Cast out of her like-haired tribe of warriors, Theresa has adopted a lifestyle of combat and wanderlust. As such, she has come to the Continent out of sheer adventurous nature, wanting to dig up its mysteries and meet its many inhabitants, however dangerous the expedition may become.
GERALD PITHERS
MARKED BY THE VIGILS
The product of a mix-up in a sinister necromantic ritual, the drunkard Gerald was cast to sea shortly after his resurrection. After he washed up on the shore of the Continent, he decided he had nothing better to do and began exploring.
COASTAL VIGILS
Servants of an ancient and accursed proclomation, the lumbering Coastal Vigils announce all arrivals within the Continent, and mark them in such a way that they are never permitted to leave.
JOLLY GUTTERS
A leader amongst the black-blooded, inhuman Cleaver-Men originating from the ruined city of Aardvale, Jolly Gutters is the perfect example of a coloquially named "mark hunter", going out of his way to put down any such threats to the natives of the Continent.
JULIAN, KEEPER OF THE JUNCTION
A much, much older native of the Continent, Julian maintains the cross-connecting haven known as the Keeper's Junction. Full of information regarding the Continent and what lies within and around it, Julian is a friendly character who provides whatever he can to those he calls friends.
A native turned slave from a land similar to colonial America who was an inventor from a tribe of fire breathing Saurians. Torn from his home and shipped across the sea to an unfamiliar land where he worked for his freedom. With no way of getting home, he hijacked a ship for any chance of surviving the sea. And so, after hitting a storm, he washed up here.
[Picture coming later]
Grogg
A fucking bone wielding caveman who was frozen in ice that floated to the continent. Surprisingly well tempered for someone who isn't potty trained.
A swordswoman from distant lands, learned in lore both ancient and modern. Quick to anger and full of jealousy, eager to mete out justice and win adulation. She never stops her peregrination; a rest for a day or a year always end in quiet exodus, seldom to return. The true joy of adventure is the journey, not the destination. She would have hers last forever; the destination is fit for nothing but scorn. Scorn, and disgust, and infinite fear.
South East of the continent lays a vast thick forest. Its warm and sticky all year round. Summers are filled with high temperatures, and bugs, while winters are filled with rain. Life grows quickly in this rainforest, whether. It be the birds in the sky, the mammals down below, or the reptiles that live in the bush. But just as life can be given it can be taken away here. There is predator in ever form here in the forest, that leaf could be poison, the small and cuddly beast could be dangerous, you just never know in crow forest.
These brown skinned warriors have lived in the Crow forest for as long as anyone can remember. They are hunter-gatheres by nature but are not as primitive as they seem. They take modern practices from the outside a d apply them to life with the forest. The Tecolotl are ruled by an absolute monarchy. The forest is magical by nature an so are it's people, but in order to keep the magic alive they must do virgin sacrifices on one day of the month to appease their gods. The more magically gifted make up the royal family while everyine else are weaker civilians. There are not big cities, more like large villages, and the heavily populated villages have large pyramids and temples. There are only four villages with pyramids including the capital Meztli. Most people come to the forest villages, looking for dyes and game. Also for ecxotic jewels and magics. So you see a pair of eyes in the bush it is probably not some animal but the Tecolotl.
She is the current leader of the Tecolotl people. She is called the Ash Queen because of she came into power. Her father was a obese tyrant and she kicked him off the throne by waging civil war. It is knkwn as the time of ash because everytime you came to the forest you could see grey ash covering every form of life. She is a powerful pyromatic who did not just set her home ablaze but also her people. Soon the war ended with her wearing the crown.
Roy Allen Stratton
"What magic? You mean my magic? Well it runs in thd family. You see I am a young man who comes from a far away place, with one goal to learn the magicl secrets of the Continent and create an elixir of immortality. Cool right? I know, but don't be intimidated by me I never really finished my training with my father so I can only do some elemental magics for now. But kings were not made over night so neither will my greatness be."
As far north as north goes, there lies the crystalline city of Talii, populated by the reptillian Kirkos and the Laeros, a group of snow elves who have long held the north. The Kirkos and the Laeros used to be mortal enemies, destroying each others land and waging an endless war. Peace was eventually made when Paxillus, one of the last remaining dragons, descended upon them. Using the intelligence of the Laeros and the force of the Kirkos, they slayed Paxillus, and made a treaty. The ice queen Mallea married the Kirkos king Jarvos, and they bore their first child.
The birth of Saaria nearly tore apart the peace of Talii. She was a strange mix of elf and dragon, and soon sprouted wings. (Kirkos sometimes grow wings, however they are simply aesthetic, and Kirkos cannot fly.) People began calling her the dragon child, or the demon of the north. She was locked deep within a dungeon after she first shapeshifted partially into a dragon, and destroyed a large portion of the castle in confusion. The citizens were terrified of her, of what she might do if she were to be free. The peace was uneasy, the races beginning to divide once more as Saaria lay isolated in her dungeon, unaware of the world outside of those four, dark walls. Nobody truly trusted eachother again,until the birth of Saaria's little sister, Lillia. She was truly a perfect blend of Kirkos and Laeros, with beautiful elven features, and scales outlining those same features. She restored the peace once again, unifying the two races,and all was well in Talii.
Until a few years later, when Saaria broke free.
