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In the dead of night, only the chirp of night insects accompanied the pitter-patter of light feet as they bounded down a winding alley between rows of tall, dark buildings. Skidding out into a wide road, the elf paused, but in the next moment he darted like a night lizard down the way that was lit least by softly glowing gas-lights.
This creature, were he not so out of breath, would answer to Dunlin Lise. All who heard that name knew its owner to be sluggish of mind and slower of foot, but now Dunlin tore through the city streets like all the chariots of Helle were rumbling after him, demonic flame licking at his ankles. Often – but not too often – Dunlin cast a fearful glance over his shoulder, seeing only the empty street and a bright, watchful moon.
When Dunlin’s flight brought him to the entrance of a narrow alley off the main road he ducked inside and threw his fists against a dilapidated oaken door. Boom boom boom. After little more than a second the door flung itself inward, and a large, meaty hand drew the elf inside by his head.
“Thrice-cursed fool!” boomed a voice that had long forgotten how to whisper. “Tonight all has been silenced by a rumble from deep below, and a foul stench blows on the wind. What trouble has befallen you – nay, that you have goaded with that pointy nose of yours? What have you brought on your tail?”
Lungs heaving, Dunlin drew himself up from the carpet where he had landed. His pointy nose was dripped with sweat. The owner of the voice – a tall, broad dwarf named Mrorgain – gave a low sigh and led Dunlin by the arm through a long, dark hall. “There, now. The door is sealed, so you’re safe. First rest and fill your belly, and then there will be time to hear your tale.”
Mrorgain, though she stood two heads shorter than Dunlin, fairly dragged the elf into a sitting room where three folk with brown cloaks and weary faces sat around the warm light of a hearthfire. They watched with bright eyes as Dunlin took a seat on a battered old futon and, taking a mug from Mrorgain, drained it in a single drought. Mrorgain set her own bulk down on a wooden chair and rocked back and forth in quiet thought as the elf caught his breath.
“I’ve got it,” Dunlin gasped when finally he was able, and the present company grinned and stood to bow or clasp his hand. Dunlin surveyed the room – a human in dark leather armor, two gnomes with beet red faces, another elf (who had to stoop, or else bash his head on the ceiling), Mrorgain with her ridiculous hat, and himself. As if waking from a dream Dunlin sprang up and rifled through the pack slung over his shoulder. With a weary grin he drew out a thin flash drive and set it on the coffee-table before him.
“There it is,” the human gasped, leaning in close to examine the drive – for it was covered in strange markings that seemed to shimmer and dance in the flickering light of the fire. Reaching down below her chair Mrorgain drew out a thick laptop and powered it up, her blocky fingers tap-tap-tapping on the keys.
“I daresay you’ve done a part to get it, too,” chirped one of the gnomes. “or else you’d not have raised such gaddywumpus at the door. I’d been nodding off, happylike, too, and – no longer!”
“Nod all you like, Hennip, and some work may finally be done,” grumbled Mrorgain as she set her laptop on the coffee-table. “For Dunlin Lise is not an elf to be in much of a hurry about anything, unless it is wont to stab him in the back, or steal his supper.”
“The Cobb,” nodded Dunlin, shutting his eyes. “I saw it, in the woods outside of town. Out of the trees it must have come, and stepping out across the path it came under a beam of moon-light, and looked at me.”
Mrorgain frowned. “Then our time is little. Load it in, Hennip, Drinnip, and then let me have a look.”
With a deft but careful movement Hennip took the flash drive in his hand and clicked it against the slot in Mrorgain’s computer – turning it over once, twice, and plugging it in. The two gnomes then moved as one, and four hands fairly danced across the keyboard. For a long time the clicks and tap-tapping of quick fingers on the keys filled the room, and the eyes of a human, a dwarf, and two elves remained glued to the faces of two gnomes, lit by electric blue light from the screen.
Just as Dunlin thought he could bare the noise no longer – for the clicks and taps had grown inexplicably loud, and now filled the whole room so that Dunlin had begun to hold his breath – Hennip and Drinnip looked up with a grin that filled both their faces. “We’re in, we’re in! No fence, no firewall, no ironclad fortress can keep us out. Didn’t I say so?”
“Yes, you’re very well and skilled, and if you always kept so silent as now then we should be a happy party.” Mrorgain stood behind the gnomes and peered over their shoulders at the screen. Lines of text scrolled by as the others crowded around.
After a time Mrorgain gave a harummph, tapping the screen with her finger. “This is dark code; it does not bode well for any kingdom of the Earth. I’ve seen all that I need to see. Remove it quick, lest it worm its way into the system, and let us discuss what our business must be.”
But no sooner had Drinnip pulled the flash drive from Mrorgain’s laptop than a dim haze seemed to fill the room, and Dunlin’s heart quickened in alarm in response to some signal that his elfish biology understood more surely than he. A buzz was in the air that clouded thought and withered awareness. Dunlin glanced quickly at the other elf, and saw in her eyes the same fear that quickened the blood in his veins.
The human - whose name was Balvadere - swore in an ancient dialect. “What is it? What have you two seen?”
“Nothing themselves.” Mrorgain spoke quietly, eyeing the walls with suspicion. “But though in our company magic is my domain, I have it not in my lineage, as do our tall friends here. If there still lingered any doubt that Dunlin had procured the real thing – one of them, anyway, harrummm – then let that doubt be extinguished. Follow me, quickly!”
Hastily the six companions filed through the hall and out the oaken door, which slammed and locked behind them. Man, dwarf, and elves pulled their cloaks up over their heads and strode with large steps down the alley, the gnomes scampering along behind. Now the buzzing had grown to a numbing static against which Dunlin could only grit his teeth. Yet deep beneath the noise he thought he could pick out a deep, deep whispering in strange melody:
Li-sten!, li-sten!, hear – and tell, but wa-ter is cold, and truth is the well, In ca-verns of flesh! the ever-lings dwell, He-ar the song! of ever-ling cheer! For gra-ass is green! and su-mmer near, And wha-at need Earth!ly singers fear, With babb‘ling broo-ook and bra-anches broad, gra-assy grove, gri-inding ground, And with all great!-green growing things, the te-ender trees, and se-ething sea, And all the li-ittle ever-lings, Ever-lings!, at pe-e-ace! Hum tum ta-roo! tum, ta-tum ta da rum! Hum ta da ha-ha!, ta-da ha!, ta-rum! Rum, tum, ta-da!-da, da-doo, da-ra-drum!
The song grew clearer the longer he listened. Dunlin found he had fallen behind even the short-legged gnomes, and risked a backwards glance. Far away at the top of the hill he glimpsed a strange figure passing under a light-post, but once it stepped out of the cone of warm yellow light Dunlin frowned, for he could not mark it against the gloom of night. Yet suddenly the figure appeared again, in the light of another lamp, and much closer for the speed at which it was walking. Dunlin could see it wore a long cloak, and that its gait was odd and shambling, but again the figure stepped out of the light and seemed to vanish.
Suppressing a shudder, Dunlin drew his own cloak tighter around his shoulders and hurried after his companions. As the moon sunk low and the party drew close to the busier districts, the strange chant continued into the night.
For what were they born, then, to revel, and dance? Co-ome, and co-ome, and li-sten to me, Wa-alk, a pa-ath!, of me-e-mo-ries, And no-o-one!, recall – bette-er! The hu-urt, Of the Ea-arth, a-a-and, the tree-ee-ees…
And, just when the song began to slow and fade, and Dunlin’s heart to finally calm, a final verse rang loud and distant through the air as the glow of dawn brightened the horizon.
Ha-ra-ra tum!, trum tum, ga-rum, Fum, glum, merry, and crum! Ga-rum, ga-rum!, Mo-hey-ta-dum! Lost, mum, and Dunlin, da-rum, Ta-ha ta doo!, come, ta-dum! Cobb!, Gobb!, la-ha, ta-tu-u-u-um.
Mrorgain called a halt at the foot of a fountain in a deserted square, only to find that their party now numbered five rather than six.
“Where is the elf?” roared Balvadere, casting his head about as if his quarry would appear from behind one of the market-stalls. “Where is Dunlin Lise?”
Mrorgain let out a sigh that betrayed her true age. “For all my brave words, I’ve been a fool. Curse me and my rashness! We have been tricked, and lost one of our finest!” And with that the dwarf sat on the concrete brim of the fountain, head in hands.
The companions sat in silence for a spell.
“Come, Drinnip,” Mrorgain finally grunted, rising to her feet, “it was you who truly carried the flash drive, yes? Poor Dunlin, there is little now we can do for him, but his brave work is not yet for naught. The danger – that foul breeze – has left, but the need for haste is as strong as ever. Quickly now, before these streets fill with people going about their morning routines! We must raise our army, and work with all possible swiftness, for dark times are upon us.”
Last edited by Szemetlada on Sun 13 Sep 2015, 1:41 am; edited 17 times in total
Szemetlada Contributor
Posts : 2334 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : Where the wind comes crashing down the plaaains
Subject: Introduction, rules, and character sheet Thu 05 Mar 2015, 12:14 am
Welcome! This RP will be set in the strange world of Mindennauer, home to ancient forests, vast oceans, mighty mountains, scorching deserts, gigantic glaciers, and anything else one might look for in a planet. Kingdoms of humans, dwarves, elves, orcs, and much much more lay scattered about the wilderness. Yet for all of their magic and all of their science put together, there is much that is yet to be discovered about the world, and those who dwelt in it far before the mortal races took their first steps on hallowed soil…
This RP will focus around interacting with other peeps, combat, and solving puzzles. Read the exposition in the previous post for more info on the storyline.
If you choose to play for the mortal races:
Your character has just received a cryptic message sealed with magical enchantment, calling them to rendezvous at a hidden fortress in the mountains, and signed by someone named “Mrorgain the Rock.” Some were offered a chance to do great good in the world; others were promised heaps of shining treasure, and glory to be remembered for ages. On the way to the secluded location, your character has met up with others who have received similar callings, and after a few brief hours of travel you have pitched camp in a suitable glen. Only no sooner has night fallen than the lot of you hear dark noises in the woods, and warily you prepare yourselves for combat…
If you choose to play for the mysterious and ancient forces:
Well known and rarely spoken is the name of Byüligítznuk, a demon said to reside deep in the core of the Earth. Yet your character knows more of this being than any mortal might care to - in your dreams the creature came to them, and promised them their heart's desire in exchange for their services. Through seemingly insignificant deeds the poor were made rich, the unlucky made their fortunes, and mourners met again with long lost loved ones. Perhaps your character has served Byüligítznuk for some time, and commands great respect in his organization, or perhaps they are a recently hired grunt. Whatever the case, Byüligítznuk has given an unprecedented order. He speaks of the existence of a code, a code many petabytes in memory, which has been split across four magical drives; Byüligítznuk instructs all of his followers to seek this code in earnest and has sent his four Children into the world to lead them. To these four your character answers - the Yaddyjax, the Lumput, the Grindle, and the Cobb. Though you know not what this code may be, you know that Byüligítznuk has promised power eternal in the Veil to whomever retrieves it, and he has always made good on his promises.
Rules
1. No autohitting godmodding, powerplaying, etc. (against other players; you have more freedom with NPCs) 2. Graphic violence = aight, graphic romance = not aight. Aight? 3. Seeing as we're still building this world, I'll allow pretty much anything so long as it's creative/sensible and not overpowered! 4. All players share complete control over any NPC's they interact with, unless I say otherwise. Which means that if you get attacked by a hoard of undead skeleton-wolves, you can slay as many as you like in a single post without having to post only what YOU do and then have to wait for me to respond with how it affects the zombie wolf. No, you stabbed it in its cold zombie wolf heart? It's dead, dude, you killed it! Similarly, if you want to board up at the inn, feel free to talk to the innkeeper and buy the room yourself, don’t wait for me. Just be realistic about each situation and everything’s cool.
