Konstantin Ekk

NPC/Party member: Citizen Konstantin Ekk.(Proposal)
"It's true, sure, what they say. Menshes preach Marx like it's a religion and religion, to spout the man's own misquoted cliche, is the opiate of the masses. But when a person or a nation is in agonising pain, when they are dying - then the use of an opiate is acceptable, no?"

"This? What you see around us? The fields of ice, the pelting snow, the glint of the sun on cold pines and cold bodies? God's final and most beautiful prank."

Location/Character
(A grinning, enormous, dishevelled man, with the thick beard and thick-muscled frame of a labourer. He wears the faded-red monk's robes and heavy coat of a Mensh with the insouciance of one of life's natural rebels. Only the copy of Marx's Critique of Hegel, which he keeps bound at his waist by a heavy leather strap and iron chain, is treated with reverence. He also carries an old-fashioned revolver and a rusted ice-pick - but with a gentle distaste that suggests he prefers not to use them.)

You meet Konstantin in a bar (he can be slipped in almost anywhere), cheerfully arguing with his workmates about political theory, as is his wont. Konstantin enjoys debate almost as much as he enjoys drinking - and is a devout believer in Benjamin Franklin's theory of discussion, remaining calm, cheerful and rational even as his opponents begin to threaten violence and spit fury at him. His brethren respect his sharp wit and intelligence but tend to shun him due to his tendency towards idleness...Konstantin is far too mischievous to spend much time earnestly advocating socialism in practice when he can wind up those around him with theoretical arguments instead.

If they hit it off through a couple of conversations, he'll join up with the player pretty readily, boredom keeping him from settling down in a single town...as well as a keenness, highly unusual, to head into the wilderness and see the beautiful harshness of nature. If Konstantin has a true commitment to Marx, it's his belief in capitalism's system of alienating man from his surroundings - the wilderness, he claims, is reality, and he's often been known to stagger out into the snow and preach to the empty landscape all about him. In his own way, you suspect he takes the inevitable death of all mankind in his stride, reasoning with his impeccable logic that all that one man can do is try to be decent, and not worry too much.

Aims
A more 'positive' party member character, an exploration of theory vs. practice, capitalism vs. communism, industry vs. nature...basically, I wanted to create an ordinary, decent human being who'd be fun to hang out with - but who wasn't just a painfully generic wisecracking sidekick or a whining paladin-type. So I started thinking of Razumikhin from Crime & Punishment - a hearty, passionate man who's flawed enough to be interesting - and who manages a good person while wearing life lightly.

Associated Quests
I like the idea of expanding on the idea in the Mensh article - in one settlement, a Mensh is inciting a mob to violence against its greedy, amoral capitalist head; the player and Konstantin have to try and manoeuvre affairs as best as they can.