Lillia Morgossa The Light Within The Dark (Note: Lillia has horns and a tail, and her jawline and arms are graced with the occasional scale)
When Lillia was born, the city of Talii took a collective sigh of relief. She was nothing like the monster her sister had been. She was a fair creature, a blend of Kirkos and Laeros that was more Elven than Draconic, whereas her sister had been more Draconic than Elven. Lillia is known for her immense beauty. Even though she is only 15 years old, she is one of the fairest creatures in Talii. She often freely roams the streets without guards, as all the people in the city love her. She will someday take over as queen of Talii, but in her mind, that seems far away. Until Saaria broke free. She didn't harm anyone on her way out, she simply scared a few people. But now that the demon of Talii had been released, the peace that Lillia embodied was once again uneasy. Her mother fell ill soon before Saaria escaped, and her father's warmongering against her older sister makes out Saaria to be worse than the infamous dragon that united Lillia's people in the first place. She'd heard stories of her older sister since she was little. People said she wasn't even humanoid, that she was deformed and monstrous. But Lillia had seen her make her escape. She looked relatively normal, despite her off-putting red hair. How can she protect someone she doesn't even know, when everyone else thinks they are a monster?
Lenkai is an assassin from The Sept. He is one of the lower class citizens of Talii, as his hair is a brown instead of a fair white/blond. He was recruited to The Sept when he was arrested for poaching as a ten year old. He has spent ten years training with them, but still has much learning to do. Lenkai's special ability is the true reason he was brought to The Sept. He can see the world through the eyes of animals, making him a useful scout for the priests. He has a bond with The Sept's hunting beast Feiris
(Note: Feiris is almost entirely covered in scales, and has a long, lizard-like tongue)
Feiris was a jungle cat "blessed" by the fairies that The Sept worships. His true origins are unknown. He can breathe a toxic gas that will knock people out if inhaled directly. His claws are as sharp as swords.
Vagner's sister, she is loved by everyone in the village. She begs the heroes to search for her brother, whom she knows is alive due to her powers. Nerissa can see things in her dreams that nobody else can. She senses that her brother is alive, she can feel his life force, can feel that he is being held somewhere by the enemy. The enemy seems to target her as well as her brother. Her, Adam, and Adam's father are the makeshift leaders of Unterosten.
Adam is Nerissa's fiance, and one of the makeshift leaders of Unterosten. The people look up to him because of his skills in the field. He has killed many Taken, and saved countless lives in the initial siege of the port town. He lives for Nerissa, and all he wants is to be with her. He originally came to the village from the dark elf city, where he was a noble. However, his father got a job in Unterosten, and they moved east.
Places
Talii, the crystal city of the north. Inhabited by the reptilian tribal Kirkos, and the snow elves (Laeros), the city is a mostly peaceful place. They are governed by the council of Talii, and The Sept, the Kirkosi religious group. The widespread belief in the city is that fairies blessed the crystals that the homes were made of, causing them to light up in the darkness. The Laeros believe it is because of a fluorescent chemical found in the crystals, but The Sept stands firm with their beliefs. Underground, however, lies a web of secrets, with Saariandara Morgossa somewhere near the center.
Unterosten is a small town-like place that houses about 100 total villagers. These people took refuge in an ancient temple in the jungle as the Curse began.
Unterosten used to be a peaceful coastline town, until the Dark One descended upon them. Originally it was thought of as a plague. Strange marks appeared on people who claimed to have been attacked by a beast, and then they disappeared shortly afterwards. The mindset changed after the Taken rose back to life and attacked the small town, killing most of its population. The remaining villagers fled into the woods, led by the town's strongest wizard to a fortress in the woods. They stayed there, until the wizard himself was marked, and vanished from their midst. The town now lives in paranoia as the Taken descend upon the temple each night. The Dark One appears within the city each full moon, and marks anyone it sees. The Marked transform at night, their skin shimmering and vanishing, leaving them walking, talking skeletons. They still have their memories, however, once they are killed, the mark spreads, and they become one of The Taken, skeletal monsters who attack anything they see.
“Are ye all ready to hear a story of the most wonderful tell? Nay? Well too facking bad ye fools! I don’t care for what demands ye make of me, this is my turn to tell a story and tell it I shall!. Now listen close for I ain’t much one for repeatin’ myself and I don’t like talk over banter. Yes, I am talkin’ about you Darian, now shut yer fucking trap and listen. Good good, now we can start that I have all ye youngins’ attention.
This tale comes from that Continent everybody talks about but it began here, in our quaint little town o’ Cordal. Yes, I know what yer thinkin’, our here town ain’t never created anybody of note. We are just simple farmers and hunters but there existed a family here once who were known for their eccentricities, most notable among them was their need to explore everything. Their family bore only one child, a son by the name o’ Filius Ventura Cantrella. He went by Vent though. Vent always wondered off into the forest and cared little for anything us simple folk coulda taught him.
It was when the young man turned eighteen summers old that his father passed on their own hidden secret, a facking magical beast which followed the youngest member of the family around. They had no idea when it came from and we had never even noticed it because they kept it locked up in their house. But, it was alone in its life and the Cantrellas hated such a thing for such a beauty. That is why they wandered everywhere. They was searchin’ for its home but none o’ them had thought to go to the Continent until Vent suggested it. That’s how our hero landed himself in a small port city built in the rocks around the coast of the Continent.