Character sheet
Name(s): Go crazy Race: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Halfling, Gnome, Goblin, Orc, Troll, Giant, Lizardfolk, Vrana, Skrae, Fishmen, Naiad, Dryad, Fairy, Chorus, Golem, Robot, Spirit, Seraph, Shade, Mazdai, or describe your own race – pass it by me first though! Pronouns: When speaking English, of course Age: Some races live to be thousands of years old Occupation: Formal (baker, mercenary, student, monk) or informal (scavenger, traveling musician, bandit); how do they earn their living? Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: What makes them useful to Mrorgain/Byüligítznuk? Hobbies and interests: Greatest strength: Greatest challenge: Appearance and personality: Optional, do it here or do it in the IC Backstory: Optional, but consider stating what was said in your letter that made you want to come on this strange expedition Other:[/color]
Last edited by Szemetlada on Wed 25 Mar 2015, 1:47 am; edited 26 times in total
Szemetlada Contributor
Posts : 2334 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : Where the wind comes crashing down the plaaains
Races Listed are generalizations common to each race that your characters may defy if they so please:
Human Physical attributes: Quick, strong, agile, and with great stamina. Scientific attributes: Logical and intelligent, fond of technology and blessed with an eye to improve existing designs. Fond particularly of computers and software. Magical attributes: Find it difficult to learn even the most basic of spells.
Elf Physical attributes: Tall and lean. Make up for what they lack in strength and stamina with their quick feet, agile limbs, and almost supernaturally keen senses. Scientific attributes: Though intelligent beings, elves despise anything more technologically advanced than a lute or a recurve bow. They don’t have minds for computers or engines. Magical attributes: With a deep connection to nature, elves have great magical power.
Dwarf Physical attributes: Stout but strong, the dwarves have the greatest endurance of the mortal races, and can run or work a bellows for long hours without rest. Scientific attributes: Prefer the mechanical to the virtual, iron and coal to chips and processors, and much of the very finest machinery come from dwarfish factories. Magical attributes: Competent magicians.
Gnome/Leprechaun/Halfling Physical attributes: Almost as tall as dwarves, gnomes are deceptively quick, hardy folk for their size, and hide easily even in broad daylight. Scientific attributes: Take great delight in both mechanical and virtual systems. Many of the most skilled programmers come from gnomish households. Magical attributes: Skilled in magic but lack the endurance for more powerful spells.
Goblin/Gremlin Physical attributes: Smallest of the mortal races, goblins display surprising strength and endurance but move with slow limbs. Yet it is said a goblin arrow never misses its target, and kingly is the lock that cannot be picked by goblin fingers. Scientific attributes: Their understanding of the physical mechanism is second to none. Goblins are skilled tinkerers and have been known to invent entirely new engineering disciplines by accident when fooling around in their downtime. Magical attributes: Weak in magic.
Orc Physical attributes: Large, fast, and capable of working for days on end, orcs are fine physical specimens. Scientific attributes: Prefer to work only with tools and simple machines. Magical attributes: Possess strong magical energy but few orcs can concentrate well enough to channel it.
Troll/Ogre Physical attributes: Twice the size of an orc, trolls possess extreme strength and physical endurance. They have been known to survive for weeks on nothing but saline water, clay, and the occasional stray goat. Scientific attributes: Trolls do not pay mind to hammers or computers, except maybe to eat them. The only inventions a troll takes interest in are musical instruments. Magical attributes: Hardly any magic in them at all.
Giant
Come in three flavors.
Cyclops Physical attributes: Large, thick-skinned, slow, strong, variable intelligence, have a single eye. Skin comes in tones of yellow. Humanoid. Scientific attributes: Depends on the values of their culture. At best, they are organized and intelligent, fond of metalworking, honor, and culture. At worst, they are barbaric, stupid and impulsive, fond of demons, ritual, and death. Magical attributes: All cyclops know a single spell. They can use it only once, but they sacrifice their eye in the process.
Biclops Physical attributes: By far the largest of the mortal races, Biclops - like all giants - never stop growing from the day they are born – and they live to be quite old. Some are content with simply towering over your house while others dominate an entire city skyline. Scientific attributes: Lack critical thinking and reasoning skills enough to use more than simple tools. Magical attributes: Possess massive amounts of magical energy but have difficulty with complex spells.
Triclops Physical attributes: Large, thin-skinned, slow, strong, powerfully intelligent, have a third eye. They are born with their third eye closed. Humanoid. Scientific attributes: Intelligent, though mystical. They are fond of magic, culture, and logic. They have a deep-seated desire to form a society of philosopher-kings. Magical attributes: Their magical power increases as their third eye opens. This is best accomplished by eating the brains of a mage of another race.
Lizardfolk/Reptilian
Come in three flavors.
Barbarian Physical attributes: Roughly on par with humans. (Never mention this.) Exception: extensive regenerative abilities, up to and including limbs, albeit over the course of months. Have difficulty speaking mammalian languages. Scientific attributes: Innovatively inept, perhaps due to neophobic tendencies. Yet, surprisingly good with 'salvaged' tech. Magical attributes: Poor to middling. Inversely related to regenerative abilities.
Servant/Drone/Low-Caste Cryptokinoninae Lizardfolk Physical attributes: Resilient, particularly against disease. Taller and more wiry than dwarves. Apt to heal from all but the worst factory accidents. Scientific attributes: Adequate. More apt to perform a given task than to break the machine or device, but unsuited to making any improvements. Magical attributes: Practically extinguished. Exceptions are hunted down and killed, or worse.
City folk/Empath/High-Caste Cryptokinoninae Lizardfolk Physical attributes: Gracile, nearly elfin in build. Fast, not strong. Most are able (naturally) to heal from minor wounds, and some, not even that. Scientific attributes: Superb, almost rivaling the gnomes, particularly in bioengineering. Magical attributes: Adequate at best. The most technical schools of magic are those most highly favored.
Vrana/Tengu Physical attributes: Heights averaging 5ft, slight of build and slightly fragile of body. They physically resemble humanoid versions of corvids, ravens and crows being most common, but definitely not the only options. One could take explicitly after one species or be an indeterminate grab-bag, either way, but such traits appear random, rather than hereditary. Some take this as evidence that the vrana were a crafted race from some great forgotten sorcerous working eons ago. They're commonly known for being good linguists. Scientific attributes: Vrana tend not to be first innovators, but they're excellent engineers nonetheless. Anything the humans have built, you can probably find a vrana bootleg somewhere, possibly with unusual innovations - or unfortunate shortcuts. Magical attributes: The skill is generally there, but the ability is not. One can attain their maximum potential relatively easily, but that mostly speaks to lackluster potential, much like gnomes. With their solid grasp of the physical sciences, they often make good artificers, alchemists, and technomages. However, given crows' reputations as harbingers of ill omens and death, rumors are prevalent that the vrana have ties to the Mysterious Forces, both in terms of questionable allegiances and sources of arcane power. Whether this is paranoia or a dark secret remains to be seen.
Skrae Physical attributes: Large, strong, agile, their stamina is nearly endless, can only survive in cold or cool environments, or they will hemorrhage to death as they overheat. Wounds nearly instantly scab over with an ice-like substance. Heal slowly. Metabolism slows and they enter a state of hibernation when starving. Pale skin. Humanoid. They are a genetically engineered warrior-race from an age past. Scientific attributes: Abhor progress, unless it supports a warrior lifestyle, which they are devoted to the perfection of. They have a powerful urge to create society where power is given to the greatest warrior. Magical attributes: Incapable of performing magic.
Fishmen Physical attributes: Somewhere between humans and dwarves in height. They can survive for a period on land, but need to moisten their skin or they will suffocate. The sun irritates their eyes. Look like a cross between a fish and a man. They are the cousins of merfolk, but are still fond of forming a society. Scientific attributes: Talented craftsmen and bonesculpters. They have many great engineers, though their constructs are largely organo-mechanic, and employ no electronics. Magical attributes: Poor magicians.
Naiad/Merfolk/Nymph Physical attributes: Immortal. Born of the deep of the ocean; may journey onto land for only short lengths of time before their legs collapse back into their natural tail, but naiads are unmatched in speed and grace in the water. Scientific attributes: Though intelligent beyond even the elves and the goblins, it is a rare nymph that takes interest in scientific happenings. Magical attributes: In close harmony with the natural magic of the earth, which serves their needs with great power.
Dryad/Ent/Nymph Physical attributes: Immortal. Born of the forest in its glades of green; walk among the trees, and may even join their ranks for short spells, if they so fancy. Scientific attributes: Though intelligent beyond even the elves and the goblins, it is a rare nymph that takes interest in scientific happenings. Magical attributes: In close harmony with the natural magic of the earth, which serves their needs with great power.
Fairy/Pixie/Sprite Physical attributes: Immortal. Rarely grow larger than the palm of your hand, but may zip quickly away on their shimmering wings if disturbed, or melt skillfully into small crevices. Scientific attributes: What, that stuff for dwarves and goblins? Magical attributes: Possess the most powerful magic of all the races, fairies appear as they wish and do as they please.
Chorus/Bug Physical attributes: Immortal. Eyeless yet not blind. Many-segmented, heavily faceted, and highly variable bodies and limbs. Invariable, however, is the presence of at least two probing tendrils - tipped with hollow needles, and packed with nucleic acid-reading organelles. Scientific attributes: Expert fleshshapers, protein-designers, and so on and so forth. Magical attributes: Magic-damping. Difficult to affect with magic, and completely unable to use it. Spiritual attributes: Strong connection with the Beyond that etc. etc.
Golem/Elemental/Undead Physical attributes: Artificial. Created by magic, the union of the natural with the unnatural. Scientific attributes: Very little understanding of advanced technologies. Magical attributes: May draw upon vast reservoirs – their own life force – of energy for complex magical activities, but exist under the control of their creators.
Robot/Automaton Physical attributes: Artificial. Created by science, the union of the mechanical with the virtual. Scientific attributes: Unmatched skill with anything virtual, mechanical, or even biological, depending on their databases. Knowledge takes up much space, however, so everyday robots are supplied with only what they need to fulfill their given purposes. Magical attributes: No innate magical energy.
Spirit/Ghost Physical attributes: Immortal. Pass through solid stone, and shimmer into nothingness with the coming of light, visible only when darkness falls once more. Even their forms twist and contort: now a human, now a dragon, now a shroud of cloth floating silently through the air. Scientific attributes: No skill or interest with mortal mechanisms. Magical attributes: No skill or interest with magic. Spiritual attributes: Strong connection with the Beyond that provides them with many strange abilities.
Seraph/Angel Physical attributes: Immortal. Fly on quiet wings and fill their surroundings with brilliant beams of light. Scientific attributes: Skilled in all languages, including computer codes, and therefore are unmatched programmers and hackers. Magical attributes: Powerful magic. Spiritual attributes: Strong connection with the Beyond that provides them with many strange abilities.
Shade/Demon Physical attributes: Immortal. Withstand even the toughest of blows, strike with wiry muscle and unseen speed, and walk among fire as a fish swims through water. Scientific attributes: Great smiths and engineers whose works rival those of the dwarves. Magical attributes: Powerful magic. Spiritual attributes: Strong connection with the Beyond that provides them with many strange abilities.
???/Alien/Mazdai/ Physical attributes: Tall statures. Hardy, resilient systems grants them powerful immune systems and their genetic makeup allows them to rapidly regenerate damaged cells and tolerance for harsh environmental conditions. Has two pairs of three tentacles in place of their arms. However, their muscular strength and durability is somewhat lacking. Scientific attributes: Has nil technological presence. Has difficulty comprehending digital electronics and lacks the strength and durability for mechanical engineering. Their brains are, however, supremely calculating and are very mathematical. Excels in natural sciences. Magical attributes: Prodigal. They possess an innate understanding of magic like humans understand science and sees almost every component of it. Duly so, are capable of magic - most especially forms of biomancy and astromancy - that appears to warp laws of reality by manipulating life and cosmic bodies on an elemental level.
Magic
At its most basic, magic may be divided into two schools, and each into four subschools:
“Earth, air, fire, and water” are tags used only for convenience’s sake. Wizards trained in liquid may effectively manipulate all liquids, and the same goes for each of the others.
Some wizards further specialize into periodic elements; the school of carbon manipulation is very popular among biomancers, for instance, while smiths or engineers might prefer iron manipulation. Each element has its own tricks and difficulties to learn and if you do choose to specialize then you can do some seriously cool stuff with that element. But that level of skill is not necessary for most everyday tasks.
Dark is treated as the absence of light, and cold the absence of heat, but each is considered an element in itself; each is equal with its counterpart. Just as subtracting a positive number produces the same result as adding a negative number, so are blasts of darkness and cold forces to be reckoned with. Their students simply learn to absorb rather than produce.
