Sullivan

I might not have as much faith in myself, but I definitely have full faith in my friends—Sullivan

**Sullivan** is a main protagonist of the video game Dawn of the New Hour . Naturally cautious and attentive, but rarely smiles on his own. He's quick to his feet when it comes to defending friends and family, holding them close to his heart no matter what the cost. He's a longtime friend of Blake and Victoria.

## Development

### SacAnime 2014

During the winter of 2014, Sullivan Miranda attended a SacAnime convention in Downtown Sacramento. He didn't really know anyone other than Blake, but as an artist, he was found drawing in a hotel lobby as a way to fill his time there. During the first day of the convention center, the person who was the inspiration for Victoria introduced herself to Miranda, who was at the time sketching Doctor Who characters. Because of his outfit and the drawings, Victoria noted he should be called the Doctor's Artist because he drew them so often. The name stuck as time went on.

Later on, Miranda wanted to push past the "Doctor" part of the character's influence, noting that he "wanted to pursue the character as its own entity. Inspiration is one thing, but he's veering off to his own course, and so is the story and universe."

### Outfit

> *"This old thing? This is really very important to me..."*
> —Sullivan during the convention events.
>
>

The outfit worn by the character during his first attendance at the Convention Center in the game is the same one worn by Miranda during the times he'd attend any future conventions. Each piece of clothing represented his friends and loved ones; the bow tie represented Blake and was given to Miranda by him, the jacket represented his adopted mother, his pants represented his brother, and his vest represented his grandmother. The entire outfit in itself represented Victoria, who in real life is a famous cosplayer.

The second outfit, called "Official Artist", is a brand-new outfit for the character. Instead of a cosplay outfit, this outfit is specifically *for* Sullivan. It was drawn out by Sullivan, and later made by Desiree. The design consists of many plum and purple checkers along the lapel, center back vent, and cuffs. The bow tie that goes with it is red. The vest is black.

The idea was to get as far away from the look of the cosplay outfit, while keeping the style. The cosplay outfit being the first outfit Miranda ever made, he felt as though he needed to change the scenery, and "shed the skin of the of the o"ld life. He mentions that "when Sullivan changes into the new outfit, [the player] can really feel that things are, uh, getting real now. It isn't just fun and games anymore...the party finally feels like things are getting serious."

On August 4th, 2016, the Doctor Artist Facebook page released a photo depicting Sullivan in the new "Official Artist" outfit, but with a different art style than was previously seen for the main characters.

On September 2nd, 2016, the Official Artist outfit debut at SacAnime.

In mid 2018, the character yet again had a design update. On an Instagram post, Miranda showed off a new visit to SacAnime, this time with a new blonde streak in his hair. This was reflected in a later art designs and menus of the game, solidifying the new look.

## Story

**Spoiler warning: *Plot and/or ending details follow.*** *(Skip section)*(Not yet added)
***Spoilers end here.***
## Weapons

### Pre-Aurum: Sonic Screwdriver

Originally, Sullivan was designed to wield a Sonic Screwdriver, an item popularized in a BBC show called Doctor Who. This was an equipable item that damaged enemies. Sullivan's own screwdriver builds were "made on Earth", and therefore, designed by humans. This negated the original concept of what the sonic screwdriver is known for, which is not being able to cause physical harm to another being.

Sometime late-2016, Miranda went on to Facebook and asked followers of the Doctor Artist for good ideas on what another weapon could be for Sullivan. It was later declared that Miranda was looking into replacing the Sonic Screwdriver entirely, giving the character more originality, which later correlated with the change to Bowtie Artist.

### End of 2018: Grimoire

**Canon Weapon**: Between October and November, news started circulating among the small community of people watching the development that the weapon for Sullivan had been decided. Various books show in battle. In the unreleased demo's database, it now shows the official weapon type: Grimoires. This weapon is considered the main canon weapon of Sullivan.

## Talents and Powers

### Skills

Sullivan's skills in battle deal with weakening the enemy. Using skills like Confuse, he is able to make an enemy easier to fight by adding negative status effects to them. This is the direct opposite of Victoria, who has abilities that strengthen the player's party with positive effects.