Now, I remember the day he arrived like it was no other…” *Scene fades to black*
Jeanne Silvus Osterian, aka Anne or Bard
“You lot probably wouldn’t believe me but I was a young woman back then. Barely older than sixteen but had been left there by what one woulda called a family. But they were no family to me. Them bastards had gotten pregnant on the Continent and bore me into the world only to leave me at that damn Port. That city was called… Rockvale I think. I don’t quite remember. There were so many lands that I traveled through, so many cities whose streets I walked, and too damn many times where I begged to get just a bit o’ coin to feed myself for the night. Now though, now I live a happy life and it never woulda happened it it tweren’t for that fool of man Vent.”
Secondary Characters:
The Trio are three mages from the Mainland who came to the Continent seeking the unquenchable power of which stories told existed on the expansive land. Yet, all they found there was disappointment and became trapped on the Continent after being marked by the Vigils.
More will be added once the Trio properly make an appearance.
Places:
Rockvale is by far the dingiest and most rotten port city there could ever be. The city was not created out of the trade of legal items nor the sales of items from the Continent to the regular world. Rather, Rockvale was created by pirates and is far from lawfully good. The entrance of the city has a gate but it was created by the local thugs, the Red Banners, who rule the city. Most common goods are priced insanely above common prices and stealing it is often accepted so long as one can avoid the people who run the stand. Just don't steal from the Red Banners, they have informant throughout the entire town and would have no issue making a few nobodies disappear and another group of nobodies happier. Most of the buildings seem to be made of wood which smells like rot while the center of the town, where the port can be found, have buildings built out of stone and into the island itself. That center portion is where the Red Banners members can be found spending most of their time.
I guess I should add this as well, the small dirt road you can find in the picture of Rockvale leads to a town of wood houses. Most of these houses are built out of shipwrecked parts and the center of that little slum is the mast of a ship with a blood red flag flown off it. The flag is literally stained with blood mind you.
These plains extend for nearly as far as the eye can see and are pockmarked by nearly hundreds of large crystals. These crystals often jut out of where they stand and appear almost as if to have crashed there. Several shanty towns have formed throughout the plains but are often quickly torn down for the crystals are next to impossible to mine with steel or iron tools. Instead, the plains are mostly inhabited by many nomadic tribes who seemingly worship many of the crystals and stop near them for the winter due to the heat they release and seemingly store.
Factions:
Red Banners
The Red Banners are by far the most horrid and rotten crew of pirates that have existed along the edges of the Continent’s coastline. Their rise to power is noted to have come about after the establishment of Rockvale and the increase in illegal trade of rare creatures off the Continent. Within the short period of two years, the Red Banners established themselves as raiders along the coast. The port cities which were along the coast became targets of the Red Banners and the many ships which arrived carrying new meat to the Continent quickly became a source of men and women for their slave trade. Yet, the main source of the Red Banners revenue were from offering ‘protection’ for traders to get through the seas between the Continent and the mainland. Though, those traders quickly realized that the protection was a lie yet kept the payments up due to knowing full well that the lack of payment would be a lose in sales for them.
The leader of the Red Banners is a man who goes by Barrow. This horrid man of a human bears signs of many battles on his chest and arms but his face shows the experience he has over the regular person when it comes to fighting. From the first glance at Barrow, a person could easily tell that his ability to care for someone only last as long as they are useful and that those who aren’t useful often end up with a crack from the whip he bears on his left hip. It is better to avoid Barrow for he spends most of his time in Rockvale to ‘keep the peace’ and he fails to take well to those who start fights
Races:
The Ra’Ha’Noohk are certainly an odd race to have ever graced the Continent being that they are rhinoceroses in a more humanoid fashion. These beings are seemingly only found in the crystalline Plains of Narook and are the top tribe of nomads who wander throughout due to their warlike nature. Being nearly ten feet tall and weighing around five hundred pounds, the Ra’Ha’Noohk are just as imposing as tales told by the other two tribes of the Plains told to travelers. Almost all of the Ra’Ha’Noohk are warriors or hunters and they consume copious amounts of meat from the large beasts which travel through the Plains. During Winter, the Ra’Ha’Noohk have the prime spots and crystals for setting up camp and are often uncontested in tournaments held annually by the many shanty towns of Narook.
Worship Narook though they call her Ba’Hrook and worship her by sacrificing five of their strongest warriors every Winter.
The Orcs of Narook are quite different from what those from off the Continent hear in stories being that they aren’t quite as brutish as they are made out to be. Rather than slow moving and slow thinking brutes, Orcs are agile and quick thinking as well as adept in tactics. Many of the older Orcs who can no longer fight or hunt turn towards teaching and leading other Orcs. Unlike the Ra’Ha’Noohk, Orcs lead a much more peaceful life and tend to spend more of their time focusing on surviving due to the monopoly the Ra’Ha’Noohk have of most supplies on the Plains. Yet, the Orcs manage to scrape by the hunting of large prey that the Ra’Ha’Noohk lack the tactics to take down.
The Orcs, like most beings of Narook worship a goddess by the same name who had created the crystals for the tribes of the Plains who died from the below zero temperatures the Plains reach in Winter.