The schools of matter and energy are closely tied together – for instance, one skilled in plasma manipulation must also know a great deal about working with heat and light, and the wizard who freezes water must be experienced in dealing with liquids and solids as well as with cold.
Magic also has many and complex ties with technologies, which results in an uncountable number of other schools of thought. For instance, those who study the workings of the brain may take up psychomancy, and read the minds of others – an act which takes very little magical energy but a great deal of technical know-how. Spells also exist which can raise the dead, charm an enemy, enchant objects (or even bits of computer code), see and hear clearly in the whitewash of a blizzard, or even tilt the trajectory of the stars to your will. But the more complex the task, the more scientific knowledge it demands, and spells that have vast effects require greater energy.
The way enchanting objects, putting up shields, throwing up illusions, or casting any kind of magic that sticks around works is: When you cast it you have to imbue it with a certain amount of magical energy (of which you have a limited supply, but can train just as you can train to improve physical stamina), and when that amount runs out the object/spell/whatever loses its power. You can set it up to automatically drain energy from sources in its surroundings if you like. Just generally find creative ways to accomplish things! Like from Eragon: Rather than create a magical shield which stops arrows in their tracks (which would take a lot of energy for each shot), instead create a shield that deflects arrows harmlessly to the side (which doesn’t take much energy at all)!
Magic is common enough to be as integrated in everyday life as technology is, so depending upon your race and background and stuff, feel free to have a wide variety of spells learned if your character is a magic user. Just say what their specific areas of focus are and you pretty much have free reign, but be realistic about what your character can accomplish and how much energy they can output (like, if you don’t know anything about cars then you can’t cast a spell to fix a car, and if you’re a novice magician then you won’t be able to levitate a mountain or anything :P)
In short, through magic and science pretty much anything is possible! The most basic of spells is to put your magical energy into things, like storing energy into a battery, and then to retrieve that energy later (and only living things that train their magical skills can develop this energy). The most advanced are the kind of spells that deal with living things, or those that work hand-in-hand with computer code to provide defense networks against cybermagical assault.
The Veil
A foggy plain where the stars seemed like the size of suns in the sky, yet for whatever reason this place was dark. Not pitch dark, but dark. Like this fog was keeping the whole place oddly dim. While the field itself remained the base of the area the ruins seemed to float aimlessly through the air. The Seraph and the Shades used light magics to scour the shambles as if ceaselessly searching for something. But what? I suppose they know. Or maybe they don't. Maybe they search because the others search and that's all they've ever known.
1. To dip into the Veil at all you need to have a spiritual connection to it, which means either being dead (a Spirit), a Seraph or Shade, or being a monk that has specially trained in the art.
2. The farther you go in, the more exponentially difficult it gets - both in terms of spiritual "energy" (just think of spiritual energy as "mastery of self," something monks can train) and concentration required.
3. First stage: Go in shallow and you can get decreasingly tangible in the real world. Emphasis on the "can be." If you focus you can retain your full form in both plains. Spirits master this technique to turn invisible and make no noise and pass through stuff.
3. Second stage: Go in a little deeper and you can exploit the spacial inconsistencies between the corporeal world and the Veil. You don't need TOO much energy to do this, but the real danger lies in lack of preparation, for getting lost in the Veil means arriving at an uncertain destination when you cross back; like sealing you deep within the crust of the Earth or chucking you into space or shiz.
4. Past here it becomes too difficult for non-spiritual races to manage alone, but monks can form zen circles or whatever just to share the burden. Of course they all have to have absolute concentration cause even the slightest lapse in concentration might mean they AAALL get into some nasty biz.
5. Third stage: Go in very deep indeed and you can exploit the temporal inconsistencies as well as just the spacial. With a whole lotta concentration, you can speed up your own time, and thus jump into the future. People have tried going in the opposite direction and none were ever heard from again. Maybe they're having a party at the beginning of the universe, or before Time? That's... That's one theory.
6. The deeper you go the more concentration it takes to ignore the effects of the previous stages. So like if you're past the second stage and going to the third, it will be difficult to keep yourself from fading from view, or keeping your relative position in space constant. Might be start to let yourself fade from view in order to save your focus from displacing yourself in little chunks across a million eons.
6. Between the second and third stages you hit what's called the "Bump," which occurs when you have displaced yourself exactly halfway between the corporeal world and the Veil. Basically what happens here is instead of it taking great energy and concentration to push towards the Veil, the force all of a sudden begins pulling in the opposite direction, and you have to then exert just as much energy and concentration to keep from slipping into the Veil entirely. Over this hump it's less difficult to go deeper, but you must take care not to go all the way, or you'll become a creature of the Veil now, one with as little presence in your home dimension as you used to have in the Veil! It takes a few times to know when you'll encounter the Bump, so it's good practice to hit stage three with a few experts before trying it yourself. If you don't reverse your energies in time you simply catapult uncontrollably into the Veil and, if you're traveling with the help of others, the impact will likely break your concentration and you'll be separated, unable to contact each other and thus unable to get home.
Additionally, at the exact moment of the Bump, it is theoretically impossible to maintain a presence in two worlds - i.e., even if you had all the power and all the concentration ever, and you made the journey to the Bump without even fading from view, you would for the smallest measurement of time exist in only one dimension as you crossed the Bump.
7. At any point in this you can double back and return to the corporeal world; before the Bump, that just means letting go, but after the Bump, you have to fight the counter-current to get back, which is just as hard as it was to get to the Veil in the first place. But if you like you can go all the way to the Veil, and that means you no longer have a presence in the real world, but exist in the Veil as fully as you used to exist back in your home dimension. Those who lose control after the Bump end up like this, and wander the Veil forever. Some are weak monks who don't have the energy, and some are very powerful but have gotten lost, and do not want to materialize in the other world without knowing where they will end up - perhaps thousands of lightyears, perhaps thousands of regular years, from home. Some of these beings are impossibly dangerous.
TL;DR: You start towards the Veil. First you Danny Phantom. Then you the Flash. Then at the halfway point you gotta stop pushing forward and start pulling back or you'll be in trouble, Like how if a rocket blasts off to the moon but just keeps accelerating it smacks into it and explodes, or like if you drive up a hill but don't slow down once you reach the peak and start flying down the other side. Then after that Bump you a time traveler, but don't get lost in the spooky dimension or you'll get ate by monsters that existed before time.
Last words
That’s about all I have so far! I welcome all ideas, for plot, setting, or whatever. Let’s make this thing happen :D
Last edited by Szemetlada on Wed 11 Mar 2015, 10:49 pm; edited 7 times in total
Szemetlada Contributor
Posts : 2334 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : Where the wind comes crashing down the plaaains
Subject: List of accepted characters Thu 05 Mar 2015, 12:17 am
Name(s): Raizerr Race: Seraph Pronouns: It/Its/Itself Age: 897 Occupation: Tactician Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: Thinks, feels, and acts by running programs and functions within itself. Every action it performs has a specific function that corresponds to the action. Due to this, Raizerr is very skilled at commanding troops and understanding the variables and various outcomes of a situation. Unfortunately due to limited RAM capabilities it can be easily overloaded. Functions that control biological memory can be very RAM intensive. This only allows Raizerr to perform actions such as seeing, speaking, listening, and smelling one at a time. However Raizerr can chain functions together to perform devastating combo attacks. However should it be interrupted it can spell trouble because it must finish the running function before it can perform any additional functions. Skilled with a number of weapons as well as possessing the ability to transform body parts. Only through functions of course. Functions that can take a while to run. Very little in the way of possessions. Hobbies and interests: Music and dancing. If it happens to hear music at any point it automatically runs Dance.exe regardless of the situation. Greatest strength: Very tactical and very precise. Very effective at landing hits and shots. If it misses, it’s still a very close shot. Intimidating and fearsome as well as being very fluid and having a lot of freedom of movement. Greatest challenge: Clunky and dated programming. Sometimes can easily get caught in infinite loops. These can be both beneficial or problematic. Usually both. A minigun for an arm that can’t stop firing is cool at first but increasingly becomes a problem. Flying continuously into a wall also wouldn’t be very fun. Additionally if it runs too many functions at once it can clog itself up and prevent itself from reacting quickly to the ever changing combat environment. Additionally the things I included above, including music and only being able to use one sense at a time. Appearance and personality: A porcelain white mass. It possesses a Feminine upper body, and no lower body beyond it’s belly button region. Where it’s stomach should be it possess a glass case with a tungsten filament inside. It’s upper chest, while possessing what would appear to be breasts it possess no areola or any such mammary glands within it’s body. Instead it’s body is simply a white porcelain case. it’s face, if you’d describe it as such, is simply a white porcelain mask with no distinguishing features. This face structure changes however depending on what function is being run. Should eyes be active, two slits will splinter open in the upper part of the white face and reveal two glowing red lights. Sometimes this split will simply be one larger split on the forehead with a similar, but larger, red glowing light. If the mouth is active, then similar to the eyes the mouth region of the mask splinters open to reveal sharp jagged teeth. It possesses no tongue and a similar red glow emanates from the back of its throat. Other parts of the face have similar effects. Raizerr possesses 6 arms, 3 on either side of the body. Each arm is naturally very muscular and strong. These arms can also be switched into various different forms by running functions, though the functions take a time to perform. Out of it’s back sprout 4 white wings that keep it afloat. Backstory: Works for the Mystery Dark Forces. Other: Drop it like it's hot.
Patches wrote:
Name(s): Glenn M. (Mardigras) Gopunk Race: Orc Pronouns: He identifies as he/him/himself, but doesn't actually care what you call him as long as you aren't insulting him. Age: 30 Occupation: Mortician and part-time street fighter. Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: As a mortician, Mr. Gopunk has a great deal of understanding of mortal anatomy and biology. Additionally, he can also brew up the proper concoction and properly apply embalming fluid to preserve bodies, and knows a variety of rituals prior to the deceased's burial. As such, he is well-versed in a number of religions and spiritual practices, regardless of whether or not he believes in such rituals and beliefs – and while not often requested, or even in line with his work area, is certified to perform autopsies and can employ forensic applications to determine the cause of death. Less formally, he is also an adept unarmed fighter, and conjoins western and eastern martial arts with a wild and barbaric twist to his methodology.
His immense strength coupled with innate ferocity also allows him to overpower opponents easily that are otherwise unequipped to defend themselves against a raging and magically imbued berserking titan that may as well resemble the manifestation of your worst nightmare. Speaking of which, he is magically gifted, although with it, he does little more than to bolster his own strength and endurance, permitted by his years of experience with mortal bodies. He is also an expert at cooking meats specifically, and his prime ribs are legendary, but he compulsively requires himself to don a chef's hat in order to do so. He stubbornly refuses otherwise. Can also braid hair.
Hobbies and interests: He loves trains and, while claims to be an expert on them and old school mechanics, can do little more than hit it with a wrench in hopes it somehow fixes itself. He also enjoys sparring and star gazing, and appreciates vintage items. He ain't much of dancer or music guy, but it will still put him in a partying mood.
Greatest strength: His, uh, well... strength. And endurance, too, as he can take quite the beating. He has something of an admirable willpower judging by his pouty stubbornness, and his immensely loyal to his allies. Perhaps blindly so. Moderately cultured.
Greatest challenge: He is smart at what he's good at, but put him anywhere else, and it'll be like putting a confused child in a maze. Sometimes he lacks what appears to be basic common sense, and while insightful, often doesn't follow his own advice. Also, putting him into any situation that requires delicacy is a laughable endeavor and everyone involved would probably be killed in a freak accident somehow. Has a terrible sense of direction. . Appearance and personality: At 5'10”, perhaps shorter than you would expect an orc of Glenn's personality, stature, and muscular girth. He is quite stocky with a wrestler's build, and should he ever flex his arms, pecs, back, and stomach all at once, you would expect someone in the background to be yelling “ripped” and dragging it out for a couple seconds to encourage the ballyhoo of rallying cheers – he's quite the presence, and seems to take up a lot more space than he really does. His olive green skin doesn't oil a whole lot, unlike his black hair, though is often beaded with sweat from hard labor. His aforementioned black hair is undercut, somewhat long, and reaches down to the bottom of his neck. He often deals with his hair simply by putting it into a top-knot, or by putting it into a French braid down the center of his head. Sometimes he'll even braid it and then put the end of it into a bun or topknot.
