If it is needed, I can always make a character of my own and partner up with you Dizzy. A 3 pair would work against the lore, so that's not possible.

I can see that geographically there's some confusion on how the world is structured, so I'm working on a map currently. It should be up by the end of the day, I'll give you guys a heads up once I've added it to the OP.

As far as the CSs go, I like the idea of a gem mine and how that ties into magic usage. Swordfish, It'd be nice to see a little more back story on Vultog. For example, although the village only cared about camaraderie, was he at all ostracized for his heritage? What were these beasts and how did him losing his friend affect his behavior and choices going forward? What is the "Fortune of the Gods"? There's just some bits that could be more fleshed out so we get a better feeling of who Vultog is as a character, not just what he has been through. Going through tough situations is good, but somebody deals with those situations (both physically and emotionally) is more important in the long run.

I like your CS Strudel, although as I mentioned, the geographic standpoint is slightly confusing between you and Swordfish. If Linara is human, I'm slightly confused as to what she is doing in orc territory, where Vultog was raised. Considering they're different continents across the ocean. It should be cleared up once I put up the map though. Other than that though, it seems to standards.

Edit: The map is just going to be a rough representation of world locations, nothing super fancy.