The Corellians are by far the most out of place race to grace the Plains of Narook being that they are the only race who live there that are vegetarians. Unlike the other tribes of Narook, the Corellians neither worship Narook nor live a migratory life. Many of the Corellian tribes have been set up around crystals who have formed lakes around them and stick to rivers. Due to the lack of trees on the Plains, the buildings of the Corellians are made from mud and are carved into the large rock formations around the crystals. When a traveller needs a place to stay, a Corellian town is the first one they should stop at before continuing. Just avoid mentioning the Ra’Ha’Noohk as they often show great disdain towards the Corellians and have often led skirmishes against their towns which ended with nearly everything destroyed or on fire.
The Corellians worship a God called Benearia and he is believed to have blessed the waters of the Crystal lakes with the great ability to grow plants. As such, Corellian towns burn bundles of harvest each day and toss the ashes into the lakes.
Monsters: To Be Created
Gods:
Narook, Goddess of the Crystals, is a woman of striking beauty whose power is said to have created the crystals of the Plains which bear her name. Worshipped for her power to create the crystals which give off heat in periods of cold and absorb it in periods of warmth. Narook is said to have given her soul and body to create the many, large crystals which dot the Plains. Nobody truly knows how long the crystals have existed and not even the elders of the native tribes have stories which tell of the existence before Narook’s sacrifice.
Stay tune for more to come on Narook, Goddess of the Crystals. For those who read this, yes, this will become an entire quest line for those traveling with Vent and Anne.
Sweetmeat County is one of the most unusual countries of the continent. Everything has an element of sugar in it. Even the people here are candy. With it's vibrant landscapes it's hard to believe that such a place could exist. Of course Sweetmeat county lives off their tourism, it's how they make their living after all.
Yet all of this comes with a price as the landscape and people all have a secret ingredient, people. It has a factory underground the main city where they have created a kind of science that turns everything into candy, even people. Those who do not survive the transformation are turned into part of the landscape after being taken apart.
This factory was created before sweetmeat county. This factory is where the landscape and candy is created. It is filled with creatures from failed experiments, these creatures are locked in cages however they are released if the entire factory is ever shut down. The factory is also full of robots who work the machinery and also act as guards.
This village seems absolutely perfect. The everyone here is happy, nobody's ever seen unhappy. The market gives great prices on food and supplies can be found everywhere. No one has broken the laws in a long time. Everything is perfectly happy.
However this town does have something strange about it aside from being far too perfect. There are no children or elderly. No one actually knows why this is, but the people inside seem to never age. There have also been rumors of a strange ritual happening inside of the town at night. There is also a closed up building towards the north end of the village. Very few people go there except on the nights when rituals are supposed to happen.
Characters
Cia the Cupcake Princess
Cia was born as the princess to the royal family of Sweetmeat county. She does not know about the the kingdom's secret however and is quite naive. As she is part of the royal family Cia has multiple sweet related spells in her arsenal. Once of these that she loves to use is one called "Sweet Tooth" This allows her to make anyone crave a kind of sweet, even to the point of drooling. Overall it is harmless as it is nothing more than a distraction. Cia also has the ability to turn into a fairy size and fly.
Cia is an adventurous youth who has just started to travel the continent as a right of passage within the royal family.
Sven is the Royal guard to the Sweetmeat county. He spends his days within the castle of Sweetmeat county. He has grown up within the Sweetmeat county and has never actually left. He knows of the terrible secret of the county, he does not support it yet he has never risen to try and stop the factory. He grew up with Cia and is one of her best friends within the County
Team thunderstorm is composed of two members, Piper Lupelli, and Chumi Napihua. Together, they have trained and studied for years, hoping to one day become legendary explorers, and to go down in history. Preferably with a good deal of wealth to match.
Piper and Chumi hail from Port Fort, a bustling port town, named for the imposing fortress that protects its land borders. Known for its excellent Orb Arcane Academy and almost-as-excellent taverns, Port Fort is where Piper spent all of her life(and Chumi much of his) before embarking on their journey to some of the only unexplored land in the world, the Continent. The Continent, or as it is referred to by Team Thunderstorm, The Blank Lands, is where Piper and Chumi hope to make history by exploring, mapping, and detailing all that they find there. They share the single goal of making those Blank Lands as colorful and detailed as the rest of the world, to see what there is to see, to become wealthy from its riches, and to live happily ever after.
Piper Lupelli, 17
Piper, the Storm part of Team Thunderstorm, is a water witch. A magician specialized in the arts of controlling water arcana to do her will, alongside an extensive knowledge of potions and alchemy. Excellent at retaining exact figures and measurements in memory, and a superb chef. Can breath underwater, but not a very fast swimmer. Carries a scimitar, with which she is moderately proficient at dueling with.
Piper is physically small, but a good runner. She has very long, smooth brown hair and deep blue eyes. Usually wears a silly enchanted witches hat with a trident shape at the point, and a plain shirt and skirt.
Piper enjoys exploring, cooking, making it rain so she can dance in it, and looking at fish for hours on end. She detests insects, reptiles, and unspecialized magicians who think they’re better than her. Piper will not stand for insults to herself or to Chumi, and may cause for harmless jokers to suddenly become quite wet.
Chumi Napihua, 17
MARKED BY THE VIGILS
Chumi, the Thunder part of Team Thunderstorm, is a lightning wizard. Another magician, specialized in the ways of bending lightning magic to do his bidding. Aside from the obvious application of zapping friends and foes, this control over a more primal form of the arcane allows him a moderate degree of power over fire, the ability to enchant objects, and an excellent sense for the presence of other magics. Chumi is very good at putting spells into action, and maintains a clear head in bad situations. Awful chef, but good at starting fires.