### Time Splicing

Time Splicing is an ability to warp time around the player. In this case, Sullivan has the power to warp time in certain ways. He can alter the *time of skies*, or weather, so that any weather effect is negated, causing the atmosphere to clear. Another power of his is the ability to stop the *time of foes*, or the ability to halt enemies in their tracks for a short time, allowing the player to walk enemy-infested areas without the risk of being attacked for a few seconds.

UPDATE 8/10: As of the Tester's Demo, the way enemies are encountered has been changed. The ability to "stop enemies" is changed to in-battle skills Slow/Stop/Stopra.

### Time Travel

Sullivan has the ability to use the Gateway to travel through the universe. He is able to navigate to different worlds and times. In battle, Sullivan can turn back time a few moves, which will fully remove every action done during those moves. This includes reviving dead characters, removing damage done to both the enemy and the party, status effects, etc. **Note:** this feature isn't in the *DEMO Version*, and was removed because of bug issues. It most likely will show up within the *Full Version*. There is, however, a chance that it will be redacted.

UPDATE 8/10: In the Tester's Demo, this as a skill in battle has indeed been removed from learnable skills. No word yet if it is completely redacted or not.

## Classes

Sullivan changes classes throughout the story of the game.

* Student - introductory class.
* Cosplayer - a class Sullivan changes into when he dawns the "Doctor Artist" outfit.
* Time Splicer - the class introduced in the Aurum demo. This is Sullivan's main class throughout the game. It adds the ability to use Time Splicing abilities, such as warping time, using portums freely, and weather alteration.

## Chaos: Eminence

Sullivan is seen to be a holder of a form of Chaos. Unlike Jake and Crowe, however, it seems to be more of a companion rather than an possessive energy that controls him.

Throughout the story, flashes of the thoughts of this Chaos pop in during conversations. Most of these thoughts consist of belittling or pushing Sullivan away from something. It replaces confidence with doubt, and happiness with flashes of memory that'll instantly push it down. The way Sullivan reacts range from ignoring them to outright becoming annoyed by them, but nevertheless is affected by his Chaos.

## Wallpaper

Released on March 7th 2016, wallpapers for some of the characters were made by Sullivan Miranda. Sullivan has his own wallpaper, measured at 1366 x 768.

Miranda stated that this wallpaper will be re-edited to meet the confines of 640 x 480 to fit the loading screen of the game. Other characters will also appear within this screen as well, including the main characters and sprites of side-characters.

There is no confirmation about new wallpapers for the latest designs of each character. It is possible, as Miranda has mentioned he's interested when they're finished.

## Trivia

* Many, if not all, aspects of Sullivan comes from his real-life self, Sullivan Miranda, who created the game.
* The Official Artist outfit was planned by Miranda, but was actually designed by Dezignated Dezigns, an artist who works with arts and crafts. They also work on canvas shoe art.
	+ The Doctor Artist outfit, however, was made by Miranda, as well as all other outfits involved with Sullivan's character.
* Sullivan will eat any kind of pizza, but will avoid any that has a lot of mushrooms.
* Both Victoria and Sullivan might have had dark childhoods.
* Sullivan mentions that he is worried about any world coming from his own writings. This is a hint towards Miranda's own unfinished book series.
	+ Sullivan also mentions that one of the antagonists looks "too familiar" to him. This could possibly be an enemy from Miranda's book series.
* In New Woodbury, Sullivan's great-grandmother and grandfather are buried next to the church. These reflect Miranda's family members as well.
* Sullivan is noted to have bouts of depression, as well as some signs of post-traumatic stress.
	+ In the Tester's Demo for 1.9.5, story points in the files seem to point out Sullivan's inner voice, which constantly has him second-guessing himself.
* In the Aurum Demo, Sullivan's Time Splicing ability is introduced, however each skill linked to Time Splicing can be obtained through normal means within the original demos. The skill category of Time Splicing is merely added.
* In the Tester's Demo, note tags for Sullivan hint at an alternate name for the character, "Suvi".
* Chaos "Eminence", Sullivan's Chaos, is named after the color "eminence purple". This alludes to the purples that the Developer had used in real life multiple times as well as a character file called "Darkness", which is assumed to be the physical form of Eminence in-game.

## See also

* Victoria
* Blake
* Seven
* The Gateway