He has little in the ways of facial hair, but it is there for certain. There's no full-blown mustache, but he has hair on his upper lip. He doesn't have a goatee, but he has something of a soul patch just under his lip. Finally, we then have facial hair from below his attached ear lobes, which then stretches along either side of his jawline and meets at his chin. He also has a few accessories, among them is a septum half-ring under his Nubian nose. He has a thick, strong set of jaws, and two rows of sharp and jagged teeth. Where the canines would normally be are large tusks, the bottom of which protrude just a half-inch out of his mouth. He bears large and meaty arms, the forearms of which grows a plentiful amount of body hair, much like his chest and back. His knuckles are all scarred to hell and back.
Glenn wears a very retro fashion, emulative of some time period between the early and mid 1900s. He wears a sleeveless white shirt, tucked into a pair of brown wool jodhpurs, that which is supporting by red suspenders that strap over his chest and cross over each other like an “x” on his back. The buckles themselves are steel, but appear to be made of brass. Further adorning him his a black flapcap on his head, where the inside rim is stained with sweat. The bottom of his jodhpurs are often half tucked into, half not – which in itself looks to be something of a lazy habit – into a pair of steel-toed, black leather combat boots. Other jewelry he wears aside from the septum half-ring is a chain mail bracelet around his left wrist, and a brass torc around his neck. The wires themselves are weaved and braided expertly, and either end stops at a certain point above his collar bones. These heads are engraved with what appears to be the faces of screaming people.
As an individual, Glenn happens to be very excitable and gungho, and gets along with most people for the most part. His temper is curious, as his oblivious nature can lead him to believe that a person's intent is to not to insult or harm him – a sure sign of his security in himself and self-assurance – but at the same time, somehow handles a short-fused temper. So while it may be difficult to find what exactly pisses him off outside of life-threatening decisions such as punching him in the face or keeping him from doing what he wants to do, it doesn't take long for him to angry once you find it. This can lead to false sense of security when talking to the sociable orc, which in turn can cause the conversation to turn on its heels and have him angry at you for what appears to be no reason until you reflect upon it further. Which, during the time of getting yelled at by a large and angry orc, can be absurdly difficult to do.
He is tolerant and accepting of people. Regardless of your gender, race, sexuality, religion, or political orientation, he is something of a go-with-the-flow type of person, and even being referred to incorrectly doesn't bother him. He simply takes it in stride. As mentioned, Glenn is smart at what he is good at. While having encyclopedic knowledge of mortal bodies and anatomy, understand bodily functions, is well cultured in religious and spiritual traditions (particularly death rituals), and so on, he is something below average in almost all other fields. He knows enough math and reading for a position of a mortician, but doesn't necessarily excel in those fields. It'd be erroneous to mistake him for a doctor – while he is skilled in anatomy, isn't suited for bedside regulation, medication, or high-risk surgery. While he goes by the book in his mortician jobs, he'll just as quickly wing it in anything he doesn't have experience in. He unfortunately lacks the restraint that should keep him from doing anything he has no experience in. Piloting? Aw, hell, surely he'd figure it out...
Back story: His dad was an attourney and his mom a funeral director, so the household Glenn grew up in was definitely one of strict discipline and intellectual pursuit. However, the only child of the Gopunk family was a wild thing, and very difficult to control. He always has been, and while it has been tempered, he was never fully or successfully indoctrinated into a life of civilty and stoic poise. He was pushed and urged into devoting more time to his studies by his family, especially his mother, who urged him particularly into working in her funeral home private business, so biology was a biggy. It took quite a bit of struggle to sit him down and keep him there, but over time he was able to absorb the information adequately enough.
The money for the family came from many sides. His father was an attourney, allowing him to help families sue offenders, and specialized in affairs that concerned death. Those family could then turn towards his wife who would prepare a funeral service for them, and then eventually there'd be Glenn, who could prepare the body and perform whatever rites the grieving family wished as an embalmer. The family could make quite a good deal of money that way when everyone was working together. Add in another family member that can carve out gravestones, and then everything would go full circle. However, the family's plan didn't take that one step forward as they would have hoped, and instead, took one or two steps back.
Without even consultation, Glenn moved out, preferring to live on his own terms. This was something he felt his folks should have saw coming. He has always been a free spirit and has always had something of a rebellious streak. To think he would stay in the nest was absurd. He still kept a close relationship with his folks, though, and always has been something of a mama's boy despite everything. At least he's independent enough to go out and live his own life, and work in the family business with a professional relationship. Still, life gets boring. That's why when around 19 years of age, he found the perfect outlet. He entered street-fighting, unbeknownst to his family. He continued doing that for the next 11 years up to now, and his mother still thinks he works night shifts at an animal shelter the next city over.
Despite his apparent lack of wisdom in his decisions, there is at least one more testiment to his capacity for learning and intelligence other than biology, anatomy, and embalming duties: magic. Indeed, throughout his education and even the years of street fighting, he has been practicing magic, but specifically on the body. This is because in order to use magic, you must understand the part of the world you are attempting to manipulate. Because the only laws of the world he truly understood was one of mortal bodies, the only type of magic he could really use was magic that affect himself and others. And since manipulating the bodies of other people is considered to be a huge frowned-upon taboo, he did it to himself. Naturally, whatever mistakes he had made during that time was immensely painful. Only through patience was he able to repair himself.
Needless to say, he made use of that power. Namely in the application of system-bolstering effects to give him an edge in fight circles, catching his opponents unaware and leaving them in the dark as to where he derived his newfound strength and endurance. His main applications of this magic is to make his skin and hide tougher, make his body faster, and increasing his strength and carrying capacity. He managed to unconsciously develop a style of biomancy that is geared toward close combat. By using the energy developed by the swing of each punch, it is used to activate the magic that enchants the muscles and bones in his arms and bolsters his strength. When the swing stops, so does the magic. However, it's only been useful for short-term engagements. In dragged out fights, it's better to just put the magic on and fight until its gone.
Whether it was the fighting or his knowledge of bodies, or whatever, Glenn didn't know, but he recently received a letter from some weird person whose name M-Mer...M-mur... Mmm-roar-grain? More grain? More Grain the Rock, or something weird like that. But the letter said something about going on a great adventure and exploring the world! Hell yeah! Sounds a lot more exciting than squatting down in one place forever. Sure, the letter also mentioned trite nonsense like “treasure” and “glory” and “for the good of the world”. Really, Glenn was just down with it and decides to go for the fun of it. Before he left, however, he had a goodbye present from his mother: a promotion and leave! From embalmer to undertaker – or more officially, mortician (funeral director being a much nicer word for it) – letting him take an extended vacation. This was another way of saying she was retiring, which he didn't really pick up on. When, or if, he returns, Glenn will be trained on management duties and take over.
Other:
Gnd wrote:
Name(s): Urvad Zefonemal Pronouns: Badass, badass', badassim. For the sane: he, his, him. Race: Goblin. Age: 30 Occupation: Bandit/Highwayman Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: Is a talented mugger, stabber, body-searcher, corpse-hider, lock-smasher, ransomer, and can keep his head in a tough situation. He is a decent pickpocket and lock-picker. Hobbies and interests: He is an avid card-player, and is good at cheating in a variety of card-games. He has an obsession with knives (the more glamorous the better), and collects all of those he comes across. His most precious and well-adorned one, the Flipwhittler, has a magical property: while impaled in a living creature, it prevents that creature from healing. Urvad is unaware of this property. Greatest strength: His agility. Greatest challenge: His height. Appearance and personality: He is 3'10", has mottled green skin, and a brown mop of hair. He has orange eyes. His extraordinarily pointy ears have petite lobes. He is clean-shaven. He has a small scar on his left cheek bone. His skin is disfigured on his upper left back and left shoulder where he was burned as a child. He wears dusty old trousers and a dirty dress shirt that is baggy, the latter tucked into the former. He is missing his ring finger on his left hand. His left front tooth is chipped. He wears cow-leather shoes. Backstory: A poorly penned map, and writ beside: 'Money, a lot of it.' That is all Urvad really needed. Other: N/A
Admiral Ji wrote:
Name(s): Kovarnis Rhaokin (Surname comes first in Huginnese society) Race: Vrana Pronouns: She/Her Age: 39 Occupation: Receives House stipend, as well as owns several prestigious manufactories Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: Rhaokin has had a varied education, owing to her high birth. Among her skills most useful for the upcoming trials are a general engineering prowess from both the design and technician standpoint, knowledge of military tactics and how to lead learned in the classroom and on the front-lines, and her skill as a combat drone operator. Of course she retains less helpful skills as well, such as her ability to navigate political structures both foreign and native, operate a successful business, and the typical Vranan capacity to speak several languages.
Her most useful piece of equipment is of course, her “Falconer's Glove” which occupies the entirety of her right arm. This cybernetic replacement limb interfaces with her neural command augments and allows her operation of synced drones via a series of minute micro-hand gestures, while still being serviceable as a regular arm when not in use. Though without her three drones, such a boon would be useless. She possesses three robotic assistants, a small rapidly flying bot, meant to circle rapidly far overhead, and send back valuable visual data back to her glove, which she can either mentally perceive, or project for others to view as well. A second drone occupies a similar role, though it has the general shape and form of a small mouse, skittering around on silent, sticking feet, to explore urban or indoor locations. The third drone is as long as her torso, and as wide as it is long, occupying a flattened box shape. At each of its four corners is a series of propellers, run by powerful and precise motors, themselves powered by powerful and long-lasting internal batteries, rechargeable at any standard sized outlet, or by top mounted solar panels. Mostly featureless black box has a series of menacing cameras on the front, an underslung weapon's mount normally filled with a machinegun, and a centrally held winch with a claw, enabling to to heft and lift relatively light objects it can grab onto. All of this can be fitted to the back of a collapsible frame that can be worn on Rhaokin's back, allowing her to heft it around with her.
Other important equipment includes her similarly robotic left arm with recoil-bleeding gyroscopes, which she uses to wield any personal weapons, false golden irised eyes, interlaced with green filament, that allow her to “perceive” important tactical data, from both her drones, and her own point of view. And finally, a simple, though ornate, over-under shotgun, which she holds to be “The finest fowling piece I've ever laid eyes on.”
Hobbies and interests: Rhaokin enjoys tinkering with, or at least debasing, new things. As well as applying what she learns into making her own inventions. She has a rather general fondness for most things mechanical as well, always interested in discussing or encountering new things about it. She also enjoys fine liquors, recreational reading. Greatest strength: Her greatest strength is her mechanical skill, followed shortly by her military-drone training. Greatest challenge: Time is catching up with Rhaokin, and her body, at least the remaining organic parts, are no longer what they used to be. Though, one could also argue her greatest challenge is her complete and total lack of magical ability. She'd never been able to use it, and swiftly gave up trying. She doesn't understand the theory, terminology, or properties. Just about the only thing she knows is how to hit the deck when she sees it coming. Appearance and personality: Rhaokin stands at 4' 10”, near average for a Vrana, and sporting the usual slender, near fragile build that comes standard on most of her ilk. Cast amid her preponderant number of black-feathered peers, her differing bits of white plumage are rarely visible under her clothes, with simply a shimmering iridescent green tailfeathers casting a different light to her raven, crow, or assorted other brethren. The most immediately distinctive characteristics she bears are her cybernetics, the shimmering golden irises filled with green circuitry, and her two shiny steel arms, built and plated in rough intimation of her natural scaled forelimbs. Of course, even that is hidden underneath her adventuring outfit that she put together carefully from old hunting equipment. The last, and perhaps most distinguishing bit of her wardrobe, is the “simple” signet ring, pointless in her day to day life, but an effective symbol of her nobility nonetheless.