Chumi is much taller than Piper, broad-shouldered, but not very strong. He has short black hair, and a square face with shaded brown eyes. Usually wears an extravagantly colored robe, or if necessary, utilitarian climbing gear.
Chumi loves exploring, food, furry creatures, and holding Piper high above his head while she is indignant at something. Hates reptiles, textbooks, and peas. Chumi has a good sense of humor, and is more than willing to abuse his friendship with Piper to poke fun at her.
Not Team Thunderstorm
Enrique
A shapeshifter native to the continent. Nobody knows his base form, but he typically goes about as an old, fit travelling man with a long grey beard. He never stays in one place for long.
A younger woman, apparently exceptionally tall, covered from head to toe in a heavy brown cloak and a masked hood, revealing only her grey eyes, and a few stray strands of auburn hair. The cloak is covered in stains, old and new, in a myriad of shapes. On her back is a truly gigantic rucksack, with various unidentifiable instruments of science hanging off of it and peeking through the pockets. In her hand is a scroll of parchment, upon which she is constantly scribbling notes and diagrams, and when she moves, she appears to be gliding across the ground rather than walking.
Were one to catch a glimpse beneath her cloak, one would find that she is not, in fact, particularly tall. She's actually rather short and slender, and is hovering a foot and a half above the ground. Her clothing is a skin-tight set of leather armor, covered in pockets and pouches, and upon her back is a series of odd-looking knives with feathered wings sprouting from what should have been the grip. Upon her neck is a steel gorget. There are several differently colored inkwells and pens sticking out of her pockets.
She is a royal scientist (specializing in geology, meteorology, magitech engineering, and alchemy) from Sorvir, an island nation far to the north, and has only recently arrived at what her people call The Witchlands, as part of an expedition. Every few minutes she glances at the back of her right hand, which is marked with a tattoo of odd characters and markings. In her native language, it reads "I must check my journals."
The first entry in the most recent journal scroll details the crash of her steam-powered zeppelin and the resulting hydrogen explosion, which started a small forest fire and alerted some very unfriendly natives. Her team was killed before she even realized they were under attack because they, against her advice, left the safety of the airship wreckage to set up a camp outside. The following entries are details of the compositions of soil, the air, and the various types of flora and fauna she's encountered thus far. The right-hand side of the journal scroll features a "To-Do List", written in bold, red lettering. The first entry is marked 'Practice Water Magic'.
The last thing she can truly remember was her home town, Valheim, being attacked by raiders. Specifically, she remembers a large brute of a man swinging a club at her head. This happened fifteen years ago. Every memory after that is foggy and blurred. The basic idea that something happened and the vaguest ghost of emotions past stays with her, but beyond that, she can't recall events. Thankfully, that is the only aspect of her memory lost, as she can remember certain facts and can still successfully learn skills, although she can't remember doing so in the first place.
She is somewhat on the cheerful side, but is easily angered by a few things. Firstly, people who lie while implying that she doesn't know what she's talking about. Secondly, incompetence. Thirdly, anything attempting to harm herself or her friends. Her rage is something one should take care to avoid, due to her poor memory - it takes under a minute for her to forget what happened, but the feeling sticks with her, making it exceedingly difficult to reason with her.
Her favorite things include automatons, golems, comprehensive tool kits, and most furry animals. She dislikes brutes and thugs, hates incomplete tool kits, and absolutely detests hamsters.
There is a strange, writhing mark on her left hand. She can't remember where she got it, or when, and as far as she can tell, it's always been there.
She was a wind magician in training starting from a young age, as her parents were both professors at the local branch of the Sorvir Mages' University. She made startling progress in the areas of wind magics as a young child, growing to be within the top ten of her county before she was ten years old - although she couldn't hold a candle to the dozens of masters in the Capital, as they were all just as exceptional as she, with an additional several decades of experience.
Her education branched out into extremely basic biology and anatomy, mathematics, physics, problem solving... Not many fields were left untouched. The people of Sorvir prided themselves upon their education system, and even the least skilled of people were at least able to repair common machinery after leaving school for the last time, so this was not uncommon. Her parents were strict and held her to a very high standard - which she met.
When she was eleven years old, a group of raiders set up a camp several miles up the coast, and started sending demands for food and money. Brunhilde's parents were out of town on business at the University's main campus, and so the villagers decided to send some of their strongest men to deal with the threat. They never returned, and a day later, the raiders attacked at late night. Brunhilde tried to help, but she wasn't a strong enough magician yet to move grown men, even with her strongest winds, and one of the thugs retaliated with a club to the head. Her skull was shattered, and the injury would have spelled certain death in most places, but Sorvir's University had provided an abundance of trained medical professionals, who saved her life with swift application of alcohol and re-placement of the broken plates.
She faded in and out of consciousness for nearly a month, and it took eight months for her skull to heal properly. She screamed each time she awoke, as the last thing she knew, she was having her head split by an oaken club. This came to pass in a few short months, though, as the knowledge of having been struck down and having successfully have survived worked its way into the last vestiges of her memory, and the doctors were most puzzled.
