The Kingdom of Emulis has reached out to the Grandshield, a swordseeker covenant that specializes in the paranormal. This is an unprecedented event, for the pragmatic Emulis have isolated themselves from the rest of the world for centuries. The message was delivered with the wax seal of the iron mace and sunflower, proving its legitimacy alongside the bags of gold that came with it.
The letter does not elaborate on Emulis' plight, only that discretion and the Grandshield's best seekers are needed. It was written in a hurried pace, but confirmed from the Grandshield's graphologists that the calligraphy belongs to Grand Duke Clairevoi, second to Emulis Kingship.
According to the Duke's instructions, the Swordseekers are to meet a scoutsman just outside Emulis territory by the end of the week. Brave and battle-hardened as can be, the heralds sent on behalf of Grandshield still have mixed emotions about their new assignment. Not only are they flying blind into a land no living outsider has ever stepped foot in, but the reason for their services are yet to be revealed. Such is the way of the famous Grandshield Swordseekers -- falling face first onto the devil's horns.
Lore
The Grandshield was founded by the Three Maidens of Refuge, an Elvish trio of legendary battlemages. Before Tocratia ruled the land, Roviat was being torn apart between noble houses and lesser monarchs. Borders were smeared with blood, blurring the lines between territories. As a result, villages and towns were caught in the middle of the chaos. The Maidens banded together to form the Grandshield as a means to protect the people. They swore allegiances to no one, rescuing innocent lives from the ongoing wars. That was many centuries ago. The philosophical principles of The Grandshield have waned since the departure of The Three Maidens. Under their successors, the Grandshield became a sell-sword organization and was marketed as such. Though the squabbles between royalty have been reined into submission by the Tocratia Empire, there services are still needed - more so than ever before. Perhaps the wars of Roviat have angered the deities of nature, for its wildlife has increased both in size and hostility.
Enter the Swordseekers, hunters that have a knack for killing all sorts of monsters. They've become a staple in Roviat simply because they do a job nobody wants to do. With a potential war that could break out at any given moment, Crowns, Houses, and even the Emperor, prefer to send Swordseekers out than soldiers from their own armies. Yet the general opinion about Swordseekers isn't quite as flattering as one would expect. For one good Seeker there are at least ten that are terrible at what they do. It's not so much as their skill as it is their shady ways of trying to game the system that comes into question. Hunts are falsely reported as successful kills, some have even released wild beasts into populated areas in order to get contracts. Counterfeit goods, fake medicines, and handmade items are sold off as miracle cures.
The growing number of complaints has forced the Emperor to begin an investigation on the Grandshield and its subsidiary Swordseeker branch.
Notes:
- In order to become an official Swordseeker you must pass 3 trials throughout your training: [Minotaur]1. Physical - You must survive 'The Gauntlet', twenty five mile long obstacle course full of traps and mercenaries hired to kill you [Sphinx]2. Mental - You must survive one week in a harsh environment while under a very strong hallucinogenic truth drug. [Chimera]3. The Trophy - claim the head of a powerful hybrid beast. *Our characters will be Sphinx ranked. -Grandshield was formed four centuries ago -Swordseekers were formed one century ago -The Maidens of Refuge stepped down from office just after Tocratia gained control of Roviat
Emperor Gabritius
Notes:
-Originated from an Eastern Continent. -Invaded one century ago -Emperor Gabritius is the 1st Emperor of Tocratia-Roviat Rulership. -While the idea of a foreign ruler is unsettling, the enforced peace is a welcomed sight for Roviat people. -The Tocratia wear white and silver armor. Their insignia is a dove shaped as the hilt of a sword, whose blade points down with a fiery tip.
Notes:
-The Swordseekers of the Grandshield are basically a glorified mercenary group of hunters. It is a very corrupt organization. Many Seekers use their status to con people into buying counterfeit goods said to cure ailments or ward off angry ghosts. Only a select few have actually dealt with spirits and demons -- the wild beastiary of the land are often mistaken for paranormal monsters.
-The entire continent is called Roviat and there are a bunch of kingdoms and fiefdoms loosely ruled by The Tocratia Empire.
-Elves, Orcs, Dwarves, and Humans inhabit Roviat.
-Monsters roam the land. Spirits and demonology are questionable ideologies and not generally accepted beliefs.
-The Seekers that are experienced with the paranormal use blessed and cursed weapons, items, artifacts, and armor.
-Magic: Properties of magic are ambiguous. Enchanted items blessed by sages and battle mages can create spells. Wizardry through verbal incantation and spell script exists, though rare - mainly used to enchant items. Origin of magic is unknown, but discoverers are believed to have been people of science before converting their titleship to Sages of The Path.
I will be too for the most part. Ill be pretty busy next week but I'll still respond in ooc and update as much as I can. I'm projecting this to start at next Friday at the latest.
This is very much a work in progress, but you can see what I'm going for. I'll likely finish tomorrow. ~o~0~o~
Name: Lucas Reedsinger TL;DR: Cross a Snake-Oil Salesman, "Psychic", Used-Car Salesman of the slimeiest sort, Fixer, and Dwarf. That's Lucas. Age: 67 Height: 4'2" (1.27m) Weight: 125lb (56.7kg) Build: Heavy Race: Dwarf Appearance: Lucas is short, pudgy, and has a gray-haired combover. He keeps his beard and moustache neatly trimmed and wears glasses - bulky wooden things with a hinge in the center and no arms. He wears a turban with a geode at the center. His clothing is generally loose, flowing, and checkered where it isn't stretched tight by his pudge. On his left hand, Lucas has three rings. On his right, four. He wears an iron necklace with a silver pendant of indeterminate religious iconography. Equipment: -Parcel containing bottles of Soul Ward.
==|Lucas Reedsinger's|==
TRUE SWORDSEEKER of the SPHINX RANK
(THE GENUINE ARTICLE)
The STRONGEST and BEST Soul Ward liniment --for the IMMEDIATE release of-- SPIRITUAL ENERGYS STRANGE MAGICKS DEMONIK FORMS SHADOWMEN CURSED ITEMS or PERSONS MALODOROUS LUCK BAD AURAS
☞ Soul Ward ☜
◈A cure for what haunts you! ◈Accept NO SUBSTITUTES! Personally blessed by the GREAT PRIEST OF THE MOUNTAIN EXTERNAL USE ONLY
-One-of-a-kind knife with strange markings (4x) -Charcoal with which one might make strange markings -Flash powder -Smoke powder -Various small alchemical tools (mortal and pestle, retort) -Hallucinogenic powder Story: Lucas grew up on the fringes of dwarven society. The Reedsinger lineage were famed for their musical prowess, creating and playing complex brass instruments with intricate windings of pipes. Lucas took to the lineage business like a rock to flying. As soon as he could, he left and joined the ranks of the unlineaged.
He always got strange stares in cities - nothing he did was quite dwarven enough. When the Feast of the Golden Heart of the Mountain (or the feasts of the Diamond, Emerald, Iron, Copper, or Tin hearts of the Mountain) came around, he was lackluster in his tributary crafts, failed to mine much of the requisite metal or jewel, and ate rather more than he ought to. He tended toward loose clothing that ripped impractically easily in the tunnels of the Undercomplex. His hands were smooth and barely calloused, and his sleeves covered what few burns he had from forgework.
Lucas was, in particular, fascinated with human culture. He learned about their large merchant class, and just decided one day that was what he wanted to become. His friends rapidly left him as he began to hawk whatever he could in a poor imitation of human merchants that he picked up from a single book about the Art of Salesmanship. He tried selling rocks to miners, pens to clerics, small vials of scented things to the dwarven middle class, and time shares of a particularly dingy forest site. It was during the last scheme, and his last true friend finally disowning him, that he realized he needed something more. He needed a better reputation. He tried joining the Tocratian army - which was the first thing that popped into his head, for whatever reason - and they rejected him for being physically unfit.
If he couldn't have a good reputation, then he'd at least have good connections.
As eagerly as he took to merchanting, he took to becoming a swordseeker even more so. He threw himself into practice, training, tutelage, and genuinely seemed to be on the upswing from his disreputable past. And then training ended, and he was left adrift. For a while, he was content to hire himself out to those who asked, but he felt himself slipping back to a place he didn't want to go. So, he pushed for Sphinx rating. This time, he was feverishly dedicated. He hurled himself through obstacles, pushing past the physical problems only with concerted effort of will. The hallucinogenic portion of his trial was harrowing, but he could fall back on what alchemy he'd learned in his studies, and succeeded in diluting the hallucinations. Perhaps not in the spirit of the trial, but a success nonetheless.
At last, he achieved Sphinx rate.
It wasn't what it had cracked up to be.
After a few years, he re-read the Art of Salesmanship. People in the realm had a need. He had the training and reputation to provide a solution. Most of the time, people complaining of spirits never had anything more truly wrong with them than grief or guilt regarding a lost relative. If Lucas could provide comfort by claiming to dispell a spirit, or tell the living that the dead forgave them --- well, what was the harm? And it's only natural to charge for services rendered!
Never mind that his services often lead him to new adventures. He tries not to stay in one town or another for too long. Sell what you can, and take what you can't and dress it up as something the populace needs. Each town he's in, however, he pays his dues. Sometimes it's to the right guards, or a tithe to the local temple (even once to a nobleman's daughter who thought herself something of a Pirate Lady), but most often to the local equivalent of crime lord enforcers. In return, they'd politely tell him when to get the hell out of town. Particularly well-formed relationships keyed him onto new leads, or would ask for services that he himself couldn't render, but Lucas knew someone who knew someone.
Wetwork? That was never his gig. Lucas' best skill in a fight is to create enough of a flashy distraction that he can get out of it. But he knows a guy the village over yonder.
Suddenly have a need for authentic-seeming prayer beads for the next festival? Lucas can scrounge some through his large trail of favors and broken homes.
Need someone to delay the 25-merchant convoy because of a fight with your mistress? Lucas can spin a tale about the Horse Inspection Tax and a need to ensure all horses of the train are impeccably groomed (excepting draft horses), forcing everyone to spend an extra twenty minutes arguing over the meaning of "draft horse" vs. "work horse" and which, exactly, would be exempt from the tax.
What if you have a passing thought about getting an audience with the local nobleman? Lucas knows a guard that knows the cousin of the nobleman's mistress, who can whisper in the nobleman's ear about a need for connecting with the populace as long as you get a good whore for the cousin and a bottle of elven drink for the guard. And, oh, look at that, an upstanding citizen of the populace just happens to be asking for an audience at the right time (the next day) and in the right place.
Lucas happens to be wanted for crimes of only a peripheral nature to his own upstanding business (which you can't prove he was involved in anyway) by guards and nobles with far-too-big sticks up their asses. Don't worry about it.
I was out being busy. But I'll get onto a character. Here in a second. Going for a stealthy elf.
Actually, would something like a DnD Arcane Trickster be possible? I know magic is limited, thus the Arcane can be limited, not like casting spells and things like that.
But think like Corvo from Dishonored the first game, with limited powers.
I symbiotic/non-lethal possession a thing in this setting?
If it's meant to be in tandem with a beastman (like an intellectual spirit taking control of it), I'm willing to consider that. Keep in mind that this type of character will be heavily scrutinized since those types of creatures are hunted regularly and don't function in normal Roviat society.
@ManoftheNorth That sounds pretty badass actually. I'm willing to roll with it. It'll be considered taboo in Roviat, but the Grandshield will likely say that it was trained to be obedient vs revealing to the public that it is possessed.
So, maybe I missed it. How does one get recruited into the Sword Seekers? Maybe I am a little tired right now, but I read it over again. But can't seem to find that information
@AngelofOctober No, your eyes did not deceive you. I haven't added that part in , but the enlistment isn't anything crazy. Being as corrupt as they are, the Swordseekers will ask for a hefty fee or something of significant value in order to apply, then weed out the weak through an intense boot camp which eventually leads to the first trial. Applicants either pay the fee or they're referred by people of high stature like military personnel, monarchs, or nobility (The Swordseeker advisory board prefers this as they often ask bribes or favors from those types in exchange for the applicant's entry)
Thanks. So, then in that case? Why would anyone join them? How hefty of a fee? And being part of the Sword Seekers that desirable considering their negative reputation as conman?
How desirable is being a sword seeker then?
Also, what are race relations like? Like how much do the species get along? What shady deals and goings on do when it comes to race?
@AngelofOctober Well, being a swordseeker is not desirable -- as a matter a fact it is specifically for the undesirable, at least now it is. Why join them? It's the most lucrative option for people that have criminal histories or for whatever reason are unable to enlist into the Tocratian armies or are looking for good paying mercenary work.
Tocratia is primarily human. Roviat has an equal playing field with race. There's as many human monarchs as there are elves and dwarves. Elves and Dwarves get along much more better than Humans, especially since the Tocratia takeover.
, but the enlistment isn't anything crazy. Being as corrupt as they are, the Swordseekers will ask for a hefty fee or something of significant value in order to apply, then weed out the weak through an intense boot camp which eventually leads to the first trial. Applicants either pay the fee or they're referred by people of high stature like military personnel, monarchs, or nobility (The Swordseeker advisory board prefers this as they often ask bribes or favors from those types in exchange for the applicant's entry)