonir showing Tarantrum a level of compassion and mercy that he normally doesn't display for any of Gwirmalesh's other kaijin.

He is somewhat ignorant of certain Earth culture and social norms, in spite being trapped on Earth in toy form for approximately 400 years. Worse: He hasn't dated anyone since Cortascius - something that Kayla helps him with. His lack of awareness of certain social cues also makes him oblivious to much of Kayla's flirting, resulting in her becoming frustrated in her efforts to seduce him into her bed. It's not that he's not interested in her; but that he is too sexually innocent to recognize seduction cues. He does reveal later that he does care about her a lot, and she reveals that he's more to her than just a fun night fantasy.

Volkonir has never been very good at watching his own back, making him vulnerable to attacks from behind. He has, however, demonstrated a bloodthirsty side for enemies that have especially harmed him or tried his patience. He often taunts them by offering them one of two really awful fates to choose from, showing at best a false mercy. He also has threatened General Hiktomoph, going so far as to say he'd "gouge out his eyes, all 3,000 of them!"

While generally naive on certain topics to begin with, he will play dumb to an extra degree on the campus of Montana State University, in the hopes that this will convince other students that he's too dense to be the Golden Lion Knight. Vinny is almost always up to protect those he loves from Gwirdon threats, and will become laser-focused on completing a mission. In spite his usual cheery demeanor, his past failures on Cortascius haunt him frequently.

Inspiration
The earliest inspiration for Volkonir as a character dates back to January of 2008, in the spring semester at Ferris State University, for a video production class. Five years earlier, in the middle of January of 2003, the Dozerfleet founder was enrolled in FILM 118 class at Lansing Community College. Most of the class wanted to make fantasy or high-fantasy-themed videos. The Dozerfleet founder was the only one who primarily wanted to make a horror film instead. However, unlike the others who considered slashers or zombies to be the de-facto horror style, the Dozerfleet founder was opting for an American J-horror / space fantasy fusion. That project ultimately became The Blue Face Film Strips. While Blue Face presented a very interesting premise, its greater world remained largely unexplored and unexpanded for several years after its release.

Evolution of characterization
Depiction of Vinny's personality has varied amidst drafts.

The "jerk-with-a-heart-of-gold" era
A draft script for the canceled 2008 Volkonir film depicted him as a perpetually angry and vengeful, but also depicted him as panicked and desperate to fulfill his mission. He behaves in a rude and entitled manner toward Cassie when he first meets her; even arguing that she "may as well" help him out, given that her friends ditched her. Therefore, she had no excuse not to help him. In spite his insistence on not having time for formalities, he feels compelled to give her heavy exposition when he suspects she won't help him. He also expresses a higher level of arrogance in this early draft than he has shown since then; but has also been shown to be much more efficient.

He claims that the two Gwirdon Treaders still chasing him are "the only ones left," but that they "can't get their spells right." He also mentions urgency of getting to the Granger Center to access a "Realm of Healing," which would become the Pool of Healing in later revisions. He also discusses a longing to wield his "Ice-and-Roast Saber" once again, to finish the Gwirdons off. This was a conceit he expressed before revisions named the sword "Selshon." Gwirmalesh as the wielder of the "Evil Wand" (later named "Swivertik") that Volkonir was so afraid of was not acknowledged by Volkonir until revisions came in 2015. Likewise, it wasn't until 2015 that he would officially adopt the alias while on Earth of "Vinny Mason." Toy Volkonir also warns Cassie to avoid the hair salon across the street from Big Rapids Cinema.

The Gwirdons' "Realm of Evil" (later revised to Castle Gwirdonia) had a portal hidden somewhere inside the hair salon, and implied that the salon owners themselves were "pure evil." The salon was effectively equated with being a portal to Hell. The demonization of that particular salon has changed very little since then, except to be downplayed in emphasis in later works   by simply minimizing or else avoiding discussing it.

"Emo" Volkonir
Volkonir's mean and snippy persona was drastically toned down almost immediately following the original draft script. In the trailer, which was released about a month later in the same year, Volkonir's entitle jackass persona was replaced with an almost one-track-minded warrior looking to have himself restored. He is heavily introspective, and consumed with nostalgia for his old world and way of life. In the original film version of Volkonir Journals: Attempt #43, Volkonir was depicted as highly introspective and mopey, to the point of being seen as having an "Eeyore complex." What sets him apart, is his determination to accomplish his goals, in spite of his clear bout with depression.