Some years passed, and her parents left the picture, grief-stricken that their daughter had been 'ruined', though she didn't particularly mind any time someone told her. It seemed like it was inevitable when she was a child anyway. Her doctors began to seem familiar, and the knowledge of their names started to stick as well, eventually, though this was unreliable at best. She seemed to handle new information best when it was provided in an informal manner, as if it were a lesson of some sort. Trivial knowledge that wasn't directly linked to her herself. The doctors eventually identified this as her having seen their name badges and faces so many times that the knowledge had become something of a fact of existence, much like the name and appearance of the Queen.
University lessons continued, and each day, Brunhilde walked into her classes for the first time and excelled in studies she had felt she had never done before. Subconsciously, these feelings began to pool, and her self-esteem skyrocketed, though she couldn't ever identify her own accomplishments. It was just... A good feeling. It felt, tasted, smelt like success.
She discovered she had memory problems when she was fourteen years old. And she didn't give a shit.
A plan for helping her cope with her lack of memory was formed, and she was given a tattoo on her right hand, reminding her to check her journals. It took some time before the style of writing prescribed by the doctors set in, but it worked perfectly. Each new person would be drawn - their face the focus of the drawing - and described in great detail from a neutral voice, impersonal. Their relation to Brunhilde was listed under this information - friend, foe, that-asshole-who-stole-my-lunch, and so on and so forth. Each day's events and thoughts were written out in an impersonal manner, as though they were merely... Things that had happened, that could have happened to anyone, and she was just a character in her own story. Nothing was missed, except in times of great stress, which she never remembered afterwards anyway. The memories in her journal started sticking over time, and she habitually stopped questioning when she was with a new, strange person, because there was often some feeling of familiarity she subconsciously associated with knowledge.
All of her doctors were present for her graduation from the University when she was twenty-two years old. Having had nothing better to do and nothing to distract her, she had managed to work through to a master's level in several fields important to the Crown. The graduation ceremony was recorded via a Time Crystal - an enchanted sphere that could lock in moving images from scenes past - and archived in the University's Hall of Records. It was the first time a student with grievous permanent brain damage had ever passed, and such a momentous occasion demanded recording via the single rarest and most expensive type of journalistic tool in Sorvir.
Brunhilde was hired immediately into the service of the Queen, who recognized her skills as being of value. She was assigned as a research assistant in the National Laboratory of Magickal Technologies, though this position didn't last long. The promotions were handed down almost on a monthly basis as she consistently outperformed each of her colleagues simply by paying attention to and recording the smallest details in her work.
Unfortunately, when she became the Head of the Laboratory, and thus Head Scientist of Sorvir, this put her into contact with the nobility. She wasn't particularly interested in the niceties of formal society, and many important officials didn't appreciate how she seemed to not remember any of them, no matter how much they worked together, and she had the tendency to speak her mind on political matters often. Too often. Politics never sat well with her, and she never sat well with politicians. The Queen, especially, grew to hate her.
She had never stopped with her Wind Magick practice, and had been taking personal lessons from the greatest Wind Master in Sorvir- one of the four Wise Men of the land - and had, thus, grown to become one of the greatest Wind Magicians in the nation, although nowhere near as skilled as the Wise Man of the Winds who had taught her. As such, when knowledge of the Witchlands (known to southerners as The Continent) reached the Queen, Brunhilde was first on the list of people who absolutely had to go on the first expedition. The decision was widely ridiculed by the peasantry, but The Queen justified her decision, stating that Brunhilde was both one of the greatest scientific minds and one of the greatest magicians in the land, and that if anyone had a chance of returning with information vital to the future of Sorvir, it would be Brunhilde. It was a classical political lie, but it worked, and Brunhilde was packed onto a hydrogen zeppelin with several others, who (by order of the Queen) had absolutely no combat experience at all - a petty move to inflict suffering upon one who would not even remember it.
A journal scroll hovers just off to the side, within her line of sight, any time she isn't in a dangerous situation. She constantly writes in the journal scroll, which seemingly has no end. The scroll has several splotches of coffee, wine, and mead stains on it, though they do not obscure the text, drawings, or diagrams.
Her cloak hides her height as she hovers, as she has always been ashamed of being as small as she is.
Her head wrap hides her face, lest she pass a mirror and experience the sudden shock of her age. Deep down, she knows that she's not a child anymore, but the memories of having aged simply are not there.
Whenever for whatever reason she isn't writing, she's fidgeting. Constantly. Not having a pen in her hand makes her nervous.
On foot, she has a tendency to half dance rather than simply walk, as she never truly 'grew up'.
Somewhat cheerful, owing to her high self esteem.
Nervous wreck, as she is constantly doubting her own actions and wondering if she's made the right decisions.
Grows very attached to her friends very quickly, because even though she doesn't always recognize them at first, their presence eventually becomes one of the most comforting feelings of familiarity to her, amidst a void of nothingness.
Inconsistent. Her actions sometimes lack true predictability on account of not following a "normal" chain of psychological causality. Other times, though, she falls into patterns on account of situations inputting the same variables into her constantly restarting mental machine, and repeats the same reactions to similar scenarios.
Analytical. Everything she experiences is run across her mental bank of trivia before she checks her journal for similar phenomena. Facts that she learned in the University and the Laboratory stick especially well.
Mildly inconsiderate. Still somewhat childish - never had the chance to grow up.
Paranoid, and thus overprepared. She keeps powerful wind magicks at the ready for fight and flight at all times, and is constantly feeling the air for disturbances, lest she be ambushed. The attack on her village has been the only thing she could truly remember for the longest time, and every time she wakes up, she finds herself protecting herself from something like that happening to her ever again.