Backstory: Rhaokin was firstborn of her mother, Ekster, member of house Kovarnias. That alone set Rhaokin up for greatness. Her early life was simple, though hectic, as she attended the finest schools, learned several important languages, how to deal with dynastic politics, and was pressured down the same engineering path as her mother, that she might follow in her footsteps. With little time to herself, let alone meaningful recreation, Rhaokin had little to turn to besides books she could read when she should have been sleeping, and her younger sister, Tythirr, who's chipperness pierced even the smoggiest day. Eventually, she was pressured into armed service. “Upholding the family honor” they called it, but she hardly found it worthwhile. She spent two years in training as an officer of a remote drone unit, where upon she entered into an eight year peace time service. Or... that was the intention anyway. The first four and a half went smoothly, she patroled, held herself up as some sort of dignified beacon for the people, and generally accomplished nothing but writing letters back home. But one fateful winter morning that she remembered all too well, war was declared. The United Goblinoid Tribes, a dreadful republic to the south, where every orc, goblin, and troll commoner got his say, had grown too big for its own good, and decided its newest target was the Kingdom of Huginn. Powered by terrible goblin technology, horrible orcish and troll soldiers marched north, clad in armors more durable than the Huginnese had ever faced, their weapons more advanced, and their advance unstoppable. Over the next three years, they marched north, as the Huginnese did their best to at least slow them down, as Rhaokin fought from the front-lines with the others, experiencing doomed-last-stand after broken-retreat, as the devastation marched from the poor, unindustrialized outer regions, to the heart of the kingdom. But each final stand grew less and less final, as enemy forces fell, and mysteriously weren't replaced, and on those last few months, within less than a month's march of the capital, the army turned the invaders back. And on that day, as men and women cheered, and the radios reported the signing of a ceasefire... Rhaokin received several fateful letters from home, detailing her mother's sudden murder, the failed investigation, and that her sister had gone missing. She finished her service distraught, and disappointed, to her now alone father, and lack of siblings. Eventually though, and with a heavy heart, she moved on. Picking up after her mother's company, her factory began to serve government interests, from the wing that worked in tandem with the rest of the country to rebuild what had been lost, to the secret cabal of engineers assigned to reverse-engineer the UGT's fallen equipment. Rhaokin's life returned to normalcy, she'd started a family of her own, had three children, and she was doing okay with herself, she'd even remet her sister again for the first time since they'd parted all those years ago... and despite what'd happened to her, they were still family, and she still did what she could to support her. Eventually, one dreary morning, after a rather boring sales meeting, Rhaokin returned to find a peculiar letter on her desk. The specifics were hazy, even then, but a one “Mrorgain the Rock” promised her the chance to do good by the world... Rhaokin was getting old, and before she resigned herself to a life completely behind the scenes... one last ride as the heroine called to her. And with but a simple night spent explaining it to her husband, and her children, and assigning the factory's operation in her absence, she grabbed her favorite gear, and set out for one final adventure. Other: Obligatory song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xRgf3tOpMI or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPPjJivG4RE Take your pick, one of the two. :p Drone armed with This
Snowy wrote:
Name(s): Kovarnis Tythirr Race: Vrana Pronouns: she/her Age: 32 Occupation: Mercenary, bodyguard, corporate spy Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: What Tythirr actually went to school for is physics, which she has the cultural equivalent of a associate's in. She was going to use it to pursue further education in mechanical engineering, but has aborted that in favor of honing her magical talents. She has taken her physics knowledge and combined the two fields to pursue magical ballistics. She uses magic to effectively get the benefits other people would get with a smartgun; her bread and butter is engaging a sort of magical sight that lets her accurately predict complex vectors and execute her predictions. She complements this with an acrobatic martial arts style, mostly for evasive purposes. Her active magic use tends to be related to the martial arts, helping her to bend the rules of physics and stay one step ahead of enemy fire, and occasionally sending spells straight down the barrel if she encounters a foe her bullets alone can't bring down. Much of her magical knowledge comes from basic training as a monk; that said, most monks would consider her a rank novice at most purer applications of a monk's craft. Favored equipment is a pair of machine pistols equivalent to the MAC-10, chambered for 400 Corbon, with 30 round magazines. Where a retractable stock would normally be, there is instead a magical reservoir. She also carries a couple of discreet cybernetics: a wireless network uplink, for discreet communication and network access, and a simple datajack with storage, so she can store and play back audiovisual info. These are hidden under her feathers. She also has titanium bone lacing, to withstand occasional hard landings.
Hobbies and interests: Tythirr enjoys pool sharking, laughing at poorly-written romance novels, illegal street racing (generally on her motorcycle), and amateur astronomy. She's fond of video games, but is generally awful at them.
Greatest strength: Determination. One doesn't use a "refuge in audacity" fighting style without having the wherewithal to put yourself on the line.
Greatest challenge: She picked up a stim addiction during her earlier years; while she doesn't require the stimulant as a crutch anymore, she's been as yet unable to kick the habit, and she's insecure about it, as a reminder of past mistakes.
Appearance and personality: She tries to hide when she gets attached to her teammates, but she's a very protective type, mostly over her sister. Else, she comes off as a hardass. Appearance-wise, she's 4'10", with plumage based on a blue jay. There's hardly an ounce of fat on her, and she's well-muscled. Her eyes are sharp and her bearing confident. Her clothing tends to have two distinct styles: baggy, many-pocketed pants, boots, snug-fitting shirt, and bulletproof vest (when working), with copper-rimmed goggles; and black pinstripe business suit, gray blouse with a copper necklace, the same goggles, a fancy digital pocketwatch, and her guns concealed inside the armorweave jacket.
Backstory: Tythirr was the youngest sister in the wealthy Kovarnis household. As at least a moderately bright and magically gifted kid, she was pushed rapidly through school with all the speed and parental pressure that a wealthy family with high hopes can bring. Her childhood was a blur of academics and structured extracurriculars; this caused its share of stress and friction, but it was nothing she couldn't handle. Advanced placement courses landed her in a decent two year institution, where she got [the nearest in-setting equivalent of] an associate's degree. Her graduation would soon be marred by the untimely murder of her mother. With her sister Rhao off serving in the military and her father too busy running the company to be much help, Tythirr found herself without an emotional foothold, and one night at the age of 19, she took a wad of cash and disappeared. Not much is known after that; she had a rough period and understandably doesn't want to talk about it; but it's apparent she spent some time at a monastery, some time fending for herself, and there's a couple clear references to her working with intermittently with a PMC. She came back to the family without prior warning, as if nothing had ever happened, several months ago, and things haven't been the same since; she's a totally different person than she was, and that has kept her and Rhaokin at a distance. When she left, her now-deceased parents had intended to leave her and Rhaokin an even split of their company shares; when she was on the lam, both shares passed to her sister. Upon her return, she claimed only two thirds of her share, leaving her sister with a definite controlling interest, and her with enough to draw on company resources when necessary. Her letter contained one simple appeal: Payback.
Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions:
Preparation and animation of bone and chitin golems. Preparation (of vertebrates) involves fastening synthetic muscle fiber across cleaned, still-articulated structural elements. Animation involves qì manipulation, a discipline paralleling biomancy, yet derived from air magic.
The time-cost of constructing golems in this matter is little reduced from more traditional methods - carving, hand-welding, - to say nothing of factory-produced drones. But the smooth, lifelike motion of the result, properly done, is exquisite.
At times, a golem may seem more animated than its mage. Like it is alive, and the mage is a puppet with glassy eyes. Be assured that consciousness-splitting is strictly dependent upon the continued function of the mage's brain. Automated golems do not suffer from this issue. The scope of their concerns is generally limited to 'how do walk' and 'how do not walk into things'.
Some golems sit at both of these extremes. Individually, they are automated; as a group, they are under direct control. (Technically, the golemmancer rides three or four swarm-members at a time, and the rest follow.) Coordination and independence exercises aid greatly in such an undertaking.
Arj'atyn starts with two hounds and a jar containing a handful of fireflies, all reanimated.
Navigation, mundane. Can chart a path from point A to B, given a map and preferably a GPS unit, and more or less remain on it.
Navigation, monkish. Can slip past mundane reality and feel out hidden things. Activity along these lines currently requires her full concentration.
If she grabs hold and tears, other people can peer outside, too. Putting anything into a tear is inadvisable, because it will usually be whisked away and rendered irretrievable. Holding a tear open is tiring, and tends to attract local occupants of the shallows.
Pending approval, obviously. That's the art concept, at any rate.
Arj'atyn starts play having made contact with a Seraph diplomat whose sheet I'll write later.
Telekinesis. Necessary for precise work on small golems, and for any work that requires more than two hands. Can be used for tactile sensation at range, but not over a wider area than a hand's breadth. Can be used to exploit the environment / improvise weapons, but nothing that requires any great kinetic force.
Basic suite of bio-enhancements typical of her lofty caste. These haven't been serviced in ages, are incompatible with tech from outside Jehd-Az-Akhr, and are largely irrelevant.
Hobbies and interests: o Physiology, especially musculoskeletal kinetics and (in an instrumentation-limited fashion) neural nets. o Flow and groove. Defying entropy. o Historical preservation. Making up historical facts.
Greatest strength: Wit. Providence. Greatest challenge: Over-attachment to things that take the place of other people.
Appearance and personality:
Blue scales, white eyes, sharp teeth. Scarred across the forearm (from removing her RFID chip) and throat (from poor life choices). Wears as-yet unspecified clothes, usually.
Values beauty (not the skin-deep kind, but that too, in a fashion), and success. Experiences many disappointments in life. Is not actually crazy, probably.
Backstory: Hailed from a noble family, at one time. Received tutoring in remote manipulation, but left at a tender age to pursue unsanctioned magical interests.
Studied at a monastery, but was expelled for lack of ascetic virtue. In this case, spying. Was extracted by her father's people, but a rival family caught wind of their success. In the resulting mess, most parties involved were either assassinated or executed by the city guard.
She went on the run. Via contacts from prior thefts - another reason for her expulsion, - she fell in with a group of 'businessfolk' with whom her craft was not wasted. Ultimately, she outlived her usefulness, and wound up left for dead in the forest.
She survived due to divine intervention her attackers' unfamiliarity with reptilian jugulars. She took up hunting. For food, when necessary. Otherwise, for bounties. Most pertained to misdemeanors; the ones for fugitives taken alive paid better.
...She'd studied at a monastery, but was expelled for asking too many hard questions. Without instruction, her interest in extradimensional spaces (for their strategic value, yes, but anthropological too) went awry within a couple of years.
A mild shattering isn't always a bad thing. Sometimes the pieces go back together better than they used to.
And sometimes all your associates get killed in the process, which on the balance is probably more a good thing than a bad one.
She was promised a legacy. She is willing to throw quite a lot away, in exchange for a legacy.
Other:
Yes, both. In order, too, please.
Ømnivalence wrote:
Name(s): Princess Kyra Svera (key-rah Svair-ah) Race: Human Pronouns: She, Her, Herself Age: 21 Occupation: Princess, Valkyrie, and certifiable cutie.
Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: Skilled in polearm combat and incredibly agile on her feet. Kyra is an especially skilled fighter, but not an especially skilled tank. Familiar with the very basics of a lot of things she’s not nearly perfect in any of them. Her saving grace is the lance she carries with her. Illia the Sunseeker, a lance built with the light in mind. The lance channels the power of the sun and releases light magic. Of course it’s essentially just a regular lance when used indoors, in caves, during the rain, or basically any place that lacks the sun. In appearance the lance is a long metal shaft. On the end of the shaft is a metal representation of the sun crafted out of some unknown gold-colored metal. The blade continues out from the top of the sun to create a sharp point. The towards the beginning of the point, just past the sun, two smaller bladed edges are rooted. These blades spread to surround the sun. This gives the lance some slashing ability as well as stabbing. The non-bladed end of the Lance is also accorderned with a much smaller sun as well as the handle possessing an intricate weaving of leather and fabric. Other than her lance Kyra also possesses a small silver crown that she likes to wear. It’s only about 3 inches in diameter and it’s not actually useful for anything, but she enjoys wearing it.
Hobbies and interests: Well first and foremost she loves being a Princess! That means she loves socializing and making friends with as many people as she can. Additionally she enjoys the arts and time consuming crafts such as sewing and anything involving very focused concentration.
Greatest strength: Her speed and weapon skill give her an advantage assuming she can avoid being caught. Her increased focus also allows her more easily notice the weaknesses of her opponents. Utilizing these weaknesses is another story Greatest challenge: She’s very squishy. No not the fleshy kind. She can’t take a hit very well. Even with her armor she finds herself easily winded by a good hit even if it doesn’t kill her. Additionally it can really screw up her focus and throw her flow.