Contemporary Volkonir
His canonical portrayal as a complex being began with early draft material for Rise of Semaphry back in 2015. The canonization of his persona in its present form came with 2017's Volkonir Meets the Power Rangers.

Appearance
Volkonir has always been intended to have a look similar to his current Sims 4 form. The somewhat similar brunette variant look for him was directly inspired by then-volunteer actor and Ferris student John DeBruyn, who has since gone on to be a tutor in Japanese language studies for Grand Valley State University.

The toy form for Volkonir was initially modeled after a January 2008 New Year's celebration smiley face plush available at Wal-Mart, modified to remove its hat. This remained Volkonir's default toy form until around early 2017, when he was issued a new look of a toy lion plush - to show that Gwirmalesh wished to make mockery of the Golden Lion powers. This new form was rendered from Photoshop edits of a Sims 4 clip, wherein the original toy in the game screenshots was a teddy bear. The bear was modified ever so slightly in shape, its ears made sharper-tipped, and given a mane, to make it better resemble a lion.

Much of Volkonir's look, and that of his accessories, involves considerable nods to The Sims 4 and to various henshin TV shows, especially those in the history of Saban Entertainment in the 1990s. The Golden Lion Knight armor was modified from a default knight armor available for Sims in The Sims 4: Get Together. The glowing red effects of the Golden Lion emblem's eyes, nose, and mouth, as well as the glowing red helmet eye lights, were done to show that the Tapestry adds some sort of electrical power to the armor. This could be interpreted as either a nod to MCU War Machine, or to Green Hunter Beetleborg Rolland Williams from Big Bad Beetleborgs.

While less cartoonish in portrayal, Volkonir's socially awkward efforts to blend in as "Vinny Mason" are a reference to Dex Stewart from Saban's Masked Rider. The Golden Lion Cycle, modified from a Sims 4 motorcycle design, is a non-sentient nod to Chopper from that same show. In spite Selshon having some versatility like that of He-Man's Sword of Power, it was ironically not inspired by it. His relationship to his father Morlikus, however, is a reference to both King Duncan's relationship to Adam in He-Man and to King Lexian's relation to Dex in Masked Rider. The Golden Lion Mogriffer is modeled to look like a mix between a Zeonizer morpher from Power Rangers Zeo and the Ecto-Accelerator Belt from Masked Rider, but with a medieval Christian cross etched into its design. Volkonir's heavily-implied Celtic ethnic heritage is a nod to Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog.

Gallery

 * -|Golden Lion Knight=
 * -|Civilian=
 * -|Toy Volkonir=

Trivia

 * Volkonir's PercoRods in Volkonir and the Knights of Cortascius are inspired by the Jens' Percolation Wands in Camelorum Adventures, after the Jens teach Hanom how to be better at making Percolation tech.


 * The only power Volkonir has ever safely augmented to his own, outside of using the Crystal Swan as a plug bay, was the Dragon Shield in the semi-canonical crossover Volkonir Meets the Power Rangers. Both Volkonir and the Rangers expressed confusion over how this was able to work so easily.


 * Mogriffers like Volkonir's work similarly to other henshin talismans, such as Power Ranger morphers. The way he can conceal them in bodily hammerspace generated by the Tapestry is most similar to the way that the Zeonizers in Power Rangers Zeo operate.


 * While Volkonir may have some superficial visual similarities in his Prince Volkonir form to Prince Adam, Vinny cannot use Selshon the way Adam can the Sword of Power. Selshon can do many things; but it cannot serve as a substitute mogriffer.  The Golden Lion Knight and He-Man are not interchangeable concepts, even if their host bodies have some common traits.


 * Using a damaged mogriffer poses the same risks as a Power Ranger using a damaged morpher, as shown in Power Rangers in Space and Power Rangers Operation Overdrive. Henshin talisman dependence poses inherent risks, no matter the particulars of the meta source.