Stoic, as a byproduct of her fear of her lack of memory. She wants to be accepted and loved, and so she fears being an annoyance or a burden. She generally refuses to comment on her own problems, in case she may have repeated it many times over already and thus inconvenienced her companions.
"You ever have deja-vu? That's the feeling I get when I'm around people I know."
"That feeling when you wake up from a dream, but you don't know what it was, and no matter how hard you try, it just keeps slipping away... It's like that for me. All the fucking time."
"You can plant flowers in soil. You can plant them in clay. You can even plant them in some rocks. They're all different kinds of dirt. Seawater and brine are two different things, too. It's the same way with the air. You breathe it all, and there are different kinds everywhere. Wind mages are trained to taste the difference."
"Of course I don't have any money. What do I look like, some kind of famous lab director or something?"
"Who are you?"
"Hm. Looks like Dad's gone. Good riddance - jerk never really cared about anything but his work anyway."
"Who are you?"
"Oh my god. Is that a MAG-LOK service kit? I've wanted one for years! (I think). Thanks!"
"It's missing the fucking pipe wrench. I'm swapping it for a new one."
"Who the FUCK let hamsters into my yard?!"
Claudio
A redshirt. Died of exposure shortly after waking up.
Arnor Kalthun
A squidlike "god" from ages past. Immense regenerative powers. Four feet of terror. Beware, for this immortal seeks to enslave all that live.
"Name?" "The name's Ulysses Martin Chambers, but most call me Padlock." "Gender?" "Ain't it obvious? I'm a guy." "Age?" "I'm twenty-four years old." "Race?" "Obviously human." "Summary of your past?" "Rogue. Scoundrel. Bad guy... These are all words you could use to describe me, and all of them are true. All my life, I've devoted it to stealing from, lying to and cheating people to get by in life. Only one person, my companion Osguh here, knows much about me. All you need to know is that I'm going to the Continent to..." Padlock paused for a second, before saying: "Look, it doesn't matter. I just need to get off the mainland for a while." "Almost done here, your luggage?" "Uh, let's see... I've got my gun," Padlock paused to pull out a very large revolver with a leather grip and a heavy duty barrel. "I call it the Howlin' Hand Cannon, official name is Colt Model 2451 Z-AEN. I've got my clothes," he gestured to his black vest, tan undershirt, blue jeans (with a loose belt, which itself is adorned with a holster) and black boots. "and myself." "Great sir. Last but not least, your passport photo." "Ah, how could I forget?" With that, Padlock looked at the camera intently before the person taking his information for a passport took the photo and stamped a small print of his face on the passport: "Here you are sir, enjoy your trip to the Continent."
"Name?" Osguh, being a large furry beast with an inability to speak... Well, any language, lets out a strange sound, like a growl or a roar... Sounded something like "Hurrrrrr". "Excuse me?" Then, Padlock butts in and says: "Uh, he doesn't speak English. I'll fill out the info for him." "Okay... Name?" "Osguh." "Gender?" "Male." "Age?" "When we first met, he said he was about twenty, and that was nine years ago... Put down twenty-nine." "Wait... You can understand that thing?" "Yeah, why?" "I... *sigh* Let's get on with this." "Race?" "He's a Shafari, a native to... Some wacky country. Came from the place ten years ago and never told anyone where he was from until he told me. Now he's kind of open about it." "Summary of your past?" "He was just wandering around, living his day to day life as... Well, nothing, really. He feasted on scraps and trash before I met him, then we formed a partnership: he keeps me safe and I feed him. Been like that for nine years. That's about it." "Alright... Luggage?" "Just himself and his rifle." "Lastly, photo." Osguh then stood in front of a camera, letting out another roar, and looked on at the camera as it took the picture: "Alright gentlemen, enjoy your trip."
Might've straight up ripped off Han Solo and Chewbacca... But meh. I'll get to posing tomorrow.
Power: He is able to talk and bond with animals and can only bond with up to two. When bonded they can share surface thoughts and he can heal himself and the animals he is bonded with to some degree. They can also feel some of the pain the others are feeling. The animals are more knowledgeable than their counter parts and Jordan tends be be a little more animalistic. The ups and downs only effect the ones that are connected. So Jordan sends to the animals but the animals only go to Jordan.
Bonded animals:
Jasmine-Red fox: Normal Red fox
Blake-Yig: Giant lizard that looks kind of like this. About the size of a husky(Weight 55 pounds, Height 2 feet). Makes a semi corrosive bile to help eat food and can be used to attack enemies. Limited use of Bile.
Bio: Jordan traveled to the Continent to recover something that was lost to him. This is his all or nothing gamble to get back his life or die in this strange place.
Equipment: Machete, fire piston and tinderbox, backpack, some spare clothes, coat, and a few other small things.
Lifespan: As long as it can continue drinking blood. It doesn't age when it sleeps for years in-between large meals.
Age: 1,707
Appearance: A piebald monstrosity with slime slicked flesh and no hind legs. Its only limbs are two long, winged arms and a powerful tail. It has four claws on each forepaw, with the middle one being eight inches long and capable of slicing through muscle like tissue paper. The beast's head is mostly a jagged maw with oily, unseeing eyes on top. It has a sharp, hollow tongue which can extend three feet from its mouth and act as a siphon to suck in blood. From snout to tail base, it is a little less than eight feet long. The tail is twelve feet. It weighs in at about six-hundred pounds, as much as a tiger.