Appearance and personality: A fairly short, probably about 5 feet and just a few inches tall, girl with light skin. She could be described as attractive, though her physical appearance is pretty well masked by her clothing. Her hair light brown, long, and curled, often done up in not quite extravagant, but pretty ways. Her eyes are a cyan color and they’re a very noticeable aspect of her face as it’s easy to be drawn to them. In the day to day she likes to dress in beautiful long black dress with tinges of cyan to add a bit of flair. Her hair is often done up in some braid or another, usually a side half crown. While there isn’t much time to dress like this in combat sometimes at night it gives her comfort to dress this way. Her armor is light weight and freemoving. It’s designed to block glancing blows without restricting movement. Her helmet entirely covers her head and face though loose strands of hair sometimes hang outside.
Here's a picture of what I imagine she might look like in armor:
As far as personality goes, it really depends. For the most part Kyra is a very happy person and does the best she can to make the best out of every situation she can. She has a fire that burns inside her that keeps her motivated. This fire can sometimes be very difficult to quell and can sometimes lead to aggression and anger though. This is part of why she tries to focus on specific tasks because it keeps her internal fire from lashing out when it could instead be put to better use. She puts great value on people and their lives but would not hesitate to strike down those who put her or others in danger. With this comes a great appreciation for the simple things and the beauty of nature. She does her best to leave no trace in the places she goes, not because she doesn’t desire to be followed, but out of respect for the people who live there. Be it the creatures of other humans. She pays back her debts as she believes it’s her responsibility to not allow herself to gain more simply because of her birth status.
Backstory: Princess by birthright to the Kingdom of Larocia. This Kingdom is located in the valley of two mountains and is well known for it’s farming and agriculture. All the fields of the mountain are growing various different fruits and vegetables as well as grains and rice. If you can think of it they probably grow it there. The kingdom itself is very small and very dated. Walls surround the kingdoms on all sides and the streets are quite thing in width. Most people drive mopeds to traverse it because cars simply do not fit. The small shops feel like they’re all squeezed up next to each other and their glass windows display all sorts of things from televisions to tinkerers toys. The castle that Kyra resides in is of course the central point of the city however it’s not so large as to shrink the rest of the town by comparison. People from the Kingdom are allowed to come to the castle at any point, though outsiders are only allowed with invitation. The people of the Kingdom are quite happy and are supplied with the tools and things they need to live upon request. Princess Kyra set out on this quest upon receiving her letter. She was drawn by her desire and her honor to do what she could to help this world. Other:Princess of the Battlefield
GreatSocrates wrote:
Name(s): Lutin du Perverse Race: Demon/shade Pronouns: Male Age: 200 Occupation: Spy/stalker Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: Lutin is a rather primitive demon, lacking technology of any kind to settle on pure magical prowess. He has the ability to phase back and forth between the veil at will, allowing him to both teleport and turn invisible to mortals. These skills make Lutin quite stealthy and hard to find and can cause him to become a serious pain in the neck on any battlefield. Lutin’s weakness in his teleporting and invisibility is that he cannot touch corporeal things when in those forms. When invisible, he must reappear to attack, and while his teleportation has no distance limit, reappearing is a process where he slowly fades into reality, making him easily visible. While physical weapons cannot hurt Lutin while he is reappearing, he becomes especially vulnerable to magic. When it comes to fighting, Lutin isn’t nearly as proficient. He fights using primarily shadow chains, black chains made of pure shadow magic which he can conjure up and fire at his enemies with a whip-like effect. The shadow chains burn whatever they touch, but can be blocked by shields and destroyed with light magic. Another strength of Lutin’s is that he is extremely hot to the touch, so anyone who tries to grab him with their bare hands will be in for quite the surprise. This doesn’t stop gloves or weapons from harming him, though, with the exception that it weakens ice magic.
Lutin’s appearance has the odd effect of causing people to experience a phenomenon known by Poe as “The Imp of the Perverse”. Lutin’s presence causes people to have strange and terrifying thoughts about things which they could do simply because they are possible. The imp of the perverse is what makes you think about jumping or throwing someone off when standing at a high height, and it’s what makes you think about hurting yourself or someone else when seeing a weapon or potentially dangerous object. Generally, the imp of the perverse is harmless, but some psychologists have pointed to it as the cause of the “voices” in the heads of some criminally insane people. Although many people have these kind of lingering thoughts which can easily be controlled, Lutin’s presence greatly intensifies them, though he in no way forces anyone to experience them. Anyone with any willpower whatsoever will easily overpower these strange urges, but it can rattle foes and strike fear in an enemy camp.
As far as possessions go, Lutin carries few. He doesn’t carry any weapons, but has collected a few odds-and-ends devices over the years which he finds interesting, primarily jewels and other small shiny trinkets. He keeps them in the inner pocket of his robes, where they are safe. These objects include a segment of a red geode, a pyrite ammonite fossil about the size of a quarter, a Kreskin's Crystal, and a garnet pendant on a chain.
Hobbies and interests: Despite his intelligence, Lutin is drawn to things which are shiny, especially colored gems and shiny metals. He enjoys art, especially sculptures and pottery. Lutin also is a fan of pranks, though he finds most silly pranks to be immature; his are more drawn-out and elaborate pranks which generally do not harm people and are done solely for the fun of it. He enjoys reading as well, but doesn’t do it often.
Greatest strength: Lutin’s best quality is his stealth. He is extremely skilled in his ability to sneak his way around enemies and observe in silence through years of dedicated training. I won’t say that Lutin is the stealthiest character in the roleplay because that would be rude of me, but I just said it, now didn’t I?
Greatest challenge: Despite his stealth skills, Lutin is kind of a screw-up as a wizard. He’s always been abysmal at sorcery, and can’t mix a potion or cast a strong spell for the life of him. His shadow chains are magic, but they’re also not overly strong, and can be somewhat easily shattered with a powerful enough magical attack or blunt strike.
Appearance and personality: Lutin appears as a demonic creature about four feet tall, though his exact physical features are somewhat unimportant, as he is always concealed under his robes. His skin is a dark red, but he will never be seen without his robes on so it’s somewhat pointless to talk about what that would look like. Lutin wears a set of grey wizard-like hooded robes which cover his entire body. The robe is trimmed in red and has very deep belle-style sleeves, though the inside of these sleeves is total darkness. Lutin’s four-fingered hands stick out from the robes, but they are armored in a pair of golden, talon-like gauntlets with sharp nails on the end. A single chain wraps around his body like a sash, and there is a rope belt around his waist. If you look hard enough at his feet, you can occasionally catch a glance of his black cloven hooves. Lutin’s robes have the effect of sending off an obsidian-colored fire which burns above him smokeless and makes him so hot to the touch, though it doesn’t seem to bother him at all. Lutin’s general posture is hunched over to the point where his hands almost touch the ground, and he has a definite hunchback. Lutin’s voice is quiet and deep. He doesn’t sound threatening, but more so somewhat depressed. When he’s especially angry, his voice gets a chilling kind of edge which isn’t terrifying in your general demon-y way, but is scary nonetheless.
Personality-wise, Lutin is kind of a depressing guy. Pushed down and bullied all his life for his lack of magic, he has become somewhat shy and reclusive, preferring to be alone and committing his life to his work so as to avoid the gnawing sadness inside. He’s very cocky about the things that he is good at, believing and advertising himself as the greatest spy in the world. He can very easily be offended, at which point he often drifts away and goes elsewhere to sulk. He is very envious of good wizards and has a great antipathy towards them. He is extremely intelligent, on the verge of being an intellectual bully.
Backstory: Works for the mysterious forces and is following the adventurers.
Last edited by Szemetlada on Wed 25 Mar 2015, 10:42 pm; edited 10 times in total
Ømnivalence Frequent Poster
Posts : 1214 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 29 Location : The Land of Wild and Ruin
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 2:43 am
Your inclusions of Seraphs has gotten me quite intrigued. Especially the aspect about being skilled programmers. Because I imagine Angels and Seraphs as being sort of biologically automated in nature. Not speaking much but acting very precisely. Efficient at what they do.
Snowy Patrician of Ankh-Morpork
Posts : 1564 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 33 Location : Bird school, which is for birds.
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 6:37 am
Interest is piqued. I'll think about something and get back to you.
Admiral Ji Moderator
Posts : 1450 Join date : 2011-09-30 Age : 29 Location : The 14th floor of the final dungeon
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 6:46 am
I'll definitely see what I can put together for you. How technologically advanced are things in this world. I understand if that's a hard question, with how intertwined magic and science might be, just curious what can be done if, for some reason, magic were not employed. Current idea, if it's workable, is to be a "master" of "CyberFalconry". You know, drone piloting, that kind of thing, there's general setting specific terms I could use, but that sounds like the most fantastical way to put it.
GreatSocrates User
Posts : 169 Join date : 2012-12-14 Age : 27 Location : Contemplating the Nature of the Universe
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 11:49 am
I am totally joining this. Might go with a pixie or gnome and an automaton (because I love me some robots).
I've gotta say, though, seraphs and demons seem a tad OP.
Szemetlada Contributor
Posts : 2334 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : Where the wind comes crashing down the plaaains
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 1:09 pm
(Name) - Sanjan of The Parse (Race) - Mazdai (Pronouns) - Mazdai are almost genetically identical to one another and are capable of reproducing indiscriminately. As such, gender was never a concept in their culture - they often referred to one another by name, as that was the most accurate way of referring to one another. If not done specifically so, they referred to one another by variables such as x, y, z, in order and respectively to the Mazdai mentioned. Upon learning the Common language on the new planet, they would tolerate whatever pronoun they're given. They generally don't understand the gender dimorphism in language. Sanjan's voice at least sounds masculine, albeit mostly androgynous.
(Age) - 7,948 years between conceived life and crash landing, has spent about 9 years on Mindennauer. (Faction) - Colonist of The Parse; dubious envoy.
(Skills, knowledge, and useful possessions) - As a colonist, and as a Mazdai, Sanjan's skillset is very specified and targeted towards a couple of particular fields - as he was bred to do. Magically gifted with significant power as the Mazdai are, Sanjan does not stand exempt from this. A very capable magi capable of changing environment. From biomancy, to atmokinesis, and although at great risk to themselves, asterokinesis, though the latter can often only be done in large groups and by magi-bred Mazdai. All these - in conjunction with thorough understand of the elements and components of life and magic - allows the colonist to manipulate the land around it on a molecular level that would shape it to the said discerning colonist's best interest.
The colonists have a superb sense of direction, or at least, has the means of finding where to go, and has an extensive knowledge of astronomy. With practice and the proper tools, a colonist can tell where they are by staring at the uncontaminated night sky, and tell which stars are what. In addition, Mazdai of The Parse are something like linguists. While not by any means prodigal, advanced, or cosmopolitan, they are often regardless the best suited of the Mazdai for it, as they must negotiate with native life if they are capable of it to preserve and continue their activities. Throw this in with Sanjan's rapid learning capability, he could likely learn the planet's common language in a few years time. Also, as a colonist of The Parse, Sanjan's construction is better than most of his kind.
(Hobbies and interests) - Most Mazdai don't necessarily have “leisure time”, as in their culture, like many, your value is judged by what you can provide. Most work strictly according to that circuit and getting the job and goal done. However, in Parse breeds, that aspect is less regulated and bred into them, since it is their adaptability and sociability that is required on alien planets. While Sanjan isn't entirely up to date about all the things this planet has to offer, he does find interest in alcohol. Less so the consumption of it, but why the natives willingly ingest a solution that inhibits their brain and their capability. Sanjan also has a tendency to investigate the wildlife when he isn't changing the landscape to suit his needs. Sanjan also has a tendency to read and learn about the planet's history, a curious habit, considering the end-game goal is to colonize the planet. Also expresses an interest in communicating with the life on Mindennauer, since alien life is a rare commodity, especially so many different kinds of intelligent life on one planet. Being of The Parse allows for greater independence and, being separated from the rest of his kind, can allow his mind to wander without ridicule – he enjoys thinking about philosophy.
(Greatest strength) - Magical power, including a couple of other perks that being an alien provides – esoteric in his arrival, the natives have little to no knowledge of the Mazdai or their capabilities.
