So, this happened. Things be missing, but will allegedly (as per the claims in the journal topic) be ported in soon. New text editor is odd (and too, eh, liberal for my tastes?). RPG looks odd. Only new posts can be edited. ...**And,** as I just noticed, the text interpreter omits single line breaks? Well, damn, *that* must be a definite crime against all writers of some description if I've ever seen one. Missing anything resembling tab spacer is/was annoying to deal with as is. Jack, I tampered a bit with some other things (html buttons, pushing up posts to the archives, may or may not done something with appearance), but haven't really touched the session management of the Compendium - mainly because I kind of try to resolve things on step-by-step basis, which means that anything I do with this particular will essentially be halted till I get some feedback (that is not to say I need replies **now**, but more so just to let you know). Well, that, and I had a couple of other things I had/wanted to work on a bit.

Yeah, I'm not exactly happy about the way this works... but I guess it'll have to do for now. At least it's _available_, which is more than could be said about the previous version, if this one is somewhat inferior in other respects. When I log into the Compendium now I get a screen declaring that I logged in successfully, that I'm now editing a subdomain, session status: 2 and a long row of random numbers... but when I try to go to a different section the same problem persists. No change, really, aside from in the log in window itself (the one immediately after logging in, that is).

(Ehh... To be fair I strongly prefer manually writing tags to a text editor/rendering this broken. But that is that. At least the site works for now.) Okay, so the login/session creation itself indeed works as intended (although if it didn't, then it probably wouldn't work for me, either, let alone in all devices, operating systems and browsers available to me), but your computer for some reason doesn't store or doesn't allow the retrieving of the session key. - I asked it before, but what firewall/antivirus do you use (if any, but as it is Windows, I typically assume there is something)? It *shouldn't* interfere, but it is at least possible. (Sorry about pointless little and more than possibly somewhat repetitive questions; save from you giving me long-distance control over your computer I can mostly only guess what might or might not work for you and, well, it can in general be a bit difficult to fix something you cannot even seem to make not function yourself).

So we'll be staying? Right then, back to that CS.

The votes were 3/5/2 in order of leaving/neutral/staying, with three of the five neutrals having slight preference to staying given the site improves (I myself being true neutral and Jack not having voted himself). The current text editor annoys me, though (and rendering doesn't occasionally trigger properly for me - it often just shows me solid unformatted textwalls for minutes on end, something that scrolling back and forth may or may not fix), so I do hope it gets replaced soon. Ultimately it's Jack's call - I'll be wherever the RP is (though I might not be happy with various design choices sites have made).

Anyway, here it is. If I could put it in a hider I would. --- Name: Gregory Maede Age: 47 Occupation: Mercenary/ former Legionnaire in-training Race: Human/former member of Catolohne empire Gender: Male Appearance: [Gregory](https://www.flickr.com/photos/37698867@N04/3475115096/in/photostream/ "Gregory") Gregory has been built by his lifestyle over the past decades. His mind affected his life, and his life affected his body. If he were still in the empire, with all it’s gruff and oppression, he’d be fully clad in armor, probably wield a halberd like his father. But, indeed, that was not to be. Instead he carries two war axes, and he used to carry a third battle axe, and wears leather armor with metal reinforcements. His hair is shoulder length, greying, and his eyes are a bold brown, mere hues away from his bronze-ish skin tone. He is taller than average at 6’5, and his body is proportionatly muscled with burn scars lining his arms and torso. An offset, broken nose clashes slightly with his handsome brow and eyes; his lips are rugged and chapped. His war axes are of highly tempered steel, tied with red sashes. Iron bandings protect his chest, shins, forearms, and right shoulder. His gloves have attached brass knuckles for use during more personal engagements. Skills: Gregory has been trained since he was very young, learning how to handle a vast array of weaponry before he was a teenager. His father wanted him to be a Catolohnian hero, the very thought of which would make Gregory chuckle today. He was trained for the battlefield, yet his mentality was vastly different than that. The boy liked stories, mostly Rodorian myths and legends. He was interested in learning, and he loved his mother. But, she was treated like trash, and he was nothing but a tool for his father. Gregory always knew that he didn’t fit in the empire, he knew that his way of thinking, of expression, and kindness, could not mesh with that of the world he lived in. His mother knew that as well. Gregory started showing signs of magical ability during his early adolescence, something which shocked and frightened him, but also provided a beacon of hope. He’d heard the rumors, and he knew that if he had the ability to shape the elements to his whim, mostly fire, there was only one place he could end up. His mother stole him away and had him transported Jevog Denûm, an infamous Catolohnian smuggler paid to provide him safe journey. Traveling with this smuggler, Gregory learned the most important rules of survival on Kirirak, easy ways to start fires and track animals, making traps and improvised weapons. After reaching the fire clan Gregory trained in the elemental arts for several years, learning as much as he could about his inherit abilities. As it is with most arts, and with the most talented of those who practice them, Gregory hit a wall. There came a time where he could learn nothing else from the clan, and he left. He knew nothing other than fighting and surviving when he finally set foot in Rodoria, so he made a perfect mercenary. He put himself to work finding criminals and protecting dignitaries. Eventually, by using his elemental abilities he was able to earn a name for himself among merc groups, and those who employed them. Here and there, in dark taverns, some people would murmur stupid stories about a Catalohnian expatriate who moved around the battlefield like a blur, fire trailing behind him as he glided past friends and foes; the Tempest, they called him. If you asked him about it now he would say you shouldn’t put too much stock in stories, but the child inside of him reels when he realizes his future recognition.

