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Svengallop (Ready)


Bellosh

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Woo-hoo, first cast app under the new cast system!

 

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Roleplay Type: World of Equestria

Name: Svengallop

Sex: Male

Age: Middle-aged Stallion

Species: Earth Pony

Eye Color: Dark brown; requires round spectacles to see clearly

Coat: Very light gray

Mane/Tail: Svengallop’s curly hair is a pale red color

Physique: Average for a stallion his age

Usual Attire: Dark blue business-suit over a pale blue undershirt with a red tie

Cutie Mark: A pale blue spotlight beam shining downwards upon a pink, five-pointed star

Residence: Manehattan

Occupation: Musical Talent Manager - Spotlight Talent Agency

Unique Traits:

 

Svengallop suffers from tone deafness, a disorder rendering him incapable of distinguishing musical pitches from one another. As such, all music to his ears sounds as harsh as white noise does for a regular pony. To identify potentially talented musicians, Sven thus relies on carefully observing listener reactions to determine an artist’s or band’s ability to please a crowd. The manager has kept his disorder a secret to nearly everypony, fearing that he’d be run out of the music industry should his tone deafness be discovered.

 

Lacking the ability to appreciate music, Svengallop consequently focuses his attention on the other aspects of his musicians’ routines. Aside from arranging gigs at venues and negotiating deals with record labels, the stallion personally supervises the stage effects and choreography that goes into each performance. Sven has an extremely keen sense for spectacular visuals, hardly anyone else has an instinct for impressing ponies with glitz and glam like he does.

 

History:

 

Svengallop came from what amounted to a Bridleway power family; his mom was a playwright while his dad acted in musicals. As far back as he could remember, Sven and his twin sister frequently patronized the theatre to see the shows their parents worked on. As Sven was tone deaf even at that young age, he found himself mostly appreciating non-musical elements of Bridleway productions a lot more; things like stage lighting, set design, dancing, and what not. In fact, the attentive boy managed to learn quite a bit about what went on behind the scenes.

 

All of Svengallop’s observation work paid off one day, when his sister won the lead role in a school play. Sven’s sister aspired to make it big as a musical star, so naturally all her family rooted for her. However, everypony’s dreams were nearly dashed when she got injured during a rehearsal. Thankfully, the injury was minor enough for the filly to quickly get back to rehearsing, but an extremely protective Sven insisted on accompanying her during practices from that point onward.

 

What Svengallop witnessed on his first visit to the school set was appalling; none of the kids assigned to the crew seemed capable of practicing basic safety procedures without being nagged by their overburdened instructor, nor did anyone know a thing about play production beyond the crude basics. Despite not having officially signed-up for a position, Sven right then volunteered himself to manage the screw in order to bring a semblance of professional production values to a school play. And since he had a sister to look after, the colt made plenty sure that the play’s leading schoolfilly got the special treatment she “required” from the rest of the volunteer crewmembers and supervising faculty.

 

Many a heated dispute took place following Svengallop essentially hijacking the production, but nopony could argue with the results when the play received unusually rave reviews for the production work of an obstinately amateur crew. For Sven though, validation came when one audience member, a Bridleway producer, was so impressed with the performance of Sven’s sister than he landed the young filly a supporting role on an actual play on Bridleway! Overjoyed that all his hard work payed off beyond expectations, Sven landed a cutie mark of his own during the following excitement (uncoincidentally, his twin sibling earned her mark at the same time).

 

With his destiny seemingly set, Svengallop formally got into Bridleway production once he grew old enough, starting from the “ground floor” as an assistant stagehoof. Yet being an impatient young stallion with a thirst for accelerated career advancement, Sven found additional off-Bridleway work when he could, from upscale fashion shows to Charity Kindheart’s community-driven Midsummer Theater Revival. It was while working with the Revival when Sven’s life turned in a strange unanticipated direction.

 

A fellow Revival actress was eying a career as a singer, and in Svengallop she saw somepony she could depend on to ensure her shows ran smoothly, and with style to boot. More than that, the actress felt that Sven’s... demanding ways of dealing with ponies made him just the sort of pony who could manage her business affairs. Against his better judgement, Sven agreed to be the aspiring singer’s manager out of a desire to quickly achieve a more prestigious role than his prior stagehoof gigs, and soon found himself renting a dinky little office in order to play his new role.

 

Svengallop however perceived that in order to be taken seriously as the singer’s manager, he’d have to reassess his needs. First came a bigger office, followed by a bigger chair, a bigger desk, and a bigger staff. All of that came with drastically increased expenses, which Sven could never hope to pay off with the small-time money he and his client were making. Immeasurably stressed over his financial woes due to a job he never wanted to have or could fully appreciate (due to his tone deafness), Sven came upon a crossroads. Either Sven accepted his losses and returned to a humdrum Bridleway career in service of his true passion, or else continue on his current loveless road in the music industry to continue being a bigshot.

