Artagan is an elf-like Archfey[3] from the Feywild. He posed as a satyr named Garmelie to travel with Vox Machina for his own amusement before eventually revealing himself as Artagan once Saundor was dead.[8] As an NPC, he is played by Matthew Mercer.
Description
Appearance
Artagan was very tall and thin, walking chest-forward and regal-poised. He appeared almost elflike but still had exaggerated fey-like features and long ears that curled past his small head, with a pointed chin, almond-shaped eyes and wild, curly orange hair like a lion’s mane going down to his lower back. He wore sleeveless silk vestments of blue and green billowing freely behind him.[9]
Personality
Fan art of Garmelie, by Thomas Brin.[art 2]
While posing as the satyr Garmelie, Artagan played a mischievous and self-centered character that enjoyed amusing himself by drawing immature caricatures of people, stealing items that caught his eye or imagination, and playing pranks. He greatly valued his possessions, sometimes disproportionately to their actual value. Wearing his heart on his sleeve, Garmelie's capricious emotional state was typically easy to read due to his exaggerated and dramatic reactions, even when he tried to hide his feelings. When his impulses were stymied by external forces, he became frustrated easily, but his mood could just as abruptly shift again, seemingly without holding a grudge.[10]
Garmelie preferred to avoid direct confrontation, choosing to run or hide when such situations arose.[11] He also expressed a strong dislike and distrust of "the theatre" on multiple occasions.[12]
Artagan, after dropping the Garmelie persona, had a calmer, more patient, more mature disposition. His deep valedictory bow toward Vox Machina also indicated a more respectful nature than Garmelie's.[13]
Biography
Background
Unlike many fey creatures, Artagan did not belong to one of the fey courts.[14]
Garmelie
A cartoonist with an immature perspective, Garmelie produced many juvenile caricatures in his sketchbook. When Syngorn phased from the Material Plane into the Feywild after the Chroma Conclave attacked Tal'Dorei, Garmelie suddenly found himself with a city full of new subjects for his unique brand of art.[15]
Garmelie claimed to have an uncle named Jameson, who taught him about some of the dangers in the Feywild.[16]
5x03
Garmelie began stalking and drawing Vox Machina after the party entered the Feywild to retrieve Fenthras. Vex'ahlia noticed the stealthy satyr and managed to sneak up on him using her broom, but she also noticed that he didn't pose a serious threat. Rather playfully, Vex hovered on her broom behind Garmelie, then playfully asked, "Whatcha drawin'?" Garmelie was very flustered and prepared to flee, but not before Vex grabbed hold of him and brought him to the rest of Vox Machina.[17]
Eventually, after Garmelie charmed Percy, he and Vox Machina arrived at an agreement: after completing two tasks in Syngorn, Garmelie would guide the party to the Shademurk Bog.[18]
5x04
As it turned out, Garmelie sought a piece of a Threshold Crest and High Warden Tirelda's travel hat.[19][20] Vox Machina acquired the hat through deception and theft.[21] However, Percy and Keyleth managed to satisfy the requirement for a piece of a Threshold Crest through a technicality in the verbal agreement, with Keyleth using Stone Shape to create a Whitestone crest from the threshold of a door, then Percy breaking it and handing a piece to Garmelie—literally "a piece of a threshold crest".[22] Garmelie agreed in frustration that Vox Machina upheld its end of the bargain, but he was still quite pleased with Tirelda's travel hat. Garmelie then began leading the group toward Shademurk Bog.[23]
5x05
5x06
Garmelie accompanies the party to a series of rivers that block their path, and he attempts to part ways. Instead, Grog throws him as far as he can across the rivers. Ultimately Garmelie reaches the other side before he is able to leave.
5x07
After Vox Machina faced and defeated Saundor, Garmelie returned, revealing himself to be an Archfey named Artagan, who greatly enjoyed watching the group's adventures in the Feywild. Artagan invited Vox Machina to visit him again sometime.[24]
8x13
When Vox Machina fled Thar Amphala to the Feywild, they struck a bargain with Artagan. The Archfey agreed to alter the Feywild's time dilation effect so that the party could rest for a day in the Feywild while only an hour passed on the Material Plane...on two conditions. The first condition was that Vox Machina would later create a door for Artagan to enter into the Material Plane. The second condition was that Artagan wanted to strangle Vax'ildan until he died, something he became interested in after hearing the half-elf say he was "kind of unkillable lately". Vax agreed to this and let the Archfey strangle him to death.
8x14
8x16
As of the wrap up of Vox Machina's tale they did not hold to the first condition of the deal made with Artagan to provide a doorway into the Material Plane. However, Matthew Mercer later confirmed that the doorway would have been built, even if it wasn't explicitly covered in the episode[25].
"With Great Power..." (2x94)
Fan art of the Traveler, by Nikki Dawes.[art 3]
The Traveler revealed his true nature to Jester, that while he was indeed her Traveler, her deity, he was not always so. While he did not give his name, Matthew Mercer confirmed after ending the session that the Traveler was the Archfey Lord Artagan of the Morncrown encountered by Vox Machina in the Feywild.
Claiming to have come from a world far away from Exandria, Artagan's "Traveler" persona began after sensing a kinship and discovering a spark uniquely similar to his own within a little blue girl named Jester Lavorre. Young Jester believed with such unconditional childlike faith and wonder in Artagan's "divinity" as The Traveler that Artagan pretended to be the god she believed him to be, only to discover he actually started to become newly empowered from the unconditional faith she bestowed in him.