I just have the default Windows firewall, really. Other than that I have the Microsoft Security Essentials, but I have _every single_ automated function on that turned off and only use it for periodic (and manually initiated) scans. I think our router has a built-in firewall, too, but that shouldn't interfere (generally firewalls seem to me to be more in the way than they're useful, and all those antivirus programs that insist on doing things themselves slow down my computer too much, so I don't have much).

Did my character get accepted? I don't know who's going through the process of reading them.

@Veridis Quo: Jack is the GM and the final word here. I am just general commenter/organizer/human notebook; didn't notice anything objectionable from my skimming of your CS myself (else I'd have commented it). Jack's been rather preoccupied, if his somewhat scarce, laconic and formal replies are any indication... I'm sure he'll reply you once he has a moment to concentrate on your CS. @Jack: Router/networkside issues have been ruled out. It is something your computer handles strangely. MSE and whatever comes with Win 7 Home Edition shouldn't be a problem, either. (Admittedly, I myself nuked the default protection my own Win 7 Ultimate had, as it both demanded fair bit of resources and, well, Win's default protection is *bad* and can't even detect half of the things while overreacting to others. The Win 8 I have still has its original protection, I think ... mostly because I've never really used the thing for other than checking whether something runs or can be made run natively on Win 8 every now and then; it simply came with a laptop given to me, I installed a second operating system onto it almost right away, and then mostly forgot about it. The last Windows I used somewhat more excessively was Win XP Professional. I was also offered a free copy of early-access Win 10, but at the present date I don't actually have it on any of my devices.) As for antivirus/firewall in general, then eh, I've seen plenty of computers which are filled with enough ticks, trackers and other critters (depends what places you go to - some sites are more notorious for spreading malware/adware/spyware/trashware than others) for those alone to slow a computer to a crawl[1], so sometimes running something significantly more potent than MSE and clearing those out can be useful. (Installing Malwarebytes' trial version when people start to suspect something might have settled in, fixing what is broken, and then removing it again seems to be a rather popular thing to do.) [1]Being a person who has a long history of keeping an unreasonable amount of programs running at all times and never switching computers off, I tend to get fairly sceptical when people say a handful background programs slow their computer down. Although often computers get slow just because they are filled with dust... If you make something that semi-consistently pulls air in from one end, you essentially get a miniature vacuum cleaner. Eh, I'll see whether I get any good ideas in regards to session management, else trying through random options it is. Right now I need sleep and to finish this one thing I am working on (in terms of actual work ... volunteering? in any case they pay me ... also things that are actually confidential). Edit: Since this thing confused my punctuation for formatting. Again.

^ Alright. I'm in no rush so take as long as you guys need.

