On Joram
Joram Terah is the name I’ve used in numerous RPGs since playing Shin Megami Tensei IV. The name has something of an ironic bend to it in the context of SMT — Joram comes from Yehoram, and means "exalted by Yahweh". Terah has less a fanciful meaning, but my reading of its pronunciation makes it seem like "terror". Despite the biblical significance, I interpret that Joram has a penchant for defying the gods more often than not.
In JRPGs with only one name slot, I’d use Joram or Terah interchangeably depending on the game. More recently in streams with Trask we’ve taken up creating new names, and we’ve kinda built up a sort of set of OC interpretations of a few Persona/Atlus protagonists.
So far we have Joram Terah, Takahiro Kuroda, Juurou Yasuda, and Tsubasa Kato. Though it’s pretty hard to try and think how each might act differently when the limitations of a silent protagonist kind of trend them towards the same choices.
Joram is designed for our Persona idea that I’ve done a few designs for previously. While he obviously looks like Minakoto Arisayuki, my interpretation is this P3 Protagonist did not experience Persona 3. He’s also probably at least partly Canadian, because this Persona game idea takes place in Canada, as of current writing.
Like the canon trends, Joram has a somewhat sarcastic emo edge, is pretty quiet and aloof, has terrible time-management skills, and has the persona Orpheus. Unlike canon Makonato Yukisato, mine and Trask played up that Joram sees social links purely for power. It took personal disaster for him to value friendship for its own sake. So we’d probably carry that into this idea. He is also in his 20s.
Joram been imprisoned by a group that seeks to use his wild card power for their own ends. As a result he has a jaded sense of personal connection, especially when his only contacts are his captors. Obviously, he’s not the protagonist of this story. The party will eventually come across him on their adventure, and their interactions will help them learn more about the world.
Honestly really, he’s more of an homage to canon Door-kun — establishing a proper OC for the name “Joram Terah” I’ve been using all this time — than explicitly an alternate universe self. Just a very, very obvious homage.