Exhilerated, Artagan (as The Traveler) began to seek out others like Jester and himself who also believed in joy, mischief and the act of exposing arrogance and hypocrisy, becoming increasingly deified by their gathering faith. However as his followers multiplied Artagan found himself overwhelmed by the increasing multitudes of voices calling upon him through prayer; demanding aid, guidance and the responsibilities of godhood. Inspired by their long standing relationship as his first disciple and witnessing Jester's mastery of creative trickery in bargaining with the witch Isharnai to release Nott the Brave from a curse, Artagan decided to confide the truth in Jester, asking she grant him counsel, revealing that he in truth "has no idea what [he] is doing," asking her aid in knowing how to proceed in his newfound role as the deity of joy and trickery known as The Traveler.[26]
"Blessing in Disguise" (2x95)
Relationships
Wodena
Artagan claimed that Wodena was "an ex".[27] This ambiguously-phrased claim does not clarify whose "ex" or an "ex" of what. For example, Wodenna could have been an ex-lover of Artagan or an ex-lover of Saundor—or even an ex-lover of Saundor first, whom she might have betrayed for Artagan before later separating from him, as well.
Jester Lavorre
Artagan became enthralled with the exhilaration of worship after he began granting boons to Jester as a child. As both he and Jester spread word of him throughout Wildemount, he grew in power. After Jester was able to break the curse on Nott by tricking a hag, Artagan sought her help in coming to grips with the onset of Godhood.
Character Information
Abilities
As of the time Artagan introduces himself to the Mighty Nein, his spells or abilities have a saving throw DC of less than 22.[28]
Notable Items
- Sketchbook
- Caricatures of all of Vox Machina
- "Very finely detailed sketch of Grog. Very well drawn, but he has bulging eyes, big buck teeth, and a very tiny penis." [29]
- "For Pike, her head is extremely large." [30]
- "There's a picture of Vax and Keyleth that are both covered in poo and slapping it on their face. Written in Elvish 'I love this!' with a word bubble." [31]
- Caricatures of inhabitants of Syngorn
- "You start seeing a number of elven individuals. You see people in really nice regal armor, but all of them are pooping themselves. There's a bunch of elvish ladies with oversized floppy boobs smacking each other in the face. It's truly childish. But they're really well drawn and well shaded! There is a serious talent to the artwork." [32]
- Caricatures of all of Vox Machina
Quotations
Trivia
- There has been speculation that Artagan is the true identity of The Traveler, and the archfey has been posing as Jester's deity. Whether this is just another one of Artagan's attempts to amuse himself or part of some larger game is unknown.
- Artagan was confirmed to be the true identity of The Traveler in "With Great Power..." (2x94), thereby making him the third non-player character from Campaign 1 to appear in Campaign 2.
- Garmelie is technically a "satire satyr".
- Matthew Mercer has stated that Artagan is an Unaligned fey, belonging to neither the Seelie nor the Unseelie fey courts
References
- ↑ Matthew Mercer confirmed the spelling of "Artagan" (source).
- ↑ Matthew Mercer released a page of his DM notes, which contains the official spelling of Garmelie's name. Previously published spellings include the unofficial "Garmeely" from an article on Geek & Sundry (not written by Mercer) and "Garmili" from G&S's summary (not written by Mercer) of "Heredity and Hats" (1x60).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 123.
- ↑ See "The Echo Tree" (1x63) at 4:03:44.
- ↑ See "The Echo Tree" (1x63) at 4:03:20.
- ↑ See "The Echo Tree" (1x63) at 4:06:13.
- ↑ See "Blessing in Disguise" (2x95) at 21:30.
- ↑ See "The Echo Tree" (1x63) from 3:58:45 through 4:06:30.
- ↑ See "The Echo Tree" (1x63) at 3:51:15.
- ↑ See 5x03 from 2:02:43 through 2:03:02.
- ↑ See 5x05 from 3:16:27 through 3:16:31.
- ↑ See 5x04 from 2:16:28 through 2:16:36.
- ↑ See "The Echo Tree" (1x63) from 3:58:45 through 4:06:30.
- ↑ Matthew Mercer confirmed on Twitter that Artagan was a "courtless Archfey" (source).
- ↑ See 5x03 from 1:37:45 through 1:37:57.
- ↑ See 5x05 from 2:18:35 through 2:18:41.
- ↑ See 5x03 from 1:27:23 through 1:30:35.
- ↑ See 5x03 from 2:06:37 through 2:16:23.
- ↑ Matthew Mercer released a page of his DM notes containing a description of Feywild characters.
- ↑ See 5x04 from 1:10:41 through 1:12:42.
- ↑ See 5x04 from 1:51:11 through 1:54:02.
- ↑ See 5x04 from 2:10:49 through 2:12:22.
- ↑ See 5x04 at 2:12:57.
- ↑ See "The Echo Tree" (1x63) from 3:58:45 through 4:06:30.
- ↑ See Matthew Mercer's tweet from 10/13/2017.
- ↑ See "With Great Power..." (2x94) from 3:52:58 through 3:59:37.
- ↑ See "The Echo Tree" (1x63) at 4:03:44.
- ↑ See "Blessing in Disguise" (2x95) from 0:35:50 through 0:36:41.
- ↑ See "The Feywild" (1x59) at 1:34:24.
- ↑ See "The Feywild" (1x59) at 1:35:45.
- ↑ See "The Feywild" (1x59) at 1:36:10.
- ↑ See "The Feywild" (1x59) at 1:36:51.
Art
- ↑ Fan art of Artagan, by David Rodrigues (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of Garmelie, by Thomas Brin (source). Used with permission.
- ↑ Fan art of the Traveler, by Nikki Dawes (source). Used with permission.