Oh right, Kaedan. Hmm... I'm somewhat confused as to just what Favored powers are implied that he actually has. Judging by his equipment I'd say that he fell in the category of paladins (priests and the higher ranks of these don't have weapons unless such are specifically required to invoke their Favored powers), but paladins in the service of Deliph only initially have the power to bless weapons with a divine edge or divine mass... and knight-paladins - which are very high ranked within the faith - gain more of a passively active ability to empower their allies and demoralize their enemies. The description of Kaedan's Favored power might need to be a bit more specific. Deserts, though... Golerin is not a desert-nation, no, and even the Drylands technically still have a slightly higher rate of precipitation than evaporation and grows fields of short, tough grass and some other scattered vegetation. Although the easternmost part of the Drylands are very desert-like (the further east you get in the Drylands, the drier it gets), the only true desert nearby and in that direction would the the Desert of Desperation. Technically there's a closer one in the opposite direction, in the northern parts of northern Wegam Fermos highlands, but that's cold desert... with ice instead of sand (although once again technically, the northern Desert of Desperation would also be classified as cold desert, since nearly all the precipitation there - even during summer - is snow or hail). Gregory Maede... wasn't that the name of the character you used the first time around? And the equipment and description is either the same or very similar... you just changed his background? Will you indeed be reassuming the role of your old character? (The formatting of these posts is starting to really annoy me; why can't I be allowed to make single line breaks? Grr...)

> Like his brothers, Kaedan can call upon the divine favor of Deliph to bolster his capabilities, or support others, but his powers are very limited in this regard. I think this is the only part that actually refers to Kaedan's favored powers ... I almost didn't notice he was favored when skim-reading the CS. > Gregory Maede... wasn't that the name of the character you used the first time around? And the equipment and description is either the same or very similar... you just changed his background? Will you indeed be reassuming the role of your old character? The Sartal full plate armor is gone, I noticed, as well as several other details about his appearance have changed. And the spelling of the surname changed a bit. And I'd say origin/history can be a rather significant part of a character (my main character, for one, has a slight ingrained tendency to immediately be a bit suspicious of anything and everything Catolohnian ... his mental reaction when one of the guards assumed he might be from Catolohne was probably quite telling)? I'd almost say that this is a new character by the same name and with the same weapons. Hrm. But I assume he's still meant to be treated as the same individual, ICly? > (The formatting of these posts is starting to really annoy me; why can't I be allowed to make single line breaks? Grr...) Why, welcome to the club... (Also, good morning, though I believe I've been awake for ten hours by now.)

Yeah, he's the same character who's lost his other axe, and we can pretend he never had that armor. There is a couple of things I left out. One, are there bombs? If so, Gregory might carry a few of those around, or at least the individual components. Second, can an elementalist control other parts of the environment, like wind or earth? I'm not saying to an extreme sense, but just a little manipulation?

I had a very regular set of paladin/cleric/warpriest skills in mind for my character's divine abilities: Kaedan is a rookie right now when it comes to divine powers, so his only real spells at the moment are divine mass for his hammer (which takes a lot of focus for him to cast) and other short prayers to boost his morale. Outside of combat, he can currently use divine powers to heal minor wounds. Later on, he'd learn to use these same abilities in combat, and to greater effect. The divine section in the compendium said something about being able to boost the regeneration of the paladin or the paladin's allies, so that's what I had in mind. Very later still, he'd learn protective prayers that would boost his defences against certain elements or sorceries. A prayer to shield him from fire, for example. These wouldn't make him immune to the target element, but they'd make him sturdier and help him fill the role I had in mind. If I need to add any more spells to his arsenal, I'll consult with you guys first. If most of this doesn't work for you guys, I can settle for divine mass and regenerative (healing) abilities, and whatever else I'm allowed to have. I can also put my character's origins near the border of the desert of desperation you mentioned. Any hot place will do, actually. Is all of this good?