(Greatest weakness) - The Mazdai have very limited technology. Only a few of the great thinkers during their history were able to develop the technology they have now, which is primitive at best, but is able to perform a couple of more complicated usages due to how heavily saturated they are with magic. As a result, Sanjan would have trouble understand how most of the tech on Mindennauer works. Among his vices, there is the fact he stands on an alien world he knows little about. Sanjan's immune system, while powerful, is now constantly under attack by unfamiliar bacteria and microbes. While he can function normally most of the time, Sanjan cannot enter locations that have a higher than average rating of bacteria and filth, as he would be more prone than others to becoming very ill.
(Appearance and personality) - The Mazdai are taller than humans, on average, and the Madazi are very genetically similar to one another, so most stand at 4 inch interval from 6'5” to 6'9”. Like most of their colonists, Sanjan stands at the shorter end of the spectrum at 6'5”. Between lithe figure, muscular appendages, flaring spaulders and ribcage that is less a ribcage and more of a plate of bone spanning across his chest, Sanjan weighs in at about 160 lbs, with a great deal of that weight coming from the upper body. He truly is alien when set next to the native mortal races of Mindennauer. His skin, spanning their whole body, bears a pinkish hue, and is almost translucent in some respects, and it is easy to see the blue veins lying underneath. It looks smooth, but like latex in how it stretches and withstands force, and in its texture. Sanjan, like the others, is entirely hairless.
Sanjan's face has few traces of human features, but as expected, he looks radically different from regular people as we know them. A wrinkly, peerless face with serpentine eyes concealed by a horseshoe-crab shaped plate of chitinous-like bone cover the Mazdai's face with two slits available for breath and sight, and a spine along the back of it to unflip. Similarly bizarre, his upper-deck appendages isn't the conventional set of two-limbed and ten-fingered extremities. Rather, three muscular tentacles on either side of the alien's body replace arms. These tentacles are supple and lack the same form of something like, say an octopus or squid, and lack suckers in addition to that. However, as previously mentioned are muscular, and have the capacity to coil around an object to retrieve and manipulate. Frequently, the Mazdai uses the flexibility of these appendages to coil together and form something similar to that of a three-fingered version of standard humanoid's arm.
A column of muscle makes up the midsection where the waist is, absent of organs, a trait support the weight and lack of flexibility in the Mazdai's chest. The body is mounted upon long pseudo-digitgrade legs and long, narrow, two-toed feet, the bottom of which are covered with suckers
As an individual, Sanjan is still in the process of discovering himself. An outlier among the Mazdai to be certain, since there aren't so many that achieve the degree of individualism that Sanjan has found; the degree of self-serving thought. He possesses a child's curiosity and desire to learn, but is easily confounded by virtual technology and software. This doesn't necessarily mean he is unintelligent. The Mazdai are capable of “reading” magic like a mathematic and understanding what makes it tick, so in this regard, Sanjan can understand a subject that is beyond the comprehension of most creatures. He is also well versed in astronomy, can perform complex mathematic computations in his head and an in-depth understanding of biology and chemistry – and it makes sense. This allows Sanjan to be equipped with everything a Mazdai of The Parse needs.
As an alien, many social nuances go over his head. Common metaphors, allusions, and references are beyond him and sarcasm can confuse him if he is trying to take the conversation seriously – which, given the disposition of most Mazdai, is almost all of the time. Humor, naturally, varies greatly between species. While a hypothetical scene, a play on words, stereotypes, and shock value might humor a regular person, it may leave a Mazdai in the dark about what was so funny about it. Mazdai humor is, by our regards, very dry. Very rarely they crack jokes, but when they do, God, you're in for a rush. As for angering a Mazdai? Very difficult. They often have level heads and do not offend easily. You would be better off attacking one. However, because there is very little offense in their society, they not only lack the restraint of not eliminating the threat, it is even encouraged since it is considered logical in the sense of self-preservation.
(Backstory) - Sanjan's actual story is very short, as he is, technically, only 9 years old. His knowledge of the Mazdai, The Parse, and their entire culture was encoded in his DNA. Born out of transfection – when two Mazdai join tentacles and the DNA penetrates the membranes of one another, that part is cut off from each other and is then left alone until it regenerates according to that new code. However, in the case of many of The Parse, that zygote is inserted into a vessel – often a suspended comet – and sends it off flying into space. The zygote's regeneration process, under all of that pressure, cold, and so forth is suspended and is kept alive in a frozen stasis until the comet finally crashes somewhere. Naturally, not all newly conceived Parsian Mazdai survive to sentience. High levels of glucose within the zygote helps to preserve the Mazdai. Sanjan's story started out much like this, and the comet upon which he was placed traveled from the far end of the galaxy for almost eight thousand years before meeting our native solar system and penetrated Mindennauer's atmosphere before landing into the Great Ocean just outside of Yrir's Hook. The blast and rapid temperature change, cracking open the shell of the comet. Now stagnant, exposed to nutrients, and within tolerable temperature, the zygote was allowed to continue its regeneration process as the ocean tide slowly carried it westward.
Brought into the Bay of Berthar, and eventually the shore off the Stone Forest and southern region of Jeh-Az-Akhr, Sanjan began developing for about two to three weeks before the final stages of his development period. Nary an idea of their identity, just the encoded necessary instincts and awareness of the Mazai's culture and some semblance of their history. Unsuspecting and unconcerned, continued on with the programmed instructions: the customization of the planet's environment to be best befitting of their kind. Since then, the small strip of land that separated the Bay of Berthar and Muninn Sea in Jehd-Az-Akhr has been inhospitable to life past a certain period of time. The air in the area suffered from a spike of nitrous oxide, and the land, an absurd increase in sulfur and uranium particles in the soil. The radiation emitted appears to have stunted the natural decay in that area by killing the bacteria that'd be typically responsible.
Granted, during the nine years spent on the planet, he hasn't just mindlessly manipulated the land. No, he was found eventually by a native. Who was, of course, terribly frightened by his appearance and promptly ran – but seeing and hearing the voice of another sentient did stir something in Sanjan. He felt less robotic, less solitary, and came to the realization of life and came to grips with sentience. Of course, with such self-discovery comes awareness, and with awareness comes loneliness – but also curiosity. Discovering sentient alien life did drive Sanjan to learn more about them and to learn how to communicate properly. After several attempts and frightening the natives, he did realize that fitting into this world wouldn't be so easy, and opted instead for a subtler approach. Spying on their settlements and sticking to the shadows came to be the most efficient approach (although with some difficulty and some practice with the local homeless) to learning the common language of the planet. This did, however, put him under the impression that the dominant species of Mindennauer were the lizardfolk. Given the technological aptitude of their big cities, it only seemed proper to assume such a thing.
However, law enforcement and government officials didn't take too kindly to an alien (and not just in the terrestrial sense) walking through their cities and scaring the people. He just barely knew enough of the language at that point to get off with a warning and not instill too much suspicion. Sanjan was not so prideful as to be above portraying himself as a stupid tourist from a far-off land. Honestly, it wasn't far off from the truth. The technological feats he has so far witnessed astounded him, but yet has he seen a creature better than he at magic, and moreover, manipulating the fibers of life.
Sanjan has learned from his experiences that he was best off adopting a cloak to hide his form. A somewhat worn-out burlap cloak conceals his face with a spacious hood, and stretches down from shoulders to knees. Hand-carved wooden buttons of no exceptional value (or even of skill in craftsmanship) bring either side together. With his lower legs still in sight, Sanjan has taken the liberty of wrapping them in linen bandages up to his knees, as uncomfortable as he may be. Over the nine years of his presence here, Sanjan has had much to think about. About his place in the world, and the solemn acknowledgement that he will eventually have to full his Parsian duties to the Mazdai come the day of this planet's reckoning. Until then, he'll learn the languages of the world, its cultures, its people, and find some way to perform Parsian duties in-between it all. Without being caught, of course, or perhaps under a proper alibi to be given permission to within certain parameters.
Sanjan knows not the current troubles Mindennauer faces however, just that he has been traveling westward for a while now and stopping periodically at local sites – and noticing peculiar events along the way, but nothing that he would understand as being out of this planet's usual ordinary.
(Other) -
Snowy wrote:
Name(s): Todd Eikre Race: Human Pronouns: He/him Age: 37 Occupation: Homeless, former corporate mage Skills, talents, and useful knowledge/abilities/possessions: He’s a classically [some might say too classically] trained magician, of mostly water, heat, and dark magics. His specialties are alchemy/artifice, brewing, and wandcraft, and creatively regenerating mana (most common sources are alcohol, freshly destroyed magical constructs, and blood). Hobbies and interests: Magic law Greatest strength: He has a knack for coaxing magic out of almost anything, though not necessarily with predictable results. Greatest challenge: Blatant substance abuse. Appearance and personality: Todd hasn’t had a bath, not in quite a while. He presently wears a one-armed leather jacket, parachute pants, flip-flops, a leather girdle (under the jacket), eerily supple leather gloves, and atop his head sits a traffic cone, worn as a makeshift wizard’s hat. He’s clean-shaven, somehow, with fair skin, brown hair, and irrationally bushy eyebrows. His breath smells of liquor and other things, but he still has a wizened look in his eye that belies he’s not your typical hobo. He is basically inseparable from a pole of green wood, which seems to have grown into and merged with an apple, a plum, a pear, and several bananas. Also in his current gear is an ornate but worn hubcap with runes etched into the back, which he uses as a magical shield, an ordinary-looking stick with green leaves on it, and a toy horn. Backstory: Dr. Eikre started as a gifted student of magic fresh out of university, with a degree and a host of job offers for his doctorate work on ambient mana extraction. The highest bidder was from the Mor-Dred Beverage Conglomerate, which was looking to put together a line of energy drinks for mages, to refresh their magical strength via refreshment. He accepted their offer and worked for years putting together lines of slightly magical beverages, with varying success binding them with mana in usable form. It seemed that the best success he was having was with alcohol, so he embarked on a checkered career of brewing and product testing, until finally he got too “wizard crunk” on the job and caused an accident that led to the distillery being sucked into the Veil. Nobody has ever hired him again (a fact for which he blames the "Bolt Council"), but he’s managed to make occasional money peddling cheap wands made of junk. This did not save him from becoming homeless, as the legal fees took care of that almost immediately. He’s served time, less than he lets on.
Last edited by Szemetlada on Wed 01 Apr 2015, 11:15 am; edited 4 times in total
Ømnivalence Frequent Poster
Posts : 1214 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 29 Location : The Land of Wild and Ruin
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 1:16 pm
I'll probably make two characters because I'm genuinely interested in being a part of both sides of the story. :P Though I need to figure out what race I want to play for both of them.
GreatSocrates User
Posts : 169 Join date : 2012-12-14 Age : 27 Location : Contemplating the Nature of the Universe
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 2:54 pm
Hey Mata, how advanced are the automatons in this? If they're advanced enough, I might make a medic/healthcare robot (like Baymax but less fluffy) and a gnome doctor/programmer. The robot would be a prototype, and would be able to do things like scan someone for genetic information, diagnose diseases/injuries, apply bandages/antibacterial sprays, and would have a database of emergency medical procedures (CPR, applying tourniquets, anti hemorrhaging protocols, etc). It would also have a dynamic learning matrix like IBM Watson so it would have a rough personality and would be able to learn from its mistakes. Would that be too advanced or is that good?
Szemetlada Contributor
Posts : 2334 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : Where the wind comes crashing down the plaaains
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 3:34 pm
@Omni: Sweeet! I'm still thinkin on it, but playing for the forces of "darkness" you could be a mercenary/hired assassin or something like that, or one of the higher-ups like the Cobb. With the former we'd get some interesting player-v-player action, and with the latter your charrie would be able to command loads of NPC's as well as know a whole lot more about what's going on :D
Also I should say, for minor/side characters you don't need sheets. Like if you travel with a troup of friends or you're a big bad who has a lieutenant. One sheet for each main is fine xP I'll put that in the OP
@Socrates: Yeah, sure! Robots are pretty advanced - advanced enough to be better than almost anything else in their specific areas of specialty! The balance comes from robots and golems being really good at those skills and not much else. Just make sure to keep an eye on your medical supplies - you wouldn't have infinite medicine, for example - as well as energy levels :P You might have some kind of solar-powered battery or some other way to get energy on the go, or just bring a bunch of Duracells with you and buy more at towns. Sturdy and knowledgeable, that'd be a great character to have in any party!