 

In the end, the quick and easy path won out over the longer but more spiritually rewarding one. Unable to throw away everything he already sacrificed for his newly-christened Spotlight Talent Agency, Svengallop rationalized that in order to obtain the prestige he desperately craved, he’d have to totally reinvent himself as a singularly focused, slick-operating music manager. That revelation came with a corollary; an artist who really wanted to make it big would have to reinvent themself with a larger-than-life ponysona standing like a colossus above the rest of Equestria’s small-time musicians. And as it just so happened, Svengallop through his stage experience possessed many of the talents that could turn that vision into a reality.

 

Refusing to go along with Svengallop’s grandiose plans, his first client split ways with him, but it didn’t take long for Sven to be vindicated. Rounding up five young stallion singers, Sven crafted for them a new identity as the Stable Boyz, a pop-orientated boy band. The extravagant concerts orchestrated by Sven helped draw the attention of countless adoring fanfillies, whose devotion allowed the Stable Boyz to become Equestria’s most successful boy band of all time. Almost overnight, Svengallop became a music industry legend as the mastermind behind the Stable Boyz. Despite the unending dissatisfaction of having tone deafness turn every song he listened to into garbage, Sven was content for the time being rolling in his wads of cash.

 

All that changed upon Svengallop’s discovery of another singer; the young mare Coloratura. Immediately, Sven noticed the riveting effect Rara had when she sung, so the stallion wasted no time in doing what all it took to sign the mare on as his next client. Replicating his earlier successes, Sven invented the “character” of Countess Coloratura; a closed-off yet bombastically self-assured diva who never let anything get in the way of what she wanted. As before with the Stable Boyz, Sven’s expertise turned the Countess’s concerts into sensational spectacles that skyrocketed her to the top of the charts!

 

Yet all was not well in Svengallop’s heart. Growing more discontent with the unsatisfying nature of his career, the manager filled in the void through excessive self-indulgence and partaking of gambling. To sate his greed, Sven went behind the Countess’s back to expand upon the ridiculous demands he made on venues to, resorting to extortion and other threats to get his way. And to doubly make sure things stayed as they were, Sven escalated his micromanagement over Coloratura’s schedule to prevent anyone else from becoming a threat to the stallion’s control over her. Combined with an increased tendency to vent his frustrations at others, the Manehattan bigwig was now well on his way to the path of self-destruction.

 

Everything came to a head just hours before a charity event in Ponyville, when Countess Coloratura finally discovered the true extent of Svengallop’s dominating ways. Rara expressed her displeasure over her manager’s self-serving conduct, enraging Sven to the point where cut all professional ties with his client. But rather than admit that he’s been living a lie for all these years, Sven is only more resolved than ever to find Equestria’s next pop sensation... and in the process, destroy Coloratura’s career as revenge for her betrayal.

 

Character Personality:

 

There are two types of ponies according to Svengallop’s mindset; those to brag about himself to, and those to boss around with impunity. The stench of entitlement surrounds the stallion, who lashes out at anyone who doesn’t acquiesce to his demands. A snobbish sort of earth pony, Sven looks down on anything he doesn’t think is enough of a symbol of high status. Oh, and kids are just the worst; all they do is misbehave and annoy and believe themselves more talented about everything than they actually are.

 

Svengallop is at his most content when planning out the visual and audio components of his concerts, but even then he can be very demanding to work with. For such instances though, Sven knows he is completely justified in maintaining ludicrously high standards, as even the slightest mistake could ruin an effect or perhaps injure his client on-stage. Consequently, the manager is infamous for pulling his clients out of events the moment he believes the event staff to be inadequate. Yet nopony can argue that Sven isn’t among the best in the industry for arranging top-notch concerts. It’s just too bad though that nowadays, the stallion can’t help but treat nearly everypony else in the same uncompromising manner as a stage crew.

 

In order to fuel his unsustainable lifestyle, Svengallop turns to underhoofed means to do so. Aside from abusing his leverage over venues, the stallion is not above embezzling charity proceeds to line his own pockets while ensuring that complaints never reach the ears of his clients. Furthermore, Sven habitually exploits tax loopholes and overstates business expenses to keep as much money as he’s entitled to. Money that he carelessly throws away by binge spending, gambling, and playing the Manehattan stock market.

 

The recent departure of Coloratura has had a destabilizing effect on the vindictive Svengallop. Bent on payback, Sven plans on “encouraging” record labels, concert venues, and even Rara’s beloved schools to discontinue all associations with the former Countess. Those who refuse to play ball will be left out to dry once Sven discovers Equestria’s next pop sensation, and who’d want to miss out on that? As for Rara herself, as she had been naive enough to initially agree to a two-year clause to not perform her music should she part ways with her manager, Sven will hang the specter of litigation over the mare’s head should she dare continue on with her music career..... 

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