> Yeah, he's the same character who's lost his other axe, and we can pretend he never had that armor. That I cannot do; if there's one thing that I value in this roleplay, it's maintaining a consistency between what has happened, what happens and what will happen. Actions, once performed, have consequences that echo through history and affect the future in small or big ways, and something that has existed at one point can't simply be removed from history. Even if it no longer exists and has somehow been eradicated from existence, it was there. I also don't remember whether old Gregory was an elementalist? Although I guess he could have been, even if it wasn't technically part of his description at the time, and just not used it. And yes, it is technically possible to invoke different kinds of elemental magic - any different kinds, really - but it's far from as easy or instinctive as invoking elemental magic native to one's natural affinity. It requires one to to have studied and memorized the _feeling_ of energy attuned to that other element, and then consciously force part of one's own energy to mimick that feeling. The conversion of element is temporary - over just several minutes any amount of converted energy will revert to its natural attunement unless one focused on preventing this the entire time - and the energy will lose some of its potency in the process, similar to when the very same thing happens in arcane or black magic. Plus, it will feel just plain unnatural and weird for a person to use elemental magic that isn't "their own". But yes, it is possible. The short answer to the last question would be "yes", although the likelihood of Gregory having such would depend on your definintion of "bomb". If you mean the kind where you light a fuse that triggers an explosion when it reaches its base, those are very rare and currently the penin jealously keeps them to themselves, along with several other inventions and the resource that makes them special... the name of which annoyingly eludes me. It's pretty much something that replaces the yet-undiscovered gunpowder but is much rarer and more potent, and is dust coming from processed liquid fire. Which brings me to the second interpretation of the word "bomb": something that is thrown and explodes on impact. This is a lot more accessible than the penin's bombs, although the production of and trade with them is still rather restricted and mostly illegal. These would be various containers filled with the aforementioned liquid fire, which is an alchemical compound that is extremely volatile and prone to explode with tremendous force when its container is broken. It's basically a more powerful version of nitroglycerin, except liquid fire will only explode when exposed to the atmosphere, making it marginally safer. > I had a very regular set of paladin/cleric/warpriest skills in mind for my character's divine abilities: Kaedan is a rookie right now when it comes to divine powers, so his only real spells at the moment are divine mass for his hammer (which takes a lot of focus for him to cast) and other short prayers to boost his morale. Outside of combat, he can currently use divine powers to heal minor wounds. Later on, he'd learn to use these same abilities in combat, and to greater effect. The divine section in the compendium said something about being able to boost the regeneration of the paladin or the paladin's allies, so that's what I had in mind. Very later still, he'd learn protective prayers that would boost his defences against certain elements or sorceries. A prayer to shield him from fire, for example. These wouldn't make him immune to the target element, but they'd make him sturdier and help him fill the role I had in mind. If I need to add any more spells to his arsenal, I'll consult with you guys first. Uh... alright, firstly Favored Ones in The Prophecy don't cast spells; they ask for something from their deity, which they, if their request is sincere and the deity is willing to give it, they receive. It doesn't require keen memory or great control or any such thing, just that one has faith in one's deity and believes in what it stands for, just as it doesn't drain the Favored One. Secondly, the way Favored Ones work in The Prophecy is that either you serve your deity as a priest, which isn't suited for frontline combat, or as a paladin, which is the protectors of the faith and those who hunts its enemies. Each is a very different kind of service to the deity, and the Favored powers bestowed upon them are specific to the service, not shared between them. The divine blessing of weapons is an ability specific to a paladin of Deliph, and the regeneration is an ability specific to the service of cleric of Deliph, which is a "promoted" priest. One cannot serve Deliph as both, so one cannot have both abilities. And the protective blessings aren't even something that Deliph offers at all, to anyone. The abilities a Favored One of a certain type and depth of service (usually priest, cleric, high priest, paladin and knight-paladin) are all specified in the description of the deities in the Compendium; with only a few exceptions, these are the only powers those deities offer to their Favored Ones. They are abilities that cost nothing to invoke once obtained and can usually be used with ease, but are inferior to magics that are fueled by the caster's own energy in their lack of variety. I'm sorry, but this is the way things work in this universe. > I can also put my character's origins near the border of the desert of desperation you mentioned. Any hot place will do, actually. Is all of this good? Which side of the border? Not that it matters particularly, although depending on how far south you have in mind - and if it has to be somewhere the desert is actually _hot_, I'd imagine it had to be at least as far south as Golerin - being on the Drylands-side of the border would probably result in the occasional clashing with prospective Catolohne legionnaires undergoing their trail of survival there. Even farther south, as far as the southern Catolohne provinces, there probably wouldn't be a problem there, but the desert that far south would be _extremely_ hot, as would the Drylands, although those at least have frequent rains (the further south you go in the Drylands the more frequently it rains, but the faster the water evaporates again, facilitating the same scarcity of water and vegetation).