Abilities
~Limited flight. Due to its wingspan and body weight, it can only fly for a maximum distance of ninety meters and remain aloft for little more than a half minute.
~Tremendous strength and speed.
~Keen hearing and sonar. It's echolocation has a maximum distance of 6,700 meters and can detect objects moving at half the speed of sound. Anything faster than subsonic it can detect via air pressure gradient.
~Heat pits: Can detect the heat of organisms.
~Tongue: Can draw in blood through a wound like a vaccuum. It can also squirt or spray blood and bile. The bile is not acidic.
~Can squeeze into any opening that it can fit its head through.
~Capable of entering a state of metabolic stasis which can last for decades. It retains spatial awareness during this "hibernation" and can awaken at will.
~Sense of smell: It can track down others thousands of kilometers away just by smelling them on the clothing of its prey.
~Intelligence: Is far more clever that it looks. Can grasp (but not speak) all languages.
~Can quickly regenerate from wounds by consuming blood and flesh. The amount of mass healed is proportionate to how much is consumed, I.E one pound of food to replace one pound of damaged tissue.
~The membrane of its wings is tougher than Kevlar.
~Its body mucous and saliva contains anticoagulant, cytotoxic, and bufotoxic properties. Those whom it bites or claws will suffer gradual necrosis, unstoppable bleeding, and fast-acting, nightmarish hallucinations. The speed at which the bufotoxins take effect depends on how close the wound is to the head, ranging from several minutes to several seconds. It is immune to its own toxins. The mucous functions also to mask its scent.
~True Eyes: It may use its "true eyes" by shutting down its other senses. Those who see the "true eyes" will, each time they go to sleep, enter a trance and begin moving in the direction of Shashous-Throth, wherever it may be. They will awaken at the time they normally would, such as a few minutes for a nap and several hours for deep sleep. It is a passive curse that has no immediate negative effects unless the victim is entirely under the influence of the Magna Pater's hallucinogens, in which case the victim will immediately lose their mind from fright. If the bufotoxins haven't taken full effect then the victim will feel an intense fear which escalates in accordance to the strength of the already terrifying hallucinations.
(A lesser, juvenile vampire)
Behavior: The Magna Pater is what one would first think of when the word "monster" comes to you in the dead of night. It makes no noise, has no mercy, cannot be reasoned with, and lives only to drain the blood and devour the flesh of all living things it can bind within its greasy wings. It enjoys all manner of prey and is especially inclined to go out of its way to find children. But it is shy, and it despises the light. It prefers to remain in damp pitch-blackness, where no eyes can spy it and no light can fall upon it. It will frequently impregnate victims with its brood, keeping them alive for many months until its malformed young emerge. It will eat both the victim and the young, doing these things not for food but to purposefully inflict prolonged torment. The few who come into contact with it and live may never be the same as they had been before, for above all else it is a creature of persistence. Even if one leaves the Magna Pater, it will never leave them. It never stops pursuing its prey, even if they move off the Continent. It will also track down any living thing that leaves its scent on a victim. This leads to the it consuming the families of those it hunts, along with anyone those families had come into recent physical contact with. Though one may travel often and abroad, once the Magna Pater has chosen a victim their fate is inevitable. It could take days, weeks, months, even years, but eventually on some cold and moonless evening one will awaken to see a sticky face with dead eyes peering at them.
History: Once in a millennium is a creature born into this world, a living horror known as the "Magna Pater". The prodigal ancestor, the true genesis, the harbinger of loss, ancient and terrible. Only one has ever lived at a time, for it is greedy and does not abide its own kind, but always has one lived. Long ago it was worshipped as a cruel deity to which countless sacrifices were made. In this lifetime does a special one exist, the most dreadful of its kind to have ever been. Even the most vile of devils would balk at associating with it. It haunts the secret places deep below ground, amidst a lichen hellscape of death and graverot. It slumbers upon a towering mountain of soggy bones, reigning over its decaying empire on a haphazard throne several thousand lives thick. Those who enter this wretched domain, where the blue sky transitions into a black void, do so at the risk of becoming yet another skeleton upon which the Magna Pater may sleep, with their loved ones soon joining them.
Mutiny on the high seas! The famed Captain Ashwyrm's faithful crew turn their coats and then turn the ironclad ship, The Salt Dagger, from their dread-captain's prosperous rule! Tales tell of the crew leaving him for dead on the ghastly shores of the ever-mysterious Continent with naught but his rapier, a flintlock pistol loaded with a single round, and a bottle of swill born from the belly of the Dagger herself. What wonders does the Continent hold for our intrepid former Captain? Riches? Romance? Adventure? Or does The Continent hold stranger ends for him?
In terms of appearance, Cassandra is a caucasian woman of average height. She has long, black hair, that is typically tied into a ponytail. Her outfit consists of chainmail infused leather for her chest and legs, with some copper stylings. Her legs are covered by some plain cloth leggings, with a leather belt that has her sheath, holster, and a small pouch for ammunition, as well as some leather boots to protect her feet.
Cassandra is the mechanist of Ben Alesman’s airship. They’re on a trip to the continent in hopes of setting up trade routes to other lands. However, this quickly goes awry, as the vigils do not approve of this endeavour.
She possesses a shortsword, a revolver, as well as a small amount of ammunition.