Also I love Big Hero 6. x3
GreatSocrates User
Posts : 169 Join date : 2012-12-14 Age : 27 Location : Contemplating the Nature of the Universe
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 3:48 pm
Szemetlada wrote:
@Socrates: Yeah, sure! Robots are pretty advanced - advanced enough to be better than almost anything else in their specific areas of specialty! The balance comes from robots and golems being really good at those skills and not much else. Just make sure to keep an eye on your medical supplies - you wouldn't have infinite medicine, for example - as well as energy levels :P You might have some kind of solar-powered battery or some other way to get energy on the go, or just bring a bunch of Duracells with you and buy more at towns. Sturdy and knowledgeable, that'd be a great character to have in any party!
Also I love Big Hero 6. x3
I'll keep all of those in mind. For the body, would self-healing polymers be too good of protection? I want to give the robot a crash dummy kind of look, with a steel skeleton and fleshy body parts. I haven't decided on the power source yet. Initially, I was going to give it a nuclear battery, but power source is going to be a big weakness for robots so I'll probably give it some kind of rechargeable battery. Solar power would be unfeasible because the robot is meant to be taken into combat and solar panels are fragile (unless tiny solar cells were sewn into the fleshy parts or something but even then they could be damaged).
Szemetlada Contributor
Posts : 2334 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : Where the wind comes crashing down the plaaains
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:10 pm
Self-healing's fine, so long as it's not instantaneous or anything :P Like, being able to heal over the course of several hours/days would be fine, cause that's kinda what humans do anyway, lol. But re-attaching an arm or repairing a damaged sensor while still during combat would be a little too fast. I guess whatever is damaged, depending on the complexity, shoot for a "downloading file over dial-up and then 3D-printing it out" kind of time. xD So after an intense bout of combat, reattaching all those circuits might take a few hours to a few days depending on the damage, and if there's another encounter before it's finished you'd have to choose between risking getting beat up even more or playing it safe. I'm not gonna be riding your back over how long it takes though, lol :P
Admiral Ji Moderator
Posts : 1450 Join date : 2011-09-30 Age : 29 Location : The 14th floor of the final dungeon
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:18 pm
Little to "big enough to mount small arms" on, yeah. So I scout/fight from "relative" safety. I figure I'd also double as some kind of mechanic, someone has to take care of my little troopers, makes sense it'd be me.
Which, means I can probably help keep Socrates intact, if he's willing. I get the feeling any automata would probably be wary around a "robot wrangler", but otherwise... Being able to fix the medic saves everyone else's lives later.
GreatSocrates User
Posts : 169 Join date : 2012-12-14 Age : 27 Location : Contemplating the Nature of the Universe
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:23 pm
Oh yeah, I know. Only the fleshy parts will repair themselves. The metal (steel, since it's a prototype and carbon fiber is expensive) will have to be repaired elsewhere. My original idea for the character was a super-durable robot soldier who was exceedingly difficult to damage, but that's way OP so I'm going to weaken it considerably.
@Ji: That'd be great. If the programmer (doesn't have a name yet) and your guy knew each other already/worked together on the robot, it could be programmed to denote your mechanic as its caretaker.
Szemetlada Contributor
Posts : 2334 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : Where the wind comes crashing down the plaaains
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:27 pm
@Ji: When I first read that I imagined a little helicopter with actual arms on it. xD Unless that's what you meant? Heheee.
Yeah, that sounds awesome! :D I'm assuming you'd have made tons of them for different special purposes, but how many do you think you'd travel with at one time?
I'll edit the character sheet to include "possessions" in the field for special skills/knowledge, so you can describe your troopers there. :3
@Socrates: Okay! Yeah, that sounds great! As for super durable robot soldiers, they certainly exist, but would be slow moving and not suited for much outside of... Well, tanking ridiculous amounts of damage. Anything can be balanced! Aaaanything! *cackles madly, twiddles fingers*
Hey, yeah, mechanical falconer and robo medic. Lookin forward to how they'd interact! xP
Snowy Patrician of Ankh-Morpork
Posts : 1564 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 33 Location : Bird school, which is for birds.
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:40 pm
I figure I'm probably going with something like a Shadowrun Adept, specializing in machine pistols/SMG's. Still debating on whether I want to go with any cybernetics.
Admiral Ji Moderator
Posts : 1450 Join date : 2011-09-30 Age : 29 Location : The 14th floor of the final dungeon
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:42 pm
I'd have to work that out, Socrates, but it might be more interesting to not already know each other, in this instance. And I'm rarely in favor of players not having prexisting character connections, so if I can think of an interesting way to already have worked with your characters, I'll pass it along.
I imagine my "big" one has a hook or a winch to carry light stuff if need be. :p Though I meant small arms in the weapon classification sense. I figure I have a torso sized boxy four-sets-of-props general use drone, which is the one I arm (it's also intentionally sized so I can sort of strap it to my back without worrying when it's not being flown), a small bird sized one I fly around to scout outdoors with, and a small mouse shaped one that crawls around, for indoor work. I might conjure more later once we get to this "fortress", but those are the three I'd normally have with me.
Ømnivalence Frequent Poster
Posts : 1214 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 29 Location : The Land of Wild and Ruin
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:42 pm
Alright Mata so this is what I'm thinking.
I'm interested in making a Seraph character. I was thinking that this Seraph would have four wings and six arms and would appear to be made of porcelin. The face as well would be a blank canvas unless of course... Serpahs are skilled programmers. So I thought it would be interesting to to create a Seraph character that acted as if it ran on programs. What if all of it's biological functions worked as if written as programming functions. For example. This Seraph can only see i running eyes.exe and it can only talk if running mouth.exe, BUT it cannot run two of this kind of function at once. So basically it can see, smell, talk, hear one at a time. Additionally all of it's movements are controlled by functions, especially attacks and things like this. This allows it to be super efficient and precise. Especially if chaining functions together. So it could run Slash, Thrust, Block or any number of sword functions in a row, however it's incapable of cancelling a function once it's started. So if it started a chain of several slashes, this would leave it open if you happened to parry it's attack because instead of parrying back it would immediately resume it's slashes because that's what it had told itself to do. Additionally it only has so much processing power so memory leaks and infinite loops absolutely can be a damper. I don't know? What do you think. I'm not sure quite what you have in mind for Seraphs and if this is okay. I've done my best to create an interesting concept but in a way that also has some weaknesses.
I forgot to mention it'd automatically run dance.exe everytime music is played.
Patches Advisor
Posts : 2050 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : PA, USA
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:46 pm
I'm contemplating an Orc brawler, but knows magic. Just enough magic to make him better at punching things. Is it possible to use magic in this world to make yourself stronger and to make your skin/hide more durable? Obviously, I'm shooting for a "mastery of self" route. A monk with none of the wisdom or discipline.
Snowy Patrician of Ankh-Morpork
Posts : 1564 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 33 Location : Bird school, which is for birds.
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:54 pm
That sounds similar to what I'm going with, but with a different specialization. I get the feeling we'll be from pretty polar opposite philosophies, which should be fun.
Patches Advisor
Posts : 2050 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : PA, USA
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 4:57 pm
Are you shooting for "mind over matter"?
Snowy Patrician of Ankh-Morpork
Posts : 1564 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 33 Location : Bird school, which is for birds.
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 5:24 pm
Using magical ability over oneself, same principle. Though since you're going orc, I imagine you're going to be more "hulk smash," whereas I'll be more "gunkata"
Patches Advisor
Posts : 2050 Join date : 2011-09-29 Age : 28 Location : PA, USA
Subject: Re: The Earthheart - OOC Thu 05 Mar 2015, 5:34 pm
They'll be trying to one up each other all the time. You clear a room with your guns. My orc watches. Then he buffs himself, picks up a giant cannon, and blasts that sucker. It'll be like Legolas and Gimli.
Subject: The Earthheart - OOC 
Thu 05 Mar 2015, 12:14 am
(Name) - Sanjan of The Parse
(Race) - Mazdai
(Pronouns) - Mazdai are almost genetically identical to one another and are capable of reproducing indiscriminately. As such, gender was never a concept in their culture - they often referred to one another by name, as that was the most accurate way of referring to one another. If not done specifically so, they referred to one another by variables such as x, y, z, in order and respectively to the Mazdai mentioned. Upon learning the Common language on the new planet, they would tolerate whatever pronoun they're given. They generally don't understand the gender dimorphism in language. Sanjan's voice at least sounds masculine, albeit mostly androgynous.
(Age) - 7,948 years between conceived life and crash landing, has spent about 9 years on Mindennauer.
(Faction) - Colonist of The Parse; dubious envoy.
(Skills, knowledge, and useful possessions) - As a colonist, and as a Mazdai, Sanjan's skillset is very specified and targeted towards a couple of particular fields - as he was bred to do. Magically gifted with significant power as the Mazdai are, Sanjan does not stand exempt from this. A very capable magi capable of changing environment. From biomancy, to atmokinesis, and although at great risk to themselves, asterokinesis, though the latter can often only be done in large groups and by magi-bred Mazdai. All these - in conjunction with thorough understand of the elements and components of life and magic - allows the colonist to manipulate the land around it on a molecular level that would shape it to the said discerning colonist's best interest.
(Hobbies and interests) - Most Mazdai don't necessarily have “leisure time”, as in their culture, like many, your value is judged by what you can provide. Most work strictly according to that circuit and getting the job and goal done. However, in Parse breeds, that aspect is less regulated and bred into them, since it is their adaptability and sociability that is required on alien planets. While Sanjan isn't entirely up to date about all the things this planet has to offer, he does find interest in alcohol. Less so the consumption of it, but why the natives willingly ingest a solution that inhibits their brain and their capability. Sanjan also has a tendency to investigate the wildlife when he isn't changing the landscape to suit his needs. Sanjan also has a tendency to read and learn about the planet's history, a curious habit, considering the end-game goal is to colonize the planet. Also expresses an interest in communicating with the life on Mindennauer, since alien life is a rare commodity, especially so many different kinds of intelligent life on one planet. Being of The Parse allows for greater independence and, being separated from the rest of his kind, can allow his mind to wander without ridicule – he enjoys thinking about philosophy.
(Greatest strength) - Magical power, including a couple of other perks that being an alien provides – esoteric in his arrival, the natives have little to no knowledge of the Mazdai or their capabilities.
(Greatest weakness) - The Mazdai have very limited technology. Only a few of the great thinkers during their history were able to develop the technology they have now, which is primitive at best, but is able to perform a couple of more complicated usages due to how heavily saturated they are with magic. As a result, Sanjan would have trouble understand how most of the tech on Mindennauer works. Among his vices, there is the fact he stands on an alien world he knows little about. Sanjan's immune system, while powerful, is now constantly under attack by unfamiliar bacteria and microbes. While he can function normally most of the time, Sanjan cannot enter locations that have a higher than average rating of bacteria and filth, as he would be more prone than others to becoming very ill.
(Appearance and personality) -
(Backstory) - Sanjan's actual story is very short, as he is, technically, only 9 years old. His knowledge of the Mazdai, The Parse, and their entire culture was encoded in his DNA. Born out of transfection – when two Mazdai join tentacles and the DNA penetrates the membranes of one another, that part is cut off from each other and is then left alone until it regenerates according to that new code. However, in the case of many of The Parse, that zygote is inserted into a vessel – often a suspended comet – and sends it off flying into space. The zygote's regeneration process, under all of that pressure, cold, and so forth is suspended and is kept alive in a frozen stasis until the comet finally crashes somewhere. Naturally, not all newly conceived Parsian Mazdai survive to sentience. High levels of glucose within the zygote helps to preserve the Mazdai. Sanjan's story started out much like this, and the comet upon which he was placed traveled from the far end of the galaxy for almost eight thousand years before meeting our native solar system and penetrated Mindennauer's atmosphere before landing into the Great Ocean just outside of Yrir's Hook. The blast and rapid temperature change, cracking open the shell of the comet. Now stagnant, exposed to nutrients, and within tolerable temperature, the zygote was allowed to continue its regeneration process as the ocean tide slowly carried it westward.
(Other) -