 * As is speculated on in the series Death Battle, Power Rangers' access to the Grid influences their suits. The Grid produces an energy field around their suits that takes damage for them, allowing them to survive blows that would kill or seriously injure anyone else.  But the morph state only holds up to a certain threshold.  If it takes too much damage, an unmorph will occur.  Vinny's mogrification into his armor via the Tapestry operates on similar principles.  Thus, taking too much damage will leave him without his armor, and make him especially vulnerable.


 * In Volkonir Meets the Power Rangers, the Morphin' Grid can act as a substitute Tapestry. However, while still way more durable than most of the Rangers, Vinny feels himself getting weaker the longer he is in the Rangers' world.
 * Only Marlquaanites and other Gerosha Multiverse beings bonded to the Marlquaan can remain equally strong in a foreign timeline as in their native timeline. All Eccentriaverse and Dromedeverse powered beings get weaker the longer they are in a foreign timeline.
 * The XomiaFaeCore is arguably the least reliable meta power source, as it took very little time for Lemon Witch to become almost powerless in the Teen in Terror Life pocket dimension. Volkonir, by contrast, would have remained competently powerful in that same world for at least twice as long.


 * If the Percolation Wave makes a clone of Vinny and the Golden Lion armor to be native to a different timeline than the Eccentriaverse, that clone will use the native meta power source without the gradual weakening process that the original is vulnerable to.


 * Knight mogriffer failsafes are similar in concept to how the Golden Power Staff in Power Rangers Zeo was primarily attuned to Triforian physiology, making it dangerous for Jason Scott to be the Gold Ranger for too long.
 * Likewise, Volkonir being the "Golden" Lion but using dark green as a base color is inspired by both the original Green Ranger's color scheme and by the Zeo Gold Ranger using black as a base.
 * The Golden Lion Knight having red eyelights in his helmet and a green base can also be seen as a nod to Big Bad Beetleborgs, wherein Rolland Williams had a Green Hunter armor that used green as a base, had red eyelights, and had an accent color of silver. Likewise, Carlos as the Red Serpent Knight has yellow eyelights, like Jo had.  However, Kayla's Crystal Swan has blue eyelights, and uses a bluish-white base with sky blue trims for armor color.  Making blue heroines a lighter shade than male blue heroes is also a common tokusatsu trope.
 * The knight theme is merely an acknowledgment of Volkonir's time period, and in keeping with the fantasy theme that was chosen for the original TV production class wherein which he was first developed. His somewhat Celtic heritage, however, is a slight nod to Mystic Knights of Tir Na Nog.


 * It is assumed that in the Marvel Gaming Fanfic Universe, the Power Cosmic (or whatever else granted the Cosmic Rays the power to give the Fantastic Four their abilities) would somehow bond to Volkonir and keep his Golden Lion powers alive. However, this would leave him vulnerable to being controlled by Galactus.  His armor will take longer to recharge between sessions - and will drain much faster.  The longer he is in a foreign timeline, the less efficient he will be.
 * All Cortascian Elite Warriors have this same issue.

Volkonir in gaming
Volkonir is playable in The Sims 4, and the Gallery has downloads of him available - including no-CC varieties that are assured to be PS4-friendly. Whether found alone or with his friends as they looked during Volkonir: The Series, he is shown as a Sim going by the alias of Vinny Mason. He was promoted as an attraction for The Sims 4: Oughties Big Rapids Living Stuff, especially in an ad for OBRL that was released to YouTube in the summer of 2020, as part of The Merre Edition. His Vinny Mason form was set up to reappear later on, in the Volkonir Story Pack. That latter pack was set up to include his armor, some CC or links for a few of his accessories, as well as whatever would be needed to depict a few of his allies and enemies.

The instruction manual for OBRL also references Cassie Helm, though she doesn't appear in the pack. While she and Dereck are available on the Gallery, there are no plans to patch them into OBRL. Instead, in 2021, OBRL received The Sherpa Patch and The Relisted Patch. These patches added new folder icons, as well as making Unlisted available outside the Gallery and putting Matt Kamrowski's Sherpa Sheriff character into the game. Listed below are requirements for the no-CC version of Vinny as a Sim: