@OppositionJ Ooh a summoner. Galahad would probably find her abilities incredibly interesting.

@Scout Yay! Sorry for taking so long to read through this, but I love her! I might have some ideas for her etheric powers that I'll PM you. Besides that, there's only one small change you need to make.

Omestrian's eyes are a burning gold/amber-like color. That's usually how they're identified by Varyan slavehunters. Which, I just realized, presents the possibility of desperate Omestrian parents damaging the eyes of their children to save them from becoming slaves. :(

EDIT: Also, since you're coming on late and seem to be a bit pressed for time at the moment, would you be willing to make Viveca not part of the class, so as to not have a deep established history with most of the others? This is up to you!

I'll fix the eyes no problem. I like that better actually. :) And yeah, it does present a bit more darkness XD

I'm fine with being in a different class - would she be a later graduate or earlier?

@ScoutHer class would've been ordained at the same as the main class. Maybe she's part of the same class as Father Ilya?

@DrakeyIf you're worried about any of your creations not gelling with things, just PM me your ideas beforehand.

@Lovejoy *just realized her desire to make a fire-toned char might have determined the eye color of Omestrians* ^oops _{actually I'm not sorry at all}

I owe someone -- a couple someones -- posts, but after that I'll finish tweaking my char sheet and post it for a final review, along with the various character dynamics. It's practically done, just not...organized and coherent. ^.^;;

@Lovejoy Works for me!

Hey everyone,

So I want to set a tentative start date for the RP on Wednesday, 1st of November. Does everyone think they’ll be able to have their characters and relationships finished by then?

@Lovejoy I'm good to go~

Hey everyone,

So I want to set a tentative start date for the RP on Wednesday, 1st of November. Does everyone think they’ll be able to have their characters and relationships finished by then?

Yes! Though the uploading of the relationships will probably be Monday or Tuesday.

Here are a couple of secondary characters. I'll be posting more within the next few days. By the way, our class is known as "Warband Phoenix", while Ilya and Viveca's class is ""Warband Leviathan".

***

Father Antonin, "The White Necromancer"



The Head of Medicine and Life Ether, Father Antonin was responsible for the teaching of the healing and necromantic arts within the Red Seminary. After the ordainment of Warbands Phoenix and Leviathan, the most recent graduating classes, Antonin was summoned to subjugate the Continent of El and left his post to serve on the Elurian front.

Out of all the instructors within the Red Seminary, the T'saraen inquisitor was perhaps the kindest and most beloved instructor among the student populace. He was a man who truly seemed to care for the well-being of his pupils, and delighted in teaching those with the necessary ether type how to properly channel and make use of their healing abilities.

According to available records, Antonin had held his post at The Red Seminary for more than two centuries. How the man has managed to live that long, while still maintaining the appearance of a man in his thirties, is one of the more enduring mysteries within the Seminary. Every student believes they know the answer to this mystery, but Antonin only answers each query with a wry smile.

***

Father Gregoroth, "The Great Bear"


A veteran of the Lanostran War and countless other conflicts, Father Gregoroth stands among the most renowned warriors in all of Varya. An inquisitor who has mastered the skill of ether manipulation, his raw physical strength and power, when enhanced by his potent ether abilities, are nigh unmatched in all the church. During the last days of the Lanostran war, he engaged in battle with Mother Xera Athalos, one of the most powerful warpriests of that land, in a duel which lasted three days and three nights. At the end of the battle, both Gregoroth and Xera were mortally wounded, but their sheer display of grit and strength caused soldiers from both lands to declare a temporary truce in honor of the two combatants' draw. The day after, the Goddess Lanostre surrendered to Lord Varya.

Some believe that it was Father Gregoroth's duel that ended the war, as its result showed that even the Lady's greatest inquisitors couldn't beat him on a on-on-one fight. Gregoroth brushes aside this claim and believes the timing of the Lady's surrender to be mere coincidence.

In the two decades since the war, Gregoroth has been the Head of Combat Training at the Red Seminary, where he has featured in the nightmares of many a pupil. His brutal and uncompromising methods have yielded many a promising inquisitor, while also leading to the deaths of countless trainees. The deaths of failed pupils does not lie heavily on Gregoroth's conscience, for he only strives for one truth-- to forge the strongest Inquisitors the Red Seminary has ever known.

Are they our superiors in the invasion, then? And are there any more instructors aboard?

I suppose Father Gregoroth is who taught marksmanship as well, despite him seeming to disfavor it? I like the idea he wasn't particularly fond of Ilya since, although he went through with the normal melee training, Ilya was probably about a good a shot as that bruiser when he was first enrolled.

So far as Father Antonin is concerned, I Father Ilya has only respect for the man's abilities and legacy... Yet is utterly uninterested in learning to heal. Or his habit of doting on students. As such, no lost love (though none of this translates to any level of dislike, mind you.)

@DrakenYes, they would be your superiors. They aren't actually aboard either of the our steam arks though. They were part of the invasion force that left a few months before us.

And no, Father Gregoroth didn't teach marksmanship. I think how it would work is the Red Seminary would get actual decorated soldiers from the Secular Army to come and train us on the military stuff. Also, I don't think a dude who's as experienced as he is and has been through what Gregoroth has would be petty enough to dislike a student just because they're better at him at something. Gregoroth would actually respect Ilya for that, since his main goal is to make powerful Inquisitors of the children he's supplied with, and thus would've taken an interest in the young boy's skill.

Here's another character, one who's going to be pretty important throughout the story.

***

Father Creid, "The Brave Man's Fear"


Main Instructor of Warband Phoenix, Father Creid has been a constant presence in the lives of the young class for the past 12 years. The masked Inquisitor, who's hobbled form bears the wounds of some mysterious accident, led the young class through hell, and managed to come out the other side with all of his pupils surviving. Indeed, somehow, Father Creid has never lost a student during training.

Known for his sardonic wit and unconventional training methods, Creid is a maverick among the seminary's faculty. He cares little for faith-based training, encourages his students to pursue independent research outside of the school's curriculum, and routinely brings in soldiers from the Secular Army as well as non-military men and women to teach seminars on combat and survival to his students.

Creid's past, and his actions during the Lanostran War, are shrouded in secrecy. The only thing known about his etheric abilities is that they grant him some measure of control over time and space-- as he once demonstrated his ability to appear in three different places at once to his class as an example of higher-level sorcery. The mysteries behind his etheric magic are fathomless and the masked Inquisitor isn't interested in disclosing what his actual powers are. His secrecy has caused many legends about him to crop up throughout the years, the most popular claiming Creid capable of simply erasing his foes from existence without so much as lifting a finger. Father Creid, always good-humored, laughs at this, and calls it "a ridiculous myth". Still, the fact that inquisitors and soldiers alike throughout the empire know him as "The Brave Man's Fear" does little to quell these rumors.

Months before Warband Phoenix's Culmination, Creid was called to the Elurian front, like most other members of the Red Seminary's faculty. It is known that he was granted command of the warship Durandal, one of the invasion fleet's most powerful steam arks, and is currently on the mysterious continent, conquering in the name of Lord Varya.

@Lovejoy If he never lost a student in training, who did Ziotea kill in spars? Perhaps that was under the purview of another instructor?

@shylarah Ziotea has killed people during sparring matches? I don't imagine that'd make her very well liked, especially if it was one her own class

@vietmyke it wasn't on purpose! And...maybe not killed? But she's hurt them badly. Hazard of having poor control of what's basically a magical bomb.

@shylarahYeah, maybe I missed something, but I don't recall reading that she ever killed someone during practice. I was picturing the student deaths to happen more during like, the crazy ass milestone trials the Seminary put them through. I don't think they'd allow students to die during sparring, since they'd want students to go all out without risk. They also have Father Antonin who would be willing to heal students who are injured during pupil-on-pupil action. So yeah, I'm fine with Ziotea severely injuring people but her killing students is a bit much. :p

@Lovejoy ah, fair enough. Sure, that's reasonable. Although if anyone hit a wall or something in such a way that they broke their neck, wouldn't be much at could be done about it. Maybe that happened once? Unless they're having students with certain powers go up against fully trained inquisitors so they truly don't have to worry about causing injury, there's some abilities that do not lend themselves well to being practiced before students master the art of defense.

OR. Maybe it wasn't a spar -- they expect people to get hurt then. Maybe someone tried to give her a hard time back when she was still really insecure, maybe tried to above her around a bit. She got scared, used her ether, and BAM. He hit wrong, broke his neck, and by the time anyone could get a healer it was too late.

I imagine she got in trouble for that. ^.^ would that scenario be acceptable? Up to you, I can take it out.

Although, you say this guy never lost a student -- does that include in the insane trials?

@vietmyke The other issue is her power was pretty strong even at the beginning -- her difficulties were controlling output as well as buildinup endurance. She'd use it once, and be worn out, and she couldn't control how much force she was using. Meanwhile, folks were still learninhow to defend. So no, she's not all that popular. I did mention that there are younger inquisitors that are terrified of her. Anyone in her class would know at initially she was very frightened, and aside from general mistakes where she screwed up and made an explosion instead of what she wanted, she was at her most unpredictable when frightened, stressed, or desperate. Initially she was pretty shaken when she hurt someone, but within a couple years she seemed to stop caring, or at least got used to the fact that her ether abilities ended up getting people hurt a lot of the time.

Her response if asked is probably something alonthe lines of "becoming an inquisitor is dangerous. It's not like it was deliberate, but yeah, people got hurt." (So?)

@shylarahWell, we've got magical healing abilities in this world, so healing a broken neck wouldn't be outside the realm of possibility. What if she paralyzed the person, he was healed and was able to walk again (after a long time), but was left kind of messed up by her attack and was thus demoted to one of the lesser branches of the church? I think it'd be interetsing. Maybe this priest is still out there somewhere, planning his revenge... :p

And no, Creid has never lost a student in one of his classes.

@Lovejoy The issue is generally that you die, not so much the lack of healing (though that's totally an issue as well!) but I like this idea. A lot. ^.^ Even though it'd be fun tension if the only student the guy lost was because Ziotea is a heretical maniac with no control. *shot*

If he's never lost a student...hm. that's an oddity, at the Seminary. I guess either he trains them really well, he's lucky in who's in his classes, or he's good about telling when people aren't ready to move on and keeping them back.

I imagine that can generate a very different opinion of him among those he doesn't let pass. ^.^